The Fjordhammer Project: The Thrill Was Gone But Then Came The Love For The Texas Flood - Lewis Hancock

Bio

Lewis is a musician and music lover from the South West of England. Although he is working in healthcare for a living, music and musical influences still stand as a source of strength and a hobby for him on a daily basis. As a passionate vinyl collector you can view his collection on his Instagram @vinylgoatt.

The Thrill Was Gone But Then Came The Love For The Texas Flood 

*TRIGGER WARNING* - Substance Abuse

At the age of 8, I picked up the guitar - an acoustic guitar to be exact and the lessons began almost straight away. Considering my age, I had little influences at the time but I knew that I wanted to play blues. My first guitar teacher gave me a copy of “Texas Flood” by Stevie Ray Vaughan and that was enough to upgrade to electric guitar that my parents very kindly got me after showing the interest. 

After months of playing and getting frustrated when I couldn’t play as great as I wanted to, I did a few shows with my guitar teacher which really gave me the confidence as a to keep on playing.

Once starting secondary school, playing guitar was still very active in my life and I would explain to all the new friends how I was going to be a rockstar later in life. However I soon found out I wasn’t the only musician in the school. As I got to know other fellow musicians, my musical taste was broadened and the likes of AC/DC and Nirvana came into my playing which then led onto being in various different school bands. 

I’m sure I can speak for most of us when saying school isn’t the easiest ride. Through friendship issues and bullying came my interest in heavier music. I had almost completely forgotten my love for blues music. The typical teenage angst bands such as Slipknot and others became almost an obsession for me, filling my walls with posters and my clothes with logos and pictures. 

As I finished school, I had no idea what I wanted to do and playing music wasn’t even thought about. I was happy to keep my head down and listen instead of play. I decided that studying media in college would be a better step for me; a change of scenery and new friendship groups. As much as college had a huge positive impact on me, it also came with a lot of negatives. Naturally my music taste grew heavier and I took a liking into black metal and death metal. Those two genres pretty much led me through my college years. 

Again, finishing college I still felt lost in where I was going and who I was. My guitars were gathering dust at home and my need to go out drink was becoming more frequent. I vented everything I felt at the time through just listening to music and a lot of substance abuse. Listening to music wasn’t the same as it used to be, it was painful but I can’t imagine where I would be if I didn’t have it there at the time.  After a really difficult couple of years, I managed to put a stop to the substances and decided to spend my money on better things such as a record player. My collection began to grow and I’d landed myself a comfortable job which built my confidence. 

As time went on, my love for music was glowing again and I’d collected hundreds of records including a handful of classic blues albums that I hadn’t heard since I was a kid. My guitars were being regularly used once again and I felt on a much better track. Music to me has always been something I’ve turned to in the darkest of times. Some of the records that I own I struggle to listen to as music often unlocks certain memories and in those cases: unwanted memories. That being said, if I never discovered those records, things could have gone many different ways.