We Know Nothing About Music

For all of human history, we have written about the beauty of music, studied its physics and theory, and have tried endlessly to define it, and yet we are no closer to understanding it than when we began. Cameron Skinner doesn’t expect to answer its eternal question either, but he believes in pursuing it nonetheless.

From the moment he was first spellbound by its great mystery, Cameron has been obsessed with the question of what makes music so special. Kicking off from the days he dove headfirst into the world of music, he was captivated by artists like King Crimson, Faust, Frank Zappa, Gentle Giant, Yes, Tangerine Dream, The Residents, Robert Wyatt, Captain Beefheart, Van Der Graaf Generator, Brian Eno, Swans, Klaus Schulze, Magma, Soft Machine, Coil, Gong, Ween, Funkadelic, Chicago, The Band, The Velvet Underground, Henry Cow, and Can. Since then he has been on a journey of discovery, both in the realm of music and of the self. Although captivated by melody and harmony as much as anyone, it is the elusive, ineffable, and transcendent philosophy of music that has left him awestruck. 

Cameron’s journey through music led him through jazz, studying giants like Miles, Sonny, Mingus, Monk, Coltrane, Herbie Hancock, Eric Dolphy, and Weather Report, and into classical music, where he found his greatest inspiration in Beethoven’s works. Two works in particular, Piano Sonata No. 29 “Hammerklavier” and his String Quartet No. 14, have such an elusive yet personal quality to them that he has since regarded them as the pinnacle of artistic achievement. Cameron’s ultimate ambition came to be understanding what makes these artists’ works so sacred, and in doing so, make music that carries their spirit and shares their secrets with the rest of the world.

A musician since the age of nine, Cam decided to dedicate his life to the craft. He spent all the money he had on a jazz guitar, and started down the road to becoming a professional musician. He spent every chance he got in high school studying music theory, learning scales and chords, and mastering the guitar. Studying privately, he hardly left his bedroom for several years while he honed his skills and sensibilities. Or so was the excuse - over time, he would have to confront the true reason he kept himself isolated: severe anxiety. Cameron’s journey through music was and is intertwined with a struggle with self acceptance, relationships with others, loneliness, and judgment.

But with help from family and friends, he reached a point where he felt ready to branch out into the world. He found his current band, Lost Evidence, and reached out to them. Within a week, he became their new lead guitarist, playing the local bar scene in downtown Minneapolis, including a gig at the famous Cabooze. Within months, they recorded their first album, Expectations. But while Cameron has found great joy in the band life, his eyes are set on the horizon. He has always dreamed of starting his own band, and finding new ways to create and play music. As this passion weighed more and more on his mind, a close friend asked him a question that revealed to him the path he would follow:

“What is it, exactly, that you can’t do on your own?”

It quickly became apparent to him that this was the next step of his journey. Ideas raced into his head faster than he could catch them, he rapidly developed the concept for an album, and he began the sketches for his first major work: Shale. This project, driven by a diverse set of influences, styles, and techniques, seeks to break boundaries listeners hadn’t even known existed, to throw caution to the wind and blend styles together like none before, and push his knowledge and skills to the limit as a musician. How can he expect to do this when we know nothing about music? He doesn’t. We can only try.