Listening: Well, when I was very little, I liked Kenny Rogers. Sick, yes. Then I moved on to goofy singer/songwriter-type stuff. Then, when I was 13, I started listening only to metal. Not the big-hair-look-at-my-crotch stuff, but everything from old NWOBHM bands to thrash.

After high school, my interest in most metal waned, and after a brief period of confusion, I started listening to indie and punk type stuff, and traditional and tradition-based East Asian music. I listened to Irish folk stuff for a brief time, but then it became really, really popular and cheesy, so I lost interest. A couple of years passed, and I was still listening to the previous stuff, plus Nordic and Slavic folk, and, especially, trad. music from Central Asia (and surrounding, culturally related areas), which is still where my favourite music comes from.

Not much changed for a few years, until... I think it was the re-issue of Dock Boggs' old recordings. That got me interested in American folk music, which I had always completely ignored. I started listening to (mostly acoustic, "pre-war") blues at about the same time. So, again, most of the above, and branching out in all the natural directions. Which just about brings me up to the present...

So, I guess my musical tastes haven't "changed" much since I was a kid (except for Kenny Rogers), but I've just accumulated more and more "tastes." Which makes buying the cds I want more expensive, dammit.

Oh, and playing: Well, I only really play the Jew's harp, and I haven't been doing that for long. I mostly (try to) play Tatar, Bashkir, Kazakh, etc. folk songs. But once I get a dombra, I'll branch out into... oh, same stuff.

---Lepus Rex