Bands that influenced him in general: Black Sabbath, Pink Floyd, Jimi Hendrix, White Zombie, Acid Bath, Machine Head, Nine Inch Nails, Cannible Corpse, Old Man’s Child.
Individual musicians that influenced his style of play: Darrel “Dimebag” Abbott, Randy Rhoads. Kirk Hammett and James Hetfield, of Metallica, helped him to learn “things like triplets and palm muting”. He credits Kurt Cobain’s style of playing for a “huge part of (his) rhythm building practice”. Luna said “I started learning some finger-picking techniques from Eric Clapton, Lindsey Buckingham, and Randy Rhoads”. Cody learned finger-picking on a 6 string guitar by learning and practicing Beethoven songs. He started out as a guitar playing musician, but then an ex-roommate gave him a bass guitar. The now accomplished bass player, at that time, began absorbing playing techniques from such skilled bassists as Les Claypool (Primus), Jaco Pastorius (accomplished Jazz and Rock bassist) and Victor Wooten (of the Flecktones).
Today Cody also enjoys the guitar playing styles of such musicians as Brendan Small (from Dethklok) and Buckethead (Brian Carroll, a very talented guitarist)
Today Cody also enjoys the guitar playing styles of such musicians as Brendan Small (from Dethklok) and Buckethead (Brian Carroll, a very talented guitarist)
*Life Philosophy…..
“I used to hate humans in general, and then I realized I only hated the humans that had not become self-aware. I realized that hating humanity doesn’t accomplish anything constructive” –Cody Luna
Luna, who certainly is no a luna-tic, said that many who had not become self-aware were mostly what he termed “disinterested drones”. He said something to me that was one of my favorite quotes from him and that was: “everyone you know now is going to either watch you die or you will watch them die”. With that statement he added that each of us should prepare ourselves for the death of loved ones, and our own. He further explained his life philosophy by saying “caring about humans is the only way to solve things”. By “things” he means social and political problems, but also personal issues between our selves and others in our personal lives.
Cody said that his own personal life philosophy, that includes self-awareness of one’s own self and purpose, encourages healthy rebelliousness, when appropriate. His Bass-i-ness told me that he would like to see people be more “rebellious” to authority and more “self-determined” in their lives. He says that self-education is the only key to achieving this rebellious self-determination. He sees present conditions in this and other countries as partly due to what he calls “mass stupidity”, believing that for the masses to overcome their ignorance each individual must seek out truth, and where possible help spread it. He said we can do this by striving to “experience everything, but believe blindly in nothing”. He believes that “for anyone to die with regrets is antithetical to human existence”. In noting Luna’s comments to me I couldn’t help but notice that he is just like my self in that he sees free thinking as truly being alive and the definition of life itself. Luna believes in encouraging people to come to their own conclusions about things, and not just swallowing propaganda. The propaganda he referred to is not just Government propaganda, but religious and cultural propaganda as well. This is a man after my own heart! Cody said he would like to see more use of “reason, rather than emotion” by people. He does not believe governments should interfere with our “individual pursuits of happiness” either.
In the many discussions, and even debates, I have had with Cody concerning diverse subjects, I found him to be a true gentleman. Cody Luna is a very kind, and also a very insightful, intelligent and intellectual person. He is a very knowledgeable science “nerd”, and also very politically and socially astute. He is well informed and knows his facts. Even if a person disagrees with Cody on a particular topic he is a very open minded and candid person to talk to. Cody is a dedicated family man who loves his family very much. He also loves his fellow band members and the band’s fans, and is very proud to be a member of AMERICAN LESION.
“Life is an excellent teacher, but it eventually kills all it’s pupils” –Cody Luna
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