Thank You, Martin Streek

Pardon me for writing this a bit late. I've wanted to write something about the late Martin Streek for a while, but didn't know how to go about it or what to say. But while I was at Tool the other night, it finally came to me.

To be clear, I didn't know him. I just knew his voice. But Streek is the reason I like Tool and is probably responsible for a good deal of what's in my CD collection.

When I was 15 and was grounded for a month (I was also grounded for another month the next year), I did pretty much nothing but listen to the radio and read. While this might seem like torture to a lot of people, I've actually come to realize that made an indelible impression on me.

See, during this time I started listening to Streek's live-to-air specials on Edge 102. I'd stay up late with my headphones on, lying in bed, listening to him playing all sorts of things at Toronto's Phoenix Concert Theatre and Velvet Underground. Tool were one of the bands he played the most, and I instantly took to them. I bought AEnima and Lateralus and pretty much listened to nothing but Tool for months.

From there, it was on to other bands he played during his live-to-airs like The Clash, The Cure, The Smiths and much, much more. From that point on, I became pretty much obsessed with music, and started listening to the Edge all the time. I spurned television in favour of sitting in my room with my headphones on, listening to the radio.

In particular, I never missed a single episode of Allan Cross' The Ongoing History Of New Music and I listened to the Thursday 30 religiously until the end of high school. (I moved to Ottawa for university, so I couldn't listen to the Edge unless I did so online, and I didn't really enjoy that. It wasn't the same.)

I still love Tool and have never outgrown their music. I have also never grown tired of The Clash, The Cure and many other things Streek used to play on the Edge.

I'm also now pretty sure I would not be as obsessed with music as I am today had I not started listening to his broadcasts, which pretty much means I would not be in my current line of work.

I hope he realized how much what he did affected others.