The Passion Behind The 8123 Family

An 8123 Community blog by Justin Nuckols.

Once the news broke on the return of 8123 Fest, I went to hype myself up by watching the documentary The Maine released on the 1 Year anniversary. I was reminded why we’re all proud to be a part of 8123.

In the ending minutes of the 8123 Fest (Year One Documentary), John O’Callaghan defines what being a part of 8123 means:

“If we can now translate that to people across the world and to inspire people to, it doesn’t mean that you have to go start a rock band and you have to go, you know do that. It means find those people and those passions that you’d literally give it all up for and make those connections and run wildly with those crazy ideas and those crazy aspirations and those crazy dreams of I want to start a rock band, or I want to start a company, or I want to shoot a movie, or I want to paint a picture, or I want to climb a mountain.”

I chose this picture of The Maine starting their set on the final Vans Warped Tour at the stop in Phoenix, because it contains the dream of these 5 men. Having once been in my shoes, in the crowd watching their favorite artists. Now they were getting to play a hometown show, on the Vans Warped Tour yet again, during an Arizona sunset (P.S. if you haven’t witnessed the beauty in our sunsets, I nudge you to do a quick Google search). Chasing their crazy ideas, these guys had the picture perfect ending to an era that propelled so many artists like The Maine. 

The emotion that swells inside me from being a part of this family and currently experiencing that chase of ambition, is passion. For me it’s been a renewed love of playing music. I’m confident all of us have found that activity, role, talent, and hunger for success in doing that which feels we were born for. The fuel in that gas tank is 100% pure passion.

Feeling as if time halts while the world around goes static, or even the complete opposite sensation where you feel you’ve only been focusing for a few minutes while hours have passed. A moment in which your mind has no capacity for anything aside from what’s at hand in the present. You lose all touch with the preoccupations, baggage, to-do lists, and issues in your life. Engrossed in the bliss of absolute clarity and euphoric stimulus, we feel that we never want to leave this place. It is the passion for doing what we love and being reciprocated with these sensations.

Being a part of 8123 means you’re in a collective, bigger than any one person or band. We are all surrounded by individuals overflowing with a passion. Not all of us are musicians. Others of us love visual art by drawing, painting, or photography. Still others love writing, creating poems. I’m sure there is a friend within 8123 who loves cooking and wants to open a restaurant one day. Regardless, we all have our fix. We have an activity, a hobby, hopefully a job that makes us feel like the world stops and flies by simultaneously. People who hear your dream will, if they haven’t yet, doubt you and ask you to reconsider. Our dreams can’t make sense to someone else, as they can’t see the vision living in your mind as clearly as you can. We imagine the dream to the point we can feel how it will feel to live it, and we instantly map out how to make it an actuality.

You have a passion, a vision for what this passion will turn into, and a mental roadmap that only you have the GPS through. What’s stopping you now? This is where 8123 comes to share ideas, support fellow dreamers in success and failure, be who we truly are, and feel alive daily by practicing our art. This community is larger than just the music we all know every word to. I’m excited for 8123 to unite once again in my own beautiful city of Phoenix come January - see you all soon!