* My old friend (AKA Twitter mutual) Mano Sundaresan getting named Head of Editorial Content at Pitchfork. I am trying to get back into professional writing and seeing my friends accomplish their goals is very inspiring to me. If they can do it, why can't I?
* Hearing the crowd react so viscerally to Cave Town — who is only 25! — giving a mid-set speech about how things will get better even when it doesn't feel like it. I want to be someone who can make people ~feel~ things through my work, and I think the projects I have cooking are capable of doing just that.
Jul 3, 2024
Related Recs
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got hit with a wave of nostalgia yesterday by going through all the photos and reviews i did for my college radio station. i used to spend hours researching bands and artists i’m interviewing, and in return became friends with some of them over the years, and really fell in love with music.
i love my day job working as a PR agent right now but, it’s really disheartening to see news coverage that is simply a copy+paste, a review done without actual dissection and overly harsh INACCURATE descriptions, interview questions recycled over and over again, it’s just so sad. and hence i listen to less new music now (and i’m also sad about it)
with the news of pitchfork this week i remember how i briefly considered going fully freelance as a journalist last year and sadly, that would not have been sustainable and it really should!! my heart is always with my journo friends, best of luck out there, appreciate your hard work and dedication!!
Jan 19, 2024
hello!!!! it has been ~1 week (wtv). lots of things have happened. most around me know very well that i made a cover of 104 Degrees by Slaughter Beach, Dog, on saturday, the 3rd. it’s released to youtube, link here! (its all the way bottom most likely)
it for sure came out of a spontaneous burst of creative energy, one that i haven’t really had time or effort to analyze how to replicate it again because in a sense i do feel unfamiliar with my own creativity. it happens, for sure, but why this time? i stickered my guitar, and felt more inclined to play it, that’s all that i know.
on top of that, i made a “music video” for the first time ever. it’s recycled out of footage on my sony cybershot in like 600x300, mostly some i took at a park in march, that day was special to me. it was the day i had early release, with the aim of enjoying a day to myself, with full preparedness and itinerary for a specific town. i’d go to eat ramen, enjoying my own company, go to a record store, (then vintage store), visit parks, and then go home. and it was really wonderful! i had so much time left over and, throughout my walk in the park i recorded footage for just ”something.”. it revealed its title later on during my creative burst.
to be really transparent, my first thoughts for the music video was to make a slideshow of a certain thing i did at my job a lot. for the first year at my job, everytime i got water from the fountain i forced myself to take a picture of the water fountain. I dont exactly know why i did this but there are many pictures of it, i thought at some point i’d might use a quick slideshow of them in ”something.”
But quickly as i realized nature was probably a better look for the music i was covering i just switched . maybe one day you’ll see the water fountain :)
i think i did great at the cover. it inspired me a lot, and did good wonders at feeling confident in what i am creating and being public with it to other people; i made my instagram public because i began to stop caring. now many more people even people i dont follow or an followed by can read this blog! wow!
on another topic i have met someone Very changing. it is hard to disclose every feelign and emotion i have but i “re-met” them last monday and since then we have been on an incredible bond and have talke alot…. we share similar quirks and interests and just general specific thought exercises that we put ourselves through. i’ve been understood before, but sometimes certain people can get to you more than others; not to their discredit though because novelty is very importnat and this person has it!!! they are incredbblyy talented at art and just have a very creative mind in general (no glaze :p).
with this new meeting, i feel like i‘m having a social life again. i’m learning to be okay with myself still, and this might feel soon, but i feel it’s for the best because i feel that i have progressed with feeling things the right way by myself. if i continue this path of self-tolerance or self-acceptance (not yet self-love, again that’s okay.), while also not being completely alone, i feel i will have a great outcome. balancing these two drives could lead to some true growth and i’m appreciative of this person coming into my life!!!! they are also very accepting of shortcomings i still have or have had in the past. it’s weird when someone new just accepts you as is because.. they don’t know who you were and weren’t there before. we’re also going to the same school which is crazy to think about!!! too much yap tbh let’s get to the music
at my last record store trip, i picked out 3 records dear to my heart; expensive but small:
LPs: Heaven or Las Vegas - Cocteau Twins
Ants from Up There - Black Country, New Road
CD:
Young Americans - David Bowie (JPCD)
i really was stuck this time. there were three BC,NR albums to pick from and i think i made the right choice of AFUT because of how long it is. for Forever Howlong, there is a blue and red version that i really dunno what i prefer yet; FTFT is a small record that i can get at a later date.
Finding Heaven or Las Vegas was genuinely such a score on my end. normally my record store keeps stuff in shelves and crates but that day i decided to look under the top shelves and crates and at the records only shown by their bindings. then i found it!!! i dropped FTFT and committed to it. finding the David Bowie CD was really nice; i got complimented for it by the owner bc the JP label adds a lot of character; also there’s a cover of Across the Universe on it. severely enjoy all my finds.
here’s what i’m listening to currently (by album):
Sports - Modern Baseball
Welcome - Slaughter Beach, Dog
Gem of the West - SENTRIES (my voice is on this record, still great nonetheless)
i hope if you’re reading this, you find peace within; in moments of anytime. feeling yourself let go even for a couple of minutes is an amazing feeling that, we really do forget a lot. but i hope you find those moments more, because i am the more that time passes. until next week!
May 7, 2025
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Throughout my whole life, I had awful music teachers. I had a piano teacher that made me sit on my hands because he was frustrated with the way I played scales and a music teacher in primary/middle school that gave me so many anxiety attacks that my doctor finally gave me a note so I didn’t have to go anymore.
I was told so many times throughout my life that I had no music talent, discouraged from going further than scales but all of those people (teachers!!!!) were wrong. They just couldnt fathom that I had a different musical brain than them.
When I was 23, I ended up having to move back home from LA after my job rescinded their promise to sponsor me for a visa. I was depressed and heartbroken and lonely. I went to school for writing but didn’t want to write anymore so I ended up opening GarageBand on my iPad.
I was inspired by all the things I could do on it. I suddenly felt like I was entering a new world. After making a couple beats, I started moving everything over to the laptop version of GarageBand. I bought big headphones, a cheap usb mic and a keyboard off of a guy from Craigslist and continued to tinker. One of my favorite things to do at the time was to download karaoke midi tracks of popular songs I loved, import them into GarageBand and change the instrument until I felt like I was making something new. I would then use my shitty mic to wail on top of it.
I used GarageBand for years after that to make tons of songs that I just uploaded to SoundCloud without thinking about it much. Eventually I got a controller/sampler and access to Ableton and thats when the fun really started.
My love for music making snowballed after that, I amassed more gear and skill and eventually made an album after a couple years. I was obsessed with making it and while I feel really whatever about it now, I don’t feel whatever about the experience.
Music has allowed me space to express parts of me that there are no words for. The best thing I can impart is to take advantage of this. There are some things that you can only explain with a kick drum or a sine wave or a really hard bassline.
Music is still a huge part of me! I made another album after that first and now I’m working on my next project. I recently reincarnated myself (everyone in the ~industry~ advised against this but I’m a different person now) and I’m excited to see what’s in store for me. I don’t expect to make money or become famous but music feeds my soul in a way nothing else can.
Have fun!!
May 4, 2024
Top Recs from @snills
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“Anti rec:” shut up “Not a rec but…” shut da hell up
Apr 26, 2024
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get da fuck outta here
Jun 11, 2024