18 September
7.15pm Listened to Björk’s Medulla on a walk. My friend sent me the song Show Me Forgiveness, and I realised that I had never dived into that record. The album is so interesting – it’s really beautiful, a lot of it is just her voice, these beautiful hymn-like songs.
I usually like to go on a walk in the evenings and either listen to music or collect my thoughts. It was sunset so I was open to Medulla for cruising around the neighbourhood, taking it in, winding down at the end of the day.
19 September
10.30am Riding my bike to the park, listened to Faye Webster’s I Know I’m Funny Haha. I really love her music. I just had a morning bike ride and threw this album on. I think she’s a great songwriter, and has an amazing voice – I just jammed the whole album while I was cruising around.
Keeping these journals, I realised that a lot of the time, I’m listening to music while riding my bike. My decision to listen to music is always very sporadic and random – it doesn’t necessarily always match the mood of exactly what I’m doing. That morning, I just had the melody from In a Good Way in my head. It does soundtrack a morning very nicely.
12.45pm Riding bike back from the park I put on Drukqs by Aphex Twin. This is definitely one of my favourite Aphex Twin albums.
I used to go into Tower Records when I was young, and my mum would let me buy a CD. One day I picked a CD by this jazz duo called the Bad Plus, and they did a cover of Flim. I just thought their cover of it was so good – I didn’t know what it was, and I actually didn’t even know it was a cover at first, I just thought it was their song. Later, I looked into it and I found out it was Aphex Twin, and I found the original and then got really excited about how insane that music is, how dynamic and beautiful. Drukqs is a really dynamic record because half of it is beautiful piano ballads and half is fast chaotic electric production.
6.35pm On a run – Poison Idea’s Pick Your King EP. What music I listen to is very random. Even going for a run, I don’t always need super high energy, aggressive music – I’ll run to Enya or something like that. I hadn’t listened to this Poison Idea EP in a while, and it was a good soundtrack for exerting myself and getting the energy levels up. This is probably my favourite Poison Idea release. It’s just so raw, the songs and the guitar and his voice, everything. The recording of it just feels aggressive. It’s the hardest Poison Idea, to me. It’s kind of like a classic.
Discovering new hardcore can be a little different to discovering new pop music. With new hardcore, a lot of times I’ll find out about stuff through a more intimate way, whether it’s someone posting about it on social media or a flyer for a show. Pop music is a little further away sometimes. I’ll hear a song in a grocery store and be like, that sounds cool.
I can hear something sometimes and it won’t really click because my mind is unfocused or not really open, but if I hear it in the right setting, it’s my favourite thing in the world and I just wanna soak it in. If I’m half-asleep in the back of the van and there’s a song playing on the radio that I’ve heard 20 times before, but it’s playing while I’m half-asleep and I’m hearing it in the dream state, I might wake up and be like, this is my favourite song ever.
11.30pm I listened to Blood Orange’s Four Songs EP on a FaceTime Shareplay session with a friend. This was the first time I’ve ever done Shareplay and I was figuring it out as I was doing it. That Blood Orange EP had just dropped, and I was FaceTiming a friend and I wanted to do a full listen through, so I started playing it on my phone. The option popped up for them to join in, and then once it linked we just listened to the whole thing straight through, which was a really cool experience – you can still talk over it if you want, and the volume cuts down a little bit, but it’s still playing cohesively for both people at the same time. I was really psyched when I figured that out because you can soundtrack any phone call if you want now.
20 September
12.15pm Listened to Cheryl Glasgow’s Glued to the Spot while driving and running errands. I came across this song last year, and the first time I heard it it was like: immediate best song ever. In the last six months it’s been my go-to, I’ve never gotten sick of it. The melodies and the lyrics are incredible, and it’s also so danceable. It’s such a good listen, especially if you aren’t sure what to put on at first – you get in the car and it’s gonna sound great and get me feeling good.
2pm Still driving, listening to Mitski’s Love Me More. I really enjoyed the new Mitski album – I got into her more recently. She had played a festival in California last weekend, and I’d seen some friends posting videos of it, so this song popped into my head when I was driving. It’s one of my favourite tracks off the album – very memorable, the melody will pop into my head at any time.
I mostly use streaming services to listen to music, on my phone. I’m typically on the go, as we’re seeing in this diary. I have a record player at home and a CD player, but when I’m in transit, it’s usually just streaming. I mostly use Spotify. I just love the playlists on there and making playlists. I have Apple Music as well, but I’ve just gotten it more recently, so I’m getting accustomed to it and seeing the pros and cons compared with Spotify.
When I realised I could make playlists on Spotify and just text them to a friend – it’s like the modern day “I made you a mixtape and wrote all the song titles out on the jewel case”. The convenience of that – I wish so bad that had been a thing when I was younger. Every possible thing is at your fingertips. The Discover Weekly playlist they form based on the patterns of what you’ve been regularly listening to is also really cool.
21 September
3am Laying in bed, listening to Make a Smile for Me by Bill Withers. Everyone has comfort music they throw on: Bill Withers is one of those for me. I think of my mum whenever I listen to Bill Withers, because that was the first concert she ever went to, and she was front row. This song is insanely beautiful – his songs are very simple, but powerful, through the delivery of just a voice and the simplicity of the instruments and production.
11.20am Riding my bike, listening to Space Road by Casiopea. I’ll often just cruise around for a bit and end up at a park and post up for a little bit. I stumbled upon Casiopea looking at 70s jazz stuff. They’re a Japanese jazz fusion band. A lot of that stuff is so awesome – the musicianship and the playing, the melodies and everything are really interesting. It’s so animated and this song in particular was a really good bike soundtrack because it’s so high-energy and beautiful. I feel like I’m in a video game or something.
I grew up around jazz because my grandpa has a lot of jazz records and would play piano. He ended up giving me a lot of his jazz records, so his records are a majority of my record collection – a lot of Charlie Parker, Duke Ellington, that kind of stuff.
12.45pm Drinking coffee at the park, listening to Keyshia Cole’s Love. I was feeling good in the park, and this is the ultimate R&B anthem to me. This song is so insane – her voice, the melody, everything. If I’m craving R&B, this is the song that will open up the door a little bit, get me feeling good.
5.15pm At home in my room, listening to Jackie by Yves Tumor. I did a phone interview for a radio station with someone named Jackie, and at the end of the call, she asked me to pick a song to play on air – any song – and that was the first one that came to mind, obviously, because it’s her name, but I also love that song. Yves is really great, and I finally got to see them play for the first time in LA a few months ago. The show is incredible.
