Music is My Drug of Choice
Powerful ways I change my mood. Every damn day.
While I might be all about the words, I’m also all about the music.
It’s ever present in my life, from the minute I wake up to the time I go to sleep, I’ll be listening to something. Because of one simple fact.
I hate silence.
Yes yes, get all the platitudes and philosophies about silence out now. While I agree at times silence can be great, music is so much more powerful.
There’s nothing quite like throwing on a track, letting it wash over you, and change how you feel in that particular moment. It’s that heady mix of endorphins and serotonin that sends tingles down the spine, creeps across your face, and breaks into a smile when the exact combination of the right seven notes plays out of a speaker.
One of my favourite quotes of all time about music is from the late visual artist Jean-Michel Basquiat. Simple, but it really hits home for me, and boy do I like to decorate time with music.
So much so that one of my greatest pleasures is putting together playlists that are directly linked either to my mood, or an aesthetic I want to dive into when I’m writing.
To that point, I thought I’d take you on a little tour of some of my favourite playlists on Spotify I’ve curated over the years which I’ve put serious time and effort into perfecting.
I also really love creating artwork for my playlists.
Starting my day off with a bang
First up, Feel Good Fuck Yeah!
These are all tracks which have carried me along since the 90s and early 2000s. Songs that are full of life which push me to get up, grab a hot beverage, and kick ass.
Clocking in at 2hrs and 25mins, it really gives me a great start to my day full of energy, ready to tackle anything.
Music to do deep work
When I’m needing to get out of my head and into deep work then I have various playlists like to listen to. But it all depends on what I need to do.
If I’m setting up new projects and really need to get into the weeds, then there isn’t any thing better than old time Southern Gothic tunes.
There’s something about the raw sound of acoustic instruments, strong harmonies and intonation, and the undeniable power of the human voice that’s ever-present in Southern Gothic music that speaks straight to my soul and unlocks something in me.
Living in the year 3000
If you’re not already aware I’m a HUGE fan of futurist/cyberpunk themes, so it stands to reason that I’d have a playlist that reflects gritty, dirty, and hard hitting electronica as the perfect accompaniment.
So for when I’m already crushing it and I just need to amp up my efforts even more then I’ll turn to my High Tech | Low Life playlist and bliss out to the sublime synths, solidly dark beats, and massive drops.
It’s 13hrs 32mins of pure bliss.
When the future doesn’t quite cut it
I’m also a massive fan of UK Jungle, so I just had to put together a playlist of the filthiest, dirtiest Drum and Bass I could find. This is one of my newer playlists so I’m constantly adding new tracks I find.
Hits the same buttons in my brain as the previous playlist, but even more so with the relentless pace of beats, and the dirtiest of basslines.
Crawling in the dark
Now this is a playlist of mythic proportions. I present to you… Deutscher Metall.
I’ve been learning German for many years now and love the language.
I also love metal so it stands to reason that I’d have a playlist filled with face-melting tracks. Even though I understand quite a lot of the lyrics, because it’s not in English I can easily listen to it when I’m writing and not miss a beat (hell, I’m writing this post to it!).
It’s just over 40 hours of straining guitars and powerful voices with an techno-industrial edge that hits harder than a row of two-story power hammers in a steel mill.
GET ON IT.
I could go on…
While I have a tonne of other playlists I’ve made, I’ll stop here. I love to share music with other people and really hope you take a listen to some of the stuff above.
Have any music or playlists you’d love to share with me?
I’d love to hear them!
