Music

Music is probably my favorite thing ever. Like more than all the other stuff. If I didn't have music I really don't know what I would do

Why?

My mom tells me that as a baby, I used to always rock along to the beat of songs I'd hear. In the fourth grade, I started taking drum lessons, and then played in the school bands. Nowadays I drum in the noise rock/alt-rock band 'warmachine' in the Boston area, come out and see a show if you're around there! In the seventh grade I made my first Spotify playlist, and I don't wanna talk about the floodgates that opened up. In the eighth grade I started making music in GarageBand on my phone, and that formed the basis for SiLHOUET (my first music project) and by extension, Memory Channel. Music is the reason for everything I'm doing now and is the biggest part of who I am. I could seriously talk about it for hours (which is part of why I made this site tbh).

What?

My favorite type of music, regardless of genre, is music that has a very strong atmosphere - this could include stuff like ambient, shoegaze, psychedelia, darkwave, post-rock, and a lot of electronic styles. The first style I got really into as a kid was EDM from the 2010s, and this was probably an influence on the other aspect that I like in music: the use of intensity and cathartic climaxes. In addition to EDM, this type of thing pops up a lot in styles of rock, metal, and hardcore/post-hardcore, and so those genres have also become some of my favorites. Bonus points for any music that combines the atmosphere with the climactic intensity (seen in genres like post-metal, djent, post-punk, artcore, etc). However, I can pretty much appreciate any other style of music whether it be pop, jazz, folk, hip-hop, R&B, or even some classical (though I'm still a noob to most classical music). Yacht rock is my guilty pleasure (though it shouldn't have to be!!!)

How?

I spend most hours of my days listening to music, most often when I'm traveling, working, or just hanging out. I almost treat listening to music like "collecting," but not in the sense of trying to listen to every song ever. I just love finding new artists, songs, and sounds, and cataloguing anything I enjoy in Spotify or YouTube playlists. As of writing this, I have over 47,000 liked songs on Spotify (I add everything to here so I can shuffle my whole library). It feels a bit obsessive sometimes but there's something satisfying and fulfilling about it. As much time as I've admittedly put into it, I try not to take it too seriously. When it comes to making music, I try and treat it like a "reverse prism," taking the diverse "colors" of music that influence and inspire me and focusing them together into one cohesive sound. Of course, I try and combine aspects of different styles that I feel compliment each other, rather than just gluing genres together in a way that feels erratic or abrupt. For example, when playing the drums, my style has evolved into something between Jojo Meyer, Zach Hill, and Adam Pedder. It tends to be very spastic and somewhat improvised, with elements of metal, breakbeat/drum & bass, post-hardcore, and jazz. It's a product of my influences that feels unique to me, which is a great feeling! I have a similar approach to Memory Channel's music, although those songs are much more "crafted" rather than "improvisational"; I think of MC songs as being basically pop songs, but with influences from the styles and musical characteristics that I like. But one day I would like to incorporate the freer style of music making into Memory Channel!

Music Links