Tuesday 16 June 2015

Two albums that define me....

Hi everyone!

I've had this idea in my head for a while now, but I've been debating whether or not to write it as it would involve revealing quite a lot about me. Anyway, I've finally decided that I think it would make a fun/interesting blog post. so here are two albums that define me.

Please note, both of these albums are undoubtedly amongst my favourite albums, this isn't a "favourite albums" list. These are albums that I feel some form of strong personal connection with, albums that provided a soundtrack to moments of my life story, or a soundtrack to a part of my personality.

So, here goes....

1.

Poses by Rufus Wainwright
What an interesting album to start off with! I'll start by saying that I have yet to come across an album I relate to more than Poses. For those familiar with Rufus and this album, I'm well aware that one of the core themes of this album is Rufus' struggle with drug addiction that he was experiencing at the time. Please don't worry! I'm not, nor have I ever, had any experience with addiction of that sort. I'm saying that I relate to many of the other themes that Rufus addresses throughout this album.

I started listening to Rufus when I was about 18, but I had a very difficult connecting to Poses at that time. Now that I'm 22 (about five or six years younger than Rufus when he wrote this album) I feel like I relate to it more than ever. I can only imagine that, over time, my connection with this album will grow even stronger.

I won't say too much about how I relate to it exactly, as that would mean delving into the depths of my personal life, but the character Rufus centred this album around, a young, non-heterosexual male with a passion for city life and filled with ambition, is very easy to identify with, and I'm sure I'm not alone in this. I think the part of this album that I identify with the most is the way Rufus writes about the idea of love and lust, not necessarily the romantic encounters he writes about in this record, but his relationship with romance as a concept.

I feel that, while I find this album relatable, it's also helped me to understand a lot about myself that I perhaps hadn't made the effort to understand before.


2.


Speak For Yourself by Imogen Heap

This album was life-changing for me. I soon learnt that there are a number of artists who have recorded in home studios and produced their own records before Imogen, but this was the first time I had heard a record created by a "D-I-Y" artist. Imogen released this album on her own record label, recorded the album in her home studio, wrote/produced every song by herself and performed most of the instruments. It might sound silly, but before hearing this record and learning about how it was created, I had no idea it was possible for people to do that! 

It was around 2007 when I bought this album, so I was 14. This album proved to be so inspirational to me, because it encouraged me to learn how to write songs and produce my own music. Now, that's exactly what I do! Without hearing this album at the time that I did, who knows what I would be doing now?!



Thank you so much for reading this, I'm planning to share the stories behind even more albums that define me in the future!

Josh :-)


Thursday 4 June 2015

Well.... Sorry for my absence!

Wow!

I know it's a cliché to start off a blog post this way, but it's been quite a while since I updated this blog! I'm really sorry for that!
Just to let you know, there is a reason why I haven't updated this blog in a while (and it's not that I'm lazy!)

Last month, I finally finished my university course! (woo!!!!)
All my classes are done, and my coursework has been submitted, now I've just got to wait for my grades.

If you follow me on other social media, you may have seen that I released a brand new EP last month too!
The EP is called 'Elements' and it was composed as part of my 'Independent Research Project' (more commonly known as a dissertation) and explores the themes of music as symbolism.
The EP is an ambient, instrumental music project, and it's the second ambient music project that I've released.




Here's the beautiful artwork for the EP, shot by my father

I'm currently working on lots of new music that I plan to release very soon!

In regards to this blog, now that I'm done with university, I plan to start writing and updating this blog much more frequently. I've currently got a few ideas for new music-themed posts, as I feel like I haven't done enough talking about music on here yet.

I read a lot of blogs, and watch a lot of vloggers, but I'm still feel like I'm fairly new to the concept of blogging. Some of you may know I've been writing a blog over at http://joshstarmer.tumblr.com/ for a few years now, but I just write that to document the creation of my own music. 

I've got a few ideas of things I want to write about on here in the future, but I'm open to suggestions. Are there any things you'd like to see me discuss on here? Let me know!

Keep checking back for more updates, 

Josh :-)

And if you'd like to follow me on other social media, click here for links to everything I'm on!