Don't call it a comeback

Hello, it's me. I know. It's been a while.

A recent scenario has unfolded in my life, that’s led me down the road to some “time off” from work. Or “time away” from work. Which for many of you who know me, is a challenge.

To bide the time, in the last week of my road to recovery, I’ve been listening to a lot of music.

“But wait,” you might say. “Isn’t that a big part of your job?” Of course it is.

While the searching for and the finding of the joy in music discovery has always been core to my listening as a “fan” and a “radio” person, the listening I’ve been doing the past week has been more for me as a music fan, compared to the kind of listening I might do for my job.

How do I better explain this?

Well, about five maybe six maybe seven years ago I noticed something happening in my journey of musical discovery. I lost the “fan” part of me.

“Really?” you might ask.

“Really.”

I realized that I was listening to so much new music, and had to process it so quickly to keep up w/ the demands of my “job",” that I just became cynical. Nothing new really got me excited. Sure, there were some lps and new musicians that grabbed my attention (they shall remain nameless as to not get PR people excited or to bum out new musicians who I loved but didn’t tweet about).

So I had to teach myself how to be a fan of music again.

Which meant more foreground listening.

Which meant taking more than a minute to listen to a song and disregard it.

Which meant not falling into the deluge of the “45 GREAT NEW SONGS YOU NEED TO HEAR NOW” linkbait articles on the music sites that pop up every fucking day it seems now.

What I realized was that in order for me regain my love of music - that I lost to the “industry” side of my brain, I needed to focus more on the fan side.

And this past week, the music and the healing I am getting from it is almost 100% focused on that. And it feels great. It feels great to be an unencumbered music fan again.

I don’t need to listen to decide if a band should be booked.

I don’t need to listen to decide if the song will make the station playlist.

I don’t need to listen to decide if I want to “pitch” an outlet I write for and convince them this is the BEST NEW FREAKING SONG IN WORLD!

Nope. None of that.

Just pure listening for me.

So for the time being, while I make the best of my “time away” from work, I’ve been listening to a ton of mostly older music, making some playlists, and seeing where they go when I hit play for me as the fan.

So far, I’ve got six of these #10Song playlists together. The only rule I’ve made for myself is they can only include ten songs. That’s the perfect album length.

Here’s a few. I hope you can enjoy them, if you so choose.

Thanks for reading and listening. See you down the road. I’ll be back out soon.