As some of you may know, I am a keen songwriter, with more than a few home-made tracks on the go. The problem I’ve had with uni life is that there isn’t really any time left over for this hobby. In fact, over the semester I’ve only sat down to make music a couple of times, which is a real shame. However, in a short space of time, I’ve had a couple of really cool music experiences, and I thought I’d talk about them here for the other music junkies out there <3.

1. I had the fortunate experience of meeting Avalanche City (aka Dave) at the National Young Leaders Day in Auckland. Aside from the fact that I was 100% starstruck, we managed to have a pretty awesome conversation about electronic music programs (he uses ProTools whereas I use Ableton). Hearing Dave talk live about not fitting in at school and how he taught himself to sing at age 26 really struck a chord with me (no pun intended), he was so relatable it reminded me of  my own music and I immediately felt like going home and working on a track.
2. In my music gen ed class, we’ve just covered The Beatles, and I’ve become a huge fan. I’ve always found it hard to classify myself in a genre, because my music is a mixture of pop/ electronic/ indie/ and it’s always changing. The Beatles tried every kind of genre you can imagine and it made them more competent musicians. After listening to their music, I am not afraid to try something different.

With all this in mind, I sat down last night to finally make some music. I’ve uploaded them here if you’d like a listen. Keep an open mind, I’m playing around with genres at the moment and still learning how to record properly using a microphone :). It’s actually really hard to get the diction right, and the mic sometimes blanks out the harsh syllables.

This first one needs a bit of work on the drum track, but it’s a work in progress! Lyrics are a lot darker than my usual but I can’t help what I write on the page sometimes. That’s the other thing I learned from The Beatles- it’s totally okay to have whatever lyrics you like. If you want to listen to something really random, listen to their song “I am the Walrus”.

The random synth (sounds like a mellow piano) in the background of the second track is inspired by The Beatles “Norwegian Wood”, where they incorporate a sitar into their music. I quite like the result. In this track I really focused on making the drums and bass prominent; it gives the piece a lot more clarity.

Let this be motivation for everyone out there with a creative outlet; try and make time during your busy semester for it.

-Grace