It all started when I started piano lessons at age 7. Well it actually started long before that because my Dad plays piano and organ, as does my Grandpa, and my Great-Grandpa could make a violin sound like it was speaking.

So I really had no choice. I’ve taken lessons in Piano, Voice, and Drums, plus I could play a couple of songs on the guitar. I was the orchestra geek, did school musicals and I was in a couple of bands (none of them any good).
I made my first music zine’s for friends, and wore out my Alanis Morrisette tape.
My CD collection started with Tina Arena, and has been on a journey of discovery ever since.

I didn’t get any music guidance from my parents, their interests are still confined to organ music, jazz, and the Beegees (although I do have a soft spot for Glenn Miller which I got from my Dad) and we weren’t allowed to listen to the radio.
So I grew up with some giant gaps in my musical knowledge. I started highschool not knowing who the Beatles were, or the Rolling Stones, but very quickly realised it was all wonderful.

Napster came along, as did my first Geocities pages and mixtapes for friends. I started to dream about music, making music, writing music, and producing music. I just knew that I’d work with music one day.
I found an article in B magazine about a music manager – that was the job for me! I copied her look and studied marketing, hoping to turn that into a career where I could listen to music, go to gigs, and get paid for it.

Things didn’t work as easily as 15 year old me expected, but I never quite lost my interest in music. Mostly as a listener these days, I don’t even know if I could play anymore.

So I’ve done a few music related projects on this blog (as well as previous blogs which thankfully don’t exist anymore).

My Top 20 project was where I took my top 20 most played songs on itunes, and wrote about why they played so often. That top 20 is still cemented, even though that was written in 2011 with most of the songs in the high 200 plays.

I also tried doing album reviews for a while. I’m not good at it. I’m really bad at being objective. So I thought I’d review all the gigs I went to. Eventually I’ve realised that I like talking about the way music makes me feel, and the experience of going to gigs rather than writing about music. So I stil use that tag but it’s not “hard reviews” any more.

All of that has led me to my current project. Each week I choose a song (or two or three) to represent the week.
It may be a band I saw that week, sometimes with photos just to make you all wish you were there.
It may be a conversation I had which led me to a song.
It may be a non-musical experience which has inspired me.
It may be that music has inspired me to make and create.
It may be a new band, new album, new song which I have just discovered.

At the end of the year I have a nostalgic playlist which takes me down memory lane.
But I want it to inspire you too. As personal as music can be, it is also to be shared.
So I hope that that you know me a little better through my song selections.

2014 Playlist

2013 Playlist

2012 Playlist

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