Music: An Impossible Dream Come True

by Fifi Rong

Fifi Rong

Chapter 1: The Death of an Impossible Dream

From the tender age of eight, melancholy wove its stars into the fabric of my life. Deep, existential contemplations about life’s transient nature became my constant companions. My young mind, captivated by these musings, delved into the profound mysteries of existence. In these depths of reflection, I discovered music’s magnetic effects, a revelation that ignited a spark in my soul.

Around the age of ten, I discovered my natural singing ability, dreaming of a life as a music artist. However, this dream faced immense resistance. I grappled with a soul-tormenting dilemma: a burning desire to devote my life to music, contrasted by a deep-seated belief, instilled by those closest to me, that I lacked the talent. Their laughter and doubts, and concerns that I was chasing a delusion, cast long shadows over my aspirations. The belief that “I wasn’t a good enough singer, nor did I look the part,” became an unchallenged conviction for the next decade.

第一章:无望的梦想

我从小就是个感情丰富、爱沉思的孩子。在我幼小的心灵里,我经常沉浸在对生命本质的思考之中。在这些深邃的反思里,我逐渐发现了音乐对我灵魂的强烈吸引力,这成为了唤醒我内心深处火花的启示。

大约在十岁时,我发现自己天生具有唱歌的才能,开始梦想成为一名音乐艺术家。然而,这个梦想遭遇了巨大的阻力。我陷入了一种灵魂深处的挣扎:对音乐的热爱与深植于心的不自信之间的矛盾。周围人的嘲笑和怀疑,以及他们认为我追求的不过是一场幻觉,给我的志向蒙上了阴影。长久以来,我无法挑战内心的那个声音:“我唱的不够好,长得也不够漂亮。”

Continue reading

Freedom’s Just Another Word For Nothin’ Left to Lose…

by Rachel Angel

Photo by Jayme Tauzer

Some of my favorite moments and memories consist of being out on the road wearing a hat over greasy hair and some of the same travel clothes for days. Stepping out of the van barefoot to see the sights, the wind blowing my clothes as I look out over the expanses, I feel free of earthly possessions, free of the need to control how I look and feel, and free of the expectations of the outside world. Truly anonymous in a hat, I travel from town to town in and out of diners and cafes with my face slightly obscured. I’m just a traveler blowing through, never promising anything to anyone. I’m a transient presence for a moment and then I’m gone.

Continue reading

Soft Harm Patch

by Dislocated Flowers

Soft Harm Patch by Dislocated Flowers

Music is where I go when I wish to step out of current time and space.

There is no Control mechanism in there playing on my conscious or unconscious mind telling me I must, should or am obliged to be doing something or other.

It is my place of Zen or a form of meditation if you prefer.

It’s the only place where everything external stops other than the immediate Now and I feel at peace in my own world.

I like to put sounds together to see what will happen. Often with words, sometimes not. The way they synthesise is an endless source of enjoyment and wonder to me. I never know where it’s going to end up and that is the main joy.

Continue reading

Life Our Own Way

by David Heatley

Life Our Own Way by David Heatley

I’d never been to Louisiana, never seen New Orleans, never been out on the Bayou. It was May of 2021 and here I was driving in the middle of the night to a town called Breaux Bridge, out past Baton Rouge, deep in the middle of rural Louisiana farmlands—what they call “Cajun country.” I arrived at a big, rundown house and was greeted by Mark, the producer of my new record (released Feb 11 2022 on Dream Puppy Records). We had only communicated by email and text up til this point and now here he was—grinning, talking a mile-a-minute, introducing me to the semi-stray cats, describing the armadillos that would come around if he left the cat food out over night in the garage: “nasty fuckers.”

Continue reading

Vampyre Villa

by Zach Pliska

Vampyre Villa by Zach Pliska (Vazum)
My band Vazum‘s new album Vampyre Villa has a variety of moods and styles which people have picked up on. It floats between deathrock, shoegaze, goth, and post-punk which is why we call ourselves a deathgaze band. We’re interested in combining the rawness of deathrock with the depth of shoegaze.

Continue reading

My life in music, and “Fluorite / Caldera”

by Seth Gibbs

My life in music, and Fluorite / Caldera by Seth Gibbs
Music is one of the few constants in my life.

I’ve been interested in a lot of different subjects and have tried to learn numerous skills over time — digital art, programming, web design, (briefly) robotics, among others — but most I either eventually decided weren’t for me, or I have a very on & off relationship with, being deeply interested and practicing it for months, and then spending the next year completely forgetting about it.

But everything about music — the production of it, how instruments are made, the history of music and its influences on cultures — that is the one thing I have always been fascinated by. I loved finding new music and wanted so badly to either play an instrument or even somehow make new music myself.

Continue reading

Gan Focal

by Mark Wilkins

Gan Focal by Mark Wilkins
Life during the lockdown and one finds oneself turning to the online world for community, support, and solace. The pandemic is a global phenomenon after all, and it would seem by the swell of blogs and posts on social media that millions of people the world over are doing the same. Social media explodes with information, disinformation, misinformation, distraction, and instruction.

One of the most shared posts by the online artistic community tells me ‘use the pandemic and the new reality to write that song, that novel, that screenplay you’ve always wanted to’ but this merely serves to impose a feeling of guilt -after all learning to adapt to the restrictions is difficult enough without the added pressure of trying to summon the muse and create new music.

What if I have no new ideas at my immediate disposal to inspire new tunes or fresh ideas to share with other musicians, let alone an audience?

Continue reading

2020 – A platter of songs for you to snack on

by Oliver Scott Draper

2020 - A platter of songs for you to snack on by Oliver Scott Draper
My short 4 track EP, “2020”, first took form before the year it’s named after before all of this insanity took over. I often think it’s best to leave a song’s meaning up to the interpretation of the listener. But, if there were an outlet to air out my thoughts of my songs, it would be here. So I’ll go through each track in the lineage of which they’re recorded and break them down.

Continue reading