The Wanderer

Music has been a constant in the background of my life for as long as I can remember. When I was young my dad would listen to old mixtapes on CDs he burnt himself, the soothing guitar of Jimmy Hendrix and rhythmic stories of the Eagles keeping us company on long car rides and weeknight dinners. He played music constantly, so much so that my mom would get annoyed and scream at him to turn the music down just so she could have “one moment of peace in this household!”

My dad introduced me to the world of classic rock, music he grew up with as he dreamt of America on his way to school in Chandigarh. Instead of the pop hits of the radio, my dad and I would listen to Pink Floyd on the way to school. Maybe that’s why my first major phase of music was punk rock, with green day fall out boy and nirvana being the first artists downloaded on my iPod. The heavy drums and electric guitar fed into my teenage angst long before I had any real problems to deal with.

I got Spotify when I was 13 and since then I’ve listened to music practically every day since. I listen to music on the way to work, on long nights studying in my college libraries, while playing video games with my friends in my basement in high school, and pretty much every moment in between. I take pride in my Spotify wrapped, back in college my friends would compete every year to see who can rack up the most minutes, and I’m sure that tradition will continue for years to come.

As music is such an important part of my life, I want to start sharing some of the music on my mind through the blog.

I’ve been listening to EDEN, an indie edm artist from Ireland, since I was 15. He had an alias called Eden project where he would experiment with new music and I would listen to them all the time. His music is beautiful, melancholy, and surrounded by an aura of electronica. He had this really interesting sound with his electric guitar mixed in with classic 2015 edm notes, giving a really grainy feel to all his music. And then his voice would come in, deep and filled with emotion as he sang poetry over chaos. These songs would almost always be juxtaposed with acoustic portions or even full songs throughout his early albums, which became a staple throughout his career. Man Down by Eden Project exemplifies these themes, I’d give it a listen.

As we all do, his music matured with him. His newest album ICYMI (In case you missed it) has been heavy on my rotation, with one song in particular hitting that sweet spot in the past few weeks. PS1, positioned in the middle of the album, paints a story of love lost. EDEN is struggling with his feelings for someone in his past, and in this process he finds himself slipping into bad habits.

Eden starts the song talking about his mind, saying “I’ve been out of time, closing in on space / you’ve been on my mind, not paying any rent” As he speaks, the sounds in the background sound almost like a siren, or a record skipping over and over. He paints a picture of a lost soul, sending texts left on delivered, smoking with friends, and slowly but surely losing his mind. As the chorus comes in the sirens pitch up to bring in a heavy melancholy base.

As the chaotic chorus plays in the background, he asks himself “Am I still what it is you like” before exclaiming at the final line of the chorus “I don’t want to be in love no more.” As the chorus rings in, a heavy base fills my ears, electronic music playing softly in the background, All this while keeping in tune with the rest of the album’s melancholy but optimistic outlook.

I think that’s my favorite part of EDEN’s music. His music paints pictures of sadness, despair even, but always with hope over the horizon. Even in this sad ballad of wandering through memories, he ends on a happy one. Sitting in a hotel room while the sun rises on a new day, his lover by his side all through the night, the sun warming his soul.

I wonder what this type of music says about me. I’ve always been into RnB, acoustic and electric guitars alike soothing me to sleep. I find comfort in music that speaks to me, and lately EDEN has been speaking to me. I think a lot of people can understand the feeling of being sad. Maybe over a breakup or the stress of daily life. But I think music has the power to bring us up in our darkest moments, to show us the light at the end of the tunnel, to give us hope for the future. And lately I’ve had a lot of hope for what’s to come. EDENs music, his rhythmic melancholy, his soft guitar, and his optimistic endings always leave me with a motivating feeling, like by the end of the song I’ll be better off when I started.

Let me know what y’all think about this format, and please give EDEN a listen, I hope you find as much joy listening to his music as I do. And as always, see you next time 🙂