Storytelling Trough Electronic Music

A year ago, I was hanging out with a friend who was producing electronic music. He was showing me his tracks and the tracks he liked, and I was playing them from my phone on to the speaker.

I put the first track and started scrolling through the track line impatiently searching for the juiciest point.

— Wait! What are you doing? Just listen!

— What? This is how I discover music. — I laughed — ‘Ain’t nobody got time for that,’ — and quoted a famous meme that, perhaps, inadvertently revealed my age, — I need to know if I’m gonna like it or not. — I shrugged.

— No, no, you’re doing it wrong! There is a plot! There is a story the artist wanted to tell!… Just listen!…

I brushed it off and thought he was a bit too sensitive.

Later on, as I was getting into deejaying, I was trying to decide on the style of music I wanted to play. There were so many genres and so much music that I loved… How could I even choose what to focus on?

I kept on compiling playlists with the music in different genres, and decided I would figure it out later. All I had to do was just start.

A few years ago, before my friend hooked me up on Spotify, I used to spend hours listening to the music on Soundcloud. I remember coming across Ta-ku’s playlist ‘Songs to break up to’, and feeling a little surprised, and also touched, by the idea that the songs were a part of a story.

‘Songs to break up to’ album by Ta-ku

The melancholy of the melodies, the saddness of the lyrics — everything was there to help me feel less lonely... It felt like someone knew what I was going through. I felt connected to the artist and to other listeners.

For a very long time I used to listen to the music that was “catchy” — something I could move to, or something that sounded pleasant to the ear. As I was getting older, I started paying more attention to the lyrics. I started appreciating something deeper and how it was speaking to me…

At some point, I found myself sitting on a beach at night, heartbroken, deeply sad and lonely, listening to Aguilera’s ‘Walk away’, feeling the song with every cell of my body, tears streaming down my cheeks. Knowing I needed to walk away, to break out of the toxic vicious cycle I was caged in… but I couldn’t. I needed a closure.

I was naive, your love was like candy

Artificially sweet, I was deceived by the wrapping,

Got caught in your web and I learned how to bleed,

I was prey in your bed and devoured completely.

Oh, and it hurts my soul ’cause I can’t let go,

All these walls are cavin’ in,

I can’t stop my sufferin’,

I hate to show that I’ve lost control,

’Cause I, I keep goin’ right back to the one thing that I need

To walk away from, yeah…

I need to get away from you,

Need to walk away from you,

Get away, walk away, walk away…

Perhaps, someone who had a more mature approach to music all their life may think that what I’m revealing is a common sense, but I think, like with everything in life, we go through a learning path, and we get onto a more profound level of understanding and appreciating things. Things that have got meaning.

One evening, I was looking to get my head off of the excruciating pondering of whether I should quit my job, and start doing music full-time, I came across a Netflix show ‘Devotion’.

Ten minutes into the first episode, I saw a scene that made my jaw drop. The scene was accompanied by an electronic music track — which isn’t very typical for a mainstream show, — and it went so well with the plot, it gave me goosebumps!

That was the final puzzle I needed.

I decided I wanted to tell a story!

I wanted to take people on a journey.

And so I recorded a mix.

‘Made Me Feel’ Emotive Electronic DJ Mix by Arwen’s Faith

This mix is for everyone who experienced an unreciprocated love, for everyone who went through a devastating heartbreak. And all the stages it involves... passion, infatuation, the hell and the heaven, the love and hate rollercoaster… the grief, acceptance… And, finally, the letting go.