actual life

Music has been an important part of my life for as long as I can remember. In grade school, I played drums, sang in musicals, and decided that I was going to be a rapper. I produced, wrote, recorded, and performed for nearly 20 years. My connection to music originated in admiration and quickly grew into a need to contribute. And although the connection didn’t come from all music, it really could come from any music.

Random artists and genres have sucked me in for years. From Cat Stevens to Jedi Mind Tricks, D’Angelo to Daughter, good music seems to find and mesmerize me often. Recently, Spotify served me up Fred again.. —an electronic musician from the UK. A song from his album ‘USB’ showed up in a playlist and I put it on repeat for the better part of a morning. After having his entire catalog on shuffle for a while, I noticed a few of his releases were clearly albums that needed to be played from start to finish. It was weird, I probably hadn’t been that stoked to turn off shuffle and experience an album since the nineties.

His three-album ‘Actual Life’ series samples short clips from around the internet and what sounds like personal conversations. When layered with synth-heavy house tracks and set against the backdrop of COVID, the albums evoke feelings of joy, love, and sadness throughout.

There is something really human about listening to them.

I’m not totally sure what that means.

It’s probably the sadness part.

I don’t know much more about Fred again.. or his music.

Doesn’t matter though, I seriously can’t stop listening.