X-Mas Special
Today is about you. Combining some of my readers with some of the interviewed artists and listen to what ‘Your Kind of Music’ is. As I mentioned while sending out the request, this is my way of saying Thank You, to all who have been reading and participating since I started my blog exactly half a year ago. I cannot even really wrap my head around all that has come to pass, but I’m very grateful with every bit of it!
Your Kind of Music, with Colorful Expressions
Music Was my First Love.
Though it took some convincing here and there and some badgering too – sorry-not-sorry – I’ve gathered quite some songs from quite some people. Now, to be honest, if every reader would have responded, I probably needed more pages for this article…enjoy the scroll.
To make it a bit more interesting, I have randomly listed all participants, hoping not to get too predictable. My initial request was to send in 1 all time fav song. Since I already kind of figured this was going to be one heck of a challenge for a lot of people, I wasn’t really surprised when they started sending in more. Between people sending in just 1 song, with a very short description and others, who send in a shortlist with an elaborate backstory, there are multiple contributions. I did not stick to certain genres either, so the whole should be an entertaining read and listen!
THANK YOU ALL, you’ve made this blog an even bigger adventure than I anticipated! I am grateful to all the readers, lots of you who keep coming back to read every weeks article on my personal blog, I really appreciate you all. You have no idea how often I wonder about why anything I would write would even interest you lol. And to the artists: the Spotlight section was an unexpected addition to my blog, but it has been a fantastic ride so far! Thank you so much for taking the time to be a part of it, again today! Try ‘n click some pics 😉
HERE WE GO, in random order:
Starting with Doktor Plekter, next to being the first to not only follow me on Instagram, but also on Twitter ( where I had 2 followers lol) he was one of the first to respond to my request. It is such a personal reward to see he kept the link to Spotlight on Doktor Plekter in his bio on Instagram, for a couple of months. It’s like my personal cue, that the article meant something. It also helped a lot with gaining views through time!
As far as I can tell, he is always busy with his music, he recently released ScrapYard: Kapittel 3, which contains, in his words: ‘Here are some more scrapped projects & lost wip’s I’ve made in 2018/19/20’. I believe he worked on some collabs too. If you want to be sure you hear the latest, just follow him here:
Spotify – SoundCloud – YouTube – Instagram – Facebook – Twitter
Doktor Plekter’s choice:
‘My moms fav song and the reason I got into heavier music’
Another quick responder was SoundKid. After Spotlight on SoundKid was published, he told me he was really telling everyone about my blog and that’s just who he is: He is always very involved with the artists he follows and genuinely excited when they release new stuff. This was again confirmed, when he started following The Jupiter Gallery after their Spotlight and the way he reached out to them. If there’s going to be any collab in the future, that would certainly warm my heart!
His own new creation was released pretty recently: NOTD – NOBODY (SoundKid Remix). Another good vibes remix, but with a little bit of a twist compared to his previous ones. He told me: ‘I tried going for a 50’s vintage vibe combined with nudisco’. The result is a very relaxed, happy sound. He also mentioned, he’s working on a few original collabs and some more remixes, so if you want to keep an eye and ear out for his music, make sure you find him!
⬅️ SoundKid’s choice
‘Such a great groove, chords and tropical vibe’.
Follow SoundKid here:
Spotify – YouTube – SoundCloud – Instagram – Facebook
One of my most fervent readers (and how could she not 😂) is our daughter Loïs. She always reads the article and tells me if there are any – spelling or other – mistakes I overlooked – even after my standard 3 times check lol. Loïs has been part of my blog previously: In Creativity Flows, you can read about how she uses her crafts to spread some positivity to the people around her.
We always share music and that makes for some interesting playlists on both sides. She loves a couple of the artists I interviewed and started following a couple herself. Her favs? A-P Connection, Funk LeBlanc, Limón Limón and Discoholic. Of course she also responded to my request almost immediately and not surprisingly with a song that has both her and her fiancées heart.
Loïs’ choice ➡️
‘Mark and my
song’.
Next up is T-BOW, the friendly, smiling bassplayer (but multi instrumentalist actually). It’s been really nice to hear from him how happy he was with the article. Although I am basically doing this for fun, it’s always nice to get some positive feedback. Since there was a second lockdown in France too, T-BOW decided to do a second bassquiz on social media. You can read about the first one in Spotlight on T-BOW. The quiz was spread over 10 days and of course I had to try this time! After an initial good start I got lost 😂
Since I already knew from the first one, it’s not as easy as one might think, I wasn’t really surprised, but boy… It was even tougher than I thought. It’s such a nice way though, to engage with the audience and stay connected. In the meanwhile T-BOW also released a new song, a collab with Airospace: ‘Get You On My Mind‘, check out the awesome visuals! He already talked about it in the interview. It’s great to be the first to get to share some information like that!
T-BOW’s choice:
‘Jamiroquai used to be my fav band. It still is and blow your mind was the song that touches me the most.
The emotion of the song, the bass line, the scat at the end, the special structure of the song.
Everything is unique and when I listen to it, I just travel in a beautiful world’.
‘It’s the definition of the perfect Disco Funk track’.
Want to hear everything else that T-BOW released? Follow him here:
Spotify – YouTube – SoundCloud – Facebook – Instagram
Returning to Korea for a bit, where XANAX resides. Again, really sweet to see, he still has the link to Spotlight on XANAX in his bio on Instagram. As far as I can tell, he is still a frequent reader of my articles, since I wouldn’t really know who else might be interested from Korea 🙂 He was very happy to be on the same blog as previous interviewees and started following A-P Connection and Discoholic. His Facebook post said it all:
Next to following me back on Instagram (and thanks to all of you on this page!), we’re also Facebook friends now. It’s fun to see, how he is gaining followers every week and I really hope the article has helped a little, since it was (and still is) viewed pretty well and put Korea on the map for me! XANAX seems to be enjoying some DJ-ing in the meanwhile and I am hoping to see some new tracks soon.
⬅️ XANAX’s choice
‘Because vocals, chords, rhythms and atmosphere are all things I like! I really like atmospheric music. Music to hear when it rains Or music you can listen to in the evening I usually listen to music with a certain atmosphere, and this song has everything I like! It is also a song that made me interested in the artist named FKJ!’
Follow XANAX here: SoundCloud – YouTube – Instagram – Facebook
Next is one of my former colleagues: Annemarie. We met a couple of weeks after I started the job, since she was on the nightshift. After that, it all escalated pretty quickly and we ended up doing a lot of nightshifts together. She became my Coach first – the best I can tell you – and after some time, the roles changed and I became her Coach 😂 believe me, she was still MY Coach and I made sure everyone was aware of that. We had such a good time at work, despite all the things that weren’t enjoyable. Kept each other sane. She feels like a younger sister to me.
She is one of my loyal readers and even though ‘My kind of Music’ is definitely not hers, she told me: ‘Every week, on Thursday ( publish day for the personal blog), I think: Yas! Curious as to what nice / interesting, things are waiting for me this week. On Fridays… Well it’s not my kind of music, BUT, I Do read it Every Time, thinking again how cool it is, that you manage to get yet another fun interview!’ She also added: ‘But, Wien, I Do Hope, that somewhere, there’s an article waiting to come out, about SHOES’. Heck girl, I HAD to after that: If the Shoe Fits
Annemarie’s choice ➡️
‘From start to finish it is a buildup that erupts, is shouted out, calm returns.
I saw the band live several times in the past, including this song, which was indescribable at the time.
My first concert ever, hah. I myself had just got ‘freed’ from my parents, from their views, I finally found myself, then. And I can always find myself in this song’.
It all started with Marc Leclercq, who ended up number 5 on my Top Artists list on Spotify. After I wrote My Kind of Music (1), where I go back in time and tell about the big role music played throughout my life, I asked if I could use some of his music for my next article. After introducing Marc in Mix and (-game-set-) Match, I thought it would be really awesome to get more into music and write about it too. So the next step was pretty ‘easy’ and I asked Marc if he would be interested to do a little interview and I would write about his music. The Spotlight section was born, with my first article being Spotlight on Marc Leclercq.
We’ve been in contact ever since and I can say we basically see Marc as part of our family, even though we’ve never met in person. I am hoping that will happen next year. Marc was very supportive from the start and his faith in me / my writing, was a big encouragement to me. After the first couple of Spotlights, he mentioned the blog could be a great platform for Nu-Disco / Future Funk, artists. Well, not saying I am there yet, but it’s so much fun to know several artists actually read each other stories, telling me they’re curious and start following each other, if they weren’t already.
Very recently I received a really cool shirt, designed by Marc and referring to one of his singles: ‘Every Time’. Though COVID hit hard in the Dominican Republic too and he had a pretty tough time of it, he tried to keep himself busy with music and obviously designing some merch. Very cool to hear it’s pretty much sold out! His latest single, ‘Move On‘, is totally in line with previous released tracks, very relaxed vibes but with serious lyrics. ‘Rose Gold‘ ended up number 2 on my Top Songlist of this year on Spotify, not a big surprise to me at all.
⬅️ Marc Leclercq’s choice
‘The producer is incredible and has that touch of French House and Disco, which makes it even better. It was one of the first songs on a modern disco that I heard and I repeated it a thousand times’.
Follow Marc Leclercq here: Spotify – YouTube – SoundCloud – Instagram – Facebook
One of the most enthusiastic artists to join in here today, is Ronny Louvre aka Spokesman of Vaporspace StL. He is just so full of fire when you talk to him about the music scene he is in and though he told us in the interview he was taking it easy for some time, he is still very involved. Following him on Twitter, he still addresses the audience about the online shows they’re hosting on Twitch.
And ever since the first one I joined – mentioned in Spotlight on Vaporspace StL – I can say it’s a really good alternative for live shows, since having a real party is still out of the question. More recent they had the ‘Vaporspace Snow Day’ and the music and visuals were incredible! You can still watch them if you’re curious! Anyways, when I asked him about his favorite songs, I got half the article done. Again. What a joy!
Follow Vaporspace StL here: linktree – Instagram – Facebook – Twitter – Twitch.
(Vaporspace StL) Ronny Louvre’s choice:
‘My first pick is Sebastian Tellier- La Ritournelle (2004)’.
‘This is one of the most emotive love songs I’ve ever heard. In 2001 I saw Sebastian Tellier open for AIR in Chicago, and instantly became a fan. This song came out a few years later, and absolutely floored me with its building piano, sweeping strings, and sultry vocals. Sebastian just performed this song, and others from his newest album, for a streaming show on Nov. 13, and it was a joy to see this master at work’.
‘Here’s my second pick: Future Sound of London (FSOL)- Slider (1994)’.
‘The Future Sound of London was my first exposure to “electronica”, and they’ll always be among my favorite artists, but I typically think of them as album creators more than song writers. Their early albums, Accelerator, Lifeforms, Dead Cities, are absolute classics in the ambient-house/ chilled out electronica pantheon. This song, Slider, comes from their ISDN album, named for the high-tech broadband internet connections they were using to perform virtual concerts for art galleries from their home studios, pioneering the idea of virtual concerts and streaming shows. These dudes were bleeding edge innovators for dance music in the early 90s, and they’re still creating and releasing incredible music today’.
‘Last one! A favorite track from an incredible group. Boards of Canada – Roygbiv (1998)’.
‘Boards of Canada dropped their debut album as I was graduating high school. I was absolutely here for this album, and I tend think of the BoC sound as being essentially formative and foundational to the vaporwave vibe I’m in love with today. I feel like haunting nostalgia looms large in all of their musical output, but the breakbeats on this short, two-and-a-half minute groove have made me listen to it on repeat 1 more than most any other song out there. Which is only a shame because the rest of the album, Music Has A Right To Children, is so solid, front to back!
‘That’s it for my top 3 songs for today! If you ask again sometime, I can come up with 3 more, no prob!’ 😁
Next up is Joëlle, our daughter in law, who did us a really great service, by sending our son to us recently. Due to COVID we hadn’t seen each other for a year and she felt it necessary for all of us, to spend some time together. Although she wasn’t able to join herself and we investigated the possibilities regarding flying etc, she got him to go, everything went well and we had a hilarious couple of days together. Thank You So Much again Joëlle! ❤
Joëlle’s choice ➡️
‘I went to one of their concerts
when I was about 8 years old or so.
This has always been my favorite song of theirs’ 😛
Our son, Jordan. We always share music, some weeks more than others, but during his stay here, we definitely caught up on some stuff. I can’t even explain how much fun it is to share this with your kids. In a way it keeps us ‘young’. At least we don’t have any excuse to lose touch with what is going on around us 😜
Jordan said, he thought I might not be aware of it, but he’s is reading my blog and proud of his Mom…aaw my heart. It’s weird, because this all started and happened without him being able to actually ‘see’ me do it and he knows what a challenge this has been for me. He also thought it pretty cool to end up on the same page as some of the artists I interviewed, so he was game. And although our playlists are enormous, Jordan gave me one song and was very clipped about it:
⬅️ Jordan’s choice
‘Pharrel on the beat
and JT for the Chorus,
is all you need’.
Spotlight on Lope & Kantola, was the first article where I started to use a slightly upgraded layout. This was made possible by the nice pictures they send me and which were a joy to use. It’s still fun to follow them, they don’t post that often, but when they do, you can be assured they will make you laugh. I am hoping they will be able to release some new stuff next year, very much looking forward to that! Until then, I will make do with what they already released, their music still has a prominent place on my lists.
Because they will always take a peek in my Instagram stories, I was under the impression they were aware of my request to join in. When I didn’t hear anything and send them a message, it took me a little time to realize they didn’t get what I was talking about, Sorry Again! However, after some explaining, the Disco Dads provided me their list of favs, accompanied by some short descriptions. We’ll just go through them and let their comments do the talking. Wish to keep in touch with them? Just follow them here:
Spotify – YouTube – SoundCloud – Facebook – Instagram – Twitter
Lope & Kantola’s choice:
‘Prog Trance’ – Greece 2000
‘Uplifting Trance’ Synaesthesia en-motion remix
‘Finnish favorite from 2000‘ Child is my Name
‘Ville’s wedding dance’
‘Instant get in better mood’
And last but not least ➡️
‘A current song
I’d love
to have written
myself’
Spotlight on A-P Connection was my second and they ended up number 2 on My Top Artists Spotify list. Their music got to me right away and since my love for funky guitars and basslines is no secret, you know why! We keep in contact and when at one point I wanted to surprise my hubby – who is a big fan too – I asked the guys if it was possible to get one of those A-P sweaters. They were absolutely nice to me and though they hadn’t any left, they made sure I got them, because of course, I wanted one for myself too 🙄 They said that ‘since I am a true fan’ – which is TRUE – they even threw in a signed ‘Beyond‘ CD and made us very happy!
They’ve been working on a new album for some time now and I am hoping they will be able to release that early 2021. There might have been talk about doing a second interview… Which would mean I would be launching Spotlight 2….Again no surprise, they ended up number 4 in my Top 5 Songs on Spotify, with ‘Want U‘. Want to be sure you won’t miss their upcoming new album release, start following them here:
Spotify – YouTube – SoundCloud – Instagram – Facebook
A-P Connection’s choice:
‘EWF is a legend. Maurice White has been a mentor for us. We have been for sure influenced by the band in our upcoming album.
We love the 70’s atmosphere, it has been one of the first top song of the band !That’s the way of the world is spreading optimism, positivity, joy and happiness !
What music should bring to people!’
When I asked if there were other songs they would like to add, this is what they replied:
‘Haha, ok ! Well, we really love that track from Jamiroquai’
‘And this one from Kool and the Gang’
Today I am making 2 special introductions, and here’s the first one: meet Alexis Tinkham aka, Lexaccino.
She’s known on social media as Lex and she’s into drawing and graphic design, you gotta look her up to admire her talent! She also recently got into mixing her own music. Her words: ‘It’s a little rough around the edges but I’m working to perfect my craft 😉’ She is also working on some video’s, to be released next year, in which she gets help from Discoholic. And that’s how we ‘met’ online. It’s still very interesting to see, how connections are made and develop through time.
Lex is a genuinely nice person and always shows interest in the people around her, so it’s really easy to return the favor: reap what you sow 😊 I had a listen to Lex’s songs and got really excited about it. I previously got drawn into the vaporwave scene and her music fits there perfectly. The use of samples from music I grew up with, hits me Every. Time. Here they are:
‘My very first attempt at a vaporwave-styled track. enjoy!’ ❤
If you’re also curious about all Lex’s talents, follow her here ➡️
Lex’s choice:
**Update 12/26/2020
On 12/23/2020, Lexaccino released a new video on YouTube, with a list of 100 of her favorite tracks from the online music community. Have a look and listen!
My oldest brother, Henry, is next. Since I started my blog he’s been reading both personal and Spotlight articles. He’s always taking it seriously and will give any artist a good listen after which he will give me some feedback on their music. Very cool, because ever since we were kids, his and mine taste in music were kind of the same. Being the older one, he would introduce me to stuff I would otherwise not have listened to and so it wasn’t only disco and funk that ended up on my record player / in my cassette player lol.
He reminded me not too long ago of my love for Rick Astley’s ‘Never Gonna Give You Up’ 🤣 Well, what can I say… I just hoped people would forget about that. So we started sharing music again and it’s fun to hear what he’s listening to these days. We still have a lot of the same taste and the both of us still appreciate the oldskool jazz-rock and fusion, we grew up with.
Henry’s choice:
‘My all time favorite is Funkin’ for Jamaica,
by Tom Brown!
The trumpet at the intro, everyone recognizes that immediately!’
‘Then again, ‘Here’s to You’, by Skyy is another great one! For a long time I didn’t know who the song was from… Until I heard a DJ set by Tuxedo and shazamed it! The song had been in my head for such a long time, but I couldn’t figure out the title nor the band. Especially that bassline got stuck in my head’.
My first fellow Dutchie, DUCAT, was only recently added to my Spotlights. It was great to finally have someone from ‘my own’ country, though I don’t live there anymore. While writing Spotlight on DUCAT, I thought: Why not ask him for his fav song in one go? So I got my answer almost right away. As it is, I am eagerly waiting for the beatiful purple ‘Groovez‘ vinyl to arrive in my mail, can’t wait to get my hands on it!
Talking about that: if you haven’t considered it before, try to support your fav artists on Bandcamp. As far as I now understand, this might be the only place they actually receive the support they deserve, before ever going Big on other streaming platforms…DUCAT released a new remix recently: ‘Some Type Of Way‘, (Mélonade & Unibe@t – Feat. J_Ade_) A great track for sure!
DUCAT’s choice ➡️
‘It’s one of my fav HipHop albums, which is timeless to me and has a lot of vaporwave influences, such as RotatingBed’.
Follow DUCAT here: Spotify – SoundCloud – Bandcamp – YouTube – Instagram – Twitter – Facebook
The second introduction of today, meet Stephen Varga
He started following me a couple of weeks ago and as always, I was way too curious about who he was. At first I thought a former colleague was pranking me, because when I looked at his pictures, he really looked liked a younger version of him. I found out Stephen is a guitar player and a pretty good one at that! When he tagged me in a comment about PREP (band) and how they could make a nice addition to my playlists, we started to chat. About music of course 😁 I asked him if he wouldn’t be interested in joining in here and so he did.
So far he’s done some stuff for other artists ( more in the Rock genre), but nothing yet released under his own name. His words: ‘I’ll eventually release something before I die 🙂 lol I wrote a bunch of stuff but just have it not finished on the computer. I love playing funk and disco .. I do like rock too tho. Guitarists usually love those two genres but I lean a bit more to the party feel type of things if I had a choice 🙂 Anyways, long story short: Stephen couldn’t really make a choice out of all his favs, so what did he do?
I quote; ‘Gosh I have 15 songs… I was holding back a lot it’s just so hard. I organize my Spotify playlists by month every year and collect all the songs I listen on repeat for that month. Then at the end of the year make a big year playlist and start again.. so there’s a lot but I thought I’d share some really solid ones to start. You can just go through the playlist and choose whatever you like :)’ He made me a playlist and send it to me to pick for myself. LMAO.
⬅️ Stephen’s ‘choice’
and a lot from this playlist was already on mine, including my number 1 of this year…so what to choose eh?
If you want to listen to how Stephen sounds, find him on Instagram.
More collabs to come?
In Spotlight on SleepPattern I interviewed my first Visual Artist. SleepPattern makes the most beautiful stuff out of old VHS tapes. The visuals are mostly used to give any musician / DJ some nice visuals, while performing and they complement the performance to a T. I have joined a couple of his streams on Twitch which is always fun, because of the time difference 🙄 and recently he showed us around and told us a bit about how he does it all. You can imagine most of it was beyond me, but the fact he took the effort to explain some of the stuff he’s working with, made it highly interesting to watch.
We talk now and then and unfortunately share some insomnia too. Though in all honesty, mine is not half as bad it seems. SleepPattern is a great guy, with a wicked sense of humor and a great talent in showing us around in his fantasy world, full of glitches and colors – I love colors lol. He recently released his own VHS tape, called ‘Escape to Paradise’, which got sold out!
SleepPattern’s choice ➡️
Want to have a look for yourself
what SleepPattern is capable of,
follow him here:
Instagram – Twitter – Twitch – YouTube
Next is my hubby, Steve. Of course he would not pass on being a part of this one! He’s been my biggest supporter all the way and wrote a couple of articles for my blog himself, as per my request, about his Other Love: Gaming. Which you can read about in Alpha Testing-Testing, (1-)2 and the Prequel – lol – Alpha Testing, 1(-2)
If you didn’t know it yet, I am the only one in my family who’s NOT into Gaming and Yes, I am fine with that 😉 Steve is an Alpha tester for Microsoft as well as for XboX and has been doing this for a long time, simply put, he’s a big nerd, but yeah, I love him.
Before all this, he was a – professional – musician too. The bass is still his thing, but he loves the guitar and drums too. So I’ll say it again, me loving those funky basslines, is not only rooted in the music I grew up with, he grew up with and even played, the same music. For years, he was the only one who knew about my dream to write one day and he tried to convince me to start a blog many moons ago. But, yeah…this woman and technology…
Steve’s choice ➡️
‘I chose the live version, because I’ve never found the original one. The way Marcus Miller plays here, got me to admire him greatly. When you listen to several versions, you can really hear the difference. In my opinion, a musician should try not to repeat the same notes too often and this you can clearly hear in this version. Marcus is very resourceful on bass.
To me, Jazz-Rock is the ultimate genre to show your talent. It’s in the way any musician gets the opportunity to play a solo and show off. A great musician should be able to get everything out of their instrument and for me, Marcus Miller and David Sanborn are showing that here.
The drive and satisfaction I experience from the artists who play the instruments, these things are really displayed in this song. Marcus lays down that groove and together with the drums, they form a tight basis. This music makes me feel really good, playing Jazz-Rock to get that happy feeling in a world where chaos most often rules. In my opinion, this song is exactly as it’s supposed to be’.
Wizard of Loneliness had to bring some Magic along: in Spotlight on Wizard of Loneliness, you can hear the first – and only so far – audio recorded interview. The Wizard is one special character and there are no words really to describe what he’s like. So to get an idea, you should listen to him yourself and form your opinion. A couple of weeks ago, he was so nice to add me to a shortlist on ‘who to follow’ on Twitter. It was a surprise to me, but very much appreciated!
You may or may not have heard him calling me winesap apples… While I was sure he was joking me, I found out some time later, these apples actually exist… I thought it hilarious and added a little apple emoji to my name.
The Wizard is still going strong in releasing music and I basically refer you to SoundCloud, because keeping up with him, would require a 24/7 watch 🤭 Of course he had to live up to his own set standard, so when I asked him to participate, he immediately answered he would make a little video! Gotta love that enthusiasm and effort! Curious as to what this sorcery’s all about? Follow Wizard of Loneliness here:
Spotify – SoundCloud – Bandcamp – Facebook – Twitter – Instagram
Wizard of Loneliness’ choice:
Spotlight on Akara was an absolute milestone! The one that inadvertently helped me to get new musical inspiration and this whole thing started, was Akara. Through The Jukebox Music Club, I found a lot of music I like, which helped me to find the artists. For those who haven’t read my last Spotlight, I will quote here:
‘Akara deserves a Shoutout, not only because of the above, but also because he is such a nice guy. I always feel honored whenever he asks my opinion regarding any song, which sometimes includes his own creations. He is still very humble about it all and he can laugh at himself, I really love that. That’s why I will always refer to him, whenever I get the chance, he deserves it. (I can ‘read’ his response already in my mind hahah)’.
A couple of weeks ago, he asked me to send him a list of 20 tracks I liked, from which he would select some for his Nu Disco Mix. When he added he trusted my music taste, I was touched and at the same time told him: ‘No Pressure at all!’ At the time of writing, this has not been released yet, so I am very curious as to which ones he chose. I was promised he would add at least 1 (you can guess which one) and he kept teasing me with snippets of what he was working on 😳 Not nearly enough to find out what’s going to be in there…
⬅️ Akara’s choice
‘The mood, mélody.
You need this song 🎵 in your life haha’
Follow Akara here:
YouTube – SoundCloud – Instagram
**Update 12/26/2020
On 12/25/2020, Akara released his Nu Disco Mix on YouTube, it is pretty awesome to have a mix where a lot of his and my fav artists are brought together!
Next up is Remy. I’ve introduced Remy in 1000 Layer Therapy, an article where I share my recipe of the most delicious Indonesian cake ever invented: the 1000 layer cake. Remy and I met through my previous job. While I was on this end of the phone, trying to give tech – whahah – support, he was on the other end, in The Netherlands. It gotten to a point, where I told him, just to ask for me if there was anything he needed help with. It all escalated really quickly when we started to use Skype and shared music back and forth.
When I send him ‘I Just Got Paid’, by Sigala, Ella Eyre and Meghan Trainor, he responded with a better version, which basically became ‘our’ song. We got off so well, there was no way I could resist to meet him in person. And though it was a bit weird to meet someone I’ve only talked to on the phone, when meeting him in person, the awkwardness lasted for about 5 seconds and then it felt like meeting an old friend. Since then, Remy is (on-) officially a part of our family.
Remy’s choice ➡️
Unfortunately, we weren’t able to meet this year,
but we facetime on a regular basis and whenever we do meet,
or whenever the mood strikes during facetime,
this is what you’ll hear:
Ending with the last artist for today, AKA, My Number 1 Artist according to Spotify.
Spotlight on Discoholic has been one of the most hilarious ones I did. And now, a couple of months later, I can only look back with a grin on my face. Following Discoholic on social media is like chasing a roller coaster. Yeah you read that correct. I did not exaggerate in the article, the bartender has got some personality – energy levels through the roof – and it’s hard not to notice. You’d think I should have been prepared, but after publishing I was thoroughly surprised about the speed with which Discoholic spread the word on social media. His post was, well, like I said, Hilarious. I was also pleasantly surprised he added the link to the article on his website, it feels like I’ve done something right 😂
However, it was not all fun and games for Discoholic: the 14th of November I asked him about his fav songs and in the afternoon, he announced he was tested positive for COVID. It was amazing to see all the love he received from his followers. For weeks I had been listening to ‘Discoholic’s Cocktail of the Week‘ and since I really felt sorry for him, I was thinking about something I could do. I came up with the idea to return the favor and make him a playlist, which would hopefully make him feel better, if even a bit. After sending it to him, he again surprised me, by sharing it with his audience. I kept the playlist on of course. Fortunately, on 12/14/2020, Discoholic could share his test results, which came back negative!
Next to being my number 1 Artist of this year, my Number 1 Song is also theirs. For someone who previously hated Spotify with a passion, it was just a tiny bit shocking to see my Spotify Wrapped for this year, which not even counted 4 months of use… Although I already started listening to their music before working on the article, ‘Liftoff‘ really got to me after publishing. It stuck to me like superglue and it was on repeat for so freaking long… I joked about it several times, but still the amount of streams (817!!) baffled me, so it’s with good reason they’re the last one to be mentioned, except for moi.
Follow Discoholic on Spotify – YouTube – SoundCloud – Facebook – Instagram – Twitter
Being the very busy bartender he is, his answers are to the point. Very unlike me 😂, he has a knack of using as little words as possible while passing the message:
Discoholic’s choice:
‘2 songs that helped me get into disco’.
So yeah that leaves me. Maybe not the most interesting of today, but it’s only fair if I play along right? One song that has been on my playlist from the start (when I actually started to make one lol) was
⬅️ Wien’s choice
I guess it’s not as bad as Rick Astley, but still cheesy enough. The only streaming I used at that time was YouTube, which I was totally fine with. In the end it brought me a lot of great music, so hey… The first time I heard this song, was when I was still working in the shoe store, in the back storeroom, where the radio used to play.
Steve left for the first time to Ireland for another IT job and I stayed back with the kids, who were still in school. I found the song and for the first time in many years, I had something on repeat for a couple of days. Previous years my love for music was still there, but not like when I was younger. In a way, you could say, this song brought me back to really listen to and appreciate music. I don’t think I will ever remove it from my playlist 😅
Though I guess from now on, ‘Liftoff’ deserves the same place in my life 💖
Merry X-Mas and on to a Better and Funky 2021 y’all!! ❤
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