At midnight tonight, I will be releasing Addicted, my first solo album. This post is to really explain what the album is about, my musical background and my influences.

I’ll start with explaining the title. I had initially wanted to call it Nebula (Starchild, Nebula being the birth of a star, space, you get the idea) but changed my mind and ended up with Addicted, which was a “rumoured” title for Jamiroquai’s eighth album, which was eventually called Rock Dust Light Star. It was also the reason why my first EP was called Obsessed; I like to link my titles or give them some kind of meaning. Once that was decided, I had to figure out whether to make it another concept piece or just a culmination of my best tracks. I had an idea to have all the titles begin with “The” but as time went on and my newer beats became more improved, I had named them different things and scrapped the idea. However, a few of the original beats, including a few from the EP, will feature. Another reason for picking “Addicted” as a title was because it reflects just how addicted I am to music. I’ve spent nearly a year working on it, for hours a day and I’m really happy with how it’s turned out.

My musical background is somewhat patchy to begin with. I played recorder like most junior school kids in Year 3 and soon stopped. At high school, I played the clarinet for five years but never went past Grade 3. I had wanted to play saxophone but there weren’t any left, so I was left with its smaller black wooden cousin. By college, I had dreams of being a graphic designer, which turned into dreams of working in computer science and I went to university still holding onto that “dream”. Within months, the dream became a nightmare and what I was expecting wasn’t what I got. Days would go by where I would just stay in my room and not talk to anyone. Depressed and having no friends, all I really had was my iPod, my radio and a new secret passion for music. I transferred to study Mathematics in the new academic year, however due to financial difficulties, I had to drop out altogether and I was now at home, desperately looking for work. My passion for design had also been renewed and decided that was what I wanted to do, until a rejection from a university interview put me off entirely. As you can see, I’ve flitted from pillar to post quite a lot over the past three years but music always seemed to stick and that’s where I am now. Okay, I’m waffling.

My influences are quite diverse: Pete Rock, Madlib, J Dilla, ATCQ, Bonobo, Quantic, 4hero, Jamiroquai, Michael Jackson to name but a few. My sound is generally more “old school” than the kind of hip hop you hear in the charts. I like to keep an element of groove and funk in the samples I pick so you can chill and relax or just bob your head. If I’ve ever been stuck in a rut, listening to a few songs from these artists has rejuvenated my drive and I’d like to thank them for all their music.In terms of dedications, I’m dedicating the album to all the fallen greats of music and anyone who has died suddenly or tragically this year, may they all rest in peace and power. Thanks to Nyt Arcanum aka Blaise for all the help and support as well as everyone at RGS. Thanks to everyone on Facebook and Twitter for all your support, kind words and motivation. I’m sorry to be leaving but it’s just something I have to do.

All that’s left for me to say is thank you and I hope you enjoy the album!

EDIT: The link to download is here: http://starchildluke.bandcamp.com/album/addicted

So, my favourite band of all time have released a new song called Smile. The release was delayed due to them having trouble picking a cover from the competition they had organised. I have to say… WELL worth the wait. Reminiscent of the “old” days, very mellow and generally a superb song. And best of all, it’s FREE.

If you can’t wait for it to download, you can always listen to the Youtube link below and relax. Enjoy!

Download link: Smile

My relationship with rock music has been… well, rocky, for lack of a better word. I always tried to shy away from it, pretending there wasn’t an issue; “I’m okay with rock music, I just don’t love it”. The truth is, I was barely okay with it. My idea of rock was everyone’s idea of pop music. It was always a genre that I neglected when it came to acquiring music, after all, I’ve yet to physically buy a rock CD. Plenty of pop, soul, jazz, hip hop, funk and even acid jazz. But no rock. And why is this? What’s the big deal? Well, today for the first time, I sat down and thought about it on my way to London (on a trip to some music shops, no less) and during the journey, I attributed it to two things.

The first one was a childhood memory of my dad being in a mood for some reason (usually because of me) and going upstairs to his room and listening to his Meat Loaf tape. Sometimes, he’d be downstairs listening to them on vinyl. Back then, he called them heavy metal and having never actually heard them myself, I took this to be true. At 21, I now know they are nowhere near being heavy metal and they actually sound good but the negative association of Meat Loaf, and by extension, rock music was enough to put me off listening to it. At that age, rock music was music for people who were angry or upset and/or people who were angry or upset with me. The second association came years later while I was at college. I liked a girl who was into rock and metal. Still wasn’t my thing at the time, but I liked her and tried to embrace it. I did a good job for a few months, until things went awry. And the music seemed to go hand in hand. Band of choice? My Chemical Romance, with a bit of Slipknot and System of a Down to boot. When you already feeling a bit emo, this is NOT the music you want to be listening to. Unfortunately, I liked Welcome To The Black Parade and had it on my iPod for the occasion. This was probably a worse association than the previous one. At least my dad could get over his mood and go back to playing John Holt and Michael Bolton. There was no real reprieve here other than totally removing myself from the group and the music. The latter came quicker than the former and left me hoping I’d never hear that music again.

Son of a...

And I did a good 4 year run, until this year. Thankfully, no MCR but the rock returned and this time, there was no negative association attached. Why? Because the person that brought it back was my girlfriend. Now, when it comes to music, I can be quite snobbish at times. I tweet about rubbish artists and their lack of talent and regard for decent melodies everyday. But when your girlfriend is involved, you have to really stop and think. And listen. So I had a choice: either continue down the route of disliking anything remotely heavy when it came to rock or accept there was a problem and try and remedy it. The vote was unanimous (well, after a few initial criticisms but she’s so lovely, I couldn’t really continue with them) and I chose to give rock music one last go. I started easy with bands I liked on a basic level: Muse. I already liked Supermassive Black Hole and Starlight. I listened to Absolution and quite enjoyed it. As they were one of her favourite bands, that was an easy win. Gave Paramore a go (well one song) and really liked Ignorance. Starting to get better.

Wasting Light but not wasting time

The bigger test was the Foo Fighters. Now, I felt the same way about them as I did with Muse, ie. they’re alright. Always knew Dave Grohl was cool, so that helped. On my way to London today, I listened through their latest album, Wasting Light. Knowing there’d be some hard stuff on it, I was a little apprehensive. The contemplation of memories flooding back of college and the emo phase. I played through it anyway… and I wasn’t disappointed. In fact, I was hooked after just 20 seconds. Not one bad track on the whole album (which I will review this week). I don’t have anything to really compare it to (yet), but it really blew me away. I was bobbing my head to the parts that I was worried about. For the first time in my entire life, I was loving a rock album. It was all thanks to my girlfriend, who inadvertently gave me the determination to break the stigma I had attached to the second biggest genre in popular music. I was already hating current pop music (another genre I may have to try and immerse myself in for the same reason) and with rock, I was hating on about 70% of all popular music. But not anymore. I probably should have done this years ago. I would have had more people to relate to and share feelings with on how awesome the albums were, but it’s better late than never. Rock needn’t be about people moshing or thrashing about on guitars making nothing but discordant noise – that’s what death and speed metal are for (controversial). I’m pleased to have embraced a genre that I had ignored for many years and I’m looking forward to discovering new bands and albums, not only from rock but its other sub-genres and other genres I’ve been sleeping on. Now, if I can just return the favour and get her to like hip hop…

Couldn’t have a musical hall of fame without a classical composer, and what a composer he was. If you follow me on Twitter (@starchildluke), you’ll know how much I love Debussy and his work. You’ll also know that I define him by one simple phrase: “he is one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century, if not THE forefather of 20th century popular music”. Now, if you’ve never heard of him, you’re probably thinking how this can be possible. All I can say to that is check him out. Listen to the descending chords, the lack of regiment to a key structure and the general flow of melody and you’ll hear it. Sure, music currently is very metered and most of it follows a common C chord progression but during the 50s and 60s with the introduction of rock n roll, and psychedelic rock and moving into the 70s, 80s and 90s through crossover music, experiments in melody and timbre became commonplace, and it’s thanks to the music of Debussy, at least in part.

So, to the first classical composer in the list and the first Frenchman, I salute you!

Contact: starchild[at]starcrazy[dot]org