Day 28 - A Song that Makes You Feel Inspired and Creative

This entry a part of the 30 Day Song Challenge

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Sometimes people ask me where I find my music. Well, I have two primary sources: TV series (and I watch a lot) and Amazon.com. I find Amazon to be more useful than Last.Fm because it offers a vasterselection of song samples.

Now when I chance upon a song that I absolutely love, I look it up on Pandora to find similar music, courtesy of the Music Genome Project. It’s all very scientific and very amazing! The incredible people behind this project set out to identify the “genetic” composition of virtually every song that’s out there so that music lovers could discover tracks that belong to the same family. So when you search for Bell X1’s Bad Skin Day, you’ll be presented with a list of the song’s attributes:

  • Acoustic rock instrumentation
  • Electronica influences
  • A subtle use of vocal counterpoint
  • A subtle use of vocal harmony
  • Mild rhythmic syncopation

And, more practically, a list of songs that share those attributes:

  • It’s Too Late by Evermore
  • Angel by Unbelievable Truth
  • A Way to the Heart by Noise Ratchet

Amazing, isn’t it? Compared with Amazon’s “related artists” feature, I’ve found that Pandora’s Music Genome Project has brought me closer to finding more songs that I love. But y’know, it was through Amazon that I discovered a good majority of what I consider the best music in my library. Most especially this track:

New Day
Griffin House
Lost & Found
(Released July 2004)

I’d never heard of Griffin House but I took the time to listen to song samples from his album Lost & Found. I thought his work sounded exactly like the kind of music I listened to. But it was the last cut, New Day, that clearly stood out from the bunch. It was such a good sample that I decided to download the full track. Just one listen and I knew this was going to be one of those “essential” songs in my playlist. This was in 2006. Fast-forward five years, and I still think New Day is my best music find to date, thanks to Amazon. More importantly, it was this one song that sparked my interest in finding out more about the artist. Since then, I’ve keenly followed Griffin House’s successive work. (His latest release, The Learner, is pretty solid.)

I sortof dabble in video editing and one of the more important tasks in putting together a video is selecting a compelling yet appropriate soundtrack. For years I’ve waited for the perfect project to use Griffin House’s New Day. The time finally came when a friend turned 30 this March, and we’d secretly made a surprise birthday video for him. I could have opted to go down the conventional road and pick a song with the number 30 in the title (hello My Next 30 Years by Tim McGraw!). But then I recalled this Griffin House song and thought it would be a fitting song choice for someone embarking on a new day, new decade.