Music Tag

     I’ve done a couple of these tag posts now, and while it’s pretty easy to find lists of questions online, I don’t want every post to be general questions about me. There might be a few more of those, of course, but I like the ones themed around a general topic too. Last time was a Christmas theme, and this time we’re looking at one of the great loves of my life: music. I’ve written heaps about it on here of course – check its category, listed at the top of the page – but this should serve as a decent introduction for anyone unfamiliar with my music taste.

(image source with text edit by me)

1. What are your 5 favourite songs right now?
It’s funny what songs you only like for a while, and which ones stick around for ages? My favourites “right now” always tend to be more recent songs (or ones I’ve only bought recently), so let’s go with:
Throne – Bring Me The Horizon
Blasphemy – Bring Me The Horizon
Infinity – Against the Current
Cinderblock Garden – All Time Low
I Like It Heavy – Halestorm

2. What is the most played song on your iTunes?
As this post will tell you, my most played songs are a bit weird, and don’t always reflect my favourites (which I blame mostly on changing computers, devices crashing etc. which resets the counters), but the current most played track is Saving Grace – The Maine.

3. What song are you listening to right now?
Nothing actually, although I love music, it can distract me often. However, the last song I played was Ghost in the Mirror – Mallory Knox.

4. What was the last album you bought?
Are we talking full album or do EPs count? The last thing I bought was Against the Current’s EP, Gravity, while the last full length album was Nothing But Thieves self-titled debut.

5. What was the last gig you went to?
Oof, had to check back through blog posts for that one, it’s been a while! I haven’t seen any since moving to Hong Kong, so the last one was on The Swellers’ final tour, way back in April. Yikes, it’s been way too long since a gig!

6. What song can you not get out of your head?
A lot of the time lately it’s nursery rhymes and children’s songs, as I’m always singing them at work, but more specifically, since I downloaded the Against the Current EPs, I find Comeback Kid is getting stuck in my head a lot.

7. What song do you listen to every day?
I don’t think there is one. When I get new music, I’ll listen to that a lot for a while, and I have a few playlists for different moods, but most commonly I just stick this massive playlist (500-ish?) of all the songs I really like on shuffle.

8. What was the first album you ever bought?
I’m not entirely sure, but I remember the first bands I listened to a lot as a child were the Spice Girls and S Club 7, so it was bound to be one of those!

9. What was the last single you downloaded?
According to my iTunes, that would be Come Get Some – Counterfeit. It’s their first single, only released a month or two ago, and I’d certainly recommend it!

10. Who is your favourite band right now?
Ah, well as my favourite songs fluctuate over time, my favourite band has remained a constant for a good 7 or 8 years now, and is, of course, You Me At Six. A quick search through this blog will reveal plenty of posts involving them. I’ve got every album, have seen them live four times now, and most recently convinced my sister to buy their 10 year anniversary issue of Kerrang! for me, since I’m living abroad.

11. Who is your favourite artist right now?
That one is a lot trickier, since the vast majority of the music I listen to happens to come from bands, rarely from individuals. A quick look through my iTunes and I can only find a couple, but Joe Brooks is an old favourite of mine, a singer-songwriter type with some nice, chilled, fun songs.

12. What is your favourite type of music?
My library is overwhelmingly made up of rock. I could try to specify what kind, but I get fed up of people categorising and sub-categorising every single band, artist, and musical style out there. I guess we could throw in words like ‘alternative’, ‘indie’ and ‘punk’, but there’s always anomalies in my taste too, so it’s far easier to just leave it at rock for now. There’s a sprinkling of pop/singer-songwriter stuff, orchestral soundtracks, and a whole host of Disney tunes in there too.

13. In your 25 most played songs, what is no. 10?
See back to question 2 for the explanation about this not reflecting my favourite songs, but my current number 10 happens to be Crash Land – Twin Atlantic, which is a song I absolutely adore!

14. Quote one of your favourite lyrics.
There’s so, so, so many of these, and I’ve got loads of them scribbled in notebooks or posted as tweets. However, the first one that popped into my head just now is “I guess the truth is I’m as lost as I was before”, from Night Drives – Deaf Havana, which I think we all relate to at least sometimes.

15. Do you listen to music everyday?
In passing, yes. My job includes a lot of singing to the kids if nothing else! But my own music collection, surprisingly no. I have a friend on the same commute to work, I often prefer silence when I’m reading or writing, and I spend far too much time watching TV and films. I’m actually shocked at myself as I’ve just realised that, as I really do love music! How weird…