I was updating my page on things to steal from (which I highly recommend everyone make. Sitting down and thinking about all of my favorite things is and then writing them all down into one big list to share with you all is incredibly fun even though I know no one will actually go through the whole thing and actually listen and read and watch all the stuff I've put in there but it's still fun to say "I like this and this and this and this") and there were moments where I actually wanted to write a little bit on why some things were so influential to me. Not all of them, but just a few. So I made this page, also to be updated as time goes on, for me to write about my favorite pieces of art on the planet.
Books
Michael Vey: The Prisoner of Cell 25 - Richard Paul Evans
Michael Vey is a series that was discovered on accident. One day while I was perusing the shelves of Barnes & Noble, I heard a noise behind me. A book had mysteriously pushed itself of the shelf. This was how I found The Prisoner of Cell 25. A quick flip-through and I was sold. I began to put the book back, as the cover was slightly dented from the fall, but as I reached to return it, something made me stop. This book had fallen to be picked up by me, for some reason. So I kept it. The main character of the book, Michael Vey, has Tourette's Syndrome. This was the first time I'd really heard about it, and learned what it was. I was diagnosed a few weeks later. It became my favorite book. That copy of The Prisoner of Cell 25 is one of the things I will never give away. It's that special to me.
Songs (and Albums)
Sedated - The Two Friends
Probably the most influential song of my entire life. I discovered the Culture Code remix back in freshman year, around the start of the first semester. I fell in love with it and listened to it nonstop, literally every single day, until I had the realization that if a remix were this good, there's got to be merit in the original too. And in the three other remixes listed on the album artwork. And oh boy was I right. The original version of Sedated has been the single most constant thing in my life since 2013. It may not be the best in terms of musicality, or even songwriting, but the subtle metaphors dominating the song and soothing tone of Jeff Sontag's voice have been enough to keep me hooked for years. I've even started a tradition of it being the first song I listen to each January 1st. In summer 2014, The Two Friends released an Unplugged version, a melancholic and nostalgic verse that felt like the most fitting for the end of my freshman year. No other song has had such a profound effect on me.
Distance - Christina Perri
Before there was Sedated, there was Distance. The anthem of my seventh grade years. Not one of Perri's most popular songs, but it made it to the radio a few times. One of these times was the first I'd heard it, and my mom turned up the radio and told me to "listen, this will help with that book you're writing." The book in question was my biggest endeavor of my life so far, titled Friend Zone, and yes, it's what it sounds like. Distance was the perfect writing companion, telling the story of unrequited love which I tapped into and used to fuel the creative impulses until the narrative's ultimate demise. But Distance has stayed with me since, as a memory of my first, real favorite song, and the first time I ever learned how to steal like an artist.
Skinny Love - Bon Iver
Skinny Love and I have had a complicated past. The version which most of us are familiar with, performed by Birdy, was my first encounter with the piece, as a part of my audition for my school's advanced dance class sophomore year. I didn't make the audition. I found Bon Iver's original version on Songza (now Google Play Music) eight months later (it was actually placed in a playlist titled "Indie Covers of Pop Songs" or something like this. This was neither a cover nor was it a pop song). The start of junior year was ultimately a time of melancholy which would then become nostalgia. Skinny Love was the suitable soundtrack, that I have successfully LOADED UP with that emotion.
Chasing After Deer - Midlake
Also a junior year anthem, Chasing After Deer is probably the biggest emotional treasure chest in my music library. I really, really miss the start of junior year. I met my best friend, made some of the best memories with a group of Spaniards, discovered my love of alternative and indie music, learned how to grow up, etc. Chasing After Deer is a song I found on Songza, listened to a bunch, and then set aside towards the end of first semester. Life got really tough in the spring. And when I finally found this song again, it was so filled with the happiness I felt that I couldn't listen to it without crying out of sadness for the time that had passed. What sets it apart from Skinny Love is that I continuously listened to that one (and the rest of the album) through the spring. Chasing After Deer to this day retains a special place in my heart. I don't listen to it often, but only every once in a while as to preserve that raw emotion I've been building up these last few years.
Casimir Pulaski Day - Sufjan Stevens
Yet another song from junior year, this time not so influential in emotion and personal impact. This one I can barely remember listening to around the time of Skinny Love and Chasing After Deer. A Songza discovery whose name was so vibrant I just happened to remember it a year later, when I really, really started listening to it. And it is single-handedly one of the most downright beautiful pieces of music and songwriting I have ever heard, from Stevens' lyrics to the haunting chorus and trumpet, this song built and fuels my drive as an artist. I strive to tell stories like Stevens does, to tap into all that emotion and plant it into breathtaking verses, and one day, I will write a song like this. And it will be one of the greatest things I have ever created.
Worlds (album) - Porter Robinson
I've always been fascinated by EDM music, and in the last five years there have been many attempts on my part to create something in the same realm. A lot of EDM is trash, I will say that, but in many ways, Porter Robinson has transcended the realm entirely and created something incredibly and beautifully different. Some will disagree with me on this, but I think Worlds is one of the best EDM albums ever created, if not one of the best albums ever. Now that I'm actually making my own stuff, I look to Robinson for all my inspiration, and I find it every fucking time.
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