I don't play a musical instrument. I make mixtapes. And I like to get creative with them.
One day I heard a CD playing in a music store, called Worldwide Programme 1 by Gilles peterson. I found the diversity of music on it fascinating. Since it's not on Spotify, I put one half of it on Soundcloud. These tracks from different genres blended together like a soundtrack as if they were meant as one record. That really inspired me to start bringing tracks together that no one would think to combine, while still maintaining a specific mood and flow.
You can find most of my mixtapes on Spotify yet the best way to enjoy them is to listen to the actual mixes, some of which you can listen to on my Soundcloud account (I need to upload more). But the most fun is to actually listen to them on tape. I have recorded over 250 tapes so far.
Why tapes? Well, because they are limited. It hasn't always been tapes for me. When MP3 was introduced, I put my tapes in a box in the attic. I used to love that you could fit an almost unlimited amount of digital music on a few terabytes. And then Spotify came and brought a never ending stream of new music to my doorstep. With that dream fulfilled of unlimited music at my fingertips, also came the need for things to be limited again. Nostalghia for those days that I would play a cassette tape for days on end, flipping it over and over, humming the song I knew was going to play next. Those tapes have always been like a soundtrack to my life. I wanted that feeling back and so I started curating short playlists on Spotify that would fit on 30 or 45 minute cassette tapes. I mix the tracks together in Adobe Audition and then record these compilations onto the cassette tapes.
What is really great is that I can just listen to music and leave my digital devices alone, so I will not get distracted by them. And the music does not stop when the phone rings. It stops when the tape runs out. And then it's just quiet. No 'recommended' tracks that continue playing. People that still listen to records or CD have the same experience. It's just that I like mixtapes more than albums.
And then I also make mixes that I play at the end of Urban Playwalks (and sometimes during dedicated Soundwalks, like the Harbour Soundwalk).
Have a tape deck? Let me know which Playlist you'd like as a mixtape and I'll personally send you a copy :-)