Deep Hauuuuuu55555
Lo-fi, Deep House, Trance
Rhythm. Melody. Pace. Getting mentally lost within the margins of sheet music while still having visceral premonitions about the task at hand.
I was introduced to house music at an early age. When I look back, I was there for the emergence of this now prominent genre. It started with Skrillex & Co. before expanding to underground boiler room sessions with DJs named Charizard. Rave culture has been around for many moons, but it was suppressed and misunderstood.
For me, in the early days, house & trance were used primarily as uplifters. I would throw on a playlist chock-full of bangers to prepare to train or before a race. I’d queue some shit up when I was 16/17 at a party to rally the troops. It was a relationship fueled with chaotic energy. As time progressed, that changed tremendously.
I think I was scrolling through SoundCloud looking for new heat when I first stumbled upon some early Lane 8. I had no idea what was happening. Constantly searching for “the drop” when that wasn’t the intention of the artist. This slow burning metronome had more instrumental twists & turns, and that intrigued me. Little did I know I was already hooked.
When I find a new category of music, I go to consult the experts. We all have friends who shamelessly subscribe to something avant-garde to us (I fucking hate country music, but I have a dozen or so friends who ride or die with it.) So, in this instance, I reached out to the bass-heads, rave kids, and general bedazzled-faced funny paper users to see what this was all about. You go about it that way and you’ll find yourself in a rabbit hole. Amtrac, Lane 8, Tchami… Those were the founding fathers for me, but how I leveraged those continuously thumpy tracks was what surprised me most.
My alter-egos as corporate nark, writer, and podcaster all require a certain level of unfettered focus. I have to dedicate myself to the screen to accomplish whatever task is laid before me. Most of us listen to music while we work, but when I really need to hunker down, my usual dose of rap & rock don’t cut it. I need mindless inspiration. Kind of an oxymoron, right? You’d think I’d be ripping the Inception soundtrack or something, but where I find my highest engagement is low-fi, deep house, and trance music. This is gonna make me seem like a spacey dude, but I connect with the music in a way that makes me feel like I’m a part of it. As if the creator had me in the studio to showcase the high-hats and progression. I totally lose myself in the beat, and when I’m done with the task, I’m often shocked that it went so smoothly.
Not to plug my own shit, but our Commitment playlist is full of tracks like these. It’s become my nearly exclusive playlist to write to, crush spreadsheets to, etc.
What’s your song or genre of choice when you gotta get down to business?
About The Series
Sometimes you gotta set your own deadlines to get where you wanna go. 15 articles for 15 weeks, all randomly selected until we reach the last. Maybe then I’ll form the habit? Each week selected and announced through TikTok if anyone cares.
Graham Olney
Graham is the host of Tough To Say (sorry, Barry). In hopes of forming better writing habits, he’s committing to a 15 week self-imposed program to sharpen the skills.