What's the soundtrack of your life?

Here’s my question for you that I’d love for you to answer in the comments below: 

If you had to put the history of the music that has formed you onto a mix tape which 5 songs would it certainly have on it? 

Here’s my Story:

My soundtrack started off growing up on a little hobby farm in southwest Michigan in a small town on the shores of Lake Michigan.  My Dad was a mechanic and when he came home from working on cars in the shop, he would often come home and work on his collection of classic cars at home.  Country music would stream from his garage. Willie Nelson, Hank Williams, Johnny Cash would sing out of the transistor radio on his work bench. My Mom was religious as a kid and she didn’t want us kids listening to 80’s pop radio, instead she offered up her collection of cassettes from the 50’s and 60’s. 

On Sundays after Mom dragged us kids to church, we would come home to find my Dad on the sofa in front of our big wooden TV set watching westerns.  I can still hear the theme song of “Rawhide” and hear Morricone's desert harmonica in those spaghetti westerns. 

So that’s the music that I grew up with. I didn’t mind it back then, but when I grew into my teenage years, I started to hate my parents music.  In the early 90s they both got really into country line dancing and I think we can all agree that the “contemporary country music” was something to be avoided.  But as one does in those rebellious teenage years, I was discovering new music (secretly of course, lest my Mother find out) first in metal, then death metal, then in punk, then in grunge, then hardcore, then alternative rock, then emo.  

When I came to Germany and started Black Swift and started writing more on my own, at some point, I realized that it’s the past that drives the present.  I wanted to write rock songs, but that little girl hanging out in my Daddy’s garage still had the country swing in her arm that wouldn’t go away when I strummed the guitar.  The rebel who wanted loud distorted guitars still felt a deep comfort listening to vocal group harmonies like those from the 1950s. And that’s what became of Black Swift. You’ll hear the sounds of the spaghetti western desert mixed with the dark minor chords of my goth/metal/alternative phase, you’ll hear loud guitars mixed with beautiful harmonies.  It’s all in there. I’ve been trying for years to describe my music. We’ve called it, “Happiness in Minor Chords,” “Post-punkified Americana n’ Roll” And now with my Sally Grayson project “Americana Krautrock” Honestly, I don’t really care what box people want to put my music into, the most important box I want it to get in is the “Good” Box and I can say with all honesty, I’m so proud of the songs I’m presenting to you. But no matter what genre they might fall into, I realised the overarching theme in just about all of my songs is HOPE- especially Hope in the darkest times of our lives….but more on that coming up…

Thank you for reading my story, I’m so honored to have a chance to bring good music out into the world, but it’s the listener- YOU who makes it all worthwhile.

You find yourself here because I know our journey’s intertwine in one musical way or another.  What does the soundtrack of your life sound like?  Which part of my story connects with your past? 

In the way that music magnetizes us to each other, I’m pretty sure, you are my people and a part of my clan!

So, tell me, if you had to put the history of the music that has formed you onto a mix tape which 5 songs would it certainly have on it? 

To hear what this melting pot of genres and experiences sounds like, click here to listen to the Black Swift album “Desert Rain”

Please Leave a comment below and tell me about the soundtrack of your life!