Music is a powerful thing, listening to a track can transport you back to a particular time or place, evoke all kinds of closeted emotions, deeply affect or disturb, and just hit you in the feels. I decided to do a little Ray Ray Retrospective on my twenties; my big life moments and the songs which define them.
Incinerate – Sonic Youth. Living with my ex in Surry Hills, learning this song on my Hello Kitty guitar, feeling very much like Thurston Moore and Kim Gordon. Perpetually strapped for cash, romanticising the struggling creative.
Waltz #2 – Elliot Smith. End of aforementioned relationship. Those post breakup blues. Listen to song on repeat, cry at hauntingly beautiful voice, google “Elliot Smith” cry at the story of how he died, google other dead musicians cry for them too. This was my Waltz #2 Wallowing period feat. unwashed hair and too much vino.
All my friends – LCD Soundsystem. All about that single girl life, and I got really into Sound of Silver. I let the beats, hypnotic and meditative, swallow me whole, I would dance and dance in my apartment, or run through Surry Hills sprinting up hills till I could feel my heart pounding through my chest. Sweating profusely and buzzing with endorphins, I felt free and untouchable. Hello old self, I’ve missed you.
Monster – JAY Z, Nicki Minaj, Kanye West. Filling my life up with fun. This part was all about dancing with my friends and getting that mojo back. Many nights spent rapping Miss Minaj with my bestie Dan, or playing Catan into the early hours of the morning with Bin and Eric, the playful beats rolling on. I also find this song super empowering; for me it’s synonymous with independence, hustle and guts. Nicki’s fierce AF; she schools her male counterparts, gloats about her earnings, and marries strength with sexuality effortlessly. She engages in wild vocal gymnastics that rival Mariah’s, and uses accents that are as weird as Lindsay Lohan’s latest number, but it’s all so fun and infectious.
It’s Real – Real Estate. This song is Ollie. Inextricably tied to vivid memories of when we first got together; sticky summer nights in Chippendale drinking beers on the balcony, hands tightly, proudly, interlocked. Drunk in love driving across the harbour bridge at 3am scream singing the lyrics together, complete and utter euphoria.
Age of Reason – John Farnham. This song epitomises the pure and unadulterated fun I had at ALPHA House Newtown. A King Street Penthouse which I shared with 3 close friends, Ollie and for a short time his brother Tom. Our house was always buzzing, full of fun and positive energy. I never felt lonely; there was always someone there to share a schooey or lend an ear. Even cooking in this house was a fun, the vino flowed as we slapped together some hodgepodge family meal. Pasta if Sam or I were cooking, burgers if you got Peach, broccoli/peas if it was Samantha (LOL) and $5 Dominos if no one could be fucked. Our home was free from judgement; no matter what you had a team of housemates championing you on, supporting your (at times poor) decisions ala drunk dancing in front of the TV or ordering a shitload of Stanmore Maccas delivery.
Goldfinger – Shirley Bassey. One of the first nights in our new Surry Hills pad, Ollie and I got seriously sloshed together and gave our best rendition of every James Bond theme. It’s a new memory, but one of my happiest. I remember thinking this is it; being totally uninhibited with the one you love. I felt great comfort knowing we could be ourselves with each other, be stupid and silly, and I knew that our home together would be a happy one. We received wild applause from our surrounding gay neighbours, mainly for Ollie’s uncanny trumpet impression, but then started to really piss them off after we kept repeating Goldfinger over and over again till our voices were hoarse and the morning sun crept over our skin.
Just turned 27 and I’m looking forward to the next lot of formative moments, and more of those impactful beats.