Hey everyone, I know it's been forever and I'm really sorry for that. I hope I'll get back on track very soon and post regularly again. Anyway, I had to write an article for my journalism class and I decided on this topic. Feel free to leave comments so we can discuss!
This isn’t an issue people usually think about, but that doesn’t make it less of a problem to deal with. In the process of writing this article, I received experiences and opinions from girls all over the world who were or still are degraded and judged for their taste in music.
“Last summer, I went to an Awolnation concert with two female friends and there were four guys who just walked around specifically asking girls if they even knew the band members’ names,” Laura told me.
Of course one could argue that she should just shrug it off because they were strangers, but then Caelan told me about how her own brother regularly tells her that her taste in music is “revolting and disgusting”, hence it makes her feel like she’s revolting and disgusting as well. It seems like there are no boundaries for people, mostly men in this case, to put down girls for something they don’t really have much control over. Music is such a wide form of art, and we connect to certain genres because we can either identify with the artists themselves or with the music they create. None of the girls I talked to actually made the conscious choice to like the artists they do and yet they have to defend themselves on a daily basis. Nicola has to justify her taste even more than usual because she enjoys kpop which is an Asian type of boybands and girlbands. She has to handle questions like “why do you like it it’s not English”, or “so you only fancy Asian boys then?”
People even go that far to tell her that she can’t like this type of music because she doesn’t know what they’re saying. This shouldn’t even be considered to be a criteria to like music in the first place and yet it appears to be one.
One might still think that it’s not that bad because they’re usually just teenage boys who still need to make up their minds about how equality works, but that’s were Syd and her story come in.
“I do the music in the gym for when we run, and I’ve had several times when my gym teacher who’s a guy has said some really sexist stuff. This one time my CD was in the middle of playing when suddenly he took it out and said that he’s tired of this girl music and that we need stuff for real men who’ll actually put in some work.”
Teachers are authorities, they’re supposed to be role models to a certain extent, so if this is what boys get taught we shouldn’t be surprised that the way to equality is still so long.
To get a different perspective on this issue, I asked a teenage boy for his opinion. Kelvin is a 16-year old British boy and claiming that his response surprised me would be an understatement.
“It’s so weird to me, it’s so alien to me that people can be against a whole genre of music in general, and then to have to second guess a person just because they like it. Not necessarily girls and not necessarily by boys, just anyone to anyone,“ Kelvin explains, “but girls are constantly degraded for pretty much everything they do, as we all know whether we admit it or not. Clothes, hair, make-up, general appearance, mannerisms, how they act and pretty much everything else in their general being and existence so it’s unsurprising that they are judged, degraded and insulted for the music they like. If they like pop music, rock music, punk music, it’s all the same.” He goes on by giving examples for the genres mentioned above: “It’s like ‘pop music? It’s probably because of the looks, and the boys and all the girls are fake and none of them can sing and its all autotune. Rock music? Yeah, you’re just pretending so you can be adventurous and fit in with us and pretend you’re deep and meaningful go back to your precious boybands and boys.”
While reading this, you might think that he’s exaggerating, but unfortunately he’s not. This is exactly the reaction we get whenever we talk about the music we like; I’ve experienced this myself more than enough. Laura seconds this by mentioning how usually boys think she’s a cool girl, but as soon as she mentions that she likes One Direction, they start reconfiguring the world in their head because there’s no way a cool girl could ever like a boyband.
Kelvin goes on by trying to explain why boys actually do measure a girl’s validity by her taste in music, but both him and me come to the conclusion that it can only be their idea of the popular genre ruining music itself and giving it a bad name. They probably think pop music causes a loss of integrity in the name of the Arts.
After all, music is an art that still struggles a lot with any kind of social issues and sexism is just one of them. There are still way too many people who are either unconscious of this issue or don’t bother changing it because they’re not directly involved. We’re so used to it by now that it barely catches our attention and it really shouldn’t be this way.
Monday, December 1, 2014
Sunday, September 7, 2014
Cyber Bullying in certain music scenes
Good morning guys!
It's been a while but due to recent events, I felt the need to write a little something. In case you haven't already heard (it certainly feels like the whole world knows), I won a trip to LA to meet 5 Seconds of Summer and attend their convention and one of their concerts. The competition was the following: You had to submit a video of yourself explaining why you want to win. I decided to keep things simple, so I sat in front of my camera and talked for five minutes. These five minutes brought the worst consequences with them which I could have imagined: People started to send me hate messages for the following reasons: I mentioned that I want to become a music journalist, so now people claim that I use this trip to boost my career. False. I want to go because 5sos are so important for the pop punk scene and they've been working so damn hard during the last few years and I just want to tell them how proud I am and how inspiring I think they are in terms of working hard in order to make your dreams come true. In these five short minutes, I dared to make a joke as well, oh no! I said that I'd love to know who does their laundry when they're on tour because I have a teenage brother and I've never seen him do any laundry. This little sentence upset the whole German fandom in gigantic dimensions. I can't quote or show you any screen shots because I blocked everybody who mentioned me on twitter or messaged me on facebook, so there's nothing to see anymore.
All hell broke loose when the radio station called me to tell me that I won and we talked a little before tha. I dared to say that the front vocalist of 5sos is quite tall. First of all he isn't the front vocalist (even though he has the most singing parts) and second I said that he's something around 6'3. Can you imagine how many people are calling me a fake fan now because I was nervous? I got messages from people telling me that Luke is 6 feet tall and not 6'3, so I asked some fans who already met Luke. All of them told me that he is 6'4 tall, so there you go.
Can you imagine how many people are telling me that I stole this from a REAL fan who probably knows at which time the boys were born? I got tons of messages from people telling me that I'm not a real fan because I don't follow every band member on twitter. For the record: I use twitter once a month because I use other networks to talk to people and people on tumblr screen shot every single tweet of the band members anyway, so I always know what's going on. I don't know what gives anybody the right to judge who's a real fan and who isn't. If there's a manual for how to be a proper fan, I haven't read it. I'm a fan of 5sos because of their music. I love how some of their songs are so thoughtful and on point (e.g. Tomorrow Never Dies) while others are just pure fun (e.g. She Looks So Perfect). I love watching videos of their concerts because it's so obvious that this is where they belong. This is what makes them incredibly happy, and it makes me incredibly happy as well to watch them grow and live their dream.
I'm not so sure about how happy it would make them to find out about how their fans treat each other. This is just a suggestion: before you tweet anything, ask yourself if Luke would approve. If the answer is yes, yaay! but if the answer is no, you might want to think about sending it again. I've been a part of this for enough time to see how everybody preaches that this is a "family" and that we should all treat each other that way, but if this is how you treat your family, I'm really sorry for them.
All this grudge and negativity against one person are straight up bullying, nothing else. Please don't try to use the "you don't know what bullying is" card because believe me, I do. I've been dealing with this for my entire time at secondary school, which measured nine years, and I honestly thought I've experienced everything I could during that time. Well, turns out I was slightly wrong. I don't read the comments in facebook groups or on the facebook wall of the radio station because I know that sooner or later my anxiety would go through the roof and I'd cancel this whole trip. This is not how it's going to work though, sorry to disappoint. If these people think that I'll spend my days scrolling through tons and tons of hate, they're wrong. If they think that any of their "you're not a true fan because..." arguments is going to convince me, they're wrong as well. Just because I won't start to scream and cry when I meet the boys I'm not less of a fan. Just because 5sos didn't "save my life" because I did that on my own I'm not less of a fan. Just because I didn't mention everything I wanted to say in a five minutes video I'm not less of a fan. Just because I don't follow every single band member on twitter I'm not less of a fan. Because nothing of the above is what makes you a fan. It's about whether you have a connection to their music. It's about supporting them, but not defending them when they do something stupid (that happens to every band sooner or later). It's about appreciating what they do for us, and giving them something back from time to time. And with "giving them something back" I don't mean mobbing their hotels and hating on people who won something you didn't. There are so many bad vibes and so much negativity connected to this band and it makes me really sad because I enjoy their music so much, but it's almost impossible to get any closer to them because everything is so intense. I understand that people are sad and disappointed because they didn't win, but spreading so much hate about one single person is really uncool. I can only repeat myself: think about how the 5sos guys would react if they saw this shitstorm and then try to convince me they wouldn't care.
Long story short: I won't back off from this trip, no matter how many people will invade my privacy and spam my accounts on any social networks (it only makes me use them less which is probably a good thing since uni will start again soon). So yeah, can we all please be a bit nicer to each other and actually be happy for each other for once, I promise it'll make you feel better about yourself as well. I know that there are a lot of people out there who only wish me really bad things now, but at the end of the day nobody gains anything from this. I'm going to let this whole issue go now, and I really hope that things will calm down again soon.
It's been a while but due to recent events, I felt the need to write a little something. In case you haven't already heard (it certainly feels like the whole world knows), I won a trip to LA to meet 5 Seconds of Summer and attend their convention and one of their concerts. The competition was the following: You had to submit a video of yourself explaining why you want to win. I decided to keep things simple, so I sat in front of my camera and talked for five minutes. These five minutes brought the worst consequences with them which I could have imagined: People started to send me hate messages for the following reasons: I mentioned that I want to become a music journalist, so now people claim that I use this trip to boost my career. False. I want to go because 5sos are so important for the pop punk scene and they've been working so damn hard during the last few years and I just want to tell them how proud I am and how inspiring I think they are in terms of working hard in order to make your dreams come true. In these five short minutes, I dared to make a joke as well, oh no! I said that I'd love to know who does their laundry when they're on tour because I have a teenage brother and I've never seen him do any laundry. This little sentence upset the whole German fandom in gigantic dimensions. I can't quote or show you any screen shots because I blocked everybody who mentioned me on twitter or messaged me on facebook, so there's nothing to see anymore.
All hell broke loose when the radio station called me to tell me that I won and we talked a little before tha. I dared to say that the front vocalist of 5sos is quite tall. First of all he isn't the front vocalist (even though he has the most singing parts) and second I said that he's something around 6'3. Can you imagine how many people are calling me a fake fan now because I was nervous? I got messages from people telling me that Luke is 6 feet tall and not 6'3, so I asked some fans who already met Luke. All of them told me that he is 6'4 tall, so there you go.
Can you imagine how many people are telling me that I stole this from a REAL fan who probably knows at which time the boys were born? I got tons of messages from people telling me that I'm not a real fan because I don't follow every band member on twitter. For the record: I use twitter once a month because I use other networks to talk to people and people on tumblr screen shot every single tweet of the band members anyway, so I always know what's going on. I don't know what gives anybody the right to judge who's a real fan and who isn't. If there's a manual for how to be a proper fan, I haven't read it. I'm a fan of 5sos because of their music. I love how some of their songs are so thoughtful and on point (e.g. Tomorrow Never Dies) while others are just pure fun (e.g. She Looks So Perfect). I love watching videos of their concerts because it's so obvious that this is where they belong. This is what makes them incredibly happy, and it makes me incredibly happy as well to watch them grow and live their dream.
I'm not so sure about how happy it would make them to find out about how their fans treat each other. This is just a suggestion: before you tweet anything, ask yourself if Luke would approve. If the answer is yes, yaay! but if the answer is no, you might want to think about sending it again. I've been a part of this for enough time to see how everybody preaches that this is a "family" and that we should all treat each other that way, but if this is how you treat your family, I'm really sorry for them.
All this grudge and negativity against one person are straight up bullying, nothing else. Please don't try to use the "you don't know what bullying is" card because believe me, I do. I've been dealing with this for my entire time at secondary school, which measured nine years, and I honestly thought I've experienced everything I could during that time. Well, turns out I was slightly wrong. I don't read the comments in facebook groups or on the facebook wall of the radio station because I know that sooner or later my anxiety would go through the roof and I'd cancel this whole trip. This is not how it's going to work though, sorry to disappoint. If these people think that I'll spend my days scrolling through tons and tons of hate, they're wrong. If they think that any of their "you're not a true fan because..." arguments is going to convince me, they're wrong as well. Just because I won't start to scream and cry when I meet the boys I'm not less of a fan. Just because 5sos didn't "save my life" because I did that on my own I'm not less of a fan. Just because I didn't mention everything I wanted to say in a five minutes video I'm not less of a fan. Just because I don't follow every single band member on twitter I'm not less of a fan. Because nothing of the above is what makes you a fan. It's about whether you have a connection to their music. It's about supporting them, but not defending them when they do something stupid (that happens to every band sooner or later). It's about appreciating what they do for us, and giving them something back from time to time. And with "giving them something back" I don't mean mobbing their hotels and hating on people who won something you didn't. There are so many bad vibes and so much negativity connected to this band and it makes me really sad because I enjoy their music so much, but it's almost impossible to get any closer to them because everything is so intense. I understand that people are sad and disappointed because they didn't win, but spreading so much hate about one single person is really uncool. I can only repeat myself: think about how the 5sos guys would react if they saw this shitstorm and then try to convince me they wouldn't care.
Long story short: I won't back off from this trip, no matter how many people will invade my privacy and spam my accounts on any social networks (it only makes me use them less which is probably a good thing since uni will start again soon). So yeah, can we all please be a bit nicer to each other and actually be happy for each other for once, I promise it'll make you feel better about yourself as well. I know that there are a lot of people out there who only wish me really bad things now, but at the end of the day nobody gains anything from this. I'm going to let this whole issue go now, and I really hope that things will calm down again soon.
Tuesday, August 12, 2014
Album Of The Week: 5 Seconds Of Summer & their self-titled
To be honest this isn't just my album of this week, it's been my album of every week since it's been released, which was on June 27th (sidenote: I had to look the date up and it slightly shocked me because it feels like the album just dropped two days ago).
It also slightly annoys me how people mock this band just because they're four teenage boys who are currently opening for One Direction. First: Who cares and second: why does that bother you so much? I could rant about this for the next ten years, so let's move on to the actual album.
It also slightly annoys me how people mock this band just because they're four teenage boys who are currently opening for One Direction. First: Who cares and second: why does that bother you so much? I could rant about this for the next ten years, so let's move on to the actual album.
The band's most popular song, She Looks So Perfect, opens the record with a nice riff and the story of a girl wearing American Apparel underwear - the lyrics might not be the deepest you'll ever come across, but it's most likely not the goal of this song to make you question all of your life choices.
Don't Stop, song number two, picks up the atmosphere of SLSP and convinces with catchy tunes and a good mood.
Apologies to whoever cares, but I usually skip song munber three: Good Girls. I'm just not really feeling the sound of it and the story behind it doesn't really impress me either (I mean, good girls are bad girls that haven't been caught might be an existing thing, but in my opinion it's not something that delivers a good base for a song.)
What I'm extremely happy about is the fact that Alex Gaskarth from All Time Low helped the boys with a few songs (if you want to play a game called "guess the Alex songs", I highly encourage you to do so, you'll definitely hear it): Kiss Me Kiss Me is one of them. I don't know what it is, but Alex has this musical fingerprint so to speak which he leaves in every song he writes, and he didn't miss this one either. It kind of reminds me of All Time Low's Nothing Personal era.
When I first got into 5sos, I already knew they were probably young (aka younger than me), but I hadn't expected their vocalist to be 17 (he's 18 in the meantime, but still), and their oldest member is their drummer who's 20 now. Obviously this age thing brings a few difficulties sometimes, so the boys wrote a song about it: 18. I don't think I have to say much about this one, just pay some attention to the lyrics and you'll see the difficulties I'm talking about.
After a handful of rather fast and loud songs, the guys show that they can be quiet as well: Everything I Didn't Say and Beside You deal with the flip side of being a touring musician. I can only imagine what it feels like to drop off your special one at the airport and let him travel the world while you sit at home and wait for him (mad respect for all the couples who actually manage this).
End Up Here puts an end to the sad mood: it's fast, it's catchy and it contains fantastic vocals. The story behind it makes me chuckle every single time because it's basically about the loser boy who gets to be with the fantastic girl who is so out of his league that his friends suggest he should lock her down before she can run. I'm pretty sure that it's the other way around in the meanwhile.
Another Alex-song is coming up and I definitely see and hear All Time Low perform this one as well: Long Way Home comes with a mental music video right away (at least I immediately see a couple driving around aimlessly for hours just so they can be together. So, if anybody connected to 5sos is reading this right now, I'll gladly play a role in this video if you ever decide to make one).
After a handful of rather fast and loud songs, the guys show that they can be quiet as well: Everything I Didn't Say and Beside You deal with the flip side of being a touring musician. I can only imagine what it feels like to drop off your special one at the airport and let him travel the world while you sit at home and wait for him (mad respect for all the couples who actually manage this).
End Up Here puts an end to the sad mood: it's fast, it's catchy and it contains fantastic vocals. The story behind it makes me chuckle every single time because it's basically about the loser boy who gets to be with the fantastic girl who is so out of his league that his friends suggest he should lock her down before she can run. I'm pretty sure that it's the other way around in the meanwhile.
Another Alex-song is coming up and I definitely see and hear All Time Low perform this one as well: Long Way Home comes with a mental music video right away (at least I immediately see a couple driving around aimlessly for hours just so they can be together. So, if anybody connected to 5sos is reading this right now, I'll gladly play a role in this video if you ever decide to make one).
Heartbreak Girl was the very first song of 5sos I ever heard and it's one of my favourites ever since. I'm not gonna start a feminist rant about the ridiculous concept of being "friendzoned" now, so let's just say that the song is good regardless of the topic.
English Love Affair might be the song that made the fandom speculate the most. Who is this English love affair? And who is the lucky boy who got involved? I heard a few rumours concerning these questions, but I won't discuss them here. If you'd like to share your opinions, hit me up!
Their current single Amnesia was written by the Madden brothers and I just love it. Y'all know that I'm a sucker for acoustic songs, so this song is super important. Both Luke and Calum are really talented vocalists, and I think their voices can shine even more than usual in this song (another sidenote: Michael and Ashton have amazing voices as well and sometimes it makes me sad that they don't get to sing more often).
Michael does some vocals in Social Casualty but this one and the next song (Never Be) are unfortunately filed under: songs I skip. I don't know what's my problem with Social Casualty, but Never Be is too slow for my taste, it lacks a little energy. The chorus is amazing actually, but I'm not feeling the rest.
However, Voodoo Doll is one of my favourites as well. When I got into this band it was like this: my best friend introduced me to them, I had no idea who was who and kept mixing up Luke and Ashton, I listened to Out Of My Limit and I was sold. Since then I feel like there's some higher force keeping me here even though I sometimes wish I didn't know them (my bank account would definitely be happier).
Kudos to you if you read all of this, but I just really like this album, so I thought every song deserved a little something. In all honesty, it makes me angry when people are all mean and mock this band because this is their first full-length album and it's already pretty amazing, so I'm quite excited to see where this whole thing is going. Also it's lame to say that only teenage girls enjoy this album because boys can like this just as much and it's not very punk rock to keep yourself from listening to a certain band because some people associate them with One Direction.
Saturday, June 28, 2014
Concert Review: Miss May I and Of Mice & Men in Munich, Germany
Hi hello how are you guys doing? Sorry as usual for not updating regularly, but the past week has been pure chaos and pure awesomeness. I didn't even get around to check out the pictures I took until this afternoon, so you're the first to see them. Anyway!! I went to see Of Mice & Men last week in Munich and let me tell you that was the craziest show I've ever attended. We arrived at the venue super early, so we had a lot of time to kill but it was worth it because I met Phil, Aaron and Tino before the show!
(Alan was running around as well but he was busy and Austin was nowhere to be seen.)
I was really excited to hear my favourite songs live, and to my absolute luck they played them all (O.G. Loko, Let Live, Would You Still Be There and Second & Sebring)! Seeing these guys live was absolutely incredible, what can I say. I've been waiting for this to happen forever, so I was just so happy when it finally happened! Even though the venue was small so there weren't that many people, the atmosphere was unbelievable. People just went completely nuts - I've never sweated this much during a show, I've never felt more alive.
Miss May I supported the show, and if you haven't heard of them, I highly recommend you go and check them out, they were fantastic! The energy they brought with them was perfect to prepare the audience for what was about to come!
I was so nervous when it was finally time for Of Mice & Men to play, you can probably imagine. And suddenly they were just there and played the songs I've been living with for so long and up to this point none of their existence had felt real, you know what I mean? It took me a moment to process that it was really them so close to me, it was unbelievable.
Austin's presence was just crazy. One moment he looked so angry and aggressive, the next moment he looked at the audience and the biggest smile spread on his face. I honestly live for the moments when band members just show how happy they are to be able to do what they love so much.
As usual, the show was over way too soon. I could have stayed in that tiny club for the rest of the night and have them play every single song they ever wrote, oh well. However, Tino, Phil and Aaron came outside after the show again to take pictures and just talk, it was fantastic. We spent almost an hour just chatting to Phil and Tino, and they were so excited when I showed them my tattoo! Tino even thanked me for getting it done I was like wait what I'm the one who has to thank you but he just laughed and went "this looks amazing". Aaron asked me if it hurt to get it done and when I said that it was alright actually, he told me that his tattoo hurt terribly, and his explanation was that "maybe I'm just a big baby".
So yeah, this was definitely one of the best concerts I've attended so far; I took home a few bruises, a few new friends and the memory of super nice band members. If you ever get the chance to meet them, give them some love because they're the most positive, genuine people I've came across in a while!
Wednesday, June 4, 2014
New Song: Double Lined Minority - White Flag
Hey everyone! You might wonder why I'm blogging the third time this week (quite unusual I know), but one of the bands I've been working with before released their new song today! If you don't remember Double Lined Minority (shame on you!) you can catch up here.
Their new song, White Flag, unites everything a good pop punk song needs: a catchy tune, a handful of fantastic guitar solos and lyrics which will go straight to your brain. The first time I listened to it, I accidentally started dancing around my room. During the second time, I could hum along, and after the third time I already knew parts of the lyrics by heart (at least the chorus).
After getting to hear this song, I'm pretty excited for the rest of the album!
Listen to White Flag here, and if (when) you like what you hear, go ahead and give these guys a thumbs up!
Their new song, White Flag, unites everything a good pop punk song needs: a catchy tune, a handful of fantastic guitar solos and lyrics which will go straight to your brain. The first time I listened to it, I accidentally started dancing around my room. During the second time, I could hum along, and after the third time I already knew parts of the lyrics by heart (at least the chorus).
After getting to hear this song, I'm pretty excited for the rest of the album!
Listen to White Flag here, and if (when) you like what you hear, go ahead and give these guys a thumbs up!
Monday, June 2, 2014
Songs that are very important: A Playlist
I feel like I've neglected this blog quite a lot lately, so I thought it's time for another playlist! This one is full of songs which are super duper important to me, I hope you enjoy it!
- All Time Low - Jasey Rae
- All Time Low - Time Bomb
- All Time Low - Backseat Serenade
- Bring Me The Horizon - Sleepwalking
- letlive. - Empty Elvis
- letlive. - Younger
- Of Mice & Men - Second & Sebring
- Of Mice & Men - The Great Hendowski
- Of Mice & Men - You're Not Alone
- Pierce The Veil - Hold On Till May
- Tonight Alive - Come Home
- We Are The In Crowd - Attention
- 30 Seconds To Mars - Alibi
This isn't the fanciest playlist you'll ever come across, but it'll do to share some special songs. Which songs are important for you? Share them with me in the comments!
Sunday, June 1, 2014
Album Of The Week: This Wild Life - Clouded
Don't judge a book by its cover. I never used this proverb in a serious context, but when you talk about This Wild Life, it's pretty accurate. Kevin and Anthony look like the perfect example for hardcore guys with hardcore tunes, but as soon as you press play and actually expect some heavy sounds, you'll be quite surprised.
This Wild Life only need guitars and Kevin's voice to convince you, and they only needed one song from Clouded to convince me: Concrete went straight to my mind and has been staying there ever since. No More Bad Days slowly has been developing into my life motto lately because Kevin is right when he sings "no more bad days for you my dear". Maybe it'll work, maybe not (I shall give this experiment a try and will report the results!). Apart from uplifting lyrics, Kevin's vocals feel like you're being wrapped in a warm blanket after a stupid day, especially in History, Roots And Branches or Better With You.
This Wild Life give you the perfect soundtrack for rainy days, for stressful days, for days when you have to take a step back from all the metalcore you've been listening to for weeks (I certainly enjoy some calmer tunes from time to time).
Looking Back is one of my favourite songs on the record, simply because of its lyrics. It reminds me a lot of my own story when it's about taking two steps forward and three steps back, or when it's about this thing called life getting harder every year. It's not a negative song at all though because "it's gotta get easier from here, I had to learn to life without looking back" and I personally think that's one of the most important aspects of life. No matter what happened, don't look back. I also share the last part of the song where it says: "One thing I've learned is that good things will not fall in my lap. I had to work harder and longer, be smarter and stronger than the person right beside me. Have the confidence and common sense to know there's still something inside me. I gave my very best, with the purest intent and I'll be proud when I look back."
This Wild Life only need guitars and Kevin's voice to convince you, and they only needed one song from Clouded to convince me: Concrete went straight to my mind and has been staying there ever since. No More Bad Days slowly has been developing into my life motto lately because Kevin is right when he sings "no more bad days for you my dear". Maybe it'll work, maybe not (I shall give this experiment a try and will report the results!). Apart from uplifting lyrics, Kevin's vocals feel like you're being wrapped in a warm blanket after a stupid day, especially in History, Roots And Branches or Better With You.
This Wild Life give you the perfect soundtrack for rainy days, for stressful days, for days when you have to take a step back from all the metalcore you've been listening to for weeks (I certainly enjoy some calmer tunes from time to time).
Looking Back is one of my favourite songs on the record, simply because of its lyrics. It reminds me a lot of my own story when it's about taking two steps forward and three steps back, or when it's about this thing called life getting harder every year. It's not a negative song at all though because "it's gotta get easier from here, I had to learn to life without looking back" and I personally think that's one of the most important aspects of life. No matter what happened, don't look back. I also share the last part of the song where it says: "One thing I've learned is that good things will not fall in my lap. I had to work harder and longer, be smarter and stronger than the person right beside me. Have the confidence and common sense to know there's still something inside me. I gave my very best, with the purest intent and I'll be proud when I look back."
This Wild Life are such an important band, and I really hope they'll be more and more successful during the next few years. I appreciate these songs so much because they're so passionate and pure and honest.
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