My Mixing Revelation

Mixing, like singing, has been an absolute delight of an unfurling.

Mixing, like singing, has felt like I’m remembering something ancient, a long-forgotten ability, rather than learning a new skill from scratch.

In truth, the mixing tools have simply, finally, given me an interface for expressing ideas, tastes, skills, and preferences that have been slowly cultivated all my life.

From the moment I got my first Discman, music has been a near-constant presence.

My two music-obsessed uncles fed me punk rock-dominant mixes as a child.

I’ve been making aesthetically and emotionally aligned playlists since I was a teen, arranging the tracks in a way that flows even without being properly mixed.

In school, I studied what played through the cheeky earbud wired under my shirt, down my chosen-for-the-purpose longsleeves, hidden in the hand I’d lean an ear on; the spitting image of a student disinterested in the lesson but pretending to care.

If I didn’t have hockey practice to go to, my favourite after school activity was risking the livelihood of the family desktop computer by ripping songs from LimeWire.

At this point in my life, I’ve had phases and flings with nearly every major genre.

When I come across something I like from an unfamiliar artist, I binge their discography at least a couple of times to build recognition… and hunt for hidden gems.

Ironically, ‘twas only last year when I finally clued into just how meaningful music is to me. I thought everyone was like this, that the above was standard behaviour.

I’ve since realized that there’s a big difference between listening to music, loving music, and wanting to play with music. Most hang out on the first two levels.

Wanting to play with music is where I live—mixing is that desire brought to life.

And oooooh boy, what a fucking treat.

As I’ve gone about finding and refining “my sound,” building a collection of songs that fit my natural sonic aesthetic, and play-play-playing, I’ve discovered on a deeply intimate and sensual level how music moves through and influences the body.

In part because I’ve uncovered a borderline-obsessed love for sub-bass, the lowest end of musical frequencies, which are felt more than heard. They bring the rumble, power, and foundation that on big soundsystems, you feel in your chest.

I find these frequencies gushingly, erotically, pleasurable. 

Not in the sexual sense, but in what erotic actually refers to: aliveness. 

Playing with these frequencies elicits palpable physiological shifts in my body: a viscerally felt and seen gooey, melty, pink-tinted warmth that spreads through and infuses me with delight, joy, mischief, and play.

This is Eros, Kundalini—lifeforce energy—cultivated, concentrated, and circulated.

This is home.

With love from the forest,

~ Alexander

P.S. I don’t have a timeline yet, but I’m very, very excited to start sharing my mixes on YouTube and SoundCloud. The music I’m playing with, the ‘crate’ as it's called, needs a little more refinement… and I need to figure out how to record my sessions… 

But I’m not far off.

Then, another new chapter begins.