User Spotlight

hi54lofi

We flew the pond digitally and caught up with Jeremy who runs his own personal music blog hi54lofi and the wonderful record label sans records Hi54lofi Records as well. He also happens to be one of our amazing Tastemakers.

What is one of your favorite/most magical musical experiences?

Perhaps it is a bit of a cliched answer, or maybe I just can’t think of a truly magical experience that stands out above the rest, but I think music in general is quite magical. The way a few simple chords can transport you somewhere else. The way that someone else’s heartbreak can be bottled into medicine for your own. The way that a certain bass line can unglue a glued-ass from a dark corner of a room into the middle of the dance floor. Those are all quite magical things and I think picking just one experience sort of downplays just how amazing of a thing music always is.

If you had to pick a favorite artist(s) who would it be?

All the artists that I’ve been able to personally meet through HI54LOFI RECORDS (or even ‘internet meet’ beyond tweets and Facebook likes). I think they are all making great things and I wish more people would discover them. As far as artists I’ve never met, but whose music I love, the list is far too long to start listing… but here are 10 artists that I really dig, from off the top of my head: Todd Snider, Elliot Smith, James Brown, Bobby Bare Jr, Jamie T, Jack White, Andrew Bird, Califone, The Rolling Stones, and The Avett Brothers.

If you had to share one artist right now who would it be? Why?

It would have to be Shakey Graves. The guy is just a phenomenal talent. Everything I’ve heard and seen from him over the past couple years has consistently and completely blown me away. I good starting point for anyone who has not been converted already, would be this video and this album. And then go on from there.

What genres of music are you into most?

To be honest, I really hate musical genres. I understand the point of them, when used on musical discovery sites, but I really don’t think there could be a worse way to try and explain your musical taste to someone then by listing some genres. Everybody has pre-determined definitions for genres and they are always different. So if I were to say to someone, for example, that I like 'country’ (which I do), they could very fairly assume that I mean Carrie Underwood and Toby Keith (whom I don’t). And then they would very fairly assume that I have pretty shitty taste in music. But if I say 'country’, Carrie Underwood and Toby Keith is not what I mean. I mean Todd Snider and Hayes Carll and Townes Van Zandt and The Avett Brothers and John Prine (and the list goes on). And then someone might say to me that “those artists are not 'country’ music”. And you could change the genre and artists from that example and get the same results (like when VH1 talks about heavy metal and Jon Bon Jovi in the same sentence).

If someone wanted to know what kind of music I like, I would much prefer to make them a mix tape. In fact, I think we should all carry mix tapes around with us just in case a stranger at the bar asks you, “What kind of music do you listen to?”. Or, I guess you could always point them to your exfm account.

Anything else music related or hobby related you’d like to share?

Well, I mentioned it earlier, but since I’m not the best at self promotion, I’ll take the opportunity to mention HI54LOFI RECORDS again. I think the best way to describe what that is, is to share our tagline “This isn’t a competition, it’s a collaboration”. And I guess the second best way to describe what that is, is to share our website: http://hi54lofirecords.com

Besides that, I’ve also started to host a radio show on Folk Radio UK called Mix Tape Radio, so people can check that out, too (Episode 2 is airing this week).

Recently Loved Tracks from hi54lofi:

Remember to check out his superb music blog hi54lofi and of course Hi54lofi Records as well.

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