There is a bookshop in Rathgar I pass occasionally. It has the opening hours marked on the door. Usually when I pass, it is a Sunday and the shop is closed. No Bernard Black hiding behind the curtain sneering at potential customers, just a simple, cute message printed on Sunday’s timetable – ‘Reading Time!’.
Similarly, Sunday is frequently ‘Listening Time’ in my house. I gather up all the demos, albums, digital files, vinyl (if I’m lucky) and spend a large part of the afternoon catching up with what I did not have time to listen to during the week. Yesterday afternoon, I picked out a slew of tunes for this April’s podcast to be recorded this week when there is time. I still have an inbox stuffed with about 120 emails I haven’t read yet.
My mate asked me once – “Do you ever get sick of listening to music?”, which I thought was interesting coming from him, being a bass player in a moderately well-known band. It knocked me back a bit though, when I quickly realised that the answer was no, I never get sick of listening to music. Ever. Unless I’m incapacitated by some crippling cryogenic mishap which hasn’t happened just yet, I’ll probably take the chance to play a few tunes on a stereo. I no longer listen to music before I go to bed but I never reach a saturation point.
I’m fascinated when I meet people who know this blog and express gratitude for turning them onto some tunes. Two and a half years this blog has been running – 730 posts and 4378 comments. On average, 3000 unique visitors a day visit the site. I often think of how people take these songs away with them, how the songs affect them, where they may listen to these songs – whether it be an iPod, a car or a house party (It’s happened – I’ve been told). Are people as obsessed about music as myself?
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