Ever since I was young, I always had a deep connection with music. I recall at 13 or 14 I was “DJing” for my mom’s friends with my dual cassette boom box & small collection of cassettes. I also used to attempt to make remixes, cutting bits of songs from 1 deck & pasting 1 bit at a time to the other deck, using the pause button. The remixes sounded pretty terrible. Basically stuttering songs like the beginning of Duran Duran’s – The Reflex. Anyway, I had a deeper connect & sensitivity to music than to anything else, even though at the time, I had no interest in making music & I didn’t even know what a DJ was.
Perhaps this is why I had this interesting gift.
When I was younger, I was practically psychic with predicting the songs that would come on the radio. It was so common that I started telling people “damn, I knew that song was going to play next!”. It would happen booth at home & while at work. Because I didn’t broadcast my predictions, my friends & coworkers wouldn’t believe me, so I decided to start broadcasting & sure enough, that Violent Femmes song or that Smiths song would come on.
Some were as impressed as I was with myself, especially when I would name 3 or 4 songs accurately during a shift. One day I was working my pizza job & we would listen to a radio station called 91X, which broadcast out of San Diego. For some reason, it was the only cool radio station we could pick up in the San Bernardino mountains. Anyway, I was doing my usual song predictions & getting it right of course,
One of my coworkers says “Well anyone can do this, Jason. You just know their playlist from memory” & I thought, fair enough. It was true that we listened to this station most of our shifts. So I decided to make it more challenging. I thought about it & decided to predict a song that was very rarely ever played on the radio, but I just had a feeling they would play it. So I said out loud to whoever would listen “In the next 30 minutes, they are going to play The Vandals – Urban Struggle”.
Sure as shit, 3 songs later the song played! I had proven to myself & everyone in my work place that I was a music psychic. There was also a time a Ouija Board told me accurately what song was playing on the radio. The radio would be turned off & then I would turn it on to check. But Ouija boards are a whole other story.
It’s too bad it was a pretty useless talent, but it was something I enjoyed doing through my 20’s and 30’s.
Do you or someone you know have this ability? Have you tried it? Does it just seem like a waste of time in the age of streaming?
I figure if I can have the level of focus to be a borderline music psychic, you can have the focus & dedication to finish the songs you start. THAT is a skill that’s not useless. In fact, many people have made a pretty damn good living from this skill.
With that said, if you are benefiting from these posts, you will absolutely love my 2 bestselling books:
The Mental Game of Music Production
The Process for Electronic Music Producers
You can also Check out the: Ableton Courses & Instruments
If you are looking for personal guidance with your music production or Ableton, you can set up a free chat with me to go over exactly what your best next steps are to create the best music of your life. If it seems like a good fit, we can move forward from there. https://musicsoftwaretraining.com/private-coaching
Happy music making!
Jason