This is my 500th blogpost on Ceefax Of Life.
At no point, when sat in my tiny bedroom in Llantwit Major on a grey February in 2009, did I think I'd still be doing this in 2016.
To say things have changed for me since I started this blog is a slight understatement. I'm now married to Plus One Loo. I bought a house. I got a dog. I found a job I really enjoy. And hopefully next month I'll be tearing around Canton in my first car.
Yet one constant in my life has been this blog. There have been times where I have walked away for months at a time, only be dragged back in by one more amazing track, mix or remix that I want to share. 5 times to be exact.
But share with whom? I know I have a small readership, and although I do always check on my pageviews and audience location, most of which seems to be in France now, the only person I'm really writing for is Future Sam (hi me if you're reading this in 2023 or whatevs). Blog is short for weblog, and this is my diary for the stuff I'm into right that minute when I write it. Ceefax Of Life is my personal history, and the fact that other people dig it is a (massive) added bonus.
I clocked that the 500th post was coming up after deleting a load of duplicate articles and drafts over the summer. So I've been wondering how to mark it for a while.
I toyed with once again sharing the track that got me into MPFrees, A Number Of Names' Shari Vari. Yet I've previously written about how this track, The Ill-Ec-Tro-Nic and The Guardian switched me on to starting a blog.
I thought of doing some kind of pun involving Model 500. Obvs.
I even thought that I should start a Facebook Page, seeing that it looks like it's hanging around now. But then it suddenly hit me after watching Aaronson at Gwdihw. These were guys I knew, absolutely slaying it. And I thought, why don't I give music making another go?
As teenager I fought the insistence of Dance eJay 3 to make trance to instead make ambient stuff and pounding techno. I quickly moved on to what was then Fruity Loops and since known as FL Studio. Then I just kind of stopped.
So on Tuesday, while watching Aaronson, I thought fuck it. 2016 can't get any worse. And my skin has grown thicker over the years. I've become more resilient and confident in my abilities that I can now take the jokes if people think my productions are shit.
Now I always knew I struggled with melody, but that I had decent producing and editing skills, so I thought why not give remixing a go? Then I clocked the interludes that Aaronson where playing while changing instrument.
So then I did this last night...
Aaronson's (At Least Here) [Sammyfax Remix] is my first remix. You can hear the original here.
It feels good to be making stuff again. And I hope to do it again soon. Here's to more music and another 500 posts...
