https://community.spotify.com/t5/The-Blog-Vault/Backstage-Intro-Meet-Blake/ba-p/1283869 <P><STRONG><STRONG><STRONG><EM>Our&nbsp;<A href="https://community.spotify.com/t5/Spotify-Announcements/Introducing-the-Spotify-Community-Rock-Star-Program/m-p/580948#M3753" target="_blank">Community Rock Stars</A>&nbsp;with the Wordsmith&nbsp;role&nbsp;can submit blog posts to be published on the Spotify Community Blog. To find out more about the <A href="https://community.spotify.com/spotify/attachments/spotify/spotifyct/2952/4/RSPJan2015.pdf" target="_blank">Rock Star Program click here.</A></EM></STRONG></STRONG></STRONG></P> <P>&nbsp;</P> <P><STRONG>Hello&nbsp;<a href="https://community.spotify.com/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/650552">@blake</a>&nbsp;(Rock Star), nice to meet you! Tell us a little about yourself.</STRONG></P> <P><SPAN>Hello! I'm Blake, and I'm from New Orleans, USA. I'm in the final year of my doctorate in music: my specialization is in digital music consumption, which came about from my interest in studying popular musics. I've also been active on various forums for over 15 years now, so participating in the Spotify Community was a natural fit for me.</SPAN></P> <P><span class="lia-inline-image-display-wrapper lia-image-align-right" image-alt="Attach559_20160128_140350.jpg" style="width: 300px;"><img src="https://community.spotify.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/33067i2C4BED6C6E25F70D/image-size/medium?v=v2&amp;px=400" role="button" title="Attach559_20160128_140350.jpg" alt="Attach559_20160128_140350.jpg" /></span></P> <P><STRONG><SPAN class="para_break">So, what kind of music are you into?<I class="copy_only"><BR /></I></SPAN></STRONG><SPAN>That's a big question, and one that's always evolving! As of right now, I primarily find myself listening to early country/folk music (<A title="Roy Acuff" href="https://open.spotify.com/artist/7heUyuJw3gZftFZRa1rV6M" target="_blank">Roy Acuff</A>, <A title="Hank Williams" href="https://open.spotify.com/artist/1FClsNYBUoNFtGgzeG74dW" target="_blank">Hank Williams</A>, <A title="The Carter Family" href="https://open.spotify.com/artist/0FRIWJYklnmsll5M6h4gUL" target="_blank">The Carter Family</A>, <A title="Roscoe Holcomb" href="https://open.spotify.com/artist/7JZ7Ok3UaKmZmD5otFfcY3" target="_blank">Roscoe Holcomb</A>), drone/ambient music (The Caretaker, <A title="Grouper" href="https://open.spotify.com/artist/31uyAcnY0kjjKKIQZMKX4i" target="_blank">Grouper</A>, <A title="Tim Hecker" href="https://open.spotify.com/artist/1qiwaJwjKod5WhcYZ76O1B" target="_blank">Tim Hecker</A>, <A title="The Field" href="https://open.spotify.com/artist/23MIhFHpoOuhtEHZDrrnCS" target="_blank">The Field</A>), and Southern hip hop (hence my avatar). <A title="Grandaddy" href="https://open.spotify.com/artist/3W4xM5XYtUp4ifYYPVKVdk" target="_blank">Grandaddy</A> has long been one of my favorites, so they can't go unmentioned either.</SPAN><BR /><SPAN>As a musician, I'm currently playing guitar and producing arrangements for a Americana singer-songwriter, which has been a drastic shift compared to what I've played before, which is nice! It's always gratifying to get outside your musical comfort zones, whether discovering a new genre or picking up a new instrument.</SPAN><SPAN class="para_break"><I class="copy_only"><BR /></I></SPAN></P> <P>&nbsp;</P> <P><SPAN><STRONG>February it is! What will be your musical tunes for this month?</STRONG><BR /></SPAN></P> <P><SPAN>Ouch, it's already February? It's hard to say what'll be in rotation this month since Discover Weekly continues to find a few perfect tracks each week (particularly things I've once known and forgotten about)! An early contender is this Phil Spector-produced proto-dream pop:</SPAN><SPAN class="para_break"><I class="copy_only"><BR /></I></SPAN></P> <P><IFRAME src="https://embed.spotify.com/?uri=spotify:track:0K5Vtncem1Qd5RwfwJvoqu" width="300" height="80" frameborder="0" allowtransparency="true"></IFRAME></P> <P>&nbsp;</P> <P><STRONG>Valentines Day is around the corner too, how is this day for you?</STRONG></P> <P><SPAN>Well, normally it's just an excuse for my wife and I to go to our favorite restaurant, but as Valentine's falls just after Mardi Gras this year, in all likelihood we'll still be recovering...</SPAN><SPAN class="para_break"><I class="copy_only"><BR /></I></SPAN></P> <P>&nbsp;</P> <P><SPAN><STRONG>Thanks for taking the time to chat with us. Before we go, what jokes always makes you laugh?</STRONG><BR /></SPAN></P> <P><SPAN>I'm so bad at remembering jokes! I suppose I always really enjoy Jack Handey, particularly the Job Rejection bit from his book (here's part of it):</SPAN><BR /><EM>Dear Sir: </EM></P> <P><EM>Congratulations! You got the job! That is probably what you were hoping this letter would say. But it doesn't, because you didn't.</EM></P> <P><EM>Sincerely, Personnel Department</EM></P> Tue, 02 Feb 2016 15:00:00 GMT MichaelW 2016-02-02T15:00:00Z https://community.spotify.com/t5/The-Blog-Vault/Backstage-Intro-Meet-Blake/ba-p/1283869 <P>&nbsp;</P> <P><span class="lia-inline-image-display-wrapper lia-image-align-inline" image-alt="Backstage-pass.png" style="width: 400px;"><img src="https://community.spotify.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/29824iDC3C85FB87C33440/image-size/large?v=v2&amp;px=999" role="button" title="Backstage-pass.png" alt="Backstage-pass.png" /></span></P> <P>&nbsp;</P> Tue, 02 Feb 2016 15:00:00 GMT https://community.spotify.com/t5/The-Blog-Vault/Backstage-Intro-Meet-Blake/ba-p/1283869 MichaelW 2016-02-02T15:00:00Z https://community.spotify.com/t5/The-Blog-Vault/Backstage-Intro-Meet-Blake/bc-p/1285170#M2797 <P>So many things I didn't know about you <span class="lia-unicode-emoji" title=":winking_face:">😉</span> lol!</P> Wed, 03 Feb 2016 17:48:12 GMT https://community.spotify.com/t5/The-Blog-Vault/Backstage-Intro-Meet-Blake/bc-p/1285170#M2797 kbrooksc 2016-02-03T17:48:12Z https://community.spotify.com/t5/The-Blog-Vault/Backstage-Intro-Meet-Blake/bc-p/1285242#M2798 <P>I'm pretty mysterious! <span class="lia-unicode-emoji" title=":winking_face:">😉</span></P> Wed, 03 Feb 2016 19:09:44 GMT https://community.spotify.com/t5/The-Blog-Vault/Backstage-Intro-Meet-Blake/bc-p/1285242#M2798 blake 2016-02-03T19:09:44Z