week 39: Musical identity and radiotheatre

 Week 39 started with music on Tuesday. We had to present a song that represented our identity and why music is important to us as an individual. 
I picked the song Saviour from the band Before the Dawn : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8L5AK6ML0sU&ab_channel=RuusiLyrics

I picked this song as it is one of my favorite songs from one of the earlier metal bands I listened to back when I was 14-16 years old. Back in those days I felt unhappy with myself and life in general. Metal music really resonated with me in those days because I could identify with the lyrics and I enjoyed the more aggressive sound of bands like Before the Dawn, Darkest Hour and Drowning Pool. Besides more aggressive bands I also listened to Symphonic Metal bands like Nightwish and Delain. 
With Saviour I can identify myself with my unhappy feelings, feelings of failing and the bullying I received back in those days. 
Today I still enjoy aggressive music (even more so than back in those days, adding Hardcore Punk and more extreme metal bands to my listening). I still identify with the lyrics and the darker outlook of life (which I still have), but at the same time I feel better about myself as a person. 

To me music is everything. Besides the feeling of identification (which I have with more than just Death Metal and dark topics) I can ease my mind after a busy day with both more relaxing sounding music and more energetic/aggressive music. I use music to filter out input as well. What I mean by this is the fact that I can get tired of receiving to many impulses at once or for a long time. Crowded streets, long days and busy weeks can, for a lack of a better explanation, give me to much input. To many visuals and sounds to take in. To filter one of those out I use music. That way I can just rely on visual input.
When I have received to much input music is also what I need to get out of my over-stimulated state of mind. Headphones on, eyes closed and I'll sit in a corner for a while to calm down. When the worst is over I can go on with my day, all be it not in an optimal matter.

The other days of this week were spend on the radio theater. As someone who listens to audiobooks and audiodramas I was somewhat looking forward to this assignment. I first wanted to do a part of the Tale of Utgarda-Loki, since I enjoy this story and I figured we could easily take a part from it. Starting on the story was difficult since I was the only one of the group that knew the story. So after a view minutes we came up with the idea to change the story we did on the trip to Grønland, since we all know that story and Eva had the script on her laptop.

We changed a few things about the script and talked about which sounds would fit at what spot. After decided that we recorded each sentence separate so it would be easier to add the sound effects to it.

The recording was fun to do (myself in the roll of narrator). I think a radio theater can be an interesting tool for storytelling with children because you really have to think about how you say everything and which sound effects to use. You don't want to use to many effects, but if there's to little it will also sound odd when a sound effect is there.