The Lion’s Tunes #11

Welcome to another edition of The Lion’s Tunes.

At the suggestion of a close friend, I decided to put my love of music to good use.

She pointed out to me that since I love music and listen to so much of it, I should share what songs I’m currently jamming to at the moment.

If you follow me on twitter then you’d know I usually tweet about what music has got me all caught up and catching feelings. 

I’m by no means a music expert and I won’t pretend to be. Most of what will be written here is information I’ve learned on the net and just my personal opinions on the songs. So have at it... 

• Song:  Dance Off

Artist: Macklemore, Ryan Lewis ft Idris Elba & Anderson Paak

This song is peculiar, but in the best way.

I love the fact that Macklemore can rap about serious subject matter that a majority of rapper shy away from while also not afraid to go silly and rap about something that has you scratching your head.

The song is catchy and funky and the more I hear this song, the more it grows on me. It rocks.

Also, I love that he got Idris Elba on the track, as in Idris Elba the actor. I was like “whhaaaattt?” But it works, and also points out how sexy the actor’s voice is. Interestingly, Idris does also release music but it is not something most people know the talented actor for.

• Bonus: White Privilege

Again, Macklemore raps about stuff that most rappers wouldn’t and he does an excellent job while navigating the hot button issue of white privilege. Do give it a listen and decide what you think of the song. 

• Song:  Close
Artist: Nick Jonas Ft Tove Lo

I saw Nick Jonas promoting the fact the he realsed a new song. Naturally my interest was piqued because Nick Jonas has managed to prove that he has the talent and capability to make really good music. Another reason why I wanted to hear this was because of Tove Lo. I have always had a special place for her after discovering her song "Out of Mind". She is just so cool and really talented.

Went to search for the song and found the music video. Damn. I love how the song speaks about when in relationship someone says "I need space".  In the song they sing:

"Space was just a word that was made up by someone who's afraid of getting close"

Also this music video too legit! Love it.

• Song:  Dangerous Woman

Artist: Ariana Grande

My opinion on Ariana Grande hasn’t changed much. I still think that some of her songs are a hit and miss which is perfectly fine. She needs to find her own sound that works for her. She can sing that much is absolutely guaranteed. No one can deny her talent, but she has to find a groove that isn’t a Mariah Carey mini-me or just a fluffy pop star.

One of her newest songs does it for me because it is sultry and mature, but still keeps who Ariana is. What helps is that she expertly utilises her voice – knowing when to hold back and when to unleash that mammoth voice from her petite body.

I am obsessed with this song:



So just discovered the Acapella, and damn, this girl got a voice, while also not taking herself too seriously. She is funny:

Bonus: Be Alright

If “Dangerous Woman” isn’t for you then this might be more for you. This song is fun and cool and more upbeat, but I still prefer Dangerous Woman.

• Song:  Devil Side

Artist: Foxes

I have heard a few songs by her, after being introduced to her after her banging collaboration with EDM DJ Zedd. There is something very earth-child about her music and it works for her.

But what makes Foxes interesting to me is that she really has quite the voice. Her music doesn’t always work for me but regardless, she is making waves. If you dig what she is about, definitely give more of her stuff a listen. 

There is something in her acoustic version that is missing from the studio track. I prefer this version.

• Song:  No

Artist: Meghan Trianor

There is something very 2000’s about the newest song from Meghan Trainor.

The singer has dyed her hair and is now a brunette, assuming the forthcoming release of her second studio album.

I like it, very sassy and again highlighting ladies have every right to say no to a guy they are not interested in. I am also singing along to this song, despite the fact that no one is interested in me, but I digress.

This song is what Stacy Orrico should have released because if she did way back then, then maybe she would still have had a music career today and not just be a one hit/two-hit wonder.

• Song:  Someone Who Can Dance

Artist: Icona Pop

I have always had a fondness so Icona Pop ever since their famed “I don’t care” which was a song that me and my friends were obsessed with for a while because it was just on fire.

Their tune is electric and not just in the sense that they make electronic music (see what I did there? Yeah, I will show myself out now).

Their song “Someone Who Can Dance” is a total banger for me. It also speaks back to that sometimes you just someone for a little fun and not to be serious with all the time. Hence why they are singing about wanting “someone who can dance, not someone I can talk to”.

So cool. 

• Song:  Team
Artist: Iggy Azalea    

Iggy Azalea get's a lot of flak for not being a rapper. A lot this comes from rumours of ghost writers who write all of her songs and etc. Whether that is true or not, i don't know but what I do know is that while even her record company was hatting on this song, she released it any way.

That probably got her into a whole lot of trouble. but regardless, I really like thew tune and the beat.

Also the dancers are murdering this! They have the personality and the moves. 

• Song:  Please Try

Artist: Ryki ft Aewon Wolf

When I first heard this song, I had no clue that it was a local tune. Meaning it is a South Africa original. There is just something very special about this song.  I immediately wanted everyone to hear this song, and force them to listen to it! My love for it increases every time I hear it.

I don’t know much about this artist but to my knowledge Ryki comes out of Durban, which is where a lot of hot local music is coming out of. I heard that Sketchy Bongo may have produced the beats for the song, whose also making a lot of waves in the local music industry.

• Song:  Crybaby

Artist: Melanie Martinez

I loved her first single “Soap” which was an absolutely fun banger and creative way.

When I first heard of Melanie Martinez, I didn’t realise that she was a contestant on the American version of “The Voice”. I was surprised because as unfortunately as if the case, not too many of the people on The Voice have a career that exceed the borders of America. Sure the same can be said for American Idol contestants but they have at the least have had some global success with their music.

Anyway, Melanie Martinez has won me over with her originality. There is something so idiosyncratic about her, and in a saturated music landscape, that is always a good thing. I hope she goes on to bigger and better things. 

This song connected with me because I used to be “Crybaby” or at the least called one when I was in primary school. I was a very sensitive kid and so I cried fairly often. Everyone kept telling me to toughen up, which I did but all I still have that younger kid somewhere within the adult version of who I have become.

#Rocking

• Song:  All Time Low

Artist: Jon Bellion

I find Jon Bellion to be a really talented guy, he has really good rap skills, but he can also sing.

He has such a sultry voice. His style might be a bit too rough for me but he is talented and I definitely enjoy the music he puts out. Maybe I just need to watch more interview of him to really get what he is about, but for now he falls in the Miley Cyrus category for me – makes good music, but not a fan of their image.

• Song:  Work From Home

Artist: Fifth Harmony

Super catchy!! I have been rooting for Fifth Harmony ever since seeing them on XFactor in America. They were just such lovely girls who wanted to do their best. It has been cool that they have gone on to surpass the show and make it in the music industry. 

Kudos to Simon Cowell, who seems to have the magic touch when it comes to putting music groups together.

I hope that they don’t implode (like One Direction) before really hitting it big because if they are able to endure for long enough they can become the next Destiny’s Child.

Their song is really cool. It is pop music (which has become very lazy to write meaningful or even understandable song lyrics) but the song is totally fun.

• Song:  AftershockArtist: Cash Cash

This music video really delivers a haunting and intense take on the song. But boy does it deliver the message. There is something very emotive and just really special about it. Please watch it for yourself, but be prepared to be hit in the feels.

• Song: Audio Symphony (original mix)

Artist: Freshgang

Found this thumping track after hearing it on a local radio station, and I couldn't get the infectious drop and beat out of my head. I just wanna dance to it. Such a great song to lift up the mood to or even add to your gym playlist if you are looking for a great cardio song.

• Song:  Take Off

Artist: Dirty Audio & WAO

Stumbled across this one after the one above. In the suggestions. That is all.

• Song:  Grapevine 

Artist: Locnville

After spending 6 months in Los Angeles getting to know the music industry that side, and working under a new record deal that they signed, the twins Brian and Andrew Chaplin are back with a new song. They are back under the moniker “Locnville” after initially shortening to “LCNVL” which in all honesty is something that I am really glad for.

Anyway, they are back and in an interview, they recently said that their new single, much like most of their forthcoming album, is them returning to their roots but incorporating what they have learned over the years.

I am glad to hear that because as good as their later stuff was, it was their initial music which held something special for them to launch their career off of. 

• Song:  Ngud' 

Artist: Kwesta ft Casper Nyovest.

This currently is the hottest track in the country, sampling a song with a really great beat but adding a local twist to it. There is something truly undeniably good and wonderful about the song. I haven’t gotten around to asking what the song means and is exactly about, but the music video does give some insight into that.

• Remixes: Miguel ft Kasey Musgraves – “Waves”

Miguel’s song “Waves” was really massive and it was just so soulful.

This remix is just so cool. I love what Kasey Musgraves bring to this track and it totally changes the song but in a really awesome way! More people should hear this!

Additional: Years & Years ft Tove Lo – “Desire”

It was impossible to have not heard the tune “Desire” from Years & Years. It was everywhere.

I was a little surprised when I saw that a remix had been released featuring the lovely Tove Lo, who I adore, but after pressing play, I really liked what she brought to the song. It isn’t as different as what Kasey Musgraves brought to “Waves” but Tove Lo does her thing and adds a feminine perspective the song. It is still a hot tune!!

Theo. Over and Out

My "Open Wound"

Picture: David Ritchie

I have repeatedly heard that tattoo means “open wound” in Samoan.

I am not sure if that is true or not, because I haven’t found a source reliable enough for me to trust it, but I would love to think it is true.

Regardless, there is still something very poetic and appropriate about it for me.

I had always wanted to get a tattoo, but the whole permanent aspect was a major speed bump that put me somewhat off it.

As I got older, I figured things out and learned more about myself. Over time I changed, as we all do.

Coming out was a pretty big deal for me, it permanently changed my relationship with my mother and my family. It changed how my friends saw me. It changed how I saw myself. How could it not?

That sweet wallflower, that gentle-hearted, ever-the-do-gooder boy I was died that day, and it wasn’t something I realised until writing this.

Coming out broke that boy.

To realise that the fact that I was gay (which was the one thing I was told never to be my entire life) broke the image I had of myself. I loved being the sweet and good boy, the one who made my mother proud and my family proud.

In some ways I still am that boy but it is not the same.

Seeing my mother's look of disgust, hearing her bang her head against her cupboard door, and hearing her wail “Why me?” as if I had just punished her in the worse way imaginable, had forever changed me.

A piece of me died that day, but in return I gained a stronger piece of me.

The piece of me who can stand up for himself when he wants to, a piece of me who does his own thing regardless of what others want, and who is still a kind person (or tries to be).

I gained a piece of me who recognises that I can’t be anything else but myself, even though it can be alienating. I am idiosyncratically me, and I am a better human being for it.

A year or so after coming out, I started falling in love with having a way to commemorate the day that I came out. I had forgotten the specific date that I had come out on, because there were more important things that had happened that day than for me to remember the date.

Anyway, thanks to a Facebook post, I found the date and the fateful post that came the day after I had done the bravest thing of my life.

Some time had pass and in the back of my mind, it was impossible for me to escape the idea of celebrating this act of bravery. To me, it was the scariest and bravest thing that I had ever done in my life, and I felt that I wanted to cherish that.

Fast forwarding a bit, a few ideas would pop up and then pass, and a new one would come along and then go but they all had my coming out involved in some shape or form.

I finally settled on an idea which excited me: why don’t I record myself saying the date I came out and then use the sound waves of that recording as a tattoo?

I thought about this idea actively for over a year and it was the one that stuck. Also it was the one that felt the most “me”.

The idea of a standard (though little generic) LGBT tattoo was cool but it felt too broad, especially for a community that I don’t entirely feel settled into. The sound waves idea appealed to me because of my love for music.

I don’t know where music became so vital to me, but it did.

When I was in primary school and part of the xylophone group performing at school events, when I did choir for a bit, when my mother and stepdad were arguing I would be in my room listening to music, when I was feeling sad, music would be there - when I was becoming depressed because the stress of keeping the gay secret had started killing out every drop of happiness – music was there.

It is why I run my music blog posts because a life without music is not a life at all, it is just an existence.

So...I had settled on it. I had figured out what I wanted and that was most of the war won.

Everyone knows how neurotic I can be and overanalyse everything, so for me to permanently mark my body in such a way, I had to get to a point where getting the tattoo felt so natural. I kept visualising what it would look like on my arm and the more I did that, the more I settled into the idea of getting one.

Picture: David Ritchie

Why the right arm? No reason other than the fact that it needed to be somewhere I could see it. 

Whenever I feel like shit or like I am not strong enough, the tattoo while be that reminded that I did the thing that scared me most. I did one of the bravest things I have ever done, and if I could do so, then I can certainly handle anything else that comes my way?

The only thing left to do was execute it.

Last week was a bit mad because I hadn’t thought out the details of getting a tattoo. I hadn’t even scouted out tattoo parlours and taken my time to settle on one. It was all fast-paced.

In all honesty, it needed to be. I would have procrastinated and maybe not gone through with it if it had been all delayed.

Wednesday - I made sure to record myself saying the date and then get that into a program which created the sound wave.

Thursday – I was off and also found out that I can’t just walk in and do a tattoo on the same day, so I would need to book an appointment. I had already been planning to see them the day before, but this only confirmed it.

Friday – I went into the place only with my design, and the rent money I usually pay my mother, and went to speak to the people at Metal Machine.

(Side-bar: I had initially planned to go to Wildfire but my friend suggested that I try Metal Machine because Wildfire is overpriced. Honestly, I did not put enough effort into finding a bargain because all that mattered to me was the tattoo.)

The very friendly tattoo covered lady at the parlour took my design, went up to one of the tattoo artists and asked him about it.

After some back and forth, he said that he can do it but the design needed to be 25% bigger.

So they made it bigger (who doesn’t like bigger? :P ) and then asked me if It was alright.

It was.

I then committed to it:

Female Trainee Tattoo Artist : “When would you like to make the appointment?”

Me: “Tomorrow if possible.”

Her: “I don’t think that will be possible as Andro has another client.”

Receptionist: “Patrick actually changed his appointment to Monday, so Andro is free tomorrow.”

Lady: “Then you can do tomorrow. We do require a 50% deposit though...”

Me: “Cool...Uhm, Can I swipe?”

Lady: “We only accept cash.”

Me: “Okay then –uses money from the rent money I pay-“

Lady: “Well then, we will see you tomorrow. –hands me a card with appointment details-”

Me: “Okay, cool.”

Picture: David Ritchie

I pretty much then freaked out that I was actually committing to getting a tattoo for the rest of the day.

Saturday- I was nervous, excited and scared, but I knew that it was something I wanted.

I had to do a few errands before, but soon enough 12 o'clock came and along with David Ritchie, a work colleague who came for moral support. I was at the tattoo parlour ready to get my tattoo on.

Filled in the indemnity form thing and then once that was all sorted, I met my tattoo artist.

He seemed super intimidating at first, but that was only because he was questioning me about the tattoo, and also he had a serious demeanour about it.

After sorting out the finer details about the tattoo, we were ready to roll.

He had talked me through everything before, seeing as it was my first time (pun unintended) but he calmed me and just was a really cool guy about it.

Picture: David Ritchie

So they took the design, made a sticker thing out of it and then used that to put on my skin...which is what they do because then they trace the tattoo on your skin and still have another reference to look at the same time.

I officially have a whole new respect for tattoo artists because they make you feel at ease, explain everything and still try to be friendly and sociable even though they have a job to do. Maybe I was very lucky that I got Andro, but he was a legend.

The whole experience was perfect, it hurt but was perfect.

Picture: David Ritchie

For me my tattoo is an open wound for me.

It is a physical representation of an internalised scar that will forever be with me.

Sometimes we forget that we can leave scars on each of mentally, emotionally and psychologically. My tattoo is a scar that I want to wear on me because it is a battle scar. A battle scar I want everyone to see because I am not ashamed of what it means.

It is my symbol of bravery and strength from a battle that I made it out of.

I survived, especially in a world where many LGBT kids kill themselves because they don’t have anything to fight for. If things hadn’t turned out the way it hard, I might not be here today.

*shudder*

It is a sobering thought, isn’t it?

Theo. Over and Out.

Pictures: David Ritchie

PS: The thing that I find really funny was how in all of this, I overlooked the part that someone was going to be puncturing my skin repeatedly with a needle. It hurts people. Getting a tattoo hurts, it did hurt less than I thought it would but it hurts. Those first few manoeuvres were painful but you adjust and try not to focus on it, which is why Andro was so legend.

PPS: Also me and my mom are on good terms now. She doesn't accept the fact that I am gay but she still loves me and respects me which is really all I can ask from her.