One of my more harmless past times is the careful art of playlist curation. When a theme, event, or sense of place demands expression I willingly commit hours if not days to the tedious contemplation and arrangement of music.

My passion for this stems from running the sound board in my high school auditorium. Ever ambitious, I forced hundreds of teenagers to contemplate the word “yurt” as the Gothic Archies blared through the crowd. To this day I don’t know why I wasn’t stopped other than it was a Halloween production of horror one-acts. I feel anyone playing this song now would end up suspended or worse for the public discussion of mass decapitation.

The world changed so much in 12 years.

But since then I’ve focused my efforts on motivational and creative playlists. I enjoy configuring soundtracks for projects I’m attempting as the right melody can conjure words a writer might not find otherwise. This is why if you search any literary term on Spotify you’ll find countless playlists clamoring to produce that one pictorial ideal.

Along this theme I’ve created a playlist that inspired the style I continue to cultivate today. It’s not as carefully arranged as many I’ve made but, much like this website, it will shift and grow as my interest changes. But what this playlist should convey is a sense of identity and provide the raw material so you might also become hopelessly devoted to aesthetic ideals and nonsense.

One thing I’ve never been short on is an awareness of my tastes. I’ve come a long way since I was running around in a curly black wig and a metal hook imitating Dustin Hoffman’s Captain Hook but the spark that caused it is very much alive.

I recommend shuffling.

If you enjoy making playlists for the soul, I’d love to hear them. Reach out to me on Twitter or leave them in the comments.