Home Interior Design
Chapter 1 - Music and Design.
Music inspires me in everything I do especially home interior design, I can link music to home interior designs that I have completed or explain any music artist into design terms. How did this come about well……..
Growing up through school I was always very cultural with the music clothes and fashion that I followed, predominantly listening to dance music, soul and Hip Hop. Hanging out with guy’s who had older brothers and turning into various pirate radio stations enabled me to have a clear advantage and lead the way with my knowledge in this genre.
Back in the nineteen eighties the dance seen was one category that consisted of soul, R&B, Hip Hop, Rap and House where most of the best material lay underground and the mainstream recordings where pretty rubbish. On a chart show or a pop program on the television Dance would get very little air play, clubs would play all types of dance in one evening providing clubbers a good variety of sound. But the best dance music was being played underground in warehouses and pirate radio this eventually evolved into the rave seen which is a whole different story.
I left school and become a carpenter and builder and never in my wildest dreams though I could ever become a Home Interior designer. As I started to earn money and go out to pups and clubs I followed fashion even more being able to afford “one off” items of clothing. I was a quiet and quite shy person so this was one outlet for me to express my personality I guess. Most of my teenage years I desired a set of turntable mixing decks and aspired to be a Hip Hop DJ but once I could afford them the rave seen kicked off. While still listening to mellow dance, hip-hop and soul to relax when I went out at night I fell under the spell of the rave craze in the second summer of love 1989.
Still working on home interiors as a carpenter I progressed from an apprentice to self-employed status earning more money to buy records. I bought my records from a local independent record shop owner, a Rasta called Tom. After purchasing many records Tom let me procure a set of Technic 1200’s paying weekly instalments as they where very expensive at the time. I took them home and spent the next four years playing and practicing hours every day. I mastered mixing and began to play out at parties and clubs.
Wow I really had the tools to express and influence people now, developing my mixing into sampling and creating my own tracks to jamming and singing. I went out to clubs for several years but as I matured I moved away from the bandwagon rave scene that had become exhausted of real creation and had sold out to the commercial sector. I returned back to my roots and started going back to clubs playing Hip Hop, R&B, Jazz and Funk this music is always there for me and it lifts my spirits.
I moved away a little from home interior design, working for a Hotel chain doing their maintenance where I met my wife, after a long relationship with my wife I have been influenced by her to explore other genres of music. This is really cool, it’s opened me up to Indy, Rock and others, now I can listen to anything and appreciate it.
I left the hotels and started a building company and then trained as an interior designer, while designing Home refurbishment projects I listen to music all the way through. It helps me be creative, I like to talk to my customers about their music tastes that help’s me design their home and break the ice developing a good working relationship.
The story continues…………..
How music and Home refurbishment are related can be found at www.mattandglossinteriors.com music and design page.
Author Matthew Austin.
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