I can Sia clearly now

I am discovering my love for Sia all over again.

Well actually...I suppose I'm only a few years too late in discovering any kind of love for her at all.

I had initially only ever heard her major singles dating back to 2009 with "You've changed" and "Clap Your Hands" in 2010. Then of course, in 2011, she teamed up with David Guetta and released "Titanium" which still resonates with many people, today, four years on.

I always thought she was decent, but never took the time to research her or look into her albums or other singles.

Sia Image

So for me, listening to "Elastic Heart" for the first time and then watching the film clip, made me really ponder what amazing talent this woman has.

"Chandelier" is definitely a stand out track of hers which really demonstrates her immense soprano vocal range, but also reveals the grit and emotion she can illustrate with her voice.

Not only is she an incredibly vocalist there's no question she can write a damn good song! Having written for greats such as Christina Auguleria, Kylie Monogue, Kanye West, Rhianna and so many more, she's pumped out hit after hit.

Her artistic flare is also displayed with each music video she releases - especially with the help of super-star Maddy Ziegler!

I currently have "Elastic Heart" and "Chandelier" on repeat and am looking forward to discovering more of Sia's music.

A photo that represents ME

To correctly portray myself in an appropriate career light, I initially wanted to post a photograph of me at a music festival or gig. The photo I had in mind was this:

Me at Splendour in the grass 2014. 

Unfortunately I wasn't happy with the quality of the picture and it wasn't really recent enough. So I was forced into the art of self-photography. I tried to take photos of myself with my instruments and they all turned out too "try-hard". So instead, I opted for a different side of me. I went outside and sat on my balcony so that the natural light was doing it's job and took a photo of myself, on my iPhone, with my plants in the background. I'm hoping this photograph communicates my love for nature and the outdoors which is an integral part of ME.

Header

When creating a banner for my page, I kept to the colour scheme but also wanted to select a picture that communicated music and night life.

I'm hoping that once I get this blog up and running, I will use it to continue writing about music but also review the gigs I go to, especially those in the Brisbane area. Therefore, I felt that this banner not only has the name of the blog within it and works with my selected colour scheme, it also demonstrates a little of what this blog is about.

The name, Beats Per Minute, is a musical reference usually reffered to in its abbreviated form, bpm, which determines the tempo, or speed, of a song. I chose this title as one that I thought tied in with the kind of theme and look I was going for with this blog, but also when I created the URL I shortened it to 'beats-pm' which I think appropriatley represents night life - live music (beats) at night (pm).

Unfortuantely, to fit it in the header banner above, I had to stretch the image just enough so that it didn't appear distorted. This is how it looked before I uploaded it into the template:

Colour me happy

The colours I chose for my blog, probably aren't colours I would have normally gone for. My favourite colour is yellow and secondary to that is hot pink. I thought this combo may have been a little bright and girly for the kind of look I was going for this time around. The last few years though - judging by my bedroom - I've started to incorporate Turquoise into that mix.

The colour pallette I've gone with is made up from two shade of Turquiose, or one of mint if you like, paired with grey, white and black to keep it a little edgy and simple.

When researching the meaning of the colour Turquoise, the first definition I came across fitted what I hope this blog will live up to.

"Turquoise helps to open the lines of communication between the heart and the spoken word. It presents as a friendly and happy color enjoying life." - Colour Psychology

A mixture of these cool colours with a bit of pop, as well as neutral colours produces a clean white background with black text which makes for easy reading with a calm, happy and pleasant surrounding.

MyPod

The top 10 most played songs on my iPod:

1. Seeing Angels - The John Bulter Trio
2. Rhyme and Reason - The Cat Empire
3. Withdraw - Kimbra
4. White Blank Page - Mumford & Sons
5. The Suburbs - Arcade Fire
6. Seven Devils - Florence + the Machine
7. Prisoner - The Jezabels
8. Better Than - The John Butler Trio
9. Clovis' Son - Josh Pyke
10. Like Eating Glass - Bloc Party

I've included links for all songs so feel free to check any of them out! I'd also like to make special mention of a few of my other favourite artists who didn't make the list: Missy Higgins, Boy & Bear, Django Django, Sarah Blasko, Regina Spektor, The Smiths, The Black Keys and Radiohead. 

Fontastic

When looking for a font that might describe me, I knew instantly that it would most likely be a round and loopy font. I've always been drawn towards them and my handwriting resembles those characteristics. After much searching, I came across a type which I believe is curly and classic with a contemporary twist whilst still maintaining a neat, tidy and symmetrical look. The font I  have chosen to represent me, is Capistrano BF:

I would love to have used curlier fonts on this blog, but they can often be difficult to read in sections of large text. The font I have used to head posts: Indie Flower, is a font that I believe resembles a "tamed loopy font"- something similar to a cursive writers print writing. The post text font I have used is Josefin Sans. This is a font that I just couldn't go past. It's easy to read, clean, simplistic but still matches up well with my favourite cursive fonts. 

My Theme

The theme I used for this blog initially was a lot louder than the one I have now. I would describe it as paint splashes in different hues of reds and oranges. I chose this theme thinking it was kind of edgy and reminiscent of a music and night-life scene. I chose to discard it for what I have now because it was just too busy and despite fitting the industry that I would like to be a part of, it just didn't fit me. So to substitute, I chose something with a bit more white-space and used the mint green/turquoise blue colour because it is one of my favourite colours. It's clean style is definitely more representative of me and my personality because it is organised and neat.