Buried Memories

This is the artists statement I used to explain the full album. The version I am going to submit to the New York Times is only 1 of the songs but it will include the details about the full album. Full album:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6IHM4TsMggM Artist's Statement: Being a teenager has been rough during 2020 seeing as we all have faced new struggles, especially relating to school and mental health. Lots of teens have been struggling and finding ways to cope with everything going on and one such way I’ve found out a lot of people cope is by listening to music. Lots of people I know view music as a comforting way to calm down or to be used as a distraction when dealing with difficult situations. This year has led me to listen to new genres and musicians I’d never have started to listen to if it weren’t for things like lockdown and dealing with being alone. By far my favorite new musician is a man named The Caretaker. The Caretaker is an artistic project made by a man named James Leyland Kirby and his works explore many themes and topics such as memories, nostalgia, dementia, and the progression of memory loss all in musical form. Kirby’s 6 hour album known as Everywhere at the End of Time is what inspired me to start to understand things like dementia and have sympathy for those affected by it. Dementia and memory loss are very sensitive topics to me so Kirby’s music hits very close to home for me. I have been listening to a lot of Kirby’s work lately and have joined a fan community of people who are also interested in the work of the Caretaker and I have seen lots of fan projects and musical tributes to The Caretaker and I have always wanted to make my own tribute of sorts, and I thought what better way to represent this year through an album exploring nostalgia and decaying memories from a bygone era. I’ve used my understanding of memory loss and lots of old samples of ballroom music to create an album that hopefully evokes nostalgia in the listener and puts them in the state of mind that hopefully helps to understand memory a bit better. The songs progressively get fuzzier and more distant as the memories slowly fade away into the noise. The art of the album is the only consistent thing about this album.