One of the strange things about releasing music independently is that people often discover you in fragments. Not through albums. Not through a carefully planned journey from beginning to end.
Usually through a single song.
A random stream. A playlist appearance. A track shared online.
And while I’ve released albums and individual songs over the years, I started to realise there was value in creating something simpler — a small introduction to my music that changes over time.
That’s where Five Songs came from.
Why Just Five Songs?
There’s something refreshing about limitation. Streaming platforms encourage endless choice. Infinite playlists. Huge catalogues. Constant scrolling. But sometimes that becomes overwhelming.
So I wanted to create something smaller and more focused:
- five songs
- a short listening experience
- an easy entry point into my music
Not a “best of.” Not necessarily the most streamed tracks. Just five songs that feel right at a particular moment.
A Playlist That Evolves
One thing I deliberately wanted with Five Songs was flexibility. The playlist changes from time to time. Some tracks stay for longer periods because they continue to feel representative of where I am creatively. Others rotate out as new songs emerge or older tracks start to resonate differently.
That keeps the playlist alive. It reflects the fact that music itself isn’t static. The songs I connect with most strongly often change over time — especially when performing live, revisiting older recordings or working on newer material.
A Different Way to Experience Music
Albums still matter deeply to me. There’s something important about a full body of work — the sequencing, the themes, the emotional flow from one track to another. But playlists have become their own listening format now.
And rather than resisting that completely, Five Songs feels like a way of engaging with modern listening habits without losing the identity behind the music. It’s short enough to listen to in one sitting. Long enough to give a real sense of my sound.
And because it changes occasionally, it creates a snapshot of where things are at any given time.
More Personal Than an Algorithm
One of the problems with streaming is that so much discovery is driven by algorithms.
Music gets reduced to:
- recommendations
- data
- playlists generated automatically
Five Songs is the opposite of that. Every track is there intentionally. It’s personal. Curated. Human.
In some ways, it’s probably closer to the old idea of making someone a mixtape than building a modern streaming playlist.
For New Listeners — and Returning Ones
The playlist works in two directions. If you’re new to my music, it’s probably the easiest place to start. And if you’ve followed my music for a while, the changing tracklist offers a slightly different perspective over time — highlighting different songs, moods and phases of what I’ve released.
The Reality Behind Independent Music
Like much of what I write about, Five Songs also connects to a wider reality of independent music-making. Most independent musicians are creating in a crowded digital space where attention is limited and discovery is difficult.
You can spend years building albums that people may never fully hear from beginning to end. So sometimes a smaller doorway into the music matters. Something simple. Accessible. Easy to return to.
Listen to Five Songs
If you’d like a short introduction to my music — or just want to hear what I’m currently highlighting — you can listen to Five Songs here: Five Songs on Spotify
And because the playlist changes over time, it’s always worth checking back to see what’s new.