What It Means To You: Your Stories (Me - This Noise Is Ours)

I've just got in and I've been sitting reading about releases that are coming out this week via Invisible Oranges and an idea popped into my head for a new feature. I've been lucky enough to get to know (even if it's just via social media) many people from around the world who share the same passion and enthusiasm for punk and metal as I do (in their own way) and I'd kind of like to publish stories about how they started what they do, why and what it means to them. At this point, I should maybe start at home for no other reason than to kick things off.

I started to listen to punk and metal when was getting close to the end of Secondary school at about 14 or 15 years old. My friends at the time listened to bands like Blink-182, Linkin Park and Nickelback (yeah I know) and I naturally gravitated towards that. As time went by (and Kerrang! TV became a thing) I started listening to Slipknot and other heavier bands and reading Rock Sound Magazine religiously, back when it was good. It stayed the same into my late teens when I found Terrorizer magazine and with it heavier bands again. I went to gigs, to Download festival etc and felt myself wanting to discover more. That was when the original blog began. 

I used it as a way to explore the more DIY end of punk and metal, especially the local scene that existed and indeed still exists in Harrogate, where I live. I really had no idea what I was doing when I started but as I got into it and put myself out therea bit more, people started taking a bit of interest. From there I received contact from people abroad and started writing more reviews and interviewing more people. I even had the privilege of writing for a few external sites for a time. I went to more local gigs in Leeds and became friends with like-minded people that way and now This Noise Is Ours has grown bigger than I ever thought it would or even could.

This style of music and everything around it means more to me now than it ever did. I may only write a blog and may not be musical or creative beyond that but I couldn't imaging my life without it now I'm in my 30's. I guess that's why I'm still writing the blog, because I don't want to lose the attachment I've got to the music or the people. Through it and through going to DIY gigs I've felt more accepted than I ever did when I was going through school. It's a passion as much as is it an escape. I've made no secret that if the opportunity ever presented itself, I would quit work and do this full-time (if I could support myself financially) but escaping that, I am just happy existing in my very small speck of the Internet sharing my enthusiasm with like-minded people.