Kick your energy level for the weekend into high gear with this month’s awesome mix from New York City-based composer Joe Hanley! Joe’s mix is called “High Score” which times perfectly with the start of the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver this weekend.
When I listen to Joe’s mix, I am transported back to the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. It is the only Olympics I have ever attended in person and it was an amazing experience. At that Olympics, I attended several events including the men’s ski jump event where Harry Potter (actually doppelganger Simon Ammann from Switzerland) won the gold!
I also can proudly say I was there when the American men (Ross Powers, Danny Kass and JJ Thomas) swept the medals in men’s snowboarding half-pipe. Snowboarding is a great event where everyone, including a mere geeky spectator like myself, gets to feel “cool” for a moment. They play incredible music as the athletes come down the pipe doing impossible moves that have great names like, “air,” “grab,” and “McTwist.” Everyone should have a moment in their lives like that to feel genuinely cool.
Joe’s music captures that feeling of “cool” and it sounds like an Olympic snowboarding song to me. I hope it gives you the same lift! Here’s a little more about Joe and his music.
I’ve been playing and composing for 20 years. My primary instruments are keyboards and vocals, and I have a basic background in guitar as well.
What inspires you when you are writing music?
My initial inspiration for any song differs depending on the context that I’m writing in. If the music I’m composing is for a specific client, they usually have style and mood requests that will inspire my first ideas. Most of the time ideas come when I’m doing something else like walking, driving or in the shower. Those slight distractions really seem to take my thoughts out of the process and allow my intuition to take over.
What were you thinking about when you composed this mix for beruly.com?
For this mix I was inspired by dance music and wanted to combine a hard hitting dance floor aesthetic with my somewhat quirky and peculiar tastes.
Is there such a thing as perfection in music? What compositions or musicians do you consider “perfect”?
Music is such a subjective art form, so no matter how perfect you may think a song is, there will always be someone else who doesn’t. I don’t believe perfection exists in any aspect of life, but I do believe it’s smart to always strive for your “best” in anything you do.
With that said, I do have a few musicians and compositions that I personally believe couldn’t get any better:
1. George Gershwin – His 3 Preludes.
2. Debussy – “The Girl with the Flaxen Hair” – wrote this for his wife before he went off to war. If there ever was a situation that could bring out the best in a composer, this would be it.
3. Radiohead – Every song off of “OK Computer”
Ready to listen to Joe’s mix? Click the picture below to play or right-click to download. (If the picture is not working for you, you can also download by clicking here.) 
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Ruly License: You may download and play any Ruly Mix song for your own personal use so long as you keep the voiceover tags intact indicating the name of the artist and that the song came from beruly.com. Businesses may also download this song to play as background music in their establishments so long as the voiceover tags remain intact. Any other uses of the song (such as in videos, etc.) must be pre-approved by the musician. Questions about license permissions can be addressed to info@beruly.com.
