Presenting Lunchbox Radio
Mixlife the Distractor
Once upon a time I had a grand idea. It was to be an all encompassing and tangible representation of a feeling and love for a certain style of music. A sound that, when you heard it, sent chills up your spine and stopped the world. It was the sound. It was everything I wanted out of electronic music. To me it defined what it meant to be a raver. When I heard it, it just felt right. It made me feel right. I had a friend who shared this feeling and also shared this idea. Our downfall was that you cannot capture a feeling into something real without losing the feeling. We could never focus the idea enough to do anything with it. We called it Mixlife. Even the name evoked that feeling, enough so that everyone around us understood immediately what it was.
We tried to turn it into an online source for Electronic Music culture and news, a dj profile and music resource, an events calendar, a clothing line, a promoter, hell we even tried to be a radio station. We could have done so much with it and that was the problem. It could have been anything. Perhaps it was because we just couldn’t decided what we wanted? Or lacked the discipline to just do it? I honestly think it is because you just cannot take an emotion and make it something you can touch. Its far too abstract a concept.
Maybe we just wanted to hold onto something innocent and free? Maybe Mixlife meant more than we thought it did?
In the end, it became more of a burden than anything. Friendships were tarnished, people were alienated, and I lost sight of what was important.
Mixlife the Lunch Box
After a few years struggling to focus I decided to let it go. I have come to realize that trying to match the scale of this feeling with a business was a terrible idea and was distracting me from the whole point of Mixlife; the music. That was always the point. To promote and focus on the music we liked.
During the end of this fiasco we had an inside joke about Mixlife. It tried to be everything. So, like Spaceballs, we had mixlife the flamethrower, mixlife the toilet paper, and my personal favorite, mixlife the lunchbox. Once I finally let it all go I realized that all I really wanted was a place where I could listen to the music I like with no pressure from anyone else, no expectations, and no bullshit. So at 2am after a long night at work I registered lunchboxradio.com. The next morning I secured a server, installed shoutcast, and starting encoding some of my favorite mixes. I even created a small logo just for the hell of it.
It’s all just for me and my selfish love of a sound that keeps me going. If other people like it then right on. I am not planning on broadcasting this to thousands of people, and I don’t plan on having resident DJ’s or weekly shows. I just want to be able to listen to the sounds that make me feel at home. It is all I really wanted from Mixlife.
Ecsyle the Raver
During the course of all this I also realized that this sound is just for me. It’s what drives me. Other people have other sounds, but I do believe that in the end they have that same feeling. We are united under a common love. Without getting too emo or preachy about it, it’s a very beautiful thing. It’s all about the music man… ya dig?
For anyone who is interested, check it out at lunchboxradio.com. It’s nothing fancy, and the selection is limited at the moment. But if you like the music I like, then you might dig this.
