Name: Mickey Pearson
Location: Duluth, MN
Relationship to music: Listener, erstwhile performer
Industry: Recruitment (I’m a headhunter, basically.)
I met Mickey through my sister, who was our last contributor to Five Song Project. He is one of the most musical people I know and a really thoughtful mixtape maker.
5songpjct: You and your wife made me a mixtape for my move out to Los Angeles. There were so many great songs on there by musicians I hadn’t heard before, “Los Angeles, I’m Yours” by the Decemberists and “In California” by Neko Case. It was such a great way to learn about my city before I moved out here. I know this may seem like a very High Fidelity question, but what factors go into making a good mixtape?
Mickey: At that time I was at peak music consumption, it was fun to do a mix around a theme. Making a mixtape has really devolved in the past decade to 15 years, because now you can go on Pandora or Spotify and hit play on a song you like and you will get a good mixtape that will go for hours and hours because the algorithms are smart.
When I made that mixtape for you all those years ago, I was thinking “Oh she’s moving to California, here are a bunch of bands that I like that do really interesting songs or have a general theme around California.” I was thinking back to high school I had a specific drive to show off on how much I knew about music, especially when it came to girls. There were always been specific motivations behind these mixtapes, like I could impress the girl I liked at the time..
Now my drive is to show how I don’t need Pandora. I can now make a five or so hour playlist that can be as entertaining and as exciting. I think of these peaks and valleys…of this is the part of the night where this will happen. Two hours of dinner music and then a little more uptempo as the conversation picks up. I am challenging the algorithms to be as specific to my taste as possible and giving them the middle finger of sorts.
5songpjct: I think being kind of old school, I have never really used Pandora to make my mixes, I just do it on my own. I just found one that I did when we thought the world was going to end in 2011.
Mickey: I was at a certain point relying on the mixes I made in the past. There is a certain degradation of being able to keep up with what is new in music since having kids. They have strong opinions on what they want to listen to. I can’t really listen to what I want to in the car. I also feel like the time I would have devoted to finding new music has been supplanted by listening to podcasts. So I do fall back on Apple Music or Spotify to bridge those gaps of finding new music. I love the ability to, when we have people over to dinner or whatever, to be able to put on five hours of music and just let it go, instead of thinking about changing the CD or muddling around with things. There is a huge strength to these services, but they are a little impersonal. When I have more time to myself I would love to delve back into discovering music on my own, be the master of my destiny.
5songpjct: Can you tell me a bit about your theme for this week?
Mickey: My five songs are born something out of my own musical blind spot for the 80s. I never got deeply into 80s-era indie bands and really only know songs that were pop hits with some radio play. With that in mind, these are songs that evoke a sound or pop sensibility I’d love for some cool indie band to revitalize, to varying degrees.
Assignment for February 18, 2018
Today’s assignment is to time travel back into the 80s and think about who you’d have cover these songs. We will see if you and Mickey are on the same wavelength. The originals are song 35-39 on the Spotify playlist and of course linked to YouTube or Vimeo by clicking the song title.
[1] Erasure. “A Little Respect.” The Innocents, Mute/Sire, 1988.
[2] Don Henley. “Boys of Summer.” Building the Perfect Beast, Geffen, 1984
[3] Tears for Fears. “Everybody Wants to Rule the World.” Songs From the Big Chair, Phonogram, 1985
[4] The Outfield. “Your Love.” Play Deep, Columbia, 1986
[5] Crowded House. “Don’t Dream It’s Over.” Crowded House, Capitol, 1986
I COULD talk about music forever with Mickey, but we have to get on to our first song.