Most days I listen to the same repertoire of music. It will either be Gorillaz, Dream Theater, Rage Against the Machine, Pink Floyd, or podcasts.

When I was in drafting classes, I found the song Octavarium, by Dream Theater. I hold this as my all time favorite song. It is twenty seven minutes long and it goes through several styles of music giving it a wide range of interest. Most of the song is lyrics free so it goes quite nicely while you go into tunnel vision mode while deep into design mode. I would, and still often do, listen to this song in a loop fashion. I used to do the youtube version of having to click every time that it ends. Now, I have it on my iphone and i leave it on loop. I’ve been known to listen to that song for a pure 8 hours straight.

At work, these days, i have several songs that I listen to in loop mode like that. Cortez the Killer was a big one for me last year, it kept a Mexican lady on my mind. Not to mention it is a very chill song with a cool sound. Under Dog, by Spoon is a loop that I play if I want to feel upbeat at work. Seven times in my YouTube loop. And often I’ll repeat that three or four times.

Does anyone else do that?

I’m not trying to memorize them. Heck, I can probably barely sing along to most of it. It is background beats for my zone mode. If I am in a depressing mood, i’ll listen to Hayden, who I’ve finally added to my iTunes library. Hayden is borderline slit-your-wrists music. My friend from high school used to listen to nonsense like that, so it does bring me back to those good ole days.