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A couple weeks ago an editor from the RedEye newspaper asked me to write about my three favorite songs; an old standby, a new infatuation, and one I love to listen to while street-style hunting. For those of you who don’t live in Chicago, the RedEye is the Tribune’s free daily paper aimed at commuters in the 12 million + metro area so this was a huge honor, considering I’m a fashion blogger and not a music blogger. Although I rarely talk about music on my blog or on twitter, I listen to it constantly. I’ve been into downtempo since early high school, when I found Zero 7, Portishead, and Thievery Corporation in 10th grade. Senior year of high school I was really into Radiohead, Goldfrapp and Pink Martini; my dad and I listened to Felt Mountain and Sympathique on repeat the whole drive up to Michigan State in August 2004. The songs on those albums will always remind me of how I felt on that 15-hour journey to East Lansing from Fayetteville; equal parts painful nostalgia and unbridled excitement at beginning the adult phase of my life. I didn’t know a single person in the whole state of Michigan. I’m an adventurous soul, but I’m not going to lie and say it was easy. Moving away – alone – was very, very difficult for the first two months at MSU and music got me through it.

In college I fell into a group of friends who were into jam music. The summer of 2005 I went to Bonnaroo, my first music festival ever, and had the time of my life. My high school preference for chill and ambient flavored my choice of jam music; STS9 and Lotus easily became my two favorite bands in college, although even to this day I still find myself reaching for old favorites like Hooverphonic. After moving to Chicago in 2008 I started listening to ethereal music more often, like Sigur Ros and German producer Ulrich Schnauss (who I found via Pandora) for a very simple reason; there is nothing more pleasurable than listening to spacy music while walking around the most beautiful city in America. As a former New Yorker, I can say that about Chicago! If anything, I should be biased against the Windy City with my East Coast roots. But damn do I love this city. As an outsider I have a different perspective on Chicago than the people who grew up here, and I realize that “best city” judgments are simply a matter of taste. Dreamy electronica is particularly well suited to the streamlined architecture and open green spaces of Chicago; listening to my “Ulrich Schnauss” Pandora station makes Chicago feel like a Utopian version of the Manhattan in my childhood memories.

In late 2009 I developed smoldering appendicitis, it went undiagnosed for 45 days despite being hospitalized three times at Northwestern Memorial. I’m very lucky to be alive, and ever since that brush with death I’ve looked at music in a new light. Ulrich Schnauss’ album A Strangely Isolated Place and Joanna Newsom’s Ys albums helped me find the strength to survive as I laid there hooked up to machines, listening to their dreamy music on my iPod. I’m not being hyperbolic. By the time the doctors finally removed my appendix, I had lost 20 pounds and was very weak with full-blown peritonitis. Even to this day, Ulrich Schnauss’ music has a weighty undertone because it reminds me of what a privilege it is to be alive. That’s why I love listening to it while street-style hunting. Is there anything more invigorating than walking around a dense metropolis looking for inspiration and beauty of all kinds?

Between 2009 and 2011 I alternated between Pretty Lights and other dubstep-twinged electronica, but within the past six months I’ve been listening to more minimalist bands like Loscil and Ratatat along with darker ethereal electronica from British groups like Hybrid. I’ve also gotten into soundtracks too, which I used to think were boring. Inception and Dark Knight are my two favorite scores at the moment. Chalk it up to old age, I guess.

Oh, and the one type of music I don’t listen to? Pop.

1. My Old Favorite Song: EHM (live) by STS9

OBVIOUSLY this YouTube video is NOTHING compared to a live STS9 performance

2. New Favorite Song: Sickbay by Loscil

3. Favorite Song to Street-Style Hunt to: Monday – Paracetamol by Ulrich Schnauss