Trading Spreadsheets for Soundwaves
Welcome to Audio Toxicity!
Hey everyone, I’m JT (AKA James Trash, AKA J.Trash), and if you told me a year ago I’d be trading my corporate access badge for a blog login, I probably wouldn’t have believed you. For the last 28 years (or “a long, long time”), my work life revolved around the frantic, exhilarating, and sometimes ridiculous treadmill of managing technical innovation initiatives for the entertainment industry. Think requirements documents, Jira tickets, product roadmaps, and a relentless focus on the next big thing that might or might not actually matter (spoiler alert… most of it DIDN’T matter… not even a little).
My world revolved around music and entertainment, but in the most sterile way possible—the business of entertainment, with all the joy sucked out and replaced with ROI.
The Great Escape
(BTW… A fantastic song with the same name can be found at the end of British neo-prog band Marillion’s seminal album Brave)
So, why the change? I finally hit that wall. I looked around and realized that the things I was most passionate about—the depth of a classic album, the thrill of discovering a new favorite artist, the technical brilliance of a masterful performance—were the things I was spending the least amount of time focused on. The products I helped build were dictating what people heard or watched, but they couldn’t capture the feeling of a song changing your life.
I decided to stop optimizing other people’s profits and start optimizing my own happiness, so I’ve stepped back from the endless Zoom meetings and digital “paperwork” to focus more on what truly moves me.
What We’ll Be Talking About
This blog, Audio Toxicity, is my passion project. It’s a place for deep dives, unfiltered opinions, and (un?)pretentious appreciation for all things audible (and maybe visual, and maybe even cultural).
Here’s a taste of what you can expect:
An examination of new releases: Leveraging my 44 years of experience as a working musician combined with an out-of-control sense of FOMO for new music and trying to listen to everything I can as it’s released. To ideally discover those tiny gold nuggets that can become your new favorite band, album, or song.
Lost & Found: Shining a light on underappreciated bands, forgotten albums, and anything else in the lexicon of recorded music that may have slipped through the cracks.
The State of Sound: Taking a critical (if perhaps non-technical) look at modern music production, streaming culture, and the ever-evolving role of tech in how we listen.
Just Great Music: Simple, enthusiastic reviews and recommendations across all genres—primarily rock, but with explorations into jazz, hip-hop, or other hard to categorize music.
Think of me as your slightly-jaded, but deeply enthusiastic guide through the musical landscape. Not the WHOLE landscape, mind you, but the little slice of it that moves me. The corporate agenda needs to be sent back into the nosebleeds, while the reason these corporations exist in the first place, takes a seat in the front row.
Let’s Connect
To be frank, I’m as opinionated as any self-respecting music snob should be, but still open to vibrant discussions with fellow music lovers. The only metric that matters now is how much we enjoy the music.
Thanks for stopping by. I’m excited to finally share what’s been humming in my head.
- J.Trash