The Importance Of Coffee and Music

Originally published to Medium

When I write, two things are constant; music and coffee. Coffee is the fuel I need to get myself going, for me the coffee I prepare is carefully selected dependent on my mood. After all you are most productive when you are in “your space” — that area in your brain where you can just sit down, work and create some wonderful things. Coffee is integral to that process, it signifies to the body “now is the time to work”. But it isn’t just coffee however, their is a second player and its name is music.

I had never really considered the importance of music when drinking coffee before, but I’ve come to the conclusion that their must be a subconscious desire to match your brew with the msuic. And not just “coffee drinking music” where beautiful melodic tunes drift through the air in a cafe but music curated by you and for you.

Once I’ve chosen the coffee my mind automatically moves to what music I’d like to listen to — do I want a throwback from my youth? Maybe I want to explore some new music, how about some hearty jazz? Streaming services like Spotify and Apple Music make this arguably more fun as both services offer specialised playlists based around your listening preferences. I love to dive into these “For You” playlists whilst the kettle boils, trying to unearth that killer track I can vibe to.

For example, right now I’m drinking a coffee from a company called Colonna (colonnacoffee.com) and I aim to do a review for it soon. It isn’t the first time I’ve drank it, so I kinda know what flavours I’m going to expect, I’m trying to find the words for the coffee, so naturally I’m in a thoughtful mood. My music choice reflects this and I’ve picked a playlist called “relax” — predominantly consisting of pop from the last 20 or so years. Right now it is Maroon 5’s She Will Be Loved from the album Songs About Jane. It is an album I am incredibly familiar with having listened to it on repeat when it was released back in 2002. As the song spills on through to my subconcious I don’t need to pay attention to the lyrics or melody, I can let it drift over me and lock me into my space. My creative arena.

Silence is deathly for me, I can’t sink into a sofa and write away, I get distracted by cars, dogs barking and the pitter patter of rain splashing against the window and worse still distracted by my own thoughts. The bills that inevitably need to be paid, reminding myself to not forget to pick up some toothpaste when I’m next out at the shops and more. I am my own biggest distraction.

I could go on and on but I’ll leave it with a question; how about you? Is coffee and music synergised? Do you try and match the two?

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