It was a shock tonight to find out Robert Miles, legendary trance musician best known for “Children”, has passed away. He was only 47; far too young to go. His reasons for going so young are mysterious, but I do not need to ask — he can have his privacy.
I will share my memory of his music and how it improved my life:
The year was 1997. It was near the beginning of the dot-com party; I had moved to San Jose from the East Bay to get closer to my job and to the then quickly expanding internet economy. While my finances were doing OK, the rest of my life was not: I had moved away from my friends to a very bad part of town; I fell in love with a girl who decided to marry someone else; I was alone, isolated, and in a very dark painful part of my life.
It was during this time I had a Panasonic SV-3700 DAT player in a run down room in a shared living house I was renting. One of the songs I listened to over and over on that player, in that run down house, was Robert Miles’ “Children.” Even though my life was very dark, that song would bring me a moment of joy, make me feel a happiness that made my life worth living. I would play the song then rewind it back to the beginning so I could listen to it over and over.
Despite how dark my life was, it is still a warm memory how a song could make things feel much better.
Things slowly improved. I ended up going up to San Francisco one night and meeting Victor there; he helped carry me though that part of my life and is a very wonderful friend to this day. I eventually moved out of the country, fell in love, married, and had a kid.
But I will always remember that dark point in my life and how Robert Miles’ music made it a little better for me.
RIP Robert; you will never be forgotten.
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