Hello reader, my name is Tom Taylor, but I go by the stage name Your Shadow Self. Music has always played a large role in my life, however ever late 2019 the way I viewed it significantly changed. To me music was always a chore, something I had to do, like practicing the drums everyday. This all changed when I created my first ever band in Year 8 at school. My band mates got me into bands such as Nirvana, Metallica and more; this was the first step in the development of my love for music. However shortly after this the coronavirus came around along with quarantine. I spent most of my time writing music and teaching myself instruments such as the guitar and bass. During this time period was when I first started feeling down. Over the course of a year I became extremely depressed and have been since. In late 2022 I wrote a song in a genre that was nowhere near to what I was used to. I wrote the song about a best friend in the future perspective with the possibility of us having fallen apart. I found myself writing more songs like this, basic guitar chords with lyrics depicting my emotions and the things I was struggling with. In the past this was something that I had done with metal music, however something about this Indie style felt different, I connected with it on a deeper level, it felt more raw and emotional. Writing these songs became a way for me to cope with my struggles, to tell a story in a way that appeared less scary for me. Within a year I saw how much of my life this music was becoming and I realised that this is something that I would want to do for a living. I want my music to be more than just for me, I want others to have something to relate to, to interpret in their own ways and to find comfort in it, knowing you are not alone.