I brewed a pot of jasmine tea to begin with. I spooned it three teaspoonfuls of leaf into the pot of hot water, making sure it didn’t boil to avoid unnecessary bitterness. After a minute and a half of steeping I removed the leaves and went outside.

I had been looking forward to this all day. So I was rather nervous that the album I had planned to experience wouldn’t live up to my hopes. The sky above was overcast, the wind slight and cool. It was not cold enough to be…

I've had a relatively good life. I was never abused, impoverished or homeless. I was born with loving parents, who raised me in a Baptist household. They were missionaries for years and I was a child, impressionable and naive. I was raised on a diet of the usual well-minded christian brainwashing. But my story only becomes applicable 2009.

Till I was 15, I coasted. Sure I prayed occasionally, went to church with my parents, believed in Jesus as the lord and all that, but I…