Campus Life, Lifestyle & Culture

Ask me what I’m listening to

Explore the music behind Prabhnoor's university experience.

October 15, 2026 By Prabhnoor

YouAlberta is written by students for students.

Prabhnoor Singh (he/him) is a third-year Honors finance student in the Alberta School of Business who has a habit of keeping his plate a little too full and, admittedly, likes it that way. Always curious and rarely one to turn down a new experience, he loves meeting new people, hearing their stories and finding himself in places or situations he probably wouldn’t have expected a few months earlier.

Outside the classroom, Prabhnoor is usually bouncing between coffee shops, taking photos of moments that catch his eye, listening to music or podcasts, swimming, playing chess, soaking up whatever sunshine Edmonton decides to offer or convincing himself that the Cameron Library basement is actually a pleasant place to spend an unreasonable number of hours.

Music makes everything better.

I realize this might seem like a slightly ridiculous statement, especially because I have absolutely no evidence to support it. But I stand by it.

Walking to class? Better with music.

Studying? Better with music.

Sitting on the bus pretending you're in the closing scene of a movie? Significantly better with music.

Sometimes the right song doesn't even change what's happening. It just changes how you remember it later.

I have a playlist called Music for the Soul. At first, it was just a place where I threw songs I liked. Eventually, I realized I could remember exactly where many of them came from.

A friend playing one in the car. Someone sending me another. An artist I discovered only because someone else wouldn't stop talking about them.

Somewhere along the way, I realized I had borrowed more than music. Here are some of my favourite artists and what they mean to me.

Frank Ocean

Frank Ocean is one of the artists I associate most with looking backward without getting stuck there. That idea has stayed with me because university makes it easy to turn yourself into a list: grades, internships, clubs, interviews and titles.

I’m especially guilty of this. The people who know you beyond all of that become important. They remind you that achievement can matter without becoming your entire personality.

Paris Texas

Paris Texas always feels confident and uncertain at the same time.

That contradiction feels real to me.

I used to think confidence was something you either had or didn't have. Now I think a lot of it can be practiced. You walk into rooms where you feel slightly underqualified. You ask the question anyway. You apply before you feel ready.

At first, belonging can feel like something you’re pretending. Then, slowly, some of the pretending becomes real.

Mac Miller

For me, Mac Miller is tied to the quieter side of closeness.

• Getting coffee

• Sitting in someone’s car

• Walking somewhere without being in a rush

• Talking about absolutely nothing

Those moments barely register while they're happening. Later, somehow, they become the ones you remember. Maybe that’s because ordinary moments are usually where people stop performing and just become themselves.

Sometimes closeness is just reaching the point where neither person feels like they need to perform anymore.

Tame Impala

Tame Impala makes me think about change, especially the uncomfortable kind.

I think we like difficult decisions and relationships to have obvious heroes and villains. Sometimes they don’t.

You can care deeply about a friendship, relationship, opportunity or even an older version of yourself and still realize it no longer fits.

Leaving doesn’t always mean that something meant nothing. Sometimes it hurts precisely because it meant something.

Zach Bryan

Zach Bryan makes me question what exactly I'm optimizing my life for.

I’m very good at postponing things.

After this exam. After recruiting. After the internship. After graduation. There’s always another checkpoint. The dangerous part of ambition is convincing yourself that your real life starts later.

Some people have taught me otherwise. Not everything meaningful needs to be productive.

• Get coffee

• Take the long way home

• Waste an hour

Sometimes that hour wasn't wasted at all.

Daniel Caesar

Daniel Caesar makes me think about the difference between being understood and being excused.

Someone can understand your flaws and still expect better from you.

Someone can accept you without giving you permission to remain exactly the same forever.

That might be one of the hardest things good relationships give us. Not unconditional approval — a mirror.

But Music for the Soul isn’t just an archive of songs. It’s also an archive of what people left behind when they shared music and playlists with me.

Perspective. Ambition. Confidence. Comfort. Permission to let go. Reminders to slow down. Accountability.

Some of those people are still in my life. Some aren’t.

But all of them left something.