I sometimes rail against this notion of 'chosen family', and I always assumed that the reason I did this was because somewhere in the back of my head I was just jealous of other people who happened to find that and make that happen for themselves because that's not been my experience.

But, I had a bit of a moment of realisation in this week's conversation.

I think the reason that the concept makes me feel a bit icky is because it's almost always spoken about as this wonderful thing that everyone should aspire to, when actually the only reason it exists is due to necessity. Chosen family are there to support you when your biological family fail you.

And, yes, it's amazing, and yes, people are lucky to find these chosen families, but it's almost over-romanticised and made out to be the solution to all of your problems.

Or, maybe it is that i'm just jealous. Who knows?

Anyway, I had this epiphany when I was talking to this week's guest, the singer/songwriter J3M.

We sat down to talk about The Barn, in Toronto, Canada, and along the way we talk about being in the grips of religion, running away to the big city, and the importance of his chosen family.

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