my original plan for this blog was to have more frequent entries. that was a bust...
it’s been a little over a year since i had decided to start learning music. it happened on new years eve 2017. the party i was at had a basement filled with instruments. all of my friends who were there are talented musicians. i decided to throw myself into the jam session on guitar and i realized i could actually (barely) hang. i found it inspiring.
a few months later i bought a guitar and way too many pedals. i spent countless hours on youtube just absorbing whatever i could. i put what i learned into practice and attempted to write some stuff. a lot of the output from 2018 is over here. i really surprised myself. i have never had trouble coming up with an idea, but finishing one is another story.
i spent the fall of 2018 playing a lot of red dead redemption 2 and watching sergio leone films. ennio morricone’s name was constantly popping up in my life. spaghetti western music had invaded my mind.
“i want to make a song like that.”
this thought used to be met with, “but you don’t know how.” i took that to be the truth and the end of the conversation. instead of giving up, i decided to respond to myself.
“that’s true, but i can still give it a shot.”
the last few weeks of 2018 were spent listening to soundtracks, watching youtube videos, and asking myself a lot of questions. “why does this moment in the song make me feel this way? what is happening musically, on a theory level, that is influencing that feeling?” i was able to make a little sense of some of those questions. i also bugged all my friends whose musical opinions i respected.
at the beginning of 2019, i recorded this. i’m really proud of it. it took a long time to shape it into what you are hearing now. the process from the initial idea to a complete song was something still very new to me. the next step is to record the parts i made using software with real instruments. it will be a mixture of myself and my very talented friends on the final recording.
riding the high of completing that song, i wanted to keep on making things. it was late january and pretty cold outside. i spent a lot of time holed up in my room. one evening, i decided to revisit john carpenter’s the thing. after that, i spent some time listening to john carpenter’s soundtracks. i loved the fact that he made the soundtracks for his films. he’s made some really iconic songs. what’s funny is that the thing is one of the few films he did not score. it was done by ennio morricone! the transition was complete and .now all i could think about were the simple patterns of electronic sounds that made so many of john carpenter’s scores memorable.
i had that feeling again. i wanted to make a song like that.
i spent a weekend exploring every synthesizer sound logic had pre-installed. i made my own drum beats. it was challenging. when you’re playing in a giant sandbox, it can get overwhelming. it’s difficult to not want to throw every sound you find and think is cool into a song.
my guiding principle throughout the whole process was “keep it simple.”
this was the result. a four song electronic EP. i decided to title it the memories of john carpenter in honor of the person who inspired me. these songs were recorded with images in mind. i wanted a way to share them beyond audio.
there was a time in my life when i wanted to work in film. i didn’t have a specific job in mind. i loved it all. editing was always fun and it had been a while since i flexed that muscle. these songs seemed like a great opportunity to get back into it. i made a video for the first track here. digging for the videos was its own adventure and it sort of turned into an obsession. i have a hard drive with about 70gb of video now to play with for future projects.
between february and now, i have been throwing myself at other genres. i’m also learning new techniques and shedding bad habits i formed (mostly out of of laziness). it’s been wonderful to record and save all of my work. there is a lot that will never see daylight, but i think it’s important to retain it for a few reasons. the main one is so i am able to reflect and see actual growth. i can recognize when i had taken a month off and tried making something versus the things i made consecutively.
last week i decided to incorporate my microkorg into my workflow. i’ve owned it for half my life and really have never shown it the respect it deserved. i got lost playing my guitar one evening. i kept droning on this idea. i realized it was something worth experimenting with. i made quick decisions as i found some sounds with my synth. a few hours later i created this. i had taken a new approach with the recording.
i normally spend a lot of time planning out what i am going to record. it’s how i learned how to make songs. at some point it sort of just became the only way i could make a song. i think this happens to me a lot in life. i do something so many times that i forget there are other ways of accomplishing the same goal. it was such a freeing feeling.
i woke up still feeling good about what i had made the night before. there was one thing that had been nagging at me for a bit though. i really wanted to make a hip hop beat using samples. i had spent a week or two watching a lot of videos on how to do it. because of how i was feeling, i was willing to give it a shot. i already knew what i wanted to sample.
i mentioned earlier how i like to save everything i record so i can reflect on it. another benefit is repurposing. i found an idea i had with a silly drum beat and an organ playing over it. the organ was playing two chords back and forth. something clicked. i dropped the drum beat and recorded a new one. once a skeleton started to form i did a quick internet search for rap acapellas at the tempo of my beat. there were a few to choose from. MF DOOM is my favorite mc out there. once i found one of his, it was a no-brainer that he would be featured on my first beat.
my friend b complex came over and helped with the production. it’s nice to have someone you trust to bounce ideas off of. he also had great things to add that i would have never considered. together we put this out. the process of making it was so much fun and i definitely plan on making more.
the purpose of writing this today is because i just completed a video for 001 here, and i wanted to share it. it felt strange sharing that video without speaking about all of the other things i have made so far this year.
there are plans for some of these projects during the second half of 2019. i’ll actually be performing the spaghetti western song at my company’s talent show in a few weeks. it’ll be me and 10 of my co-workers playing. that will forever blow my mind. there was a time in my life when i would never dream of performing a cover in front of people, let alone something i made myself. it’s been a fun journey so far and i am excited to keep on making stuff.
i’d say check this site for updates but as you can see, i don’t update it much. clicking the photo below will bring you to my soundcloud where i usually post stuff to share. <3
this is where i made all the stuff i linked. i recorded 95% of what you listened to in my pajamas.