Music

As the child of two professional musicians, it was inevitable that music would be an integral part of my life. These are all of my posts related to music: my own, other artists, production and studio technique, synthesizers and music tech, and more.

Let the Water Hold Me Down

As David Byrne once said, “Well… how did I get here?” This has been the most difficult Song-A-Day I’ve gone through in many respects, and almost every day was a fight of some kind. But apparently I was so busy looking at my feet trying not to trip that by the time I looked up, I’d reached the destination. And there’s yet another Brian Eno connection to the month: he produced and co-wrote that song. All of these Brian Eno moments over the last month weren’t intentional, I just kept finding more and more ways he’d influenced me directly, or … Continue reading

Caconym

It’s been a tradition for Song-A-Day participants to hold some sort of get-together wrap party. In recent years, this became a virtual event because more and more participants weren’t in the San Francisco / Oakland area. Typically, this happens a week or two into March, but this year it was held earlier today. On the one hand, it’s nice to talk to everyone while things are still kind of fresh, but at the same time, I hadn’t even written my final track yet, so it was a little strange. After everyone went off to their normal lives (such as they … Continue reading

Baryphonic

Sometimes writing a song like 509 can cause incredible pressure or an unrealistic expectation that because I did that yesterday, I should be able to do it again today. Happily, I actually found it to be a relief. There are only two days left in the month, I’ve written a couple of really solid songs, so I can actually relax a bit and feel like I had more of a “quality over quanitity” kind of experience this time around. That’s not to say that I didn’t feel pressure when sitting down to start writing, only that it was more the … Continue reading

509

I’m really torn about what to say about this one. It’s difficult to discuss the writing process for it without getting into what I was writing about. And what I was writing about might change how people feel about the song, despite the fact that the song definitely went way beyond what I had originally planned for it. I guess I can say this much: this started off as a response song to a track posted by another Song-A-Day participant during the month, and it was kind of just supposed to be a joke. But the more I thought about … Continue reading

Molten Salt Reactor

We’re on the home stretch now, and sort of in a groove – that part of the marathon where you know you’re going to finish. It’s not any easier, but mentally, there are only a couple more hills to climb, a couple more turns to make, and then you can stop running, at least for a few days. There’s not a whole lot to say about this one, in either the production or composition sense. I sat down, some sounds caught my ear, I recorded them. I thought this was going to be me heading down the road to experimentation … Continue reading