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.

Mare Tranquillitatis

Having finished yesterday’s track relatively early in the day, and with just one song left in the month, I decided to take the night off and enjoy the evening with Mary. As a result, this is the first day all month that I’ve woken up and still had a blank slate in front of me. After asking Mary for any final genre requests, I decided to do the final ambient piece for the Lunar Mare series. I hadn’t planned this series out prior to start of the month, which is … Continue reading

Theme from a Sitcom You Never Saw

Because I write in a wide variety of styles, I get a lot of “you should do a [$GENRE] song!” Sometimes these are intriguing challenges, and sometimes I have to politely say, “hey, yeah, maybe,” while internally knowing that it will never happen either because I don’t have any clue how to do it, or because I know that the end result probably isn’t going to be as satisfying as the person thinks it will be. This isn’t limited to my friends, though. The Song-A-Day folks will occasionally throw out a song prompt or challenge: Disco Monday; Write in Locrian … Continue reading

I Cannot Breathe

To really go into where this song came from would require me to be very overt about explaining its meaning. Because I feel I was relatively successful in creating lyrics that had multiple interpretations, I’m not going to go into it, but suffice to say that my emotional state was one of feeling angry, frustrated, and helpless. Channeling these emotional states is one of the blessings of music. It’s a cathartic process that sometimes exorcises the demons. My mom always told me that if I was angry at someone, I should write them a letter and then tear it up … Continue reading

Be Home Before the Streetlights Come On

It’s hard to believe the month is nearly over. I mentioned at the beginning that this year felt somewhat like a treadmill. And similar to the experience of an actual treadmill session, I started out with energy, settled into the pace, and all of a sudden am almost finished. I’m tired and my energy is flagging, but I’m also happy with both my effort and progress. I began writing today’s track, as I have all this month, the night before. I was a bit intoxicated, but got a decent groove set. There was a slim chance of lyrics to create … Continue reading

Mare Nectaris

As I’ve mentioned previously this month, I do worry about these ambient pieces being unenjoyable for others, but two comments on the Song-A-Day site made me feel a lot better about it.  I think my favorite track this year is Mare Imbrium. What could be more beautiful, more emotionally satisfying? I wish I had written that one. Derek Greenberg I think I’ve listened to “Mare Insularum” like five times in a row now. Wesley Thompson These are both people whose work I respect greatly, so getting feedback like this is one of the most valuable external things about Song-A-Day.1The main … Continue reading