I Cook and Then I Chill

Note: This post was written in 2025 and backdated to appear on the day I wrote and published the track.

More Lo-Fi! I have to admit that there’s something a bit addictive/attractive with making these. A lot of the pressure in creating a “real” track¹As if that were actually a thing. “Real” in this context is some stupid ideal that lives in my brain and roughly means “difficult and following some possibly obsolete ruleset while other people do “easy” stuff that people are actually listening to. is removed. No need to worry about anything but the general hook and vibe, with just enough extra bits to keep it from being completely monotonous. Even that last bit is a soft target – monotonous is kind of the point, though we use less loaded words for things that are designed to melt into the background of your mind.

As far as writing this one, I don’t remember the specific order. What I do know is that the effects are a huge part of this style. Listening to the instruments before I pass them through various nostalgia filters is interesting. The general vibe is still the same, but it just doesn’t have the same effect. Frankly, I think the “distressed tape” thing is overdone these days, but people still seem to love it. The other Song-A-Day participants certainly reacted well to this one.

The problem with overreliance on a fad-driven sound or technique is that it will inevitably make this piece sound dated at some point. Then again, it’s dated already, harkening back to lifted loops from vanilla white 60s easy listening. So maybe it’s more like a sepia-tone filter on a photo. Yes, it’s dated and stylized, but that was the point from the beginning.

I sound as if I’m still mentally wrestling with this style, but I’m really not. I’ve begun to embrace the ethos and production style. I personally enjoy listening to this stuff when I’m bopping around the house, so why should I feel bad about writing it? When you get right down to it, many popular musical genres aren’t terribly difficult to make: house music, three-chord punk rock, mumble rap, anything post 2015 that relies on loop packs, and so on. The trick is knowing what the tricks are. What makes that style unique? Or maybe put another way, what gimmicks are signatures of that style?

For better or worse, that distressed, warbly sound is a signature part of Lo-Fi, as is oversaturation bordering on distortion, muffled filters and high-frequency roll off, and the ubiquitous space echo tape delay. It’s almost more of a challenge to see how you can fit those bits together without being overly trite (but still being trite enough). It’s also important that not everything be all grainy and broken. There are still aspects of clean, modern production that have to sit correctly or the whole thing falls apart.

This is one of my better Lo-Fi tracks, and I definitely enjoy it when it comes on. It would probably be a good lead track for an EP or album. And if you recognize the title, you probably have $240 worth of pudding somewhere in the house.

Colophon

Instruments & Samples

XO, Piano in Blue, Trilian, Keyscape, M-Tron Pro, Streichfett

Effects, Mixing, & Mastering

FabFilter, Gullfoss, Softube Dirty Tape, Valhalla Plate & Delay, PanMan

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Notes

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  As if that were actually a thing. “Real” in this context is some stupid ideal that lives in my brain and roughly means “difficult and following some possibly obsolete ruleset while other people do “easy” stuff that people are actually listening to.