music production

A Star Never Setting

Today’s track is much more in line with what I thought I was going to write yesterday. It combines some of my favorite things: granular synthesis, treated pianos, and long tape-style delays. Obviously, this one is heavily inspired by Brian Eno’s Music for Airports, almost getting into pastiche territory. Not that that’s inherently a bad thing – my track Tyrell’s Balcony was a love letter to the Vangelis Blade Runner soundtrack, but it’s also something … Continue reading

Dreams of a Distant Shore

While yesterday’s full-on song was a bit of a surprise for me, with lyrics and theme coming together rather quickly, today was closer to what I was expecting to run up against. I went into the studio around 8 or 9pm, but didn’t actually start writing anything until closer to 11. This was less about not having and idea, and more about just exploring lots of different sounds and noodling with no intent before deciding … Continue reading

Noise In the Signal

As with previous years, don’t expect this post, or any of the ones that follow for the rest of the month, to deal with what the song is about. That’s up to you to decide. In many cases, even what I think they’re about changes over time. That said, this song does an excellent job of capturing my overall state of mind these days. Melodically, sonically, lyrically, it landed pretty squarely on target. It’s vaguely … Continue reading

Let’s Shoot the Moon

In stark contrast to the chaos swirling around me the previous day, this song was written in one of the most devastating silences imaginable: an empty house that’s empty because of a death. If you’ve had the sad occasion to be involved in the immediate aftermath of the death of a loved one, you know that it’s filled, perhaps mercifully, with an amazing amount of work to be done. Funeral arrangements, obituaries, family decisions and … Continue reading

Václava

I’m not entirely sure how to approach entries for 2020. With only two songs written for Song-A-Day, and the circumstances surrounding the reasons why, it seems impossible to take my normal approach of not discussing meaning or direct inspiration. What you’re reading is actually the second time I’ve written this entry. I had provided a more detailed account of everything that went on prior to leading up to the day I wrote this, but that … Continue reading