Valhalla VintageVerb

Moxie’s Meadow

Note: This post was written in 2025 and backdated to appear on the day I wrote and published the track. I don’t have a ton to say about this one. I think it was probably started with me intending to do a Lo-Fi track, and it certainly fits the formula for one, but it seems a little too… sweet? Nice? Neither of those fit, because I’ve heard Lo-Fi that would warrant those terms. Maybe it’s just not nostalgic enough. Another of my pieces that are a bit more than a sketch but not quite a real thing. I never know … Continue reading

A Songwriter’s Lament

Note: This post was written in 2025 and backdated to appear on the day I wrote and published the track. Two days before I wrote this, another participant asked if anyone had ever written something that they were pretty sure had been written already by somebody else. This was my response: I’m sure I have… most of the time when I’m sure I’ve stolen something (e.g., Raggedy Man‘s hook earlier this week) and I go looking for what it was I stole, I find that it’s close, but not exact. Call it “inspired by.” And if today’s song (I Will … Continue reading

Saltblind

Note: This post was written in 2025 and backdated to appear on the day I wrote and published the track. I almost started this post with, “Well, here we go back to Lo-Fi Land” except that I realized this track was actually my first intentional flirtation with the genre. I say “intentional” because I’ve been writing these types of tracks for years and years, but I always called them beats, demos, or sketches. They certainly weren’t complete works, but something to be fleshed out later. Then I discovered the Lo-Fi station on Apple Music (there are similar ones on any … Continue reading

Raggedy Man

Note: This post was written in 2025 and backdated to appear on the day I wrote and published the track. I mentioned in yesterday’s post that I’d started a track but knew it would be too involved to complete with the time available. But today is a new day, and I’m starting early. Part of what I knew would make it time consuming is it’s based around an old spoken word recording. And when I say old, I mean very old. Over 100 years old, in fact. It is a travesty of intellectual property law that you have to look … Continue reading

The Match Went Out

Note: This post was written in 2025 and backdated to appear on the day I wrote and published the track. Grimecake got posted pretty early in the day, so I had the luxury of noodling time before any sort of panic set in. I didn’t need to worry, though, because I was still in that quirky mood and had the basic bit of this track, consisting of the electric piano ostinato and weird random notes done pretty quickly. I don’t think I ever thought that would be the main focus of the piece, but I knew I was probably heading … Continue reading