music

follow along while I play around with songwriting, music making, and noise.

snow day

3/22/2023 (written and recorded 1/29/2022)

This is a little demo that I wrote duing a (you gussed it) quiet, snowy day last year. I'm shocked that winter is already over. This was one of the most mild winters I've ever experienced. I think it only snowed once here in NYC. That's kind of disappointing. I love the quiet that only snow can bring.

At the time, I was trying to familiarize myself with the guitar pedals that I have. I don't often use them in any crazy ways. I stomp them on mostly for distortion or to add some subtle variation to sound. But on this day, I made a loop, and played with the pedals for quite some time to see how weird I can make them. This is a little repetitive snippet from that experience. It makes me happy.

So long winter. Hopefully I'll see you next year.

tester

3/11/2023

I wrote a version of this demo a week or two ago. I like the intro. I like the guitars. In the past, I've always used Logic's guitar presets. I decided that it's time that I've stopped relying on them and instead try to make some of my own sounds. So, I played a lot with natural input distortion on this track. Really, all I did was crank the input up almost as high as I could. The result is super harsh and unrefined but I still like it. We'll see how I feel in a few weeks.

My friend recently showed me this wonderful album by Mid-Air Thief. I'm inspired to create something as luxuriously textured as them. In retrospect, this new demo really sounds nothing like Mid-Air Thief, but the ethos was there while writing. The instruments in the intro of "tester" include drum sticks on a book, my chair, and a metal can being swirled around. I've never done anything like that before, so it's new and cool for me. I like the idea of capturing sounds from my world and using them as percussion, textures, whatever.

I've been listening to some Peggy this week too. I love how all over the place his songs are. I stole the idea of slowing down a track so that it fades in and out for a few seconds. You can hear it in some of the guitar tracks. Again, pretty unrefined, but whatever. I like it. Learning little things. Okay see ya.

electrical - distortion ending

like 6 months ago? (as of 3/10/2023)

I went on a vacation to San Francisco last year and while sitting in the airport on the way home, revisited this song. I thought of some new words and a different theme for it and I feel connected to it. So, I started to jam with it again. I wound up writing some new guitar parts for the end. There's a lead guitar line there now that I really like. It feels loud. It feels messy. I think the whole structure is done. If you haven't noticed, I stripped the vocals out a while ago because I didn't feel too connected to them. So, I think I need to re-approach this song vocally next.

electrical - maximalist beginning and ending

5/1/2022

I really want to finish this song. Today I experiemented with some additional instrumentation at the beginning and end. They both feel a little out of place. The horns are fun, but I have no idea how I'd pull that off in a real-life setting and it might be a layer of overkill. Additionally, I think the end part feels a little too much like 90s grunge. I like the energy of it, but I don't want to fall into old patterns too much. The goal is to make something that sounds fresh. At least there's a semi-complete version of the song here: a beginning middle and end. Now I can begin to refine these different parts as needed. Progress.

electrical - vocal update

4/30/2022

Tried to really focus on cleaning up the vocals. These still feel super demo-y to me, but I'm going to come back to it in a few days and see how they sit. I like how the slight change in words lead to a slightly different melody than my first upload and I'm looking foward to see how this continues to move. I've been playing a lot of Dragon Quest XI lately, and there are many scenes that start off by saying, "And then, morning comes." I like that and I just so happen to be writing a song about the morningtime, so I tried to incorporate that "and then" quietly in the intro. It sounds good when just playing guitar and signing but might be too much when paired with all of the other instrumentation. We'll see. Progress.

And then, morning comes
smelling something electrical
in your hair
up the street
down the stairs
I want it

plug me in
thank you, thank you

electrical - bridge

4/24/2022

Continuing to play around with this song. I tried to write some words and new parts to this for about two hours today and came up with this bridge that I find interesting. Piece by piece. We'll see if I keep this one around once the whole song gets a lyrical theme.

dog-and-pony - demo - 4/20

4/20/2022 (but written like a month ago)

This is a demo that I wrote like a month ago, but want to share. I really like it. It's heavier in guitar tone than I typically go for, but I like it here. This is a song about scenes in movies where people run to eachother longingly. I need to refine the back half of the track, but I like where it's going. I wrote it all in a span of like three days which is a record for me in recent years.

electricalll - demo - 4/17

4/17/2022

Re-recorded this demo so that everything is a bit louder. My initial takes were very soft which could lead to some balancing issues later. I added a little extra instrumental part after the "verse" that turned into something very twinkly and midwest-emo. I'm into it. I'm not too sure what to do with this vocally, so took out the scratch vocals but I'll come back to them. I'm having some issues getting clean guitar takes too. There's a light buzz behind everything right now that I'd like to clean up eventually. But I'm more interested in finishing up the song structurally for now.

electricalll - demo

4/16/2022

After a nice dinner, I went to the studio and recorded this little demo in about an hour. I've been listening to a lot of Jay Som lately -- particularly because I've been reading this book, Mirror Sound by Spencer Tweedy (and co.), all about artists who home-record. It's been a fun read and a good way to find new and interesting music. This was the first thing that came out, inspired by her.