Blog 07-30-24

My First Actual Actual Blog

[Section Written on 7-29-24]

Yes, I date specific sections of my blogs. A lot of times these aren’t really intended to be a collective essay or whatever. Think of it more as a compiled collection of thoughts throughout the week. Sometimes it’s about life impacting music, sometimes it’s a thought I have about music, sometimes it’s talking about music I’ve listened to recently, or perhaps something I’ve learned.

Basically, go into these blogs expecting a variety of topics you can pick and choose whatever you’re interested in. Like it when I talk about music tech? Great, there’s a section for that. Prefer when I talk about songwriting? Section for that too. You get the idea, now here’s my thoughts.

Bittersweet Goodbyes; Thoughts on Songwriting

[Written on 7/29-7/30]

As the summer program I worked comes to a close, I’ve found myself writing more about the idea of saying goodbye; something I’m very accustomed to. Having spent over three months here, living and seeing some people more here in a day than some of my family in the past decade, it’s weird to see things silently come to a close. Not a bang, not a whimper, just a steady hum that will always fill space in the background. Despite not being tired most of the program despite often being pushed into beyond exhausting scenarios, it’s only this final week as I watch many of my peers travel across the country back to where they lived, potentially for us to never cross paths again, that I’m forced to reflect on that feeling of goodbye. Or maybe the burnout

The idea I’ve had in my mind for this is like a man watching the sun set. He knows night will come as soon as the sun is said and done. But he’s seen this happen so many times that he starts to hate the natural beauty of the sunset. He wishes the sun would simply vanish so he could get the night over with and start the cycle all over again. He doesn’t want the sun to go away, quite the opposite most of the time. But he knows that can’t happen, that the sun cannot stay forever. So in a bittersweet way, it’s as if the sun setting is mocking him for his inability to change that.

Hold Up, Isn’t This About Music???

[7-30-24]

Yes this blog is about music and no this isn’t going to be just me telling you how my week went. But any creative will tell you that their art is a reflection of themselves and/or their perspective. The life every artist that has lived and will live has had their art shaped by the life they lead rather they know it or not. Basic stuff I know. So while I may occasionally talk about things going on in my life, I try to reflect everything back to music in some form or another. There’s a reason many of my favorite artists take years in between albums.

Kendrick Lamar in an interview with Rick Rubin regarding his release of To Pimp A Butterfly had mentioned that he had taken some time after his good kid, m.A.A.d city tour to visit Africa, a trip which he would directly contribute to the direction that he decided to take in lead to the creation of his greatest work of all time. And that’s why I will do the same (even if on a smaller scale).

Timbre* (AKA: “Why does this mean what texture does NOT mean in Music Theory?")

[7-30-24]

How a sound sounds is very important to me. Riveting, I know. But more often than not, when producing music I’ve been finding myself looking for sounds with a very unique texture to them, building a soundscape around them before building up a melodic idea. But why? Because to me, this is what creates that “more than music” feeling. Timbre is what gives me chills and makes something more interesting to listen to. Primarily, I’ve been taking inspiration from percussive elements in hip-hop and indie electronic music.

European Indie Electronic has been very inspiring for me, and was what motivated me to explore the subject in as much detail as I have been recently. The Icelandic group Múm released an album in 2002 called Finally, We Are No One. The use of digital instruments combined with melodicas, strings, organs, and other “natural” instruments created a very unique soundscape that felt as if it sparkled inside of your ears. The use of unique rhythms and very wet sound selection created a depth that could almost be felt. In fact, in a recent soundscape I composed today I found myself stealing the idea of very wet sounds by using a simple kick/snare loop on every odd beat, but using two delays set to 1/8th and 1/16th echo to create a unique timbre and rhythm. It felt like cheating, but it’s really just discovering. Malay, producer for Frank Ocean’s Blonde and Channel Orange mentioned in an interview with Splice also mentioned how texture was important to his soundscapes; crediting the use of Arturia synths and Waves Analog Emulation plugins to create “shitty” sounds, referring to the rough imperfect texture that analog music used to have and is seen as somewhat “nostalgic” now.

Less to expand on the subject, more to give further examples of the subject above: hip-hop. While all drum sampling ultimately has some element of timbre selection to it, there are three modern examples I’d credit with the inspiration to dip my toes into the water of percussive timbre. The first artist I had discovered when I was about 17, Sarcastic Sounds. Their early “type-beats” on Youtube such as Dead Dreams and Can’t Help Falling In Love used glass-like foley as percussive elements that gave a nice timbre to the beat in addition to supporting the rhythm. Secondly, knxwledge. More or less the same as Sarcastic Sounds in terms of what inspired me, specifically his work on To Pimp A Butterfly working on the instrumental for one of myis it f favorite tracks of the album: Momma. And finally, we have the most recent producer on this list: Stro Elliot. His work on his two EPs, Moods EP (famous for Marvin’s Mood Pt. 1 and 2) and Stro Elliot (self-titled) were particular interests for me.

*For those of you confused by that “short” title, Texture in Music Theory does not refer to what 99.9% of people use “texture” to mean; which makes it super annoying sometimes to talk to people when it’s like “Oh timbre describes the texture of a sound, but texture means how it sounds in a harmonic/melodic sense… but timbre does not mean the same thing as music texture even though the word texture is used to define timbre…” It’s weird, but just roll with it. If you accidentally say “texture” instead of “timbre” most people will know what you mean and won't correct you anyhow.

Is It Finally Over? I Know It's Over.

[07-30-24]

But it never really began... References aside, yep that's it! i plan to keep one of these out once a week. I don't know if I'll keep it to every Friday or if I want it to be more of a "once a week but when it's ready it's ready" kind of deal. But hey, it's my SECOND blog okay? I'd say give me a break but if you've made it this far then I'm inclined to believe that you have been giving me a MASSIVE break, and I want to thank you for that.

Thanks for reading, if you want to see his every week make sure to smash that subscribe button (I know), and thank you again for reading along with my ramblings.