It’s been a while. I’ve been quite busy doing many things, amongst them production of a new album. I’m taking my time with this one, so I don’t expect to be finished within this year. I’m trying many new things this time around.
I’ve been going around to thrift stores and antique shops picking up CDs of music I’ve never heard before. Some finds don’t really appeal to me, others have been an absolute delight. Maybe I’ll share some of my findings at the end of the month. Or maybe I’ll do another round of “The February Files” or “March Music Madness” for whatever month it lands on and sample music from the CDs I like into a beat. Maybe. We’ll see. :0)
I don’t really post very much, to be honest. I get that blogs are supposed to be a lot like journals, so I guess that may come off as counter-intuitive. I have a dozen different notebooks where I journal about a dozen different things, though. When I write on paper, I write for myself. When I write online, it isn’t really for myself because anyone and everyone can see it. That’s just how the internet is. I don’t think that’s a bad thing, nor would I say that writing on paper is inherently better. The two things clearly serve different purposes.
I like having an audience, or being able to share stuff publicly. But I don’t really post on this blog too much because there’s only certain things I’d want my audience or anyone to know. I think I share plenty about my work and my events, anyhow. :0)
It’s not just this blog, anyway. This past year I’ve joined or re-joined a few social media sites to get a feel for them again, and I honestly can’t. I was curious about some of them, and I do pull them up every now and then, but there’s nothing that really inclines me to post very often, if at all. Even if some of these newer website have good policies regarding privacy and data collection — which, yeah, the issues surrounding both have made me dislike social media almost entirely — I just don’t find it very fulfilling.
So, I hardly get personal on this blog or online, but I’ll confess something: I used to be addicted to social media. It’s because I used to be addicted that, even though I have no interest in posting on social media and I know I won’t find it fulfilling, there’s still a part of me that has that itch. I get that itch to find out if this website is actually better, if its actually fun to use, if there’s more people on there, if I don’t want to miss out, and so on so forth.
I take care of that itch by going to events and festivals. Going to them has been so much more fulfilling to me than anything. The experience of meeting people face-to-face and having them connect with my art that way cannot be matched. I feel very thankful for the zine community in particular, because all of the zine events I’ve gone to have had wheelchair access, mask requirements, and helpful resources. I hope to go to more events and even organize some events of my own going into next year.
I love the Internet, though. I just can’t stand social media. The Internet is amazing because you can share things to anyone and everyone, and despite all of its flaws, that’s still pretty fantastic. Again, finding art and community online or offline just meet completely different needs. I’m not going to stop making things for the Internet. I’m working on a webcomic. I’m helping develop a webring. I’m upkeeping my own personal website on Neocities, this very one that you’re on.
Another thing I’ve mulled over about this year is that I haven’t put together an album this time around. I’ve been working on various music projects with other artists and toying around with my own personal work, but nothing is coming to fruition this year. I’ve made a concerted effort to come out with one album every year since 2020, so I have four. You can argue that the re-master and re-release of Terrestre can count, but it isn’t any new music. The odds are in favor for a big new album coming out next year, though. It’ll be the debut of a new band, too.
Anyways. Maybe I’ll post a little more next year, I don’t know, we’ll see.
I’m going to wrap this up with a playlist of every earworm I had each month. :0)
January
February
March
April
May
June
July
August
September
October
I don’t know what happened to me this month, ja ja ja.
I had a lot of fun with the first week of March Music Madness that I’m going to do it again this upcoming week, from the 25th to the 29th. The rules for myself are going to be slightly altered:
Before, I would take a sample and try to flip it into a different genre. I could add new instruments to achieve this, but the drums / percussion had to come from the sample, and only from the sample. (This proved to be kind of difficult in some cases, ja ja)
This time, I’m going to take a sample and flip it into one of these specific genres: either hip hop, breakbeat, or drum and bass. I can’t add any new instruments, the instruments have to be from the sample and only from the sample. But — as you would expect, it’s going to be exactly the inverse — I can add new drums / percussion.
The pool of genres that I’m going to be pulling records from has also been altered to keep it interesting. While it isn’t uncommon at all to create a new hip hop beat from another hip hop record, for one, I want to push myself to get crafty flipping songs that are musically a bit more distant. I like to think that all music is connected, but you get what I mean.
I don’t have a turntable or the money for one, so I’ve decided to wire everything up to my computer so I can scratch records using a Wii remote nunchuck. It was definitely kind of weird at first, but I still have a bit of muscle memory from playing Wii games that I’ve gotten a feel for it.
Ever since early last year I’ve been working on a project with my partner, Tito, called Party Planet. It’s a musical. The Wii remote nunchuck turntablism is supposed to play a part in that, you’ll see. (:
Tomorrow is the start of March Music Madness, an event I made up for myself. Last year I did it during February, but it got pushed back.
Here’s how it’s going to go: for every week day in one week I’m going to take a randomly selected song and make a beat out of it. The goal is to take the song and turn it into a completely different genre. I’m also making beats, not full songs. Because the songs I’m going to sample are randomly selected, I will have to come up with everything on-the-spot — I won’t have any previous listening experience with any of them.
I’m going to use an online record store. Using the online record store’s genre list, I’m going to plug it into a random list picker to select a genre. On the selected genre page, I’m going to hit shuffle a couple of times, and the first song on the page after shuffling will be what I work with for that day.
Ideally, by the weekend, I’ll have five new beats. Maybe in the future it can expand to be the full week or even the whole month, but I’m getting there. (:
Due to some unforeseen circumstances I’m going to have to do March Music Madness next week instead of this week. I had already put it off from February because I was burnt out with music, and after the month por fin tenía las ganas, pero … Life happens. I want to dedicate that time where it needs to be first. It’ll all be alright.
I finished up remastering both Terrestre and Cartucho de Calabozos a while back (around the start of February) but I haven’t gotten around to re-uploading them. I don’t know why I got it in my head that blazing through the mastering process was going to be a breeze, because the moment I was done with the last song I got super burned out. Mastering is an art form unto itself y’all! That’s why its a separate job in music production.
I honestly haven’t been doing much else since then, just hanging out. Sometimes that’s all you can do.
Check out this tutorial for how to send more e-sims to Gaza, the email is back up and they always need more.
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