Month 6 of monthly releases for 2024. It's been a busy month so I'm a few weeks overdue and this song isn't as fleshed-out as usual, but I figured I might as well release what I have so I can get started on the next month.

June (I want to go back to the reservoir at night)

Months 7 & 8 of monthly releases for 2024.

Ok this one was quite the journey. Originally I planned to remix my guitar sample from the previous month's release to create a Brakence-style hyperpop/glitchpop beat because I love that sound and have been wanting to learn how to emulate it. But then as I was working on this one it kept getting more and more dance-y until eventually it went off into jersey club and breakcore territory? Two genres that I was not at all planning on making but it kind of just ended up going there. Took a lot of inspiration from Brakence (obviously) and also succducc. Also I was trying to figure out how to get those glitchy textures and I never really figured out how, but along the way I went down a huge rabbit hole of learning about granular synthesis and I also discovered a NEW GENRE called BOTANICA/PETALCORE which I think is so fire but I didn't know it had a name. So now I definitely want to learn how to make that but at this point I was already doing too much in this song and had spent enough time on it so I tried to just wrap things up and I'll save the botanica for a later release.

TLDR got pretty derailed because I was trying to explore so many directions with this one, but I learned a lot and discovered some new sounds I want to try in the future. Hopefully I can get things back on track with the monthly releases to finish out the year.

Cover art generated by AI.

July/August (Closed Mouth Don't Get Fed)

Month 9 of monthly releases for 2024. This one is a collab with my friend J.Shua (soundcloud.com/user-649127040)! Inspired by the Pokemon biking themes. 

We made this one in BandLab - it was my first time using BandLab and it definitely is buggy sometimes but overall I was pretty impressed. It's got all the essentials of a DAW and it's pretty cool how you can collaborate in real time, for free. I would recommend.

Cover art generated by AI.

September (Illinois Biking Theme) ft. J.Shua

Month 10 of monthly releases for 2024. The sample is a clip of my girlfriend playing the organ at a church in New York.

Cover art generated by AI.

October (Toccata)

This one's a bonus track from the vault! Here's a lofi beat I made back over winter break of 2020. I never released it back then because I didn't feel it was finished, but now that I've got some momentum going with these monthly releases I figured I'd dust it off and try to get it out there. And it turns out I literally had it 99% finished already, already mixed and everything. All that was left for me to do was finish the last two measures of the keys solo (back then I didn't have a midi keyboard so I was drawing everything in with my mouse) and then export it. I guess I just didn't feel confident enough back then to release it - just goes to show how much of a perfectionist I am.

Samples:
Naruto: https://youtu.be/I-vIozLINlU?si=7AZ_Wp3aGevsOKLO
Shiloh Dynasty: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/O6D022Ot7TM

let it all out (ft. shiloh dynasty)

Month 11 of monthly releases for 2024. Cover art generated by AI.

November (laying here with u)

Month 12 of monthly releases for 2024. Cover art generated by AI.

December (Staying Warm)

Lyrics:
It feels like time froze
The second I stepped off the plane at SFO
The absence of snow
Or any distinction in months as they come and they go
There’s no more semesters, commencements, or summer breaks to mark the passage of time
And now all that’s left in the endless 9 to 5 is a person I don’t recognize

Mmm…
Who am I becoming
Most days I feel nothing
Mmm…
Stuck in autopilot
I’m losing my silence
Mmm…
They sold me a dream
But it turned out to be empty
Mmm…
In the blink of an eye
Another four seasons flew by 

Is it just me
Cuz being a person feels harder than I thought it would
When whole industries
Are making a fortune turning my brain into mush
And now I’m uprooted, secluded, and filled with despair
Cuz the world is on fire and it’s probably my fault
But I keep drinking from the firehose till I grow so numb to it all

Mmm…
Who am I becoming
Most days I feel nothing
Mmm…
Stuck in autopilot
I’m losing my silence
Mmm…
They sold me a dream
But it turned out to be empty, empty, empty, empty
In the blink of an eye
Another four seasons flew by

And this never-ending feed
Leaves me never feeling fed
And I open up my phone
To this sense of sinking dread
Chasing self-sufficiency 
Oh, was just sufficiently selfish, I want it to end
Cuz screw independence I wanna be held

--------

This is my first time releasing a song in the singer-songwriter vein, and it made me remember why I don't do vocals. I'm not a singer, and trying to make up for it in the editing phase is a ton of effort and also doesn't get you very far haha. I'm trying to just trust the process though, so hopefully years down the line I'll be better at recording and mixing vocals, and the process won't be as painful.

I wrote this song because I'm coming up on 2 years post-graduating, and sometimes it feels really disorienting being a real adult. It's not how I feel all the time, but it's how I feel some of the time, and I figured I might as well write a song about it. Also added 6 seconds of silence to the end to get the length to match the SF area code.

Photo creds to my girlfriend.

San Francisco Seasons

Re-uploaded to fix an issue with the mix. Originally released 12/16/24.

Here's another bonus track from the vault! I made this song for a music composition class I took 2 years ago, but never finished mixing and mastering it until now. I was trying to emulate the genre of city pop, Japanese pop music from the 70s and 80s.

Sax solo by my classmate Rohan Wassink

Subway Girl

Completely ripped off the synth sound design and chord loop from this youtube tutorial: https://youtu.be/y4w_mNuhxmw

Decided to stop using AI art for the covers because initially I was doing it to avoid copyright but I realized I’m basically stealing peoples art anyways, so from here on out I’m gonna be making the album art myself! So brace yourself for some MS Paint level artwork in the future haha

Had some mixing assistance from my girlfriend on this one because it’s been cooking for a while and by this point I’ve listened to it so many times that I can’t tell what sounds good anymore

STAY ALIVE (jeber bootleg)

I'm trying to become a better musician and producer

jeber

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