woah

Rock

Blues

Everything

Path Of The Nullanon

You are on a hospital bed with the beeping thing and it stops beeping.  Multi-layer original composition with me doing vocals, playing guitar, old Yamaha keyboard, and EWI4000s.

Flatline

Improvised multi-layer rock version of the classic taps military song.  Trying to emphasize that the battlefield has shifted to the digital world.  Old Yamaha keyboard, guitar, guitar effects pedal, EWI4000s.  Waveform artwork is one of my circuits I made of a functioning microcontroller on a breadboard.

Wiretaps

Improvised multi-layer rock with me on guitar, old Yamaha keyboard, and EWI4000s.  This song was later featured in a play called "Rock and Roll Mole" performed at a Chesterfield, VA library.

Now What

Multi-layer improvisation with Korg Radias keyboard and guitar, and TC Helicon Voice Pedal.

Ambivalence

This is a multi-layer planned song I wrote on a Korg Radias keyboard and sang.

Normal Skeleton

In the heatwave of 2024, when my air conditioner died, while the repair man named Jack was installing a new one, I recorded this multipart improvised song, using a real drum set and a chromatic harmonica and Korg Radias keyboard.

Air Conditioning Jack

I copied Jimmy's original song onto my BOSS RC 50 loop pedal, then overdubbed an improvised organ layer onto it using Korg Radias, then let it keep going and extended the end with some more sadness.

Junkie Serenade

This is the first song of my "Nullanon" series, which kind of correlates to a depression section of my life.  Little bit of funk at the end.  If you like the funk there is an extended version of that called "Turbulence Of The Nullanon".  The Nullanon is an anthropomorphized nothingness.

LYRICS:
Behold unto, O gentle love,
The nothing, Nullanon.
'Tis said on many scroll
He knows neither fate, nor reason.
Shall his will be evident?
His image sung through gifted tongue,
(Shall his will be evident?)
A voided hope and without shame,
(Shall his will be evident?)
Regardless of his coming seen,
Bring us to thy empty shell,
Shall his will be evident?
To others, an evil anathema,
Nay man is he, nor solid Earth.
Apathia, athambia, aphasia.
Man is but self-serving.
In hobo form, or merchant storm,
A wanderer o'er land and sea,
O Nullanon, join him now,
All nightmares expound from thee.

The Nullanon

This is the extended part of the end of my first "Nullanon" song.  Just some funky blues, that's all, moderately repetitive.

LYRICS (at the end):
Let there be something new?
No, it's all The Same.

Turbulence Of The Nullanon

This is number 3 in my "Nullanon" series.  The point is there is this thing called "The Same" and everything is part of it.  No matter what you do, all of life is vain.

LYRICS:
The air we breathe is The Same.
The light shown on us is The Same.
The sounds we hear are The Same.
The ground beneath our feet is The Same.
It's all The Same.
It's all The Same.
The light shown on us is The Same.
The sounds we hear are The Same.
The ground beneath our feet is The Same.
It's all The Same.
It's all The Same.
It's all The Same.
It's all The Same.
It's all The Same.

The Same

When someone asks you "What's the difference?", now you know.  It's this thing that came down from the sky and changed stuff after the Nullanon disappeared for a while.

At this point, I started concentrating on generating album covers using artist mannequins.  This is number 4 in my "Nullanon" series.  Imagine a bunch of people used to doing things very unambiguously and then there is something that forces them to start making more granular decisions based on evidence.

LYRICS:
Softly, slowly, swaying in the wind,
The trees reveal a message to begin,
As if a random group of people broke into a song,
The natural and man-made objects start to play along:
What is The Difference?
The great and mighty Nullanon is nowhere to be found,
A wave of synchronicity unfolds across the ground,
The people all are silent and they open up their eyes to the skies.
There's a difference that flies.
What is The Difference?
The Difference descends in graceful hidden coup d'etat.
It suffocates the people and their will.
What once was unambiguous is now a rolling hill,
And though they're happy they will cry inside.
What is The Difference?
It shines so bright,
Look at it and love.
It came from above, it must be good.
Give it all your energy, feed it like we should.
Feed The Difference.
What is The Difference?
What is The Difference?

What Is The Difference

I love the organ melody progression in this song at the beginning.  This is number 5 in my "Nullanon" series which is depression stuff, mixed with some funk organ.  The lyrics for this song is mostly about accepting what happened already and moving forward (stoic philosophy).

LYRICS:
Everything that was is now undone.
Every time we lost, we thought we won.
Everywhere we went is just a memory that fades,
Everything we said was just a promise that we'd made,
And now those promises are broken.
It took us way too long to figure out.
We didn't seem to start,
When we did, we never carried through.
We had a chance, but didn't try.
Pick up our mess, and collect ourselves,
Gather some hope, move forward again.
Rusted old tools in the dust on the shelf,
Moments before it's the end.
Might as well give it our all,
Nothing to lose,
One final attempt.
Maybe we're spent,
But that's how it went.
Might as well give it our all,
Nothing to lose.
One final attempt.
Maybe we're spent,
But that's how it went.

That's How It Went

This song is number 7 in my "Nullanon" series.  It was made to address my late depression period, cause I'm tired of doing things that nobody cares about, especially when the thing you are doing is complicated.  It's about trying to accept that putting all of your energy into a project isn't really worth it, cause you get burned out.

LYRICS:
Can we forget?
Is it time yet?
Will there be more?
Was there before?
When it's all done,
Can we have fun?
Can we forget yet?
Can we forget?
Is it time yet?
Will there be more?
Was there before?
When it's all done,
Can we have fun?
Can we forget yet?

Can We Forget Yet

This song is not cleaned up at all.  Very little post-recording work.
The point of this song was to demonstrate just one of the processes I use to make songs on a BOSS RC 50 Loop Pedal track, and to try out making a composite music video of me playing multiple parts like everyone does at some point.  This is just my raw voice with no vocoders or pedals this time.  I kind of did an ok job on the video, but I'll let you be the judge.  I used Kdenlive on Ubuntu Linux to make the video.

COMPOSITE MUSIC VIDEO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6P-yeDvhzGA

LYRICS:
Let there be something new.
Can there be two?
Can there be three?
Me and me and me?
Should there be four?
Should there be more?
We were alone with The Nullanon.
Is it better now?
Or is it The Same?
What is The Difference?
Are we to blame?
How far is Forever?
Let there be something new.

Let There Be Something New

The 11th song in the Path Of The Nullanon.  Starts out with some drone into some heavy rock, then some soul hammond b3, then some reggae to close it off.

LYRICS:
Remember when it was simple?
When everything was hit or miss?
Now it's all just ups and downs at every turn.
Did we ask for this?
One moment you're above it all,
But then you fall.
Then you wake up,
And you're back on top.
Sometimes we just want things to be the same,
But things keep changing.
Chromatic game.

Chromatic Game

So this is an avant-garde dubstep song.  I began with TEOP1 and intentionally tried to be slightly offbeat and a bit random and to drag it out, then get it all to come together and pull out a primary melody with an electronic lead ("dimension" instrument on TEOP1) with a few piano sections ("pianistic" instrument on TEOP-1) and add in dub bass.  I went through 2 cycles of adding it to the 4-track on TEOP1, copying it out from COM to laptop, filtering in Audacity, copied it back, added more layers, then back to laptop again.  Normalized to -14dB with -1dB soft limit.  This song represents how I felt in the middle of the night at 3am while soldering random circuits for a supercapacitor experiment I was doing, and likely breathing in too much of the lead solder fumes.

Late Night Garage Experiments

Ambient soundscape of being inside of a heart.  TEOP1 keyboard with multiple really low modulated wumps, then a few lead layers mostly triplets of dissonant 2nds and 7ths, intentionally with no rhythm.  Then simple Audacity cleanup to -14dB normalization and -1dB soft limit.

Inside The Heart

I'm going to start doing some live looping performances on TEOP1 so this is a random practice session that is kind of Jam Band / Scat / Funk.  There is a 4-track on the TEOP1, so I can start out with drums or scat and then hit a key to end the loop, then just keep playing live and kind of overdub onto the other 3 tracks, and then also add in breaks by holding on one of the tracks while playing a B section.  I just live improvised the bass loop and then improvised the organ and keys as I went.  Random mood today, sorry to my dubstep and ambient fans :) This one is weird.

Bow Meow

Attentive

Some basic ambient jamming out on Tidal Cycles with simultaneous TEOP1 keyboard at the same time.  If you want to watch me code in Haskell and play the keyboard at the same time, watch here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-g_n5ztNvvk

Multitasking

Download "Koi No Yokan" here: http://smarturl.it/deftemp

Lyrics - "Change (In the House of Flies)"

I've watched you change 
Into a fly
I looked away
You were on fire
I watched a change
In you
It's like you never
Had wings
Now you feel
So Alive
I've watched you change
I took you home
Set you on the glass
I pulled off your wings
Then I laughed
I watched a change
In you
It's like you never
Had wings
Now you feel
So alive
I've watched you change
It's like you never
Had wings ahhh ahh ahhh
I look at the cross
Then I look away
Give you the gun
Blow me away
I've watched a change
In you
It's like you never
Had wings
Now you feel
So Alive
I've watched you change.
Now you feel Alive
You Feel Alive 
I've watched you change
It's like you never
Had wings ahhh ahh ahhh

White Pony

Change (In the House of Flies)

Download "Koi No Yokan" here: http://smarturl.it/deftemp

Lyrics - "Be Quiet And Drive (Far Away)"

This town dont feel mine
I'm fast to get away-FAR 

I dressed you in her clothes
Now drive me far - away, away, away 

It feels good to know your mine
Now drive me far - away, away, away
FAR away
I dont care where just FAR - away [x3]
And I dont care 

FAR - away
And I dont care where just FAR - away [x3]

Around the Fur

Be Quiet and Drive (Far Away)

Download "Koi No Yokan" here: http://smarturl.it/deftemp

Lyrics - "Hole In The Earth"

Can you explain to me how
You're so evil (how?)
It's too late for me now
There's a hole in the earth (a hole in earth)
There's a hole in the earth (a hole in the earth)
I'm out..

Can you explain to me now
If you're still able well...
I think you know the truth
There's a hole in the earth (a hole in the earth)
I'm out
I hate all of my friends
They all lack taste sometimes
There's a hole in the earth
I'm out..
There's a hole in the earth
Please take a bow...
This is the end (somewhere)
This is the end
Somewhere...
There's a hole in the earth
There's a hole in the earth
I hate all of my friends
I'm out...
There's a hole in the earth
Hey..
Somewhere

Hole In The Earth

Hole in the Earth

Download "Koi No Yokan" here: http://smarturl.it/deftemp

Lyrics - "Minerva"

I get all...numb
When she sings it's over
Such a strange numb
And it brings my knees to the earth

And God bless you all 
For the song you saved us...

You're the same...numb
When you sing it's over
Such a strange numb
It could bring back peace to the earth

So God bless you all
For the song you saved us...oh...
For the hearts you break, everytime you moan...

I get all...numb
We're the same numb
And it brings our knees to the earth

So God bless you all
For the song you saved us..oh...
For the hearts you break, everytime you moan
And God bless you all on the earth...

Deftones

Minerva

"Tempest" from Deftones upcoming album KOI NO YOKAN. Single will be available October 9th. Album available November 13th.

"Tempest" Lyrics:
Take
Out the stories
They’ve put into your mind and brace
For the glory
As you stare into the sky.. The sky beneath
I know you can’t be tired..
Lay there
Stare at the ceiling
And switch back to your time just go ahead now try and taste it I know it should be ripe...thrust...ahead.
Turning in circles
Been caught in a stasis
The ancient arrival
Cut to the end
I’d like to be taken
Apart from the inside
Then spit through the cycle right to the end
I wonder just how you shaped it To get back to your prize...thrust..ahead
Turning in circles
Been caught in a stasis
The ancient arrival
Cut to the end
I’d like to be taken
Apart from the inside
Then spit through the cycle right to the end
Wake for the glory
I know you can’t be tired

Tempest

For reasons unknown but time will tell...
Multi-instrumentalist, all types of music, all types of methods.
Occasional collaborations with other artists.
Sometimes I post the sheet music if it's piano.
Lately, my favorite instrument is a TE OP-1 Field keyboard.

Let There Be Something New

NOSTRUMUVA