My orchestral cover of the Journey classic "Separate Ways" - I was listening to this and just started imagining how well it would translate to an orchestra. Such powerful melody and harmony parts - and what a drum line! My goal was to honor the song and put my own twist on it - including a massive drum section ;) Enjoy!

Separate Ways (Worlds Apart)

This song is a celebration of life and hope - a big 4 on the floor house style beat and bass line with a hopeful brass and string orchestra riding on top. For a long time I found it hard to celebrate much, but I finally realized it was up to me to change my perspective and pull out of that rut. Take care out there and I hope this song can brighten your day even just a little.

Brass Tax

Doubt creeps in when you least want it around. Can I do the job? Will this person feel the same about me? Will I be able to .. ? you name it. And even though we don't want it sometimes, we need it to balance our ambition or push us forward - all depends on the situation. This song is inspired by that duality of oscillating between the states of doubt and confidence and I hope you enjoy!

Doubt

This song is dedicated to my sister and her absolute determination to live with chronic illness but not give up on herself or her love for family and friends. She is an inspiration to me and has touched so many lives in her community. When we were young she played flute, so I wanted this song to emphasize woodwinds and flute in particular :)  Love you sis!

Determination

This is an "Election Year Remix" of my earlier song "Fear, Itself". The song was originally inspired by the persistent fears of the pandemic and a famous quote from FDR about facing our fears. Around the world now I see a division between those who want us to fear and hate others and those who want us to work together for a better future. I felt adding a famous JFK quote - along with the melodic remix - really captured my feelings.

Fear Itself - Election Year

Even though I majored in Aerospace Engineering, I was never much interested in space. But recently I've found that learning about astrophysics is fascinating! The concepts of Dark Matter and Dark Energy are just ways we humans are trying to understand the universe, but we really have no idea what they are or if they exist! Then I found a cool quote from Stephen Hawking about Dark Matter and I just had to try and build a song around it :) It turned into a very mysterious and meditative lo-fi house vibe - hope you enjoy!

Disclaimer - the synthesized voice in this song is NOT actually recorded Stephen Hawking, but it was made from an open-source tool that uses a similar 1980's algorithm for voice generation.

Dark Matter

I wrote the first version of this song during a time in my life when I felt lost - missing someone I could not imagine living without. Over the years I've evolved and so has this song - so while the feeling of this song remains in that emotional space of loss, I also wanted to include glimpses of what is to come after healing. 

The Way I Did

I grew up a quiet kid who was good in school and bad at sports - so I got bullied quite a bit. I feel like those same dynamics are happening around the world today on a massive scale. "Leaders" who are convinced that they matter more than everyone else are bullying anyone they can to force us into submission. But please remember that we outnumber them - and even though it will take time and effort - we can put them back into the holes they crawled out of. 

Power Struggle

I recently took my first vacation in many years and spent some time with the ocean. The sounds and the feel of the water gave me a sense of calm and peace that I hadn't felt in years - so of course I had to write a song about it :) This song is a different style for me - much more electronic/ambient and vibe based in the first movement, and then slowly building to a happy deep house style dance feel in the finale. I'm back at work and the stress is returning, but now I can listen to this track anytime and feel myself relax just a bit. I hope it helps you too!

Peace

Every now and then I just like a fun pop song and this song was inspired by my recent obsession with K Pop Demon Hunters which lead me into K Pop. I am fascinated by the song writing and production which often blend multiple genres into a single song.  This inspired me to try writing an up beat pop style song based on a hopeful sounding bass riff that has dance and trap style beats. Of course I wanted to do this using orchestral lead instruments and the result to me feels hopeful and searching for what comes next in life. 

searching ...

I first heard the song "O Fortuna" playing in the 1980's movie Excalibur as the knights of the round table charged to their final battle. The epic sounds of the choir and orchestra stuck with me and a few months ago I started experimenting with setting that choir against my own trap style beats. It was October at the time, so the whole song took on an ominous tone and it became - Monstrous Fate. Even the real-life monsters of today will eventually meet their fate.

Monstrous Fate

I've been listening to a lot of Blues recently - Stevie Ray Vaughan in particular - and wanted to write my own take on a traditional 12-bar blues song, but then those thoughts got mixed up with 80's  big-brass sound songs like Rosanna (Toto) and Sussudio (Phil Collins).. and suddenly I was writing a 12-bar blues tune in the key of D, with a very trap bass and drum line ... but despite being a blues tune, it is uplifting and bright and I hope it cheers folks up in these trying times! Also, you've probably guessed by now, but the name and the somewhat nautical soundscape are a play on words - a blues song in the key of D, happy sailing ;)

Troy B. Jones

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