This track has finally come full circle! This track was originally published about a month ago, but I found out during publishing that the piano track was a stolen composition the whole time! Thankfully I was able to contact the actual writer and owner of the track, Joshua Holmberg.

He was super cool about it and gave me permission to republish the song as long as I credit him. I still can't believe all the bullshit I was put through just to get this song out, but it'll make me more careful with any future collaborations. 

So anyway I got the piano track, figured it out by ear, and then wrote a guitar countermelody to work alongside it. My part is meant to just be like a garnish while the piano dominates the mix. I then produced the track and voila, my first published collaboration!

Per Joshua's request, here is a link to the original: https://flat.io/score/5f83d0f27b623f54eedf36c2-the-silenced-insurgent
If you use flat, go show him some love!

Here is a link to his soundcloud as well: https://soundcloud.com/joshua-holmberg-801304221

Please let me know what you think and I hope you enjoy!

Death Of Dreams

Death Of Dreams (feat. Joshua Holmberg)

(Image by greatdaneinc from pixabay)

I cooked up a tasty little jam for ya and even got my mom to hop on the track! Besides some EQ and compression these are raw, unedited tracks, just like a live performance.

Comment what you think and if you'd like to see this turned into a full song :)

Tasty Jam

Some people heard the original and wanted to hear some percussion to compliment the mix. So I delivered! Credit to my boi Nick Payne for the drum work!

Tasty Jam (with drums)

First installment of bringing my favorite book series, Ranger's Apprentice, to life through music. I hope you enjoy!

Two Weary Companions

I did a cover of Industry Baby by Lil Nas X. Definitely not my usual style but the song slaps fr

Link to the video: https://youtu.be/_-3Ne-ocFqE

Lil Nas X - Industry Baby Guitar Cover

A wake & bake morning is a good morning :)

Video: https://youtu.be/rMq_LnWNzlQ

Wake & Bake

A song about being the awkward guy at the party. At the last college party I ever went to, I was just posted up in a corner like the song says. A girl who was in our friend group kind of kept looking back at me like she wanted me to approach or something... idk. I've kind of always been the shy awkward dude, particularly when it comes to women.

I'm not really worried about women anyway since I'm just super focused on my music right now. I did definitely like her though. Sometimes I still wonder how it would've gone if I just went for it.

Another day, another party where I don't fit in
Only here just to tag along with my best friends
Too loud, too many people and I start to frown
I find an isolated corner and I sit on down
Sipping on my drink I scan the room
Only takes a couple seconds to lock eyes with you
It gets a little too intense and I look away
If I had any courage I'd walk up and say

We're drunk and it's late so
Let me take you home
Now it just feels so right
Let me stay the night

We've met before but we have never really talked
Can't make a move I feel glued to this wall
Steal glances at each other for most of the night
It's so silly of me but I'm just too shy
Having no confidence really bites
I'd rather not be alone tonight

We're drunk and it's late so
Let me take you home
Now it just feels so right
Let me stay the night
We'll turn the lights down low
When I take you home
Come on, come on, let's go
Where we can be alone

You keep looking back at me with light behind your eyes
Looking so beautiful
But if I misread your signal in front of all these people
I'll just feel like a fool

Finally I get up and it's time to go
Looks like I'll be spending the night alone
I can't even bring myself to meet your gaze
You probably don't even like me anyway
Passing by I wonder what you think of me
Guess I'll never know because I'm cowardly

We're drunk and it's late so
Let me take you home
Now it just feels so right
Let me stay the night
We'll turn the lights down low
When I take you home
Come on, come on, let's go
Where we can be alone

Just the Beginning

Take You Home

This was meant to sound like a fight scene soundtrack with multiple moods. The first section is meant to be the action part, while the other two parts are laments, like the people involved are examining all they've lost. 

This is the first song where I used the phrygian dominant scale. This is also the first time I've experimented with dominant 7th chords. Hope you enjoy!

Fall Of Heroes

Keep moving forward, continue to trust in yourself. All will come in good time. I've heard a lot that negativity breeds negativity, and I've found it to be true time and time again. I'm always trying to keep my head up and be aware of my attitude. Just as negativity breeds negativity, positivity breeds positivity! Nothing was ever accomplished by doubtful people with negative attitudes, so strive to never be that person again! Gratitude, positive attitude!

I'm still not where I want to be
I'm still not good enough it's plain to see
They're all looking down on me
Even so, I still believe
Feeling so small deep inside
There's nowhere that I can run or hide
It seems I'm running short on time
All that I can do is try

It's always so much harder for the people like me
To find where they belong
It all will come together, though, eventually
If you keep moving along

The words are so easy to say
What's hard is keeping my faith every day
I can't let my chance slip away
No, I need to be strong today

It's always so much harder for the people like me
To find where they belong
It all will come together, though, eventually
If you keep moving along
Nothing that is meaningful will come easily
You have to be strong
Everything will be ok eventually
Just keep proving them wrong

It's always so much harder for the people like me
To find where they belong
It all will come together, though, eventually
If you keep moving along
Nothing that is meaningful will come easily
You have to be strong
Everything will be ok eventually
Just keep proving them wrong
Keep proving them wrong

Eventually

The very first night of my junior year in high school, I woke up in the middle of the night to hear my sister downstairs screaming. It could have been a number of crazy things; that same day my mom got into a huge fight with one of my other sisters, so it could have been round two of that. My dad was diabetic and got disoriented and sometimes violent when his blood sugar got too low, so he could have been having a dangerous episode.

But no, I went down to find my sister leaning over my father, trying desperately to wake him up. He'd had a terrible seizure, something that had never happened before, and was unresponsive. The paramedics got him to the hospital, and a few days later he was diagnosed with stage 4 brain cancer.

He wasn't supposed to live more than a month after his diagnosis. But my dad was proof of the power of the human will. He was the provider for the family, and he decided to get the hell out of there and take his life back, so he did. He made it out of the nursing home and recovered to the point where he was able to drive and go back to work again. Once he came home, things were almost normal for a year.

It did catch up to him eventually, sadly. He got weaker, he started losing motor skills and the ability to speak. One day we tried to help him to the bathroom like normal, but he was so bad off that he could not use his legs at all. 

That was the worst time of all. He was still clinging to life, undoubtedly for us kids, but he was in so much pain. He was frequently unresponsive and he moaned in pain almost nonstop. That shit sucked.

A few days later he passed, just a few days before I graduated high school. I'll always miss him, of course. Ultimately I've got to figure things out for myself, but my dad had a lot of musical and life knowledge that died with him. I'm glad his suffering is over, and I've come to terms with his death, but there are still times when I miss his guidance.

This song is dedicated to him. If I ever become half the man my father was, I'll live a great life indeed.

If you could see me right now I think you'd be filled with pride
I can't believe it's been so long since the day you died
I still expect to see you coming home from work at three
All the painful reminiscing washes over me
I just assumed you'd always be there, guess I was much too young
You loved me but I could see I wasn't always the best son
For all the times that I was wrong I wish I could repent
I can't wait for the day when I see your face again

When I stop and think about it my only true regret
Is that I didn't do enough to help you, I never gave my best
Letting myself feel it only opens up old wounds
Makes me feel like giving up just like I always do
So focused on mistakes I've made I'm haunted by the past
The good old times have passed us by, oh, they came and went so fast
If I could travel back in time I'd do some things different
But that's okay, because someday I will see your face again

Time will only make me stronger, I'm pushing through the pain
Gonna prove to everyone your work was not in vain
I won't live the rest of my life with wishes unfulfilled
I will use your sacrifice to fuel the life I'll build
The hardest thing I've had to do is watch you fade away
The blameless ones get punished while the evil go unscathed
I'll do my best to live a good life but when it finally ends
I'll be grateful it's the day when I see your face again

Dad it's gonna be so great to see your face again

See Your Face Again

You can't change your life until you let go of the stuff holding you back. I'd probably already be making a full time income from my music if I hadn't been so fucking addicted to smoking weed and playing video games all day. I'm always gonna fuck with that shit, but I know beyond the shadow of a doubt that I need to put my purpose first.

I want to provide value, to truly reach people, through my music. To do that, I know I've got to put in the time every day to be that kind of musician. I'm on my way, I've made lots of progress. Now I just need to keep walking the path.

I won't back down again
I've learned my lesson
I can't live well when
I give in to temptation

Can't fail myself anymore 
No, I've been shown the way
I've made my decision
And now it's up to faith
All the strength I could ever need
Is already deep inside
I can make a brand new start
And live my life with pride

I won't back down again
I've learned my lesson
I can't live well when
I give in to temptation

Temptation

This is my first attempt at ambient music. I was going for spooky video game music, but I ended up with something more relaxing, something you could meditate or even fall asleep to. I could still kind of see it as intro music for a creepy game, but almost all of the comments I've gotten say it's really soothing. Go figure. 

This was my first time really working with dissonances, so I wasn't sure just how much I could get away with. Next time I strive for something unsettling, I'm going to amp up the dissonances and try to really spook out my listener.

Faith

Nightfall

This is my first attempt at classical style music. It uses elements of canons, like taking the same chords through multiple inversions and voicings. It also uses counterpoint when the two lead parts come in. During the choruses, the lead guitar goes into a fingerpicked melody to bring the whole thing to a rousing crescendo.


This might be the happiest music I've written yet. It's supposed to reflect changes I've noticed inside of myself. Life just feels better, more peaceful and special, when you're focused on doing and being what you love. All I care about is achieving my dream (going fulltime as an artist) and being happy and healthy. I just want positive vibes all around and I want to start sending them out through my music.

Peace and Love

This was my first track using a leitmotif, an extremely common technique in video game and film music. Basically you take a short musical idea and tweak and twist it and explore all kinds of variants of it until you've turned one idea into several minutes of music!

I really like the writing and arranging I did for this piece, I just found my production execution (as usual) to be a bit lacking. I was a little too aggressive with my HP filters because I was trying to free up maximum room for the bass, which really grounds the rhythm the whole way through.

Also most parts are recorded using a keyboard. I'm not a keyboard player so some of it feels a little sloppy despite my best efforts in editing.

All in all, though, it's the most complex and lush piece I've ever written and I hope you can enjoy it despite its faults.

Homecoming

(Image by Tumisu from Pixabay)

This song is written using the same video game style techniques I've been using recently, namely mode mixture and motivic development. I start in D minor and end up touching every parallel mode except Lydian and Locrian.

The chorus is very laid back and easy listening while the verses delve into the more interesting territory. The whole song is kind of ambiguous and there's never really a satisfying resolution, kind of like life itself.

That's why I decided to call the song  'Existential Crisis'. You have good and bad, easy times and hard times, yet life just keeps going on and you have to keep being you, whether you want to or not.

Existential Crisis

(Image by Prettysleepy from Pixabay)

This is meant to sound like rock influenced video game boss battle music. I hope you enjoy!

Portal

Take some Dire Straits, Fleetwood Mac, and ACDC, then add a pinch of Zeppelin. What you get is a Stoners And Loners track!

I'm an independent solo artist and guitar hero on the rise from Baltimore, Maryland. Day or night you'll catch me in the home studio cooking up new songs and content.

Stream my latest track "Tasty Jam (with drums)" here on my page and comment what you think. I think you'll love it! Also follow me on IG to connect and keep up with me.

Stoners and Loners

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