feature: musings of an indie musician

You can pretty much thank the bedroom muscians of the world (and the failures of getting an answer on “Let’s Start a Band”) for me working up the nerve to put this out to people.
This summer, I had rummaged through my USB drive, only to find a batch of EPs that I have created in the past year. As a way of reintroducing myself to people through my work, the original plan was to release a trilogy of EPs, each showcasing what I do. But until I find that other one, then its only going to be two.

By Lightning Pill

The first one is a batch of songs I wrote in the fall as an EP. At the time I wrote this (along with other tracks), I was biding my time, until I can try again to put together a local band to perform this with. The music I wanted to make was a choice of new wave, shoegazing or folktronica. Due to people being busy with their own things, I decided to stop waiting on the chanceto make a band and just make music on my own. Program my own drums, use some snapping, use whatever sound is at my disposal to create the kind of music that I have always wanted to create. I never really understood yet how that kind of motivation can squeeze a lot of originality out of you.

My arsenal was a keyboard, a roll-out piano and my laptop (Shoutout to my parents for getting those for me!), and the object was just to create music without regards to genre. Enamoured with the idea of creating a futuristic version of folk, I used all of them to write three songs. The meanings can be found on my bandcamp. The second EP is a collection of beats I had created in my spare time, mostly in my wife’s bedroom. Instead of using real instruments, I decided to experiment with the sounds made around me, from the fan/air conditioner in her room to the tapping of my own keyboard. The point of both of these EPs is to show that you don’t need to go into a studio to make beats and record anything. You can if you want, but you don’t need to. If you are really inspired and creative, you can work around the problems that come with that and wind up making the best kind of music in your own bedroom. Just grab any instrument or noisemaker in your house, and see what you can get out of that.

The reason I decided to put this out there is not just to put my stuff out there, but because I was also hungry to hear more experimental works on Afropunk. Those who have read my blog entries know that I am a huge fan of experimental stuff, not just in the hip-hop section either. Not just wavy R&B and avant-rap (alothugh the artists that are taking that on are pretty fuckin’ awesome), but just the sound of something we have never thought of before.

Hopefully, this album would hold you over, while I work on my trilogy album Postcards from Another Planet, an album that lets you into the mind and soul of a man with Asperger’s Syndrome.

RIYL: Black Moth Super Rainbow, Animal Collective, Youth Lagoon, Okay, Casiotone for the Painfully Alone, Daedelus, Alpha Pup Records