Man, it’s been such a long time since I wrote a post for any reason whatsoever! Wow. It’s almost like I forgot about it. I offer no explanation.

As consolation, however, I will summarize my life situation. I’ll start by announcing that I was at last dragged into Facebook. You can follow my status there as well, now. In fact, if you have been paying attention to aforementioned Facebook, you may have already seen the subject matter of this post.

Anyway, a summary of my life situation.

  • I’m entering my second year at Western Washington University in this upcoming fall. College is busy work, far more so than you can really easily be prepared for. I’ve decided to major in Computer Science (which was obvious) and minor in Japanese (less so). Japanese is loads of fun, and the presentation experience is good for me. So is the huge amount of group work required for Computer Science.
  • Shelby and I have been together for 2 years and 2 months now, and are still going. It’s been a blast. Very, very educational, and very, very enjoyable. Shelby is not one I will ever forget, nope nope.
  • I adore Bellingham and would not mind remaining here for the rest of my life. I don’t have any particular desire to, but it’s a great place. There’s stuff to do, the scenery is beautiful, the town is adorable, it’s just wonderful.
  • I have successfully abstained from Pokemon while the format sucked and while I didn’t have money or time. Now I have external funding and a little more time, and the format doesn’t suck. I don’t have high hopes for abstinence.
  • I have an amazing job working at the technical services and web help department at Western. I’m gaining all sorts of valuable experience, they’re unfazed by budget cuts (you gotta have tech support!) so I have full time employment over the summer, and the environment is just awesome. I’ve almost forgotten what it was like to not have a job over the summer - what was ever so bad about working? What did I even do?

Now we get into the subject matter of this post.

Is it bad if I really enjoy creating elaborate gifts for Shelby? This year, for our two-year anniversary, I wrote her an entire album of computer-generated rock and orchestra-esque music (the genre is “instrumental” I guess), which is titled Sketches. I intended to write up a post about the album immediately, actually - but to be honest, my excuse is that I couldn’t figure out my login information and had to go hunting for it. Here is the belated “analysis” to go with the album - my thoughts on each individual song.

I admit it… I just like writing stuff.

Track 1: Tempus Borealis

It’s the first track of the album, but this was actually the last one I completed.

It took about two days in all to write (which is fast). I had originally intended to play with some sort of techno sounds, but the mixture of bass and percussion was very hard to emulate, and I ended up just sort of going in a rock-ish direction. You can hear a lot of influence from some of my newer musical interests, such as 10 Years’ “Fix Me”, as well as some of the whispers of a recent Rush concert (Caravan). The song has a lot of chorus and echo - which led to playing with some interesting “effect solos” (primarily, the end of the song), but also seemed to make the whole thing very busy and noisy.

I still really enjoy it. It’s one of my favorite tracks on the album.

Track 2: Land of Atomyka

Inspired clearly by Atomyk Ebonpyre, by Toby “Radiation” Fox for Homestuck - this was the earliest creation I actually finished. I went back and updated each of the instruments with my improved “skills” so that it would mesh with the rest of the album. This was really meant to just be sort of a rock-y remake of the original song, and I succeeded in that. It’s a heck of a lot of fun to play.

Track 3: Thunder for a Dead Man

Thunder for a Dead Man comes immediately after Land of Atomyka in the timeline, I believe. This was also indirectly inspired by a Homestuck song - rather than enjoying an entire melody, there was a simple sound I wanted to accomplish, involving a gentle orchestral sweep to a sudden climax. I wrote that… and then the song took a different direction. A wonderful direction. Though I enjoy the simple metallic feel of some of the later songs, I often amaze myself with the intricate inner workings that went into the latter part of this song.

This is the only song with external sound effects added in. There’re a couple of glitches at the beginning, and I could have done my fades and timing a bit better - but it sounds pretty cool nonetheless.

Track 4: Odyssey Noir

This song was a ‘dream remix’ I had hoped to do and didn’t think I had the skill for. Until I actually tried it. I believe it comes in second-last chronologically - after my experiences with Thunder for a Dead Man, Time Stands Vigil, etc - and would almost stand for a culmination of my efforts. Sadly, I don’t think it really measured up to the huge epic I wanted it to be - but it sounds pretty darn cool.

The original is another by Toby Fox: The Ballad of Jack Noir.

Track 5: Time Stands Vigil

One of my online friends had been proof-reading some of my music for me. He’s a writer, and he takes music and characterization seriously - in response to one of my later songs, he asked me to write something about one of his characters. This was an original result. We spent some time talking about it and it turned out that this wasn’t what he had envisioned at all, but we both agreed that it was still a really cool song and so I stuck it on the album for good measure.

This one was odd. I enjoyed making it very odd. The harsh piano accents and the chromatic scales somehow manage to make a less violent and angry sound than I usually produce, despite being musically - well - violent. It also includes some time shenanigans, because who doesn’t love time shenanigans? Metronomes. That’s who.

Track 6: Wistful Dreaming

I don’t know what happened here.

This song literally appeared in GuitarPro after about ten minutes of staring at a blank piano track. One of my mental characters had vividly begun to play piano in my head - and then this happened. I don’t know how I did it, really. I don’t rightly remember writing any of it, making any design or artistry decisions… none of it. All I know is that I wrote this thing that was meant to sound haunting, sad, and alluring - and I succeeded wonderfully.

When I showed it to J’Neil, she asked how many pianos there are. Technically, there are two tracks - one on the left and right side, playing the exact same thing (I did this in a number of songs), but they’re only playing one “piano part”. I described it to her as being played by a single telekinetic pianist. See if you can pick out the places where there’s a “third hand” playing…

No, that’s not meant to be dirty in any way. Goodness.

Wistful Dreaming, despite being a one-of-a-kind pure piano track, is apparently a pretty common favorite. I do really adore it… but I can’t say it’s my favorite. That title belongs to one of the next two.

Track 7: The Wraith King

This song is inspired - for the Stephen King buffs out there - by Randall Flagg, somewhat indirectly. Him and his many forms. His cosmic omnipresence. His unending cunning and cruelty. The unbelievable will to get what he wants - whatever it is someone like him could want.

The Wraith King was a turning point in my musical experience. It sounded completely different when I first started - I don’t remotely remember what it originally sounded like, but it wasn’t anything like the current sound, not nearly as heavy and harsh. I got into the song a ways, thinking that it was “all right”, and as I delved onward, I ended up making something that sounded better… and better… even though it was turning completely away from the original sound. At one point, I stood back, and realized that whatever it was I was writing was not what I had started with - and it was much, much better. (For the musically acute, it was around the key change.) I went back and rewrote the beginning, then finished the song. This is the result.

This is probably my favorite song on this album, and contends for my favorite song ever. I just can’t get enough of that key change.

Track 8: Light at the End

Light at the End was another “character theme” inspired by my music proofer. The original character in question is a mixture of your everyday “magnificent bastard” and a classic antihero. I adore him, and I enjoyed writing his theme once I got into the character of it - but what ended up happening was, I wrote something far more general, whose artistry I liked a lot more than just a “character theme”.

This song feels to me like one of those weird romance themes where you have a character seemingly too cruel or self-serving to be capable of a romantic interest - but they pick one up anyway, and are forced to learn the hard way how to handle one, but also just how rewarding it can be. Except, sick and twisted, a backwards and violent version.

Or you can just like it because it sounds cool and crazy. That’s perfectly legitimate too, because it is pretty cool, and it is very crazy.

So that is Sketches, I suppose. I shamelessly force you to listen to all of the songs again or be condemned to irrational guilt. My plot advances. Ha, ha, ha, ha.

It is  clearly 12:10 AM.