The Inspiration Behind Everything Falls

     Musically the album takes influences from Dream-Pop and Synth-pop music. It features retro sounding synths, the occasional guitar, and a focus on melodies and harmonies. 

     The idea for Everything Falls came about when I was working on Signs on Fire in November 2019. I had a few older songs that I really wanted to finish up and release, and the plan was to include these on Signs on Fire. However as I worked on the album I realized these older songs weren’t quite fitting in with the direction I was taking Signs on Fire in. So instead of including them on that project, I decided to build a new album around these songs. These older songs turned out to become “Winter Flowers,” “World of the Dreamer,” “Summer’s End,” and “Drift.” The rest of the album was finished during the spring and summer of this year.

The Inspiration Behind Meanwhile...

    “Meanwhile...” is an alternative rock album that came about when I realized I’d recorded a handful of songs I didn’t know what to do with. Well, some were songs. Some were just ideas; a guitar riff that was never developed, a chord progression that went nowhere. 

    These were songs and ideas that I wrote and recorded when I would get a random bout of creativity and felt the need to do something about it. They weren’t written to be a part of any project or album in particular. 

    I organized the ones I thought sounded the most cohesive and started building “Meanwhile...” off that. That’s one of two places where the album title comes from. Though I was working on four other albums, I was still recording these songs in the meanwhile. 

    I began finishing up the half started ones and tightening up the more completed ones. I also added one entirely new song titled “Uniformity.” Included on “Meanwhile...” is “This Dream,” which is a song recorded by Quasar and the Missed during the sessions for the “Take My Hand EP.” 

    The other reason for naming the album “Meanwhile...” is because I wanted to treat the project as an homage to one of my biggest inspirations; David Lynch and specifically his TV show “Twin Peaks.” There is a memorable scene in Twin Peaks where a character says the word “Meanwhile...” while offering up a cryptic gesture with her hands. The art style of the cover and the singles are inspired by “the red room.” Which is a supernatural realm of sorts in Twin Peaks that heavily features black, white and red. The title of the song “Don’t take the Ring” is a reference to a line spoken by a character in Twin Peaks as well. Plus some of the music here wouldn’t sound too out of place being played at “The Roadhouse.” 

    The songs are definitely more unique from one another than the songs on my other rock album from this year, “Greytide.” But I think they do share many common themes. Themes wrapped and tied up in a red, white and black bow.

    The Inspiration Behind Signs on Fire

     I worked on Signs on Fire from November 2019 to March of 2020. With this project I wanted to make a hip-hop album that defied the normal rules of hip-hop. I wanted to make long, thoroughly developed songs with multiple sections and atypical song structures. Essentially I wanted to make the opposite album of Patterns. Patterns was a short, concise and compact project, while Signs on Fire is a sprawling one hour journey through my mind. I consider the two projects to be companion albums of a sort because of this. 
     

     Signs on Fire is divided into 3 sections, separated by two instrumental tracks. The middle of the three sections is the climax, featuring 3 songs that have a total runtime of 24 minutes. The culmination of this section is the 10 minute long song “Elemental” which touches on political themes with a focus on climate change. The album is my most musically complex and the longest project I’ve ever finished. All songs on the album were written, recorded, mixed and mastered in my home studio.

The Inspiration Behind Greytide

     I began working on songs for Greytide in the fall of 2018. Inspired by Shoegaze bands such as Nothing and Slowdive along with the alt rock sounds of Weezer and Smashing Pumpkins I wanted to make a rock album with huge distorted walls of sound. Many of the lyrics on the album reflect the personal changes I was going through in my life at the time. After I put out the music video for Diving, the first single from the album, in February 2019 I took a break from it and began working on other projects. I had most of the music recorded and about half of the lyrics written at that time. I occasionally did some work on it throughout the rest of the year but largely finished it in March of 2020. All songs on the album were written, recorded, mixed and mastered in my home studio.