Currently

For awhile I've been slowwwwwllly getting some of these projects finished this year. I've learned that taking the time to do some things allows me to have specific measurements be realized rather rushing to get to get every inch in done quickly.

This year I'm going to be turning 40. And at that moment of turning 40 I'll be releasing a new record called "Age:40 1985". This would officially be my first real full length record that I'd hope to turn into vinyl release. Maybe a 20 record run who knows. This project manifests the continuing practice of getting into the room and running some ideas from drum scripts that I have written at work. Whether I had a couple of hours to write out some ideas or maybe 30 minutes to lay down some parts became the culmination of what this record has become. A lot of punching in and a lot of redoing of parts to get the best performance.

This process has a good amount of clams lol and that's sort of the essence of this project. The record really signifies a diary of how these songs were made. Writing parts almost half asleep sometimes hahahhaah or being so loaded on coffee that I may have sped up certain parts on guitar. Lol I'm laughing right now because as I'm writing this I reflect on how much fun it was writing certain parts and realizing the feeling of completing songs in certain states and letting them stay in completed states until I realize I could make some of the parts a bit better and feeling all accomplished that I made those choices. For sure there were some days I was like "mann fuck this" and "I don't even know what to do here" kind of thing. Other days I'd get slightly annoyed because I couldn't record when the inspiration was hott due to some obligations.

There was a point where I had to come to terms with how the direction of this project was going. I wasn't really feeling what was being written at times and others I was very much "zoned in" on how the sound was being discovered. What I found in the last few years were inspirations that I musically garnered to what created this record. Of course my ongoing love for TOE still present at the front, but Skrams acts and R&B hip hop like beats with some Jazzies make personal appears throughout. I also think that sonically my vision channeled how dark parts of my personality were slowly being taken over by the prettier melancholy and perhaps "small win pose" victorious were manifesting during the creation of this record.

This is indeed my sloppiest record lol. I say this in a good way. Lo-fi recording has been such a blast and with setups like mine I'm finding that this is the reason I keep continuing on. Being able to discover what other possibilities of how to record certain parts with the limitations has been just cool as hell. I also need to preface that this record certainly exhibits my "human-ness" all over the project. Understandably I'm writing to scripted drum parts from a computer using software that emulate drums to a certain kind. So, being the player that I am I'm unpurposely aiming to have my guitar parts not really hit the "1" most of the time.

Which sort of brings me to this point regarding why I love this current project. As of late the human in much of our society is slowly diminishing with the likes of social media and the expectation of perfection wanted from society. Trying to be a robot naturally is near impossible and yet most of us are trying to appear to be that way. Fabricated broadcasting of posts of your face smiling while the background is clearly burning reallly shows signs of the times. This record is really none of that lol.

I'm continuing to do good and I'm happy that things are coming along. Keeping it going as much as I can.


- Arthur

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