NEW SINGLE Figure 4
May 9th 2024
You can listen on all platforms like TIDAL, Spotify, Bandcamp, Apple, Youtube and SoundCloud in the Figure 4 link.
Steer your Ship!
For the past two months, I've been walking the path of Wu Wei. I think of this way as being like being the captain of a ship, watching the waves, the weather, and the wind for signs of change, constantly gauging what to do next. This is a focus on being present in the moment and reacting to the situation at hand. What I have found is that although it should be easy, it is often difficult. Difficulty arises from uncertainty and also from not paying attention.
Paying attention requires an inner understanding as well as an external understanding of the situation. Paying attention means not fixating on the past, like worrying about a wave that has hit our ship already or about the future condition of places we can not see yet. Of course, we should take the past and learn from it and navigate towards the future we desire. When one pays attention, we start to see the path to take, the opportunities present themselves to us, and it is up to us to pursue the ones we desire.
Uncertainty is a tough one, it is directed from an internal understanding. My strategy has been to slow down and think and meditate before making decisions, and quite often I adapt rather than a solid plan. There is something more complex when it comes to timing as well. Sometimes we are not ready to do things that we know we should do, and sometimes we know exactly what to do. So, in this way, we learn to be efficient with ourselves and do things that we energetically, mentally, and logistically feel ready to do in the right moment.
So you might be wondering how this relates to my art practice. Quite often, the work is completed from condensed inspired moments and refined later on. Often, creations in one field, such as drawing, might inspire sound or video, and often the materials and results from one are used to benefit the other or collaborate with the other, such as a music video or using my drawings as source material for my video. This is a representation of my process of using different practices to influence each other. See how I did this in my latest music video, I used my drawings to map them onto the 3d planet and used Figure 4 as a source for audio reactivity
For my cover design I used one of my intuitive abstract drawing that captured the freedom of movement and adapting. you can check out more drawings and my visual art at https://www.artofchoo.com
Figure 4 Official Video
For my video I
I hope you enjoy it Figure 4 and feel free to email me your thoughts.
Hear the Single: Figure 4
NEW SINGLE FLOAT ALONG
March 15th 2024
You can listen on all platforms like TIDAL, Spotify, Bandcamp, Apple, Youtube and SoundCloud in the Float Along link.
Start to our journey, right now!
Floating along, for me, means reconnecting with the present moment and navigating circumstances while following curiosity. I've been reminiscing about how passionate I was when I first started playing guitar and drawing. I had a deep interest in learning and practicing the arts. However, I've recently become distracted with philosophy and psychology, particularly around living well and productivity. The discussions often felt repetitive and drawn from the same pool of books. Perhaps I was trying to apply general knowledge to my unique self, leading to confusion. Ultimately, I returned to what had worked for me in the past.
Some advocate for detailed hourly schedules, while others suggest prioritizing tasks on a weekly schedule and allocating large time blocks. I had been incorporating some of this advice into my life, such as setting goals and breaking them down into a daily to-do list. Yet, I found myself adding more goals, contrary to sound advice, and struggled to balance everything. This resulted in incomplete tasks and rushed, subpar work. When I heard the suggestion to extend timelines and focus on a smaller, essential weekly to-do list, it felt like a step in the right direction. However, I believe decision-making based on past experiences limits foresight compared to reacting to current situations, which compels one to concentrate on the crucial aspects.
Meanwhile, I had unconsciously been transitioning to this model, with some awareness. I realized that my attempt to be overly organized might not align with my personality and could be hindering my natural progression. My experiences as an intuitive artist, as well as during my student years, kept pointing me back to Taoist philosophy - specifically Wu Wei, the art of non-doing and effortless action. I wondered if trying to adhere strictly to structured goal-setting was counterproductive, leading me to focus more on being present with myself and my motivations.
Motivation, I realized, is akin to hunger and its relation to eating a banana - you are most motivated to eat when hungry. Similarly, waiting until you feel ready to act, trusting your mind to perform at its best times, or choosing not to act can sometimes be more effective. Establishing habits has also been beneficial for me, such as engaging in music production in the morning and playing guitar before showering. I am currently integrating art and video production habits into my routine. Additionally, I've discovered that incorporating easy and enjoyable exercise routines and recovery practices is ideal. During my break periods, I opt to play basketball, which feels like a leisure activity but serves as exercise, meditation, and recovery.
A key aspect of embracing the 'Float Along' approach is returning to the present moment, akin to the start of a journey. Regardless of the situation we find ourselves in, we can release the burdens of past traumas and future anxieties and simply navigate as best as we can.
For my cover design I used one of my intuitive abstract drawing that captured the freedom of movement and adapting. you can check out more drawings and my visual art at https://www.artofchoo.com
Float Along Official Video
For my video I took of on a bike ride with my go pro totally go with the flow and improvised ride to New Brighton Park. I liked it right away so I went with it.
I hope you enjoy it FLoat Along and feel free to email me your thoughts.
Hear the Single: FLoat Along
NEW SINGLE SERIES FOLD
February 8th 2024
You can listen on all platforms like TIDAL, Spotify, Bandcamp, Apple, Youtube and SoundCloud in the Series Fold link.
Do you ever feel like you are caught in a cycle?
My track Series Fold is out for release on February 8th 2024. It is about the cycle of chance and fate I've observed in my life. How things unexpectedly happen all at once in one area with momentum or slows to a snails pace in another.
For example I am a Visual Artist as well as a Music Producer. I find that every few years my interests and momentum shifts from one to the other. These shifts are sometimes internal but often are influenced by external events. The last few years they have been influenced by my job in the film industry and global events.
Over the course of 2021 to 2024 I have been pulled back in forth through global events. During the pandemic there was a forced a shut down of the film industry where I was starting to gain momentum as a painter. While I was at stuck at home I focused on music production honed and learned skills like mixing and mastering, as well as figuring out I really like producing on the IOS environment.
The next shift came when the industry came back in full force, where I worked long hours on film sets for back to back shows in 2022. While I struggled to find time to produce music, I would still come home tired and start producing for a few hours every night, it was stress relieving, productive and fun. Another momentum shift occurred during 2023 when the industry shut down for a writers and actors strike and my focus came back to music production.
This time I spent my time creating lots of music with a streamlined set up of electronic and live instruments, leading to the release of my 4 song EP DRIFTER. 2023 had set me up with a lot of music to release in 2024 which I am excited to share with you as monthly single releases. I have been really excited about the synths that I have been building on the modular software Drambo. Heard in Series Fold is a crushing fat bass sound from a synth I made called Leviathan which combines 3 processed wave forms. I produced a mix of modular synths and a drum machine on the Ipad mainly in the software AUM which acts like live mixer.
What is fascinating and maybe concerning is the force of the oscillations, which in recent years has left me spinning. One way I have been navigating these cycles is to keep both skills going at the same time, I will use less dominant area as a support skill like using art to creating designs, videos, reactive digital networks, Illustrations and creative process, which is a major asset for releasing music.
For this release I created the art concept based on the idea of the cycle and thought about using origami animals to represent different parts of a cycle and instruments (much like a horoscope) moving in time, energy and fate. I spent time folding origami through online tutorials and set up the animals on my turntable, as a way to get them to spin. I took photos and video of this setup to use in my cover design and video.
For my cover design I brought the images in into Procreate on my Ipad and illustrated the setup. I used a limited pallet that I makes it pop as a graphic.
Series Fold Official Video
For my video I took the spinning footage and illustrations and put it through 2 video softwares, Touch Designer and VDMX to get a really strange psychedelic look. I ended up mixing 4 different video sources together to get the final video. Including laggy a motion detector video of me posing and another circular audio reactive visualizer I created. The final results can be seen above.
In the example of this post I simplified it to art and music but in reality we are much more complex. Recently I have studying philosophy and came across the concept of Wu Wei, which an ancient Chinese concept of letting thing happen and moving with the flow, much like how water will move around rocks or a marital artist might move efficiently to counter an opponent. I am striving to move in sync with life the best I can with the abilities I have developed. I've become neutral to whether a situation is good or bad and I try my best to navigate change. I expressed this concept of openess to adapting in my lyrics that I sing twice in different ways.
Times wheel will come around, when the time is right, in a series fold.
I hope you enjoy it Series Fold and feel free to email me your thoughts.
Hear the Single: Series Fold
Check out more music videos and music on the Listen page.
EP DRIFTER OUT NOW
You can listen on all platforms like TIDAL, Spotify, Bandcamp, Apple, Youtube and SoundCloud in the DRIFTER link.
DRIFTER EP is an analog and modular electronic instrumental. The two unique creative processes I used to bring these songs to life are:
1. Drifting
Drifting is a technique used by many artist and that I use in my visual arts and music practice. It teaches you to use intuition and movement, I used this during the writing phase, where I finger drum a beat out and expand it into a longer composition. Then jam out a synth parts and let the song come together by intuitively moving parts around. Using this technique as created a free flowing feel through out the recording.
2. Modular and Acoustic Music Production
I have been using the Ipad Pro as a main brain to connect all my various devices up. For the bass in this recording, I used the app Drambo as a sequencer for my analog synth Microbrute using USB.
I then connected the output to two tube amps in my case Traynor YB200 going to 2 x 12 inch speakers and Harke LH1000 going to 1x15 inch speaker.
On recording the speakers I placed a Microphone on each of them and recorded stereo from farther away. I ended up with 4 tracks for each instrument, I did this so I could have a variety of sound quality I could mix into a single track. I recorded using a H4n Zoom recorder in the 4CH mode.
The synth you hear in the tracks are custom modular synths I created on the software Drambo and Moog. I recorded these sounds through the tube amp in a similar fashion as above. One difference is left and right channel are sent to different amps and speakers. In the mix I panned a different speaker to each side retaining the original movement of the sound in the room.
Drummer Miguel Shaw was recorded playing on Drifter instead of the original electronic drums without click track for a natural feel.
I mixed it to retain most of the stereo effect and fidelity in the bass frequencies.
Drifter Official Video
Drifter Video is a dark mysterious video is a following my drift, see what I meet at the end.
Video was created through footage I filmed on a drift on my DSLR Canon and mixed in Touch Designer using audio reactive networks, video loading, feedback effects and mastered in DaVinci Resolve.
Check out more music videos and music on the Listen page.
Hear the 4 song EP: DRIFTER
What drew me to these songs?
1. Drifter
Intensity in layers sound with an mystical quality. I liked grit and boom of the bass original production with the room sound in natural stereo. The power and swing of a live drummer really made this track standout.
2. Thrift Find
Inspired by atmospheric and complex Moog synth loops and mixed with the brooding analog bass tones of the MicroBrute creates a dreamy and magical journey.
3. Twice Found
Exciting arp synths create a hypnotic vibe that moves into a wider symphony of contemplative sounds.
4. Grifter
Dark, crushing black hole bass. Ethereality hopeful energy.
There is another song called Middle Road made with this EP and is available as a bonus song with EP purchase from Bandcamp exclusively. You can also get the cassette.
Hear the album Imaginator Now
You can listen to my album Imaginator on Spotify, Bandcamp, Apple, Youtube and SoundCloud in the Imaginator link.
Check out some awesome designs on my Redbubble
New Designer goods inspired by my album. Check out Mask, Tees, Mugs, Totes and more