I’ve always hesitated to call myself a musician, composer, or even music producer. I can find the keys on a keyboard the match the melody in my head, but mostly I make beats, basslines, and sculpt sound with digital waveform transformations and effects. Sometimes I work alone, sometimes with a friend next to me. I like working both ways, the former to dig in and get work done, the latter to get out of my own head and expand the canvas–two minds are usually better than one.
While I don’t announce every Loöq Records release on this blog, Marshall Watson’s new ambient/analog electronica album is exceptional. Listen to “Attack of the Little Straw” from I’d Rather Be In Space to get a taste. You can download a different track from the album here if you join the Loöq mailing list (about one email per month).
From the press release:
“I’d Rather Be In Space” is a stunning collection of instrumental music from accomplished composer Marshall Watson. Falling into the broad categories of electronic and ambient, the album transcends both. The sound palate is rooted in the classic instruments of analogue sound synthesis – Korg, Juno, Moog, Prophet. Piano, guitar and field recordings were also utilized. The result is a transformative album with a timeless feel. Enjoy this future classic.
In the artist’s words: I’d Rather Be In Space is a collection of improvisational and generative music, performed and recorded in San Francisco in 2016. It is my soundtrack for ordinary days as viewed through the windows of buses, and experienced on the city’s sidewalks and alleys. For this work, I relied less on the computer, and attempted to capture the music of the moment without a lengthy editorial process (if any.) I found myself getting lost in the sound as the machines interacted with each other, and often times, I just hit record and let the sequences run, playing along and hoping for the best. The result of this vérité style approach, is an ambient, cyclical, synthesizer- heavy soundscape inspired by works of Eno, Reich, Smith, and the city of San Francisco itself.
I’ve been posting less often on this blog lately, mostly because I’ve been writing short stories, including an eleven-thousand-word novelet “The Verdant” which I just finished. Selling my second story gave me a jolt of motivation–I’m trying to level up.
I’ve also been putting in more studio time, both with Mark Musselman (the other half of Momu) and Spesh (my business partner in Loöq Records and the other half of Jondi & Spesh).
But another reason I’ve been blogging less is a feeling of dissatisfaction with my blogging voice. Sometimes when I read older posts, they hold up. Other times they seem impersonal, or too know-it-all, or so abstract as to be useless and/or boring for the reader. It’s frustrating to feel irritated with your past work, especially when it’s up there for all the world to see. But I’m not going to edit anything or take it down. Ultimately that’s part of what a personal blog is–a record of a changing person with evolving ideas (including the awkward bits).
I’ll get my blogging groove back, and I’ll keep writing about pretty much the same things (I’ve got posts planned about the health benefits of berries, a long-term experiment with l-tyrosine, my brief experiment with Google AdSense ads, lessons I’ve learned in my mid-forties, and a bunch of other topics). My plan to get through this “awkward voice” thing that’s happening is just to blast through it.
Day to day, in addition to writing and making beats, I’m rehabbing my foot (it’s great to be bipedal again), looking for a new D&D game, watching The Great British Baking Show with my family, reading short stories in Fantasy & Science Fiction and Asimov’s, training up Leia the puppy, and dealing with the logistics of my kid changing schools (more on that later).
Feeling grateful to be alive, walking around on two feet, having most of my family in good health, and many other fortunate events. Hope the same is true for you.
I have a new tech house release out this week with Spesh: Love Over Laps EP. Four tracks, all 115bpm, with many parts and beats shared amongst them (could play quite nicely with each other in the context of a longer mix).
Just found out today the release is a Beatport Staff Pick in the Tech House genre, which is nice. Thanks Beatport, we like you too!
Only available on Beatport for now — will go into general release (iTunes, amazon.com, Spotify, etc.) in a couple weeks.
It was great to get back in the studio with Spesh. We had a good time, and took our time with it. A few of the tracks had over a dozen iterations. Quite a few parts cut, but many ended up recycled in one of the other tracks on the EP. Very organic, very groove-centric. We used the 303 for round, warm bass tones (acid house not so much, though we couldn’t resist a little knob-tweaking in Bare Knuckle Champ).
Writers: This post is about music self-publishing, but also I get into the implications for writing self-publishing towards the end of the article.
I recently put together my Discography page, which gave me an opportunity to reflect on my music career to date. I’ve released original music on almost every kind of label, including a major (SONY/BMG), a barely-organized collective (Trip ‘n Spin Recordings), small imprints (SOG, NuRepublic, Kubist, Spundae, Dorigen, POD, Mechanism), my own label (Loöq Records), “big independents” in dance music culture (Global Underground, Armada, Bedrock, Renaissance), and distribution/A&R deals (3 Beat, Silent Records).
My most active period of writing and releasing music was in my late twenties/early thirties. Creating dance music (house, techno, breaks) was my singular, obsessive focus. That period was also the heyday of Qoöl, the weekly event I threw with DJ Spesh at 111 Minna for over a decade (hugely popular, with a packed dance floor and lines around the block), so I also had a deep sense of musical community, and also a great testing audience for new tracks.
At some point, around 2005, we (myself and my primary music collaborators, Spesh and Mark Musselman, the other halves of Jondi & Spesh, and Momu, respectively) stopped sending out demos to other labels, and started releasing music almost exclusively on Loöq Records. This wasn’t a conscious strategic career decision — it was just easier. I was co-running a respected, profitable label, so why not release my music on it? Benefits of self-publishing (or at least “own label” publishing) include:
I was up at the Echo Lake Berkeley Family Camp with my family and Jason Kleidosty’s family. Jason had brought his laptop and headphones and worked on his ambient music in the evenings, drinking a beer and watching the post-sunset glow from a cliff-top bench. I left my computer at home but did my fiction scribblings each morning in my notebook, drinking high-octane coffee from the bottomless cafeteria urns. Early mornings and late evenings were the quiet times of the day — family waking hours were filled with the sounds of screaming children (some joyful, some tantrums). Children love to scream.
Nobody was making us work. The rewards? Who knows. Is anyone besides Boards of Canada making a living from ambient music? Some science fiction writers I idolize, and who have tens of thousands of fans (or at least Twitter followers) toil away at day jobs. Creative efforts, even from the most talented and hardworking, don’t always make ends meet. I make most of my money solving database problems. Sometimes I fantasize about alternatives. I suppose I could write and sell a hair-regrowth eBook, but I can’t bring myself to do it. I’d rather write a long treatise on medieval polearms and sell it on dmsguild.com. I’ll bet I could make dozens of dollars. But I need an illustrator.
The reason we create, and keep creating, is because the reward is immediate. The process is the payoff. If it isn’t, find something else to do. If you succeed at the activity, the reward is doing more of that activity. Are you okay with that? Spend time doing things you enjoy, period.
Why would someone write a sixteen minute instrumental track with no hummable melody? Well, I’m glad he did. I get lost in the track. I can’t stop listening to And/Or. Just pop off the top of my skull and wire up my brain with the intergalactic quantum orchestral strings.
Which is to say, Strange Skin, the new album from Kleidosty, is out today. Please rate if you purchase, and leave a review if you like.
