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Using a track from Gigi and Loopy Pro for frictionless jamming of a new idea

I was playing along to the track Tew Ante Sew from Gigi and was just inspired by the simple arrangement and orchestration that integrates Ethiopian music and electronic production. I was listening to the track because of this article from Hearing Things about what tracks inspire the artist Lyra Pramuk. Then I just wanted to pick up my Epiphone Dot Studio guitar. I realized I should be recording–something I want to do more often when I find myself picking up an instrument and noodling. So I quickly got my iPad and iRig Pro out of my bag. (The gears was […]

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Towards Effortless Composing

Yesterday, the biggest issue I faced was getting tense while working on music—literally clenching my jaw while playing. I’m taking this too seriously. I’m currently working on an instrumental song I’ve randomly called “Tasty Message.” I’ve reached that exciting point where I know it has enough interesting ideas and material to become a full arrangement, so I’ve mentally moved it to the “arrange” stage in my project management system. But now I’m finding it challenging to connect these good ideas. Too much good material? Ha! In trying to compose transitions and through-compose from the good ideas to find workable variations,

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I deleted my social media accounts …mostly

So I deleted my Instagram account. And my Facebook account. And my Threads account. Oh, and even my Bluesky account. (And I do want to delete my WhatsApp account.) So, how am I going to share myself and my work now? I mean, it’s not like we have to share the intimate details of ourselves, even though our surveillance capitalistic world does push that message. But as an artist and entrepreneur (yeah, I want to come up with ways to earn a living with my art and my artistic process and experience), I do need to share to provide examples,

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Taking lessons from Nazi resistors

I recently read an opinion piece in The Guardian titled “I Study the Resistance Against the Nazis.” It resonated with me for a couple of reasons, as I try to figure out my role and routine in the world nowadays. Part of my now-years-long transition away from being a full-time academic to full-time…um…artist?! The author, Luke Berryman, uses his analysis of stories of little known people who resisted the Nazis to provide some insight into how people in the US can resist far-right authoritarianism and fascism. He describes how the resistance hasn’t worked well so far, proven by the fact

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Busking, even e-busking, adds magic to the world

Shawn Reynaldo, it is an outstanding newsletter First Floor, asked an important question for not just folks like me, but any world that values thriving culture: Everyone says they want independent music culture, but is anyone willing to pay for it? When I read Shawn’s work, I tend to imagine Eeyore, rather than Tigger or Christopher Robin. I’ve never met him. But mostly his articles are gloomy and follow the unfortunate journalistic writing of “bad, bad, bad, bad, bad, glimmer-of-hope.” He’s no solutions journalist. And I don’t mean to suggest he should be or that all journalists should be (we

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Workshop (PAST): Practice Creativity and Produce Music with More Ease

Workshop was held on August 12th, 2025 at the Recreational Psychoacoustics Lab in Seattle, WA Description Let’s explore how you relate to your creative work, not just how you organize it and technically produce it. This workshop is both a facilitated conversation about creativity and an introduction to practical frameworks for making music with greater ease and authenticity. The emphasis will be on creating music authentically and effortlessly – understanding how to relate to your unique creativity rather than force it (to be like someone else’s practice). We’ll start by sharing our creative stories and current challenges, then dive into

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Creative Rhythms

The last time I journaled was June 25th. The last time I sent out a newsletter was July 8th. The last time I posted on my blog was July 9th. That’s at least five weeks away from what I define as work—my regular practices for creating. (Do I regret that? No. I feel blessed to have a new home, moving into a dream house with my dream family, and having gotten to a place–mentally and environmentally–of being settled.) If you’ve read my past newsletters or my blog, you’ve probably noticed that a theme in my life is always having to

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Since leaving social media…

So, how have things been since I decided to leave social media? The most important aspect is that the benefits I anticipated are clear. I don’t miss 99% of it. The 1% I do miss is mostly the memes that my wife shared with me on Instagram. While I could easily find funny cat videos elsewhere, having those moments to laugh together is something special. However, I truly don’t miss much else. Instead, I subscribe to newsletters from artists, organizations, venues, and even restaurants that interest me. I’ve even started using an RSS feed for their Instagram accounts. I would

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A new digital home… and a real one

June has been a bit all over the place for me, work-wise. On the home front, I’m excited that my wife and I bought a new home in the Fremont neighborhood of Seattle (where we live now and where we met). Among the many reasons I’m excited about our new home is that I’ll have a dedicated room for working; I’ll be able to move out of my office. My office situation is great–it’s been a godsend for my productivity and focus–but it’s also not ideal because I can’t make much noise. Most of the office clients are therapists–both massage

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Creative resistance and finding the right path

Today, I’m feeling some resistance about moving on to the arranging stage of the composition process of my album. I think I am a bit overwhelmed by the number of ideas I created. The transition from Loopy Pro to Studio One has required more effort than I was hoping, which has taken me out of the flow (but probably giving me some good separation, too). And I’m starting to give the process more weight and meaning than I should. Jamming and developing ideas was easy to maintain detachment from the outcome. But now I’m thinking, “is this good enough to

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Gotta be creative? Get back to bass-ics.

When I started working on my second album, I thought I had a sound and a process fairly figured out. My first album, Regretfulnot, was the result of a year-long crash course in electronic music-making—MIDI controllers, virtual instruments, drum programming, sample selection, patch building, and layers of electronic effects processing. Though, crash course makes it seem more intentional and systematic than it was. More like a hodge podge of online courses, following YouTube tutorials, rabbit holes, and working for a short time with an unhelpful mentor and a long time (still!) with a helpful one. I am pretty proud of

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Having trouble managing a creative project?

How do you manage your artistic, musical, or other creative projects? Are you wanting a different way? I’ve tried a lot of different methods for project management in general. As far as music making, years and years ago, my approach was very unsophisticated and disorganized–scribblings across multiple journals (that would get lost and stolen), Word documents with difficult-to-decipher hints at chord progressions, and other random files that were unclear whether they contained a promising idea, bad idea, or something that was almost finished. The point is, I’m sure I lost a lot of ideas and could have written even more

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Principles to be an impervious creative

Today I watched this video from Venus Theory: He cited a new book by music creator Liina Turtonen titled “Creative Confidence and Music Production.” The book and recently losing a freelance gig made Cameron — Venus Theory — think of seven principles to help creatives become more impervious (his words) to the ups and downs of our calling. They are: His points really resonate with me. I don’t think any of them are super new to me, perhaps “act in your nature” is the most new. But they are all ones that are important to me, that I do work

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Trying to be bored more

I liked this video from Jon Makes Beats. The TL;DR of the video is that boredom is the key to creativity, but most of us these days don’t experience much boredom because of the constant entertainment and stimulation provided by the overexcess of media, such as social media, Spotify, Netflix, etc. So if we want to get more creativity in our lives, we need to allow for more boredom–less stimulation from all the media that’s available to us every second of the day. One thing Jon mentions at the beginning of the video that really resonated with me is that

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Who got hearing aids this week?

This guy. Hearing loss and treatment are not discussed enough in the audio and music industries. It took me too long to see if hearing aids could help me. (They can, though I couldn’t stand the previous ones I tried last month.) I’ve had hearing loss since I was a kid. I don’t know when the technology became helpful for my hearing. But it was definitely sooner than now. That’s a lot of time hearing sounds too quietly and missing out on frequencies over 1000Hz (in my right ear). What about you? Do you use hearing aids? Could they maybe

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Stand out. Someone has to.

This live loop, well, isn’t live because I forgot to press record. So I recorded a live mix, which is apparently almost as challenging for my brain to keep track of as when I’m playing an instrument at the same time. This idea was based on a sample from John Lithgow’s reading of Timothy Snyder’s twenty lessons on fighting tyranny. Those lessons are from Snyder’s 2017 book; each chapter expands on the twenty lessons. I read the book back in 2021. Studying nationalism, fascism, and terrorism (particularly US-based domestic) has been a thing for me for many years, both because

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Stopping the hostile takeover

Are you a United States federal employee? Were you one? Were you recently terminated? This looping session is for you. What Trump and Musk are doing to so many federal employees and the service they provide is not just concerning; it’s cruel. I composed this session around samples I took from a talk by Everett Kelley during the recent Federal Unionist Network “Save Our Service” mass call. It was an inspiring call. Kelley’s words are incredibly motivating. His words apply generally too: We can resist the takeover of the country and government by billionaires and oligarchs if we organize and

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My favorite track on Regretfulnot

So, which is my favorite track on my album, Regretfulnot? It’s Lost Found Lost. It’s the fourth track, if you listen to the album in order, which you should because the tracks represent sequentially the feelings and types of experiences I felt discovering, living in, and leaving Halifax, Nova Scotia. Lost Found Lost tells a story about community: needing it, not having it, finding it, losing it, and building it again. It’s an experience I’ve had over again in my life. I’m pretty good at connecting with people once I can meet them. But it can take me a while

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The field recordings I used in The Merry Times

I composed the track The Merry Times, which is on the album Regretfulnot, to convey the joy I felt getting to know the maritime culture and geography of Nova Scotia, Canada, as well as the love I developed for the region and residents, which I still feel today after moving back to Seattle. The track The Merry Times includes five field recordings I took in Lunenburg and Halifax, Nova Scotia. This collection includes all of the original field recordings taken by me and any processed versions used in the track. Two recordings were used without processing other than trimming (i.e.,

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