Shameless Self Promotion Time

For the most part these hallowed pages here at Complex Distractions are meant to highlight musicians and bands that I find interesting. Artists that inspire me enough to talk about them and spread their word across these internet wastelands. As well as talking about music, movies, books, and other art-related stuff, I talk about me. My life growing up in the Midwest during the Wild West days of the late 70s and early 80s, and the anxiety that eventually came from it.

I just like to share my head and heart here for all to read and possibly relate to.

Occasionally though, I will use this spot to promote my own artistic endeavors. One of those artistic endeavors is the music I make. I used to be pretty prolific when it came to music. I’d write and record a couple albums every year or so, at least between 2006 to 2015. First as Goodbyewave with a drummer named Jack, then solo stuff under my own name and sunnydaymassacre. There was even this guitar loop-based project called Dream District and a post-rock/Krautrock thing I did with a friend called Cambodia Highball that was super fun to do. Another improvisational thing that was super rewarding and very different from what I’d done before.

So music WAS the thing for me for a long time. But eventually other things popped up and kids got older and life took precedent and basically I was just kind of burnt out. The idea of writing lyrics became daunting to me. A lot of my music came out of things I needed to deal with in my life; stress and fear and worry – and occasionally joy – but it was mostly a coping mechanism to work things out that were floating around in my head and heart. So when life got on track and I finally became comfortable in my skin and life I just didn’t feel that urge to write as much anymore. Those Dream District and Cambodia Highball projects felt like new starts for me musically, and instrumental music became more of my focus.

Which leads us to today’s shameless self promotion.

I’ve been recording a lot of instrumental music lately. I think I’ve put out two EPs of synth/loop-based music this year, and today makes it three. I’ve just released the EP enter. It’s four short pieces I recorded in my living room over the last month when I had the house to myself. I used a small Arturia analog/digital synth, a Casio keyboard, a student xylophone, and one track has a drum loop I created in a web-based music program called Band Lab.

It gives me a lot of joy to make music still, but more so in bite-sized pieces and mostly just instrumental. This one was really fun to make, as they’re all improvised based on the mood I was in at the time. If you feel like it, head on over and give it a listen. I was inspired by folks like composer Wojciech Golczewski, Sinoia Caves, dystopian sci-fi flicks, and Jakob Skott.

I’m not saying I’ll never write “song” songs again, with vocals and such. I think about songs all the time. Like ALL the time. When the muse returns it might happen. Until then, I’ll keep recording these instrumentals.

Thanks for stopping in.