It’s been a long time since I’ve shared anything new, and I’ve been carrying a quiet weight about that. Life has been exceedingly full these days. Full in beautiful ways, and full in deeply exhausting ways. The endless time and energy I once poured freely into music have been harder to come by. I’ve felt guilt about the lack of activity here, especially toward those of you who have supported me here and on Bandcamp. I worry quite often that I’ve let people down because I’m not doing enough…I guess that’s a common issue with artists working against an always-on internet and social media landscape.
I think it bears repeating that I’m so grateful for each one of you that chooses to buy an album, take out a subscription, schedule a lesson, or just share my work around with friends and contacts. I don’t take any of it for granted and I really appreciate your support.
These days, I’m finding joy in simple rituals and in small moments I might have missed before. Things like making coffee in the morning, picking up my kids from daycare and seeing their faces light up, and riding the train to/from work are some of the most meaningful parts of my day now, and I think this newfound appreciation for the small and the subtle is actually having a tangible effect on the nature of my music, too. I tend to work on music in abbreviated ways now - taking advantage of quick passing moments to have fun. These are moments in which I find deep satisfaction, even if it’s as simple as recording a single loop or sample.
Today’s studio diary is one such example of a moment like this. I found 10 minutes to set up a MIDI sequence in the new Fugue Machine Rubato that fed Ableton Live; over the course of several days, I tweaked a couple Kontakt instruments and found a nice loop to work to:
I’ll be honest and say that I would need more time to fully dissect and write about the details of this piece in depth, and I’m probably not going to do that. There are other things I’m focused on. But I wanted to share it nonetheless, because I really liked the outcome.
Updates
I have been working on plenty of assorted things - slowly, and at a much more measured pace than before. A couple of assorted updates on these things and more:
You may have noticed a distinctly muted presence from Hotel Neon recently. After the release of our last album, a variety of things has made it difficult to continue the project. I’m hopeful that we may be able to work on something new again at some point down the line, but we are not going to rush this until it feels right.
I’m glad to say that there are new ideas taking shape with Gray Acres. Mike and I have been hard at work dusting off some old material that we started about 2 years ago, re-shaping and re-recording it now with some fresh perspective. We had a great time performing for WXPN last year (I wrote about that experience and the process here on Sound Methods - including a podcast version) and this new material is something of a spiritual successor to those tones and methods.
Speaking of podcasts, Mike and I will also start to tag team the Sound Methods interviews here as a duo. These interviews are a lot of work to research and prepare for, so I’m glad to have his help going forward. I’ve been sending out invitations in recent days for new conversations. More to come pretty soon.
Sketches are beginning to find form with my solo work, and I am actively working on 2 albums right now for 2 specific labels I love. I’m so thankful that I’ve been invited to work with them. The second half of this year is looking promising for their releases, but I’ll be able to confirm these details relatively soon. As I alluded to previously, I think that you’ll find a subtle shift in my style and tone these days, influenced by life changes, appreciation of simplicity, and new patterns of being.
Finally, I’m thrilled about a collaboration with my long-time friend Ian Hawgood that’s found new life in recent days. We began this work all the way back in the first half of 2021, worked pretty furiously through January 2022, then let it go dormant while we each dealt with life changes. It’s only now approaching its final form here at the halfway point of 2025. We are calling this project “Murmurs in a soft language.” As one of Ian’s emails to me in the early days of file-sharing put it, it sounds something like “fragility in a bottle.” I think it captures perfectly the balance of our sensibilities - analog machines, digital sampling, and plenty of reel-to-reel tape saturation. We have an album’s worth of material mixed, a long-form standalone piece finished, and about 2 more albums’ worth of unfinished demos in the proverbial “bank” on Dropbox. We need to figure out what we’re doing with all this, but needless to say, I’m super excited to share it. Here’s a small snippet from the album, which features Ian playing piano in his home and my processing through Octatrack after the fact.
Thanks, everyone. Be well.
this is the exact post i need to write... for many of the same reasons. you don't owe us anything... and as artists we need to stop caving to the shallow demands of the internet.
Just discovered these beautiful 6minutes of sound! Thanks for sharing🫶🏻