2023-03-25
I released my album "Land Music" on May 14, 2021. At the time, I was a senior at The Millbrook School, a private boarding high school in Millbrook, NY. This album was released as my CES (Culminating Experience for Seniors). So, why was it a "culminating experience"? To add some context, I am a drummer. Throughout my time at Millbrook, I had played in the Instrumental Ensemble, I had performed in musicals, I had performed at arts nights, spring festivals, chapel talks, and more. It was only fitting for my CES to be music-related. However, another part of "Land Music" is that it is also comprised of some video game music or references to video games. Video games are a huge part of my life. I love single player experiences that are fun and have engaging stories. At the same time, I also love to play multiplayer games with my friends. This is essentially why "Land Music" was a culminating experience for my time at High School.
You might be wondering about some of the creative choices I made such as the album cover photo and album title. The photo is of my dad's best friend Josh. The three of us often spend time at the beach during the summer, and one day I happened to take this picture of Josh collecting wood for a fire on the beach. When I took it, I thought "this would go hard as an album cover."
The title is a combinatin of inspirations and also just not knowing what to name the album. One of my favorite albums is Hiroshi Yoshimura's ambient masterpiece "Wet Land." This is where the album gets its "Land" from. But other than that inspiration, the album doesn't have much to do with land, funnily enough. "Unknown World", which is my cover of the overworld theme from Dragon Quest, obviously has something to do with traversing land though.
The real secret is that there's another picture of Josh at the beach that is worthy of being an album cover. In that picture, Josh is standing in the water this time. Therefore, "Land Music" was sort of planned as a two-parter; to go with something along the lines of "Water Music." "Water Music" would most likely rely heavily on influence from Hiroshi Yoshimura and his genius ambient works.
"Go, Come On" is a completely original song. It takes influence from Sonic the Hedgehog music, Future Funk, Electronic Music, Micheal Jackson, Rock, and Jazz. The song was nearly entirely improvised by me using the vochlea microphone, which converts voice to MIDI notes. This tool allowed me, someone who only has knowledge playing pitchless percussion instruments, to create melodical sounds with nothing else but my voice. The drums heard in the song were played and recorded by me.
The song features various samples from Sega Genesis/Megadrive games, particularly Sonic games and the Michael Jackson Sega Genesis video game. Fun fact, I actually "grew up" with a Sega Genesis. Not that I played it that often. The only games for it that we had were sports games, which I wasn't very interested in. My dad and Josh used the console to play PGA Tour Golf II. And that's literally it.
The one regret I do have about this song is the drum mixing. Initially I was using MIDI drums just to hear what the song sounded like with drums before I recorded them. The MIDI drums had a very full sound to them and really added oomph to the song. In comparison, my recorded drums feel far away and quiet. Otherwise, I'm very proud of this as an entirely original song I made.
"Unknown World" is one of my favorite Dragon Quest songs. Although that's not saying much because I love so much of Dragon Quest's music! Koichi Sugiyama is truly a brilliant composer. This song in particular does hit me in a certain spot because it is one of the few song I know how to play on piano. This song was performed by me using a MIDI keyboard, not the vochlea mic.
I love this song to death, but I feel it is the weakest entry in this album. The MIDI instruments are soulless and lack personality. My initial plan was to record me playing the grand piano for this song, but unfortunately I never ended up doing that.
As previously mentioned, I played at various occasions at the Millbrook School's Chapel. One time while I was rehearsing, I began to play the snare with my bare hands. The acoustics in the Chapel gave it a really interesting sound, so I decided to record it. The part in the midle where I exclusively play the snare is based off of Marcus Miller's bass solo during his performance of his song, "Blast" at the 2011 Tokyo Jazz Festival, timestamp: 258 seconds.
I grew up playing Animal Crossing: City Folk as a kid, and I feel that composer Kazumi Totaka influenced my music taste by including a lot of really cool beats in his music for the game. A lot of it is based on Bossa nova, which has become a genre I have absolutely come to love. I think my love of Bossa nova is owed to Kazumi Totaka.
I think this song came out really well. Yes, that is me whistling at the end of the song! K.K. Slider, the musician in the Animal Crossing games, often whistles in his songs, so I thought it was appropriate to do so here. Plus, I love whistling. I brought out the brushes for this song, which I always love to do. This song was made with MIDI keyboard and recorded drum kit, as well as recorded whistling.