Harmonius is no different than the buffeting winds of life. Around and around the sounds swirl, the waves chime over the listener. Waves go by painting different pictures on the beach. “Harmonious”. Distraction without distraction. Music like this is fit for solitary musings. Musings that never get out, dying away, drifting away. Nothing can exist outside it; it is one. One is an exclusionary, separating, sole unit word. Yet, it is also an all encompassing word. It includes all things, separates nothing, a united word. My approach to art is the same I hold for life. As a wave passes in its uniqueness it is indisputable.
MLK and Philosophy have always been a love of mine. I have a fascination with Gospel singing and the community, philosophy, and healing effects the music has. Voices rise together to stand for justice, humanity, peace. These themes touch close with my involvement in political activism and philosophical demeanor I share with those around me. This peace always brings me to a few tears.
Violet is an album I made over the course of a few years with a passed down acoustic guitar and a snowball mic. I didn't know how to play a thing, but I didn't let that stop me. No matter what I was going to make music, even if I had to invent it. I experimented with sound often, following any leads I could. One of the defining elements of Violet is my use of tune, I often would tune my guitar strings to be purposely out of sync, to achieve a haunting rawness of a soul splayed out. It's discordic, haunting, and sweetly attemptful.
Sometimes me and my friends have rhyme games over beats in long car rides. I am often the best at them. I created this track in 2020 shortly after I arrived home from a road trip where I visited George Floyd's death site, Seattle's CHAZ, and Portland's night. I saw the madness of our country with no distractions for two weeks. Yes, disparity and meaning making are the core issues of my generation (1997-On). We are called the loneliest, most poor, most kind generation. The struggle we face in a world slipping into crisis after crisis with few graspable goals or commitment and endless information about humanity's past is difficult for us to inherit. We do our best for today as many did before us, but there is a sinking feeling we were promised more than desperation.
As I dive into ambient, tonal, droning musics, one of my great inspirations was one of my first introductions to this sound. Silent Hill 2. The ethereal simplicity of the tones in the Silent Hill 2 soundtrack are captivating to me in such a strange way that I wouldn't share with others. It's not a public reflection, such a sound that is past joy. It invokes thought and thoughtlessness. It is a haunting and beautiful introspection.
This mixing style was inspired by the Slow & Reverb genre of music mixing. I had begin to see them years ago and when I liked the mixes better than the originals, I began to test the style on my own music collection. It's a post meta style that mixes music for the sake of meta commentary about itself, faded sadness, cosmic-like-romanticized-nostolgic-beauty, cyberpunk colors and critiques, 2020 Meta 80's City Pop. It's not well known or played at parties, but that's starting to change. The style mostly relies on uses to propagate, as copyright law doesn't play well with creative fair use.