1. You Care the Most

No one cares about my music the way I do. There’s no reason for them to – for me its a primary extension of self. It’s what I pour myself into, laboring, debating, molding, and refining everything for a ridiculous number of hours. Then, after all this toil and triumph, I release an album, where all my pride and insecurities are balled up in an explosive state of nervous excitement. My friends and …

1. Pick a Tool and learn it.

All music creation software is going to have strengths and weaknesses. All the major sequencers – Live, Cubase, Fruityloops, Reason, etc – have a huge group of loyalists and detractors. The reality, especially when you are just getting started, is that it doesn’t matter much which tool you pick. They all provide the basic functionality required to create music. What really matters is that …

1. It’s crazy challenging to be a professional creator

I know a few professional electronic music producers. These are people who have more talent, attention to detail, knowledge, and discipline than I do. They all have multiple jobs and hustle to make money. Its crazy challenging to have a creative pursuit be a source of income. You will mix a ton of stress in with your passion. I made a choice to make music a hobby …

I’ve put time and care into the creation of my eigth album, Study Music, and created something I feel proud of.

Looking backwards, though, I had a hard time with the reception to my seventh album, “Oughta See”, from a few years ago. I was surprised that people didn’t seem to dig it as much my as previous work. It motivated me to ensure that things would go better with my next release.

I determined that I wanted …

I recently got an email with some positive feedback around my third album, Messy’s Pace. It resurfaced a very specific memory around this album and Burning Man, which in an alternate reality would be taking place right now.

Back in 2005, I made 500 CDs of my brand new album (Messy’s Pace) to give out at Burning Man. Late in the week, I gifted it to someone who had an art car with a huge sound system. This was a …

Working on music has been many things to me over the past two decades, but it’s never been a salvation like it has been this year. As I reflect back on 2020, spending time in my musical worlds was a consistently enjoyable escape from the sameness and anxiety of the day. I’m writing music for myself more than ever.

At this point, I feel like a one-trick pony, however I’m still deriving a lot of …