this is matt

There is a kind of silly, embarrassing story behind how I found this band. They’re really good, though.

The entire Power Rangers franchise is now available on Netflix instant streaming. So… Sarah and I have been reliving our childhoods. Naturally in 2011, that involves a lot of, “What is so-and-so up to these days? To wikipedia!”

Yadda yadda yadda, it turns out Johnny Yong Bosch, aka The Second Black Ranger, fronts a band and I like them.

Also, he’s frikkin rad on Power Rangers. Just sayin.

The Lonely (buy!)

I told myself “no synthesizers!”, which made it very hard not to fall back on synthesizers to get what I wanted. I love putting those kinds of arbitrary restraints on myself because they lead to much stronger pieces than when I can just throw random sounds in because I feel like it. I really like this one.

This one was inspired by this wonderful piece on communication.

We're Not Okay (buy!)

(Don’t ask how someone else’s blog post gets translated into music — just think of it as alchemy!)

Since seeing Thor a few weeks ago, I’ve had Norse mythology on my mind.

Hall of the All-Father (buy!)

As far as deities from ancient mythologies go, Odin one of the coolest. To attain wisdom he does things like hang from a tree for nine days and pluck out an eye, and unlike that womanizing asshat Zeus, he’s interested in taking responsibility for the realm he rules.

Anyway, enjoy the music!

There’s this saying, “Better the devil you know than the devil you don’t.” It means, “Sure, this situation sucks, but if you try to change it, you might get something worse!” It keeps people locked into careers, relationships, apartments, whatever.

The Devil You Know (buy!)

I don’t know that I’ve ever heard a real person use it, but I’m familiar with the sentiment — I was terrified to leave a job I hated because I was afraid of hating the new one even more. This, I can deal with, I would rationalize. Out there… things are scary.

Don’t let fear limit you.

Take a gander at my bandcamp store and note that more stuff is for sale. I’m going to be uploading the high-quality versions of everything over there when I put it up here, instead of trying to wait until I have enough for an album. The stuff on the blog will still be downloadable, so don’t feel like you’re obligated to give me money — bandcamp is for convenience and fancier file formats.

New music! Sarah came up with the title and told me to come up with something to go with it. I feel like I nailed it. Have a listen!

Thank my friend Matt, who was giving me grief about the lack of new music — he tricked me into setting a deadline, which I scrambled to keep.

Check out these videos of a sweet painting in the works: part 1, part 2. I’m pretty pumped — it feels good when someone likes your music enough to use it for something like this.

For more of the artist:

• blog
• deviantArt
• YouTube

I joined a forum recently, and there is a thread where musicians challenge each other to do things that are not necessarily in their comfort zone. I’ve been in one of those “I hate everything I come up with” funks lately, and this seemed like a good way to get out of that. The challenge was “Make a Theme Song for a Sci-Fi Action Game In 3/4 Time”. I took some liberties with 3/4, but here it is! 8.5 hours.

Enjoy!

I have some new music for you. I spent a huge amount of time to figure out how to craft a sound that is pretty minor in the scheme of things. That is how I suffer for my art! I hope you like it.

Enjoy!