Transcript
Speaker: Welcome to Chasing the Beats, a show dedicated to weeklybeats.com artists, their songs and stories from the 2024 season. I'm your host, SQF, and on episode 32, our guest is Miracle Miles.
Speaker: Welcome to Miracle Miles. Thanks for being on, man. Hey, good to be here. I'm excited to talk to you. Likewise, man. As with all the 2024 Weekly Beats people, I've listened to at least a few of your songs. so And now, taking a deeper dive, it's cool to get to chat with you.
Speaker: Yeah, definitely. I think it's really great that you're doing this. I'm like this, this has been needed for a while. Oh, thanks, man. Yeah, i I really wanted to start something up during the year.
Speaker: But that that was too much. But this felt like a good a good hole to plug while everyone was like, what do we do on Sundays? yeah Exactly.
Speaker: Exactly. Yeah. So yeah. And this was not your first weekly beats right no i started in 2016. man ah buddy of mine licensed uh ryan i worked with him and i was just kind of getting started with music production and making my own songs Made music my whole life, but as a drummer playing other people's music in bands, right? Right.
Speaker: And then right around 2016, I got the like Ableton Push, and I'm learning Ableton. I'm like, yeah this is it This piece of kit is going to get me making my own songs. It was the Push one.
Speaker: and And I'm like, okay. and but I don't know. I wasn't super motivated at the time. I was like maybe starting some like ideas. And then Ryan, license, also on Weekly Beats. Nice. At we're like in the hallway. And he's like, oh, man, doing Weekly Beats? I'm like, what is that?
Speaker: He told me about it. Well, that's exactly what I need. I like need like deadline and like... commitment to like, like a project, you know, I'm used to jobs and you get a project and a deadline and then you do it and you get paid, but we're not getting paid here, but that's all right. but No, we're not.
Speaker: So it was the perfect thing to like, to kick my butt and actually like finish a song, even though maybe I didn't fully know what I was doing yet. I'm like learning Ableton, learning the push.
Speaker: Yeah. yeah Getting it done. learning how to make something every week. Exactly. And that is just been such a, such a great experience on so many levels that I can't praise it enough.
Speaker: There's just so many good things to say about it. Yeah. When you, when you think back to the first year versus the difference between what,
Speaker: what things come up Man, I was just thinking about that. And like 20, in some ways I'm like, I like my stuff better from 16, 18, 20, you know, it's like, just like raw and unfiltered and not like, not thinking about anything, just like, get something out, just do it.
Speaker: i mean, now some of my mixes and masters sound better. i probably have learned some things, learned some skills, but yeah. back then I think stuff was just like pouring out like, you know, lifetime of stuff. Yeah.
Speaker: It had some, some magic to it, if you will. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, I mean, I think every year there's like highlights, um, that I'll go back and listen to and I'm like, Oh, I haven't done something like that for a while. Why have I stopped?
Speaker: What's going on? Like, that was a good thing to do. Yeah, how has your because I haven't gone back and listened to your older stuff. Yeah. But I as I'm approaching 2026, and kind of getting back in the habit of making some music again in the off season. I'm like, how do i not make my stuff sound exactly like the first year? Because I feel like I'm sort of like trending that direction already.
Speaker: Yeah, that's that's tough too, because i think that happens. Maybe that's a natural thing. Maybe it's not bad to sound somewhat the same, because that's one thing I've i've been on this quest to do is like, what's my sound? Like, who am Who am i as a as a music creator, as a person? I mean, you know I'm in my 40s now. i'm like I'm starting to learn about myself. Same.
Speaker: But it's like as music though, I'm still like trying different things. And I'm like, yeah am I a guy who makes stuff like this? Do I make stuff to dance to? Do I make chill stuff? And I've kind of settled with the fact that I'll just make anything and everything and just have fun. But yeah on the same note, there's like a part of me that just wants to have that single focus and be like, I am a hip hop producer. I am ah eda Just to kind of know and yeah and focus in and I can hone everything on that one like genre and just get good at it. But I'm like, no, I just like doing random things.
Speaker: Yeah, i there's definite advantages to having that kind of focus. But there's also something great just about like making whatever.
Speaker: Yeah, yeah. Learning process. finding yourself. Yeah, I mean, there's definitely a part of like you said, and the ah the 40s era where you're like, Who am I? And then?
Speaker: Yeah. And maybe that's why there's so many of us around the same age demographic in weekly beats. I just think it's super interesting because like, everyone I interview is like,
Speaker: or most everyone and that I ask their age, it's like mid forties ish. And I'm like, why are we all collected up in this like music challenge thing in our, you know, in our forties?
Speaker: That's funny. Yeah, it's true. It's true. I noticed that in like comments and stuff and people are like referencing nineties stuff and I'm all, I think he's the same age as me. Yeah. Yeah. talking about the ninety s and and stuff yeah yeah but there is something interesting when you get into just a creative project where you're cranking something out every week where you do kind of get to see who you are every week because you're forcing that part of
Speaker: that part of you out that like you might be creative at work, but you're like, you're creative to, you know, make something for someone else. Most of the time it's different.
Speaker: Yeah. Yeah, it is It is. And every week it is, I, I heard this on some of your other episodes. I forgot who was saying it, but it's like this like audio journal, you know, and you might be having a,
Speaker: you're super excited week or you're super inspired about some new sound or it or or or a synth you're trying out or you're or you're not feeling great and that can channel into your music and you can you can yeah you can use that you can use the music as a as an outlet and as an audio diary yeah and sometimes i love it when you just you might be just kind of in a neutral state. You know, I'm i'm just existing in life right now. Life is fine.
Speaker: And you sit down to create and stuff comes out and you're like, where'd that come from? idea. and maybe you're like, oh yeah, it's because I did hear this one track. I did do this and, uh, you know, and stuff. And then it's like, oh this came out from like, I've been thinking about this for years. Like I played drums in a band a long time ago and we did a song like this now it's coming out.
Speaker: Yeah. it's wild I believe that like, this isn't like my concept. I forget exactly, you know, where I first read this. It could have been in the artist's way by Julia, somebody where, um,
Speaker: She's like, it's it's like a little wooey, but she's all about a practice, you know, yeah do your artist practice, whether it's writing or visual art. and And she's just like, art, we don't like create it you just You're just a vessel. It's like out there in the ether, you just have to open up. it It's gonna channel into you and you're gonna get it out. And I'm like, yeah, just like sit down and be open, start tapping on pads of your ah my Ableton push, start yeah whatever, start like,
Speaker: listening to a folder of samples, anything you got, start twiddling knobs and and stuff's just gonna come and you might not know where it's coming from, but it's there. yeah it is crazy and it's been something that i've noticed trying to get back into making music in the off season that i i mean i still enjoy making ah finished song but i'm finding a lot of joy in that process of just like
Speaker: getting in there screwing around experimenting seeing what happens like trying different things uh and realizing that that is kind of the whole point of all this a lot of times the ah finished song is not necessarily the end goal right right it's it's like everyone says it's ah it's the journey it's it's the journey is where the joy is but uh I do think that finishing songs feels good and it's a skill and it's a skill that you have to practice and, and weekly beats will make you practice the skill of like finishing because I, I love it to like, and it's, this teaches you lessons for like work life or, or,
Speaker: personal everywhere yeah yeah i can't just like say i'm painting my house i can't just like try different colors for two years it's like no i'm gonna pick a color and i'm gonna have to put it on the wall because i'm not gonna spend years painting my house gonna try and get it done in in one month or something yeah know what are some of those things that you've picked up from all the years of doing weekly beats that you're like noticing apply in other places Yeah, yeah, I think not getting the what's it called to like, paralyzed by like indecision.
Speaker: ah use Analysis paralysis. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. And that could that could come in work, you know, say I'm okay for I'm doing like a project work like I'm documenting a product roadmap. work in software development and product management. So I'm like, Hmm,
Speaker: you know, I need to like find a new way to visualize our like roadmap because we don't have ah the right to. So i'm like, I could look at 10 different software tools. I could spend a bunch of time in each. And it's like, at some point we're going to make a decision and move on. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker: It's the same thing with picking out sounds or do the various phases of doing a song. Um, you know, stop, make a decision, own it and move on and go to the next phase of the process.
Speaker: Yeah. Yeah. Any, ah any other parallels? Yeah. You know, I think just in trying to think about in like personal life, I think like, you know i have kids and in telling them to, you know, the, like trying to tell them the like,
Speaker: pleasures of like finishing a project you know yeah they're like might be into like writing um you know like oh i started a story it's like hmm it's gonna feel good to finish i bet you know when is that story done you know and like and trying to say you know if you just one thing i've learned in weekly beats is deadlines help and i'm like why don't you set a debt a deadline and you'll finish that story, you know? And I'll tell that to, you know, even my wife who might be doing photography project. And it's like, Oh, I just keep like tweaking the color palette and Photoshop.
Speaker: I'm like, set a deadline and finish that photo. So I'm like a life coach or something. It's all thanks to weekly beats. How do you keep the weekly beats deadline from working the opposite?
Speaker: What do you mean? Like, for me, there were times where there's this like looming deadline, and nothing is really coming together. And then I kind of just get bummed about the fact that, like, I'm i'm looking at this deadline. And ah i don't know if I can, there's nothing really there for me yet. Like, how am I actually going to finish this? Like, this is not fun anymore.
Speaker: Yeah, I've had that too. There there are some bummer weeks. I guess what I've been describing is like those good weeks where it's like, yeah on Monday and Tuesday, I just kind of jam in free form. And then do some minor edits on Wednesday. I do more edits on Friday. But then there's those weeks I just haven't done anything and it's Saturday.
Speaker: And that seems like... Seems like that happened more and more. This goes back to what I liked and what was different about the past years versus the newer year. In the past years, as I was like, I have to get started early because I don't know what I'm doing and I'm a new. Right.
Speaker: But then now it's like, yeah. i've I've learned over the years I probably could start something on Saturday and I could knock something out. It might not be the best. I can get away with it.
Speaker: Yeah, yeah. And then you start to do it more and you're like, ooh, this is a bad habit. It doesn't feel good. But then every once in a while, one out of five of those late starts things is like, oh, this is surprisingly good. It's like good that I didn't overthink it. I just did the first thing, the first like ideas that came out, like the first bass line I tapped on the post the first chord. I'm just keeping it.
Speaker: didn't have time to, uh, you know, toss out your, or be over overly critical of your ideas. Right. Right. But then there's times where you're just really not happy. Uh, it's like, yeah, okay. I'm going just do something quick. And then you put it on and you're like, Oh yeah, I really could have been better.
Speaker: Yeah. Yeah. ah But then there's those times that you listen to it that and the next day and you're like, I actually like that better. Yeah. And you say, you know, it's like, it's all about, does this have any, you know, seeds for the future too? you know Right. Well, it wasn't a great track, but man, i it's it's got a cool baseline. So I could always use that or I could add to this song, you know?
Speaker: Yeah. Do you ever go back and modify old ones? Sometimes. Yeah. So part of, What I wanted to do with weekly beats was I wanted to put up music with a friend, Monstrosus. He's done a little bit of weekly beats, but he's never he's never done like a full year.
Speaker: He'll do a handful of things. We met in drumline in junior high. We're both drummers. We were playing the snare drum together. And we're like, man, it'd be cool to make music together, but we're both drummers and we don't really play anything else.
Speaker: Over the years, he did start to learn more instruments. Like he got, he you know, he got some, you know some basic skills and guitar and bass and keys. And so now then that I kind of got this production skills and I could add various sounds, he'd come over.
Speaker: and just play guitar or play some keys. And we just do these like long sessions, just, just free jamming. And that's my happy place. Just yeah. Making stuff up for two hours and going wherever you go.
Speaker: um And then, so I would take, take what he and I did and I would do a quick enough edit to make like a weekly beats track.
Speaker: And then, we'd say, okay, we're going to be a band, you know, and we're going to put out songs. So I would go back again and we would edit those more, maybe add some more sounds, clean up the mix a little. And we've put out like five albums now that are streamed. Oh, wow. where As, as ah the band name is Creatures Once.
Speaker: Creatures Once? Creatures Once. Yeah. Nice. We, we, we want to wear these creatures and maybe we still are just these, these creatures of pure id and chaos or something, you know? go And we just, we, stuff the stuff that comes out is what comes out and we, we have some similar tastes, you know, so it kind of works well, but it's like, even with that band too, I'm like, maybe it would have been smart if we like honed our sound instead of being all over the place.
Speaker: Like, you know, this song is kind of rock and this song is kind of hip hop. And it's like, well, eh, I'm not trying to. You're having fun. We're just having fun. And yeah, that, that was a kind of a bucket list thing too. Um, first, first bucket list thing was to make a song of my own. And I knocked that off in 2016 weekly beats with the first week. I'm like, Oh, I made a song done. Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah. Let's make 51 more. Yeah. Second was to make, to put out an album like with with him as you know with my childhood friend. and and And so we knocked out an album. So hey.
Speaker: Nice. The goal. Now I'm trying to figure out live. I did knock out live performance this year. like i want to perform my own song live. And so we have a synth electronic music open mic here in Spokane, Washington. And it's called Square Wave Wednesdays.
Speaker: It's run by cool people. And so I took some of my songs, sliced them up, figured out how to perform it on the push, like triggering parts, doing effects live. I had a vision of like, oh, I could perform like with like more pieces of gear, but I'm like, I'm doing a 15 minute set out of open mic. I'm gonna keep it simple and just bring the push stand along. Yeah.
Speaker: so I knocked that off, I guess too. So cool. What else is on the bucket list? Yeah. I think ah live performance with people like with, like with him or with other collaborators, like more of like a band thing instead of just like taking a completely finished song and putting it on the push and doing the whole thing, you know, like a lot of the, you know, it's just like canned, you know, I'm just like playback. I might play like one key part live or,
Speaker: tap some percussion and tweak effects. But I think it'd be cool to have like one person is doing this part and one person is, you know, yeah like a band experience. Yeah. That would be cool.
Speaker: But with like songs I wrote or songs that I wrote with, with friends, but, not just with me like being a drummer playing someone else's song right and as far as your your weekly song making you mentioned that sometimes you start on saturday but what where do the ideas come from like how do you begin the song yeah my favorite i found that my favorite Weekly Beats week is Tuesday Night Jam. ah So, you know, I always take Monday off because, you know, you like upload the song on Sunday. You know, I'll usually do some edits on Sunday. Upload. I'm not doing anything on Monday.
Speaker: Got to go listen to some stuff. Maybe comment. Right, right. It's kind of fun to then on Tuesday do some just like open ended jam, just like yeah see what comes out. Or maybe you had like a inkling of an idea the past week, but you're like, I don't want to get distracted. I'm going to finish my thing.
Speaker: Next week, I'll start out this new weird thing, you know, this like other style track or something. And so i like I like to start it on Tuesday, maybe let it like marinate on Wednesday, add some more stuff on Thursday, Friday, and then like edit like crazy on Saturday, Sunday or something.
Speaker: Got it. And I really like it to have a to collaborate. It doesn't always happen. But couple of friends like my ah buddy in Creatures Once, Monstrosus or a License will will come over with with his synth gear and make some noise. um It's fun when that can happen.
Speaker: I guess that happens like any time and I'll just use that audio for like a future week. But it's always just fun to. i I like it, but it's frustrating at times because I'll do a long jam with someone and I've got like two hours of audio. And I'm like, now you find the nuggets.
Speaker: Yeah. It becomes an editing project. And I'm like, I'm spending all my time just editing. Right. That's one of my frustrations with weekly beats to be, honest is I do less like just freeform jamming and creating and more editing. So I'm like practicing that editing skill and finishing a song skill, but I'm not like practicing the creating skill quite as much.
Speaker: Interesting. Yeah, mean, I'm make music a little bit differently. So I definitely understand your situation of like, I've just got like three hours of audio, like, how do I put this into something?
Speaker: But I typically start with like drums and bass and then just keep copying things and like removing apart and then adding something else until I've just got like all of these experiments. And then I start like any week that I'm like, not like, I don't know where this is going.
Speaker: but I've got a ton of experiments. I'm like, okay, it's time to start arranging and seeing like how the experiments fit together. Like maybe these two parts fit really well, but one, it might be in like a different key. So then I need to sort of like transpose it. so it fits better.
Speaker: and then next thing, you know, like once I start assembling, it's like, okay, like things are coming together and I'm getting a song like I have a direction of a song.
Speaker: Yes, it's just kind of like forming itself in front of you. yeah exactly. Like you mentioned, like some sort of magic is coming from somewhere else. And somehow every week it's like, oh, ah once I start arranging, like this song just like makes itself.
Speaker: Yeah, you know, it's like it to do the like wooey thing again. the song wants The song wants to get made. it wants you to make it. So you just got to be open to it and not like fight against Yeah.
Speaker: So my process doesn't really involve a lot of editing because I'm pretty much doing all MIDI and samples. Okay. Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah. Yeah. yeah Yeah, not like... so But do you jam, you know, just create... You said you you may have like three hours of audio or something, right?
Speaker: Do you just do long sessions of playing a synth or playing a guitar and then you got to go find those nuggets? I... Typically, I make most of my music on the M8. And so if I do any noodling, all I'll like record some noodling. And if I'm like, oh, I like that, I go and...
Speaker: like program in the notes and then like resample the noodle in that part. So then I have that like row of parts that I can just like move around.
Speaker: Yeah. it seems like the M8 and that tracker workflow, it like it's, it lends itself to finishing a song because you've got these rows, right? You've got these parts kind of building.
Speaker: But I imagine you could do a similar sort of thing with Ableton Push, right? Where you can just like make a clip of something? Make clips. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker: But that's hard to do to take a like full jam session and like make a clip. Right. Right. Yeah. I have to go back in there and scroll through the jam and. And then it's like the timing might be slightly different. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah, and during a jam, because the jam could be i could be playing a little bit of hardware stuff, as well as maybe playing some sounds in Ableton and recording it all. But yeah, it's like you don't want to stop and be like, hold on, that was cool. I'm going to go in and cut it into a four-bar loop. So it's just like, let's just keep going for two hours. Let me load that in my Ableton push. Hold on.
Speaker: Yeah. Yeah. Do you ever do any remote collaboration? Yeah, I've done some. Yeah. You know, actually, uh, during the off year last time, so that would have been 23, right? So right before the 24, I did a collab with KED break.
Speaker: KED break. Oh, sweet. Sweet. KED break 136, right? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And, uh, I forgot the number briefly there. And, uh, We talked about it. It's the BPM of, dang what's the break?
Speaker: to Oh God. I can't believe I'm forgetting. we like it i'm gonna get right yeah I'm going to get razzed for not remembering this. It was in that episode. Amen break. It's the Amen break. Amen. All right, I got saved. Catch, catch, catch. Yeah.
Speaker: Something like that. Yeah. The one of the most used breaks, I think probably ever. That's awesome. I didn't know the origins. Yeah, I knew it was in that episode, but I haven't played the whole episode back. Yeah.
Speaker: What is ah because I'm interested in doing some like remote collabs, but I'm like, how do I even do this? Yeah, we sent some files. I sent, I mean, didn't really know how first. We're just like, okay, let's try this. I sent actually a bunch of, you know, stems from a jam that I had done where I had played, played some tongue drum, but I'd also played like various things. So I had like three or four tracks, you know, and I just sent like these three, three minutes of each very free form. You know, it wasn't like a formed song, I think.
Speaker: Yeah. And then I think he took it and added some more sounds, did the first arrangement. Like, how about this as a structure? You know, I put like an A part and a B part or something and added some more stuff. And then,
Speaker: I got it back. I think I played some live drums on top of cool of the parts and sent that back. And then he added his like magic spice of other layers of samples and pirates laughing and what he does this pirate rum psychedelic thing. That's cool.
Speaker: Yeah. Is that released anywhere? I think only on SoundCloud. Okay. For me and on his YouTube channel. Cool. Yeah, I'll have to check that one out.
Speaker: Yeah, I'll save the link. And I saw you did a I don't know if it's technically a collab, but you took one of JWH's songs and like kind of expanded on it yeah exactly yeah and that was super fun too i like to do that and i want to do more of it i mean i want to do some remixes of band i know some bands here in town that are just you know just various almost just you know like an indie band or a rock band yeah oh i want to take like some of your stems and do and do a track so i kind of did that with him but i didn't want to like do like a ah radical a radical
Speaker: remix it sounded really cool as is i'm just like what if i just added a couple things you know and and built upon because i think maybe in his description he said this is this is something that could be added to and if anyone wants to i'll send it to you so i'm like okay great done i do want to you know so i think i ended up maybe ended up speeding it up a tad too yeah i'll take a little creative license i guess yeah change it up a little yeah it's a cool version once uh oh thanks thanks once i uh i think and then i did similar with the tone matrix track i used this piano i cut it up a little bit more i maybe like took right a couple of loops i took a four bar thing here and an eight bar thing here and magnolia begonia yes
Speaker: And then in a past year, I took a Cosmic Cairns tune and sampled mostly the bass and maybe some other little parts. And I ended up just like,
Speaker: making it like way different like I didn't even have like a full bar of his original until like the very end I like yeah you know but I just like would take like so small slices that's cool yeah it's something I'd like to do more it's fun yeah what else do you want to do in uh 2026 I assume you're doing weekly beats again Definitely.
Speaker: i got to start I've been slacking a little bit on making music this year. i got i got it seems to be the case so for everyone and the in the off year. Yeah. yeah I spent a little time on the prepping these live sets for this this open mic thing, but that wasn't making anything new. it was like trying to figure out how to make an old song work again. right And then, yeah, so in 2026, you know, I'll continue finding who I am.
Speaker: i i think I'll just go in, yeah, without a without a super ah super strong like theme or goal and I'll just see what comes out again. but i do,
Speaker: think that I want to do more getting out like cool bits of gear and jamming on us like borrowing a synth or using a synth I have and getting just doing a session where I just create sounds and then like using those sounds yeah I want to go sample i went through listened to some DJ shadow the other day and I'm like god I love his stuff of course and uh And so I want to dig through my vinyl and and sample some some various bits from places. Do some sampling of stuff where you you can't even tell like where it came from. you know Just like right chop it and mangle it and stuff and do yeah more of that, I think, too.
Speaker: and then play with people more. I want to have like a buddy come over and lay guitar down. Cause that's what I really like about music too, is the community aspect, yeah which you get a bit in weekly beats, but it's really fun to get together with, with friends and make it different to jam and just go wherever the jam takes you.
Speaker: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, so try and reach out to some people, maybe go and play play drums with people, but capture audio of the jam and turn it into a totally different track. Yeah.
Speaker: What is some of your go-to gear synths whatever else? Yeah, you know, I just love, love love Ableton and all and all that and the push. But when I bust out some hardware, I really like the note the Novation circuits. They both like the circuit tracks, circuit rhythm, and I have a circuit monostation. I've got the whole family.
Speaker: They were very easy to learn. And I got the sequencer down and those all use the same sequencer. And i'm like, great, it's easy. And I can always jam live with those with people. the learning curve on those was easy where even if I don't touch them for couple of months, if I want to bust it out and play, it's like right there again. Yeah. Um,
Speaker: you know and i've been playing around with a uh this boss 505 looper it's been kind of fun to to you know like play play a bit of percussion or do some mouth some i always call them mouth sounds but do some voice stuff and like loop uh loop voice i've been always trying to i i always say i'm like a someone who wishes I could sing and wanted to be a singer, but I can't really sing. you know I can't really like carry a tune, but I've i've tried to like use voice as a texture a lot right yeah in songs. And so i want to do more of that too and practice like
Speaker: looping voices percussion and even like i i dabble a little bit in like writing words on paper and i'm like hmm could some of these be like lyrics it'd be like lyrics i would probably like you know more speak or rap and not really sing yeah and maybe over the years maybe in my 50s i'll be able to sing you know Yeah, you never know. i I'm attempting to dabble in some mouth sounds, as you say, and i recorded some samples this week and I was like, yeah, don't like that.
Speaker: I definitely need to cover it up with more effects. So I'm i'm learning how to drown out my voice with effects. Yeah. Yes. That's what I've done too. That's what I've done too.
Speaker: Yeah. The, the weekly beats community is so nice, you know, and they're like, cool, you tried some voice, you know? And then I think one time someone was like blunt and be like, I don't love the vocals as they are now, but Hey, keep, keep trying or something. I mean, that's kind of the honesty that I want though. Like, cause I,
Speaker: It's one of those things that I think I'm always going to think that it sounds horrible. So I need a neutral party to be like, Yeah, that's pretty bad.
Speaker: or like, you're on the way. yeah Yes, yes. I need that too. I've learned that I kind of like everything. my My partner in Creatures Wants too, he's always like, like ah just like everything. So we we have a hard time being like critical. And I'm like, we need someone else to be that like super critical ear. If that doesn't work, this does. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker: It's and thankfully we are part of a nice community that you you really have to pull that really, really critical feedback out of people.
Speaker: yeah That's not always volunteered because sometimes you gave it your all and you might like the results and yeah you maybe don't want to hear that critical feedback quite yet.
Speaker: Yeah, exactly. Exactly. i It's true. It's like this fine line, too. And I rarely on a comment like have some like criticism, partly because I kind of like everything, but partly because I'm like, I just want i just want to uplift. you know Yeah. Yeah. No.
Speaker: Or, you know, if, if someone makes a comment or in their description is like, I'm looking for feedback on my mix. Like, yeah. yeah Yeah. Yeah. The door is open.
Speaker: Right. I I'd like to do that more. I found it's, it's tricky at times for some people and myself included at times to separate like,
Speaker: objective critical feedback from just like taste you know like yes this song isn't like exactly like something i regularly listen to it might not be my go-to like thing you know this this is like some like noise thing or something i'm like i don't often listen to this so it's hard to know what to say Yeah, yeah.
Speaker: Because there's just such a variety that there's a lot of genres or, i mean, it's hard to even place some things in genres where I'm like, I'm i'm no expert in this music or whatever you want to classify it in.
Speaker: So I'm just going to listen to it. And I think that's a... just a fun thing about weekly beats is listening just to such a wide variety of music it it's amazing i don't do the genre thing either i'm like i don't know what genre i just made a song yeah it's tough and that's why i'm i'm terrible at classifying music and genres yeah that's why wish i'd be at at times i've had that thought i mean like just just pick a genre you do like like deep house and just do that i'm like okay cool but i'd get bored so i probably won't so well then once you pick a genre like deep house there's rules yes you know that i don't even i don't know know all the rules
Speaker: but Now now it's like, all right, I got to fit in this in this box of rules and like, oh, that's not deep house because you did X, Y, and Z. Exactly. Because you use this this like acid baseline. Yeah.
Speaker: You can't do that. yeah and And to like know and to to learn the rules, you have to like listen to just that like a lot. I'm like, I listen to everything. you know I'm bouncing around from like indie rock to electronic to world and hip hop. I'm all over the place.
Speaker: yeah yeah I'm still trying to find myself. so yeah yeah you know like exactly I don't even know what music I like. I just like, I like good music, I think, you know? i Yeah, yeah.
Speaker: Well, um you know, i geez, I've listened to some like Billy Strings and I'm like, this is some cool. Yeah, yeah. Let's see, like country, but it's not like radio country.
Speaker: Bluegrass. It's Americana bluegrass stuff. And I'm like, it it just sounds good. But also like kind of genre bending bluegrass. Right, right.
Speaker: And you can hear these things, you know, that's what my, yeah my buddy and I, who we make the music with, we, when we were in high school and stuff, we'd be like into jazz. We like played in jazz band and stuff. And we'd be like, jazz was cool. Cause they were trying to do something new and like hip hop was cool. Cause they're sampling and that was new. And they're like what could we do? That's totally new.
Speaker: And now it's like, I don't know if there is anything. i it's tough It's tough to come up with new stuff and be groundbreaking in the musical realm.
Speaker: Yeah. Yeah, it really is. Well, should we listen to some music? Yeah, sure. right. Let's start out with... i'm going to go in the the order in which you sent these to me.
Speaker: Okay. and well Unless you have a different order you prefer. This was hard to pick these, too. No, I think any order is good, and... All right. Like I think I said in my email, I do too. I'm like, I don't know which of my songs are best. I need someone else to tell me.
Speaker: i just like them all equally. They're like my babies. Well, we had a lot of overlap in the songs that you picked in the songs that I was about to send you.
Speaker: oh um I was like, all right, let's we'll roll with this. So the first one is save your life. Move. all right here we go ah we go we go
Speaker: We go, we go, we go, we go, we we we go, we we go, we go, we go, we we go, we go, we go, we go, we go, we we go, we we go, we go, we go, we go, we go, we go, we go, we we go, we go, we go, we go, we go, we go, we go, we go, we go, we go, we go, we we go, go, go, we go, we we go, we go, we go, we we we we go, we go, we go, we go, we we go, we we go, we go, we go, we we go, we go, we we go, we we we go, we go, we we we go, we go, we we go, we go, we go, we go, we we go, go, we we go, we we go, we we go, we we go, we go, go, go, we go, we go, we go, we go, we go, we we we we go, we go, we go, we we go, we go, we go, we we we go, we we we go, we go, we we we go, we we we go, we go, we we we go, we we we we we go, go, we we go, we go, we go, we go, we go, we we we go, go, we go, we go, we
Speaker: Oh
Speaker: right, that was Save Your Life Move, a super fun one. and we were just looking at the comments while it was playing. And I love the comment from...
Speaker: DDMM64. Whoa, this is a trip. Love all the curveballs and the rhythms, yet still super groovy. A lot of changes, but still cohesive. Really dope track.
Speaker: Love that comment. I love the comments because they teach me things about my music that I didn't know. I'm like, I didn't know I put a curveball in the rhythm. I was just doing my my rhythmic stuff, and there it comes.
Speaker: I mean, I would, but I would call it a sonic journey. Like a lot of your songs. Thanks. Thanks. Yeah. Yeah. Thanks. And that's one thing I do.
Speaker: I love seeing the car because I'm, I guess maybe like a kind of a maximalist. I'll be like, I'm going to pack some stuff into this song, fit it all in and hope it works.
Speaker: And I love to hear a comment when someone says, a lot of changes or a lot of stuff is going on but it but it works or it's cohesive um yeah it's not overwhelming it's not too chaotic it like it ended up sort of working so that's good uh yeah was just writing the replicators comment man did you survive the move which i think the track is referring to like not move locations, but like move your body, right?
Speaker: Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Don't rent a U-Haul, like dance around. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. And I like Emily's comment, shared a link to an article sitting all day can cause dead butt syndrome.
Speaker: ah That's great. Addressing gluteal amnesia can help you avoid chronic pain. And I'm like, yes. for That's one of the joys of weekly beats. You like you learn some things. I mean, I think that some of us by now probably know that sitting all day is bad, but it's always good to to see it to see a good article about it in ah in a comment.
Speaker: It's true. We can never be too informed on things like that. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. And so what made this one of your top picks? Yeah, I heard it. I'm like, you know, this sounds like something i think I made it fairly quick. It just kind of like came out and I'm like, this is kind of a me thing. I just like sat down kind of some grooves that I that I gravitate towards and maybe some sounds I gravitate towards.
Speaker: a vocal sample that I like. I put my voice in there in the beginning. i was kind of saying, save your life and move. And so it's kind of my like mouth sounds that's not really singing. And, um, and then, um,
Speaker: i was inspired by um one of the one thing ableton videos i'm i'm seeing here on my on my description and i was like that when i like watch something that a different artist did uh and then it like gets me going i'm like oh i'm gonna try that technique um and then i started this was something i was trying to do in 2024 as well i was starting since i'm a drummer i'm like i'm gonna stop tapping drums in with fingers and stuff. And I'm going to start playing live on on on the drums, you know, playing live drums. And tried to incorporate that into a lot of songs that year. And so I started this one by like, playing drums and getting ah getting a beat going. And that's one thing i was I was wanting to do more. And it looks like I tried a new device where you can type in chords.
Speaker: ah oh I'm looking back at my description here. so I'm like, it's kind of a good week. You know, got inspired. I got inspired by external thing. i i played drums and I tried a new device.
Speaker: sounds like you started on a Tuesday. Yeah, I think I probably started. using This doesn't sound like it all happened on Saturday. That's for sure. No, no, no.
Speaker: Yeah, it's it's cool. And I just ran across my comment that I left on it. ah A tasty soup of sounds I put. thank you.
Speaker: thank you That's exactly my thing. i need to I've always thought I need to use these comments to describe my tracks if I ever like put them out. you know Yeah, yeah.
Speaker: SQF is called this a tasty soup of sounds. That's great. my The last sentence in my description, I says, oh, I realized I had a lot of ideas and little tidbits sitting around. So I dug into the challenge of trying to fit it all together. And I'm like, yeah, that sounds about right.
Speaker: Yeah. Yeah. But it works. Yeah, yeah. And then I said, it's not exactly what I wanted, but I had fun and learned new things. I'm like, well, that's kind of a weekly beats week there. too That's a successful week for sure.
Speaker: Yeah. right's the The next one is called Granted For. Okay, yeah. Here we go.
Speaker: Bye.
Speaker: Thank you.
Speaker: All right. That was granted for. Hey, yeah, I remember that one. um a I like this one. I think I picked this one because I wanted to give a shout out partly why I wanted to give a shout out to the disquiet Junto.
Speaker: And this is going to ask about that. This started from that. So it's a weekly project. It's ah it's been going, i think they're up to 600 something now, weeks.
Speaker: No off year. Right. And you can it's not a challenge to do a song each week. It's just like, do it if you want to. And this guy, Mark Wiedenbaum out of San Francisco started it.
Speaker: I just hope I said his last name right. I don't know. But he will send out a prompt each week to the email list. And, you know, so you kind of have this like prompt to like get your creative juices flowing. And some are like esoteric, like think of the shape of your house and like,
Speaker: and make music that just structured kind of like the layout of your house, you know, ah to like something like concrete, like here's, here's a, here's a, a sample, like you use this sample, you know? Um, and then every year there's a three part collaboration where you upload something one week and you try and keep it sparse the second week.
Speaker: you like pick something that someone else uploaded and you add to it. And the third week, someone has a third part. And sometimes there's a fourth week where you get to pick anything from any of the weeks and do a remix.
Speaker: Oh, that's cool. That's always fun. And how many people participate in this? Oh, that's a good question. i don't think I've, I mean, I think it like ebbs and flows like on any given week, is there like 40 something tracks on the SoundCloud playlist or even after 60 or 70, I think varies it varies by week though. I'm going to open it up on SoundCloud and look at a playlist.
Speaker: And we typically upload the tracks to SoundCloud. It's not a rule though, but he'll he'll put all the tracks into a playlist on SoundCloud, but some people will put their tracks on Bandcamp or YouTube. And then there's, we'll use the lines, lines forum forum to discuss and share and share our tracks there too.
Speaker: Cool. Yeah, it's been good. It's kind of cool to have a prompt because you're like, Oh, this, this is, this is getting me started. Yeah. I'm looking back through like last week was make a piece of your own music louder or busier.
Speaker: Yeah, yeah. That's it's kind of cool to have some, you know, like mission for the week. Yes. And some of those techniques I've done and in in a junto, I have used and they're awesome. Like one was like, take a song you have and cut it by half, cut out half the tracks, cut out half the notes.
Speaker: And as kind of a maximalist, it was really cool to to go to bed. This song has 12 tracks. I'm going to cut it to six tracks and strip it down, you know. yeah so that was a good one that i still try and like think of i'm like okay i think the song is done now what would it sound like if i cut it in half right make it that's hard to do yeah yeah especially as uh a man that packs a lot in Yeah, exactly.
Speaker: And granted for that we just listened to, it's got a really great groove to it. And I like how in the beginning, it sort of so ah starts out like unformed and then kind of really gets into the groove.
Speaker: It gets in there. Yeah. Yeah. I'm a, I'm a big fan of that, of kind of like the groove, like just emerges, you know, yeah like that's kind of the way it can happen when you're creating a song, you're tinkering around or jamming and then like, Oh, it just came yeah coming from the ether. or yeah know One thing I like about this one is it seems like just something I wrote in the description resonated with some people like I said, I started doing one thing for this disquiet junto, but then I just wasn't feeling it. So I just like scrapped it.
Speaker: I kept like one, one sampled guitar part loop and I did a whole different thing. And I'm like, that's what you have to do. Like if you, if you're not feeling something, sometimes it's nice just to like scrap it and start over and do something else, which is hard to do on weekly beats because sometimes it's good advice to just finish what you started, but it's also kind of good advice to follow your, to follow what gives you joy. Yeah. There's just those moments where, you know, like I was just talking about where, all right, if I start arranging, it's going to come together.
Speaker: But I've been there couple times where no matter how I'm trying to arrange it, like it just it just ain't working. Or I even have the whole thing arranged and I'm just like, ah it lacks yeah something.
Speaker: I don't know what else to add to it to like give it life. So I'm just going to throw it to the boneyard. Maybe something will happen to it in the future because like,
Speaker: If you're struggling one week, I'll go like look through the boneyard and be like, do any of these old songs peak my interest more than when I tossed them away?
Speaker: Yes, I make tracks like that a lot. Actually, I'll go find like a half started thing and be like, this at least is a start because it's got a couple things going for it. And then I don't have to do everything from scratch because I've already got this. data one Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah, that's, that's a good, idea that that's a good idea. This is a song that I picked. And part of the reason I picked it was because of that description, because it resonated with me so much of like,
Speaker: just ain't working gotta gotta throw it away and where you said i started to get that feeling and but was having uh the fun day sunday tune that i wanted like that's kind of the the music making feeling that you're always chasing It is.
Speaker: It's such a good feeling. Like something just like clicks and you're like, now this has brought me joy. I'm excited about this track and there's no better feeling. that's That's why making music or I think any art is such is so great for the for the mental health and the soul because it's like when you get something that you like, it's just it's just a great feeling.
Speaker: And I did have to learn how to just overcome that. Like when you're not getting that feeling and, and just realizing like, Hey, I just got to like, put it down and come back.
Speaker: Like, yeah it's just not flowing right now, whatever it is. yeah i know that sounds. We're talking a lot of woo-woo stuff today, but I guess it's out there. it's It's out there in the ether for us. so That's right.
Speaker: Now, to be clear, there's been times where I didn't put a track down. I was just stubborn, and I'm like, I'm going to keep editing this until Sunday 4 and then I'm going upload it, damn it.
Speaker: And sometimes it's good, and sometimes it's not. a Then there's times I'm like, hey, you know what? I should have scrapped it. So, yeah. Yeah. I mean, I guess there's all sorts of different ways to learn.
Speaker: Sometimes you learn from track that you just push through and now you know for next time that it's okay to throw it away. Yeah, exactly. These things, it's it's thanks to a weekly project like this is where you learn these things. like It's true. We wouldn't both have learned these lessons if we hadn't have gone through the 52-week ringer here, you know?
Speaker: ah Yeah, and i'm just trying to understand what new lessons I will learn in a second year of this from someone who's done it since 2016. Yeah. yeah what What knowledge can you impart on a very novice weekly beater?
Speaker: Yes, yes. stay Stay inspired with new things. like Find inspiration wherever you can. i think it's like definitely out there, you know be it a YouTube video or other weekly beat songs.
Speaker: Yeah. And just... and just yeah just see try and be open to whatever comes out but yeah i i do it's fake i want to maybe trigger some of that more some more of that inspiration next year doing just more like world samples you know going out and sampling you know something in my neighborhood or you know oh yeah just like
Speaker: taking sounds around me and doing something with them. Yeah. I actually will want to do some of that too. It's really neat to think like, Oh, this like river here, I went down to the river and recorded.
Speaker: and So it means something. What happens if I like slow it down and then like chop it up and you know, that sort of stuff. Yeah. Yeah. If you check out the disquiet Junto, you might, there might be a problem where it's like, record some,
Speaker: audio of the nighttime in your neighborhood and make a song. do Did you do Disquiet Junto during weekly beats? Yes, but I just did. i did like a handful and often I would like I don't know if I ever used, maybe once or twice I used the exact same song, but I would use sounds from each song. So on Mahunto, I would stick to the theme.
Speaker: And then for the weekly beat, I would just take some of the sounds I did for that, and then I'd add more stuff to it that maybe didn't fit the theme anymore, but I at least got myself a head start or whatever. Yeah.
Speaker: So to participate in that, you're you're kind of looking for like ah an interesting prompt. Like, yeah, I think i think I'll try that this week. Yeah, yeah. And, you know, I think a lot of the problems, some of the problems don't inspire me much, but sometimes it's still, if you try it it, could come out, you could get your creative juices flowing and you'll, and you'll do well.
Speaker: I think it it could work for weekly beats too. I think that people maybe have tried this in the, in the weekly beats forum, like they'll have a theme or a prompt or. Yeah. Yeah. Sometimes that works gettingt for getting you going, you know, just having a theme or a prompt, like even if it's like a key or a BPM, you know, like anything to give you.
Speaker: I think it you need like boundaries, right? You need like limitations. Yeah. Because we've got unlimited everything. We've got unlimited sounds in our synths in Ableton. And it's like, it's nice to have some boundaries, right?
Speaker: And the the thing that you talked about where it's like every week you say you share like a ah sample or a snippet.
Speaker: That's kind of what I was trying to start with that. Like, I don't know if you saw on Discord, but I did an episode one week that called like Community Garden where I posted just like stems.
Speaker: But I think that would be kind of cool to do during the weekly beat year of like, here's a song I made. And then like, here's just like one... like a clip from it or stem from it not the entire stem set but just like one thing that maybe someone else will be inspired to use in a creation i love that yes let's do that in 26. yeah i think that'd be fun like that's something i want to do more of is just if you're stuck like
Speaker: Yeah, you know what, ah what little stem snippet did Miracle Miles post this week? And maybe I can like toss that in a song. Yes, yes. Because I think posting all of the stems for a song is kind of back to that analysis paralysis decision making fatigue where it's like, Oh, now that I've got all of these samples, I don't know which one to pick from. But if you only have one,
Speaker: Like, see if you can make it work. If not, then no pressure. yeah Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Yeah, just you using one, from one one stem, you could probably, using all the processing and in in a DAW, you can make all the sounds. I mean, yeah.
Speaker: You can chop it, flip it, whatever. Speed it up, slow it down. Yeah. all them All the magic. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. We're going keep it moving and go shimmering Here shimmering bridges
Speaker: here we go
Speaker: All right, that was Shimmering Bridges. i We were just talking about the video that you made that went along with us that has the you know shimmering reflected water in the video that's sort of like,
Speaker: sets the tone for this song. Yes, I was kayaking downtown ah and went under a bridge across the river and like, whoa, the sun is hitting the water. It's shimmering on top of the bridge. It's beautiful. That's going to be the title of this song.
Speaker: Done. I'm going to use this video. Done. That's cool. I don't know that I was catering the music to that video. You know, it's just kind it kind of works together. Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah. There's definitely some sections of it that feel very shimmery to me. Yeah. Thanks. Thanks. That a tongue drum. That's one thing, the tongue drum and hand pan. So the tongue drum is, you know, steel and it's got tongues carved into it and you hit it and they, and they vibrate notes.
Speaker: Hand pan. It's like a is is the the notes are hammered i by hand. um Got it. They're kind of the same thing. and They look like a flying saucer. A dome.
Speaker: Yep, dome thing. You've got eight or nine. No, i mean, they make them with more. Mine have like an octave, like nine notes. And I'm like, as a drummer, I can play this.
Speaker: And i can I can make melodies. and i can kind of play keys and pads but i'm like this i'm hitting like a drummer and you commented that when you sent these songs over to me that these this and the one that we're going to listen to next are kind of uh some samples of your handpan tongue drum era i guess right it's it was an era just like taylor swift and And I'm like, this is a vibe I'm going to go for. I want this like very chill stuff, you know, stuff you can kind of just like space out to not so chill. You're sleeping. I guess it's not ambient, but it's like kicking back and going on a bit of a trip too. Yeah.
Speaker: And yeah. And so I was kind of going for that, but I'm like, I don't think I can do 52 those. I've got to do some other stuff too. Yeah.
Speaker: yeah there Something that's striking me here as I'm reading my description on this is that I think a key to you know life or making art is to go do other things. i'm like you know I went out um on a kayak. It looks like I i was also...
Speaker: out on my bike and um i think getting outside is always the music creation it gives you that perspective like if you maybe you're like cramming on a song and you're editing go on a bike ride and come back you're gonna have some new ideas yeah yeah well and your your brain is still kind of working on it yeah like if you're really stuck trying to like figure something out yeah just kind of like decompressing and like you said, going outside, going to do something else.
Speaker: It's amazing when you come back, what you discover or you just hear things differently. That's one of the best pieces of advice. Yeah. Yeah. Take breaks.
Speaker: It's good for your ears and it's good for, yeah, it's good for your mind too. Yep. You're going to hear stuff differently. Unless it's Sunday and you got to get that thing out. Right. You're just going to cram, ah just cram it. Yeah.
Speaker: There's no time for kayaking. Yeah. Even the like hour though, I always like, I'll like edit like crazy on Sunday. And then I'm like, I'm taking at least an hour and I'm going to go on a walk or go, go in a different room, come back and be like, Oh, I just heard something wrong in the mix.
Speaker: So going to fix it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I'm reading through some of the comments here. ah like how Q rush said this track needed my full attention.
Speaker: Ooh, I love that. I've been riding on the groove that are so unique and joyful, big fun. And there's, there's, there is a lot of percussive elements going on, but somehow you make them all fit together.
Speaker: Well, thank you. you know i think that's that that might be something that i've I've learned to get good at. And maybe as as a drummer, the the beats are always, and rhythms are kind of what I hear. you know I like don't always just, in my head, i don't know maybe as much as a piano player would, I don't hear chords and melodies as much as I'm hearing like rhythms interplaying. But you're always chasing the beats.
Speaker: Yes. Chasing the beats. It's title. think that's the first time that I've ever successfully added that in one of these episodes. Perfect. Well done.
Speaker: Put that on your bingo card. That's right. Yeah.
Speaker: Yes. But do you do anything? Like, do you ever listen back and you're like, that's too busy or these things clash and I need to rerecord part of it? Or do you just from the outset have a like innate ability to put things in their places?
Speaker: Yeah, i I think I do okay on a first pass. I definitely might go back and, and hear thing. I mean, I think everyone probably does. yeah You go back and you're like, Oh, that's weird. I got to change that.
Speaker: And then again, sometimes I just need someone to tell me. They're like, hey, that's this is really chaotic here and it sounds weird. And I'm like, oh yeah, I i have a chaotic mind sometimes. So it sounded normal.
Speaker: i ah That's great. Well, should we keep it rolling with finding it as the next one?
Speaker: All right.
Speaker: Thank
Speaker: All right, that was finding it. We found it I think we found It was at least fun looking, ah even if we didn't quite find it.
Speaker: Yes, exactly. I was just reading JWH's comment, and he said, yes, I really love how this slowly picks up steam and then comes together in the middle section.
Speaker: and we were talking during... the song that you could not hear us about. This is kind of Miracle Miles signature move, I guess. Because like you start out with some rhythm with the the hand drum or the tongue drum. and Am I getting that right?
Speaker: Yes. Yeah, the hand pan and the drum, the like a wooden box drum thing. So like there's rhythm at the beginning, but then yeah, in the middle, it really just does come together as like one cohesive groove.
Speaker: ah proper groove. A proper groove.
Speaker: proper American Miles groove. Yeah, thanks. cool yeah i i I like that comment from JWH as well. you nailed it as usual. He'll always point out a very like great observation there.
Speaker: And it's like, oh yes. 100%. Yeah, yeah, and yeah. And that's kind of like the title, too. that The beginning of the song is that the groove is chaotic, and it's like you're trying to find that that special thing, and then you kind of like find the groove, and there it is.
Speaker: And it started out a little chaotic because... As you put in the description, you called this ah a therapy jam. Oh, yes.
Speaker: Therapy jam. Love those where it's like, i'm I'm stressed out or I'm not in the best mood. And you start playing some music and you and you feel better.
Speaker: yeah it's It's great therapy. Highly recommended. As probably the people who listen to this podcast know, making music can feel good.
Speaker: But maybe someone will stumble upon this and is like, what is weekly beats and should I do this? And this will yeah talk them into it. Yes, yes. And now I'm going to have to start a retreat where we go in the woods and play hand drums for therapy jams.
Speaker: be miracle miles therapy jam coming soon to a forest near you ah yes yes typically if i see signs for a drum circle this way i tend to go the other way but yeah yeah as i listened to this i was like oh gosh i think there's still there's still a part of me that's like living in a hippie drum circle here Some of my songs, I'm still just like, woo, we're doing the drum circle vibes again.
Speaker: But I mean, you are a drummer and your therapy is to go like bang on stuff. yeah Exactly, right. And, you know, i've had some I've had some deep experiences playing drums, maybe in a drum circle, you know, maybe with some great natural substances and yeah maybe out in the woods. And this might be just like channeling that. i was maybe having a stressful stressful work week and I'm like, I'm going to channel that feeling. Yeah.
Speaker: Well, I think you channeled it well and you finished the song and released it and it's great. And there we go. And my wife named it, ah actually.
Speaker: said, I asked my wife to help with title. She listened and said, she thought about running through the woods and then finding whatever it is we saw. it I'm like, Oh yeah, perfect. That works.
Speaker: Great. I couldn't even think of that on my own. See, that's that's why it's nice to have a group effort. collaborat Can I send her songs to name? Because I'm terrible at naming them. Yeah, totally. Totally. She's pretty good at names. Cool. yeah Very good.
Speaker: Noted. Yeah. Tell her to clear her schedule next year. Yeah. Pile of music coming your way. What does this sound like to you?
Speaker: yeah this song another thing too last year i was kind of obsessed a little bit with the kind of like three over two rhythm or kind of like six eights just like like quarter note triplet you know dot dot dot du to du i was like really into that and it would it would sneak in to like various songs needed to be there ah yeah yeah it found me
Speaker: All right, the next one on the list is Hours Gained. Okay, here we go.
Speaker: Bye.
Speaker: Thank you.
Speaker: Oh
Speaker: you
Speaker: All right. That was hours gained a super cool sax track with your son, right?
Speaker: Yes. My son Asa. Yes. He plays the sax. He's going to be a senior in high school. oh man. and I'm looking at this comment from Orange Drink on this track. He's like, hold on. You're old enough to have a son who rips on the sax? Yes, yes, I am.
Speaker: um I'm a late starter in the in the tunes. But, yeah, he plays sax. And i've been one yeah I think we didn't do it until the end of the year. But, like, all year long, I'm like – come play sex, come like lay some stuff down. And I just had to, had to kind of, we ended up doing it a few times, including that kind of remix kind of thing we did on the JWH track. He kind of played that same, he echoed the melody that JWH played. so that was cool. But on this one, I kind of like, I picked it because I liked some of the like rhythms that had some of my like rhythms I like and using some like
Speaker: extra horn samples and having a real fun, ah fun jam. um But yeah, it was really great to finally get him to come play some sax on a track. And I think it was a learning experience for him. I don't think he'd done that. He's just played in, in school band. Yeah. He's never done any recording or anything. Right. Right. So he came here in my home office slash studio and I kind of played played some backing stuff and it like it wasn't as good to just play like a backing track. this was I was thinking about this as we did it. I'm like, oh, this is like everyone you collaborate with might work in a different way. But with him, he like wouldn't play as much if I just played a backing track that I'd already made.
Speaker: It helped if I was like playing drums at the same time or played some keys. So then we're like both playing at the same time. and he's a jammer like his father exactly right yeah i wonder where you learned that from he's picking it up so i would like play some drums and he'd like cue off the rhythms a little or that's cool yeah yeah and again you put together a cool little video of like the making of yes the song with some like lo-fi vhs kind of vibes to it yes yes
Speaker: Love the videos. I wish I could do it every week. That's a, I've in, in certain feeling energetic and optimistic on certain days this year, I've said in 26, I'm going to do a video a week.
Speaker: Oh, just like orange drink or JWH. You heard it here. You heard it here, folks. You can't back out now. At the end of the day, I'm like, that's a horrible idea. It'll never work. Yeah, I i admire you guys that can do a video and a song every week.
Speaker: My hard drive is full already, and I can't imagine throwing video at it. Plus, i'm I can edit video slowly.
Speaker: But then when i whenever I think about like making a song for a video, I come back to like it's got to be some kind of like performance like Orange Drink does.
Speaker: Yeah. ah Like I think that format really works. But it's it's hard to top ah the Orange Drink performances. No, those are amazing. I love them.
Speaker: I'm a big Orange Drink fan. i in fact, I was going to wear my Orange Drink shirt for this. for the interview but will then day One day he'll be on here. i He's ah yeah, he's elusive. Oh, really?
Speaker: ah he's just He's been very busy this summer. So we've been in contact and like i it's going to happen. He also says that he he wants to interview me on the final episode. might end up a there's it might end up being a multiple people interview me like compilation episode. Yeah. So that is a good idea. Cause we, we need to hear your, your stuff too.
Speaker: I mean, I feel like I dropped some bits and pieces here and there, you know? Yes. Yes. Of just like my music making and, and stuff, but Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah, one day Orange Drink will be on here and he can share all of his video workflow tips so that we can all make great videos like him.
Speaker: I look forward to it. That's awesome. Yeah, but it was really cool to see his like the end of the year, like clips from all the videos.
Speaker: Yes, because I'm like, yeah, I watched I watched all of these. This is really cool to see like little snippets from every week, you know? Yeah. yeah yeah yeah Yeah. What's funny is that he he made this comment here. like, you're old enough to, to, to have a son 2016, I had ah track where my son was, my son was like eight then like was not playing sax and it's like eight years ago. Right. And, uh, yeah. And he, and my son did this funny little thing where he like read some, like, he like said some words on some songs and he sounds like a ah little kid. And now,
Speaker: 2024, he's playing sax and looking like he's taller than me. He's looking like a good guy now. Yeah, time flies. Jeez, I know. It's a little weird. It's kind of hard to think about.
Speaker: Yeah, this is this is a song that I picked as well just because i like the sax is good on it. like It's just it's a ah solid track with a ah great groove to it. And and think even cooler that It's your ah collab with your son And my original comments on this was, yo this slaps.
Speaker: So thank you. That little guitar riff, uh, when the beat comes in and that smooth sax work. So yeah, thanks. Thanks.
Speaker: My opinion has not changed. Hey, thanks. I appreciate it I appreciate it man. Oh man. Jeez. And he's, my son is learning Ableton live and trying to make some beats.
Speaker: And I'm like, I'm, here to teach you i think i've learned a thing or two and weekly beats and whatnot and he's like no he just he just wants to do it with his friends and not not have a little dad there saying well when i was in high school when i was in high school i had a four track so you know that's uh um not not a whole lot of supervision necessary for that come a long way now gosh we've got the the the tech now is amazing it's it's insane we're in a golden age it's it's it's relatively affordable and and there's so many options oh my god yeah like there there's hardly any reason to spend money to go to like a legit studio anymore as like a small time band you know yeah i know
Speaker: i was i I tell that to people and they're like, what? No. And I'm like, really? like You could probably come in my studio here with like decent mics and we could make something that sounds good.
Speaker: Yeah. yeah On a budget for sure. Right. Right. Well, we are near the end of our episode. And we've got one final song to play out at the end.
Speaker: Cool, cool. And we can chat about it before we do that. But the song is called Clown Psychologist. OK, OK. Tell me about this one. the The title came from I've been doing some improv comedy theater classes. Oh, cool.
Speaker: which is super fun. i love it. And I recommend doing it. Um, just cause you like, I don't know, you get to go be super goofy and silly and, and, and that feels good.
Speaker: Yeah. Be around people who are also being silly and you're saying where things, so we did something where someone, came up with this character like, i'm a client I'm a clown psychologist. And we were like, are you a clown with a psychologist or a psychologist to the clowns? I think he was a psychologist to the clowns. And so then we started pretending that we're clowns with with like problems and we needed, it's like my nose is too squeaky or something. And so we had to talk to him.
Speaker: I feel like I'm stuck in a car with 10 other clowns.
Speaker: And so I just kind of randomly chose that title. And this song is on one of my favorite synths, where the circuit mono station, which I have used usually when I'm jamming with friends doing like other synth stuff.
Speaker: this This song is not not taking you to the drum circle at all. This is a very different thing. i guess I just do different things sometimes. Yeah. So this is different. Whatever flows.
Speaker: Yeah. I do like to get down with some synths, and this is one of those. And I think all the sounds except the drums are from the circuit mono station. Oh, cool.
Speaker: I love that little mono synth. Use it in jams, doing a little, i got another band with a couple guys called Cyber Forest. We're going to try and put out an album and all the all my parts, like baseline type stuff, is on is on this thing.
Speaker: Sweet. And yeah, and it has some things I like. Well, I also played some some live drums. And I'm like, ooh, that's kind of a combo that I'm liking, trying to mix maybe some live drums with synth. I'm going to try that with license here soon.
Speaker: He's going to do some like modular, and I'm going to just play drum beats. That's cool. Let's cool see see what happens there. so do you What's your recording setup for the drums?
Speaker: You know what I've done instead of having acoustic drums and trying to mic it and get that to work in yeah the small space I have, i have e-drums.
Speaker: Sweet. Just upgraded to a better like Roland kit. You can kind of see in the mirror here because it's right behind me. Yeah. And so it sounds pretty good. Sometimes I can tweak I can do it as like MIDI. I can just play them and get the MIDI notes and add sounds in Ableton with some great sample drum sounds. or yeah some of the sounds in the drum module sound pretty good and it works. I can always then add add some reverb and whatnot in Ableton and make it sound even fatter. So that's what I've been doing.
Speaker: I like acoustic drums. They're just not as practical and hard to mic and Yeah, they are. Yeah. so um yeah Those elect electronic drums are i mean so good these days.
Speaker: Yeah. I started out with a real entry-level kit. It was so, so... Actually, all of 24 songs had that, but now I've i've upgraded this one. and It's got high-hats that open and close and like a ride with all these different zones, like a different bell. So I'm like, ooh, okay. And like a snare that's like a real snare. It's got little different sounds on the edge and the center and the rim. That's cool. Like, Ooh, it sounds pretty much like real drums to me. Nice.
Speaker: Yeah. And then when you are making a song like this with your synth, do you do a similar approach where you're like jamming and then taking pieces from it? Or are you like, what's that process? Yeah. Yeah. I usually just jam, um, get, maybe start with a,
Speaker: ah beat going some drums, whether it's looped on the circuit or something, or I play it and loop it in Ableton. yeah But then I just, I just jam on the, on the synth record for like a long time.
Speaker: I try, and if I know I'm trying to make a track, once I kind of have a thing that sounds good, I'm like, okay, stop, um like stop and do the next thing. So like, okay, I'm, I'm trying to do a baseline now.
Speaker: once i was like i don't want to have like an hour of possible baselines to to weed through i'm like yeah that was good enough stop and move on to the next thing yeah yeah but then i usually do have to go back and dig through and be like okay take this part here and then i like to capture the parts of the jam where i was like i like had a sequence going but i'm like twisting knobs and modifying it i'm like ooh i want to try and get some of that here too and then i'll like layer it all up in ableton and do like multiple tracks of things so it's cool they can stacked up awesome well i highly recommend the clown psychologist and we'll play it here in a minute i i guess i commented on a lot of your stuff
Speaker: I said, i I love the clown psychologist story. And i you had me from the beginning when it was just drums and synths, so many amazing layers. So you you're great at the layers.
Speaker: Hey, thanks, thanks. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. This is something I think I'll have to do more. Just go play with a synth or maybe two and just pull pull everything I can out of it.
Speaker: Yeah. Well, we will let people hear this in a second. and this concludes our episode. I want to thank you again for being on here and making some sonic journeys that I really enjoyed last year. So I'm ah excited to hear what you create next year.
Speaker: Thank you so much, SQF. And thanks for having me and for doing this podcast. We really need this. Yeah. yeah Ever since I've started the weekly beats, I'm like, we need to talk about this with the world because like making weekly music is lifesaving. And, it is i mean you know, yeah. And so like sharing, sharing this with the world in every way that we can is probably a good thing.
Speaker: Yeah, and i have only been a part of this community, you know the past like year and a half, but everyone was so welcoming. you know Guys like you and Ked Break and One Zero that have been a part of this for so long now that I can't even fathom. and I wish I had started back then, but to come into an already established community and be welcomed like this and have
Speaker: so many people interested in this just podcast projects, you know, like, it means a lot to me because I never expected anyone to really listen to it.
Speaker: um But it's cool to, you know, highlight the people that I obviously listened to and commented a lot on last year and i kind of get everyone excited about next year, myself included.
Speaker: Yes, this is definitely helping. i'm Throughout our hour and a half of talking here, i'm really excited to make music now. Got to do more of that therapy.
Speaker: yeah Exactly. i need therapy. need therapy jams. I need drum circles. Yeah, yeah. Substances, maybe. Yes, yes. Maybe a little of those. And...
Speaker: You know, I think that is this is really good exercise to go back and talk, talk to someone about music because you like realize things that you maybe hadn't realized, you know, like someone else will point something out or as you're talking about you're like, oh, maybe I was doing this and that's why I did this.
Speaker: Or even like, this is the whole reason that I'm, that I'm doing this is the fun, you know, like, yeah, yeah. Some realization that and motivates him. Right, right, right, right. Yeah.
Speaker: All, all about that journey and exploration and learning and therapy jams. And, uh, one day we're going to find ourselves, you know, that's right. Yeah. Let's hope so. And if we don't let's have fun looking. Exactly. Exactly.
Speaker: Well, on that note, we're going to close it out and play the clown psychologist. And thanks everyone for your continued listening and i contributing in the discord and just having a a good time and helping me have a good time making this as well. so Awesome.
Speaker: Thank you. Cool. Well, we will catch you later and thanks again, man. Bye. Bye. See ya.
