Transcript
Speaker: Welcome to Chasing the Beats, a show dedicated to weeklybeats.com artists, their songs and stories from the 2024 season and beyond. I'm your host, SQF, and our guest today Midi Machine.
Speaker: Welcome to MIDI machine. Thanks for being on man. Yeah, no worries. It's a pleasure. ah Thank you for thinking of me and picking me and getting on the call. Yeah, I mean, me on the thanks to others that have nominated you. i can't remember who exactly in that Discord channel, but I had definitely listened to some of your music, but I don't think I realized how much of an OG are.
Speaker: here you are Yeah. i I actually, because like weekly beats is, is so it's it's, you know, Tim trash 80s thing. And i'd I'd come over from chipmusic.org where I think people were talking about having like this weekly song challenge. And then Tim just piped up and was like, let's like build something around it.
Speaker: he I'll put all the infrastructure together. Just people just sign up. It's basically... It's just, I think it's exactly, it was at first just chipmusic.org's code base, like transported over to another website. I'm not 100% sure. and I'm not but Tim. I don't know.
Speaker: mom Someone can quote me on that. Quote me on that. i don't care. maybe Maybe one day he'll be on here and he can set the record straight, you know. For sure. sure. But yeah, so I was week one of 2012. There was some...
Speaker: there with there was some oh, there were some bangers on that that that first week. And it was it was a little bit intimidating at first like when you hear what some people are capable of just throwing together in in a week. when they like The people who are like...
Speaker: really well resourced and very incredibly talent talented. you know the the Resources at all levels. Yeah, well, that's it. it's its It's like time. it's It's time, talent, skill, the gear.
Speaker: Yeah, yeah. But ah I think something that I've learned about Weekly Beats is that... And I think Drew, Orange Drink and did a really good video on it.
Speaker: Is that, you know, it's not about like, and it's not about raising your ceiling or about like hitting your ceiling every week. It's about raising your floor. Oh, yeah, yeah. putting putting in the reps to like so that like if you just have the crappest day, you know you've got no inspiration, you've got 15 minutes before the you know before the uploads are cancelled and you don't want to bother me for a link. you've got you've you've you've You've still able to throw something together and over time, what you throw together on those days eventually does become better and better and better. Right.
Speaker: I think weekly beats has been the years that I've done it have and really like committed to it. Those have been the years that for one reason or another have also been years where my growth as an artist, as a, as a musician, as a, as a professional have actually, but that that growth has been really exponential in those years as well. So think there's something to it.
Speaker: I, agree. and You know, since I've only done one year, it's crazy to think about someone who's done. Now, you you didn't complete every year, which I'm not trying to dog you at all. But still, you did seven years of weekly beats.
Speaker: but Like, that's just insane. Yeah. Yeah. it's Look, it's always something that I start every weekly beats year. with the with the intention to do it. And what happens is usually some big life circumstance comes in and just, um because i think momentum is really important. Like if you can keep the momentum going,
Speaker: and you can see there's some years where I've like missed a couple of weeks, but then been able to get back into it and then yeah been like get to the end of the, like get to week 50 or 51 or whatever, 52 even. And, um, I'd be able to say, look, I've basically done it. Right.
Speaker: Yeah. And I think once, once the, once the wheels fall off too much, you it's it's really, it's hard to get back on the wagon. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, that's i I definitely didn't want to miss a streak because I knew that if I missed one or two, I'd probably fall off the wagon myself.
Speaker: And I think I've only actually there's only one year that I've actually done all 52 weeks. I've really, um've there's there's been a few that I've got like maybe 36, 37 or was stuff. That was my like final year of university. that That was wild. And then last year I was doing doing my, doing post-grad.
Speaker: so like those kind of things where you get you get to like you know an exam where you get to like major some something some crazy life circumstances happen and it just like you i'm just tilted yeah i can't can't get back on it but yeah yeah you're you're running on the edge of what you're physically capable of like time and yeah that's the resources like you just said Yeah, that's it. 2017, not a weekly beats year, but I did attempt a little bit more ambitious. I did try to do a song every day.
Speaker: whoa And I actually got, it I actually did get all the way through July before missing any. Wow. um Which I think and that was, that was, that was putting the reps in for sure. For real.
Speaker: And, and, and doing that daily thing just on SoundCloud. And a lot of it was just like, it, you know, no No stipulation for even finishing anything or for being... It's like whatever you could get out that day. Exactly. And and like sort of learning to not second guess myself yeah and learning how how to even just just run with an idea, even if it's if it is actually just crap, like unhinged, you know, goofy. Yeah.
Speaker: What made you want to do the Daily Challenge? I made a song on the 1st of January that year. just spent like after it's the end of a weekly beats year and you're like you know what it's january i'm gonna make one i don't even know if it was that that conscious of a decision i think i i think i you're just in the habit exactly i just happened to make a song on the first of january and it felt good and it was it was it was cool and then second of january came i had had some spare time and i made another song and then the third of january came and
Speaker: did something else. I'm like, you know, I actually like, fuck it. This is my new year's resolution. Like three days late. I'm going to do this. I'm going to give this, I'm going to give this a red hot go. I'm going to tell people that I'm giving it a red hot go.
Speaker: That's Australian for lack. My best shot. Yeah. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. But you're you're putting it out into the ether like, hey, yeah i'm I'm doing this, which is kind of what I did with this podcast. Like, all right, I'm going to do this thing. Kind of a like, well, I've promised people now I can't back out.
Speaker: Yeah, that's right. And you get that like that sort of external accountability yeah as well as the external validation of like people saying, oh, that's really cool. like Good stuff, man. Exactly, yeah. um Yeah.
Speaker: And I think the years use that – The years that yeah that I have gotten all the way through, because you start the first like the first few weeks, like everyone's very excited about it. the the The comments are nonstop. Everyone is like... Yeah, everyone's hyped. Listening to everything.
Speaker: And then you get to about week four or five and and and sort of a lot of the hype dies down and then people start locking in. And that's bit more like... that's a bit more of like I think that's the, the real like soul of weekly beats there is, is that, is that lock in that dedication, that like that quiet achievement that we all kind of do.
Speaker: And like, I think a a few people still, like lots of people still go and listen through stuff. And like, as, as, yeah as As I'm going, like like as a moderator, i'm I'm going through and just, especially the first few weeks, you you'll you're looking through the the names of people that ah you you recognize. All right, cool, cool, approve, approve, approve, approve. And then you you get to one that you're oh, haven't seen you before. You listen and it's like straight fire. Yeah, that's exciting.
Speaker: So ah you do you do listen to a lot, but I think you it gets to a point, you know, a certain point into the year where you're just... you lock in, you just start doing it and making it. And you kind of got, you have your like pool of people that you're, that you go to first on Monday yeah or Sunday night. Like, Oh yeah. always, you always, yeah. Your people.
Speaker: Oh man. a lot of the people that I've interviewed, that's pretty much, uh, you know, a hit list of people that I went and listened to very regularly.
Speaker: and I kind of started out with those people because I'm like, I don't really have to listen and study up on a whole lot of their music because I listened to it all year. yeah And I can go back and see like which ones I favorited and which ones I commented on, which is really cool because like even your stuff, I know that I listened to some some of your stuff, but I don't remember commenting and favoriting stuff. So it's cool to go back and be like, oh yeah, like I listened to it again.
Speaker: like a year later and then I go read my comment and I'm like, yeah, that still holds true. You know? Yeah. Yeah. I love that. And love like, uh, the The discovery is is really cool because it's so I feel like yeah I would have thought while ago that like every year you just be the same crew of like 100, 200 people at the start of the year and then like we'd get halfway through and <unk> there's like those diehards who, you know, they they get through it every year and or they give it a go every year and you you see the same, you sort of see the same names.
Speaker: But I'm always surprised at how many people, you know, I'm giving it a go. And I'm actually surprised. I see, I'll see people that like, it's like, Oh, you, you did this in like 2016 and I haven't seen you for like the, this entire time. in that And that's, it's, yeah it's really good. And, and, or people, you see people that you recognize from like other communities or other, other, you know, other scenes.
Speaker: Like that's always fun. the The crossover is always really cool because like, um, I don't, it's not, I don't, I don't like proselytize for weekly beats. Like, yeah yeah. Yeah. I mean, I definitely, if someone asks me about a community, obviously when it, you know, like with judgment. Yeah. You're not like everyone you meet, like, Hey, you gotta, you should do this.
Speaker: Yeah. I just got to Fonzie my mic every now and again. It's the cable that, you know, but when when you plug everything into like a big outboard system, it's, you know, it's a real pain to like go and diagnose issues. And I'm pretty sure there's a dodgy cable, like plugged into this mic.
Speaker: I can't be bothered fixing it right now. Let's, so so every now and then you'll, you'll see me Fonzie. Yeah. a I like, what happened your level?
Speaker: However long we were talking about, we'll figure it. Well, we were talking about kind of once you get into the year a little bit by like, you know, week 15 or 20, not only do you have your pool of people that you're kind of listening to but I think, at least I speak for myself, you really stop kind of caring about what you're putting out as much.
Speaker: Yeah. Yeah, there's less of a less of a impetus to impress. I'm not like umm not out here yeah like trying to flex. i mean i never yeah Week one, you're like, I'm trying to swing for the fences and like show people what I can do.
Speaker: But like week 20, people are in the the marathon of like, okay, we're all just like... trying to consistently come up with ideas and like crank stuff out and like it ourselves but i'm not worried about how many comments this is gonna get that's right that's right i i think it's actually really hard for me as someone who is a massive people pleaser um validation seeker i sometimes it's really hard to make something just for myself.
Speaker: I really feel like, you know, I make a song. I'm like, I am thinking about, well, who's going to, who's going to like this? Who's actually going to listen to this? And I think doing daily beats in 2017, that, that definitely got a lot of that out of my system.
Speaker: I think there was, there was a sort of, there was a, like a layer of irony to some of the less, um, shall we say, optimized pieces.
Speaker: But and I still think ah still think I let go of a lot of i let go of a lot of that... Yeah, that that had um that need to make music for other people.
Speaker: at least for me, it's sort of like a, and I think this is maybe my barrier to more heavy experimentation, is that like, first, I want to like the song.
Speaker: Yes. Like, if I don't like it, ah then it's really just very disappointing. But then there gets a point where you're like, all right, I really like this.
Speaker: But then you can add in the layering of like, well, are people going to think this is too long? Or... um is this section repeated too much? Like i keep thinking of the, like the listeners experience of like, where is this maybe annoying to someone where I've been listening to it so much? Like, is this certain synth noise repeated too much? Or like, I think that's the zone where I really start to worry about how other people are going to receive it.
Speaker: Yeah, for sure. I think, yeah, I think I've lost i've left i've lost the ability to, um look outside of myself in that sense while I'm creating.
Speaker: I think I definitely, yeah i' i'm just I'm just going full send and then I'll release something and then realize maybe like five minutes after I press upload that, oh, actually there's this is fucked noise in this song or like there's a really like abrasive tone that I don't like. And I'm actually, so but sometimes I'm surprised to as to what people like about a song.
Speaker: Yeah. yeah think Sometimes people, people will say, actually really liked this thing that you did. And in my head, I'm like, Oh yeah, sweet. ah fucking hate it. Like that's, that's not my, that's, that's my least favorite thing about what I did. And I, if I could go back, i would change it a hundred times out of a hundred, but someone else liked it.
Speaker: And so you've, I guess you really have to, you have to learn to make your peace with those sort of happy accidents. Yeah. for sure. Yeah. Or just like the dichotomy between what you like and what other people like.
Speaker: Yeah. Yeah, definitely. What, what I like is confusing and infuriating to some. I, I think also as as someone who, as someone who can't make the same, like I can't fucking just make the same song over it. Like I want to be able to just stick to one genre and just like,
Speaker: Oh, really? If I could stick to one genre and just like get really fucking good at it, think I think the trajectory of my music career would be very different. Unfortunately, yeah i you know I've got fucking, I've got goblin brain and I just have to like make, ah so I just have to make something different. every I can't just make the same.
Speaker: I've actually, but and no no, actually that's that's a lie because for the last like, 18 months or so, ah the big thing I've been doing is are these, and I can't like play any or or like upload them anywhere, but they're, cause they're like bootleg remixes of like, just like whatever, like just songs I like. I just, I just put like basically happy hardcore instrumentation over it with like donk basses.
Speaker: And, and then that, like, that's been like a thing that I've been, I've been like, playing events, DJing events, just entirely composed, like comprised of these, the set list entirely comprised of Donk remixes of... Wow.
Speaker: the yeah It's actually been like... I want a bootleg copy of this. ah You know, it's a shame that we can't upload stuff at random places, you know? Yeah. Maybe um maybe what I'll do is a bootleg remix of like a weekly beats track. or Something with buy save, create a comments thing. you know um but I mean, i think we always want something that someone else has.
Speaker: And i really like the fact that you kind of genre hub. Like, cause when I was going back through researching songs for this last year, like your last song is like a rap and then like two more before that, it's like this like ambient, like soothing. And I'm just like, is this the same fucking person that's making these things? Yeah.
Speaker: It's crazy. Right. Like, and i think that that is also a strength, right? Because um I like being sort of a bit of a jack of all trades and being able to say like when I've worked, you know, when I have done music like production work for for people when i bit when I used to freelance audio engineering and stuff and and and like putting tracks together for people, you know, i think you'd you'd come across but like a wide variety of of genres and of sort of people with very different differing or divergent
Speaker: musical ethos's ethos though yeah what's the plural I don't know i'm not going to correct you so in working with it from people of a lot of different musical stripes I think having the the ability to genre flip or to sort of jump between ideas and stuff it it has been really it's been really helpful and it's also i think I've been able to sort of Perhaps open some minds, open people up to the idea that the music that they play, the song that they write on their guitar and on their piano with their voice, it doesn't have to just be that. The song that's in their head could potentially be completely different to the one that ends up making a hit or being that land on.
Speaker: being the the one that they land on and It's like where the process takes you is more important than the idea in your head kind of thing. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah. I think if you if you have an idea in your head, I think it's it's good to get started to have a really clear idea of what you want a song song to sound like.
Speaker: that's that's That's your jumping off point. That's that's your that's your foundation. But you have to be able to... when you're building on that, get to a point where, where you can potentially go back to that original idea and just kill your darling. Like just go completely different.
Speaker: Sorry, I'm just getting a phone call. right. and At what point in your process do you take that turn that it ends up being like a completely different genre?
Speaker: I think, I think it's often that I have the, the, the musical idea. So the pure, just like chords, melody, maybe lyrics.
Speaker: And, and I might even just like, I might get to the point where I fleshed it out quite a bit. And I might even get to the point where it's, it's even been uploaded and released and stuff. And I think sometimes it's just time. Like sometimes it's,
Speaker: you know that that separation of like i've i've had the idea of like you know scribble like in a in a in a musical sense i've scribbled it out into the door and and like just got it out of the way to move on to the next you have a chord progression you've got some lyrics you've got like the bones of an arrangement yeah and then you really you i just real i just get sometimes i just get fucked off with it and i'm like ah you know i'm i'm not i'm not vibing the way this is sounding but i like the underlying
Speaker: idea or the underlying musical concept of what I'm making. Yeah. And then that, that's, that's sort of the turning point where I'm like, okay, I like this, but I don't like the way it's coming out. I don't, it's not, it doesn't feel like there's something good here, but the way it's, the direction it's going is not great.
Speaker: Yeah, definitely. Definitely. And look, it, it's not, there's not like a, There's no like consistent sort of pattern to where that happens for me.
Speaker: i think yeah i'm i'm just I'm just this like mercurial agent of chaos when it comes to making my own music. So ah don't and i don't consist I don't expect consistency from myself at this point either.
Speaker: But I mean, I think there's something to learn from the inconsistency or even the avoidance of consistency. Because like, you're obviously making some sort of decision to not do something the same way. yeah And the the part that I struggle with is when I'm getting that same feeling of like, there's a dead end here.
Speaker: I feel like I've got just a small number of tricks to go to, to get me out of that. and So I imagine you've either built up a bunch of tricks or you're just like trying something left field. So like, where does that come from?
Speaker: i think that's just, that's just experience and, and, and time, right? Yeah. The reps, the reps. I definitely do have as,
Speaker: as as I've heard i heard from, I personally work with, um he's he's he's been a He's been a rapper. He's been ah he's been a hip-hop artist for like 20 years and amazing at freestyle.
Speaker: um And something he's told me is that every um every freestyle rapper, like a lot of them, they they have like the the sort of pre-built sort of bank of rhymes that they can go back to when things are, or if they need to chain, you know, one idea into another, they've got like,
Speaker: all these sort of like presets almost that they can pull from and, and then, and use that to sort of chain ideas together. And I kind of have a similar thing, I guess, with, with my production and with my composition process.
Speaker: a But when it comes to like, you know, when it, when it comes to, you know, actually finalizing a song, I think,
Speaker: You can't really shortcut it. You have to really like dig deep into all the details and into all the little like nitty gritty shitty bits and and and like actually actually like really analyze it and and and think deeply and listen deeply, which is really hard for weekly beats actually. I find it.
Speaker: Yeah. Because that's like my la least favorite part of the And i like I fucking hate mastering. because that's like that is that is mastering. and that like ah i i can't sit there I can't sit there and like really like get finicky over details. like I really just have ah to get the idea out in a broad, passable sense, and then just move on to the next thing.
Speaker: Just push that to the side, move to the next thing. But there are some details that matter. What are some of the details that are sort of... like non-negotiables, like these are the things that I definitely care about. Yeah.
Speaker: So tension and release in like, and this is, so when I, when I listen to people who are, who are just starting out with writing music and, and with production is that they can have like really great mixing, really great sort of composition and sounds and ideas, but the, the transition points between those ideas are,
Speaker: don't actually sell the idea. Right. So, you know, when I have, ah you know, if I have a drop, you know, it's it's like having those, those moments of anticipation and then like sometimes like subverting that anticipation or subverting that sense of tension or release something unexpected.
Speaker: Yeah. And it's not even because like, I think, especially with EDM sort of the like there are, There are tropes when it comes to like EDM and EDM structure.
Speaker: ah And that the reason that they're tropes is because they feel really satisfying on the dance floor or in um wherever, you know, wherever this this music is applied.
Speaker: So you can't stray too far from the formula. you know, in a broad sense, but you find the the little the little ways to subvert expectations. Still work in inside the box, but like like a little out. Like waiting an extra beat to drop.
Speaker: like Yeah, yeah. Dropping on the downbeat. ah So not not dropping on the downbeat, dropping on the backbeat instead of the downbeat. Like like one one degree away from the trope in a way. Yeah, exactly. like or like adding like adding like a you know, like an extra sort of like period ah of ah of release after a, after a, you know, a breakdown, like little, those structure, I think is really important. I think, I think making sure your song flows really nicely has those good moments of tension release. And also that it, that that it earns its length. And I think it's really easy to pad a song out, you know,
Speaker: because you know, you you got your DJ friendly intro and outro, you've got like, you know, you might have 64 bars, like doing the same thing. It's really easy to pad your song out like that.
Speaker: I think, and I like that there's some styles where I really like that. Like I love, I love when like minimal techno and stuff. If I'm, if if I'm in a mood to focus, I'll just listen to like the same noise for like 20 minutes. don't care.
Speaker: Um, but if my, if once the song has a melody, once the song has like chord progressions and stuff, man, it, you, you gotta really like, you gotta go somewhere. You gotta go somewhere and you gotta, I think, uh, I really try to trim the fat on my, on the structure of my songs. And sometimes that when I, when I'm, and that's me talking about my finished songs. Like, so a lot of stuff on on weekly beats, I kind of just like,
Speaker: I get like halfway through Megan and I'm like, fuck it. Like that's, yeah, that's a but it's a but a verse and a chorus or verse and a hook. And it's whatever, like, I'm not, yeah, it's not polished, mixed, mastered release. Like, yeah, has there's not enough time to give those final touches and attention to detail that you were just talking about.
Speaker: Yeah. And look, I probably sound like a massive hypocrite. Cause like, if you listen to my music, you listen to my output from weekly beats, it's, it's, there are a lot of times where I don't adhere to my own principles just purely because like I think cutting cutting those moments of anticipation and and tension release are like you have to I find that I have to make the song and then go back over it to find where to sculpt that from so it's a lot of the time it's really like a subtractive process rather than a
Speaker: but chronological, like, all right, I'm up to the the verse two drop part of my song now, so it's time to make the verse two drop. No, it's yeah it's going through making the whole song and things, all right, what am I doing here? Like, how am I yeah getting from A to B? We've been sitting here too long. What am I doing to take this somewhere else? Yeah, definitely, definitely.
Speaker: It's difficult with some... some Because i'm not I'm not using the same process every time either. like if Some of my some of my weekly beat stuff... this is's This is fascinating that you like don't have like one go-to process. No, no, because like i've i've I've got some stuff where it's like I've set up a... So I've got a MIDI controller. a It's an old CME Bitstream 3X, and it's just like...
Speaker: just like 9,000 million um knobs and faders and stuff, right? Yeah. So I set up a a project that's basically... I set up a project that's basically just like a, you know, eight-bar loop that i'm I'm just mixing elements in and out of and and creating movement between like, you know, using like... You're kind of a whatever performing it then, right?
Speaker: Yeah. Yeah. And so there's there's songs where I use that process. There's songs where I... ah like I'll just make a ah fucking weird noise somehow and then just like build around that.
Speaker: There's songs where I've had a lyrical idea or a you know, a core, like a harmonic idea and and then build around that. And it doesn't always sound like that those those processes also don't necessarily map to a single genre or a single sort of kind of song either.
Speaker: Again, just agent of chaos. I can't, I can't, I just can't do the same thing more than like yeah I've done. is the Is it that the beginning of the process is just something piques your interest? Like you said, yeah a weird sound or like, oh, i'm I've got these like five loops that kind of fit together. Let me play with my MIDI controller and take them in and out and see like where the magic is between combining these things.
Speaker: Yeah, definitely. And I think when it comes to the performance ones, I kind of... It won't start out with the with the intention of being a improv sort of thing. it's It'll be like, I'll be messing around with it. I'm like, oh, actually, this feels really good to to you know to to work with in in real time.
Speaker: Great, now i've got to map like fucking 80 parameters to 80 knobs and haters and stuff. Like, here we go. do you have some go-to processes when you get stuck?
Speaker: Yes. Yeah. I, I, basically just go through the ultimate boom bap drum kit, which is a, it's a, ah especially if like, like hip hop producers, low five producers, it's like the Holy grail. It's like, it's, it's just every like,
Speaker: every Like a just shitload of drum samples for like making hip hop, making boom bap, lo-fi kind of beats. just I just start there. I'll just see if I can make something that feels nice. And then I chuck... Do you just like pull a bunch of random sounds in and like... Yeah, well, there's... ah when i'm when i'm when ah So I run creative youth mentoring workshops through a charity called Musicians Making a Difference.
Speaker: Oh, cool. So I run ah production workshops where I'll just... sort of go through like what like what are the elements of a drumbeat that we need in our hip hop track that we're making, right?
Speaker: And so we're talking about like, okay, so we need a kick. Okay, I've got i've got the all these samples. It's like kick one through kick 168. Mm-hmm.
Speaker: Pick a, what's your favorite number? Like kid, kid, a, what is your favorite number? 69. All right. Well, here's kick 69. Nice. like kid ba What's your favorite? What's your favorite number? 42. All right. So hi-hat 42 that's going in.
Speaker: And then, so it, it, it sort of takes the option paralysis out of, Oh yeah. Yeah. For example, selection and stuff.
Speaker: And sometimes it's fun. There's there's a bit of like, because it is such a, it's a big kit. It's a, there's a lot of samples in it. and And I think this is true of any large sample library. It's like you, you might just spend a ah couple of minutes just like yeah just pressing the down button and and clicking through all them. and just and don' continue to to get to yeah yeah you make yeah yeah You see, you hold hold the down key, the the down key down and it and it makes the,
Speaker: the order But then once once you start building, then you're like, oh, I think a kick with like a little bit more low end would be better. Maybe I'll EQ it or I'll go dig through my samples, you know. find it Find something to lay it like it. use Use what I've got now as a top kick and then bring the bottom kick in underneath it.
Speaker: Yeah. And and i think... Having worked having worked at ah at this place for for so long and like working with a lot of young people who are really into into hip hop and and and into sort of though that that style of music, like making beats with them has actually made my process for making that sort of music like a lot more streamlined and and very intuitive.
Speaker: but Because you got to teach it to a bunch of people well that's right over and over and over again. so i need to be so I need to be able to like pull like sort of iconic sounds or like, you know, usable sounds, you know, in in relatively quick, so like in a relatively quick turnaround.
Speaker: And so I guess when I'm stuck, my process is make a hip hop beat because that's like, that's my lane. That's my lane that if if, if there is one consistent genre that I have, it is like broadly speaking. know a process for this. Yes.
Speaker: Yeah. I have a, I have a process for this or I make ambient music because I just like drowning stuff in reverb and, and yeah, you know, this can just be really peaceful and, and, and sweet to just like sit back after you've made something like that and just bask in the glory of your creation.
Speaker: Oh, I did want to like divert a little bit from the music creation stuff and just ask what else have you learned from doing all of this music making and weekly beats years and your every day that applies to other things in your life that have nothing to do with music?
Speaker: Hmm.
Speaker: I guess like that it's okay to, it's okay to dip. I think like that, you know what, like commit commitment is and commitment and discipline are like big things, you know, they're big, big values. And like, especially when when you, when you look at, you know, like self-help communities and you look at sort of, you know,
Speaker: be communities and and content that is really growth focused, you know, they're really like, you know, they love to talk about the and the momentum. They love to talk about the discipline, the, you know, you show up every day, even if you yeah want to kill yourself, like, you know, grind set.
Speaker: Groins in. oh you know I got up at 4am this morning and splashed my face with cold water. Yeah. I wake up at 347 every day on the dot and I i punch myself in the face.
Speaker: Yeah. Because it builds discipline. No, i I fucking hate that. And I've, you know, there's a lot of shame I think that comes from this idea that you have to you know, you have, what once you're committed to something, you you have to like, see it through to the end. And if you don't make it, if you don't, if it doesn't last forever, it's a failure. And I think that's just such horse shit. Cause like,
Speaker: Success, i mean, look, it's corny, but success is what you make of it. Like, the only thing that would make it a failure is if you didn't try at all. Like, if you get two weeks, if you get one week in and you made a song, like, fuck yeah, that's a success. Like, that's a song that you wouldn't have made if you didn't, you know, have the the thought and that drive to do it. Yeah.
Speaker: imp that that that drive to do it like And week life takes a different turn or you're like, this just isn't for me, like you tried it. Yeah, 100%. So I think sort of letting go of the... the The shame around not finishing something has has been really – like for me personally, I think some people won't resonate with that as much.
Speaker: But like for my like for my circumstances and my – in my life – There are some people that won't stop reading a terrible book because they're like, I started the book. I got to finish it.
Speaker: Yeah. Or like playing a terrible game playing a terrible game or watching a terrible movie. Yeah. i'll I'll sit through it. Like i used to sit through like absolute dog shit all the time. I'm super happy now.
Speaker: if i if the first five minutes of a show do not interest me, I'm just like, I'm fucking out of there. And it's not, you know, some people are like, oh, for attention spans, you know, kids these days, attention spans. It's like, don't.
Speaker: there is are you only had This sucks already. You only have so much time in your life. Like you can't waste it. just punishing yourself for for what?
Speaker: Like, so yeah. i think ah And I think that's, I think that's been a really big lesson, a big, a big point for me. And I guess also,
Speaker: just being able just to discover what other people are doing and, and, and find, you know, sort of other, know we are kind of pivoting back to music making here, but like just to see, seeing other people's perspectives and processes and, and I think learning from what other people are doing as well has been really,
Speaker: um It's been really like fruitful and and and yeah, I'm always excited to see when when I find new things or find new ways of doing stuff. um It's always like, yeah, it's always such a like, i get i I get like giddy. So I was like, oh, yeah try now i've got I've got something new for the toolbox.
Speaker: You know, I've got a new shortcut. You know, in the short time that I've been Weekly Beats compared to you, just the diversity of music that I've listened to is it's insane and I think it's helped me just appreciate all the different stuff that other people are into you know like i have never really listened to a ton of EDM but can like it's great i have nothing against it it's just not something that i grew up listening to but i can appreciate it for what it is and i i can learn you know mixing techniques and i can learn you know the tropes of that genre and how they might apply in other places definitely definitely and i think um i just but when you're talking about
Speaker: being able to listen to music that you wouldn't normally be exposed to. the And it, there's one of the, one of the, this, what's their name? I think, uh, I think they've they've changed their name a couple of times. So I think, I think the last time, the last weekly beats year they were going is Emily and.
Speaker: JWH's partner. Yes. Just so like their music just is, is just so, so beautiful and like heartfelt and like comes from this, yeah this place of like real authenticity.
Speaker: And I think that I wanted to segue that into like the other thing that I want, that I've really learned from weekly beats is, is like that. you know, making like making music is, is if when you make music and, and, and share music from a place of openness and, and, and almost like vulnerability.
Speaker: Oh yeah. There's a, um, there's real beautiful feeling of catharsis that I get from that. And, i I think as someone who, you know, like without getting too like psychoanalytical and and and personal about it, like, you know, like direct open communication has been something that that I've personally struggled with for a long time.
Speaker: And being able to have have an outlet where it's really safe to share openly and vulnerable and authentically and and a community that's really supportive of, of that sharing and of that, of the process around that, I think is just fucking wonderful.
Speaker: It's just really awesome. So like shout out Emily for, um, for, uh, making, probably the, but yeah, the most like authentic and like real raw.
Speaker: Yeah. That's, um that's a whole yeah other level of vulnerability. You know, like I think when you first start releasing music, it's like, Oh, I'm a little nervous that someone might hear these sounds that I put together, but when it's your own voice and ah subject matter that, you is maybe difficult to yeah relay or, you know, is telling something about yourself that the world doesn't know.
Speaker: Like that is a whole other level of respect to creation. Yeah, definitely. Definitely. And look, fingers crossed.
Speaker: We were just, we were talking before we we went live about like the, like two 2026 being the year of outboard. Yes. Look, Maybe 2026 can be the year of outboard gear and outboard feelings.
Speaker: Oh, I love it. Well done. all ah you got this you got to You got one corny motherfucker on your podcast. That's great.
Speaker: That's great. ah Speaking, let's segue into outboard gear. oh what ah What's some of your go-to favorite outboard gear pieces? Yeah.
Speaker: Well, we were just talking about the the Bitstream 3X, the MIDI controller. It also has DIN sync for like old drum machines. Yeah. tv t b three o three which I do have ah sitting in the lounge. it's It's like on display because it's like a bit...
Speaker: a bit fucky. It hasn't had the servicing done where you, you know, it's a 40, 40 year old piece of ah gear. You've got to like change all the tax switches out and stuff. It's a showpiece right now at the moment. Yeah. Hopefully um we'll be able to get that sort of soon.
Speaker: can probably see, you could probably see behind me. I don't know if everyone else would be able to see, but there is a JX3P, synth uh behind me with the uh with the programmer that is just so much fun yeah like just really dirty 80s tones um feels really good and i want to be able to use it a lot more um in the year about 2026 in 2026 as far favorite out like like my sort of uh all the shit I've got sitting over here, you know, rack like 19 inch 19 inch rack stuff. Uh, the warm audio bus comp.
Speaker: Fantastic. I use that. I do use that on like as much as I can. And the, uh, the drama 1973. So that's a stereo multiband compressor just, just punchy. Yes.
Speaker: So nice. Um, Other than that, um i love ah I've got like a couple of guitars, a couple of like, I've got a baritone ukulele here, um which is just like a guitar. but It's just the bottom four strings of a regular guitar on a very short scale.
Speaker: So it sounds it actually it has a really like distinct tone, I think, like a very small acoustic guitar. It's quite nice, actually. And a talk box. So I love the talk box as well, which I haven't been able to use. Oh, nice.
Speaker: Haven't been very Speaking of Yeah. Yeah. I was, yeah until pretty recently, I was playing with a band called Trigger Joe and I incorporated a bit of talk box into a few of our songs and it was, yeah. Nice.
Speaker: Get back into doing that, you know, sooner rather than later. Yeah. For your, you mentioned that you do some like techno performances too. yeah so for those oh with the with the donk remixes that's yeah so that's that's like dj sets and stuff so that's got it got it yeah that's so that's a that's but that's a lot of fun um god i want to i love djing still need i still need to hear one of those oh yes we'll will chuck the soundcloud link for the the first the first mix um which is a little bit chopped but you know it's it's all it goes guys sorry
Speaker: ah Yeah. And obviously like so my back the way that I got into weekly beats was through chipmusic.org. So I do still have the Game Boy with the with the LSDJ cartridge.
Speaker: I used to release chiptune music under the name Victory Road, and which is kind of like pop punk, Game Boy stuff. Have been getting back into that as well. So if you all right you live in the Melbourne area, do come see me very soon. Come see me in September with... I don't know. I think... that i don't know if any of the other... Oh, Catching Ashes is a Weekly Beats superstar. So Catching Ashes will be there. So...
Speaker: Cool. Awesome. In Melbourne. In Melbourne. of course there has been there has been discussion There has been some discussion around the correct pronunciation. Yeah, I got razzed for saying Melbourne and melbourne Instruments. Melbourne.
Speaker: Melbourne Instruments. No, it's all right. It's good. It's all right. Yeah, it's all right, eh? Fucking we get A. They're funny it's you because you talked about the rap song earlier and it's it's like rapping. The Australian rap scene is so so strange because we have like this this this subcategory called like like gutter rap. The real like the real...
Speaker: i don't want to use I don't want to use terms that don't reflect Australian culture, but like you the the kind of like ghetto ghetto or like the really like, we call it eshai.
Speaker: is j Esche, which is, you know, the it's they help the older the lads and ladettes, they really like their gutter rap, you know, talk about real you know real issues. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker: But it's it's interesting because, like, when when Australian hip-hop was first kind of blowing up, when, like, There was a group called Hilltop Hoods that sort of exploded in in lot of you know domestically.
Speaker: And I think there was a lot of pushback for, you know, because I grew up with with a lot of friends who were really into, you know, DMX, and you know, Tupac, Eminem.
Speaker: You know, we we get all of culture. I mean, Australia, just in general, we got all our culture sort of like imported from America for the most part. So when Australian rappers were kind of like blowing up in a big way, there was a bit of pushback like...
Speaker: like that the accent sounded weird to rap with but like right right i think over the years the the it's it's been really interesting to to sort of hear how that that shift is like how that culture shift has happened like that was one thing that i noticed about the rap was the accent yeah and it immediately made me think of ah like American pop country music where it's like, that there's obviously, i mean, and that's singing with a country accent, you know, but it's like, and then you listen to you know, like, you know, how old was I when I realized that the Beatles were from UK and they had accents, but they didn't sing with accents, you know? Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah. I think there's a real, There's a real
Speaker: push. yeah It is a pushback. There is pushback yeah historically with you know Australian artists you know singing and and using their like using the the local dialect and local accent in yeah in their music. And and now, I think over the last few years, we've had a few bands that have kind of broken through and really like really sort of leaned into the accent. see I mean, especially Smith's Straight Band and and some of the, like, Lineportial. There's a few others that are like kind of on the way up sort of internationally that have they really like championed it.
Speaker: But, yeah it's yeah, you don't really hear it in because there's lots of Australian bands and Australian artists who have songs that are gigantic and you just would never...
Speaker: know unless you unless you're Australian, basically. but Yeah. So, and i want I do wonder if there's other, if that kind of happens in other in other countries, especially like countries small countries like countries with small populations.
Speaker: you know, and and not a lot of like sort of cultural sway. Like I feel like in the UK, they, you know, if you sing with the you with with your accent, it's not as like,
Speaker: I don't know, it's not as kitsch because it it's culturally the UK in music has always been very influential and very like right what happens in the UK music scene gets basically.
Speaker: But I think there are more rap acts now using their dialect accents in in their music, you know? Oh, yeah. Don't don't. don't don't Yeah, that's that like a lot of the kids. Again, the kids that I work with, you know, ah they're all about it.
Speaker: All about it, all about drill, all about grime. but not Actually, not really about grime anymore. It's it's all about drill. And, you know, the there's a... even in and And now even in drill music, like that there's... um The Aussie drill scene has like... Where like our performers in that genre are also like really leaning into the accent as well. So it's it's it's crazy how that that like it's almost...
Speaker: there's like an element of like cultural sort of solidarity that's happening now. And I think with, with, you know, how much music there is these days, I think like, why not differentiate yourself? You have to differentiate yourself somehow. So like, why not lean into, you have to be unique in some sort of way.
Speaker: it yeah It is always a bit of a mindfuck when you hear a song that doesn't normally have an Australian accent sung in an Australian accent.
Speaker: So that that's that's fun. That's always fun. Well, should we start listening to some music? let's Let's listen. Let's have a go. All right. I think I'm going to start from 2012 and work our way up.
Speaker: All right. All right. 2012, week this. Here we go. i haven't gotten used to this here we go
Speaker: I say you don't feel your soul
Speaker: That was, i haven't gotten used to this from 20 back in 2012 week 20. Does it bring back some memories? It sure does. Yeah. I was, I could, I, cause that piano was like recorded.
Speaker: Yeah. Recorded. it's It was it the piano in the rumpus room of my girlfriend at the time's parents place. I was just, I was we were just staying there cause they were like, they were away or something. And,
Speaker: I just set up all my gear and and recorded that piano mono, single microphone. um Nice. And then just like, because I had the idea, like again, this is the one, but one of the ones where I have the idea, I had the musical lyrical idea and I just wanted to but just blad it out. And so one, one take the structure on the piano. It's very, again, very short song. Cause I only had like, had two verses in like really minuscule hook and and only a week yeah well pretty much then because it was it was i was just there did the recording of the piano i think uh i think it's acoustic i think it's uh electric bass as well so i would have done the bass part and then the drums and stuff like i would i probably knocked it out in like a day um
Speaker: Funny thing is, so if if you were listening if if you have been listening at home and you've been listening, ah if you're listening in headphones, it probably sounded fine. If you're listening on speaker, if you're listening on a speaker, you might not have heard the vocals very much at all because I accidentally flipped like this. like there's i accidentally had a stereo phase inversion. Oh, no way. um They are kind of low anyway.
Speaker: yeah vogals Yeah, definitely like very like squished up in the in the mix somewhere, even in if even with the headphones. So the headphones you can still hear because you've got, you know, that it's going straight in. But like depending on and ah and if you listen, if you try and listen in mono, like on a Bluetooth speaker, like it it's gone. There's nothing there. Yeah, so it's a bit sad.
Speaker: So at this point in time, how how much music had you been making? You know, you've been making chip music, but this is like not chip music, more of like a band arrangement. Yeah. Were you in bands before?
Speaker: Um, yeah. So at the, uh, I'd played in like, you know, like church band and stuff when I was, you know, when I was, that was still my, uh, still my scene. And like, I was in very briefly, I was in a, I was in a pop punk band called sophomore summer, big, big, 2010 cringe energy, but you got, you got to love it.
Speaker: But yeah, I hadn't really like been in bands, but like, you know, part of, you know, growing up, like, um, I've always listened to music with, you know, band music, right? Like it hasn't, I haven't, you know, i started making, it started with like electronic music because, you know, that's what I wanted to make when I first started.
Speaker: yeah But then ah was always interested in, in playing and performing in bands and, and trying to, trying to get like, as as a teenager, like trying to like, play music that I liked with people, but like not really having a lot of people that like the music that I liked. So having a lot of sort of difficulty kind of finding people that wanted to play with, like play with me or play it or for me to find people that were playing the music that I wanted to play. So right.
Speaker: Up until, you know you know, up until like 2018, I was never really like in performing in bands that were like, gigging.
Speaker: I was never like it on stage doing stage stuff. So I got, I got it. You had enough musical experience to make chiptune music and arrange songs and yeah, I start, I mean, I started with actual fruity loops. so three, yeah, the 3.5, like 3, 3, 3.5, um, cracked version because I wanted to make, I wanted tech, I wanted music for my flash animations that I was making.
Speaker: yeah as a flash as a very as a very as a very young boy um and kind of got i kind of got so into making the music that i stopped i stopped making animations uh like pretty soon after because i just yeah had so much more fun making music think it was good to get away from flash art o I never really got away from like, yeah, I never got away from the like community around it. So like I was like for the longest time and I like still occasionally do still get still involved in like Newgrounds as a music community.
Speaker: And I was like, I was i was ah an audio moderator on Newgrounds for for a number of years as well. So like I had my finger on the pulse of like the the sort of like internet animation you know, community. yeah But yeah, I didn't end up getting that much into it. Like animation's a lot more work than making music, honestly. Yeah. it I mean, either I haven't even convinced myself to dabble in video yet. So animation, animation's a a whole league above that. So.
Speaker: And I couldn't be bothered. We're going Oh, sorry. going to keep it. I was going to say, was going to, I was going to say i you say, I couldn't be bothered to learn how to draw good, let alone draw good like hundreds of thousands of times. Like, yeah, too much, too much effort.
Speaker: Yeah, no, no. I agree with you. Lots of editing and yeah, a whole nother art skill. Yeah, for sure. Let's see. All right. The next one going to be, think I'm saying this correctly.
Speaker: Princess. Princess. Princess. Yeah. the Instead of an E, it's a V. Yeah. and as as well as As was the fashion at the time. oh Yes.
Speaker: This is way back in 2016, week Here
Speaker: right here we go
Speaker: All right, that was Princess 2016. twenty sixteen Yeah. Still reaching back there. Yeah. Yeah, that's... i If I remember correctly, i I think I made that... I was borrowing... was borrowing a computer off my grandma because my laptop had died and i needed i needed a computer to finish the, like, the last... It was it was the...
Speaker: I was finishing my honors thesis when I borrowed that computer and then i just never gave it back ah because she just didn't want it. i swear. I didn't steal a computer off my grandma. Yeah. You didn't steal from your grandma just to set the record straight.
Speaker: but So it was it was like a real chopped like HP all in one kind of deal. Like yeah no audio interface. ah So it was it was a it was a rough couple months for for my music production. bit there So the first the first like, yeah, the first, yeah, like 14, 15 weeks of 2016 were like all made on on that like crappy old computer, which is awesome. I love that.
Speaker: Yeah. But yeah, the vocals on that. What made this in your picks? Yeah, I think just the the vibe is really good. it The production process on it particularly. So that that's all all the synths.
Speaker: um We're all 3X oscillator. So the basically FL Studio's default synthesizer. It's ancient and it's basic, but it just slaps.
Speaker: It's got like, honestly the best in like the best envelopes and like LFO options of any like default synth in any door. I think like, you know, Ableton users fight me. I don't care.
Speaker: Um, I've been meaning to research dolls, but have not gotten there yet. So yeah, all the synths are like out of the same sort of like subtractive synth engine. syns engine um they ah for ah For a long time I worked with, there was a sort of YouTuber and like, you know, shed she would do like covers of...
Speaker: of like famous songs and like the lyrics would be changed to like League of Legends references. and And so I had a whole bunch of like her, and she would do like covers of like anime openings and stuff. So shout out Sandy Popushi.
Speaker: so She was an absolute legend. I haven't, I don't don't think she's been active for a long time, but yeah. yeah Shout out, Papushi. Yeah. A whole bunch of her like vocal stems and I just chopped them up and made some cute noises. and I don't know. just like It's just a vibey song. i think I think it's just a great vibey song.
Speaker: Bass really loud. It's super fun. I did change. I did have remaster that. I like the bass. Yeah.
Speaker: ah but I thought it sounded good. Yeah. No, it's it's good. I think it's just on a big system, it's it's like way too doughy. um So i did I did go back and remaster it. Eventually.
Speaker: Maybe I'll release it one day. Who knows? We'll see. So thinking back to 2016, when you made this song, what are some of the things that you kind of would sum up the 2012 to era? I know was a flop to you,
Speaker: but yeah yeah been doing if you've been doing it for a while now you've done you know, amount of songs at this point. Yeah, I think, um I think my sort of like, my musical influences were changing a lot.
Speaker: And it's actually from spending a lot of time with people in the, in the Aussie chiptune scene, who are like, just incredibly talented and amazing producers, just learned a lot through through listening to their music and and through like listening to the the artists that influenced them. And I think around that time was when was a a just i'd just seen, i saw Sophie live for my 25th birthday but and that like just blew my mind. And I really wanted to lock and sort of evoke some of those sound yeah some of the some of those sounds, but just
Speaker: you know through the methods that i was comfortable with um yeah that you'd learn from the chip community yeah from the chip community and and with the tools that i like kind of had it you know instead of like buying going like getting excited buying a you know electron mono machine for like all of the money that i had at the time you know just use the tools that were at my disposal to like make the music that i wanted to make which i think is a like a super chiptune kind of ethos uh as well right so yeah yeah i think so
Speaker: And I mean, I think it's just a good, good lesson, even when you do have the means to use more of the shit that you already have. Yeah, that's right. Definitely. There's like a a lot of inspiration comes from that like that that restriction. true It's true. true. Yeah. Yeah. As we were talking about before we started recording, like I bought a bunch of guitar pedals and shit, and then this I just made a song and I couldn't be bothered with any of that. It's all on the M8. So like...
Speaker: And I'm like, oh, I guess I should have used some of that stuff. But it's there for inspiration. Do you know what? I'm actually, so I'm kind of scared to buy an M8 because like, I feel like it's going to It's going to pull me away from all the stuff. There's a bit of like a sunk cost fallacy with all the other like Apple gear, right?
Speaker: I don't want to buy an M8 and then just like never use anything else ever again. Like I feel like that's what's going to happen. So I'm a little bit, little bit hesitant. There is that danger. There is that danger.
Speaker: sure. But I still recommend it. 100%. hundred percent So. Thanks. All right. We're going to keep it rolling with long goodbyes. This is from 2018 seven.
Speaker: I take a step out of your front door I turn and smile cause there is nothing left to run from The sun will shine without help from me And every moment here is final In spite of everything that will outlast Cause even stars had to die to make way for me And I remember my old days When I wake up in a cold sweat And all my feelings are hollow And I can see where I follow
Speaker: I hold on to the long nights Cause I'm afraid of long nights
Speaker: Now every step is a commitment To never turn and look at all you had to run from You'll live your life without help from me And every moment is a trial To fight the world you built inside your head How many stars would you kill to make way
Speaker: remember take
Speaker: all my feelings are hollow and i can see where i'm
Speaker: um
Speaker: are
Speaker: right, that was long goodbyes. And is that you on vocals? That is me on vocals, yeah. Wow.
Speaker: um it's It's definitely like it's there's a deliberate attempt to sort of change the way that I sung and and the the tonality of my voice on that.
Speaker: Not because I particularly don't like my singing voice, my normal regular singing voice, but it was just like... It fit the song. Well, yeah, it did. Also, that song was made for another for another, with another music thing in mind. So we had, ah there's ah there's another community called Chips Compo, which was run by weekly but run by Weekly Beats user John FM.
Speaker: Oh, slap your mic. So there you go. There we go. One's in my mark again. So yeah, it was written for chips compo, which was ah another community run by weekly beats user, John FN shout out, John shout out.
Speaker: Oh, your mic went out again. Yeah, fuck. Okay, hopefully this doesn't keep happening. All right. John FM. John FN. FN, FN, like function.
Speaker: Function, yeah. The John function.
Speaker: Yeah, shout out. um But yeah, so on the part of the so part of like a sort of side quest in in that community and in in in the way that it functions, it was sort of like like Battle of the Bits where there's like one hour compos or like, you know, compos, the regular compos and sort of themed writing challenges and stuff. But part of the, like a side quest on it was that you had to guess, like songs were anonymously uploaded and anonymously anonymously sort of presented it at first and so you had to guess who had made each song and so like there was a little bit of a voice a little bit yeah but a bit of a challenge of of like trying to make a song but not make it sound immediately obvious that it was you that made it and there weren't a whole lot of other people doing vocals on the site at the time so I tried to just sort of ah to me it's really obvious that it's me but then I guess if you don't
Speaker: listen to me all the time. Yeah, yeah. Like I do. I the more I the more i listen to it and talking to you, i can tell that you created this, but I don't think if you you gave me two, like the other vocal songs that I heard from you, like they don't seem like the same person.
Speaker: So great job disguising, I guess.
Speaker: Fonzie. Yeah, no, thank you so much. That actually like really... but That really good to know that I i achieved or like succeeded in my aim there.
Speaker: I love that. There's a real like satisfaction that you get when you set out, I think with any piece of music with a very specific goal in mind, even if that goal is like a side quest or like sort of taent tangential to the song or the piece itself, there's like a real...
Speaker: Yeah, there's a real satisfaction in hitting your target, hitting the bullseye on an emotion that you're trying to evoke or an homage that you were trying to make. Yeah, it's just satisfying. Yeah.
Speaker: sort of if make like yeah as it's it's just super un facts yeah yeah I'm sure you know the artist Shaggy that sings It Wasn't Me.
Speaker: Of course. I saw an interview with him recently that he's like, oh, my my whole singing voice is just like, I started it as kind of like a joke. And i like and it kind of worked. And so he sings in this like fake voice that he made.
Speaker: I've got to wonder if Scott Stapp is doing the same thing. like Cause no, like, I don't think there's anyone who's out here like, we're at our home wide open. Like no one's doing that.
Speaker: Oh, that was a perfect, that was a perfect with arms wide open. No one's doing that. So I, I grew up in Orlando like the height, the height of free. yeah And so, yeah, yeah.
Speaker: You could probably, that's just like how people sing over there, right? like It's true, They call that the Orlando voice. For real. yeah that was a joke you it If that was a joke, I took it completely at face value. i'm going i'm going to i I'm going to repeat that actually as ah as a trivia fact from now on. Cool, that's perfect, yeah. You might win some trivia there in Australia. I hope so.
Speaker: All right, we're going to keep it rolling with Jumps to Fuck.
Speaker: Yeah, this is 2020 week 42, which is a time that I don't really like to remember back to, but here we go.
Speaker: um
Speaker: um fuck
Speaker: voca
Speaker: All right, that was Jump to Fuck. So good. Goes hard. Jump to Fuck. it's It's meant to be like Scottish Twitter sort of. Jump to Fuck.
Speaker: Yeah, like it. yeah ah sorry all the scotts Sorry, it's all the Scots. um month Shout out, Scottish people. You're the funniest.
Speaker: What made this one on your list? ah I'm guessing because it's some chiptune goodness. It's chiptune goodness. It just slaps. i I was kind of... So over the over the year and there was a few other tracks, ah like Bovamanca, Drama Llama.
Speaker: I think it was just Bovomancer and Drama Llama that kind of used this fake bit banger template that I kind of put together. And it was it's all all of the synths are magical 8-bit plugin 2, which had just been released that year.
Speaker: Shout out, Yokimura-san. That plugin slaps. It's fantastic. Just the the best 2A03 sort of emulation that you can run on ah on a DAW, I think.
Speaker: Yeah, but I'd kind of been working around like this this template of like you know big EDM drums with the like just stacking you know heaps of chiptune stuff.
Speaker: Oh, sorry, I just remembered there's a few instances of Mini Synth and Medusa 2. So Medusa 2, don't know. I think 2XAA or Sam Rae is a Weekly Beats member as well.
Speaker: So shout out to him for making Medusa 2. Nice. All sorts of shout outs. Yeah. um Yeah. um But um yes. So I've been working on this template, been developing kind of like the, the, the sound of the production of it and, and, and like refining that sound, like doing that, doing that like fiddly detail work, but like over the course of like multiple tracks.
Speaker: And I think yeah this is the one where I kind of hit the peak of, of what that's, that sound could be. And, and, the the sort of the heaviness and the like just the the power of it just yeah really hit my stride with with that sound there and so yeah i'm just really proud of it like so you kind of worked on worked on some of the bits and pieces over several tracks that all came together like yeah the skills all piled up to
Speaker: to make this thing that you're like super proud of. Yeah, definitely. And something that I, like I did to, something that I did there was that, that jump the fuck up sample. It's yeah, it's it at first it was going to be, um it was going to be Corey Taylor in from,
Speaker: the song of the, of the same name by Soulfly. i was just going to take that that, that vocal sample, but then obviously like, I don't, I don't condone using uncleared samples on weekly beats as a, as a site moderator. So I just redid the, i I just redid the vocal myself with like over a couple of takes and with a bit of like, you know,
Speaker: Studio Magic and then you run it through FAMI tracker to get the, that sort of deep DPCM sound on it. Nice. Yeah. So very, very fun. A lot of, a lot of different sort of processes there, but using a very like limited sound set to it's like fullest potential, I guess. Yeah.
Speaker: Awesome. Yeah. I mean, it goes hard. It's definitely got that power. Well done. Thank you. 2020. you The best year ever. Oh, man, it was Unironically, I unironically had all things considered a pretty good year in 2020.
Speaker: But, you know. wish had gotten into music in you know, to yeah all all my time that i did who knows what yeah so you're here now though you're here now we're here now and that's the beauty of life it's all about the it's it's the real the real winners are the friends you make along the way um true true you heard it original quote from midi machine indeed
Speaker: and And here's a good segue into a song called Just In Time. 2022, week three, early in week early in here we go.
Speaker: all right here we go
Speaker: Could have been anything at all I guess I was wrong
Speaker: And I think you saved the day
Speaker: When I make it just in time When I think you saved the day Such a crazy thing to say
Speaker: Make it just in time
Speaker: That was Just In Time. Man, it's such a great song. I i don't know, the layers are just like perfectly placed because it's not a very busy song.
Speaker: And the vocals sound great. And as I've mentioned before, I'm trying, I'm doing some tests, trying to record some vocals and write some lyrics and stuff. And so I don't like it.
Speaker: Yeah. That's yeah. But I mean, this sounds really good. And I guess what I want when I first release something with vocals is to get like real feedback to be like, i yeah,
Speaker: I would go redo that or here's how you could make that better. Yeah. Vocal mixing really tricky. i I, think we were talking before the, that we started recording just about like microphones and, and, and sort of tonality and stuff. And more so than the microphone, sometimes it's, it's the, the room and the, the preamps and stuff, right? Like,
Speaker: Especially if you want to like, if you do want to push the gain a bit hard, like you want to get that saturated yeah kind of sound, like you really do need like not like pretty solid, like good pre's. And I think I've got, I mean, I'm running like the MPA2, which is by...
Speaker: Art? Yeah. By Art. So that that just like a really it's like a really cheap tube preamp, but like when you nice when you run it hot, it like it it just it's just nice and like heavy and warm and it doesn't like it doesn't go fuzzy or sharp.
Speaker: So having that, the Warm Audio WA-14, really great 414 clone. um really great four one four clone and You're also doing a ton of EQ after all of that. Because it doesn't sound like it's just like your straight singing voice.
Speaker: Well, yeah. So it it's, it's the compressor. It's more so the compression, like it's, it's slapping the compressors like on vocals hard as you can. Like you, you really don't need, uh, especially for like rock and pop vocals. You don't need dynamics at all really. So just, just slam it as hard as you can.
Speaker: and then, you know, if you need to change the volume, just just do the volumes in post. Cause then you get that really like upfront clear sound out of that. And I think the, the other thing is like multi-tracking it. So those, those um and I did, i did actually, you speak about like doing video before and like how much effort it is.
Speaker: I did actually try running, doing a few little like weekly beats videos that year for the first couple. Yeah. You've got this whole production video that goes along with this. if if If you're listening right now and you haven't seen the song before, or if you haven't seen that video before, you've just heard the song and you really are interested in in how that production goes, um go jump on the song page and and and watch the video because I basically just like break down at ah at a surface level, all the different like production things that are going on. Yeah.
Speaker: And i think that exercise as well was really good for me to like think about my and evaluate my process as well. And with that song, I'm actually like really happy with the process. I think it it all made sense and the decisions that I made had like a good logic to them.
Speaker: There's a lot of times I make a song and i don't know why the fuck i did it the way I did it. it does It does. I don't know. The thing I tried right then. I don't even know if it sounds good, but yeah luckily with this one, it it all you know there was a real intention behind it and it all just kind of came together really, yeah, really like relatively simply.
Speaker: The fact that the guitar sounds as good as it does is crazy because it's like it's the baritone. It's the baritone ukulele, like the sound, like not even like DI'd. It's the sound hole in front of like, I think 58 or a 57. Oh, Okay. thought it was DI'd.
Speaker: No, it's this it's like coming out of the sound hole, which is why- It probably sounds a little bit chopped sometimes, so but yeah but once you like throw that that that recording through an amp sim, you know, shit loads of distortion.
Speaker: um Actually running through the same compressors as the vocals. So like everything was like, everything was super hot. It just like, it just goes hard. It's yeah.
Speaker: Yeah. Sounds good. It does. It does. and Like the arrangement, like there's just a lot of like emotion to the song.
Speaker: the The only thing, yeah. And I think because ah lyrically, like at the time, I was kind of a little, I guess like despondent about sort of some but some of the things that were like some of the way that my life had sort of panned out, which in hindsight, I'm actually like fucking so glad that that like if i could if I knew then how the next three years would go, I'd be like, yeah, you fucking don't worry about it, man. yeah You're all good.
Speaker: But in in that despondency, I was also kind of recognizing that you know I'd been in this position before, but worse. And then that you know realizing that. and it' So that line of like it's really it's easy to look back and turn the gray to white and black was kind of about that. it's like yeah you can You can look back and say, oh, like everything was shit or everything was great.
Speaker: and here and but But actually, like your whole life is is like ups and downs. There's the different shades of gray in life. And it's really easy to look...
Speaker: But you know once you once you recognize that, it's it's probably easier to move it's it's a bit easier to move forward and and and and make some more greys.
Speaker: Yeah. 100% agree. It's easy to think that it's not going to pan out great. And you've made it made it through in the past. Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah, 100%. The only other thing i would say is like we're coming back to the guitar tone is that I used FL Studios like built in. It's fucking awful. don't I don't actually recommend using that one. There are lots of free amp sims that are actually good.
Speaker: Don't use hardcore. it's a fucking, it's actually highway robbery that they, and it that it's included not with the base level of F like it's, and it's, it's a base level product, but they it's in the like premium, but not like super premium tier of, of FL, which I think is very silly.
Speaker: I'll take your word on it. ah but For sure. All right. This is where I would normally be like, well, this is the end of our episode. We have one more. But you have such a long catalog and you picked a bunch.
Speaker: And i also picked some overlapping songs with you but there's a couple that i'm like we gotta listen to these but we're gonna finish your picks with redemption arc which is the first one from 2024 and then i have two more i want to play so we're gonna do that right redemption arc
Speaker: There was a time when I was playing for love. I knew on my mind that no one else must be done.
Speaker: But was scared of getting started. The way of love was keeping you there.
Speaker: So imagine you're here.
Speaker: Can I make it right?
Speaker: There was a moment I was searching for truth
Speaker: All right. That was Redemption Arc. Good Lord. That's a great good song. Holy shit. Yeah. Yeah. i i I do think it's probably the, for my money, the best song that I've made.
Speaker: I'm so proud of it And I think it's like, it's it's funny because we're talking about that the the band that I'm in. So the band that I was in, Trigger Joe. And Just In Time and Redemption Arc are like the the sort of yin and yang of that band's sound in a way.
Speaker: So it's I think i without meaning to, it's it's it's cool that i've that we've kind of got that, we've kind of like got the best, the the the the the two sort of separate identities of of that of what that band was doing sort of represented in these songs. I love that.
Speaker: And I love talk boxes. like, everything I mean, it is perfect for this. And I was kind of curious just how this came together because the the baseline sounds like, because it is kind of the foundation to the song, was that how it began?
Speaker: Yeah, actually actually was the baseline. um So that's, yeah. I mean, it's such a fundamental part of It kind of had to be first thing.
Speaker: And but actually the first thing was the, the lyrics and and the sort of melody okay floating floating around in my head around like new years. And I was on holiday and we, we come back and I've just like, as soon as I got home, I've just got all this stuff out and just threw it like throwing it together, like, um, racing to, to get it, to get it over the line.
Speaker: But apart from just the the lyrics and the vocals, the that bass was, yeah, 100% the first thing that i that I came to. And I tried wrote it on electric, but I couldn't... I'm not actually particularly great at guitar or bass guitar.
Speaker: So... And it didn't even then, like even trying to chop it up and like make it sound good. Like it didn't have that, like, I don't know, that joie de vie synth bass has. Like that yeah yeah really that throaty, like that's yeah that's ah that that's um that So that plugin is unique by Sugar Bites, which has just like...
Speaker: Built-in formant synth with like a sort of like a morph function. So you get that oh that sort of ponality to it. So fucking cool. Such a great synth.
Speaker: And um play like doing it that way, having the bass line first and sort of feeling the chords out around that. Yeah. you know, then throwing the drums on and with and the drums are just BFD player, like the free BFD kit. So yeah, you you didn't need a real showy drummer on this one. No, no. um Did run it through a cassette emulator, a bit, a little bit of saturation just to give it that like smoky tone.
Speaker: But yeah, super simple arrangement. And then the synth solo, The synth solo was really fun. So i I actually sung the synth solo ah at first. to get the melody together? yeah Just to get it together. And then so like run it through run it in a new tone, which is like FL's sort of Melodyne-ish thing.
Speaker: Dump the MIDI file. Dump the MIDI file out to... and to it to to the door and run it in in in whatever synth I wanted. I think it was harmless or something.
Speaker: That's cool. Yeah. and And so, like, it came to actually came together relatively quickly. The vocals were hard. I've been performing with TalkBox for a while, but, like, actually not many parts where there were – the lyrics were needed to be like really legible or really clear and articulated well. act Actually singing clear lyrics with a talk box is very, very difficult.
Speaker: ah Very, very difficult. And so there was a bit of a learning process around that. And I did have to flub some stuff in post. You could definitely hear some of the S sounds don't really come out the way that they they don't come out in a way that feels really clear and defined. And I guess that works. It works in the overall tonality of the song, but I would, if I could go back and do it again, I would like to just spend a bit more time on the vocals and on, I guess, enunciating and being able to like get the words out more clearly. Yeah. But still with the talk box.
Speaker: Yeah, absolutely. Oh, absolutely. Yeah. So the talk box works. Yeah. It works so good. And it played, played so not mid like I played it on a ah mini log.
Speaker: just Nice. Yeah. So played alongside it as well, which potentially made... things more difficult but i think it necessary for the for how to make it feel really natural and and yeah yeah live performance e i guess yeah that human touch you need that human touch yeah
Speaker: all right i since i'm adding more songs we're gonna keep it going yes and I really love this next one. 2022 week kind of monophon it
Speaker: right. That was kind of monophonic. And i was kind of drawn to this one, i think because, well, for people that aren't reading the description right in front of them, this is a challenge that you gave yourself to do ah track where only one instrument can be triggered at a time. So no layers,
Speaker: like nothing crazy and i think this showcases your ability to make something simple that's still like super interesting like the extra space kind of adds to it uh you know like the, and the sounds by even one triggered sound, like it sounds so good. um,
Speaker: i'm just like the, the last song we heard redemption arc where like, it's a, There's it's not a complex song. You don't have a showy drummer.
Speaker: But man, it just grooves and really cool challenge that showcases how well you can build something, even if it's like super, super simple.
Speaker: Yeah. Yeah. And it's i can't take credit for the idea because, yeah, there's obviously like the M8 one track challenges. And I think my inspiration for this was from the, I remember, I think I remember it was Zero F Digital of the Rob and Tubus McGee.
Speaker: So Rob and Callum were having a conversation at like a Square Sounds about like doing something similar, but with like, in a classical setting because that's where what Callum was kind of doing at the time. and and And so I was like, yeah, let's why don't I just like bring that in into a door? Like I just thought about that conversation just like, yeah, let's let's let's let's give that a go.
Speaker: So shout out Rob, shout out Callum. And yeah, all the the sounds and stuff like FM synths, great for making complex sounds from like a single sort of, yeah, single note trigger, those long evolutions and those, those big tonal shifts that you can, that you can get with, ah with FM really like lent it, lent itself to this sort of, like and that, that kind of groove that you get from like two-step garage or something.
Speaker: It's a little like off kilter even for, you know, for that, for that genre. But yeah, I think it really like lent itself well. Definitely going back, I would potentially even like synthesize the kick so that I could like get a longer like delay off of that and yeah yeah double that up as a baseline or something, you know, maybe another time.
Speaker: Kind of monophonic too. Yeah. yeah Coming up soon, maybe. and 2026, the year of the outboard. I've got to do it in outboard then. How am I going to do that? That's another challenge. That's part of the challenge. It's part of the challenge. I'll buy it buy an m a and do a one track challenge. That's how I'll do it.
Speaker: And then sell the rest of your gear the end of 2026 when all you're using is your M8. Yeah. Yeah. It'll be great. ah It'll pay off the M8. For sure. And then some. Yeah. For sure. um But it's great. Yeah. It's a great little track. And what I love is that ah because I started starting with the kick, kick snare and that the low bass.
Speaker: And then i was gonna I was kind of worried like, oh, where am I going fit high hats? Where going fit? Like when you actually like breakdown ah break break out four bar loop, that's like 64 different places you can put things. it's actually There's actually a lot of space for stuff and you don't have to use all of it all the time. yeah And that's, I think the crash that like ride symbol, that's like the crash.
Speaker: I think that was the last thing I put in. I was really, i was like really present pleasantly surprised that I had a very like fitting, like a place where it could land and feel good because you would normally, like normally you chuck a crash on the downbeat, you know, at the end of something or like on uh, you know, on, on, yeah, on downbeats, you know, building up and stuff.
Speaker: You don't normally like stick it on an offbeat and have it sound good. Um, but it just like, don't know, it just kind of worked out really well. Yeah. I mean, it gave you an opportunity to put things in places you wouldn't normally think to put them.
Speaker: Yeah, definitely. Definitely. Very cool. Well, We've got one more song that I'm going to play on the way out. But it has been a super pleasure to bullshit for.
Speaker: Sorry, this is a long episode, everyone. There's a lot of history here. mean, i mean It's an honor to talk to someone who has been doing weekly beats and music creation for this long. And like I've mentioned before, such a welcoming and accommodating community that no doubt is this way because of people like you that have been doing this and helping everyone for, you know,
Speaker: over a decade now. So thank you for helping build this community and keep it going for this long and moderating and yeah. It's yeah, no, it's, it's absolutely a pleasure.
Speaker: um Thank you. And anyone who suggested me or even just anyone who's been thinking about me at all at any time, just, yeah, you're all legends. i'm actually i'm just I'm just humbled that and and honored that I'm someone that people consider worth listening to.
Speaker: if that if If you've changed your mind about that over the last like close to two hours, um i don't I don't apologize. Go fuck yourself. But we don't even know we don't even know what's going to happen in 2026 because you just told us how unpredictable you are. So you know who knows what you're going to make without boards.
Speaker: Yeah. it's Well, whatever I make, it'll be with Outboard.
Speaker: You're the Outboard. Let's do it. Yeah. ah All right, well, my final song is When I Should Have Zagged, ah which maybe, i you know, to end this on kind of like an emo song.
Speaker: But i i I don't know. There's something about this song. This is from what week in 2024? 15, think. fifteen i think
Speaker: Yes, you're right. Yeah, nice. ah Just a great composition, touching lyrics, another one of those kind of like vulnerable things. And i think what you were just talking about a little while ago is like, it's easy to look back in life and be like, oh, maybe I should have taken a different turn here. So definitely relate to the message. I think we've all felt that way at some point. So we just kind of drawn to it. And was like, I think people will need to hear this.
Speaker: Yeah. Thank you. So, yeah, we're going to conclude the episode and play that out for everyone. And thanks again for coming on and making the time. And thanks to everyone who continues to make time to listen to this, because i i was laughing because i think I like when I before I made an episode, I was like, I think there'll be about like 45 minutes long.
Speaker: And then now I'm like, oh man, they're like every episode is like an hour and a half to two hours long. So especially when you got a yapper on board. Yo, actual professional yapper.
Speaker: But you're on here so people can hear you. Yeah. So true. I'm allowed. You're allowed. You're 100% allowed. So yeah, thanks again. and we're going to play it on out when, when I should have zagged.
Speaker: Peace. Peace.
Speaker: A quick message from post-production land. Editing this episode, I realized that this song does not in fact have lyrics, but what I wanted to talk about was the fact that a lot of the titles are kind of a lyrical message in themselves.
Speaker: This song in particular makes me feel a lot like the title. So here we go.
Speaker: But wait, there's more. i also decided in post-production that we really needed to hear that rap song. So here is Back From The Grave from 2024. two.
Speaker: I used to spit shit now I'm fire on the regular Devil on the mic make the Pope go secular Make your way to heaven I'm the will and executor 187 as I killed the competitor So don't be talking about your lethal intentions Talking sick shit cause you're seeking attention Your girl my team you ain't even in my I'm man should put your pen down and apply for a pension K sera sera whatever might go I make the harder bars whenever I flow My beta artisan, yours are from Bilo I think I dropped the bomb, I better lie low I'm psycho, I need a dose of risperidone Sick in the head and it shows when I'm in the zone Taking the meds now I'm close to a clearatone Sine waves ringing in the head when I sleep alone
