Transcript
Speaker: It's time to get your game face on and show the world what you're made of.
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 Ketchin' Ashes.
Speaker: Welcome to Catching Ashes. thanks for being on. You're welcome. glad Glad it all all worked out time-wise with the... ah Yeah. Yeah, you you watch Australians are hard to hard to catch in my time zone, so...
Speaker: wait wait We could say the same for you. You'd be hard to catch in our time zone.
Speaker: it is very true I feel like whenever I reach out to you know my my friends in the States, it's always super early in the morning or late night.
Speaker: Yeah. Or just like massive delay. I'll send a message and then it's like six hours and then I get a response. Yeah, because when I started scheduling Australians, I was like, oh man, like the only real time I can do this is like Friday evening at 6pm or like Saturday mid-afternoon, the times that I don't really want to be on my computer. So we've arranged it because you have a holiday so we can record mid-week and that kind of saves my Friday. So thanks for um making that happen.
Speaker: No, that's all right. I'm glad it worked out. Yeah. And ah I would consider you ah pretty OG Weekly Beats guy since you started in, what, 2016? 2016, yeah.
Speaker: ah twenty sixteen Yeah, yeah. yeah I mean, quite an accomplishment. Yeah, I've completed... every Every year of Weekly Beats since 2016, so all 52 weeks.
Speaker: Nice. Perfect streak. Sometimes I've hobbled over the line, but I like got there at the end. still pos It still counts. still counts. Well, you know, they out they always say you need to to be in it to win it.
Speaker: Yeah. You can really win Weekly Beats. Well, I was looking back through your old are your previous years and there was one what year was it that it was like the last song was like I have no energy left or something like that yeah that would probably would have been either 2022 yeah I'm trying to I think that was still mid-COVID for us here in Australia ah yeah yeah that makes sense yeah tough times for all of us
Speaker: Yeah, definitely was. Yeah, wanted to have a large finale, but no more energy. Yeah, that was that was how I felt that year. yeah. yeah But you finished.
Speaker: Yeah, I always try to go a bit, like, and push myself that final week, because, um like, this year, like for my finale, it was like one of the first tracks that I sort of really tried to sing. Yeah.
Speaker: yeah And that was something that I wanted to do from like week one last year. sort of kept sacking myself out.
Speaker: As the weeks dwindled down, you were like, there's only one more chance to do that thing that I said I was going to do. Yeah. You know, I, I, I feel like in my, my first week track, I mentioned that I wanted to like, you know, have a proper song with, with lyrics. yeah Um, so yeah, I got to 52 and I'm like, whatever happens, I need to make something happen.
Speaker: Yeah. And, uh, As I've mentioned a few times now, i that is going to be one of my goals for 2026. so But i can as I approach that, I can definitely see waiting until the last week to to grow the balls to do it.
Speaker: I don't even think that it's that. There's writing the music, and then there's coming up with lyrics. like It's a whole separate process. It's a whole thing.
Speaker: um Yeah, I want to definitely do more next year. like i feel like I've taken that first step, so should should be able to do a few more in 2026.
Speaker: Yeah, so now that you did a singing song for the last song of last year, and you've had time to think on it now...
Speaker: like what What are you going to do differently so you don't wait until like the last week of next year? i think the big thing I want to get done between now and starting next year is actually do a vocal stack.
Speaker: So that I've got that sort of pre-setup.
Speaker: and sort of practice mixing music two to a vocal. They're probably two things I need to work on and in the next like three months to make that a bit easier of a goal for me.
Speaker: Yeah, so basically there's there's no technical excuses. no like I feel like... But doing that work will mean that you have no technical excuses, like you can focus on the lyrics and Yeah, I think it's like probably 16, 18 years ago, i really got into like poetry. So like sort of lyric writing all right sort of stems off that.
Speaker: oh for sure. So that side of I'm sort of okay with. It's just that the like the merging of the but two skills.
Speaker: Yeah. um Because obviously, yeah, a lot of what I try to do, especially outside of Weekly Beats, is like chip. Yeah.
Speaker: Weekly Beats is sort of my, can experiment a bit more. Okay. Yeah. I was going to ask, I mean, we can kind of go backwards a little bit to how you got into Weekly Beats.
Speaker: And I was listening back through your previous years, and I noticed that a lot of the earlier years are pretty much exclusively chip. Yeah. so um for me, music was never really something I thought I'd be doing.
Speaker: Now not doing five five years of weekly beats, very different story. but yeah, it was I just happened to Lachlan sort of double booked himself like a trip to Vietnam and PAX Australia. So the first year we had PAX here in Australia.
Speaker: So he couldn't go to PAX because obviously Vietnam, that was where he was going. So he gave me his three-day pass. I went to PAX. I met a bunch of the local Melbourne Chiptune guys.
Speaker: Ctricks.ay ah Eugene Christie.
Speaker: and sort of found Chit Tune for myself. Yeah. And you hadn't made any music before you went to PAX? No. I'd done a little bit of game development.
Speaker: um And then the industry in Australia.
Speaker: So I didn't didn't really pursue that any further. but obviously part of game making is sound design. I've done a little bit of like sound effect stuff, but not really music.
Speaker: but But yeah. so basically went to PAX Australia, met a bunch of that the Melbourne chip like founders. Yeah. And...
Speaker: you know I was invited out to the next gig they had I think that was probably one of my first live music like outside of like high school. um So it was sort of a a big thing for me, you know going out to a a music venue by myself. ah Sort of over the next, say, six months, became really good friends with them.
Speaker: I was sort of like, hey, if you want to if you want to give this a go, like we're happy to give you the time to like show you how to do it
Speaker: And yeah, I just sort of wrote my first track, felt really, really accomplished. And then I remember going out with Calavera.
Speaker: calavira to a bar and I was like, hey, this is my first track. And they're like, that's really good. and two weeks, there's an open mic event.
Speaker: you get another track done, you can sign up for that. Whoa, all right, yeah. So I sort of rushed to second track in like two weeks. Wow. And signed up for this open mic and drank way too many drinks and got up and performed.
Speaker: but you know It sort of sparked this fire in my and my heart. Yeah. And that was sort of how it all started. wow that is that is quite a series of events to go from making no music to kind of getting expired inspired at PAX and then to finishing a song and then doing a live performance.
Speaker: Yeah, I think that that first song took me two months. Yeah. Because I was sort of like learning the software Yeah, what did you make it in?
Speaker: So i started it out straight in Little Sand DJ. So it's a very very similar to the M8, which I know you're familiar with. Oh, yeah. But it's obviously four channels no synth engines.
Speaker: because that's actually where a lot of the interface stuff from the M8 came from, was Little Sound DJ. Mm-hmm. but Yeah, so I really sort of taught myself had it how to use it.
Speaker: And then, yeah, that second track was two weeks. Got up, performed.
Speaker: um then I think the following year, I did another open mic and then a bunch of the guys were like, I'm going to go Square Sounds Tokyo. and i was like, all right, I booked a flight. We all went to Tokyo together. That's awesome.
Speaker: So yeah, I really feel like the Melbourne ship, or even just the Australian chip scene and Weekly Beat are very much like a second family to me.
Speaker: Yeah. don't know. It's one of those, it's one of those feelings. Like I've met a number, small number of people outside of like the Melbourne, uh, like the Melbourne scene. yeah.
Speaker: I think back in 2019, I met up with Drew Orange Drink. Oh, nice. When I was in in the States um on a holiday. That's cool.
Speaker: And it was sort of, you know, we we got together, we spent the whole day... you know I won't say part of the story because I know Drew always hates when I bring it up, but it was it was it was really good. It it felt like you knowre catching up with long lost family. just had a ball for the whole day. That's awesome.
Speaker: Yeah, so ah one day Orange Drink will actually be on the show and maybe I can bring up that day with him. Yeah. hey ah He'll probably make it sound a lot better than I will.
Speaker: Yeah. ah And so, obviously, you got into weekly beats from the the chip community, right? Yeah. um So how long since, or like between when you made those first two songs and that live performance, how long till you did your first weekly beats?
Speaker: So I think I started doing... stuff in LSDJ back in 2013. And um and i chose my artist name, Catch and Ashes, July of 2014.
Speaker: twenty fourteen So it was sort of halfway through weekly bit year. don't think I'd heard of it at that point. but I definitely probably heard it towards the tail end of 2014 and then was like, all right, next year. Not realizing it was bi-yearly at that point. was like, next year I'll do it.
Speaker: So obviously, we waited until 2016 start. A very common situation where people are like, yeah, I'm going to do this. Like, OK, well, next year, I guess. i guess i guess the other interesting thing is, like for me, like my artist name has some symbolic meaning, other than being like sort of pun on my name.
Speaker: So for me, catching ashes is sort of like as long as you like never give up on your dream and keep chasing it, ah you can be reborn like a phoenix.
Speaker: ah Oh, cool. So you're also catching ashes. Yeah. And then also I'm a big fan of Pokemon, so catching things is core mechanic of that.
Speaker: then obviously my name is Ashley, it's sort of all. There you go.
Speaker: Yeah, so feel I feel like that sort of embodies like my my spirit on writing music. like cause if I don't give up, I'm only going to get better. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker: and And what other music things have you gotten into since you started Chiptune? Because I see you've got, no one can see this, but you've got some like a guitar and some keyboards.
Speaker: like How has this spark expanded? sos ah So the guitar's there for looks. I bought it to learn, and I haven't yet.
Speaker: um All right, yeah still expanding, still expanding. Well, I think that was the other goal I had for Weekly Beats last year was to write a track with a guitar, and that one didn't happen.
Speaker: Got it. So I've got a 49-key complete like keyboard controller. I've got my Chompy Club, sort of like a keyboard sampler. Yeah, I've seen those. I've never played with one before, but it looks pretty interesting.
Speaker: I've got the This Is Noise Gamma on order. ah one That one looks quiet quite fun. Cool. I think some of it has just been, like for weekly beats, I like to move away and sort of learn skills that I wouldn't in the constraint LSDJ. Yeah.
Speaker: um Sometimes it's nice to either just open up Fruity Loops, just have four or five channels,
Speaker: and just enjoy having the limitation. or different limitations? Yeah. like
Speaker: I think one of the things I like doing in in weekly beats is being like, I can try this genre of music and I only have to focus on it for one week.
Speaker: Yeah. So it's a good way to be like, all right, I've really been listening to like Moonbaton or something and then try to recreate something that sounds like Moonbaton. Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah, like there's no obligation to continue exploring down that path. Yeah, exactly. that because you like dove headfirst into Chip and are like headed down that road for a long time?
Speaker: i don't I don't think so. I think it's just sometimes i just need to be in a different headspace.
Speaker: Obviously, when you're working within the limitations of the Game Boy, so it's four channels, one note at a time.
Speaker: you've sort of got to squeeze everything into what space you've got. Yeah, there's a little more strategy to get the sounds out.
Speaker: Yeah, and and obviously there's no... I mean, there there is there is sample playback, but... i obviously you need to like flash a whole cartridge to be able to that. yeah so that that's a whole other step.
Speaker: a yeah I think sometimes it's nice just to be a like hey I'm going to try this for a week and if it sucks, that's okay.
Speaker: Yeah, it's just one week. That's all Weekly Beats is. It's just like a spot where I can experiment you know no one's going to really judge Yeah. ah At least in 2024, you kind of have several different styles going on. like There's, of course, some chiptune.
Speaker: There's like a lot of like lo-fi, almost kind like grungy kind of tracks, like some piano stuff, which I know you're probably sequencing the piano, but i was going to ask if you played piano because like one of my favorite songs from 2024 is a piano tune.
Speaker: So I can't like play, play the piano, but sometimes I'll, you know, just, Obviously, it's a little bit easier to you know press a key on the on the keyboard and hear a note than dragging the mouse up and down a sequencer. So it's sort of a ah bit of both.
Speaker: Yeah, a lot of it is just, yeah, sequenced. I mean, it sounds good, so whatever you're doing, keep doing it. Thank you very much.
Speaker: And since Weekly Beats is kind of your experimental playground, if you will, what do you do to keep the experimenting fresh?
Speaker: Because I've said this before where I feel like I'm kind of stuck in a lot of the same stuff that I make I'm always trying to find a ah new avenue to like shake things up a bit?
Speaker: i think because I do try and do different genres. like Even if I'm you know doing lo-fi or It's like I've really i've really been liking...
Speaker: you know, like the the drum and bass type of, you know like drums. Or I've been listening to hyperp pop.
Speaker: like Because I listen to a lot of music as well. i can sort of take elements and be like, I want to try and see how I can use like this element rather than sort of looking at as like a whole package.
Speaker: Got it. So like listening to a different genre and then pulling like one, is it like a sound or like a style or a rule maybe? I can have style or feeling.
Speaker: Like some sometimes for for weekly beats, I'll just pick a style of music and like Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, we'll sort of just... whatever free time I get, like going to work, I'll just like listen to, you know,
Speaker: like hyper pop as an example. I'll just listen to a bunch of like hyper pop tracks and be like, what's making this like what makes it hyper pop?
Speaker: Like obviously hyper was partly the lyrics and the, the sound of the the vocal, but they were, they're also like very grungy, But yeah, I sort of just take smaller elements of you know what I'm ingesting physically over the week and try and pick apart a few little pieces and be like, this is what what my brain's liking this week. and then Yeah.
Speaker: So you have a you have a heavy research phase. some Sometimes. Yeah. there There's also other weeks where just life gets in the way and then my wife, course on a Sunday, have you done your weekly beats? And I'll be like, crap.
Speaker: No, I haven't.
Speaker: but And then she's like, off you get it done. off like ah here Get out of here.
Speaker: Yeah. But yeah, it's it's definitely good having a like a really supportive wife that i case me on track. Yeah. She makes sure you get your weekly beats done.
Speaker: Can't ask so much more. man. So, uh, um man so ah it's yeah I like your approach because you're like, all right, I'm i'm setting my sights on like a particular kind of music this week.
Speaker: Let me go study that music and see what kind of makes it unique or like what are some interesting things about it that I can try to recreate on my own.
Speaker: Yeah. Sometimes that'll be on on the Game Boy and then it's like, how do I take this ah sound and recreate something that resembles it like on a Game Boy?
Speaker: yeah Yeah, like one of your songs, which one was it? Synthetic Requiem? It's like very intricate chiptune, like lots of layers going on. And I was like, wow, that's like a lot of complexity to like jam all that in there, which maybe we'll listen to that one later.
Speaker: Yeah. so like for me last year like a lot of my LSDJ stuff was sort of re relearning i but Little Sound DJ way. like since Since I started using it, i was sort of a lot of my cartridges were on think version 4.6, which was quite an old build. There'd been a lot of advancements in the software and how like sounds were created and
Speaker: Yeah. So I sort of flashed a new cartridge that I'd purchased with 9.4, which I think is the latest Stable release.
Speaker: And i was sort of so much of how I have used LSDJ it just changed. Obviously for the best.
Speaker: right It's like if you miss a few or miss a few updates of M8, you're going to be a little lost. Yeah, exactly. You're like, oh, how's it how people are people doing this? And then you're like, oh, they've they've got this update.
Speaker: yeah Oh, I should get that. So you you had to learn ah learn all the new features and maybe find some new ways to do old things.
Speaker: Yeah, I'd probably say good half of how things worked changed. It was like way pitch curves...
Speaker: pitch curves ah that it all changed, the way you would synthesize an instrument all changed. So it was like familiar familiar landscape, but was, yeah, quite lost.
Speaker: and i was like, you know what, I'm just going to spend 12 weeks back in LSDG. Re-learning.
Speaker: Re-learning.
Speaker: because as you may have heard ah even seen Drew mention, one of the things he wants me to bring back is my my intros for weekly beats that I did 2012. Yes. 2022. 2022, did like twelve week intros
Speaker: so for eight quarter of the year had like a themed intro. Nice. One of them was counting down to my wedding.
Speaker: Yes. i I was listening to some stuff and I heard some intros and think there's one. There was an intro for the first track. of The first one. Yeah. Welcome back.
Speaker: Yeah. Track. Yeah. Yeah. because I told Drew that I'd do one I'd see how I I agree with Drew like more more should be done I really like those so yeah I've told him I'll bring them back just for him and if anyone has a problem blame Drew there's just um something commanding to me about ah an Australian accent in those intros you know i feel I feel like one of them, it was like just a pun on like an ad we had over here.
Speaker: so very local a local ad that no one else would know. Yeah. I mean, that that though they were fun, but obviously it's a um not another WAV file need to edit each week.
Speaker: Yeah. ah And getting into more of how you actually make music coming from someone that hadn't made any music before you kind of got into chip tune.
Speaker: I'm curious to know about like how you.
Speaker: built up the skills to do melody writing, because one thing that I noticed, at least in a lot of the songs from 2024 is compared to melodies that I write, which it's easy on the M8 to do some eight bar loops and then add some variation.
Speaker: But you seem to have a lot of really long melodies that go like you go on a journey. yeah like I really love how long and varied they are.
Speaker: So I think part of that is even even when I'm doing LSD track, I'll sort of some rough sequencing in FO.
Speaker: Sometimes it's easier just to to visualize it as this big like flowing river.
Speaker: you know as as you're sort of aware on doing stuff in like the inmate you're sort of only looking at small fragments of your your whole pattern.
Speaker: so so sometimes it's it's easier to sort of have it float out and in in a sequencer and then just translate it back over. ah sort of means yeah I'm doing twice as much work, but...
Speaker: it But does that get you out of that... more rigid looping structure and think a little bit more of like a cohesive composition?
Speaker: Yeah, I think because I'm sort of doing it outside of phrases and chains. I'm sort of not looking that 16 bar loop.
Speaker: not looking that like sixteen bar
Speaker: Yeah. It's easy to like.
Speaker: the m8 i find when i get to a certain point i need to listen to the song without looking at how it sequences yeah because you start to like see when the next loop is gonna switch over like all the different break points and visually it sort of shows you where the song is going but i want to be able to connect a little bit more with the end result where like, should i break things up or have something like flow through these like breaks that are in action naturally happening because just like the structure of how you put it together.
Speaker: Yeah. The other thing that I sort of find helps break it up is i mean it's definitely something you can do in the M8 as well.
Speaker: but Say you're doing a four bar loop I'll just throw in some two bar loops and sort of help it feel a little bit more organic.
Speaker: So you sort of have the melody flow on for an extra two bars it doesn't sort of fit back into that yeah like four four
Speaker: or 8-8, however you're sort of writing. How did you get to that point where you're like, hmm, sort of like staying in these 8-bar loops. I want things to like flow different.
Speaker: I think it was just sometimes I'd write a melody and I felt like it needed a note or two more really close that section. i was out that section yeah And then I was like, well, I don't want to write more because I feel like it should loop now.
Speaker: But... It needs just a little bit more. Yeah, just a little twinkle on the end that sort of makes it feel less robotic in a way.
Speaker: yeah Because like your melodies, they go in some... unpredictable directions which makes them sound and very interesting yeah i i i think the other part of that comes from i've never really bothered learning music theory so yeah a lot a lot of it just comes down to like what my brain feels is good yeah I mean, I could probably recite some music theory, but I've never used it to help me make anything or make anything better, I guess I'll say. like like Sometimes when I'm sequencing, I'll throw on a scale just as a reference, but...
Speaker: but Obviously, when you're doing analog music, like like on the Game Boy, like there's no real way to articulate like a pitch bend.
Speaker: a pitch bend's always going be like what it is. The same as a vibrato. h when when you're talking on the analog side, where it's not very...
Speaker: very programmed to be certain width. Yeah. You sort of just playing by your ear and like, which which of these settings sound good to me? Mm-hmm.
Speaker: And then on a more, I guess, I don't know theoretical level is the right way to say it, but thinking back to just your experience now that you've doing been doing weekly beats since like 2016, what are some things that you've gained out of doing it that maybe aren't related to music?
Speaker: Look, there's probably not a lot that I can think of, like other than you know, sort of gaining a mindset of like, like I can do this. Like if I put my mind to it, because obviously that that's, that's half the battle of weekly rates that I can do it.
Speaker: yeah It's just like finding a way to do it.
Speaker: cause I feel like if I'm thinking back 2018, uh, eighteen ah I feel like I was in Japan for three weeks.
Speaker: And obviously still... Just immersed in chip music. merged in chip music, but obviously I still had to submit my weekly beats. ah Right, yeah.
Speaker: So i was like, I'm on i'm on this holiday like halfway halfway around the world, and I'm like, all right, sorry, guys. i need to i need to get my weekly beats done. i i'll be with you in an hour or two.
Speaker: And I was sort of, yeah, you know, you sort of had to just be like,
Speaker: As much as I want to be you know outside exploring Tokyo, also need to my weekly beat. Got some things I need to do, and I'll be back to exploring Tokyo soon.
Speaker: Yeah, I mean, you know its I feel like I need to sort of transition that mindset into exercise and stuff like that.
Speaker: Yeah. Yeah, which I've I like I keep asking this question because I am still trying to figure this out myself of like, what is it about?
Speaker: Just the whole weekly beats structure that creates so much accountability. Like no one is yelling at me. Like, if I miss a week, no one's going to say anything bad about it.
Speaker: But there's still that just, like, social pressure of, like, I've committed to doing this challenge.
Speaker: Look, i but For me, I feel like it's a mixture of, you know, you've started this journey, you know, you don't want to let yourself down.
Speaker: But you also sort of know that you've got this like family of people around the world but want to listen to your next track. Yeah. you know Even on a week you know there's no comments on your track, like you know you know people listen to it.
Speaker: Right. Obviously, there's there's times you know I might be listening to weekly beats at work and it's really hard to... Can't comment, yeah. It's really hard to... you know
Speaker: open up the page and write a comment and you're like, oh, I need to write down a note to remember to comment on that track leader. Uh-huh. Been there. But yeah, I feel i feel like if because Weekly Beats is this is this family, like, you know, even if we don't all know each other by name, like, we're all in this same battle. Yeah.
Speaker: And you know just knowing that other people are going through the same thing you are.
Speaker: And I think there's something maybe a little bit more personal about like, you've got this community, but everyone is sharing something that they made that week.
Speaker: Yeah. so it feels like there's, there's like a little bit of you out there whenever you publish the song, but then you're also listening to everyone else's other little pieces of them in a way that feels like there's more connection there than, you know,
Speaker: ah having an accountability buddy for the gym or something. Yeah. Like, i I feel like, you know, coming off that, it's... If I'm talking about my music, I'm not usually being like, hey, go listen to my stuff on Weekly Beats.
Speaker: Yeah, yeah. Like, I feel like a lot of the stuff that I'm doing for Weekly Beats is for the Weekly Beats family. Like, it's also for me, yeah but
Speaker: It's like a lot of... um've just made a lot of good friends from the people that I've met through Weekly Beats. And there's a little bit of like... I have people that listen to my music.
Speaker: Yeah, I mean, obviously, that's all we really want to know as an artist, right? is like Something that we wrote...
Speaker: made someone feel something. Yeah. it Be it good or bad. but you probably notice with a lot of my weekly beat stuff, especially in the comments, I'll sort of put like a small snippet of how I felt for the week.
Speaker: Just my mindset. So it's it's also sort of like a diary in a way I can sort of be like, hey, I felt... I felt this emotion this week.
Speaker: yeah yeah it And then you listen to the track and you're like, i i can I can see where the two sort of come together. e you know, you felt anxious this week and there's lots of like suspense in this track.
Speaker: Yeah. That's cool to be able to translate those emotions into the track. A lot of the times when I try to do that, I feel like I'm like, I'm sad. i want to write a sad song and I ended up writing a happy one maybe to cope.
Speaker: Yeah. I mean, I mean, that does happen as well. Yeah.
Speaker: But it's nice to have people listening to your stuff and be able to return the favor and you know try to listen to as many songs as you can every week and comment when you can when when it's possible to. you know i guess I guess the other the other thing that ah I know some of the other ah Australians i have mentioned is obviously the deadline for us is a bit weird. sorry Because a of the time zones, for Melbourne anyway, it's usually
Speaker: On Monday, right? On Monday. so realistically, we're submitting it like say between 8 and 10pm on Sunday. Because obviously you go to bed, wake up, go to work.
Speaker: Yeah, you don't have time to post first thing in the morning.
Speaker: So yeah, usually it's a ah sunday night Sunday night battle if you haven't done something. Yeah, over here it's a Sunday morning battle.
Speaker: Yeah. Well, should we start listening to some music? Yeah, we can start listening to some music. All right. So we both put a pile of songs into ah Discord chat, and I'm making my picks here.
Speaker: think I'm going to start out with... Going back to 2018 and listen listening to your chiptune song, Gaijin Invasion. That's correct.
Speaker: That harkens back to your time in Tokyo, I imagine. it It does. Obviously, Gaijin's the word for foreigner in Japan. And I've been to Tokyo and been called that, so it's only right.
Speaker: All right, we're going to start out with Gaijin Invasion. Let's go. who boom
Speaker: boom Alright, that's a fun one. and Tell us about how this one came together. so so basically, the year prior, I went to Square Sounds Tokyo.
Speaker: got back, um my first my first track that I started writing was sort of upbeat. felt like a group of people sort of pushing through crowds.
Speaker: and So it just reminded me of that but recent trip to Japan. yeah I'm looking at the comments here. Let's see.
Speaker: Orange Drink said, perfect, I could hear some fun vocals over this. Nice track.
Speaker: So this this kind of gave you some feels from the trip? Yeah, it's definitely so some feels... And you make a lot of music over the off season typically?
Speaker: depends on Depends on how burnt out I am Yeah. um Sometimes I feel like after weekly beats, it's like hibernation and I just catch up to the video games and work on some tools for ah next year for weekly beats.
Speaker: Like have you made much music this year? oh I've probably done like four or five tracks. Cool. go on
Speaker: I've been quite busy with with a friend, one Hit Kill, working on a ah Game Boy demo for the Syntax Demo Party, which is a demo scene event here in Melbourne run by Ctricks and a few others.
Speaker: ah so And I'm unfamiliar. What is a demo scene? a demo scene is... It's a very broad statement.
Speaker: but i'm I'm naive on lots of chiptune and i Game Boy and game development stuff. So but basically a demo party would be...
Speaker: ah In its essence, a bunch of people that get together and try and push old hardware
Speaker: to do things that it was never intended to do. got it. So it'd be like having something that can only display four colors ah with programming tricks, display eight colors on the screen at the same time.
Speaker: got it. With like pile swapping and...
Speaker: I'm not so much into the the older, doing that the really old like stuff, but sort of in the semi-newer stuff from my time.
Speaker: Yeah, so what are you trying to do with the the Game Boy? like What are you setting up? so So we're just working on like a a visual demo, sort of pushing the Game boy as hard as we can
Speaker: Visually, not sound design stuff. There's a bit of sound design, but it' it's more like stuff on the screen. got it.
Speaker: Quite a few puns.
Speaker: And so what is the what's the mission for your your demo? like what How are you trying to push it? For us, it's partly learning software that we're but we working with um just seeing what we can, like cool visual stuff that we can get the Game to do without you know freaking out.
Speaker: Yeah. Yeah. Cool. I mean, do you share this presentation anywhere? like Can we watch it? so So after the after the event, like all the all the files, I guess the Game ROM file will be available.
Speaker: i can post it in the Discord or after the event. Cool. I mean, I would like a video because i don't have a Game Boy. Yeah. You better run in internet like an emulator.
Speaker: okay. Cool. See how naive I am?
Speaker: That's all right. All right. We're going to keep it rolling, and think we'll continue the year journey, and this is 2020, and this is Adventure Only Just Begun.
Speaker: our adventure has only just begun
Speaker: so
Speaker: All right, and this one again, from 2020, you said this is one that you had kind of forgotten about. Yeah, I guess, you know, with a writing 52 tracks for five years. Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.
Speaker: It's easy to lose few. And then are only spending a week on them, and then they're sort of archived away.
Speaker: yeah But this one is a celebration of ah one year with your partner. Yep. So now my wife. So everything well. ah Great.
Speaker: Yeah. I'm sort of... In anticipation to the, you know, getting together with you. i was like, I should take a skim back through yeah through my tracks. And yeah, there was quite a lot that I'm like, oh, this is this is this is really good.
Speaker: I don't remember writing this.
Speaker: That's great. I love when you find... i mean, even just from last year, i go back and listen to some stuff I'm like, oh yeah, i forgot about that one. like and Once I listened to it, I remember that week, but I completely forgot about that song.
Speaker: Well, I guess and in this case, you know we we're talking... was week something. years ago. so you know we're talking talking like five years ago yeah and still deep in a pandemic yeah like it was quite possibly even a track that I wrote in like an afternoon so it's like one and done yeah I just for the life of me couldn't even remember writing it and I was like oh but I mean it does it sounds like I can feel the feel that i was I was trying to get with this track yeah
Speaker: It is a very like touching tribute kind of song. Yeah. And again, the your your melodies really stand out in your songs.
Speaker: Thank you.
Speaker: Anything else on that one?
Speaker: i i guess it's hard to talk about something that I sort of forgot about. Yeah. yeah ah other than you know finding this lost gem within my my archive weekly beat music well we'll we'll move 2024 now the last song because I wanted to play this one where you you know pushed your limits and sang on this yeah so let's listen to it
Speaker: 52 weeks, yeah we ran this race. Weekly beats, now we fade to grey. A year in the mirror, can't erase the feels. Catch you on Discord, let's make new ordeals.
Speaker: Started in January, just a vibe Kicking beats weekly kept the dream alive From lo-fi loops to hyper-pop scream 52 weeks, yeah we lived the dream Final upload, here's the swan song My ugly duckling, now we're where we belong Temple slows down, but the spirit stays strong Hit pause on the beat, let the moment shine 52 weeks 52 beats, we made a year of fire, now it's bittersweet Catch you in 2026, let's collide again On Discord, hit me up, let's transcend 52 weeks, rode that wave Every note we dropped, every sound we gave Catch you in 2026, till then goodbye But the rhythm lives on in the sky
Speaker: Night drive, headphones on repeat Every track we made felt so incomplete Chiptune vibes, 8-bit dreams collide Pixelated rhythm kept the nights alive 808's rattling synths so bright This was a year, every week was a fight But all good things gotta find their end 52 chapters, now we ascend Message me later, don't let this fade
Speaker: Catch me on Discord, we've got tracks to trade Streaming in the ether, our beats remain Echoes of the past in every refrain Came together, now we pop waves We'll sync up again on brighter days 52 weeks, 52 beats We made a year fire, now it's bittersweet Catch you in 2026, let's glide again On Discord, hit me up, let's transcend 52 weeks rode that wave Every note we dropped, every sound we gave Catch you in 2026, till then goodbye But the rhythm lives on in the sky
Speaker: One last upload, one last sound. 52 our legacy's found. Years in the book, but we'll never quit. Catch you in 2026, let's make more hits.
Speaker: 52 weeks, we rode that wave Every note we dropped, every sound we gave Catch you in 2026, till then goodbye But the rhythm lives on in the sky 52 weeks, 52 beats We made year of fire, now it's bittersweet Catch you in 2026, let's make more hits
Speaker: But the rhythm lives on in the sky. All
Speaker: right, I think that is a great singing ah end to 2024. And there are lots of lyrics on this one.
Speaker: And from my perspective, not being a poetry writer and trying to get into... writing some songs with singing.
Speaker: Well done. Thank you. Yeah, this this one this one was fun. i mean, musically, i think it was ah bit lacking, but obviously a lot of my focus was i need to i need to get this one track for the year done that I try and, you know, belt my soul out.
Speaker: e And, you know, I tried to, you know, not just encapsulate my feelings of doing weekly beats, like everyone's feelings.
Speaker: it's It's a journey and, you know, we're all taking the same journey separately. you know, in a way, we're all cheering each other on. even if we're not listening to every track.
Speaker: It's like, you know, we we all want everyone to finish. And yeah, it was just me trying to embody that that feeling. Yeah.
Speaker: Which is like the perfect end to like, there's something special about the last song of the year. And this is a really great way to kind of sum up how like you said other people's experiences and yours doing weekly beats and like that range it commented on here yeah the lyric on discord hit me up let's transcend ah ah which is a great lyric yeah i i sort of wrote that lyric to be like hey you know weekly beats is done this year but you know
Speaker: Let's all just hang out at Discord. Yeah. No, I mean, it's a great tribute to a community that you've been a part of now for many years with lots of accomplishments. And like you said, you've built friendships from people you know across the world that you can you know come to the States or they can come to Australia and you can get together and hang out for the entire day like you've known each other in person for years.
Speaker: Yeah, it's it's it's very much like that. It's and it's just like this this weird bond that you get from completing a year of weekly beats. Sometimes you just need that that little thing to bond over and it's riding 52 tracks weeks.
Speaker: I mean, it's a, it's a hell of a thing to bond over and it, it grabbed me in one year. So, you know, I'm still pretty much noob at doing weekly beats compared to you and a lot of other people.
Speaker: But I mentioned this on discord one time that weekly beats and the discord and just the community has like, giving me like faith in the internet again.
Speaker: yeah Because I think before I got into Weekly Beats, I was like, that like people are just mean on the internet, and like it's a terrible place. But now I have a completely different perspective of like meeting and making friends from you know across the world, all doing this creative challenge.
Speaker: Yeah, I think... I think it's one of those things, like, when you you and you find, you know, the right watering hole on the internet yeah where where people conjure, like, that' that's all you really... yeah There are definitely, you know, lots of toxic water waves.
Speaker: Yes. But yeah, Weekly Beats is definitely one of those ones where, you know, there's there's lots of people that have... never really talked to other than the comment section button like all I feel is love yeah you know even even when it's criticism it's criticism from ah loving place 100% like i don't I've ever felt like insulted by like
Speaker: a comment being like, hey, I didn't i didn't like this. like Maybe you should have done this. ah like it It all feels like everything from Weekly Beats is just like from a place of love. Yeah, and I think there's something about, like you said, and everyone kind of going through the same thing.
Speaker: And you know that if you made a ah similar comment on someone else's track, it would be from a place of trying to help that person and help them make a better song or just like dropping ah trick that you learned or, you know, good intentions behind it, even if maybe you don't read them like that at first.
Speaker: Yeah, exactly. Like there's no ill will. No, i don't think I've ever come across like an ill willed comment on my adventure through the comment sections of tracks.
Speaker: Yeah. All right. Let's move on to one of my absolute favorites from 2024. This Dream.
Speaker: week forty three warped dream Here we go.
Speaker: All
Speaker: right, like I said, that is one of my absolute favorites. I just love that. i mean, it's a simple piano melody, but I ah really like the the places that it goes and kind of the, I guess the word is maybe some like dissonant directions at times.
Speaker: And I love the like subtle changes in the phrasing here and there. i don't know. I really, really love it.
Speaker: Yeah, so so i yeah I guess this one, like that the melody sort of comes back to you know some of like my LSDJ roots, where you can have you know three phrases be the same, and then you slightly alter the fourth. Mm-hmm.
Speaker: So you sort of have this... repetition that then slightly variates at the end and goes up and down and sort of it gives you that flowing yeah like a flowing melody that sort of feels like it's all over the place but at the same time like centered I would say is it takes you places You've got those like familiar sections that you can like anchor with, and then like it takes you in different different directions.
Speaker: Yeah. yeah i can i can I can see this one was sort of me trying to articulate the way I felt when I woke up one day.
Speaker: so sort of that that dreamy... like that dreamy, like floaty vibe. Yeah. And criminal that there's no comments on here.
Speaker: umcom Look, I definitely don't take any offense if there's no comments. I'm like, there's so many tracks getting released that there's definitely gems hidden away.
Speaker: jim' hidden away Oh, yeah. And I mean, that was the whole point of doing this podcast thing this year is like, I know there's gems out there that maybe I've heard, but that other people need to hear.
Speaker: Yeah. And I would say this is one of those where it's like, man, if you haven't heard Catching Ash's Warped Dream, here you then here you go Yeah. So, all right, we're going move on to my next favorite, which is from week nine, 2024. Swaying the drums.
Speaker: swaying to the drum
Speaker: All right, I guess I gravitated towards some minimal songs, but the the drums on this just really stuck out to me. Like, deep bass.
Speaker: It's simple, but it's got such a great groove to it. And I went back and listened to it several times while I was picking songs. Yeah, this this one's another one of those tracks that I sort of don't don't have a ah great memory of writing. yeah,
Speaker: but yeah I'm pretty sure it was some new drum drum samples I got my hands that I purchased. And i think it was some wood instruments for for like Oh yeah, I thought it was like a pluck, but it's it's out now it's like a little woodblock almost.
Speaker: Yeah, I think it was a woodblock instrument.
Speaker: From memory. yeah sometimes I like pairing things that don't normally go together. Like heavy drums. Excellent arrangement.
Speaker: Like xylophone or something. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker: All right. I think we're, I'm going to play one extra one today. So normally we would play out the end of the episode, but going to play one from week 11, 2024 called do do to do
Speaker: yeah
Speaker: I think I was drawn to this one because of that like unique doot doot sound that I'm not sure if it's your voice or what you use for that sound.
Speaker: So so from from memory, it was like a choir, like a synth. but I just ah sort of stumbled across it and...
Speaker: just resonated in a weird way. And I was like, I'll see you where this goes. And then when when it came to naming the track, I was like, Oh, what do I call this?
Speaker: And I was like, du to do do And i was like, yep, but that sounds good.
Speaker: ah No, it's super unique. And again, great melodies. Just really ah dig the the vibe of this one. I'm going back to look at your comments on this.
Speaker: Oh yeah, you said it's a vocal synth as a pad. And Kedbrake said, well, I never thought of using a vocal synth, but now you're tempting me. That makes a fun effect. Now it's stuck in my head. It's true. It does get stuck in your head.
Speaker: Yeah, it was it was definitely one of those ones where I was writing it. i was like, oh, that's that's really catchy. and then I'm just like, try not to overuse it.
Speaker: But I mean, i there's several other songs that I definitely think people should go back and listen to like late night vibes from 2024. Um, the first song the welcome back,
Speaker: ah with your what I like to call like, um you know, motivational weekly beats speaker guy. and ah yeah, the last one I'm going to play to play out the episode is going to be that ah synthetic Requiem.
Speaker: But before we do that, I just want to Thank you for being on and want to hear if you've got any advice for either people that might get ahold of this episode that are thinking about doing weekly beats next year or advice to newbies like me that have only done it for one year. So my my advice would be
Speaker: take it seriously enough that you're passionate about it. But at the same time, you know, if you miss a week, like it's, it's completely fine. like as, as we've said, like no one's going to hunt you down.
Speaker: yeah We might, we might be, we ah might be sad that you missed a track. Yeah. Cause we wanted to listen. Like, like We're not going to like be upset.
Speaker: It's more, oh, so-and-so did upload this week. i was looking forward to seeing what they did this week. Yeah. Rather than like, oh, they didn't release the track.
Speaker: We all would be more upset if you were like, I broke the streak. I should just quit because then that means we don't get to hear anything else for the rest of the year.
Speaker: Yeah, exactly. It's sort of like at the end of the day, like life happens. e know, some of us, you know, to have things that happen during the week that you know, either you're not mentally able to to come up with something or, you know, have children like come first.
Speaker: Like, we've we've all our own things in life that, you know, try to prevent us from doing the things we want to do. and but that's okay. it's...
Speaker: like you know as As my motto for Catching Ashes, you know just because you've been knocked down doesn't mean you can't get back up. yeah Yeah, I think that's really great advice.
Speaker: And maybe you can reinforce some of those ideas next year with some intros.
Speaker: I've already committed Drew that there's going to be intros. So, as I said apology to everyone else that don't like them. No, I think they're great. They are fun.
Speaker: And they they do sort of
Speaker: easily identify my tracks when they just randomly come up.
Speaker: Yeah. Well, cool. ah Thanks again for being on and thanks everyone out there for continuing to listen and ah yeah anything else you want to leave with?
Speaker: Other than, you know, thanks for having me on. Like, it feels reassuring and motivating so you know, be able talk about my music and in a way that I haven't done before.
Speaker: yeah You know, it's it's like, obviously, I recently i released my first album
Speaker: And it's sort of... Yeah, it was a chip album of the stuff that I've done over the last 12 years. ah wow. Okay. So ah large album.
Speaker: I think it was about nine nine tracks that I sort windled it down to. hits. Like the ones that I sort of come back to all the time yeah when I perform.
Speaker: But yeah, it's sort of...
Speaker: Even though this is being off year. Where people listen to this? It's on Bandcamp. ah Catching Ashes on Bandcamp? Catching Ashes on Bandcamp. Cool.
Speaker: Press start to continue.
Speaker: i linked it in the Discord while When the podcast episode goes up, I'll post it in there again so it's easy easy to find.
Speaker: And I'll add it to the description when I post the episode. So if people aren't on Discord, and which they should be, they can still find it.
Speaker: So yeah. Well, ah we're going to close it out with
Speaker: Synthetic Requiem. And I'll talk to you all next week. Have a good one.
Speaker: What a jam that one is. And this is post-production SQF bringing you one more from 2024 Week 30 Late Night Vibes.
Speaker: what a jam that one is and this is post-production sqf bringing you one more from twenty twenty four week thirty late night vibe
Speaker: you
