Music
Music has always been a big part of my life ever since I was born. At a young age I was exposed to a wide variety of music due to my father being in a band. I drew most of my musical influence from him but soon ran off to develop my own taste. 7 years I discovered my first electronic record "Discovery" by Daft Punk. Directly after the discovery of Daft Punk I then found Skrillex's first EP, "My Name Is Skrillex". At first I didn't enjoy the music but I respected it because how it was made was such a mystery to me. I started to research how to create electronic music and began producing on a Dell Netbook using FL Studio. Over time I taught myself how to use Ableton Live and have taken many classes on the operation, and mastering of Pro Tools.
At the Jacobs School of Music, we are given many opportunities to mix music in the studio, and live. Throughout our four years, we are required to take part in something we call Audio Technical Crew. This is where small groups of us mic up, and record ensembles such as orchestras, operas, jazz combos, and other performances/recitals. This gives us ample experience with mixing live, but forces us to get familiar with recording genres outside of our regular comfort zone.
In class, we have many individual, and group sessions where we bring in bands of our choice into the studio to work on our session workflow, and recording techniques. The program is designed to teach us the fundamentals of audio engineering in our first years, and then moves on to providing plentiful recording, and studio experience.
At the Jacobs School of Music, we are given many opportunities to mix music in the studio, and live. Throughout our four years, we are required to take part in something we call Audio Technical Crew. This is where small groups of us mic up, and record ensembles such as orchestras, operas, jazz combos, and other performances/recitals. This gives us ample experience with mixing live, but forces us to get familiar with recording genres outside of our regular comfort zone.
In class, we have many individual, and group sessions where we bring in bands of our choice into the studio to work on our session workflow, and recording techniques. The program is designed to teach us the fundamentals of audio engineering in our first years, and then moves on to providing plentiful recording, and studio experience.
SOLO PROJECT Most of my music career has been creating electronic music by myself. I often enjoy experimenting with different sub-genres of electronic music as well as completely different genres and styles. Aside from the production, I often book shows and events to play music live. Most of my musical influences come from those like Skrillex, The Beatles, Daft Punk, deadmau5, Twenty One Pilots, and Smashing Pumpkins. I strive to be my own and copy no one's style or their marketable "sound".
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HAVEN FIREEarly in my music career I began to work with a solo guitarist recording his own music. A year later I was asked to start a band with 5 other people called Haven Fire where we would go on to work with Jasen Rauch (RED and Breaking Benjamin) and Keith Wallen (Adelitas Way and Breaking Benjamin) on our debut EP, and perform alongside many well known artists.
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BLACK SKY HEROAfter the disbanding of Haven Fire, I was asked to continue working with the solo guitarist. This resulted in a band called Black Sky Hero. This doubled as a visual project (ex. The Gorillaz). With vocalist Jose Urquiza from 3 Years Hollow, I co-produced and co-wrote each song on the album. Due to scheduling conflicts the album is still a work in progress. After I was accepted into the Jacobs School of Music, I resigned from the band and decided to pursue my personal projects.
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SUB-PARI have always been a fan of punk-rock for as long as I can remember. It was such a raw form of writing and recording music. I wanted to take all of my past band experiences and start my own project. Only getting as far as demoing songs, I hope to complete a full CD under the name Sub-Par.
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Sub-Par
Sub-Par is a punk rock project started by myself and two other of my friends. This project has been my most personal because it gave me a free outlet to vent about anything without having to keep to a certain style. Punk rock to us meant no rules so that is how we treated it when we wrote songs. The three of us would sit in a room with instruments and a keyboard to write music. We mixed the rawness of punk, the heaviness of post-hardcore and pop punk, with elements of electronic music to create our own sound. Once we had our sound established, song writing became easier.
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SOLO PROJECT
After purchasing my production setup, I first covered Madeon's Pop Culture performance using my Novation Launchpad and Ableton Live 8 Suite.
I attended my first music festival in 2014 when the rise of "festival trap" was happening. For 2 years this movement influenced my production of electronic music the most. Again for another competition I wanted to bring back the festival trap feel in my remix of "Alone" by Marshmello.
There came a time where the sub genres of electronic music became in-existent. I began to experiment now more than ever. I mixed trap with future bass, and electro for this remix.
With a new generation of rappers coming into the spotlight I discovered XXXTentacion. I was captivated by his original song but it was much too short. I took the song itself and sampled it to come up with a remixed full version of the song.
During the remix of XXXTentacion a patch in xFer's Serum caught my attention. I played a simple melody on my keyboard and saved the midi file to use later in another track. The next night I returned to the file and created this full length original track called "I Think I'm Dying". I was excited to experiment with this lo-fi sounding song made almost completely using a FM synthesis VST. The title's meaning was my own self problem that I was running outof creative ideas when it came to film and music.
With one of my good friends, we started the track RIOT. Both of us being metal fans but only one of us being an electronic music fan, we looked to our more heavy roots to create this track. It is our first published collaboration and directly reflects the way the public reacts to any controversy that arises her in the United States of America.
Track 01 was the first track I completed for a small EP I released myself called (AM)bience. I wanted to create this environment that told this dreamlike story throughout the 4 songs. Track 01 was simply the introductory of the story that started on a rainy day.
A synth-ey song with a light dream like feeling. I wrote this song before I was about to climb into bed for the night. This drowsy, and hazy feeling made it's way over into the song.
Featured in my short film edit "Vita". I composed this a few years ago imagining all of these scenes in movies that made the character feel this overwhelming sense of freedom and euphoria.
There was a realization within me that occurred after I made the track Riot. The realization was that I don't make music for other people, I make it for myself. By using various samples and processing them a number of different ways, I have one of my more experimental song, Mosaic.
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WIUX B-Side |
I always thought about starting my own radio show or podcast where I could expose new music to my audience. In Ableton Live and Serato DJ I began to start piecing together shows and DJ mixes for a website called Mixcloud. With surprisingly good feedback from people on social media I kept it going as a bi-weekly program for a couple of months.
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During my time at IU, I took this idea of doing a radio show and made it a reality. Thus, Electron Flow was born. It was a show that took place during my sophomore year that focused on introducing my listeners to some of my favorite soft, and relaxing electronic tunes out at that moment. It was housed through WIUX (an IU student radio station) on the B-Side (the internet based station free of regular broadcasting restrictions).
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HAVEN FIRE
The idea for Haven Fire began when I started working with a guitarist named Kyle Chambers. We would get together once a month and write 4 to 5 songs in a weekend. Rather than have the songs sit around we decided to take it to the next level and form a band to play these songs live. Kyle then recruited the help of bassist Gerard Lynch, guitarist RL Watters, drummer Jimi Wilkins, and lastly our vocalist Tjay Tipps.
Our demos were sent to Gerard where he then went to find a suitable studio for us to complete the EP and later start an album. Jasen Rauch who was a Grammy nominated writer and producer was a friend of Gerard. He agreed to house us and help us work on the EP with his new bandmate Keith Wallen. After a week of recording and around a month or two of mixing, the tracks were sent off to a mastering company for their last step before they were published.
Our demos were sent to Gerard where he then went to find a suitable studio for us to complete the EP and later start an album. Jasen Rauch who was a Grammy nominated writer and producer was a friend of Gerard. He agreed to house us and help us work on the EP with his new bandmate Keith Wallen. After a week of recording and around a month or two of mixing, the tracks were sent off to a mastering company for their last step before they were published.
Our first single off of the EP was "Best of Me". It's the only song to have a video made for it's release. When people heard of Haven Fire the first thing they would relate to us was this single.
"Faithless" was the second song off of the EP and was picked up by the YouTube channel spaceuntravel.
"Light of Day" was the third song and second single off of the EP. The release of this single came after the EP to promote an album that was in the making but we disbanded before the release.
"Collide" is the fourth and final song off of our self-titled EP and my personal favorite. The song had such a different color compared to the rest of the EP. It was the final component or as some would say the cherry on top to end the debut record.
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TouringIn Haven Fire I had the opportunity to open and play alongside bands that I never would have dreamed of. These bands included Hollywood Undead, Red Jumpsuit Apparatus, Flyleaf, Framing Hanley, and more.
At such a young age being able to go out on the road and experience the tour lifestyle, it gave me an insight to how I wanted to spend my life. Making music and performing it for the people who loved it is a part of my life I wish to keep. |
Black Sky Hero
Once Haven Fire disbanded, our dream to make music went on. Kyle asked me if I would still like to do something with all of this music we had written but never got the opportunity to do anything with. Originally, we were going to record an entire album ourselves and release it for charity. Our project was picked up by the lead singer of 3 Years Hollow, Jose Urquiza. With Kyle and I both having interests outside of music as well, we came up with the idea to make it a visual/story-telling project as well. The name Black Sky Hero was thrown around to promote the idea that even in the darkest times that people could still have a bit of hope.
With a set 12 songs, the two of us traveled to Illinois to begin recording them with Jose at The Attic recording studios.
After we began to record the songs, we needed to build the rest of the project. We used our resources and connections to build a visual story telling environment around the music and name. Using Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Premiere Pro primarily, we had our first concept media samples.
The plan for Black Sky Hero was to release an album as well as a set of comic books and short videos on YouTube.
With a set 12 songs, the two of us traveled to Illinois to begin recording them with Jose at The Attic recording studios.
After we began to record the songs, we needed to build the rest of the project. We used our resources and connections to build a visual story telling environment around the music and name. Using Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Premiere Pro primarily, we had our first concept media samples.
The plan for Black Sky Hero was to release an album as well as a set of comic books and short videos on YouTube.