My music has never really been commercially geared. Instrumentals rarely are. I’ve always done this mostly for myself because I simply enjoy writing and recording music. Still, there is something satisfying about finally releasing songs into the world instead of letting them live forever on hard drives.
I’ve been writing and recording music since the early 80s when I accidentally discovered that you could jam the switch on a dual cassette deck and turn it into a crude 2-track recorder. Along with an equally cheap Casio keyboard and Hondo II guitar, that became my first “studio.” The recordings were tinny, noisy, and completely primitive, but it opened the door to the idea that you could build songs layer by layer at home.
That eventually led to the next home studio with lifelong chum Shawn Beckman. We had a Tascam Portastudio 4-track machine along with compressors, limiters, noise gates, and all the things that seemed like they should magically make recordings sound professional. But the truth was that I didn’t yet have the patience, experience, or resources to really understand how to use any of it properly. Those songs are nostalgic to hear now, but most of them were never truly finished.
Later, while building a career in web development and programming, I released a collection of instrumental music under the name Departure From Normal using Cakewalk Sonar, a Roland synth module, and some outboard gear. It was a big creative effort, but the production quality never quite held up over time.
Recently, I’ve been taking a much more serious approach to learning modern production and mixing techniques in Logic Pro. Instead of simply capturing ideas, I’ve been trying to better understand arrangement, dynamics, space, tone, and how to make recordings feel more complete and intentional. In some ways, I’ve started approaching it more like programming, developing a repeatable process involving gain staging, top-down mixing, referencing, and mastering.
“Blue Norther” is the first release from this newer chapter.
I’ve spent most of my musical life working in a vacuum, but I’d really love to find other musicians, writers, producers, or creative people to collaborate with online.
For now, though, I’m just happy to finally be releasing music again, with more already in progress.
