Back in 2010, I joined a month-long music challenge: to produce and record an album within the 28 days of February. The result was my third full-length album, Experimentum Crucis, which I am mighty proud of. I’ve decided to join the fray again this year and align myself with other crazed musicians squeezing their creativity out in a month of quick decisions and quick edits that we call the RPM Challenge 2013.
Blog
Album: Quattuor In Pavimentum (2012)
6 house tracks, w/ string melodies, ethnic vocal chants, robotic voices, & the electro boogaloo. Dance music for flying monkeys.
Creativity Lessons from a Nine-Year Old Boy and His Cardboard Arcade
Nine-year old Caine Monroy built an entire game arcade out of cardboard boxes, tape, brown paper bags, calculators and string — because he wanted to own and manage his very own arcade. And that goal pushed him toward a creative endeavour that fulfilled his artistic need.
Organizing Audio Files, Filenames and Templates
Booting up your computer and then starting up your recording software already takes time away from that idea you had for a killer tune. To make your songwriting and production process more efficient, you need to move away from choosing your instrument patches, effects settings, and mixer setups every time you boot your DAW. Here are three tips that might just allow the creativity to flow.
Setting Poetry to Electronic Music: Collaborating with Syke
The title of the poem is Pag-ibig Na Makapangyarihan, which literally translates to “Love So Powerful.” This was a spoken word piece originally performed and written by Filipino hiphop emcee and poet Syke Dolero, known for his machine-gun flow. I ended up composing some jazzy world music around his poetry.
A Season of Protest
This March is #BLACKMARCH. Join others who will STOP buying products from big media and instead, will purchase from independent producers, from netlabels offering creative commons music, from websites with open source materials, from the artists themselves.
Concept for a Prime Fallacy Cha Cha Video
I started composing this track in 2006 and put it together in its final sequence in 2010 for my Experimentum Crucis album. Then, sometime in November 2011 I happened to ask a friend if he wanted to collaborate on a music video for it using his photography skills and a day or two of shooting cityscapes. This was the concept I e-mailed to him.
Songwriting Tips from 3 Influential New Wave Tracks
These three New Wave/New Romantic tracks from the 1980s influenced me and inspired me to create electronic music. While there are many more obvious choices I could have included (Depeche Mode, New Order, and Tears for Fears), these songs embody everything about electronica that appeals to me, even if the tracks themselves aren’t electronic.
2 Creative Tips: Capture All, Delete Nothing
There are two maxims I live by in creating music and ensuring there is a constant flow of ideas in my creative process: Capture All and Delete Nothing. A comprehensive explanation follows on my process.
Video for Emorej’s “Stars (Acid42 WorldMix)” and Pray for His Recovery
Emorej (aka Jerome Llama) took my lyrics and set it to a beautiful melody. I then took the vocal track and constructed a mournful worldbeat track with a little drum-n-bass in the chorus. This worldbeat/ethnotronica remix was produced using Acid Pro and some VSTi’s. I posted the track back in 2009. As I recall, Emorej loved it.