Let's Love Music More
"Where words fail, music speaks" - Hans Christian Andersen
But sometimes you need words where music fails…
Our 125th Episode of the Pod (and a New LP!)
The team and I have been keeping busy with both words and music. We just hit the 125th episode of the Love Music More podcast. And my LP, “I,” just dropped today. But as I’ve been doing my solo podcast episodes, I realized a piece was missing. And I think this Substack is that piece.
In other words, sometimes you need the written word where the spoken word fails.
Social Media Is Antisocial
It’s getting increasingly difficult to reach “followers.” I have subscribed to or followed hundreds of accounts that I never see. Those ghostly artists are making great works, but are getting buried in the noise of algorithmic feeds, recommendation engines, and social media’s primary darling: ads.
One dude (Cory Doctorow) even a coined word for it: enshittification.
I think an email newsletter/blog engages in a meaningful way and gives some new options like embedding random videos, memes, and musical notation. So I’m going to spend more time here instead of on traditional social media.
Not a ‘Doomscroll.’ Let’s make a ‘Joyscroll.’
As I’ve done pods on more esoteric audio concepts like formant shifting:
Or musical notation:
I’ve realized that a written companion would make these explanations so much easier, and give an alternative for those that might not have time to listen to everything.
It can be something positive to read on your phone while horizontal in the morning.
So here’s my plan:
Free tier (podcast show notes, musings on music, helpful links, and articles)
Paid tier (deep dives into techniques to grow as a creative, along with an ongoing music-theory series to help you improve as a composer and improviser)
The free will always be worthwhile. I won’t enshittify this blog.
About My New Album!
The biggest bit of news to share is about the new record! Woohoo!
“I” is the second part of a four-album series: MÖBIUS. The first LP, "MÖB,” dropped on October 20, 2023. “US” will come out sometime next year. And the final effort “MÖBIUS” will pull the whole thing together in 2026, like a recursive mobius strip.
I think making a super-album (aka a meta-album) is my way of reacting to our current culture of single supremacy.
In the streaming era, pop songs are about as short as they’ve ever been.
In 1930, it was a lot more expensive to record music, creating a disincentive for long songs.
Today, there’s an incentive for short songs. Artists make the same amount from a thirty-second song as a four-minute song due to streaming. (Source: My lil bank account.)
Luckily, I like short songs. They’re super fun to make, super fun to listen to. But I also love and appreciate long works. There’s a reason why LPs and symphonies stand the test of time.
So, I tried to do both at the same time. Metamodern, bb.
Where to Listen
Spotify is cool! Downloading high-res WAV files from Bandcamp is elite!
In terms of physical space and mindset: I intended this album to be a soundtrack for travel, mostly by coastal train or driving in a car (or being driven by a robot car?). I bought a little side monitor on Black Friday for my laptop, so I could watch train cab-view videos while arranging and recording. (I wrote "time with u" after being inundated by Black Friday ads after making that purchase.)
Calling the LP “I” felt like it had to be personal, so I dug into doubt, self-destruction, elation, hope, loss, excitement, discovery, the natural world, and shamanistic voyages. I wrote these songs over about eight months, starting in the Grand Tetons, then to the Sierra Nevada mountains and up the face of Mount Whitney. A lot of songs didn’t make it to the record, but they were important cairns along the way. On these long, grueling hikes, I mumbled into voice notes and captured little glimpses of lyrics.
Thank You’s!
Thank you to my incredible team at the Beformer record label (yah, that’s you Sam, Marco, and Max!). And to the world’s best illustrator and designer (and drinker of the finest stouts), Grizzard Graphics. To the visionary mastering engineer, Riley Knapp (whole album). Background vocals (tracks 3, 4, 6, 10, 11, 13) from one of my favorite singers in history, Lou Roy. Bass clarinet (tracks 4, 10, 12, 13) by an intimidatingly great and heartwarmingly humble musician Nicole McCabe. And on bass (tracks 5, 12, 13), Bubby Lewis, a fellow Japanophile and one of the best bassists in the world.
The rest was played, recorded, etc. by me. You can check out the full liner notes if you’d like!
Until Next Time
Thanks for joyscrolling. The next piece will be a companion to next week’s solo pod.
-Scoob
In case you’d like to learn more about the author of that famous quote that leads off the email, here’s a video on Hans: