I Love Music

The traditional release format of music has, for me, become constraining. That format is how I came to understand music since I first remember interacting with it: Christmas of 1994 with my family on a Greyhound bus from Rhode Island to Houston, Texas. I've heard music before that time as my father was a musician and DJ. I heard music on the radio, in films, and on television in commercials and advertisements, but that day on the bus when my father placed his headphones over my head onto my ears, pressed play on his cassette tape player - the music I heard, I saw instantly. There was no video, but the words and the sounds elicited such a vivid picture that when I hear those songs today the memory of the bus, seated beside my father, being introduced to his personal mix remains with me. I recall various cassette tapes of my father's with scribbles of dates and titles, but I didn't understand that until I began collecting music on my own.

Developing a Taste

In middle school, my best friend and next-door neighbor, exposed me to the songs of Eminem, Xzibit and Dr. Dre. A close family friend earned a set of Technics 1200 turntables and I spent every Saturday at his home playing with his equipment learning firsthand what this music was by pulling the vinyl out of their respective sleeves and placing them onto the turntable. This was how I came to know music, both in its sound and in the packaging. I found a record store in the shopping plaza that my parents did their grocery shopping in. I noticed the shop every Saturday morning and at one point asked my parents if I could visit inside. From that day, I shopped at that record store until I left Rhode Island.

When I went to buy records, the popular ones, the ones that were in demand were already sold out, held for the professional radio djs or those who were apart of record clubs, a subscription model where the members gained first dibs to a certain pool of label releases. Some songs I knew, but most I didn’t. I based my judgment on how the song made me feel when I listened to them at the listening booth. I made a note of the producers and songwriters involved. I used the record’s sleeve and jacket artwork as an indicator of the album’s quality. I began to associate the branding of record companies on album sleeves with the sound of music that would come from them. I was really into it. Atlantic Records had beautiful record sleeves. Def Jam used a burgundy color way on their record sleeves; their R&B and Soul division using silver. Some successful artists had special vinyl color way and I would purchase those.

Establishing the World

In the journey of playing music, eventually performing and releasing my own bodies of work, I sought to follow the same structure I was informed by: packaging, marketing, branding. Those times were very fun. I got to sort of take a snapshot of a moment in time and wrap it around something. Traditional marketing was never my thing. It felt performative. I figured that the journey of creating the music was sufficient marketing itself and if the viewer had access, whether or not they knew who I was, they would be compelled to explore because they weren’t being sold a product. They were allowed a view in and they could make their choice freely.

I think I've made a dozen albums since the start of my first official release in 2012. I've always tended to stray towards a succinct amount of songs naturally, as I felt that the quality of the work stood on its own. I didn't have the budget of a major artist, but I did have a deep love for what I did, and wanted to find as many ways to express my vision. That visual epiphany that occurred on the bus during my Christmas holiday, I wanted that feeling in everything I did.

I structured my albums with particular rollouts: if there wasn't an experience tied to it, there was a physical product, whether a CD or vinyl. It had to be an opportunity to interact with the real thing. To enact all 5 senses. Like Disneyland, you can watch the movies and go to meet the characters of that film directly. To me, that was the necessary aspect of establishing the world.

Engagement

There has been a lingering feeling that culminated around the release of TM2 in 2025. The desire to release albums had changed to some degree. I must include that the world had also changed: CDs were not of importance as they once were. The digital landscape was booming and for a small window of time it served my work well but overtime my work has become compressed to accommodate the growing number of participants. It wasn't a feeling towards anyone coming into the fray but a recognition that the platforms that I believed suited my work best were degrading it with each upload. I do not mean in terms of audio quality: it is the platform that determines where my music is placed on its playlist. It is the platform that determines who hears the music.

It is like posting a photo on Instagram today and believing that those who follow you will automatically see it. That is a flaw in logic. That may have been the strategy for the company in 2012,13 and 14 but after 2020 it was no longer about a follow-follower ratio. It was about discovery. It was about advertising. It was about branding. It was about making the platform a faster, quicker, frictionless experience. It is designed to keep the user scrolling, scrolling and scrolling. Mindless scrolling. There is no such thing as a “like” because it assumes all users view the content in the same state of mind. If the platform itself is designed for low frequency engagement, one would conclude that there's very little engagement, even with something that is “engaged” with.

I've lost interest in creating a snapshot of the time. To create a snapshot means that I must create a start and a finish. That means I have to cut a seam in something that is naturally unending. It's like cutting out a piece of drywall right after it's been painted. If one sees, it requires no explanation.

There was a hunger to return to making something without having to explain it. Without debating a title, without considering the album artwork and without trying to cut something from a living stream to bottle. I wanted to get back to the music. All I knew was album covers, album artwork and branding. It was exciting to follow in the footsteps of those inspirations. There is so much that I want to do that I am unable to access because of the need to explain. There isn't an outright explanation of the work that I do, but in some way, to some degree, it has been playing to the crowd. At this juncture, for me, an album is playing to the crowd. My interests aren't there anymore.

When to Make An Album

This upcoming body of work is a complete vision because it stands on its own. It is evidence of my existence over the course of three years. It is a film soundtracked with original music composed over the course of three years. The lack of a desire to go down the road that I had gone before with albums has revealed a new way. A "way" that wasn't a new method, but the direct thing. It was music and video. It wasn't a music video as there is no performance involved. It is my life.

The idea of an album works when you are looking to package a product and allow it to be digestible because you're giving some form of context to the work at hand. There is a step for someone to enter. I no longer have the interest in being understood. That is entirely personal. It isn't wrong of the audience and it isn't wrong on my part. I love music and I don't want to take time from that which I could spend more time in by trying to explain it.

It is there. You may listen if you wish. You may watch if you wish. If you need me to explain it, I can no longer do that. You are free to interpret it as you wish, listen to it as you wish, engage with it as you wish, share it as you wish. It is free.