Behind the Scenes: Augmented Worlds- Volume 1
Welcome to another new series!
To welcome the arrival of my next EP, TRVLS, I wanted to take the time to revisit my first album, and do a track by track commentary. My debut album is titled Augmented Worlds, and it is an album I am very proud of. Some of the songs on the album were years old at the time of release (May 2017), and some were brand new and fresh. Each song is very unique, from the style of music, to how it was crafted, and who collaborated on it. I've never given an explanation on the process behind each song, and thought this would be a wonderful opportunity to do so! I hope you enjoy this series, and see these songs under a new light!
Track 1- C. Evil Disobedience
For the opening track, the song starts off with some retro sounding synth, courtesy of my go to analogue synth the Korg Minilogue, combined with an audio sample of a speech on civil disobedience from the great Martin Luther King, Jr. As far as the philosophy behind civil disobedience, I made a blog post about that topic Here back on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. I won't go into the philosophy behind the song, as you can read my blog if interested. All of the percussion on my songs is created by me, and I stay away from using drum loops or loops in general that I didn't create. There is a turning point in this song, about midway through, where the synth drops off, and you can hear a bass riff happening. I recorded the bass myself with my own custom bass guitar, as well as the guitar riff you hear come in shortly after! I wanted the song to change vibes after the speech concludes, allowing the message to have more of an effect on the listener.
Track 2- Passion & Patience (feat. Stoney Bertz)
One of my favorite tracks! Mostly because I admire the talent and artistry of Stoney Bertz so much. Stones is a community activist and leader, and I was so honored to have some bars from this exceptional artist! Stoney is one of the best emcees in the city of Colorado Springs, CO (as are all artists on this album!), and the verses contributed are top notch. If you want to check out more solo work from Stoney Bertz, here is the Link. I have contributed a couple beats on Stone's newest EP Col(ours) as well! As far as the song goes, this is the first song I have released that features my acoustic guitar. I also played the bassline again on this track, and one less known aspect of the song is that there is some synth work compliments of Steemit user/artist/friend @elimence. At the end of the song there is a change up, and you hear more synth come in (played by myself) and layer with the first synth you hear on the song.
Passion & Patience feat. Stoney Bertz
Track 3- Universal Discovery (feat. Andy Renz)
This song is one of the crowd favorites off the album. The awesomely beautiful vocals you hear come from my girlfriend at the time, Andy Renz, from Mexico. She was living in Colorado at the time, and we did all recording at my house. I also did all mixing and mastering on the album! For this song, I was the writer of the lyrics, and the song is about my overall philosophy of life. It can be summed up as follows: we are all the universe experiencing itself an infinite amount of times, enhancing it's self awareness. Musically, this is one of the songs that received some major co-production work from an old partner of mine, Justin Macasero. He is an amazing musician, audio engineer, and taught me a lot about production and mixing! This is probably the song that received the most contributions from Justin, and it's got some major jazzy vibes!
Universal Discovery feat. Andy Renz
Track 4- Impermanence
This song is one of my old favorites, as it was perhaps about a year old when released on the album. This is a song I have played literally every time I have done a live performance as Falseyedols. This was a good 50/50 split of being co-written by Justin and I. I'll never forget how this song came together! We were just jamming on our guitars together, I came up with the opening riff you hear on the song, and in about 30 minutes, we had each written another part for the song and had it all arranged! It took a few months after that to get the song where you hear it today. A couple other fun facts: The song received a cool music video (I'll share here down the road), with visuals provided by another ex girlfriend of mine from Mexico (ironic how they had songs next to each other!). I also sampled her voice on the transition/drop. Both women are still friends of mine, and we communicate from time to time. I plan to work on more music with Andy down the road.
This album has spanned a lot of big moments and changes in my life, and I am happy to share this experience with you! I feel like doing increments of 3-4 songs each volume is a good amount, and I hope you enjoyed reading the stories behind the songs I have created!
Don't forget to check out the most recent posts I have published! I create all my own content, from the visuals to the music! I hope you like my blog space :)
If you like my content, you know what to do! Upvotes, resteems and follows are the best way for you to support fellow Steemians! Thank you to all who support me, and I'll see you next time! P.S. Here's another new GIF just because!!
Hi Vincent!
This is one of those posts which I'll be leaving open in Chrome so that I don't forget to give it better attention later. I'm looking forward to listening to each track and THEN only reading your commentary about each one. Expect a more in-depth comment later... =)
Nice to see a fellow fractalnaut here on steemit. I use Mandelbulb 3D and JWildFire =)
@mandelsage
That's so cool, I really appreciate your thought and time! I am excited to hear what you think :) I also use Mandelbulb 3D for all my fractals!!!! I have never used JWildfire but I love the style of fractals that program makes. I'll be sure to go check out your fractals as well! Cheers @mandelsage
Thanks man - I saw your comment on White Walker's Eye, will be replying later =) ..
Evil Disobedience: Liked it a lot, must admit I liked from 3 minutes on a lot more because I was distracted by MLKs words, hehe. I'm sure if I listened to it repeatedly, the words would become less distracting. Very chill track, exactly the kind of thing I have playing while doing fractals =)
Passion and Patience: A little conflicted with this one because I'm not really a rap fan. The words though, make up for it ;) ... I'm also a huge synth fan... The album "Time" by ELO, for example, is one of my favourites ever ^^
Universal Discovery: ... mmm yes, I like me some Cafe Del Mar vibes... Beautiful vocals... Just the end ended kinda abruptly but that's okay I guess. I like your philosophy about the nature of the universe... You might like my post from a few days back about my lack of belief in god(s) ;)
Impermanence: Daammmn, that was my favourite ;) ... Even got goosebumps around 1:20 - difficult to happen with me on hearing something for the first time ... There was a bit though, from around 2:15 to 2:45. that ground a bit on my nerves for some reason...
Overall man, you're definitely one talented guy. Can't wait to listen to more stuff from you. Also looking forward to seeing your MB3D stuff =)
@mandelsage
Wow I can't say I've ever gotten such a thorough review of my music before! I really appreciate that, more than you know. I thank you so much for taking the time to listen so intently and provide such phenomenal feedback. I got the biggest smile reading anything I've made gave someone goosebumps. Much love @mandelsage!!!!
Oops, sorry for not replying to this reply! It's my pleasure... It's what I wish people would do when I post art, lol. "Tell me what you really think, damnit!" ... ;) Thanks for all the recent comments and upvotes, btw!
I can't wait to read the breakdown of the rest of the album. I'm glad I was apart of this. @falseyedols can't wait to hear trvls as well. Peace and dope beats
I'm glad you were apart of this too my dude. I look forward to working on more music and to hear your next releases!
Hey! I love, love, love this post--and that you’re sharing this awesome work with us. The write-ups about each song are really helpful. I really like the Impermanence track, I use a lot of atmospheric stuff like this for leading movement workshops with actors. This would be so awesome to inspire movement!
P.S. Fractal GIF game strong.
Thank you so much for checking them out! If you would like, definitely feel free to download Impermanence off that bandcamp link and use it for your workshops! I'd be honored. I know you'll give me shoutouts too if people were to ask who made the song ;) I appreciate the GIF compliment, too, as you share some of the coolest GIF's I've seen! See ya around :)
I share them, but I can’t make them, so it’s AWESOME that yours are original. :) I’ll definitely download a few things and I’d be happy to tell folks where I got it and pass it along. When’s the next EP coming out?
I'm thinking early or mid March! I have the songs, I just gotta get the arrangements all squared away, as well as a final mix and master. I'll definitely be sharing more about that as it gets closer to time :)
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