Music
Music is a very large part of my life. I started playing piano when I was about 5 and continued studying off and on until about age 14. I only stopped because I was having trouble keep that up with my Drum Lessons. I am now at Berklee College of Music studding the drum set and Music Synthesis. The styles of music I listen to and the ones I create are somewhat far apart. I have trouble creating rock and pop on the computer (I get it once in a while) but I have a great time making 8bit. Also I like to think I have a good sense of humor so I often get together with my friend John Marriott and create amusing tracks made entirely from Garageband Loops. My main sequencer of choice however is Apple’s Logic Pro. Feel free to E-mail me if you have comments or questions.
| Here and There | Best song to date (May 08). Kind of Massive Attack, kind of Ulrich Schnauss, hopefully Jon Hopkins got in there. Enjoy. |
| Brendan Goes to Candyland | This was a harmony project for harmony 4. There was an option to do a techno song so I took it. I find this song particularly funny because it has two types of modulations, constant structure, auxiliary dominant chords and other jazz harmony, while being a straight ahead, 4-on-the-floor, techno song. It’s fun though. |
| On This Side | Here’s a breakaway from the 8 bit material below. This song came out of a sound design experiment. I wanted to make that initial piano sound and it morphed into a whole song. I got inspiration from See You on the Other Side by BT. Hope you enjoy. |
| Trees in Flight | This is a very jumpy song, but I lke it. It was made in 2 hours or less which is always fun to just pump out a song. I dunno where I got the title but makes me think of good things. Hope you enjoy! |
| Menu and Title | The theme I’m trying to portray here is the sound track to some video game. It doesn’t totally work because I have some music that would be from different systems and what not but mostly it all at least fits into the same category: 8-bit video game music. This one was done all in one night which usually doesn’t happen. I couldn’t think of another ending besides this one. Let me know what you think. |
| Overworld Theme | This was the first one I made with Logic Pro. It’s so simple and nice. I got to have fun with sequencing. |
| Lament | Not so much a favorite but I like it anyhow. It was meant to be slow and moving but it kinda turned out slow and boring. E-mail me and tell me what you think. |
| Lament (Zombie Epode Mix) | DJ Poser has redone my not so great slow song. I really like what he did with it. I hope you do to. |
| Battle Theme | I love this song. It was a lot of fun to make. I was working on another melody and some people were singing the Superman theme. I completely scrapped what I was doing and made this. The ending took a while not because of the sheer amount of notes (meaning awesomeness) but just because I couldn’t figure out how to end it. Check it out. |
| Dance Theme | This is probably the most favorite of the ones I’ve made. It has such a good groove and melody. I’m very proud. |
| Victory Theme | For some reason it wasn’t what I was expecting but it’s cool enough. Ending was fun. |
| Bonus Game | Of course every video game needs some bonus level. Here’s what mine would sound like. |
| In the Air Tonight | This was the final project for my Arranging class. We were to take a piece of music (any one we liked) and re-arrange it. I did In the air Tonight by Phil Collins. I reharmonized the chorus near the end and sequenced a long drum solo. Tons of fun making this. |
| Helio (by John Marriott) | Another Garageband Jam by John. |
| Merry Christmas | John and I got an idea for a song so we recorded it, hence all bad things to ever come into existence. |
| Mollie (by John Marriott) | A song for Mollie McGrath by John Marriott. |
| A Guy Standing By A Tree | This is one of the first songs that I ever did. I’m beat boxing and on backup vocals, John is on guitar, Zach Otramba is on lead vocals. |
| Song for Halla at Dentist | So one day Halla Williams was at the dentist and we made a song for her so when she got back she would feel so bad, or something like that. |
| Bamboozled | This is probably the best song I’ve made with loops. Lots of randomness and crazy sound effects. I like it. |
| 4-bit | This is completely separate from my 8bit ramblings above. I got in a mood where I really wanted to make a lot of music with the Nintendo feel. I feel I went over board on the drums but otherwise I really think I got that. I especially like the transition bit. |
| B-Neatbox | Sam Armstrong (otherwise known as DJ Poser), Gabe Averre and I created this song using Reason. The weird drums are all our selves and the music is all ours. It’s a fun song but kinda ridiculous. |
| The Bohemian Reel | John Marriott and I started a trend where he and I would sit down and have Garageband wars. Using Apple’s Garageband we would use nothing but the proprietary loops to make our entire song. This happens to be Johns. Mine will come up later. |
| Clav Jam | Just a simple improv I did with reason again. Cool drum beat that I found with me soloing over it. Weather I quantized or not will not be discussed. |
| Deep Thoughts | More Reason. I got a lot better at sequencing with this one. Specifically the roll-click thing. All sounds I made. |
| Like a Girl | This is the second song I wrote for Hannah. It’s repetitive but I like it and I did write lyrics I just need to post them. |
| Lit Project | Project I did for American Literature. The mood I was trying to set was an action chase scene. It was fun and kinda crazy. This was done in reason. |
| Musical Meltdown | So if you thought the rest of the Garageband stuff was high quality *cough* wait till you hear this. This is possibly the greatest Garageband song to ever exist. Made by my self, Cameron Townsend and Derek Ghormly. It’s so “good” I’m proud of it. |
| Song for my Johnnie | So this is my Garageband song. I think Johns’ is of higher musical quality, but he took 2 hours where as I took 20 minutes. |
| Zach Goes Gospel | I believe this was done in Garageband, but the real genius here is Zach’s organ playing. I just threw on a drum beat and said “Play” and this is what came out. |