It’s safe to say that I’m an eclectic musician. While most who know me are familiar with my work as an acoustic guitar-strumming folkie, there is a musical side of me that sometimes gets overlooked. A year ago, I released an album of Cinematic Cues called… wait for it… Cinematic Cues, that alluded to my desire to keep my horizons broad and allowed me to show my abilities playing in different genres. It was filled with pleasant orchestral string arrangements followed by guttural electronic dirges, etherial sonic landscapes followed by Hans Zimmer-esque epics. It was, to say the least, a departure.
I love music. I love creating music. More than my love of writing and producing is my love of recording music. To me, it doesn’t matter what lane that music drives in. It’s all an experiment in producing sound. With all that said, it should come as no surprise that electronic music is a massive inspiration. Give me heavy synths and hip-hop beats, 808s and arps, and I’m a happy boy.
The Folk Naturalist was created as “a resting place for scattered creativity.” It is meant to cover all facets of me as a creative individual. So, today here’s another angle: An electronic song called I Wanna Live.
I Wanna Live was produced during the COVID lockdowns and features two of my favorite synths, the Roland JU-06A and the Roland SH-01A. These synths are boutique versions of their larger vintage siblings, the June 106 and SH-101. The beat was created using Ableton, which is pretty much the standard these days. There’s a sample of a Moon Guitar in there, a plucky, expressive little thing. A keen ear will notice that the solos in the middle and at the end of the song sound reminiscent of some old Pink Floyd sounds. That is because they are, particularly patches that were made to simulate the synths used in Welcome to the Machine, although slightly modified. Lastly, the vocals are just me, pitch-shifted and processed.
There are more of these where that came from. Perhaps I’ll release them at some point in the future. In the meantime, here’s I Wanna Live.
Enjoy!
I Wanna Live