Starfall (#2)
I am currently writing a series of journal entries as I compose my next album to see how ideas, approaches, and feelings change as a project comes together. You can read the first entry here.
Since I got my DGX 660 keyboard workstation several years ago, the sonic possibilities for my music have increased exponentially. I don't really know what technically makes music "experimental," but within the realms of my skills and tools, I've been experimenting far more than I did prior to the instrument's arrival.
Some of the experimentation has simply been driven by the development of the piano being an instrument I am competent enough to play for composition purposes. But beyond that, the many bells and whistles on the DGX give me an opportunity to compose very different music than I have in the past. So, if we're willing to define "experimental" as nothing more than "doing things you haven't done before without knowing how they're going to turn out," then I have definitely been experimenting in recent albums.
I think the first true experimental reaches were on The Girls You Sang to Sleep in 2021. "Werewolves" and "Execution Style" were both isolated songs in my songbook at the time they were written, using crafted loops and goofy sound effects, implementing spoken word delivery, and just creating a very different vibe from the many songs that came before them.
That trend has continued since then. I think that most of the experimentation on The One That Isn't Burned came from the engineering side --it was by far the most sonically ambitious record I have ever engineered myself. That album is defined within my discography by its full-ness, underlined by Sarah's violin and vocals all over most of the tracks. In terms of that energy level, it's the only one that can go toe-to-toe with the studio-clad Lesser Tragedies.
Rift is a little different. Much more piano based. Not necessarily better or worse, but I think Rift feels like the first Metropolitan Guide album that, when you compare it to all the others, seems plausible that it might be a different artist. It's the first Metropolitan Guide album to not sound like a Metropolitan Guide album --except for maybe "Micah's Meadow" at the end. This is partially because of that piano centricity, but I do think there are some varying elements at work that make Rift different from its siblings. Which as the creator, pleases me.
The question I'm asking in the early months of this next album is whether or not this pivot is a trend or a one-off. I started working on a song called "Starfall" today. No words yet, but a pulsing, electronic beat with riffs that sound like they were yanked out of a Final Fantasy dungeon. Were it to continue this way, it will be unlike anything else in my songbook. I feel encouraged by its arrival, and am anxious to see how it starts to take form.