music

I've always loved playing with sound. when I was a kid I would make my own "radio" shows on tape with commercials and commentary in between. one time... when the needle broke on my record player... I fashioned an aluminum foil cone to the end of a thumbtack... and it worked! of course... my records weren't too happy about it...

much of my late teens and early twenties was spent making mix tapes of gushy love songs for girls I had crushes on. after 3 heartbreaks too many... I began romancing myself with mixes of ambient and noise music. after a time... I came to realize that I was more creative than a lot of the music I was listening to... so I set out to make sounds of my own...

these days... I build my own audio software and create music with generative processes and other weird sound techniques. my primary tools are max/msp and the nord modular synthesizer.

the mood channel

inspired by many late nights of ambient music, color cycling fractals, and interactive public access info channels... I conceived the idea of 'the mood channel'... which is a system that creates a background environment for your life through the use of sound, lighting, and images. in the past few years... technology has made many of these visions a practical reality... though the idealistic form of this project is still a long way off...

I tend to use the term 'the mood channel' as a general description of generative music and lighting projects I create.

in august of 2003, I presented the mood channel at the dorkbot: people doing strange things with electricity exhibit at coca in seattle. my exhibit consisted of generative music in quadraphonic, with mood lighting that shifted color along with the music. there was also a drawing pad that allowed people to manipulate other sounds that were mixed into the audio stream. the showing was mighty fun and taught me many things about setting up a gallery installation.



above is a picture of me presenting at a dorkbot meeting in december of 2003. the piece I am showing is a generative music and image program titled 'can't quite relax'. presenting at dorkbot was fun as I was able to discuss intricacies of my process with a very intelligent and receptive group of people.

in spring of 2004... I decided to focus my energy on creating an album of generative music... which is now available and titled 'baby robot nursery'. there are a few selected tracks available on my music page.

soundtrack and theater

I did a bit of live theater sound work for a few children's theater productions in seattle, including sound design, music editing, and playback on cue during the performances. my favorite was the production of 'fractured fairy tales' done in blacklite...



working with a gentleman by the name of mike hitt... I have done several soundtracks for short films and theater. one of my favorite projects was the recording of an easter service at the grace of life church in wallingford, which was a live performance of 'jesus christ superstar'. everything sounded sweet during the rehearsal... as mike set up the microphones and I worked out all the levels on the computer... 8 channels in... this was gonna be cake!

then... as punishment for having lewd thoughts about one of the ladies in church, the good lord decided to blow the fuse inside my audio interface at 5 pm on saturday. I didn't even know there was a fuse...

but! omens of doom shall not stop those who are destined for victory! we ended up recording the show using 2 minidisc players, 2 dats and 2 channels into my computer. we got good recordings... but... we also ended up spending way too much time syncing the tracks up again in the multitrack environment. in the end... the show actually sounded really good... and we were mighty proud of ourselves!

live performance

feb 2002 - live in quadraphonic with the perpetual madness machine - groovetech - seattle...





aug 2002 - the perpetual madness machine... live at the first annual bubble rally - volunteer park - seattle

may 2003 - w/ lullabelle's junkshop @ coffee messiah - seattle

dec 2003 - after dorkbot presentation - seattle

april 2005 - w/ komafuzz - the living room - seattle

june 2005 - pause w/ liam singer, furniture, expel records - the shoe dept - san francisco

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