ABOUT

This will be a long-form version of the weekly threads I make about aesthetics. I've decided to make a website in order to bypass the restrictions of word limit and image hosting - plus, this place just looks cooler. The idea for Blue Wave Wonder came to me 2 years ago, or maybe more. It's all been little fuzzy in my mind - which is why I've decided to make this site. As much as I've tried to explain my album as a synthesis of my favourite musical influences from various genres, I found that this approach (while definitely aiding the production side of the album) still did not bridge the gulf in my mind between what I saw and what I heard. My first mistake was assuming that I'd be able to capture an idealised notion of whatever it was that this album would be about, which ultimately lead to the music I wanted to make being informed by a cacophonous visual mess in my head. Things became difficult. Second mistake - I didn't write anything down, and instead saved pictures of various things I categorised as influencing the album. I still have this disparate collection of images, but they brought me no closer to my goal of understanding what I wanted to write songs about. Blue Wave Wonder will be an instrumental album, which itself poses what I call mechanical challenges - making each song vibrant, listenable and unique while fitting into the jigsaw puzzle constraints of a concept album. This is the basic foundation of the album and in my opinion, these mechanical challenges are combated purely through instinct. Choices made to drive the musical aspects of the album forward. Above this level are what I term emotional or aesthetic challenges. The question here differs from what I'm writing about, which can easily be answered as: a fictional soundtrack to a racing game from the mid-late 1990's, versus what exactly it is that I want to say. Am I talking about pleasing aesthetics? Vibrant colours, shapes and well-executed design? My interpretation of the 1990's as a time of technological progress, discovery, the age of the World Wide Web and rampant high-tech optimism? I think so. The music is dictated by real world design choices, trends and associations with time periods; so while it exists as an anachronism, it is still fueled by a spirit of authenticity to the eras that it pays tribute to. This site will chronicle some of the things that I feel influenced and informed my idea of what Blue Wave Wonder should be.

I tend to hyperfixate on things. It's just how my brain works. This, along with my obsession of connecting visuals in my head with sounds, often leaves me creatively immobilised. I like when my creative process is neat and straightforward. This usually means that all the influences I draw on are able to be put in a box and labelled easily. With Blue Wave Wonder, I found that this process of mine was regularly defeated thanks to just how many distinct ideas I had about what I wanted the album to be. I was locked in a battle with my desire to make this album sound like everything I wanted and more, all at the same time. When the conflicting parts of my brain threatened to each blow a fuse simultaneously, I decided I had to change the way I was going about this. So I decided I would not only incorporate every possible aesthetic element of my choosing, I'd try and document it on the way, just so I had some way to orient myself if things felt like they were going awry. This website is my first attempt at doing that, and I hope it will be a fun read. If you feel so inclined, please leave a comment in the guestbook, send me an e-mail or join my forum!

UPDATE 30th OCTOBER 1996:

Well, here we are - Blue Wave Wonder released earlier this year and I realised I'd been neglecting the website even while I made plans for new albums. It's sort of funny; looking back on things from my current perspective it's very clear to me how tunnel-visioned I became while going through the process of writing Blue Wave Wonder. The album seemed all-encompassing, and even though I never thought of it as my magnum opus or anything I guess I sure acted like it was. After a few years of musical and emotional development, I think it's time I amended the site's purpose. I originally created it to document the creative process behind my first album, but as of now, I want to broaden its scope to be about my creative process in general, and the things that influence my work. After I released Blue Wave Wonder on the 1st of July this year, I realised I had made plans for several more albums, and took a look back at the website I made. It was only then that I knew I had been too restrictive, and focusing the entire site only on one album was a mistake that I'm now going to fix. It feels very freeing and I'm so excited to talk about more things that I love here. Thanks for reading;  take care of yourselves and each other!