‘Elsewhere in the Nowhere’ Individual Song Breakdowns ____________________________________________________________ Individual Song Breakdowns “Black Hat” The second tune that I initiated, after “Bird Alarm.” I was trying to capture a bit of a 90’s electronica vibe with this one - that is, until the screams kick in. The image that coalesces in my mind is Mike Patton dropping by the studio while Crystal Method is recording, and electing to lay down a guest vocal. I cut those screams very nasally, straight into my JMT Synth Noisy Mic; the ones popping in around 4:01 were done on a regular mic. The “that was good” sample was a self-notation after doing lots of takes, pointing out that the previous one was probably a keeper, but it sounded too cool in the context of the music to not use it (over, and over, and…). I believe this song marks the debut of my Fender fretless bass, although it was only used in the A section (post-intro). The title is a reference to the hacker slang term, hearkening back to the 90’s thing. “Bird Alarm” In September/October of 2023, I traveled to Japan for the first time to perform with my band. I captured several field recordings during my visit, using both a proper field recorder and my iPhone when I didn’t have the aforementioned within grasp. This piece features portions of a clip taken from within a ramen bar, as well as some roadside work that I caught on a US tour. The ‘birds’ (at least I’m fairly certain they’re such) were emitting some rather spellbinding sounds in an area close to the Meiji Shrine in Shibuya. There is also one synth voice. “No, I Haven’t” I was texting with my pal Carl King, and he asked if I had heard a certain record. I was in the middle of working on a song and just happened to have a synthesizer on my lap. Haphazardly, I pressed on the keys that form the opening melody and sang the lyric in unison; rather than merely text Carl back, I sent him a brief video of this as a joke. It stuck with me, and I transcribed the sequence in Guitar Pro and fleshed out the rest of the tune. I’d wager there was more of this type of composition style on ‘Elsewhere’ than on ‘Soundtrack,’ but a big chunk was still composed extemporaneously. This could be the first tune for which I composed a theremin part, rather than improvising. I purposefully made the intervals small so I’d stand a chance! Lyrics: No, I haven’t No, I have not “Don’t Count On It” This one eluded me the longest. I had the loop and the solos down, but the tune sat in that state for probably close to two weeks. Then one day the vocal hook popped into my noggin, and I went back to work. The loop is comprised of a time-adjusted drum groove (from “Losing Ground” on ‘Ditties 2’), with the balance being live instruments: dual-tracked synths, bass, and a very punched-in guitar part. I think I Googled something like “best mode for writing funk,” and built the majority of the tune accordingly, although there are one or two spicy notes in the vocal break at the end that aren’t in the scale. The handclaps falling on the ‘1’ and ‘3’ are cheeky, make me giggle. Lyrics: 1, 2, 3, 4 Get your ass out the door 5, 6, 7, 8 It’s your ass I love to hate “Crystalline Scissors” The title originates from the quirky nature of the sound of the Suzuki Omnichord—the opening and closing synth—as well as the sound effect that punctuates throughout, which is literally a pair of scissors. There’s a pervasive drone, which I achieved by lowering a contact mic far into my mouth. The bleeps and bloops that accompany the Omnichord were edits done while messing around with the Hikari Instrument Monos CV, and the synth in the middle section is my Vermona E-Piano, highly processed. There’s an expanded “No, I Haven’t” quote occurring around 2:14. “Hall of Screams” There’s a loop of a peculiar mechanical groan that a fridge in my garage was emitting one night, peppered with a totally cool—and another highly mechanized—sound via a soap dispenser from a venue bathroom (caught on tour), and pitch-shifted dialogue (also caught on tour). Underpinning these adornments is a bass line/progression in 20-4—sequenced in 15-8/15-8/5-4—and various noises captured with my LeafAudio Microphonic Soundbox. Electronic melodies creep in to justify an entire reprise, in tandem with a crescendoing, tribal-esque pattern on the Soundbox, which sounds like some crazy guitar because of all the distortion. I tracked a butt-load of different screams, layering and processing them until it nearly sounded inhuman; these ramp up under the fog of master-channel reverb-overload, violently bursting through to end the piece. “Gewgaw” An utter anomaly: the only song not written contemporaneously, and quite different from the rest. So, back in 2019, an acquaintance texted me, wanting to commission an “EDM” song. I inquired as to examples of a particular style, and two links were issued to me, all of it fairly aggressive-sounding - to my ears, at least. I completed the tune in Guitar Pro and passed along the MIDI, assuming he’d either continue working on it independently or perhaps collaborate with a producer. I never heard anything back, so it shall have a home here in the ‘Nowhere.’ Almost everything is as-written years prior. I cooked up the little synth lead at 0:40 in-the-moment, and added the brief 2-4 tacet/pause before the outro. The sound effects in the bridge are a fortuitous dog-sneeze (highly processed) that I caught whilst field recording outside. “Elsewhere in the Nowhere” An attempt at an ambient piece written in Guitar Pro, which expanded into a beautiful, quixotic section in 6. I intended for the vocal to be solo, but because the MIDI info contained the melodies, I had an additional layer at my disposal, and it paired magically. The fretless bass was also used here. I think this is one of the finest tunes I’ve yet crafted. “Praesagium” I started ear training in early 2024, and learned that I particularly loved the sound of the major seventh, minor ninth, and minor third intervals. This prompted me to devise the melody, which uses the larger intervals in a descending minor third line. I overdubbed random chords that I thought sounded good on my baritone acoustic guitar. The title translates to “omen/foreboding/prediction” in Latin. “SslolsS” Another effort at an ambient work that eventually breaks off into something else. The opening sound effect is a coffee mug being slowly drug across a table; it’s rather effective in emphasizing the closing drum groove. The lead/solo instrument during the ambient section is an EBow on a guitar, massively processed. I love the line that creeps in at 5:29: this isn’t even a synth, but a sound clip (more info soon), endowed with a preset from Soundtoys’s FilterFreak plug-in that distorts and adds a rhythmic pulse, depending on the tempo. The mean synth line that subsequently enters at 5:42 was tracked on my Suiko ST-50. The aforementioned sound clip was voice-memo-ed on my iPhone: my band headlined Furnace Fest in Birmingham, Alabama in 2023, and as we—and stagehands—were breaking down gear onstage, a nearby train rolled along (it announces itself sporadically). I love the person’s voice at 7:04. The festival name is eponymous as such, for it transpires at the Sloss Furnace, thus the title. “The Gripper” My ESP LTD B-1004 bass was rendered to pretty furniture upon purchasing my Warwick Thumb 5, so rather than relegate it as such, I hired my pal and bandmate Aaron Deal to set it up and restring it in F#. The lowest string is like a bridge cable. Speaking of Deal: one morning while on tour, I was doing my daily handgrip exercises with the Captains of Crush grippers, those of which usually tend to produce a slightly wooden creak, and he comically—but also seriously—inquired if I’d ever sampled the noise. This prompted me to later text myself an assortment of ingredients for a future soundscape. I didn’t mike up my piano at any point until I had finished tracking most of the instruments for “Entropy, Rise,” and in one morning I laid down the parts for it, the chord that announces this tune, and “Praesagium.” Also included are some reverse-audio yells, xylophone riffing, and grossly-distorted cymbal crescendos. The main gripper noise is time-stretched but blatant, however the other instances (0:02, 0:31)—due to much processing—sound like terrified shrieks. “Which Floor?” A big loop predicated on another FilterFreak rhythmic preset, this one features: an elevator from Japan, more clips while walking around in Japan (Asakusa district), the Monos synth in tandem with one of the clips, and another train, this one caught while in Oklahoma City. The recurring train clip is soaked in reverb, but the mix percentage is dialed back a little further every time, peeling back more of what sounds like electricity, and gradually like a train desperately halting. The solo Monos closes it out. “Zanshin” Perhaps the most purely ambient attempt here, it began life in Guitar Pro. However, I tend to export the MIDI to then run it through my various synth libraries in order to curate sounds for a patch/voice, and from the outset I elected to use only analog synths (this was bent in favor of layering via the iPad, and there is even a little GP synth). “Entropy, Rise” (drum transcription, percussion overdub transcription) I sat down with my trusty santoor, noodling in an effort to land on a few enjoyable riffs/passages upon which to build a composition. When I had four solid bits, I transcribed them once again into Guitar Pro and went to work. I came up with the synth solos moments prior to tracking, using an Animoog with a scale configured to be congruent with the santoor. The choral section was rewarding to do, and also includes a pre-conceived theremin part (and I, again, purposefully wrote minute interval jumps, haha). The piano part during the key change contains a mix of sampled/‘sample-played’ parts, meaning I would sample chords or notes individually—and subsequently stitch them together, same procedure as when I program bass parts—as well as play smaller segments, to imbue it with a performance quality. The pleasant roar at the end is from a field recording of the ocean in Torrey Pines; the song title is an anagram. This album was every bit as gratifying to make as The Soundtrack of Nonexistence. I have mentioned and compared it throughout, as the top-down process was similar, as well as the general style(s). Speaking of, maybe some time I’ll construct a record that’s entirely electronica, or ambient, or filled with soundscapes, but for now I’m still at the mercy of my own whims and instincts. Thanks for reading.

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