‘Travis Orbin (This Is a Self-Titled Record)’ Bandcamp (purchase) Individual Song Breakdowns --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- About the record: I’m finding that there is much to say about this one. Firstly, composition began way back in 2014, completing in January 2015. I started writing a batch of material, evenly divided between both instrumental tunes and tunes with my first-ever vocal arrangements. I thought I’d make an album of such dichotomy but this process continued, yielding a plethora of songs, and I resolved to make two records: what became ‘Silly String II’, my debut full-length, and this record. I had decided to self-title it (sans subtitle), as it was intended to demarcate the debut of my voice. Obviously, history told a different story as it sometimes does, but I wanted to still honor that decision and merely added the cheeky subtitle. The songs that comprise this release are more straight-forward and predictable, owing to lots of copy/paste-style arranging, and are also less harmonically sophisticated. However, my penchant for stylistic variety and diversity is on display, so much so that I briefly toyed with the idea of titling it ‘Dotty Ditties, Volume 0’. The nigh Sisyphean undertaking of making a record with sixteen songs is probably why it took me so long to do so, and is the best excuse of which I can muster. After my father died in late 2020, I buried myself in my work even more than usual, tracking the drums, bass, and doing synth production for both this and ‘Delectable Machinery II’. I tracked the drums on 22DEC20, my birthday, knocking out all fifteen in one evening - a personal record. It felt like a Lynchian dream, heh. When I was ready for guitar, I wanted someone who was a tad more meat-and-potatoes, who had an excellent ear for tone, and great feel. I always dug the guitar tones, the general mix/production, as well as the songwriting behind Barricades At Night, a project for which I had contributed session drums/percussion for one record (at that juncture). As fortune would have it, Ryan contacted me for session work for a second Barricades record right around the time that I was considering contacting him, and we found ourselves working on each other’s records concurrently. Fulfilling more than just the role of guitarist, Ryan is also the engineer and principal songwriter of Barricades, and I needed a great set of ears like that to bring something more to the table. Anything that imbues the guitar arrangements and songs with more life, energy, pizzazz, panache, whatever - that’s what I needed! And that is exactly what Ryan provided. Doing the Ditties series has taught me that tracking vocals on my own is intensely laborious and hugely tedious. I genuinely like it, but the thought of doing it for sixteen tunes proved too daunting. I decided to reach out to Gabe and offer him the job of engineer, co-producer, and editor. I’d meet him at his home studio in Baltimore whenever each of our schedules would permit, starting in May of 2022 and finishing in January of 2023. Similarly to how Ryan furnished the guitar portion with an abundance of boons and attention to detail, Gabe pushed me in a multitude of ways vocally that were ultimately beneficial to the record. Mixing this turned out to be wholly enjoyable. Considering that that process began sort of handicapped, as the bond between myself and the material had grown weak due to a rather profound passage of time, it was invigorating and gratifying to find myself bouncing in my chair when I’d add some production element or figure out some vocal effect to highlight the appropriate areas and elevate the music. The whole process thoroughly reinstated said bond. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Credits 1. Exordium 2. S.O.F. 3. Mise en Scène 4. Erumpent Reveries 5. My Lethean Glue 6. Animadversion 7. Infatuated Flâneur 8. Flying to Iceland 9. King Katabasis 10. American Broodmares 11. Death Urge 12. The Cincture of Consonance 13. Caesura 14. Solidarietatis in Labore 15. Shitty Nu-Metal Song 16. Denouement  · Travis Orbin - Drum set, Percussion, Bass, Synthesizer, Programming, Vocals  · Ryan Beard - Electric and Acoustic Guitars on all tracks except 6, 15  · Rafael Trujillo - Guitar on 6, 15  · Gabriele Balsamo - Marimba on 2, 8  · Sophia Uddin - 7-String Electric Violin on 5, 6, 7, 13  · Gabriel Riccio - Keyboard on 1, 3  · Sacha Mullin - Guest vocals on 4  · 7-string electric violin engineered by Gabriel Riccio at his home studio  · Guitars on all tracks except 6 and 15 engineered by Ryan Beard at Monster Logo Studios  · Everyone else self-engineered at their respective home studios  · Vocals engineered, co-produced, and edited by Gabriel Riccio at his home studio  · Additional guitar arrangements/production by Ryan Beard  · Additional vocal arrangements on “Erumpent Reveries” by Sacha Mullin  · Composed, Produced, and Mixed by Travis Orbin  · “Erumpent Reveries” co-written by Elliot Coleman  · Lyrics by Travis Orbin  · Mastered by Taylor Larson at MixWave Studios  · Cover Art by Kimberly Oxford  · Retouching by Sam Seddon  · Extras: Ali Ferracci, Jordan and Kelsey Dean, Blair Allen, Justin Colatrella  · Cover Art Concept by Travis Orbin Special thanks to The Dover Art League for photo shoot allowance. Thank you to my fans, friends, associates, and family; especially my mother for her perpetual support and my neighbors for putting up with all of the racket. Also, thank you to my endorsements: Pearl Drums, Zildjian Cymbals, Remo drumheads, Vic Firth drumsticks, RTOM drum accessories, Vratim drum shoes, and E-Pad! Practice Pads. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Cover Art Construction I became fairly enamored with the concept of a man being executed on his birthday. From the outset, I thought that I could pull this off pretty easily: set up my Canon 90D, maybe shoot at Gabe’s house after a vocal session, try to rope he and Sophia in, etc. Then, after fleshing it out a bit in my mind, inventorying the props and other details, I realized that I should leave it to a pro. I contacted Kim and she took care of procuring props, extras, the shooting location - everything. Her friend Sam chipped in at the shoot and with retouching. My long-time pal Blair is in the shot, and the whole experience was simply a blast. Related note: the clock is set to my exact time of birth. Is the executioner a specter, or real? Are the people celebrating my birthday, or cheering on my demise? Am I aware of what is coming, or ignorant? Will I actually perish, or is it a representation of some aspect of me? And what is that fold to my right? The subjectivity is what I most value. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ‘Travis Orbin (This Is a Self-Titled Record)’ Gear List: “Exordium” · 12”/16” Pearl Reference Pure tom-toms with Vintage Emperor coated batters/Emperor clear resonants · 5”x14” maple piccolo with Powerstroke 77 coated/Ambassador Hazy snare side · 20” Reference Pure bass drum with Powerstroke III coated batter/Ebony Powerstroke III ported resonant, played with a VicKick fleece-covered beater · Cymbals (from left to right, player’s perspective): 20” K Heavy Ride, 19” K Dark Thin Crash, 13” A New Beat Hi-hats, 11” FX Oriental “Trash” Splash, 6” A Custom Splash, 12” A Special Recording Hi-hats, 19” K Custom Hybrid Crash, 18” K Custom Special Dry China, 19” K China “S.O.F.” · same tom-toms and kick, but kick is played with my usual beaters · 6.5”x14” Sensitone brass snare with a Controlled Sound X batter/Ambassador Hazy snare side · Cymbals (from left to right, player’s perspective): 20” K Heavy Ride, 19” K Dark Thin Crash, 15” K Light Hi-hats, 11” FX Oriental “Trash” Splash, 8” A Custom Splash, 18” K Dark Thin Crash, 18” K Custom Special Dry China, 19” K China “Mise en Scène” · same setup as “S.O.F.”, except with a 6.5” Pearl Reference brass snare (Controlled Sound X/Ambassador Hazy snare side), custom hats (14” K Constantinople bottom (top) / 14” K Custom High Definition bottom (bottom)) in place of the 15” K Lights, 8” A Custom Splash in place of the 11” FX, 6” A Custom Splash in place of the 8”, and a 19” K Custom Hybrid Crash in place of the 18” K Dark Thin “Erumpent Reveries” · same setup as “S.O.F.” “My Lethean Glue” · same setup as “S.O.F.” “Animadversion” · same setup as “Mise en Scène” “Infatuated Flâneur” · same setup as “S.O.F.”, except with an 8” A Custom Splash in place of the 11” FX, a 20” K Custom Flat Ride in place of the 18” K Custom Special Dry China, and the 18” K Custom Special Dry China in place of the 19” K China (also, a secondary small effects cymbal above the right-side hats is absent) “Flying to Iceland” · same setup as “Mise en Scène” “King Katabasis” · same setup as “S.O.F.”, except with a 13” tom in place of the 12”, a 21” K Heavy Ride in place of the 20” K Heavy Ride, and a 6” A Custom Splash in place of the 8” A Custom Splash “American Broodmares” · same setup as “S.O.F.”, except with an 8” A Custom Splash in place of the 11” FX, and no secondary small effects cymbal above the right-side hats “Death Urge” · same setup as “Exordium”, except the kick is played with my usual beaters, with an 8” A Custom Splash in place of the 11” FX, 18” K Dark Thin in place of the 19” K, and a 17” K Custom Hybrid Crash in place of the 19” “The Cincture of Consonance” · same setup as “Death Urge”, except with an 11” FX Oriental “Trash Splash” in place of the 8” A Custom, an 8” A Custom Splash in place of the 6”, and an 18” K Dark Thin Crash in place of the 19” K Custom Hybrid Crash “Solidarietatis in Labore” · same setup as “Mise en Scène” “Shitty Nu-Metal Song” · same setup as “Mise en Scène” “Denouement” · same setup as “Mise en Scène”

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