When We Were Vampires

Dearly Beloved

I released my new album today with an in-person listening party last night and a virtual Bandcamp listening party this morning. Thanks to everyone who took the time to hang out with me and celebrate this moment.

This album means a lot to me, as it represents both the current state of this moment we’re living in and also a remembering of some important parts of my past that still cling to me. This is a processing, a letting go, a reconnecting, and a moving forward into the unknown.

As I’ve promised/warned over the past few weeks, all of my back catalog has been locked away in the vault. Going forward, releases (like this one) will only be available for streaming and purchase until the next one comes out, so get it while you can.

It’s fitting that this album must now wholly represent who I am as an artist to the world, because it is very much where I am right now in this moment. This whole exercise of focusing on a single work at a time illuminates the importance of being present, of seizing the moment that is here, right now, but will be forever gone in the blink of an eye.

When you buy my albums on Bandcamp, they stay available in your collection for you to listen to or download as desired, even after they are moved to the vault. If you’re not familiar with Bandcamp, there is a mobile app that lets you play music from your collection just like Spotify, with the added benefit that independent artists actually get paid on Bandcamp. You can also listen in your browser, of course, or download high quality files in the format of your choice.

It’s really nice for me to look back at past releases and see the little icons of all the folks who supported an album. Please take some time to listen to my new album if you can, and consider buying it if it speaks to you in some way. Drop me a comment or email to let me know what you think.

The Track

Woke Up Dead is the final track on the album, based on xenome 81F. I pulled out my E-Bow for this one for extra dramatic effect. Most of the tracks on this album make heavy use of Baby Audio’s Atoms synth, which was just released on iPad last week. AudioThing’s new FrostBite 2 effect app is present on the guitar for most of the tracks as well.

How to Listen to My Music

I think I’ll start including this little bit of instruction, because I realize folks who spend most of their time listening to 3 minute pop songs don’t necessarily have a clear context for experiencing this type of work. Elayne, the amazing documentary filmmaker who’s following me around with a camera these days, made a comment last night at the listening party that reminded me that many folks never really encounter this type of music and may not know how to engage with it.

One way to think about my music is as a soundtrack to a movie. This album specifically could very well be the soundtrack to a horror movie. Soundtrack music is meant to evoke and sustain a feeling or vibe to complement what’s going on visually. Without the visual part, soundtrack music can sort of make you feel like you’re existing in the same world as the movie. So one way to experience this music is to allow it to be a soundtrack to whatever you’re doing in your life as you listen to it.

My music specifically is meant for deep listening with headphones. This is an approach to experiencing music that is mindful and centers the music listening experience as the thing you are doing, versus passive listening, which is how we generally experience music. Like with meditation, clear you mind and focus on the music as it happens, paying attention to the distinct elements that come and go. Allow yourself to focus on different parts of the mix: the guitar, the background sounds, the little glitchy sounds that move around. Consider how the music makes you feel in your body, and give awareness to the thoughts or memories that come up.

Let me know if you have questions, or thoughts about how you like to listen to music.

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Album Release: When We Were Vampires

This is my latest album, released today! This album will only be available until the next one comes along, so get it while you can!

The Book of Xenomes

It’s been a long time coming, but the Book of Xenomes has finally been released, with a surprise foreword by composer and music theory guru Ian Ring. Here’s an excerpt:

Qid Love eschews random colonization of the pitch universe, and has instead developed a system of naming that encodes each scale’s structure in a meaningful form. Each musical scale is represented as a compact notation – a “xenome” – that functions like an acronym for the scale’s identity. Xenomes allow musicians to recognize and work with pitch-class sets intuitively, without needing to engage with the deeper mathematical calculations typically associated with set theory. The approach empowers musicians to bring the insights of xenomes directly into their practice, in a format that feels accessible and memorably simple. Notably, thinking of pitch-class sets as xenomes illuminates certain symmetries that will spice up your scalar vocabulary.

There is no expectation that the reader will already know set theory, hexadecimal notation, binary or modulo arithmetic. Qid explains each concept so clearly that both seasoned theorists and beginners alike will find the system intuitive and engaging.

Whether you’re hoping to deepen your grasp of musical set theory or are simply curious about an innovative approach to scale identification, this book offers a refreshing take. Qid Love bridges the gap between the highly theoretical world of pitch class set naming and the everyday reality of making music. A gift to musicians and theorists alike: a practical, accessible way to explore one of music’s more enigmatic subjects. - Ian Ring

I’m also thrilled that xenomes have been added to the scale reference pages on Mr. Ring’s “The Exciting Universe Of Music Theory” website, right above Forte numbers. This is a huge moment of validation for me, and I’m extremely grateful to Ian for taking the time to read my book, write a foreword, and integrate my system into the most comprehensive scale reference on the internet.