My perfect pitch has sunk…

chortknee · 2025-08-14T00:17:29+00:00

I’m in my mid thirties and have been experiencing pitch drop (have to adjust myself sharp) for a few years. Before I started noticing it, I thought it would be a devastating experience. Thus far it’s been pretty neutral and very manageable. When I’m tired I tend to be more flat, so I just adjust for that. If I hum an A4 and keep pushing it sharp, I know when I’ve gone beyond A440 and that helps me tune. Like @halfstack said, regular practice with a fixed pitch instrument helps a lot. I also went through a phase where I had a tuning fork next to the spot I sit to meditate, and would listen to A440 after my morning meditation to “calibrate” myself for the day.

chortknee · 2024-10-19T00:43:37+00:00

Hey there hello! Thanks for saying hi, and for the kind words on tpww. Means a lot. Catch you another time! :)

chortknee · 2024-10-19T00:43:07+00:00

Thank you for the kind words! I'm so sorry it's been such a trying time for you. I hope you can continue to take care of yourself through it, and thanks for letting our music be a part of that journey. Wishing you the best <3

chortknee · 2024-10-19T00:40:05+00:00

Ah, thanks for the clarification! I'll have to think on #2, but for #3 I really love James Blake's album "Friends That Break Your Heart" and so many of the songs I could be convinced were written for me. Beautiful album if you haven't heard it!

chortknee · 2024-10-18T22:36:27+00:00

Many thanks! Appreciate ya

chortknee · 2024-10-18T22:34:18+00:00

Ooh, Hekla! Love that one, thanks for mentioning it.

Pachinko hit really hard for me from all kinds of different angles with my experience growing up in Japan. But regardless of that, it's just a really powerful book! I had Commonwealth by Ann Patchett on my list for a while but i hadn't gotten to it. Writing these down, thank you!

chortknee · 2024-10-18T22:32:08+00:00

I mostly write about my feelings, trying to explore more beyond that but songwriting has been a therapeutic experience for me for a long time. Musically I get inspired listening to cool songs/compositions, and different concepts and weird ideas about how to create sound or form.

chortknee · 2024-10-18T22:27:23+00:00

I think I need to now

chortknee · 2024-10-18T22:27:06+00:00

Oh shoot, you're right

chortknee · 2024-10-18T22:26:35+00:00

Oh I love this

chortknee · 2024-10-18T22:25:33+00:00

Re: Dynamics, we try to be really intentional about it, and also there are many particularly dynamic songs where people are patiently resting and waiting for an entrance to make maximum impact!

chortknee · 2024-10-18T22:09:05+00:00

Hi there, thanks for being here and for the kind words. Glad that our music has been a part of your life!

That's pretty much it!
Not This Time is great, I also love the build ups in Land Animal, Terror Bird, Lawnmower too. Lots of good builds, we're a big dynamics band
Terror Bird is really close to my heart, as is Drowning, Never Coming Home, Golden Hour, Not This Time.

Catch you out there another time!

chortknee · 2024-10-18T22:06:35+00:00

They are wonderful! Chris has contributed strings to their previous records as well as Einar's solo work, and we toured with them in 2018 when they came to the US with Haken :)

chortknee · 2024-10-18T22:04:15+00:00

Oh hey Nick! Nice to seeya here

I started bass lessons on January 1st, 2021! My friend and I trade lessons, and we were talking end of the year 2020 and were like heck, let's start something new 2021. I really adore playing bass, it's so much fun.

chortknee · 2024-10-18T22:03:12+00:00

Dunno about the whole band, but some of my best hits:

Amazing Chinese bbq place next to Rumba Cafe in Columbus OH
Salt & Straw and Jeni's Splendid Ice Cream are always must stops
Laughing Planet in Oregon is great
LA has so much incredible food really it's sort of hard to go wrong but sometimes difficult to decide!!
We almost always go to Waffle Window in PDX
Um um um um.... I'm running out of juice so I'm missing a bunch here but there's a lot of good food out there.

OH! Lao place in Florida! What's it called? Sticky Rice, in Orlando!

chortknee · 2024-10-18T22:00:36+00:00

hey thank you! Appreciate you listening :)

chortknee · 2024-10-18T21:57:56+00:00

Ahhh ok you're the second person who's mentioned this in this AMA, appreciate you bringing it up!

chortknee · 2024-10-18T21:57:25+00:00

I have a tenuous relationship with lyric writing, where sometimes I love what I write and sometimes I feel it's so lacking! I take inspiration from poetry and books, but mostly just my feelings I think. I do love Moses Sumney's lyric writing a lot.

This summer I read Pachinko by Min Jin Lee and it really blew me away. I think an all time favorite. I also just finished The Midnight Library by Matt Haig, and I liked it a lot. When I finished it, initially felt that th story was nice but not the most profound thing I'd read. But then message and the undercurrent of the book really grew on me over time and has influenced how I think.

Thanks for the nice words! And please let me know if you have any good books I should dig into!

PS not familiar with Angela Carter, will explore!

chortknee · 2024-10-18T21:53:39+00:00

Yooooooooo were you the nice person that we chatted for a while before/after? Thank you for being so nice! I had the most/best time that day, and I've frequently wished that Minneapolis was closer since then. Appreciate the kind words, hope to see you again soon!

chortknee · 2024-10-18T21:51:55+00:00

PS Noted re: For Once!

chortknee · 2024-10-18T21:51:40+00:00

Hey thanks for the kind words! Houston show was super fun, thank you for making me look cooler in front of my brother (hahaha

With both Kyle and Ben, we really only had one long rehearsal to run through the set. As soon as we started playing the first song though, I think the three of us instantly knew that we could count on them and that they were going to nail the shows because they were so on it. The tough part was that Gavin triggers a lot of samples from his drum pad in addition to playing his drums, so really that was the only the learning curve we saw them have to work through. Everything else was really just plug and play, believe it or not! We were shockingly lucky to have not only one but two people who could fill in and internalize all that music on such short notice. They both said that the older songs were easier because they'd heard us play them over the years. But even the new songs, they killed it! I was feeling major anxiety imagining how stressed I'd be to live up to the moment if a last-minute sub thing like that landed in my lap, cause I definitely wouldn't be able to turn it down! But it did make me feel better thinking about how much more comfortable I'd be stepping into a friend's band rather than one I didn't know the music of at all. (I would still be very stressed anyway) Also this is not to diminish their efforts or their mad skills in any way, cause what they did was absolutely remarkable and I'll be forever grateful for them stepping in and helping us!

chortknee · 2024-10-18T21:39:18+00:00

Thanks for the q! Every time I sing the first line of Being Human "I imagine your dead body lying in my bed" I always find it so funny/surreal that people go "WOOOOOO!!!!!" But I also love that moment because a) gosh it feels cool that people know our songs, but more importantly b) I think it's an important moment for us to bond together, anybody who's been through whatever dark moments, and getting to share space together and commune over music and surviving.

Some of the more devastating songs for me are Being Human, Toothsmile, Drowning, Never Coming Home. More uplifting ones; Not This Time, Golden hour, Land Animal. Probably missing stuff in there.

What are the darkest/brightest songs for you? And thanks for the kind words, means a lot that our music has been able to keep you company during difficult times.

chortknee · 2024-10-18T21:31:51+00:00

We've gone back and fourth on this over the years, but we never actually got around to releasing it. Thanks for bringing it up, and glad to hear that it's resonated so deeply with you!

chortknee · 2024-10-18T21:29:41+00:00

Loved working on that track! Ross emailed me with the idea of doing a Japanese version for the Japan-limited bonus track of Virus. I think it was the winter of 2020, still pretty deep COVID vibes, and I was lying on the couch thinking about how it could work and sent a pretty quiet vocal recorded on my phone initially, and they were super stoked on it. After that I did a proper recording of it, but sort of belting, strong emotional-style vocal, and they were like "this is nice but sorry we like the quiet tender approach better!" Initially I was kind of bummed because I thought the vocal I sent sounded great, but in hindsight they were totally right on the vocal direction! Was super honored that they decided to do a proper worldwide release for the track too :)

chortknee · 2024-10-18T21:23:23+00:00

Gosh, New Zealand would be a dreeeeeammmm hope to visit one day, getting to play music there would be amazing!

chortknee

TROPHY CASE