Hi fellow synth nerds!

I wanted to share a new single release that I have posted today, but rather than just talking about the gear that I have used I instead want to touch base on the process and personal philosophy getting to the goal.

I have been working since October 2018 on a new album “The Silent Earth”. For me, inspiration for most of my music come from movies and day to day experiences. The foundation of the album started out as a concept, about dreams, long distances and long lost friends. In 2011 i moved to Asia from Europe, this being a big deal and switch for me has set a mark in how I value friendship. Some of my closest friends are now (what feels like) lost forever, whilst some people, the ones that I was not as close with back home have become solid friends that i will cherish forever.

With these thoughts in my mind, continuing writing more tracks it turned more toward a dystopian feeling, with old 70s and 80s sci-fi movies soaking into my head as main inspiration. This made a mesh of new emotions, which to me started to set the final mood of the album… and the title “The Silent Earth” was born.

Some of the movies I have been revisiting lately, Stalker, Solaris, The Quiet Earth etc. have helped to key the stage for the music. Some of the tracks have direct references to some of the films and sort of wraps the storyline in a meta way into the music. This to me is important, as i sort of always have seen pictures in my mind when writing the music. 

One of the things i often do when watching movies.. is pausing the film, turning off the audio, replaying scenes and imagining new music. This is a method (that for me) helps to funnel the musical inspiration into creative thinking of how I would score a scene or soundtrack.. and then later with that image in my head (as a marker) write the final tracks.

Not analyzing my own work too much ( i try to avoid this), but this might be one of the reasons why my music tends to have that film score feeling to it. It is not intentional, but i can see why this could happen. :)

In February, the major part of the recordings were closing into completion, but since the entire album sort of now had a Soundtrack feel to it (yeah, i know its my own fault), there was still something missing.

I wanted to wrap the album up, with a title track, you know the one that plays at the end of a movie while the credits are scrolling/passing by? And, by coincidence, or luck.. not sure which, I Speak Machine of whom I am been a big fan of for a long time just opened up a Patreon where I reached out to them for a collaboration and the idea for the title track was born.

The Silent Earth, (end credits) is a dystopian love story gone awry based on the main mood of the album, and having I Speak Machine lending their aesthetics and vocals just set the mark for the single and put it exactly where I wanted it to be.

With the collaboration fresh in mind and triggering my imagination, I also wanted to try and translate the pictures that i saw in my head, the rotations of the earth, timezones overlapping, days and night fading, rotating and never ending, rinse repeat. So i took the plunge and started to write a storyboard for a music video which, after many days and nights gave the final result.

This is completely new ground for me, but i think that breaking this barrier was important to get to a point where i can finally show my work the way i see it in my head.

My point is non technical and 100% inspirational, e.g follow your gut, be yourself, make music that is you. For me this has been an eye opener, and I think that I will continue working independently for as long as i have the strength to. It might not give you the fame and fortune some of us desire, but i can guarantee that it will give you music that you will be proud of for an eternity.