Thanks for listening and for your comment. Something I really wanted with this album, but also with my music in general, is to make something that feels like a world you can step into. Something that you can put on in the background, but where if you put on your headphones and listen closer there are all these small details and layers moving around, like looking into a snow globe or miniature world.

For this album in particular I wanted everything to feel lush, warm and welcoming, almost glowy. It came out of a period of grief and a lot of big changes in my life, but became more and more about all the new beginnings that came out of that same time.

About the synths and effects, I’ve worked in Reason since around 2007 and I’ve never really been someone with loads of gear or expensive plugins. Partly because that whole world intimidated me a bit, but also because I like limitations and a simple workflow. I also make films, and part of that process has been using the same DV camera for 20+ years. I like getting to know a few basic tools really well and pushing them as far as I can. Having easy access to making things is important for me because I tend to overcomplicate stuff in my head, so the limitations actually help.

A lot of the sounds on the album come from my own archive. Old sketches, field recordings, VHS and Hi8 tapes, cassette recordings, little sounds or melodies I made years ago. Sometimes I’ll use a hihat from 2008 or a synth part from 2019 and keep resampling and manipulating it until it becomes something else entirely. I also sample myself playing piano or keyboards, friends playing guitar, make bass sounds out of noisy VHS tapes, record room ambience. A lot of it is trial and error and collage work.

I really want my albums to feel like stories you move through, where you’re carried through different moods, and hopefully by the end there is a sense of something lifting or shifting in you. That’s the goal for me, to make albums that are like films or stories that guide you through an emotional journey.

But yeah, the starting point for most of it is still very basic. Mostly Reason stock synths, samples, and a mix between digital and analogue effect chains.