I'm still alive!

Lots is going on. I haven't posted here in ages, as most of the music I'm making these days isn't the kind of thing I can post under creative commons, but it is still happening. I miss doing that though, so I'd like to make some new stuff here over the summer if I get the time.

Was my last CC release really in 2013? Holy balls. Let's fix that.

Stay rad, pals.

- Snow

Real life doesn't want me to have a moment's rest, apparently.

To be honest, I haven't had a chance to do much of anything on the challenge project in the last two weeks. What with the new job, practicum getting scheduled (finally!), my car getting totalled, having high-priority projects dumped on my head... it's been hard to find time to sleep, let alone anything else, and I'm about ready to have a stress breakdown.

The challenge is still on, though. Everything is crazy, but I have to find a way to keep doing music even when every second of every day has to be thrown at things that are, at least logically, vastly more important. That said, this should all blow over by August and I'll still have a month to the deadline so I'm not too worried. I'll still make something, dammit.

- The Wonderful Wizard of OS

Holy man.

So there's been some significant progress this week. I have something I actually like at this point, but it's definitely a process of trying to remember how to write music again. So far there's kind of an intro/verse-y kind of section and a chord prog that I'd like to use for a chorus. Still on the fence about whether to do vocals, so I'll probably have to decide based on whether I can come up with half decent lyrics. And, as advertised, I'm basically just using slightly modified presets for everything and frankly it doesn't sound phenomenal... but it's a start.

Also got a new job doing audio tech this week, so suddenly I have to work around a 9-5 schedule again - which is certainly not going to make this any easier. But I'm still gunning for that August 31 release for the first track, and the whole point of doing this was to get myself back into the swing of producing music despite life's many excuses.

I guess that's week #1. I haven't given up yet, so maybe there's hope for me still.

- Obligatory Snow or something

Yes! Yes it is me! I'm still not dead! yaaaaay

But in more music-relevant news: I've decided that the real reason I haven't been writing music these days is myself. I'm super rusty and every time I start a project I fail to finish it because I stop liking the way it sounds.

BUT

In the last year or so I've also learned a hell of a lot about mixing, and realised that I've been doing it wrong since day one... and I want to use those skills. So I'm publicly issuing myself a challenge (although admittedly I know not many of you still look at my page due to inactivity). The challenge is this:

I will, regardless of quality, publish at least 2-3 songs before the end of the year. I have to release at least one of them on August 31. I have no idea what they will sound like. I'm using a DAW I've never used to write music before. I don't have any of the sound libraries or plugins that I used to. My MIDI keyboard has fried a circuit or something and has a 1/2 second delay. It will probably be a whole bunch of layered presets. But that's all ok, and I'll still try to make them as good as I can. I will also post updates, because it will help me feel pressured to actually do this.

You can help, and it's super easy: just comment on this post. That's it. It doesn't even matter what you say. If you want to go the extra mile, then comment on my updates too. Why? Because if I see people have actually read this, then it means I really have issued this challenge to myself publicly and I can't just forget about it in a month or two.

Now please excuse me while I bash my keyboard repeatedly until something pretty comes out

- Who am I again?

Hello everyone!

Thought I'd write a little post and let you all know that I'm still alive, even though I haven't posted anything all year. I am still writing music, and I'm currently in the process of writing a piece with my partner in crime - and this one has vocals, which is something I've never done before, so that'll be a bit of a leap of faith for me. I'll probably have to ride in her wake a little bit; she's got a much nicer voice than mine :P

So very infrequent updates and music posts, I know, but I'm still around! One day I'll hopefully be able to come back to making music with the same force as I used to, because holy bananas do I miss that.

Cheers, NG!

- OS

If you were thinking David Bowie when you read that title, you'd be correct.

ANYWAY so there's something I've been thinking about for a few years now, debating whether I should do it, whether it would be worth the switch... but I've finally decided to give it a go.

I'm going to start using a new artist name online.

Don't worry! I'll still exist as Obsidian Snow across the web, but I'm going to focus down on genres and themes. As Obsidian Snow, I will continue to post my more serious pieces - all those piano solos and orchestral work (recently got EWQL working for me at last, so you can expect I'll be playing with that soon ;D ) will still be posted on this page and all the other pages under that name. The new name will be for posting my blisstronica, crazy experiments, and possibly some future vocal/accoustic work.

I'm pretty excited about this. I've even already registered the domain for what will be my new website when I get around to building it.

The new name? It's Cat Meets Keys.

Cheers,

- OS

Now that you've completely disregarded the warning in the title out of curiosity, I will be sure to thoroughly disappoint you somehow.

I realised that I haven't posted anything for a very long time - April 2012 was my last news post, and my last track release is similarly very old. THE POINT IS:

I am still alive.

Sort of.

I've been dealing with mono for the last six months, and it's pretty much put my life on hold. For some reason it didn't bother me much when I went to Japan and won some kind of world championship that none of you have ever heard of, but the rest of the last six months have been a blur of grogginess and trying to do things with my life while spending only enough time awake to eat and use the toilet (and failing... at doing things, not at using the toilet. I'm usually pretty good at that)

That said, I have a new track on its way.

I'm actually listening to it as I write this, and it's basically the happiest thing I've heard in forever. If all goes well, I might decide to publish it as an early christmas gift to NG, so I sure hope you've all been good this year.

In other news (I.e. the boring stuff and you can skip this paragraph if you want to), I've decided to give med school a shot while I'm still young and have the opportunity. My dream of building a professional grade recording studio of my own (and for the local community) isn't going to pay for itself, and I might as well do something I'm interested in to earn it. Also I feel like I've been selling myself short until now with my career possibilities, so this should at least provide a challenging goal. I just have to figure out how in the hell to pay for school now that I've already done so much of it and I'm looking at another 7-8 years... Not that any of that matters to you, but you were the one who ignored the warning at the beginning of this paragraph, so that's entirely your fault. You're clearly very bad at this.

Anyways, that's all for today. Hope you're all doing better than I am, and mayhaps I'll chat you up again sooner than last time, sexy.

- Ian

P.s. here's a little excerpt of some poetry of mine on the Hubble XDF image. I thought it was pretty fitting, provided you know what the Hubble XDF/UDF is. Look it up if you don't. Also I write poetry. Surprise!

Yes, that's right. I'm off my hiatus - for today, at least. I finally released another audio submission, after about 5 months of silence.

Go ahead, take a peek. Review, vote, drool, weep, whatever you like. But I like reviews/votes the best, if you can spare ten seconds. :D

Linkzorz!

Alright, I've got to get back to studying how to keep people alive when their guts are hanging out and stuff. EMS ftw.

Power to you, NG.
- Ian

Don't read this.

Listen to it.

I don't believe there's anything else to say.
- Ian Jarvey (Obsidian Snow)

I've become rather tired of posting anything here on NG. Music is rarely appreciated properly here, and I find that the audience usually isn't the one I'd like to be getting at.

Not entirely certain what I'm trying to imply here, I have no concrete plans of moving... but I do want to find a new place with a different audience. I feel like my music has no voice here, nor does just about anyone who doesn't write excessive dubstep, trance or the occasional epic orchestral.

It's got about the same effect radius as this post, really. Perhaps a couple people will see this. Essentially none of them will care. And NG will continue to roll.

That is all.
- Ian Jarvey (Obsidian Snow)