Dec 10, 2015

2. Ripple Effect (feat. Vardø)


This collaboration came to be after our very own @Hana bi posted his work in the SXN. I felt like his voice and style was perfect for my production, and I had a spare track for the album that intended for a feature, so I got ahold of him and we worked out his part over the course of a month or so. I'm particularly proud of the production here, and how different it is at times from everything else on the album from a structure standpoint. It's bathed in a dark ambiance, and Vardø's vocals sit nicely in the track.

The lyrics were mainly written by him and tuned slightly by the both of us.

Spoiler: lyrics

Every single thing I do
Can be undone like a tattoo
I'll start regretting halfway through
When its effect is too cruel
I never think before I do
Although I know that I should
Just stick to this simple rule
Keeps me from being misunderstood
If I die, I wish I could
Go back to when I screwed it up

Oh the effects, I wish I knew
A workaround before it's too late

But I'm the type that never learns
As thing like this can be foreseen
So that the bridges won't be burned
The fire's choked behind the scenes
I'm trying hard to right my wrongs
I want to think it's never too late
To repair something that's been
Broken

Broken
To repair what's broken
Broken
To repair what's broken
Broken
To repair what's broken
Broken
To repair what's broken

Oh the effects I wish I knew
A workaround before it's too late
Oh the effects I wish I knew
A workaround before it's too late
Oh the effects I wish I knew

Oh the effects I wish I knew
A workaround before it's too late
Oh the effects I wish I knew
A workaround before it's too late

I wanted this to sort of reflect upon our choices and how they can have a huge impact and have terrible, unforeseen consequences... But honestly though, it goes deeper than that for me. I've burned so many bridges in my life growing up, and ruined so many friendships with people close to me due to how I've recklessly acted in the past, that the lyrics ended up hitting home for me more than I ever originally thought they would. Take all of this in combination with the story on the album, and my constant anxiety about ruining everything, and it can be downright depressing.

Now for the story bits on this: 'Ripple Effect' is from the fathers perspective over the course of 'Hailfire', and before 'Tragedy' ends. So if it wasn't immediately obvious, the album doesn't and wasn't intended to play out in a straightforward way.

I really wanted this here to foreshadow the horrible events to come, without actually revealing anything specific about them. I tried to make as much of the album as possible work like this, and re-arranged the tracklist repeatedly to do so. I also added and removed story elements and changed track names to fit better. So with it like this, I figured you'd have to give it a few listens to really figure it all out, and even then, only those who were actually paying attention would really notice it's all one story, one connected experience.

Spoiler: mentions

@Squid @Source Act @captain awesome @threee @Loyalty @Hana bi @Sith Lord @Ozy @YaBoyTr @Jasmine @Pato @Skippy @Jakey @Translucent @Nori @emostar @visionnaire @azymv @Raziel @RobA7 @Sign Language @Bleed @Ordinary Joel @Zep @coldkick @Luke @Jet @LasiK @asvdawg @Mikey1990 @Meero @Radeem @Skippy @GMV @Young Sinatra @Creation @Koolo @mdemaz @Pretentious @MPURA @rapmusik @Michael Myers @rapmusik @Narsh @TrxggerShot @zipp39 @November23 @Victim @CreativeSXN @Feedback @Jehovah @Charlton01

 

Dec 8, 2015

Copying @Narsh and starting this up for my own album in a day or so.

I'm going to post up the influences, moods, lyrics etc. about the track that I'm feeling or felt during it's creation, and the story behind it as we go through it all. Interludes will be bunched up with the track(s) they belong with. Hopefully this will give more insight for some people on the album, and get this out to more people if possible.

If you're down for this, let me know and I'll add you to the mentions. For now I'm dropping my normal plus some that responded in the album thread.

Jump to the individual song breakdowns in the thread here:

Caught In The Rain
Ripple Effect
Interlude I (Mirror) and Reflect
Inner Demons
Hailfire and Interlude II (Tragedy)
Downpour
Haunt You
Interlude III (Autumn Flowers) and Lost To The Storm
G. S. K. Y. D.

Spoiler

@Squid @Source Act @captain awesome @threee @Loyalty @Hana bi @Sith Lord @Ozy @YaBoyTr @Jasmine @Pato @Skippy @Jakey @Translucent @Nori @emostar @visionnaire @azymv @Raziel @RobA7 @Sign Language @Bleed @Ordinary Joel @Zep @coldkick @Luke @Jet @LasiK @asvdawg @Mikey1990 @Meero @Radeem @Skippy @GMV @Young Sinatra @Creation @Koolo @mdemaz @Pretentious @MPURA @rapmusik @Michael Myers @rapmusik @Narsh @TrxggerShot @zipp39 @November23 @Victim @CreativeSXN @Feedback

 

Dec 13, 2015

3. Interlude I (Mirror) | 4. Reflect



Mirror was the first Interlude I produced for the album, and along with Reflect, it was originally intended for another project altogether: Just Breathe EP. Once that was scrapped, I wasn't sure either of these would ever see the light of day. I brought them into iTunes and added them to the album, messed with the tracklisting to see how they'd fit, and it ended up working quite well.

Mirror helps set the tone for the story on the album, showing the struggle between the mother and father and gives you a little more insight into what's happening while not yet revealing the story ties. At the same time, Reflect acts as a balance with the production style/structure on the track vs the rest of the album, and helps to balance out the tone of the album by adding a slightly lighter touch to it all, while still being somewhat emotional.

Originally I was going to write some lines and have a couple people record them for me, but I didn't have anyone to get them done so I ended up having to settle for a sample from a youtube video of a couple fighting. I think it turned out pretty well though for what I had to work with...

I see Reflect as sort of a spiritual successor to Broken from The Coldest Winter, and in a way, Sweet Dreams. Another note: both of these were actually produced before Caught In The Rain, and they definitely helped shape the sound of everything else on the album.

Spoiler

@Squid @Source Act @captain awesome @threee @Loyalty @Hana bi @Sith Lord @Ozy @YaBoyTr @Jasmine @Pato @Skippy @Jakey @Translucent @Nori @emostar @visionnaire @azymv @Raziel @RobA7 @Sign Language @Bleed @Ordinary Joel @Zep @coldkick @Luke @Jet @LasiK @asvdawg @Mikey1990 @Meero @Radeem @Skippy @GMV @Young Sinatra @Creation @Koolo @mdemaz @Pretentious @MPURA @rapmusik @Michael Myers @rapmusik @Narsh @TrxggerShot @zipp39 @November23 @Victim @CreativeSXN @Feedback @Jehovah @Charlton01

 

Dec 10, 2015

1. Caught In The Rain


This is the track that started it all, and the first piece of the puzzle.

Originally just produced as an experiment to find a way to followup 'The Coldest Winter' with another seasonally themed release, the track had no particular story in mind when I first began work on it. It was just suppose to be a simple flip on the concept of Strange Winds. It's here where I feel like I've finally began to refine my style from my previous releases into something more, and really capture the sound I was going for with the blends of EDM and Hip Hop.

I went through 3 different versions before settling on the one you hear now. The first I had privately released after creating it to test the waters on the concept and style of production. The second was an extended version that was suppose to feature on a 'Caught In The Rain' EP that never materialized. Then there's the final version, which is a much more refined track, where I brought in elements of the rest of the album not present during this its creation and completely redid the tracks extension, so as to make it all more sonically cohesive and grounded in the story.

And after realizing the story (or at least part of it at it the time), I really wanted this to set the tone for everything, and show what a ride this album is about to be with both the emotionally dark tone to it all, and the cinematic like story telling with all of the production. I also wanted this to really have an emotional feel and impact, because prior to hearing the rest of the album, you might not have any idea what the car chase and crash is about, or why the song is so emotional... but then after you've heard it, you know, and it just hits you...

I hope this track is really the grand beginning to the experience I wanted this album to be.

Spoiler: mentions

@Squid @Source Act @captain awesome @threee @Loyalty @Hana bi @Sith Lord @Ozy @YaBoyTr @Jasmine @Pato @Skippy @Jakey @Translucent @Nori @emostar @visionnaire @azymv @Raziel @RobA7 @Sign Language @Bleed @Ordinary Joel @Zep @coldkick @Luke @Jet @LasiK @asvdawg @Mikey1990 @Meero @Radeem @Skippy @GMV @Young Sinatra @Creation @Koolo @mdemaz @Pretentious @MPURA @rapmusik @Michael Myers @rapmusik @Narsh @TrxggerShot @zipp39 @November23 @Victim @CreativeSXN @Feedback @Jehovah @Charlton01

 

Dec 23, 2015

12. G. S. K. Y. D. (feat. Adam Kim)


This is it, track number 12: Grey Skies Keep You Down.

This song is a bit different than what's come before it on the album, as it definitely sits with tracks like 'Lost To The Storm' as one of the few straight up EDM tracks on the album, but it even sits apart from that in that it's probably the only uplifting song to be found on the album. I think it needed to be that way though, you go through all the emotions of the story, and then when things settle down for the end of the album, you have this sort of bittersweet ending where the mother's lost not only a lover but a child, she's grieved, and now she's trying to overcome what's happened and move on with her life. It's sort of inspiring, but at the same time heartwrenching because you know what's taken her to this point in her life.

Spoiler: lyrics

Moon will rest
On a bed of stars
Lost in its light
Lost in who we are

We've got nothing left to lose
All you have to do is choose
The rain must still paint the town
Don't let the grey skies keep you down

Don't let the grey skies keep you down

Storm's rolling in
Can you weather it?
You've been through so much
Can you overcome?

We've got nothing left to lose
All you have to do is choose
The sun is still yet to rise
Don't let the grey skies keep you down

Keep you down
Keep you down
Don't let the grey skies keep you down

Don't let the grey skies keep you
Don't let the grey skies keep you
Don't let the grey skies keep you down

It's something I think works extremely well with this track and the lyrics. You have these sort of floaty ethereal reverbed vocals contrasting on a nice light backdrop of strings, piano, synths and drums. Then the emotional feel of the track really kicks in with the raw bass drop, sidechained heavy and fast, followed by the higher synths and choir like pads. It's in my opinion, the only way I could've ended all of this. And after an 8 month journey of production and the albums eventual release, here we are, the end of the story.

What started as little more than a simple follow-up to The Coldest Winter morphed into it's own unique experience with a full fledged story and deeper concepts and more cinematic imagery than anything else I've ever put together. Every track on this album evolved overtime into something much more than what they were ever conceived to be, and I'm extremely proud to say I made it this far with it. I've never put so much time and effort into something before, but I'm so so glad I did, and that people actually cared enough to go on this ride with me.

Thanks to everybody who gave me feedback, advice, tips, etc. Literally anything that helped make this album what it is, I thank you for it, I couldn't have done it without you.

Spoiler: mentions

@Squid @Source Act @captain awesome @threee @Loyalty @Hana bi @Sith Lord @Ozy @YaBoyTr @Jasmine @Pato @Skippy @Jakey @Translucent @Nori @emostar @visionnaire @azymv @Raziel @RobA7 @Sign Language @Bleed @Ordinary Joel @Zep @coldkick @Luke @Jet @LasiK @asvdawg @Mikey1990 @Meero @Radeem @Skippy @GMV @Young Sinatra @Creation @Koolo @mdemaz @Pretentious @MPURA @rapmusik @Michael Myers @rapmusik @Narsh @TrxggerShot @zipp39 @November23 @Victim @CreativeSXN @Feedback

 

Dec 11, 2015

The song is awesome! The vocals really do collaborate well with the productions.

 

Dec 9, 2015

Review on this album is OUT!! Peep it here!

 

Dec 22, 2015

10. Interlude III (Autumn Flowers) | 11. Lost To The Storm



This interlude is one of my favorite story bits from the album.

It's dark, you're the standing in a cemetery in the rain. You leave flowers for your daughter Autumn and sob, knowing she's never coming back and that her father is in jail, and out of your life as well. You're alone... And as the listener, you're just coming down from the impact of things emotionally and the raw energy of the previous track with a somber sounding interlude, pieced together with audio samples and bits of the next track, all helping to build the story and atmosphere.

Then 'Lost To The Storm' kicks in directly from the Interlude, and hits you with this eerily upbeat sound, with contrasting high notes and a dark, raw distorted bassline that I've been told by a friend is sort of 'unconventional' for an EDM track, and it sets a nice tone for things here because it's definitely one of the more EDM styled tracks on the album, yet it definitely stands apart. And all together I think it definitely brings to mind that feeling of being lost to the storm, the emotions, the story.

Spoiler: mentions

@Squid @Source Act @captain awesome @threee @Loyalty @Hana bi @Sith Lord @Ozy @YaBoyTr @Jasmine @Pato @Skippy @Jakey @Translucent @Nori @emostar @visionnaire @azymv @Raziel @RobA7 @Sign Language @Bleed @Ordinary Joel @Zep @coldkick @Luke @Jet @LasiK @asvdawg @Mikey1990 @Meero @Radeem @Skippy @GMV @Young Sinatra @Creation @Koolo @mdemaz @Pretentious @MPURA @rapmusik @Michael Myers @rapmusik @Narsh @TrxggerShot @zipp39 @November23 @Victim @CreativeSXN @Feedback

 

Dec 16, 2015

The details that you go through is just awe inspiring. I love Hailfire.

 

Dec 16, 2015

5. Inner Demons


Originally, 'Inner Demons' was just intended to be released without vocals as a halloween themed release in October. The track went from that to a last minute addition to the album, one that turned out quite well in my opinion, and for a lot of people ended up being a big highlight from the album. This resulted in me putting much more work went into it than I had anticipated with it's original concept.

I decided to take a risk featuring my own vocals on a track for the very first time. I settled on a verse in a sort of spoken word form, entirely written by me (another first for my songs). I also put a rush on polishing the production to match the caliber of everything else on the album, since the rest of the tracks on AS had literal months more time to be worked on, but the end result fit perfectly with the story and production on the album in my opinion.

Spoiler: lyrics

INNER DEMONS

If I do this I know I'm gonna lose my family.
I have got to find another way.

But you know you need the money.
And you're already losing them anyway.

It's not possible, I can't pull it off.
I'm gonna get f---ing caught!

But if you do nothing then they're lost.
And to the streets you're tossed.

I can't just do something like this.
It doesn't f---ing matter the situation.

Deep down you know your family needs this.
They've already lost their patience.

They'll stand by me, and I'll still raise Autumn.
There's no way we need it this bad.

Really? And if you don't fix the problem?
She'll take her away, she won't have a dad.

Even if I managed it, I don't think I could live with myself.
How could I bare to?

f--- the consequences! What about the wealth?
And don't f---ing think, just do!

This isn't gonna go down right!
Innocent people are gonna get hurt!

f--- them, you need this night.
Do you even care? What's your family really worth?

INNER DEMONS

I guess it's settled then...

The story on the track should be mostly obvious, the father is having a battle with himself, over whether or not to commit a crime that could ultimately save his family from the problems they're facing. He argues with his inner demons, and he gives in by the end of the track. One thing I tried to do with the lyrics here, was sort of omit the precise details of the crime as to preserve some sort of surprise in the story for 'Hailfire', especially as this would be released before the album.

Spoiler: mentions

@Squid @Source Act @captain awesome @threee @Loyalty @Hana bi @Sith Lord @Ozy @YaBoyTr @Jasmine @Pato @Skippy @Jakey @Translucent @Nori @emostar @visionnaire @azymv @Raziel @RobA7 @Sign Language @Bleed @Ordinary Joel @Zep @coldkick @Luke @Jet @LasiK @asvdawg @Mikey1990 @Meero @Radeem @Skippy @GMV @Young Sinatra @Creation @Koolo @mdemaz @Pretentious @MPURA @rapmusik @Michael Myers @rapmusik @Narsh @TrxggerShot @zipp39 @November23 @Victim @CreativeSXN @Feedback @Jehovah @Charlton01

 

Dec 11, 2015

Probably my favourite song of yours. The vocals fit really well, and I couldn't tell at all that they were added onto the song instead of the other way around.

 

Dec 11, 2015

This track is growing on me. s---'s deep.

 

Dec 8, 2015

For anyone that's into this album get excited cause LoopNation is about to drop a review on this album in the next 24-48 Hours!
@Cyreides

 

Dec 8, 2015

In

 

Dec 20, 2015

9. Haunt You


So after the emotional blows from 'Downpour' and 'Tragedy', this track is meant to further highlight the feeling/ideas behind Ripple Effect and expand on them. Namely, that your actions have serious consequences, and if you're not careful with what and how you do things, they may ruin your life, hurt someone, or both.

I wanted this to be an eerie and brooding track and set it up to call back to the death of Autumn with the samples of childs laughter. It's a reminder of what's been lost, and I think it (along with me whispering haaaaunt yooooou) also gives it that extra something that the listener would expect from a track named 'Haunt You'. As the last track before the more upbeat moments on the album, I hoped this would really bump, and hit extra hard with the raw distorted feel of the second half.

Production-wise, this is probably the most straightforward hip hop sounding track on the album... that is of course until the drop hits you like a sack of bricks. It's probably my favorite one on the entire album along with 'Caught In The Rain' and 'G. S. K. Y. D.'. I'm so glad it turned out like it did too, because there was a moment of doubt about whether or not I could fix the initial problems I was having on the first version of the track.

Spoiler: mentions

@Squid @Source Act @captain awesome @threee @Loyalty @Hana bi @Sith Lord @Ozy @YaBoyTr @Jasmine @Pato @Skippy @Jakey @Translucent @Nori @emostar @visionnaire @azymv @Raziel @RobA7 @Sign Language @Bleed @Ordinary Joel @Zep @coldkick @Luke @Jet @LasiK @asvdawg @Mikey1990 @Meero @Radeem @Skippy @GMV @Young Sinatra @Creation @Koolo @mdemaz @Pretentious @MPURA @rapmusik @Michael Myers @rapmusik @Narsh @TrxggerShot @zipp39 @November23 @Victim @CreativeSXN @Feedback @Jehovah @Charlton01

 

Dec 18, 2015

8. Downpour


From it's very inception, this track was meant to do one thing: put all of the pieces back together for the listener, and give them something close to the full picture of the tragic story on the album. Realized through the audio samples/recorded lines from @Jasmine, you're able to finally know what's up with the whole car crash part of things. The father, in his rather flawed attempt at setting things right financially, and in an effort to win back his wife, ends up killing his daughter Autumn when he collides into the mothers car while she's out driving in the storm. He (obviously) goes to jail, and this leaves the mother all alone.

Originally, I was to have @Purspective rap over this track as well as others to bring this story to life, but I ended up simply reworking the production and adding more samples/lines to make it all work. I think it's actually better this way (not that Purspective wouldn't have delivered), since it forced me to add a lot of extra production and polish to things and learn to build the scenes more with my production alone.

By the way, I'm pretty sure my mentions failed for the previous entry, so scroll up if you missed Hailfire and Tragedy.

Spoiler: mentions

@Squid @Source Act @captain awesome @threee @Loyalty @Hana bi @Sith Lord @Ozy @YaBoyTr @Jasmine @Pato @Skippy @Jakey @Translucent @Nori @emostar @visionnaire @azymv @Raziel @RobA7 @Sign Language @Bleed @Ordinary Joel @Zep @coldkick @Luke @Jet @LasiK @asvdawg @Mikey1990 @Meero @Radeem @Skippy @GMV @Young Sinatra @Creation @Koolo @mdemaz @Pretentious @MPURA @rapmusik @Michael Myers @rapmusik @Narsh @TrxggerShot @zipp39 @November23 @Victim @CreativeSXN @Feedback @Jehovah @Charlton01

 

Dec 17, 2015

pretty sure my mentions failed here

 

Dec 16, 2015

6. Hailfire | 7. Interlude II (Tragedy)



The first half of the track was actually produced with the intention of it being used for The SXN80 Tape. Shortly after producing the first half of the song, I'd been listening to a lot of Purity Ring's new album, specifically the track 'Begin Again', as well as Nero's latest single 'Between II Worlds'. Both of those heavily inspired the 2nd half of the song with the wild high pitched synths on the drop, and the string outro. However, after producing another beat for the project I decided to scrap 'Hailfire' and set it aside completely.

It was a month or two later when I finally picked the track back up with the idea in mind for it to fit on 'Autumn Storm'. From the moment I had the story done up to the point of working it into the tracklist, I knew it was one of my favorites from the album, and the turning point for it where everything begins to hit the fan and you get a better idea of what the album is about. Who crashed, why it happened, the robbery at the bank, the car chase etc. I saved a few important things for the final tracks though.

Once the track was done, there was still some time between me finishing it up and working out the connecting Interlude 'Tragedy', due to problems finding desirable samples to use for either. I ended up digging around online for a ton of different gunshot samples and added them to the beat and dug some more to find what I needed for the transition between the two tracks like the car chase (though I had most of those resources from 'Caught In The Rain' still). I also took a ton of audio from News reports for Tragedy and chopped it all up to fit the story, as well as a sample from a bank robbery in a movie for the 'Everybody down!'.

A couple side notes:

There's a little easter egg here that I put in for anyone who's given a thorough listen to 'The Coldest Winter', in the form of the track playing in parts of the car chase on the radio. It's 'Silent / The Chase'. There's also a cut story thread that slipped into the audio because I was lazy/forgot to fix it before release. Originally, there was to be a friend of the father involved in the bank robbery. He needed it to pay back a dealer who was going to have him killed if he couldn't cough up the dough he owed him. It's mentioned in 'Tragedy' where it says "A gunman was also killed". It was suppose to add some more irony to all of it, but it felt tacked on in the end and I didn't have the resources to work it into the story properly so I scrapped the idea.

Spoiler: mentions

@Squid @Source Act @captain awesome @threee @Loyalty @Hana bi @Sith Lord @Ozy @YaBoyTr @Jasmine @Pato @Skippy @Jakey @Translucent @Nori @emostar @visionnaire @azymv @Raziel @RobA7 @Sign Language @Bleed @Ordinary Joel @Zep @coldkick @Luke @Jet @LasiK @asvdawg @Mikey1990 @Meero @Radeem @Skippy @GMV @Young Sinatra @Creation @Koolo @mdemaz @Pretentious @MPURA @rapmusik @Michael Myers @rapmusik @Narsh @TrxggerShot @zipp39 @November23 @Victim @CreativeSXN @Feedback @Jehovah @Charlton01

 

Dec 16, 2015

I re-listened to the whole project last night.. just an amazing piece of art.

Inner Demons is probably my favorite track still; next to Caught in The Rain

 

Dec 16, 2015

That beat is hard.