SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA

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-Sampled an old iPhone recording of me playing drums in the beach house living room to a Shabba Ranks song in my earphones. I don’t remember which one and you can’t hear it on the track because I recorded the drum performance while wearing ear phones.*
-Determined BPM, and made the loop of the original drum performance serve as the chorus of the song. *
-Programmed a basic kick, snare etc. drum machine parts.*
-Added a Koto part to the chorus that I later deleted because it sounded like indie rock music from the 1990s I didn’t want it to. Also, at that point had made the global decision to limit my instruments to a simple palette and the koto did not make the cut. *
-Added midi celeste, bass, and organ parts.
-Added electric guitar and tied it to an automated reverb send that created an ambient spooky layer
-With the help of Jason Cirimele, used a side chaining technique to tie a whole note organ chord to the hi hat to create a strobe sound.

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-I’ve found that this version is stuck and needs an identity. I’m going to try and break it down to the parts I like best and start from there.
-This record is about not having guitar? Should I get rid of the guitar?
-The intro, and maybe that cemetery bells cymbal part are too heavy handed on the spooky end. Cut those?

* = Michigan 2017. Remainder of Steps achieved in California, April 2018 - October 2019.

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