I’d like to go back to the very beginning of this project, where the seeds were first planted, when I was still working on my previous album, Growing pains in around august of 2023. When sorting through the songs to make the final tracklist, there was one that stood out, clearly out of place. The rest of the album was slow, dark and brooding, encapsulating the uncomfortable period of change and misunderstanding I was going through at the time. But this track, was fun and upbeat, which characterised the next chapter I was unknowingly about to enter.
‘Fish Island’ was made as the first track when I moved in with a bunch of friends, we were always making things no matter how good or bad the purpose was that we were having fun. I remember having a great time experimenting with reamping my drum machine to create some weird effects in my new unfurnished room, synths sprawling across the floor. I decided to leave it in a folder for safe keeping knowing that I might use it later on.
The track below is an early version of ‘Cloud9_’ from July 2024. This was the first track that I made once I got myself a copy of Ableton 12. I experimented for days with all of the different synths and effects and LFOs, although I didn’t bounce any earlier versions, it originally started as an ambient piece. It had been ages since I worked on programming drums inside a DAW so the focus shifted as I thought I had made a good enough foundation for myself to build on. This period was full of creative energy. I fondly remember waking up and opening my laptop that was still in my bed from being up late into the previous night working on the track.