Pushing myself to make this music thing work. Built this website, ordered merch (stickers and t-shirts), working on wrapping up an album, doing some side work with other bands. It can be stressful most of the time. I’m lucky to have friends that are extremely talented and I am just in awe of the abilities! But that also make me insecure about the things I put out. I think it was Andy Warhol who said “It is not your job to decide whether or not your art is good. You just keep putting it out and let the world decide for you”…or something like that. I try to remember that. We can criticize ourselves into extinction and never accomplish anything if we obsess over every last detail to make something “perfect”. Nothing is perfect you just need to know when it’s good enough. Some people will love it, some will hate it, some will barely notice. Be grateful to the one that love it. Listen calmly to the critique of the people that hate it and grow from it…or not. You can’t make all the people love what you do either. The point is to just KEEP DOING! The world needs more art, more passion, more creativity. Thoughts? Elaborations? I’m done rambling, best get to choring then doing! Stay nerdy my friends!
First blog post
Published by Echo Haus
My name is AJ. I lived my life to this date in the Chicagoland area and I have a deep-rooted obsession with music and sound. From playing in experimental bands as a kid, trying to mutate the sound of my guitar into anything but a guitar, to venturing out on my own now and collaborating with other artists. The element I really fell in love with was creating live soundtracks over silent horror and sci-fi movies! It first started with my band Braille Night. We would play absurdly loud ambient music in the upstairs of a coffee house for hours. One of the members came up with the idea of using a silent movie to direct the feeling of the music. And now a decade + later I'm still doing that frequently, mostly in collaboration with Comfort Station here in Chicago for their summer series "Silent Films and Loud Music". Sound was only the beginning for me though. The past couple years I have gone done the path of video synthesis, VJing, and programming stage lighting. Most notably for Lorelei Dreaming, where I have spent hours synchronizing lights to emphasize the mood of the music and Lorelei herself as she entrances the audience with her voice and presence, and manipulate video as a live performance jamming along to the music and lights. What does the future hold? I want to take my experiences, skills, and passions to the next level. Put out more music. Work on a soundtracks for current movies, shorts, video games, or what-have-you. Lend my patience and knowledge to programming stage lights for other bands. Basically, I want eat, sleep, and breathe this stuff! View more posts
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