Jiggy wit it.

I need to practice!!! Hopefully more of this soon…

NEW Download Site w/option to donate!

Help support more independent releases and donate for downloadable tunes!!!

NEW 6 track EP available: Li Grand Zombi, plus two older releases…I plan to build up the downloadable library back to what it once was. Due to servers going down, computers breaking, so on and so forth, I’ve had to re-consolidate all of my material. This site will prove to be a quick and easy way to get ahold of new and old tunes which I see fitting into the downloadable/donation catergory.

CLICK HERE TO VISIT THE DOWNLOAD SITE.

DOJO vs TWITCH Debut Release Fundraiser!!!

NEW GOODS.

Howdy folks. It’s been a moment…I would like to share with you three tracks from my upcoming releases. I have two new EPs and one new full length collaborative joint with partner in crime, DoJo…All releases are still pending and looking for a cozy label to call home. Allow me to extrapolate…

“TXT ME L8R” is at the moment, my sort of last uber-electronic hoorah. I have been growing increasingly frustrated with the genre of exclusively electronic music, and simply lost my hard on for the sounds of that world. I wanted to put a small collection of tracks together that were really carefully composed and produced so I could feel good about working in the electronic realm again. The track below is the title track from the EP.

selection from : TXT ME L8R

“Li Grand Zombi” is the newest batch of experiments, primarily revolving around simple bass and guitar harmonies. I was sitting in the studio with good friend Mason while I fiddled around with some progressions that I didn’t really intend on taking anywhere specifically, and he helped push me into writing a through-composed piece that certainly felt more substantial than a simple sound doodle. I kept working through the week thereafter and emerged with 5 new tracks that all felt very comfortable together. It’s a simple, warm sound that I feel I’ve been trying to find for a while now. Over all this is the happiest I’ve been about new material in a while.

selection from : Li Grand Zombi

“Press Start to Begin” was roughly a 6 month endeavor that swallowed the efforts of myself and collaborator, roomie, and best BROHAM, DoJo. We had been performing together for several years before we decided we wanted to sit down and produce a proper record. It’s been nearly a year now since we entered the studio, and we are super excited about the package of tracks we’ve put together. It was an absolute pleasure to produce, and I certainly learned a lot from the process, especially working with Dominic.

selection from : Press Start to Begin

Thanks all. Stay tuned for the final releases!!! SOON!

Angstfish

I hesitate to sit and write at the moment as my entire train of thought, as of late, seems to run wild like a frightened ostrich suddenly plucked from its home, lobbed into a Disney themepark. I am anxious. I am a tad stressed. I am excited and overwhelmed. I am starting to feel frighteningly inadequate. Why? Well I guess I’m growing the hell up mom. Everything has become charmingly transparent and we are sitting in front of the silver screen, looking past the images, on through the eyes that act so well, peering back in their dramatized interpretations of life herein, thereafter, and hypothetically speaking…

I am frustrated. Perhaps I “shouldn’t” be… but I am. I feel like people aren’t listening. It’s rather discouraging. Not listening to the world, to themselves, to the music behind them… And to listen, does not necessarily mean to be informed. What horrid swaths of information must I digest in order to feel “up to date” and “educated” and “worthy” in the eyes of a mass public. I want to learn. I want to read. I want to know what you are feeling and what makes you tick what makes you sick. I want to know the world, but I will not understand anything to be finite…because I try my best to listen, wherein there is always more to discover, beyond the first taste.

We’re caught up in too many webs of red tape and I’m tired of watching people decide that “Well, that’s just the way it is.” Is it really? Is that the road to your personal and collective salvation? How many bullets are you going to take before you realize, all you had to do was walk away and try something else? I’m no posterchild for biting the bullet, and I’ve spent a lot of time procrastinating, thinking really hard about totally sweet moves, and I’ve been lucky enough to pull some of it off, but Its REALLY hard to do whatever the fuck you want these days. But it IS possible. The prospect is simply not nurtured. Not culturally. Individually any of us could push as hard as we want, and sometimes we break through, but we are a species bound by our inherent commonalities and we need to understand how our thoughts, desires, and actions, or lack thereof, directly affect our cultures. So then…by default, we fall into these arbitrary systems of government and social politics that dictate our every move and regurgitate the outcomes into informational mediums that sometimes plug directly into our being, recycling and reconfiguring “fact” into sweetly packaged, personalized BITs that we can mold to our liking and combine with other bits to form entirely new functions. At the core, this is a fucking fascinating and groundbreaking paradigm that we should learn to interpret on an entirely different level.

I am capable of so much. You are capable of so much. We came here looking for a way to get what we want… Adding invisible rules to our already gravity bound existence seems futile, does it not? I could go ahead and wing it on my own…and I’ve spent plenty of time in that world already, but at this juncture, why not try something BANANAS. We’re all due for something new… I can’t pretend to know exactly what that means yet, but I’m certainly having fun trying to get there.

Dear World,

I want to write music and make fun sounds for movies and video games.

Sincerely,
Max

Myth vs History: Round 1

It would appear that the history of myth is far more accurate and enriching than the myth of history. I was raised to believe that dinosaurs roamed the earth and eventually the planet ate itself and rebirthed, and we grew up out of wacky looking animals and hunted 500 pound cats and invented fire and the wheel and chronic masturbation. I was also raised to believe that Jesus, his disciples and his followers, roamed the earth much like an ancient incarnation of The Justice League, employing superhuman tactical strikes against the blasphemies of humanity. These riveting tales and speculations were only mirrored and fortified by modern re-tellings through characters like Superman and the still prevalent post apocalyptic life-death-rebirth formula that stilts our beloved alien/robot invasion epics.

These stories are no different. The tales have re-written themselves ten-fold into countless reiterations of what we call The Bible, the Koran, etc. The difference now, is that we have extracted these myths from the spiritual realm and given them their very own living, breathing market.  A true seperation of church and state, and a way to passively and harmlessly absorb the same stories without the obliged “following…” and SHOULD a following arise from such a seemingly harmless tale, it is allowed to exist and prevail with the understanding that it is “all in good fun.” Are the outrageously devoted Star Trek fans not following the same creeds of any basic religious form? Congregation, language, ceremony, attire, idols and ideals, institution and commerce? Should their following be observed as a mere infatuation rather than a legitimate “religious” ideal? If so, then let us demote christianity to the position of mere infatuation. Can you ever truly believe in Jesus Christ, or are you simply obsessed with him?

Of course, that’s not MY call…but I suppose it would require us to decide what it is to truly believe in something, which is where the thin line between myth and history begins to break. Perhaps belief is simply obsession, realized and capitalized. Let us for a moment clarify what history really is in the context of this comparison. History is not necessarily the events that took place on 9/11 nor the moon landing, nor even prohibition. It seems that these can be deemed “observations” as we were and are able to watch it, feel it, virally spread its vast array of cultural influence via swaths of multimedia platforms. HISTORY as it were seems to be something far more elusive and grand, so much so that the historians themselves scratch their heads and wear their furrowed brows, permanently, in the wake of its monolithic awe inspiring vagaries. Can the historians truly believe what they call history, or are they too simply infatuated with storytelling?

And what is the story, the myth, other than cultural foreplay? A way of exciting and lubricating evolution and revolution therein. What is ANY of it other than play? We horsefucked or way across the universe until we found the biggest prettiest ball we could play with, called it home and blew the whistle. Here we stand, throwing play money around deciding such and such is worth X amount and the other such and such is worth Y amount, pretending that dire repercussions ensue when we miscalculate our worth. How exciting! Time to power up, cast some spells and make the pilgrimage to Level 3.

June 15th, Millennium Park, Shostakovitch Cello Concerto Remix Concert

It seemed the last 2 months more or less lead to this particular event. I was working on my portion of the piece (the 2nd movement) while on the road. I finished it while in Brooklyn the night before a fancy Calvin Klein gig. Completely weird… I felt good about the piece but was admittedly nervous as to how it would fly with the musicians. Upon returning 3 days before the event, all of which were saturated with gigs and productions in and out of the studio, it became apparent that once again, we were winging it and it was going to be awesome.

The 1st and 3rd movements were produced by EVAC and The Flashbulb, respectively…Two very accomplished and mega talented composers, producers, engineers, etc. It was a slightly intimidating sandwich…and inspiring to say the least. Im still not 100% satisfied with my mix, but it went so well, and I (we) have an amazing group of musicians to thank for pulling it off without a hitch, with one rehearsal. Dominic rocked and kept the group super cozy thru his conducting. Hopefully I will have more video and pictures to post soon. The recordings will come shortly thereafter as they still have to be mixed and mastered…

THA FUTURE!!!!!!!

Amidst the new air and pleasantly fresh stimulus, my wit and cynicism becomes dull and subdued. Instead of submitting to critical analysis, I suddenly skate the edges of observation and interpretation, anxiously awaiting the arrival of epiphany. Or not… It suddenly becomes easier to revel in the joy of the little things, when the big things aren’t lingering above my head in the throes of familiarity and settlement. Now and again, I find myself repeating patterns of socio-emotional re-education, not that different from when I was an anxious teenager, pining over the inevitable, “next big thing.” It becomes apparent that we can spend our entire lives trying to grow up, which is, in the end, the way I would prefer it. I would happily spend my days realizing that I still have a lot to learn, rather than decide that I’ve learned enough. We are young and ancient, in an instance, and forever. I can’t pretend to know more than I actually do, but I can also do it any way I like. Sometimes we understand each other and sometimes we don’t…It doesn’t mean we know any more or less than the next person. And to say “more or less” actually feels pretty naive…as if the sum of our experience was quantifiable. Perhaps it is at some point in time, but at the moment, I’m comfortable in realizing that, really, there is no end.

A to B

In my mere 4 days away from Chicago, I have realized something. The reason I enjoy Chicago so much is that the “process” is more often than not, rather transparent. Its like walking through a vast network of scaffolding and tight ropes, suspended above a crowd of onlookers that may or may not be interested in what you are actually trying to accomplish. I enjoy this to an almost unhealthy degree. It simultaneously renders me entirely apathetic and entirely inspired and determined. People still show up, regardless of whether not they really care. They are a part of the process…a leg of the cultural scaffold.

It is also quite nice to be the hell away from that for a while…