Some may say this year was 2020 version 2.0, others may say the whole decade will suck. Personally, I enjoyed this year quite a lot. It sure had a lot of ups and downs, as all years do, and the more I think about it the more I realize I actually made quite a lot of stuff!
But before I talk about it...
Since December of 2020 I decided to enter the wild world of electronic music, specially synthwave. Until then I mostly had experience with Synth1 and Hybrid 3, the latter being included with my midi keyboard. After growing tired of the crappy guitar tone I used to have, I finally decided to create a fully electronic track. And well... I guess everyone needs to start somewhere huh?
I know, I couldn't EQ well, I bet some layers still had the raw sound without any processing, but moving on!
Something I can't deny, and probably didn't realize back then, is how much of a shift it would be for my workflow. This was probably the first track I made completely for myself. Not for a band, not for an audience, just for me to grow as a musician. If I didn't get the motivation to make that one track, I wouldn't be writing this as probably nothing interesting would've happened.
Now it's finally time to talk about 2021...
It began with a huge surprise as it actually snowed were I live! The weather is usually sunny and dry, so you can already imagine how rare snow is (there was one time it snowed in May, of all months. I'm not making that one up).
Since I'm a college boy, I decided to take a extra course through January-February in order to keep up with my other courses and... well, you know how it is. It was quite an unexpected experience as I met a lot of cool people, and that's where i made two tracks: Zaino Theme and Dreamland, the latter achieving my first frontpage!
These songs, including Blindshot, were made for the final project of the course, it was a lot of fun! Again, if it wasn't for Blindshot, I probably wouldn't have made those songs as I wouldn't know how. In art, every small bit counts!
After those songs I mostly focused on my band (which I ended up leaving, more on that later) and on college. I didn't really make songs on my own, until a couple of months later, in April, when I made an experimental song called "Pick Me Up". It is a little painful to listen to, and it was kind of the whole point. It was mainly made for an assignment in college. We were looking at the abstract-expressionism movement, including artists such as Pollock and Rothko, and we had to make a song inspired in that style. Since I had already experimented with Synth1 and all the insane sounds it could make, I knew exactly what to do.
AIM and other fun projects...
Around that time I started to think about AIM, and how much I had enjoyed that contest. And low and behold, it had already begun. I spent the whole month of May and half of June making a 6 minute electronic track, experimenting with more plugins and sound techniques so that I could get everything to sound how I always wanted to. Quite stressing too, as I was also doing like 3 final projects for college at the same time. Man, what a ride.
I was still learning a lot about EQ and compression at that point, so you can notice how some frequencies got "discombobulated" as I still didn't know how to handle that many layers. Also, I was still using my cheap ugly earbuds at that point, which ignored a lot of details I wanted to notice but never could. Still, I'm glad it was fairly well received and that it got me another frontpage!
After this one I knew I had to continue making electronic tracks, no way I was going back to heavy metal for quite a while. And so I began working on "Rollin' In The Graveyard", with the idea of making a short track I could have fun making all the way through. Funnily enough, I came up with the intro riff (and thus the chorus) while working on Timely Demise. It's insane what you can do with just one idea. Also, I had finally gotten some studio monitors, so no more dirty buds! Around that time I also made a track for @LostChronology for his animation. It was really fun as it also marked my first collab on Newgrounds!
Notice how I haven't mentioned my band in this section so far? This is when I started to notice how much I preferred to do songs on my own and to experiment with more diverse styles. And how more effective it was too, as we barely rehearsed, if at all, throughout July and August. At this point I started to doubt if I should stay in that project.
NGUAC, more collabs and spooky month...
The annual Underdogs' Audio Contest was just around the corner in August, and at first I was doubting if I should enter since the last one I participated in was... very stressful, and I did very horribly. But oh well, I ended up using "Rollin' In The Graveyard" as my entry for the Knock-Out round, because why the hell not. Sure enough I passed, and that's when the stress kicked in once more.
I struggled a lot at first, since I didn't really know what to do. I wasn't convinced with any of the ideas I had at the moment. In fact I was never fully sure with any of the ideas, I just had to go on with the one I had and hope for the best. I also miscalculated my agenda, as I had a college assignment at the same time. You can imagine how much I crunched with this one.
It turned out pretty good, although I feel I could do way more with this one. I might revisit it in the future, I don't know. Also you can notice how my heavy metal style was starting to creep in once more. And it sure as hell did in September-October, when I did a collab with @itsabluebanana for his Epic Trailer Jam entry. Oh man, I really loved the animation jams this year. For this track I finally decided to go back to my metal origins, this time with a proper, VST guitar amp which simulated a Marshall one, and the improvements sure speak for themselves.
No more cheap beginner's amp, those days are long gone and I don't miss them. Also it was already October and you know what that means... It's spookiest month of the year! I didn't know what to do at first, but then it occurred to me that I could perhaps re-release "Rollin' In The Graveyard" as a single in Bandcamp and other streaming services, included with a B-Side as well. Yep, that's exactly what I did, you can check out the bonus track right here!
The cover art was made by a friend, and it turned out pretty good! I do hope he creates a Newgrounds account one day, he could perhaps get a frontpage or two ;)
VGM challenge and the end of the year...
After being exhausted with the debut release (who knew that stuff isn't that easy huh?), I started to look forward to this challenge that was popping up in the NG Audio Pub discord server. At first I was also a little insecure, but in the end I went with the Airbase N5 group, as I could perhaps make a Top Gun inspired heavy song with lots of synths.
I also mismanaged my time with this one, and I finished it literally minutes before the deadline. Very stressful but also really, really fun! I really like how that piece turned out. Sadly though, it wasn't as fun in real life. Around the same month, in November, I finally got the courage to leave the band I was talking about earlier. It all started when a mate sent me a message to rehearse, and I just didn't want to. I had lost interest in the project. It also made me feel worse than I thought it would, as it was a project I invested a lot of time in and made a lot of contributions. It was very personal for me and I guess for them too, they don't talk to me anymore.
It was already December and I was getting done with final projects and my college courses for this semester. It was very relaxing in that side, nothing compared to May. Since winter break had already begun, I finally took the courage to do a nose surgery I really needed for quite a while. Nothing too drastic, but still very delicate and took me a while to recover, way longer than I thought. Before I knew it 2 weeks went by just like that. Because of this I couldn't really start another track to wrap the year up, I guess Airbase N5 would have to do. Also my parents got diagnosed with covid right after Christmas, not the best of presents for sure. Luckily I came out negative, and we are all vaccinated so it's almost like they don't have anything, but it sure has made daily routines more tedious.
Here goes 2022...
Not the best way to end a year huh? December didn't go like I expected at all, felt quite weird to be honest. But after reflecting on everything else, I couldn't help but feel really good about this year. The last track I made is almost incomparable to the first one, and I seriously grew up musically in ways I wouldn't have imagined. It all began with one small track just a year ago. Can't wait to see what 2022 has to offer, as I'm also moving out due to college. I wonder how much more people I'll meet in a city several times bigger.
Oh, this turned out long, sorry about that :P