Carston Früm, or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Write Ambient Music

Hope you're all staying cool on the hottest day New York has had in a long time. I've never been so happy to be sitting at the desk answering phones at my internship; free air conditioning! When I'm in the city I share a room the size of a closet with no A/C, so fat guy + A/C = I'll do whatever you need, so long as I can keep my rolls cool.

Last week I put out an EP of music I'd started during my last week of college. Bear with me, it's sort of a big deal. One, because I'm actually selling it (which I never do with my music). Of course, there's still the option to download it for free; nobody has any money anymore, and I'd rather have people listening to it and spreading it around and not making any money off of it than them not getting it because of some set arbitrary amount (originally, I tried a $2 minimum, which lasted all of 15 minutes).

Two (and this reason's actually kinda cool), it's the first time I sat down every day and forced myself to commit an idea to "paper". Each song minus the bonus track was started in a succession of days, and was finished once the impending doom of graduation was dealt with. As such, some of the music is tense, uncertain, sorrowful, what have you. The regular gamut of emotions one runs through right before starting the rest of their life. 

I talk too much. The music's my take on ambient (so, ambient film score, sort of) with fittingly Swedish band name to match. The name was born out of the idea to have our names pronounced entirely wrong with what was written. Carston Früm was a take on Christian Frahme, one of my housemates; of course, it helps that it looks like Sigur Rós.

http://carstonfrum.bandcamp.com/
^My personal favorite track, and the one that started the whole project.

Download, listen, spread, enjoy, and if you like it enough give me money! That gives me more incentive to do these types of things, or at least lets me buy things to do them better.

One last thought before I go: caught Prometheus on Tuesday. Apart from a rather refreshing take on film score in a major release, I'm still trying to decipher why the film was made. It looked incredible, sure (possibly cause of the Imax 3D and all of the subwoofer), but I didn't see the point. Between all the mouthfucking aliens and Charlize Theron's bodysuit (admittedly awesome), it seems like Ridley Scott missed the whole idea of a movie: it has to have a point. Which I feel Prometheus did not.

Though it did allow me to whisper "Spaaaaaace" at every possible moment.

Pictured: Space. And robot Michael Fassbender.

I'm done.

Post-Graduate Crankiness

I suppose I don't blog as often as I should. Considering I'm interning at a place that requires me to put in anywhere from 2 to 5 hours sitting in front of a phone waiting for it to ring, I should have time to update. Said time is usually spent reading and re-reading Cracked articles, and now with the recent acquisition of Netflix, watching mind-numbing TV shows.

Too much time wasted.

Being an intern 4 days a week isn't really where I envisioned my life going. We all have these lofty aspirations to be hired straight out of college, touring the world or scoring that big budget Hollywood movie and walking down the red carpet to the Oscars (hey, I can dream). Reality sets in soon afterwards when you realize how few and far between music jobs appear. All the musicians I graduated with are still jobless and I know more than a few are contemplating other career paths.

Yes, I'm well aware that I only graduated from college less than a month ago (a point that's hurled at me every time I complain about working for $10 a day), but the future's scary. I spent enough time working at a snack bar over the past few summers to know that it's absolutely miserable, and I don't want to have to stoop that low again just to get by.

Bitch, moan, bitch, complain, bitch, etc.

On a couple sidenotes: I took a stab at writing "ambient" music where I started a track a day right before graduation. Those 5 tracks will be out soon, once I get the artwork for the album. I'm also involved in an upcoming webseries called "Mock Justice", whose 5 minute pilot is set to be completed this weekend and entered into competitions next weekend. I'll have updates for both of these next posting cycle (which hopefully won't be like the last update, 2 months ago).

In the meantime, I'm going to see Amanda Palmer in 2 weeks, where I paid far too much for StubHubbed tickets but don't really care, because it's Amanda Fucking Palmer. Watch this video (still one of my favorites),.

Welcome Back Kotter

Hi again, blog world.

It's me.

A whole lot's happened since July 7th, 2011; much too much to go into detail on here, especially at 1 in the morning when I've been writing charts since I woke up at 11. Let's just say it was equal parts business, laziness, craziness and time.

But I'm back. For how long, I'm not sure. Is it because I currently only have 1 and a half hours of class a week? Perhaps. Am I trying to promote the crap out of an original musical? A valid point. Freaked out about my future as a freelance musician? You better fucking believe it. It's high time to vent to something, to provide another output for my creation, and really, just to write because it feels like it's time to write.

So for at least until showtime, if not more, Composing While Colorblind returns.

And as always, there will be music. Lots of it.

A Word is Worth a Thousand Notes

Work has been continuously chugging along on Alice Unraveled for the past week or so. It appears I found my muse in an in-progress cover of "Cannibal" by Ke$ha. Sometimes all it takes is the realization that you had the first chord of the chorus confused to spark ALL of your work to completion. The latest arrangement brought to the party borrows heavily from Phil Spector produced groups, namely The Rhonettes and is my take on that 60s girl-pop sound. It's somewhat hard to convey with my sample set, but hopefully the idea gets across well. James Perrella was kind enough to quick-mix it, and it's not indicative of his actual mixing prowess at all. But he's a much better mixer than I, so even a couple of hours put into it equals days of me trying to mix it. Lots of problems with this rendition, but hey, it's a first draft. Rewrite, rewrite, rewrite.
Who Are You? by Michael Hart

And as always, pimp my music out!

Really, though, I wanted to share an insight with you that happened upon me just last night. All throughout my life, and musical career, I never put much value into lyrics. If they were good or bad, sure, I'd take notice and be able to determine if they were good or bad. But it wouldn't affect my interest in the song at all. It's played a small part in how my music has turned out (hey, there's no lyrics in film scores; I'm an awful lyricist), and when asked to do arrangements I'd keep them in mind but ultimately not pay too terribly much attention to them.

Kelly Izzo and I hit a few mishaps during this whole process of arranging for Alice Unraveled, where she approaches things from a very simple, very minimalist point of view and I... well, do not. I love my bombast. I was re-listening to the demo tracks last night to try and get arrangement ideas and I hit the title track of the musical. Which, if you haven't heard it, is absolutely phenomenal. So I was listening, blah de blah, it finished, I had an idea when something changed. Something resonated in my head.

"Something was lost, when I couldn't see/with the lights turned off".

I don't know why it struck such a chord, but I listened to the song again. And really listened to the words this time. By the end of the song I was shaking. It finally all fell into perspective; here's a musical about a girl who's thrown into an awful situation by herself and lays her heart out for the whole world to see, only to have no one care. It was an incredibly moving moment.

Again I go back to this point I've made before, but this time with a new perspective: for all of our mass produced, synthesized, hugely arranged pop, electronica, anything with a club kick... does it matter what they say? Hell, even singer-songwriters do it too, drowning the message in washes of guitar layers and strings. Far too many are concerned with a pristine sounding record, how loud it gets, how deep the bass is, whether or not it'll move a million units.

Valid points? Sure.

The only points? Fuck that.

Sometimes it only takes a girl with a guitar, recording into a Macbook camera mic, to make you realize how vulnerable you really are.

I'm still in awe.

Really, All You Need Is Björk

It starts with a link.

http://disconaivete.com/post/6899643048

And ends with you listening to it.

Really, I have nothing more to say other than forget Volta, forget that weird thing she did with Thom Yorke, forget that weirder thing she did with Dirty Projectors (though that wasn't as bad). This is the Björk we know and love.

Just listen, fuckers.

Time Travel (Not The Fun Kind)

Last night I had the realization that I own a lot of CDs. They're currently overflowing from my meager CD rack. From the beginning of middle school till around the first or second semester of college, I bought CDs on a fairly consistent basis, around 1 every two weeks if I could afford it. Looking back, I have no idea how I DID afford it, but I somehow ended up with a huge collection of them.

Upon closer inspection, there were quite a few that I hadn't listened to since middle school. Not remembering what they sounded like, I spent last night and the most of today reliving middle school. Musically, at least. I don't think anyone in their right mind has fond memories of middle school; I certainly didn't. The only kids who were less popular than me were the ones that had mental breakdowns during class, or... well, that was about it.

But music. I liked a LOT of shitty music during high school. Lots of rap-rock/metal, nü-metal and alt-rock. Here's a short sampling of what I've been revisiting:

Crazy Town - Darkhorse

I think there were two categories of angsty white preteens in my high school: those who listened to rap, and those who listened to nü-metal. Me being in the latter category, I was of course in love with Linkin Park's Hybrid Theory. Apparently a lot of bands were as well, because the amount of CDs trying to be Hybrid Theory I found was astonishing. This was one of them. Crazy Town were most famous for that awful piece of trash "Butterfly". You know. "Come my lady, come come my lady" blah de fucking BLAH. There's really no redeeming qualities in this CD too; it's bland, boring rap/rock with awful lyrics, awful vocal performances and uninspired songwriting. It was mildly aggressive and had curses on it though, which 12 year old Mike latched onto immediately (the edited version, at least; Mommy didn't want me listening to so called "explicit" music). NEXT.

Greenwheel - Soma Holiday

My father bought this for me on one of his trips to Japan, I think. Nobody I've talked to has heard a single thing about this band; Wikipedia says this was their only album and they toured with bands like Injected and Hoobastank and all those other bad post-grunge alt rocky bands that tried to be Bush but had no charisma or songwriting skill. In all fairness to Greenwheel, this album isn't BAD. It's just incredibly generic. It legitimately sounds like a bunch of Bush B-sides. Given as how I hadn't heard of Bush when I was this age, though, this was the next best thing.

Aerosmith - Just Push Play

I fully expected this to be one of the worst of the lot I listened to, but honestly, there's some absolutely INCREDIBLE material on here. Mainly, I still can't get over how awesome the opener "Beyond Beautiful" is. Yeah, it's got sitar in there trying to make it all "exotic" and shit, but it's incredibly out there for a classic rock band, not least the one that wrote "Dream On". Productionwise, this album slays too. Thick and beefy yet still pristinely clear guitars abound everywhere. There's a whole lot of filler, but the first three tracks are all sweet, most importantly "Beyond Beautiful". Damn.

System Of A Down

I still listen to SOAD, but these two albums fell by the wayside once I hit high school. The self-titled suffers from rather muddy production and Steal This Album! suffers from filler syndrome again, but they're both great and ended up back in listening rotation. The self titled in particular has some great, great songwriting. It's angsty and heavy enough for preteens, but the writing is so spastically great that any shortcomings get overlooked.

3rd Strike - Lost Angel

The minute I popped this one in, overwhelming waves of nostalgia rolled over me. It was like I was back in middle school, but with the added wisdom that I have now. I'm listening to it now actually, as I type this, and the jury's out. Vocals suck. Plain and simple. Songwriting's nothing special, but there's some awesome guitar licks and plenty of crunch. Actually, a LOT of crunch. Maybe that's why I liked it so much and never really realized it.

And then there's the honorable mentions, which I've either not listened to yet, still listen to or don't give two shits about in any conceivable manner. Maybe I'll do another one of these posts in the coming future.

Default - The Fallout
The Buzzhorn - Disconnected
Course Of Nature - Superkala
Mad At Gravity - Resonance
The Used - The Used
And plenty of things from Disturbed, Creed, Korn, Slipknot, Seether... holy shit the list goes on. I'm definitely doing another of these posts.

As for now, I'm gonna go back under into nostalgia and laugh at my preteen self. Also, Deconstruction and Ghost by The Devin Townsend Project come out today (being Tuesday, at this point). Pick them up. I've yet to hear Ghost, but Deconstruction  quite possibly eclipses Scurrilous as most over the top absurdly awesome metal album to come out this year.

Two Opposite Extremes

I've slumped. It happens to the best of us.

Summer's been an interesting period for me musically so far; I haven't really had the motivation to do much of anything, to be perfectly honest. The feeling of un-inspiration, if you will, hits every musician from time to time, and I've found myself... well, not being able to write. Which is hard, considering there's still deadlines for this musical. Luckily, a few things I've been listening to recently may have sparked my creative juices again.

The first being something I don't usually enjoy: SHOW TUNES!

Longtime buddy ol' friend and collaborator Andrew Fox has been working a show recently titled The Best Is Yet To Come: The Music of Cy Coleman. I called him up to shoot the shit, and he mentioned the show and offered me a comp ticket. Not being one to turn down free things that are offered to me (hey, I'm a fuckin' composer; my entire life is based on handouts) and not having anything else to do, I agreed.

Let me tell you: I'm not a big fan of Broadway songs, but I'll be damned if the band wasn't the tightest I've heard in a long time. Through 85 minutes of nonstop music they didn't drop a note, the sound was incredible and filled the entire tiny theater, and they served to liven up all the music to a degree where it was almost like being back in Coleman's times, albeit with many more microphones. The singers all performed admirably too, with my favorite being Lillias White (she was the crowd favorite too, singing about being a prostitute and ripping off her wig halfway through the show), but hats off to the band and Billy Stritch's arrangements. Wonderful.

The other is something completely different. One of my favorite bands, Unexpect, released their latest album at the end of May and it's currently been in heavy rotation in my car. Fables of the Sleepless Empire is equal parts heavy, technical, bizarre, unexpected (forgive the pun) and really hammers home the fact that the band is made up of French Canadians.

Whereas previous album In a Flesh Aquarium was as about as oddball as an album could get, Fables seems to be the natural progression of the band's sound. Off kilter rhythms and melodies still abound, as well as hairpin changes, but it's a much more focused effort. As opposed to being weird for weird's sake, the album's bizarre nature serves a purpose to the songwriting, and even if the album drags in its last moments, the beginning is more than worth the price of admission. The first two tracks in particular are some of the best in the band's catalog, with opener "Unsolved Ideas of a Distorted Guest" being my far and away favorite. It opens with bowed cymbals and those giant metal MREEEEOOOWWWWSSSS that horror composers love so much before launching into an absolutely incredible 9 string bass slap part.  And then proceeds to go all over the place. But it never loses focus even for a second, which in and of itself is astounding considering how many fucking ideas are being thrown around.

Honestly, just go buy the album. Considering you can get it digital for 9 dollars Canadian, it's a steal. Me, I prefer albums I really like in CD form (I'm an old fogey like that), but to each his own.

Coming soon: more musical work (hopefully) and a 3 song pop/punk EP being written with Mark Wudtke of The Bearing. That one might be entertaining.