Between 1988 and 2001 there was a band called Instant Emotion. Well, perhaps band is not the right word. It was more of a concept I had. At the time of its inception, I felt that popular music was missing true emotion and feeling. So the concept was to write music that would create emotions, and create them instantly. The concept sounded better in my 20s, and I wrote and produced seven albums under that name. While there was never a physical band, David Ozab managed to be on every one of those albums in some way. I wrote a long of songs during that period, and recorded them in any studio or semblance of one I could find. Finally, before the release of Eclipse, I abandoned the name “Instant Emotion” and released the album under my own name. Shelter followed suit sometime later.

The old Instant Emotion recordings were special gems to me. The recordings were primitive, three albums were done on a 4-track. Only one album had enough tracks to use a live drummer. If I closed my eyes and listened long enough, I could hear the songs the way they were supposed to sound, as opposed as to what was on tape. Before the 21st century, it was a lot harder to produce an album on a college student budget. They were good songs, but I always felt that the lack of production somehow got in the way.

The band that I assembled for the release concert of Shelter was a lot of fun to play with. They are all extremely talented and strangely enough enjoy my music. After the album release several of them asked what next. So much time and effort went into the production of Shelter that I had not taken any time to write new material. Also, there was so much happening in my personal life that I couldn’t find the time to write new material. But I also wanted to play with them.

So in February of this year, I pulled out an Instant Emotion song – Transparent. I was fortunate enough that most of my albums existed in General MIDI format or at least some bare MIDI tracks. I reworked the string parts with my new sample libraries, and handed the rest of the music to the band. In March of this year, we walked into Fullerton College and laid the song down for one of my recording classes. All the magic, all the joy, all the excitement I felt they day I wrote and recorded the song in 1994 came alive. The song breathed a deep breath and was born again. We even brought string players from the College to add to the sample tracks. It was not a perfect recording, but it opened up my eyes to the potential of the music, and the band especially.

And so on July 29th work began on Looking Glass, a collection of songs pulled from seven Instant Emotion albums. Over the next several months, we will post audio and video clips of the entire process, so please stay tuned.

In the meantime, here is what happend this past March at Fullerton College…

Transparent

Anyone who has been around me has been hearing the word “Shelter” from me for several years. Ever since Anne Hwang first sent me the picture that inspired The Somewhere Bridge over 8 years ago, the concept of “Shelter” has been looming over me. So even while I was finishing Eclipse, I knew there was another album that wanted to be written.

The writing for Shelter was in spurts. Most of the music had been written by the middle of 2004; the words came as late as two years after that. The songs had titles, so the challenge was finding words to fit the titles. Also, unlike Eclipse, I added the constraint that I would write all the songs just using the piano and once done, I would figure out how to record them.

I took time off from Shelter to finish recording Eclipse and rode that album as far as I could. As Eclipse went off for pressing, I began searching for a band to help me record Shelter. All I had was a piano/vocal recording and the musicians I approached were intimidated by the challenge of having to create accompanying parts for the music. Unlike previous projects, I really wanted to have a band work with me to create the arrangements. After several failed attempts, I retreated back into the studio to begin production of the album on my own.

During this time, I started working on a film called Haunted Prison with Ludek Drizhal. The scenes I was in charge of writing for all required a blend of industrial and techno music, sounds which I was familiar with but had never written in. Needless to say, the experience revealed an entire new sonic palette to me, one which found its way onto Shelter. Thus, Shelter now had a sound sphere from which to work with.

I began recording Shelter in 2007 and finished the bulk of recording by the end of that year. For a variety of reasons, Shelter sat on the shelf for all of 2008. Work began again in 2009 and by September of 2009, the album was essentially finished. But it did not feel finished.

As fortune would have it, my Fullerton College students rose to the occasion and fed me ideas, leading to additional overdubs featuring the talents of Charlene Gibbs, Carlos Morales, and Vince Hizon. The recordings took place early this year and mixing began in March 2010.

The live performance next week is an added bonus for this album. The band is made up of Fullerton College students, all who have put a considerable amount of time into this concert. The experience has been especially rewarding for me and it is a great honor to be working with such young talent. I sincerely hope all of you make it out to the show. It will be an evening to remember.

My deepest thanks to Robyn, John, Charlene, Lindsay, Trevor, Carlos, Eric, Adrian, Chang, and Mayra; this would not have been possible without all your efforts.

Of the 14 tracks on Shelter, the song Anyone is the oldest. I wrote it back in2001 as an attempt to treat a heart break as a casual incident; as if the feelings never really mattered. At that time, I was still buried in the recording process of another album, Impressions, which was released under my previous band name, Instant Emotion.

I knew the song was special from the moment I wrote it, but I had nowhere to put it. I also realized that it would be many years before I could make a recording that even came close to the sound in my head. I made a quick recording soon after writing it and shelved it.

By 2002, Impressions was released and I began working on the next album, Eclipse. Two songs, Consequence and Grace were the first songs to be written. I did not know at that time that I had written the 2nd and last song on the album respectively. During the writing of Eclipse, I kept looking for a place to insert Anyone, but the song did not fit the concept in any way. So once again, the song was shelved. Eclipse was released in the Spring of 2006.

Work on Shelter had already begun before Eclipse was released. My good friend and photographer, Anne Hwang, had moved to Boston in 2005. She sent me a series of winter photos of the city. Many of the photos caught my eye and captured my imagination. One by one, I discovered a photo that moved me to write a song. The songs were not about the scene, but rather the feeling that it evoked to me. By the time Eclipse was released, most of Shelter was written.

Any person who knows my work understands how important the storyline of the album is. I struggled with the ending of the story for several months. Anne sent me her last batch of photos. There was a photo of a solitary figure standing at the edge of a lake in the night. There was a sense of loneliness and acceptance in the photo. The first thought that came to mind was the song Anyone.

I placed the song as the last track and listened to the draft of the entire album Shelter. The song fit better than I could have ever imagined.

It was now the Fall of 2006.

Recording of Shelter began in October 2006.

In the following weeks I will write about the album and the recording process. I will release clips, rough mixes, and alternate takes, and even some final versions. I will share the stories behind the songs and the album. If you follow this blog, you will experience the creative process behind my work and preview the album that has taken me nearly 4 years to complete.

For now, I will leave you with the photo that helped me find a place for a song I wrote nearly 9 years ago.

This is a project that was full of starts and stops. The first half of the album was composed quickly, followed by a 5 month hiatus before the last half was written. It was originally conceived as a complete story and I am pleased that it has remained so. Oddly enough, it was also conceived as a modern dance piece and I am still seeking a choreographer who might be interested in exploring the possibilities.

Trying to tell a story with music only, or programmatic music, is definitely a challenge. Many of us are used to visual or verbal cues to guide us along. The provided storyline is a guideline to the action; it is up to the listener to fill in the blanks with their own imaginations and experiences.

I consider this to be one of my more ambitious projects. I believe the results will speak for themselves.

Enjoy the adventures of Tempo.

Most of Technique was written several summers ago in Ashland, Oregon. While I honestly cannot say that being in Ashland influenced the creation of this music, I did enjoy the amount of time I had to create. Each track on this album has existed in several states, arrangements, and lengths throughout the years. So compared to Textures, this album saw many edits before its final release. I never felt that the pieces were completely ready for public consumption, but after many months of tweaking and refining, here it is.

Each track is tightly composed with clear ideas and emotions behind the music. The character is much different than Textures. It is far less reflective and more agitated and edgy than the previous album. I call it an “action adventure” album because there is clearly a story going on in each track and there seems to be a connection between tracks. While I never defined a story, I hope everyone who listens to it finds their own story. I honestly cannot remember how I came up with the title Technique, but I believe it works.

The album is available for free download at www.andrewmaz.com/technique.

Enjoy.

I wrote Textures about 5 years ago. It was my first attempt at ambient electronic music. Back then I used Acid Pro version 3 and a few CDs of loops to construct the album. It was a fun project as I wanted to create music that could serve as a backdrop on a long drive through the middle of nowhere. What I ended up with was a series of musical beds with varying moods that seemed to slow down time.

The titles were descriptive but not definitive - everyone is free to choose their own story and journey.

The album has been remixed and remastered. For those who were fortunate to have the first release, you will discover many changes. Overall, all the pieces remained the same, although some were shortened to make stronger statements. The early version of Acid had a very primitive mixer and less than spectacular effects. This new release of the album has been mixed and mastered in Acid Pro 7, which offered great flexibility and wonderful options.

I have always been fascinated with acoustic space and this album is no exception. It is best experienced with a good set of headphones.

The album is available for free download. You can choose the pieces you want, or download the entire album.

Thank you for listening and enjoy.

www.andrewmaz.com/textures

You were always beautiful to me

Any hour any moment any day

I always looked at you

With such awe and amazement

That one so lovely

Chose to walk with me

And though you’re gone

With words unspoken

I still look back

I still remember

The day you first smiled at me

The day I knew

Your heart

Touched mine

So very long ago

Or so it seems

But even now

The moment is as clear

As if it were today

Today

Now

Yesterday

You were always beautiful

I still remember

Perhaps you do as well

I must admit that I redesign my studio at 4-5 times a year. Most of the time it is because I have added or changed items. Sometimes, it is due to me finding more effecient ways to route signals. Today is the first time I actually removed items and simplified my studio.

All it took was selling one sound module and keyboard for everything to suddenly change. I ordered my new keyboard controller which is USB-powered. So the need for MIDI and audio cables immediately left. And losing the sound module freed up two audio channels and the old keyboard freed up two as well.

Suddenly I was wiring 8 audio signals with an 8-channel snake and realized that I could completely pass the patch bay. The patch bay was a wonderful device that allowed you to route signals to different channels if needed. My Yamaha 01v has 16 inputs and believe it or not there was a time when I had more than 16 channels to feed it. But now with only 8 channels, I still had 8 free channels to work with.

Of course, none of this would be possible without virtual instruments. I admit that it took me some time to accept them. I always wanted to have the hardware handy. There was something about the nostalgia of old gear. But old gear fails and is heavy and requires more power, more midi, and more audio channels. With virtual instruments, you can use as many channels as your computer can handle. And with a quad-core Xeon machine, I can use a lot of virtual instruments.

And so it seems that my studio suddenly became simpler. I never imagined that I could ever be down to 8 audio sources, but here it is.

If you haven’t explored virtual instruments, I suggest you give it a try. You might be surprised by what you find with them.

The folks at iTunes today released a list of the top 10 best selling albums of 2008 and the top 10 best selling singles of 2008.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/12/02/the-top-selling-artists-o_n_147653.html

I went through the list and can honestly say I only recognized a few items. The soundtrack for Across The Universe was on the list, but that album is nothing but Beatles covers. I have heard of a few of the artists as well.

I don’t listen to radio much anymore, and I certainly don’t listen to “popular” radio either. So unless I search for these groups on the Internet, I have no real exposure to this music. So maybe I’m not “plugged” into the right networks. Coldplay’s latest CD sold over 2 million copies on iTunes this year. That is a significant number and yet I am not familiar with any of the songs.

The other factor is that I am not actively seeking out new music to listen to. I overhear bits of songs from the environment, but to be honest, nothing that I have heard has caught my attention and caused me to seek out the music.

It seems to me that the record industry is trying to find artists that fit with a particular audience and is pushing as much as possible to get that audience to buy the music. Rather than targeting the music to people like me, who probably won’t buy the music, they seek out those who will. For the artist, this means that they still must follow the whims of the record company and produce music that will sell.

So the question is: who is actually creating music that is driving by the need to express themselves rather than sell records.

People continue to mention Radiohead and while I admire what that band is doing, their music does not always grab me.

Popular music is in a strange place at the moment. At least it seems that way to me.

But maybe I am just out of touch with what is really going on…

It’s hard to sleep at night when you’re cold.
You’re mind wanders and thinks of warmth.
You layer blankets, put more clothes on,
just so you can stay warm.
And in the warmth, you find sleep.

But an empty heart is always cold.
When you are disconnected from the one you love,
your heart feels cold.
And no amount of blankets or layering
will help you sleep.

You close your eyes and try to imagine
she is breathing next to you.
You touch her for a moment
suddenly everything becomes
warm again.

You call yourself a fool
for ever thinking that it could be
too warm at night.

But sleep does not come when your heart lacks warmth.
All you can do is hope that the night passes quickly
and the morning light will start a new day.

And you will begin that day
and carry out the motions
you always do,
smile when you’re supposed to.
You tell everyone else
everything is fine.
No one really needs to know
how cold it is at night.
No one needs to know
how much you miss her.

You just hope that she knows.