Art and Software



I play a number of musical Instruments, and enjoy writing and recording music in what might be considered a progressive rock style.

A friend once accused me of "always trying to make Pink Floyd out of garbage", and I had to immediately agree with this particular insight.



Here are three songs I put together which demonstrate an interesting realization of the "Pink Floyd out of garbage" principle.

The first song, "Ergot Era", contains several obvious allusions to Pink Floyd. Please be convinced, though: I have sampled nothing from the real Pink Floyd. All these sounds are original. The sequencer is a Roland System 100,



and the clocks and bells came from a 40 CD sound effects library I picked up at a junk shop.

Listen to Ergot Era

The previously mentioned insightful friend pointed out that Ergot Era is the musical narrative of a duck who sits down in a restaurant, orders a cheeseburger, and then storms up to the counter complaining: "I ordered cheese on this! Way too much mayonnaise! I think the bun is stale! I am not satisfied! I won't be coming back! I'll write a bad review!" ...and on and on, while the poor cashier, who would gladly just give the duck a refund, has to stand there and hear "Quack, quack quack quack quack quack!" over and over.

We then follow a stressed out manager who wants to remain uninvolved in the situation. He goes on break and disappears into the staff washroom to try to relax by washing his hands. While he is looking out a small window, a train passes, and the manager has a peculiar daydream about outer space.

The manager then returns to the service area of the restaurant, hoping the complaining duck has gone on his way, only to find that he is still there.


The next song, "Aware", is something I wrote in early 2008 when Yes announced a video contest. Unfortunately, as a Canadian, I could not enter the contest. As well, the agreement with the promoter one needed to agree to seemed kind of slimy. Then the 2008 Yes tour and contest were canceled. I am, as I'm sure most fans are, quite glad to see Mr. Anderson cancel a tour rather than risk his health.

Featured in this song is a ridiculous pink toy keyboard that happens to have a great fm pop synth sound. I had to open this, disable and remove a bunch of motorized flowers, splice lines, and impedance match to get a signal out. You can see the clips beside my hands in this picture.



Because the purpose of this song is to impress Yes, I used some odd numbered time signatures, and tried to make the song about love, which are two things Yes have been known to do. Perhaps this is exactly the wrong way to impress Yes. I don't know. Regardless, when listening to Aware, it's fun to listen for the 7/4 at the beginning, and the 9/8 during the jam parts.

Listen to Aware



Finally, "Walk in the Boondocks" is just a great tune. I want to play this with a band.



Listen to Walk in the Boondocks

Art and Software