Original video: https://youtu.be/vxfkaCM06LY?si=FDnE9NKPUHeT8pFS

oh shit, a new album?

YOU HEARD THAT RIGHT! I've wanted to release an album of fully original music since 2022/2023, so since before I released I Warned You About Stairs. I just happened to release IWYAS earlier because I stumbled into doing so. Yeah, the album of originals has been on the back burner for a while. But I'm getting back to it. I have a ton of musical ideas bouncing around in my head and they're telling me it's kinda cramped in there and that they need to be let out.

The original compositions will be instrumental tracks that are fusions of everything I like about music. Jazz harmony, distorted electric guitars, VGM and chiptune synth patches, quotes and references out the wazoo, an air of melancholia and wistfulness, and lots of very loud, very intense, very hype drumming. I will write all of the parts myself, record all of the instruments myself, mix and master everything myself... pretty much do everything myself.

I don't have a release date set yet. I've barely begun lol. I've got this track and one more kind of sort of done recording, and the rest of the tracks are still unrecorded. So you'll have to give me a while to let me cook.

general/the video

At long last, I’ve released this video! It took me way too long. Of course, still, nothing is final when it comes to the audio. This video here is just a teaser with a preliminary mix. What I'm saying is the mix isn’t final. I’ll work a little harder on the mixing when I’ve got the other tunes on this album done or closer to done. Also I said “Seaweed Salad” was a working title but I’m like 70% decided on the name at this point, so I don’t even know why I said that. I’ve also probably decided on the name of this track, too. The II indicates that it’s the 2nd track. Although the track order might change too. Nothing is final!!!

Roughly half of the performance footage in this video is mimed, full disclosure. Much of the guitar and piano. Not the drums though. Most of the drumming is straight up real certified organic. But anyway. Universally, most music videos’ parts are mimed. It’s common knowledge, isn’t it? I did want to state that outright so you heard it straight from me. But I did track it all myself. I performed and recorded and filmed and did everything by myself! Even the clambering down the slippery cliffside to get to the beach to film the ocean waves. My shoes had no grip on them. I could’ve slipped and died. Worth it.

Because the footage for this video is in a couple of different frame rates and shot on a couple different devices, sometimes it looks kinda shitty. Like choppy or jumpy. Lesson learned: shoot everything in a consistent frame rate next time. As I was recording this video, I was trying to transition from mainly shooting with my phone to mainly shooting with my new action camera. I used my action camera to shoot all the shots in my other most recent video, my jazz fusion arrangement of Next Episode from Neon Genesis Evangelion. That's why everything looks kinda blue (and just better in general). But my creation of this video was so dragged-out and poorly planned that I ended up shooting with two different devices and not being really on top of things in terms of getting the shots to look cohesive.

the music

You may notice that this tune steals elements (melodies, grooves, patterns, progressions) from Omega Rhythm by Uplift Spice, Seishun Complex by Kessoku Band, and a couple other anisong tunes. That part after the first chorus where I combine the main guitar riffs from both songs was, I think, one of the coolest musical things that's ever exited my brain. The title and thumbnail are a shameless effort to attract viewers/listeners who are anime heads and were curious what I was gonna do. I hope it worked lol

was tough

This one was kinda hard to perform! Mostly because it's rather fast. You betcha I was trying my ass off to keep up with the pace I had set for myself. We're running at 184 BPM with fast guitar riffs and melodic lines and sixteenth drum fills. I had to practice the guitar parts A LOT! In the beginning I couldn’t keep up, but with a bit of practice, I got there. This tempo is probably near the edge of what I can comfortably play on guitar and bass. But also because, as you may know, I have never played bass before! I have no prior experience with this instrument. Well at least, at the time I recorded most of this tune (mid-late 2025), I had no bass experience. Viewers of the channel will remember that I've always used a guitar with an octave pedal to get a bass-like sound because I've never owned a bass or known how to play one. UNTIL NOW! It turns out that bass is a lot of fun to play. My neck hurts a lot from keeping my head turned to the left to look at my left hand on the fretboard. Oww… gotta stretch and relax and take breaks. And also build muscle memory with the bass fretboard so I won't have to keep my neck twisted and can get to be able to play without looking. It seems like the solution to this problem, as it is with many things in life, is to just fucking get better. A wise man once told me that. That wise man is me. That's my life philosophy. Just fucking get better.

got a bass finally

So why'd I get a bass? Well, back in late 2024, my friend was selling his old one for mad cheap, and I always kinda wanted to replace my guitar-plus-octave-pedal-plugin fake bass setup with something more legit. A bass just sounds so good. And you simply can't get the beautiful sound of a real bass guitar without… a real bass guitar. So I bought it off him and taught myself the super basics. Fortunately the super basics are all you need to b.s. your way through a rock tune. I did not get decent at bass in time to record my bass playing on IWYAS. I would've liked to maybe.

You might've seen me playing the bass on the Next Episode arrangement I mentioned earlier. This shit's outta order! I recorded that in April 2026. I recorded will it blend? much earlier. So even though I show up in that video playing the bass before this one, know that this one was made before that one. I'm kind of particular about releasing stuff in chronological order. I want the stuff that I record earlier to get released earlier. But it doesn't always work out that way. By the time I made the Next Episode cover, I'd put a bit more hours into teaching myself bass stuff. I guess what I'm trying to say is that on will it blend? I'm an absolute shitter on bass, while on Next Episode, I've got a bit more practice.

other stuff

That chiptune section at 3:27 was one of the main reasons I wanted to compose this tune in the first place. I had to include that in there. I just love the sound and style of chiptune and VGM in general. Something about a crisp square wave and some fuzzy saw pads gets me very happy. Tell you what, if you are able to hear and identify every video game sound effect from that section and tell me what game it's from, I'll uh, I'll, idk, I'll mention you in my next video and you'll be world-famous (to my 20 regular viewers). How about that? Not much of a prize, but ya know. I just want to see if anyone's able to do it. There are some pretty easy sound effects to identify in there, but there is also a super tough one. A super deep cut. I'll be amazed if anyone's able to ID that one. If you’re only able to identify most of them and not all of them I’ll still shout you out. You gotta be the first one, though.

You know, for some reason, learning the bass part to this tune felt… almost too easy. I'm not saying bass is an easy instrument in general, because the skill ceiling for bass is cRAZY and there def was some tricky stuff I had to get down, like the fast bassline at the end of the guitar solo, and I'm still garbage at this instrument if we're keeping it 💯. But I am saying that I feel like it should've taken me much longer to build my bass skill, starting from absolute zero, up to a level where I could play anything that came even a little close to resembling an iota of anything even slightly musical. I feel like I should've struggled more. So why didn't I? Maybe it's because I've been playing guitar for a bit, so I kind of know the notes on the strings in standard tuning. Maybe it's because I've played piano for a while, so I've got decent control over my fingers, which was direly needed for playing those fast 8th notes. Maybe it's because I've been a musician for ten plus years so it all just kinda comes naturally?? Maybe it's a combination of all of these things! Well, whatever the case, it took me no more than several afternoons, starting from nothing, to get my bass skill up to here.

Wow. I'm still writing. I have a lot to say at the moment. I dunno, that's the way writing these descriptions goes sometimes. Did you know I recorded the entire bass part to this tune and then realized too late that my bass intonation was kinda messed up, causing my notes up the fretboard to be a little too sharp? I had to fix my intonation with a screwdriver and tuner and then rerecord the whole bass part. It didn't really take that long. But it was a bother and kinda frustrating. You never like having to redo anything due to your own failure or lack of awareness. I guess it also goes to show how new I am to bass, the fact that I was unaware of such a fundamental problem and let it wreck me.

OK that's it for now see you next time