My album
A few years ago I decided to write an album. I’ve never written music before and by most accounts lacked all discernible talent for it. I’ve also never studied music before, so things like scale, tempo, and proper song structure were quite foreign concepts to me.
In fact, the only musical thing I’ve done up to that point was dj’ing. My freshman year I tried out for a hosting gig at UCLA’s local radio station and got to co-host a dance music show on Sunday nights. That experience made me to go all in with dj’ing. I got some equipment (Technics + Rane mixer), bought up as many overpriced vinyl records as I could find, learned to beat match, and started cranking out mix tapes.
Dj’ing other people’s records eventually got me to erroneously think “Hey, I bet I could write this stuff myself! I mean, how hard could that be?” Then, as if that line of thinking wasn’t misguided enough, in an almost dizzying display of hubris I thought “Hey, I bet I could write a whole album! I mean, how hard could that be?“. And so it begun.
As it turned out, to write an album one needs equipment and musical ability. Or, at least equipment. So, I went down to my local Guitar Center and got some speakers, an amp, a keyboard, and Reason (version 1.0). I figured since my prospects for actually finishing the album were questionable at best, I should try to do it as cheaply as possible. Plus, creating the whole thing on a computer sounded like an awesome idea.
After many many nights and weekends, heavy dose of Latin names (sorry about that), and guest vocals from my sister, Virtua was completed. I also mastered it myself (didn’t want to waste a thousand bucks getting it professionally mastered), which explains the crappy, thin sound. Enjoy!
