Sean Armstrong

Clips from works in progress and works completed in 2011. I update this set every month and label the clips accordingly. If you are interested in release/distribution/signing/remixing/licensing any of my work, please don’t hesitate to contact me.

I’ve been working on some new sounds and in a new direction that I pointed myself in at the end of 2010. With the near completion of “Paper Heart”, the series of music that compliments this sound leaves me incredibly excited! I’m in love with these projects and am looking to translate them to a live (or “almost live”) performance.

On the house front, I’ve been reeling in some of my production methods and leaning towards deeper and more subtle styles. My overall aim is to write a series of house tracks directly inspired by my loves of what can best be described as that “feel good San Francisco” house music (hence “Pike”). Naturally, some of the darker shades come in to play with more droning and bass-driven compositions but I feel they are still appropriate to finish and share.

That’s all I have for some quick notes on the sampler for January. I’ve enjoyed working on this project and look forward to updating the sampler next month with my music from February.

Here’s a new deep house song I’ve been working on.

I had been going into fits in my brain as I sat ate breakfast, as I drove to work, as I sat in the cube farm, as I drove to run errands, as I napped (because I felt sick-ish today), as I ate dinner, as I did chores… because I had this phantom ear worm that was driving me absolutely mad.

There wasn’t any planned time to sit down and work on music. Quite the opposite, in fact, but after my long nap and some much needed home made chicken soup, I burned some late-night hours and wound up with two new songs. They are house music. They are true to form, and express some things I’ve been itching to get out into audiological form. More (including clips) later.

Sleep time now. My brain is at peace.

Random aside: I wonder if Adventure Time is on DVD? I need to check that out.

I’ve been jotting down notes all day on various music related things that have been floating about in my head. Perhaps this is the beginnings of a mental cleaning that has been needing to happen for over a year. 2010 brought me a lot of positive movement into new production techniques and styles which have yielded incredibly delicious results in my music.

One of the primary battles in my mental front is that of genre-clash.  I’ve been listening to all sorts of electronic music for going on 15 years now, and I’ve been making my own tunes for nearly as long (14 years.. whoa!).  I know what I like to listen to more often than not, but as I am directly influenced by the art and culture I’m surrounded by, my listening diet spills over into my production diet. It’s not a bad thing, since I seem to please at least a few people with each style that comes off of the stove.

At the moment, this creates a lot of chatter in my head. How do I best prioritize and release collected EP and LP works within their related genres?  How should I best present myself as a musician/artist to potential labels or promoters?  Should I separate out my sounds into uniquely named projects or sub-projects?

Sometimes I have used a similar sound palette through cross-genre songs that would be complimenting each other on a release. At other times, though, I’m going through phases of experimentation and exploration and have very different sounds and methods used to produce my music. Enough of a difference that, while on whatever tangent that’s caught my fancy, I want to put my hand out the proverbial car window to feel the rush of air go by as I dwell on making more of whatever-it-is I haven’t been making lately.

This has been a very consuming thought process, but the more I’ve been actively reading about other producers, DJs, and musicians that I enjoy, the more I’m realizing this isn’t an uncommon issue.  I’ve arrived at a place where I can see that the cycle has shown itself to go between forms of down tempo and forms of house.  I’ve managed to place myself into the two “root levels” of each genre and develop my sounds accordingly.  That’s not to say that I’m limiting my production into those genres, so much as I know what I like to produce more often than not.

Which brings me to reviewing a few open projects on my plate that are very near completion for winter-into-spring of 2011. Covering house (tech and progressive) and down tempo (trip-hop/hip-hop) flares. Pile on top of that my plans for DJ sets that are primarily driven by house music (a’la Om Records, ESL, and similar sounds that I dig)… I suppose I just need to be more comfortable with myself as a musical being. 

I make what I make, because I love what I love.

Last night, right before bed, I wrote in my notebook/journal thing (it’s a molskine which serves as both) that I felt compelled to share, but I didn’t know what.  I’ve had some incredibly thought provoking situations and comments appear in my life lately which are allowing me to identify things I would like to change about how I create, experience, and share art.

The most recent example to appear in my landscape is that of my great friend and fellow musician, Jeff (Jeff Surek/Applied & Computational/Silver Standard). As a new year’s resolution he has decided to work on music every day and post the resulting snippet, track, or sample to SoundCloud. He then makes a post on Tumblr with the SoundCloud widget and notes for the days exercise.

While the result is small, the impact is very large on someone like me who loves exploring music on sites like SoundCloud, theSixtyOne, or just browsing around my favorite music blogs and label/art websites looking for new tunes and art.

Jeff’s blog and daily exercise has me thinking that I do not share enough of my art with the world. I have such a long history of having a “blog” (before they were “blogs”) and sharing pictures, art, music, and life experiences by way of a journal— yet somewhere along the way I downsized my output to the internet, friends, family, and the local community.

I could write a lot more about this, but I should try to keep this reasonably short at the moment. Moving on:

Other examples of sharing and ‘involvement’, or the need for increased active participation in connecting with people over art/music(and culture/food/activities.. anything) include attending a LAN party at the urging of another great friend of mine (Matt Amberg). At the LAN party, Matt and I started a music project together that is, frankly, kick-ass! His own tastes and ideas about music blended with my techno/house/downtempo background make for an interesting composition that has a lot of potential.

My wife is regularly encouraging me to get out there and meet other music/art minded people, such that I’m connecting with others in the community. I will never make it anywhere if I’m not involved!

Other fixtures in my life who have consistently offered constructive criticism and have helped to shape me as an artist (here’s looking at you Ian, Dad, Jessica, Clayton, Will.. just to name a few), along with the amazingly positive experiences of sharing my music with the online community have led me to a point where I am now actively engaging in an effort to “share more”.

Final note for this post: When you share, others may share back. The conversation of art is one of the best conversations to be a part of.

Starting things off in 2011, here’s a brand new track to download! Moving right along with production in the hip-hop influenced beats melded with plenty of electronic habits this song is a preview of things to come. Short and sweet, I hope you enjoy it!