Music

I’m a composer when I get the chance. Studied classical composition in college, and these days I also play with techno. It’s just fun – a good way to unwind. The journal is here to give me a daily outlet for what I've been playing with. If you're so inclined, you can check out the gear that is currently in my studio.

I make techno as “Sellout” and also as “Man and the Machine”. The former is somewhat traditional techno, and I’m working toward performing it live. The latter is more an exercise of my programming skills.

Man and the Machine is used to publish music created by software I’ve written. Rather than being the composer as such, I’m the programmer and sound designer. The software then “composes” and renders the actual tracks, with me as a sort of editor. Another layer of abstraction, if you will. This isn’t like Max/MSP (which I use as Sellout) where re-running the program will generate the same music, but rather each time the program is run, a new track is created, all with some similar style.

I’ve also made some icons for Apple’s Audio MIDI Setup tool.

Affiliations

BeNOW: Internet “radio” station and hub of our day-to-day communications.
Black Hole Club: A group of electronic musicians, helping each other out and networking.
Sketchy Pizza: A group of party collaborators who organize and throw excellent parties.

People who make better music than me

Jonnay: As a wise man once said, “listen to techno.” I’m not sure who, exactly, but listen to Jonnay’s Parade and you’ll understand.
Mux: This man has a studio that could choke an elephant. But rather than waste it on one elephant, he uses it to make techno that can choke hundreds of them at once … or something. Genius, I tell you, genius.
Pleasure Frequency: Founder of the BHC, organizer of Vancouver technoheads. He holds it all together.
Stormchild: He’s a DJ too, but he has actually had tracks published, so the production skills win out.
Tom: Hard! Hard! Hard!

People who spin better music than mine

DJ Kori: She’s not there yet, but she has the decks and the determination.
GI Jody: Legend has it that he once produced acid techno, but now he gives the decks the hard love.
Granolaboy: I think this guy spent too much time in San Francisco. He plays the house. Always. Like, you knock on his door at 3 AM and he’s got the decks moving. I think it’s the building he’s in – Mux lives upstairs, and the two of them never stop the music.