Track
Skeletons in the Cloud
This album is an anthology of original unpublished music spanning 2009 - 2023. I learned a lot throughout the process of putting this album together, technical production things as well as more abstract and personal things, about learning to accept, about learning to let go and letting things be.
The intention for this album from inception was to release some of my unpublished back-catalogue of music. To accept these skeletons as they are and release them to the cloud. Skeletons because they’ve just been sitting there collecting digital dust, locked away in my own archive. The perfectionist in me is never able to let a project be finished and nowhere else does this become more apparent than when it comes to making music. I’ve never been satisfied with the completeness of my music but this only results in an abyss.
But I have really struggled with this throughout the process. All of the older tracks I have lost the project files for, they’re truly skeletons. Project file? Think of a word document versus a rendered PDF or print-out, where you can change the words, font etc.The project file is where all the individual recordings, digital instruments, programmed musical composition, effects and settings exist. All I had was an MP3 or FLAC file, like you would have if you downloaded a song. This makes remixing much more difficult and it’s the worst possible case for anyone wanting to make music that might not sound very good, sound better.
For example, imagine you have a track with a bassline and some drums but you think the kick drum is too bass heavy. If you apply an EQ on the whole mix you will affect the bassline too, and it will sound worse. So ideally you want to just put the EQ on the kick. You can only do this if you have the project file.
It’s not that I ever expected to be able to drastically improve the sound of these old tracks, but I wanted to make them sound as good as they could, all while regulating my perfectionism.
Below I’ve written a little bit about each track.
Moltisanti (2013)
At the end of 2012 I started watching The Sopranos for the first time. One particular aspect of the series I enjoyed was the soundtrack and music selection throughout. At this point in time I was deep in one of my upward cycles of music creation and experimentation (the downward cycle being complete disinterest and negative motivation). The music in the series is amazing and really very inspirational and while I don’t think there is any original music for the series (I could be wrong), I could tell that someone cared a lot about what they chose to accompany the story. My track Moltisanti is inspired by my visceral experience of watching the series and is named after Christopher Moltisanti, the nephew of Tony Soprano. I wouldn’t say there’s much musically or sonically derived from the series in this track, but the emotional connection I have to this track is eternally welded to my memory of enjoying the series for the first time.
Jungled (2009)
Jungled is the earliest recording on this album and almost didn’t make the cut. Some of the music I make doesn’t start with a clearly defined goal or idea, it starts with experimenting with a plugin or instrument and I decide that I like what I’m hearing and progressively add what I feel the track needs. In a way, I let the music tell me what it needs, or at least I tell myself that! Jungled, while very unpolished and honestly a little cringey to listen to, is fun and I always felt it sounded like music from a video game.
Divination (2010)
Not many tracks have a direct musical inspiration but Divination is one. In 2009/10 a friend of mine lent me a CD by Björk, Homogenic. The entire album is so incredibly inspirational. This was the first time I had really ever listened to Björk and I loved what I heard. Not only this, I aspired to make music as good as she. Jóga is the second track on the album, and was the inspiration for Divination. Björk’s song features a strong cello and strings presence (as well as some industrial and electronic elements). I had just discovered a new strings synth plugin for the music software I was using, Fruityloops 3. I believe the synth was called DSK Strings. It was free and sounded like it too but it was what I had to work with. I wanted to make something orchestral and emotive in the same way Björk made me feel with her music. Afterall, this is the magic and wonder of music, to convey emotion and meaning through pleasant noises. If you haven’t listened to Björk or the Homogenic album, I couldn’t recommend it more. Mastering this track for the album was particularly difficult because it was mixed quite poorly and I no longer have the project file or even the software it was produced with. I only had an MP3 file at 320 kbps, which is really not ideal at all. Mastering is the final process in post production where final tweaks and optimizations are made and where music is made ready for distribution. A good analogy for the difference between mixing and mastering is, mixing can focus on the individual trees, while mastering is looking at the forest.
Sabbatical: Intermission (2013)
The working title[1] of this track was elRay, in reference to the TV show Everybody Loves Raymond. Around the same time as I had acquired The Sopranos series I also acquired this show as well. This was long before the advent of streaming services or the NBN and my only internet connection was something I cobbled together from a spaghetti strainer and a USB WiFi dongle to… ahem… access the internet from the neighbours WiFi. During one of the episodes there was something of a montage that had no dialogue, only some jazzy music with a brushed snare drum. Being in the middle of a creative surge I opened up my software and tried to make something similar. The track is now called Sabbatical: Intermission to symbolise a considerable break I had from making music while I went through some changes and uncertainty. Intermission because it marks a milestone in software and technology I used to produce music and a noticeable change in the sound of the album; starting with and becoming quite evident during the next track.
Exposé (2015)
The first 4 tracks of Skeletons In The Cloud have a more acoustic sound. However, they’re all produced entirely electronically using sequencers, synths and samples, as with all my music - for the time being. Exposé marks a transition in the flow of the album from an acoustic sound to a much more electronic sound. Around this time a friend of mine hooked me up with updated software, this combined with some hardware I got over the years opened up my mind to even more possibilities and sound potentials. After familiarising myself with a few new techniques and plugins, though barely scratching the surface, Exposé is one of the better sounding projects to come out of all that experimentation. The track starts out orchestral and LoFi and progressively transitions upbeat with much more energy.
Paranoid Concerto (2016)
Paranoid Concerto started as being inspired by the soundtrack of the TV show Stargate: Universe. A particular synth with a very spacey SciFi sound that I wanted to emulate. That was the basis of what is now a slightly unnerving sounding dance style track with what I hope are space or SciFi elements. The working title[1] was Turkish deFright, and as you might have guessed, comes from me eating a Turkish delight at the time.
The word Paranoid in Paranoid Concerto is a small nod to one of my all time favourite bands, Radiohead and their track Paranoid Android. My artist name BangDroid also has some similarities. BangDroid is an acknowledgement and statement of transhumanism. The collision of technology with humanity. Where is my mind? My mind resides partly inside devices. My thoughts, cognition - how I work things out, memories, hopes, plans, schedules, communication with everyone I know, biometric data which can access banks and government services. These parts of my mind are outsourced to devices. We are gradually becoming inseparable from this technology, it’s merging with us. It is for this reason privacy and digital rights be defended. If part of your mind resides within a device or servers somewhere, controlled and owned by corporations accessible to various agencies, who can impose limits at will, your mind can never be free. As our minds, bodies and humanity merge with technology, nothing will be hidden. The Skeletons In The Closet, in the Cloud, will all be revealed and eventually this concept will disappear. These thoughts and more are what this track is trying to convey.
Journey: 42 (2016)
How many roads must a man walk down? An obvious reference if there ever was one. Originally this track was inspired by a song I can’t remember the name of in the game Grand Theft Auto IV. The game features in-game radio stations and one was called Journey. That unknown piece of music had a Philip Glass sound to it, though I’m almost certain it’s not him. It had orchestral elements accompanied with an electronic sound, very progressive. This was my attempt at making something similar. At the time of creating this track I was moving house after moving quite recently prior, so my memory is a little fuzzy as there was a lot going on. The sentimentality of this track is very much like its name, a journey through life.
Hot Thought (2022)
The term Hot Thought is a reference to Cognitive Behavioural Therapy where the hot thought is an instant negative thought in response to perceived threats or problems. The title doesn’t have much to do with the track but the working title[1] was so obscure and random and I needed a good title if I wanted to release the track. I have a list of interesting and cool sounding phrases and titles for tracks that this came from. Another on this album is the penultimate track, Dark Administration.
The musical inspiration for Hot Thought comes from a particular tutorial on YouTube by a fellow music producer who makes videos about production methods, tutorials, explaining principles and debunking myths and weird audio beliefs some people hold. Dan Worrall is his name and I hope he never finds my music lol.
No Love Lost (2022)
Sometimes an entire track can stem from a single sound. Another track born of experimentation, built around a feeling or vibe. Playing around and experimenting with new synths is always exciting. The electric piano-sounding repeating chords in Lost Love are just samples I’d stumbled upon but liked the vibe so much I made an entire track to encapsulate the feeling. I added some vibraphone, hip-hop style whistle, a picked bass, piano and a strong hip-hop beat. The title again, doesn’t have a particular meaning or message but the track has an almost bittersweet sound.
This Track is Imaginary for Imaginary People (2019)
This one is for all the sidechain lovers out there and for all the sidechain haters too. Progressive electronica, maybe slightly hypnotic as well. Dedicated to all my imaginary fans dancing with their shirts off in an imaginary club. I dunno lol
Asgardia (2017)
Back in the day I listened to a lot of early 2000’s hard style dance and this was definitely inspired by that. Asgardia gets its name from the space nation by the same name. To me the feeling of this song is leaving Earth and exploring other worlds, humanity working together to achieve something great.
Again this is another track that I lost the project files for, only having a mixed down FLAC file, so mastering for the album was a little tricky. I’m not super happy with it, the bass sounds a bit muddy, but it does sound better than the original.
Dark Administration (2017)
You may hear similarities between this and the previous track, one was cloned from the other’s project file and so they have a few of the same synths and plugins. Occasionally when working on a track my creativity will tangent off beyond what a track has already become so I clone it and work on them separately.
Dark Administration is a dark atmospheric ambient techno track with a slight frenzied progression.
The End (2023)
The End was made during the process of compiling this album. I thought it fitting to finish the anthology with the newest production. The genesis of this track is a really nice sounding Grand Piano plugin I recently found, actually it’s what is called a rompler made from recordings of a real Yamaha grand piano, it even has the hammer noise. You may also hear an accordion, another new plugin I’ve been experimenting with.
The End has a feeling of finality and accomplishment which is also fitting because it’s been a lot of work putting this album together. From the initial selection of tracks from my unpublished back catalogue, finding a theme and progressing through that theme while keeping somewhat of a chronological order or production. To remixing and the mastering process, trying to give the album a fairly consistent loudness level, but also respecting each track’s own energy and attempting to give the production as close to commercial sound as I can. At time of writing this, the album remains unpublished but in the final stages, so I don’t know how successful I’ve been. At any rate, I’m not actually trying to win awards, success comes from finally releasing this music.
[1] Working title: The name of a project file as I work on it, not necessarily the track name. Many music project ideas never materialise into a track but in order to save the project to a file it needs a name so I usually just make something up on the spot. A funny example of this is my track Potato. It got its name purely because at the time I was eating baked potatoes.
All works written, recorded or otherwise Copyright © 2009 - present BangDroid. All rights reserved. Except where stated. The Sopranos is a Trademark and property of Chase Films. Fruityloops is a Trademark of Image Line Software.