The Random Beats

"The Random Beats" is an instrumental album I released for free on March 26th, 2013.


1. The Random Beats
I can't really say there was much inspiration for this one. When I first got Anvil Studio, (free songwriting software) I just messed around with it. I put a bunch of percussion instruments in a row, (in the software) and each percussion instrument would play its sound as it went down the line at 105 BPM. At one point it was called "Crazy World," and I had attempted to write lyrics. THAT was unsuccessful to say the least.

2. Mid-Morning Atmosphere
Well, first of all, I'm not a morning person. But back when I was like, 6, I would be up bright and early every day. (as sleep had not achieved it's "important" status that it has now...) This song is kinda a feel-good song that brings back memories of those days when I was just a little kid, without a care in the world... good times. (I lived in the country at the time, which had its ups and downs)
This song itself was composed in one day/night at a friend's house. I tried to write lyrics for it, but it got too cheesy to the point where my social awkwardness would've really shown.

3. Long Distance
Not too much behind this one either... originally it had lyrics, but I decided against recording them because they started to get awkward. The lyric version would've been on the "Mixed Emotions" EP.

4. Long Distance (It's Personal)
This one had lyrics too, and it was more of a freakout song tying into the original. A remix if you will. This was also one of my first ventures into dubstep elements.

5. Olympic Games
I'll give you ONE guess as to when this one was written. July 2012, and the Olympics were coming around. I actually wrote this one while pulling an all-nighter.

6. Soundwaves In The Night
This was first released as a single on January 29th, 2013.
It was written in mid-March 2012, when I was still learning the FL Studio software. At the moment, the song "Miss You" by Foster The People was REALLY stuck in my head, and I think the first half of "Soundwaves In The Night" sounds kinda like that.

7. Flight 534 To Minneapolis

I was at my grandma's house in Hillsboro, ND when I wrote this. I tend to watch a lot of TV and drink pop whenever I'm at Grandma's and that's how I was spending that part of Spring Break. True story, this song was partially inspired by the background music from some random car commercial. I can't even remember what kind of car to be honest. Later that week, I got to tour Y94! *radio station* (Shout-out to Y94 in Fargo, ND!)
As for the name? Well, on August 27th, 2011, I went on my first airplane flight. Flight 480 from Minneapolis to Denver, CO to visit some uncles that live there. Had an amazing time there! I got to go to the top of Pike's Peak, (14,110 ft.) I got to go through Garden of the Gods, and I was staying 2 blocks away from Heidi's Brooklyn Deli in Denver! (Lowell Ave. shop, in case you're wondering. It's in the northwest part of Denver) The ice cream there is amazing!
On September 3rd, 2011, it was a weird feeling. We had to fly home that day. Flight 534 from Denver to Minneapolis. Yeah. That's kinda what the song's for...

8. Thunderstorm
This song was originally composed while a thunderstorm was approaching.  Oh yeah and it was like, 2:00 AM in a dark old church basement. How's that for creepy?! There was an older version written on Anvil Studio in 2010, but I reproduced it when I got FL Studio.

9. Reflections
Well, this song kinda just happened. Actually it was somewhat loosely inspired my some pirate song we were singing in Men's Chorus at high school. (in my freshman year) The chord progression was all I got from that song, and I put my own spin on it. This song is also dedicated to the memory of John Sorenson, (10/8/1993-3/17/2012) who would've graduated with the Hastings High School class of 2012, but sadly he OD'd.

10. Social Media
I was just messing around on YouTube and found one of the clips you hear in the song. I'm sure I was lacking sleep to the extreme, because I decided to make a short song out of it. It just kinda happened. Twitter>>>Facebook

11. Vortex
This is my first legitimate attempt at dubstep (written before "Long Distance (It's Personal)")  and it's more of  my older writing style. Newer better stuff is coming soon.

12. Distant Communications

I guess this one's my attempt to make something that sounds like mainstream. I don't know if it does though. Speaking of distant communications, shout-out again to AM 1460 KDWA Hastings! It's always fascinated me how AM radio stations can be heard from hundreds of miles away at night! I've picked up Chicago stations way up here in Hastings, MN!

So, there you have it. Some of these songs have stories behind them. I guess. Make sure you follow me on twitter because I'm hoping to have more music out my May or June! Thanks for listening!

Soundwaves In The Night

"Soundwaves In The Night" is a single I released as a free download on January 29th, 2013.

This one was written in mid-March 2012, when I was still learning the FL Studio software. At the moment, the song "Miss You" by Foster The People was REALLY stuck in my head, and I think the first half of "Soundwaves In The Night" sounds kinda like that.
The picture in the artwork was a shot I took on August 12th, 2011 from the front yard of my house at the time, in Hampton, MN.

Link to listen

Out Of My League

"Out Of My League" is track 4 on my EP "Mixed Emotions."

After dealing with the heartbreak of Fall 2011, I started looking around for other girls. One day, I broke the ice with this really hot girl! But, I pretty much knew that nothing would ever come of it. After all, she was really popular and I wasn't. Simple as that. That's what this song is about.
This song's tune was heavily inspired by "Angels," "Super Honeymoon," and "I'll Meet You There" by Owl City.

Listen on YouTube
iTunes

Left Me Heartbroken

"Left Me Heartbroken" is track 3 on my EP "Mixed Emotions."

Yeah...so in Fall of 2011, there was this girl I liked, and I was working up the courage to ask her out. Well suddenly, a spontaneous boyfriend spawned, and I was left to myself wishing I had asked sooner. "Without You" by David Guetta ft. Usher was popular at the time, and it's fair to say that the song heavily influenced this one.

Listen on YouTube
iTunes

Metathesis

"Metathesis" is track 2 on my EP "Mixed Emotions."

In February 2012, my good friend Brian Gapp showed me some music production software called FL Studio . I pretty much fell in love with it, and I'm pretty sure it helped form my writing style. Anyway, about the song:
"Metathesis" is a linguistic term for transposition of sounds or syllables within a word. Honestly, I just opened up a dictionary to a random page and picked a word. I think it has a nice ring to it!
There was an early version released onto SoundCloud and YouTube on February 12th, 2012, but the EP version released December 11th has a couple of small, subtle changes. You probably won't notice them unless you listen with subs. Since I wrote it so long ago, it's already at that point where listening to it can bring back some good memories! :)

Listen on YouTube
iTunes

City Lights

"City Lights" is track 1 on my EP "Mixed Emotions."

This song was wrote in my 8th grade year, mostly in January 2011. It was about me wanting to move INTO Hastings (MN) rather than living 15 miles out. I remember back toward the end of 8th grade, word got around on my bus that I had written a song, and people would want me to sing it for them. I'd play the instrumental from my iPod and perform in front of my peers, and they really seemed to like it, so I decided to go through with it and perfect it! The instrumental itself is simply a MIDI file, produced entirely by Anvil Studio. I've used that software in part with other songs, like "Left Me Heartbroken."
I'm happy to say that now I DO live in Hastings, but I still wanted to share this with you guys!

Listen on YouTube
iTunes

Taking A Stand

In March of 2012, my sister came to me and said she needed background music for an anti-bullying video she was doing in her 7th grade tech class. She said they were allowed to either use 30 seconds of an existing song, or create their own. (There was a 3rd option of no background music whatsoever, but that's quite boring...) She wanted me to put together 4 30-second clips of 4 different songs to use in her video, but since I didn't feel like doing that, I told her I would just write a little beat for the video. I finished a rough draft of it that night, and it sounded pretty close to the current instrumental. I listened to it a couple times, and thought to myself "hey... I think I'll try to go somewhere with this..." About a week later, I Facebook messaged my friend Mike Hunter about rapping on this new track. I sent it to him, and he said he'd do it! So, I explained to him that it was going to be an anti-bullying song, and if he could come up with some words for him to rap to, that would be awesome.

Roughly 3 weeks later, we both finished our lyrics, and set up a weekend for him to come over and record his rapping. My boss at KDWA allowed me to use the studio to record this song, which REALLY helped a lot! :) The official recording date was Saturday, May 5th. (Cinco de Mayo!) Mike even freestyled a little bit when we weren't recording, and after hearing it, I honestly think he will make it big!

A week after we recorded it, I finished with the last touches and we talked about a release date as a single. Soon, we agreed on June 12th. That's the day it went up on iTunes. The official artwork for the single was sketched by my good friend Austin Winter. One week later, I uploaded an audio video to YouTube.

~EP Version~
With a release date of December 11th, "Taking A Stand" is extended a little bit, and the chorus was switched up just a tad. I remastered it too, and I think it sounds a LOT better than the single version!
It is the 5th and final track on the "Mixed Emotions" EP.

Listen on YouTube
iTunes