Released 13 June 2020

Recorded April-June 2020

Orchestral, strings & drums

9 tracks (21m 46s)

Track listing

My second-ever production music album, after Newsbreak in 2017, Eight Solid State was made possible by couple of very important factors. 1, I stopped using my Fantom X as my main studio after I discovered FL Studio and Spitfire Audio LABS. 2, I started working at my office job. 3, I had to quit my office job because I was tired of being an "essential worker" during the COVID-19 emergency. I don't want to go into item 3 too much, because this isn't a blog entry and I don't want to sidetrack into a political discussion just now. Anyway, this album was sort of my Fantom X being complicit in its own murder; with Spitfire LABS' new string ensembles, I found I could finally write the kind of music I'd always wanted to be able to write. No offence to it, but its one-size-fits-most string ensembles got a little stale after a while.

"Daily Pilgrimage to Scooter's" is named after a ritual that my co-workers tended to engage in everyday; they would all go down to the mezzanine on their breaks and get coffee from our local Starbucks work-alike, Scooter's. I only did this twice, because, as you can hear, I was discovering the wide world of computer-based VST instruments and needed to save all my money for that and whatever bit of my car needed repair that month. I tried to convince the Scooter's regional representative at the business expo that I should get free coffee because I wrote a song about them, but they never got back to me. Maybe it would have helped if they heard the song, but there was an exceptionally loud rendition of "Let It Go" coming in over the speakers at the time.

"The Helpdesk is Closed" was inspired by the topsy-turvydom I had to go through to actually START my job. See, I was starting at the same time that a whole boat-load of caseworkers were transitioning to working at home because of COVID-19. What tended to happen was that my support ticket would get shuffled to the bottom of the stack because a more important caseworker absolutely HAD TO HAVE their install on their home computer authorised today. So, it actually took me almost 2 weeks to get to a point where I could genuinely do any work. Every morning, I'd call my boss, and every morning she'd say, "Sorry, Tina, the helpdesk is closed today." If I hadn't been in the middle of an artistic drought at the time, I'm sure I would have written this song then. But, I didn't. I might talk about that in a blog post.

"The Bizhub Needs Toner". That phrase tended to make my boss sigh heavily, hang her head, and say, "Okay, I'll call Jim. AGAIN." This song is what I imagine her perception of Bizhub errors was like: like she was walking in a constant demonstration of Murphy's law, having to step gingerly over sections of carpet that looked like they were painted in by the animators instead of being part of the background scenery. It must have been interesting for her, starting at the department in the days of the IBM Selectric, then seeing the typewriters get slowly but unstoppably taken over by computers, with each passing generation bringing a completely new set of operating errors.

"Business Casual Fridays" originated as BizCasFri on HomestarRunner.com. The song has nothing to do with Strong Bad or third-quarter analysis spreadsheets. It's actually based on a sketch I'd done on my Yamaha earlier in the year. By pure chance, I stumbled across a film whose title I can't remember now that had Richard Gere and Jennifer Lopez in it. It was pretty unremarkable, but the music was as on-point a demonstration of "chick flick" film music as I'd ever heard. I think it was by John Altman? Don't ask me how I remember that though. I tried to write music in a similar style and ended up at a tango. When I started using FL Studio, I decided to use that sketch in a song, and we arrived at "Business Casual Fridays". I don't know about writing anymore tangos, though... if pressed (or commissioned) I could, but they're sort of uninspiring. I'm glad I could make this one work, though, because it's likely to be the only one you're gonna hear from me.

"Cold Coffee" was the first song I wrote for the project. I imagined a small chamber orchestra, plus contrabass, going into the studio without anyone's permission and jamming out before getting the whistle blown on them by the janitor. So, yes; imagine 2 each of violinists, cellists, and 1 contrabassist, recording themselves playing staccato, then using only their memory of what they had played earlier and recording a pizzicato accompaniment. What has that got to do with cold coffee? I was drinking it at the time. It was an autumn blend from a local roaster, quite nice actually.

"Office on Floor Thirteen" was actually a filler track. I'd intended to do 12 tracks, but I only had 8. Unfortunately, everything I tried to write after "Thirteen" just didn't work out. So, we have 9 tracks. Oh well, I guess I was running out of ideas? Whatever.

"PC Load Letter" is the first song I ever wrote that involved BBC Symphony Orchestra. What happens is, you tell Spitfire Audio you'd like to download the (mega-nerfed) Discover version of their signature plugin, and they let your request sit around for 2 weeks until they go, "well, I guess you're really serious about this," and they send you a one-time download link. The project was already most of the way finished by the time they got round to sending me my link, so... yeah. Anyway, this is a slightly longer companion song to another song I wrote in the same sitting, called "Halt and Catch Fire". I decided not to release "Halt" on the record because it loops and I didn't want to fade anything out. The phrase "PC LOAD LETTER" comes from an ancient printer error, requesting the operator to load 8.5x11 sized paper into the principal carriage. Into Principal Carriage, load Letter paper. Of course, those old displays couldn't show but a few characters, so people got "PC LOAD LETTER" instead. Confusing, but better than a blinking light, I guess. I don't know, it was before my time. Incidentally, "Halt and Catch Fire" is another error message from the early days of computerised printing. Guess I had a theme going there.

"Eight Solid State", the title track, I decided I had enough of the minor key stuff and just channeled Newsbreak. At the risk of sounding self-aggrandising, I'm really, really good at writing commercial spot music, as you can see. This style is absolutely second nature to me, to the point I literally do compose this kind of thing in my sleep. It's acceptable "corporate feudal state" approved music, 100% sanitised of any kind of politics or other undertones, awaiting whatever context you intend for it, which it will serve above and beyond the call. Oy. I guess we all need to be good at something.

And finally, "Two Weeks' Notice". This was the first song I wrote after I tendered my resignation from my job. I didn't want to quit, but Scurvy Pete was kissing Trump's ass to the bitter end and ended all COVID-19 emergency measures about 3 months early so he could toady up to the GOP. Okay, I said I wasn't going to get political! Right! So, the title is a bit ironic. The corporate feudal state wants you to think that you're useless if you're unemployed; and I did like my job very much, I'll admit; but this is a song of celebration! I came to my decision to quit for my own sake after worrying about it for the past two months, and it was such a weight off my shoulders. Continuing to work in that office, I would have put myself at risk of long COVID every minute of every day; but now I could rest easy. I didn't even have to leave my flat if I didn't want to. I was in complete control of my COVID exposure, and this came out in the song. I mean, yeah it sounds like Newsbreak, but I put more of myself into this one. I also put in the VSCO2 Upright Piano and MT PowerDrumKit for the very first time. Just like how visual artists like to hide signatures in their work, the piano represents me in a song. The VSCO2 piano sounded like an upright that I'd played at my favourite indie coffeeshop/bookstore since I discovered the place in 2009 and played the Super Mario Bros. above-ground theme with one finger for the first time. Sadly, that coffeeshop shut down during quarantine, just like most of the other places downtown; so the only place it exists now is in my memory. And, somehow, this VSTi plugin.

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