I want to start this off by saying I wrote this because I do not expect coverage for my EP, but there is no reason to hold my ideas and thoughts in because I don’t have the platform to do so, I will build it from the ground up myself just like I did with this project. If you have a publication you would like to include me in you may email me at [email protected] or text me at 301-323-8839.
In case you haven’t, check out the EP below
I had a lot of fun with this project, there 's something very special about recording this entire EP on an iPad, something that I haven't done since 2016, I want to thank Maria Carmen for running the giveaway for me to even have this iPad in the first place, this project would not be the same without her. I still have no idea what I am doing most of the time but creating my first EP definitely helped me shape this one a lot better than the last. I also want to thank Tobi Lou for helping me realize the importance of transitions when it comes to track listing. Let’s start this off by dissecting the trailers.
Trailer 1 was very fun to create, I made both trailers with the thought process of not wanting to be in them unless I could make them as quality as the ones for the last project and this was the result. I used ChatGPT to write the script and hired a voice actor to execute, also used some royalty free music, sounds, and videos to really bring it to completion. Trailer 1 starts off with a woman turning up a pink radio and an announcer announcing the EP and what it will consist of, the definition of luxury can be seen throughout the majority of the video, the video concludes with the reveal of the cover art and a preview of track 1.
Trailer 2, very similar to trailer 1 does not feature me, just the opening, audio clip, definition, outro and track 2 preview. Trailer 2 starts off with a man seen running in a machine gear surrounded by 2 other gears on each side with a dollar sign in each one. The definition of bittersweet is shown across the screen as bittersweet audio clips from the show Bojack Horseman plays, the trailer concludes with the cover art and a preview of track 2.
Cover art was made by alisdemm once again. The cover art is very directly inspired from a piece of artwork I saw while watching Bojack Horseman that was originally created by David Hockney, the image is called "Portrait of an artist". I think it fit the theme of the project the best.
Track 1: Another Day (Feat. EZITO)
During the process of creating this EP I got a call to go on tour with Tobi Lou, one of my biggest inspirations, this song was written prior to that tour but it's really an ode to how much of a story my life is and chalking it up to "just another day" in my life. In the opening verse I point out my progress since the last project. I love what EZITO did on the chorus, it's a true testament of people trying to put us in a box but we don't have to conform to that, we can really do our own thing and have our very own form of success despite awards and views. Verse 2 is my favorite verse on the EP, every lines and every word is my hard truths, I talk about hard ships such as losing friends and a lot of money due to bad business completely out of my control but being grateful to go through these hard lessons so I can learn, there is also an ode to my biggest song "Grown Ass Kid" and about wanting to move pass that song's success and be known for what I am currently creating. Ending with the voice line "okay" was intentional for the next track.
Track 2: Pretend
This is my favorite track on the project. I wanted to open the song to sound like a continuation of the last track. I remember writing the verse first and then making this chorus as a placeholder until I could write a better one but it eventually grew on me. I want to start this off by saying this song wouldn't exist without pulling inspiration from Bryce Vine and Black Party, the barbie movie had just dropped around the creation of this song and Bryce had also dropped a barbie inspired song and that is what inspired the barbie lines. The verse starts off dealing with extensional crisis and this idea of our obsession with luxury, I also talk about my love for pink and yes I do in fact own a pink Prada wallet, it's a coin wallet, I don't regret the purchase but I do think it's funny because while it is high quality its not a necessary purchase but does feel good to have. I couldn't come up with a name for the song for the longest and then I found those voice clips from Bojack that fit so perfectly with the theme. The song ending with "hey Benny, you okay?" then leading into Okay was my favorite touch.
Track 3: Okay (Feat. Alissa Ferrari)
This track is actually a really old song, I want to say it was recorded in 2019, this song is about going through the motions and just trying to be okay with that, such as having the weight of the world on my shoulders and having to try to navigate life while worrying about others at the same time. The chorus is very special to me, it's about not wanting to be selfish, being selfless in fact and wanting to just leave the negative feelings behind for the simple goal of being okay, no matter where we go just as long as it's not here which I'm sure a lot can relate to. The bridge is about navigating loneliness, which is a common theme in this song.
Track 4: View From Halfway Down
The final track on the project, this was actually the first track I recorded for the project and I knew I wanted it to be at the end from the start. Directly inspired by a speech given by Secretariat from Bojack Horseman. The track starts off with the line "I'm not done" with the context of Secretariat being rushed off stage while being chased by a black doorway, I wanted it to represent it not being the end despite it being the last track on the project. If you watched Bojack you know what happens to Secretariat, I wrote this song as a message of what I think he would have said if he were to make a song about his struggles and overcoming them and I hope this song can help many people who struggle with depression.
I had a great time creating this EP, it's my second project to date and I really hope it resonates with people who choose to listen to it, the goal is to get better with each project and that goal has been met. Bittersweet Luxury is forever and I hope this story helps those it reaches.
Again if you have a publication you would like to include me in you may email me at [email protected] or text me at 301-323-8839. If you have not yet, check out the EP below
I want to start this off by saying I wrote this because I could not get coverage for my EP, but there is no reason to hold my ideas and thoughts in because I don’t have the platform to do so, I will build it from the ground up myself just like I did with this project. If you have a publication you would like to include me in you may email me at [email protected] or text me at 301-323-8839.
In case you haven’t, check out the EP below
I had a lot of fun with this project, there were a lot of stressful moments too, I had no idea what I was doing most of the time but I think it turned out really well for what it’s worth. Let’s start this off by dissecting the trailers.
I want to start off by letting everyone know that all trailers were shot and edited by me, they were shot from my phone (iPhone SE (2nd gen)).
Trailer 1 was actually meant to be the intro to the project but was changed because I felt that the new intro got the point across better and quicker. Trailer 1 starts off with me walking into the frame staring out the window questioning what it means to be a hero, a question in which I don’t answer myself until the last few seconds on the last track of the project, I felt that the question shouldn’t have been asked so early on in the project because that is what the project is about, i’m growing into a hero, there are different stages in the story and at that stage in the project was not something I could confidently answer so I kept it as a trailer and not the intro.
Trailer 2 we get the final and official intro to the project, this is also my favorite trailer. We get frames of me washing my face in the mirror, along with shots of me standing and staring into a mirror, and a 3rd shot of me on my laptop, shots changing with every radio static. The significance of this trailer and this intro was to add visual representation of all of the noise that clouds our heads, being a hero sounds nice and fun but in reality every hero has a moment where they question if this is right for them, if they’re actually making a difference and if what they are doing is worth it.
Trailer 3 is the last trailer, fun fact trailer 3 was originally trailer 2 but I shot and edited trailer 2 12 hours before releasing it instead of the pre planned 3rd one, I wanted to save the celebrity cameos for last. Now for the question that everyone is wondering, how in the world did you get 3 of your favorite artists to speak on you for your project? The answer is simple, I didn’t. The cameos are 100% real, no AI, but the truth is these are clips from interviews and live streams that I cut up in order to make After Credits. I got the inspiration from Tobi Lou, I wanted to use more sound bites in my songs and I have so much footage of my favorite artists speaking on me so I thought why not put it to good use.
Cover art was made by alisdemm. I met them on fiverr while deciding on who to go with based on price and quality, really glad I went with them because the cover turned out perfect. I gave the art direction down to every detail, the artwork is based on a game I’ve been playing called “Neo: World Ends With You” I think it fit the theme of the project the best. The background characters on the cover represent the static (the noise) we hear in the intro and outro. The cover is set in Shibuya, Scramble crossing to be exact. Another fun fact, I wanted to drop the custom Adidas I’m wearing in the cover alongside the EP release but eventually settled for a T-Shirt because shoes would have been too much to deal with.
Track 1: Hero’s Resolve
During the process of creating this EP I watched season 6 of My Hero Academia, this speech was a pivotal turning point in the series, the people have turned on the heros, heros were no longer looked at as people you can count on, they were actually hated. The static is very important, I wanted to create something that makes people feel the tension and anxiety of not being enough, it wasn’t easy to capture that in under 30 seconds but I think I pulled it off well.
Track 2: Drawn
The track that started this entire project, this track was written to be a pitch to Marvel for “Spiderman: Across the spiderverse”. The lyrics are very spiderman heavy, I even threw in some sound bites from the first movie. I feel this song perfectly captured the theme that I was going for, the chorus specifically. That fear of not being good enough and anxiety from being a hero plays a major roll in this track. I think the hardest part about this song was picking a title but Drawn felt the best to me. I don’t think we choose to be like this but instead something draws us to the actions that we take, we’re “Drawn” to our callings in life. I want to point out that leap of faith is mentioned 3 times in the song, despite the anxiety and doubt from the intro, our hero must go on.
Track 3: Last Dance
This track is actually a really old song, I want to say it was recorded in 2019, the only thing I added were the sound bites. During the editing for the project I was rewatching Bojack Horseman, cutting that that intro was really difficult to get the point across but I made it work. What is a hero without people to save? This ties back to the intro, a hero is suppose to keep the people happy but that isn’t always possible. The break in the song gave me an opportunity to add in a sound bite from a My Hero Academia episode called “Dabi’s Dance” I thought this was a really cool addition to the song because in a way I got to play the villain a bit and ultimately it’s up to the listener to interpret what the song is suppose to represent but I wrote it with the intention of not conforming to what the average hero is suppose to be, I know that I can’t make everyone happy, but I have to keep going. Bojack has a philosophy that he lives by which I call the “don’t stop dancing” mentality, this song is me breaking that norm, the “don’t stop dancing” is especially haunting if you know what ends up happening to the character singing it.
Track 4: After Credits (Special Thanks)
The final track on the project, there actually wasn’t suppose to be any rapping on this track but I ended up writing a verse about week or two before submitting the project for distribution, it’s probably my favorite verse of all time, definitely my favorite song. The intro to this verse was actually a verse from a remix challenge that Bryce Vine posted. I wanted to sound exhausted so to make it authentic I recorded this first thing in the morning when I woke up. The song is to represent the end of an arc and I think it’s a very fitting end to the project. Cutting up those audio clips were not easy at all, but hearing some of my heros talk about me in the ways that they did were amazing. Ending off the last line of the project was difficult for me, the truth is I hit record and hoped for the best, there was no script, even the music cutting was not planned, I just had ran out of instrumental and it turned out perfectly.
In total after everything was finalized it had cost me about $200 to make and turned out to be my best work to date. I created this because I wanted to get my ideas out there and not wait on a platform to do so, as stressful as it was, I love the end result of this EP, a lot of trial and error, it’s my first project and it turned out amazing. I am very grateful for my ability to create and can not let it go to waste. I didn’t sit around and wait for Marvel to contact me to work on a soundtrack, I sat down and make the soundtrack myself and put it out myself and I couldn’t be more proud of my work.
Again if you have a publication you would like to include me in you may email me at [email protected] or text me at 301-323-8839. If you have not yet, check out the EP below |