Hello, friends. Just a quick post with a recording from my warmup set yesterday at Therapy Cafe (Dayton, OH). A night of all deep house called “House of Love”, an annual Valentine’s Day show put on by Mr. Mike Donovan in collaboration with Sistine Promotions.
No tracklist for now, but suffice it to say… it’s all deep grooves, lots of lush vocals, and just an hour and a half of really good tunes. :)
Download link: The Snark – House of Love (Live @ Therapy Cafe, 02-14-12)
Just some ramblings about the venue I wish we had here in Dayton, OH.
I envision a very classy and upscale (but not intimidatingly so… think Side Bar with reasonable drink prices and more music-centric) lounge. One that is extremely clean and well-kept, with a consistent atmosphere and music program. There would be ample lounge-like seating (couches and tables), not too dark, not too “clubby” (perhaps a gentle color wash here and there, instead of pew-pew lasers and LEDs), and excellent sound. There would be a small food menu available, similar to how Therapy Cafe does it (third party okay). Oh, and a very large selection of drafts/specialty beers. Continue reading
I originally put this mix together for a mix contest. It did not win, but I enjoyed the music in this mix so much that I decided to share it here on my website. It really expresses the groovy dark music that I’ve been into as of late. There are some spectacular vocal moments and some melodic transitions that I’m really proud of… especially the transition between Hazel and Rendezvous, which lasts over the span of a few minutes. Continue reading
I’m sitting here in the studio tonight, but I haven’t started creating any music yet. I’ve noticed something about the way I work these days. I think putting it down in words will help me to gain focus… or at least, to understand how to focus and what it means when I cannot. I find myself discouraged when I don’t have huge blocks of time to work on music consecutively, or when I do have a huge block and I feel inclined to use it doing something other than something I am normally so passionate about. You see, due to some major changes in my life a few years back, I lost a lot of momentum. And I’m talking about 3 or 4 years that my music-making libido has been fighting against me. Continue reading
Being that the economic “Housing Bubble” is at the forefront of our minds here in the States, I couldn’t help but bring this comparison into the EDM world. An economic bubble is described as ”trade in high volumes at prices that are considerably at variance with intrinsic values.” It could also be described as a “trade in products or assets with inflated values.”
The most obvious genre to compare this to at the time of writing this is dubstep, but really Continue reading
I think it’s time. Time to expand myself, musically. Time to think outside of the box. I want to be done creating tracks that I think I “should” be creating, and just create good music. I want to be done recording every DJ mix as a club demo (“this is what you should expect to hear when I play at a nightclub) and start treating them more like putting albums together…. good albums full of good, moody, emotive music, regardless of genre, tempo, release date or popularity. It’s also time to start putting this blog to some use, for once!
This is going to sound pessimistic or jaded, but it’s really not. I’m just ready to Continue reading
This mix is intended to serve as my summer promo, so that’s why it’s listed as such (even though it’s not quite summer yet.) I named it “Eventide” because, after listening it through, it really reminded me of being outside as dusk is turning into night, when the sun is almost set. This is probably both due to the fact that two of the track names are “Night Air” and “Sunsets”, as well as the mood these tracks portray. Continue reading
This mix is a little something different, as it’s not dance-music specific. I was asked to put together a mix of personal “classics” for one of the message boards I post on, in a sort of “mixtape” format.
This was a very difficult project for me, as I always have trouble coming up with “favorites” for anything and I could have easily put together a 4 hour mix to get everything in. My approach was to try and give a good demonstration about where my influences come from. There is so much more that isn’t covered here, but alas, I had to keep it to 80 minutes. I know that this is more of a “mixtape” approach, but I would be lying if I said that the idea of which tracks would flow better into each other didn’t give me a method to help me narrow it down. Continue reading
Recently recorded this mix the other night after the beautiful weather succeeded in it’s quest to put me in a good mood. I realized that this recording is truly representative of the way I actually play out (which I seem to have trouble doing when putting together a “studio” mix), so I decided to use it as my new promo. I have this whole dance-inducing groovy/loopy deep sound with airy overtones thing going on lately, and I’ve been rather happy with it. Continue reading
Just a quick update to post my excitement that Re:Vibe at Club Vex is going quite well. Our first three months have really done well for a Thursday in Dayton, and things only seem to be getting better. For April, we have booked Hot Mess and Eric Heilman, so it should be a great show.
I want to personally thank all of the DJs who have played for me and that I’ve had the pleasure of working with for this night, and I hope to keep building it as we are now entering warmer months! I also have a few other events in the works, which are too early to say much about now. Lastly, I have an upcoming gig in Covington at an event called “Heaven & Hell”, which I will soon post more info about. There are a lot of great shows in our neck of the woods coming up. Become a fan of “Electronic Music Fans in Dayton” on Facebook to keep up-to-speed!