Summer Memories
Welcome to an in-depth look at Summer Memories. Here you can learn about the origin of the album and the pieces included in it.
About the Album
Album Concept
Back in 2019, after finishing my first major work "Sounds of the Biomes", I started planning ideas for a new album based on myself and my journey from graduating high school. Utilizing previously written songs from past summers, I came up with the concept about the struggles of facing adulthood while remembering the good moments I had in my childhood and adolescence that shaped who I was at the time. The end result consisted of six tracks with three of them being full songs and the other three being interludes.
Album Background
At the time of inception, I was heavily influenced in the genres of R&B and singer/songwriter. I focused primarily on mixing these genres with electronic and synthesizer techniques I previously learned when writing "Sounds of the Biomes." For the story, I utilized samples in the music that I had recorded from smartphone videos and voice memos with friends from high school and various summer programs like Tanglewood and Curtis SummerFest. The emotions depicted in the album are mixed together, symbolizing how my feelings were never constant during this process of growing up. I experienced excitement for the freedom of college compared to public school, but I feared loosing friends as well. I knew that I wasn't alone in these thoughts, and that is why I was extremely blunt about these feelings in the final product. To solidify the structure of the album, I created various collages of sound mixing in the samples and electronic elements/processing to use as interludes between songs. This ultimately ended up being used for the intro of the album as well.
Album Layout
The album contains 3 songs that I wrote about different memories from various summers. The songs are in the order of "Freest One", "Delayed, Again?", and "Thinking About the Summer". "Freest One" is about leaving high school and being free of its grasp (featuring vocals by Lexie Jorgensen and lyrics by Amanda Godfrey). "Delayed, Again?" is an instrumental song representing the experience of a major delayed flight I had succeeding a fantastic music festival experience I had. "Thinking About the Summer" concludes the project by summarizing the message of the album. That message is that growing up is ultimately a part of life, and no one can escape it. However, we don't have to throw away the memories that we made through childhood and adolescence. We may not be able to live our childhoods ever again, but we can always remember them for how they shaped us into the people we are today.
The Songs of the Album
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This quick intro contains samples of memories I have had, as well as teasers of a spoken-word interlude that appears in the track "Growing Up".
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Being the first true song of the album, "Freest One" was conceptualized during my summer at the Boston University Tanglewood Institute in 2016. This was a place that influenced my artistic voice in various ways, and most significantly allowed me to break free of rigidness in my own music. Because of this, I began writing music that I wanted to write, rather than writing what I thought I had to, and this spawned the song. Later, I found a poem written by Amanda Godfrey that resonated with me to set to the song. The poem was about letting go of the things that bring us down, and freeing your mind to leave room for growth. The song was performed by Lexie Jorgensen.
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This interlude track is another teaser for the track "Growing Up". It starts out like a normal beat, but then gets interrupted by a lo-fi recording of me discussing my fears of growing up. Then the beat distorts and becomes filled with rage.
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Being stuck at an airport because of a delayed flight can be a major inconvenience. I experienced a lengthy delay flying out of Minneapolis after a fantastic music festival I got to be a part of. Because of my exhilarating experience there, I felt unstoppable, and I was determined to make the best out of an annoying situation. I began the structure and beat of this instrumental track while in the airport with my small MIDI controller, headphones, and laptop. To polish this track, I added analog synth elements using a Moog Sub 37. The final track is a hybrid of simple and compound meters that give a sense of delayed kick drum hits. This track can be counted in either 9/8 or 4/4, where the eight note is the same in both. Although this track does not have lyrics. The story behind it was enough to include it as a memory song on the album.
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This interlude track is a spoken-word piece diving into my detailed feeling about letting go of childhood and becoming an adult during my time transitioning from high school to college. I connect the previous songs by explaining some of the summer memories I have had, and I how I was coping with them fading away. By the end, the message of the album is stated.
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The final track is about the longing feeling I had towards all of the memories portrayed in the album. I started creating the music for this track while enjoying my summer back at home between school years at Oberlin Conservatory. When I arrived back, I gave this track new life with an incredible vocal performance by jazz vocalist Celine Iris. This twelve minute song allowed me to say everything I was feeling at the time to close this album and chapter of my life.
Listen to the Album
This album is available on Apple Music for streaming, and BandCamp for purchase.