Evolution

2020 as a year stands out for almost everybody in one way or another. For me, besides being the beginning of a three-year BLUR of time, it also represented an absolutely massive departure for me creatively and professionally. (If you haven't yet read Breaking Point, go read that first and then come back here!) I had just finished my 30 for 30 Release Project and had just released On the Lake. I had also just finished what has so far become my last Artistic Fellowship at "Fresh Inc." which was a new music festival that has since shut down.

I had decided to open myself up to more opportunities by "saying yes". And so when I saw a post about a UK-based EDM label looking for indie artists, I thought to myself sure, why not? I shot them a message and after some back and forth with the head A&R, I had a non-exclusive partnership with them. I wrote one song that was produced and shopped around but never ultimately picked up. I wrote another couple songs that made it to production but both producers ended up flaking out.

The head A&R put together a AAA-label portfolio pitch (I don't think it was "Sony" but it was one of those ones, one of the big guys). The catch was that you needed 20 songs. At that point, even though I had just finished my previous projects and technically had enough, I knew that none of them were really what the label would be looking for / usable, so I resolved to write all new material (save I think one track).

So September to October 2020 I set about writing all the tunes for the label pitch. The pitch was to become a songwriter for the label. It sounded like a dream to me, so I went for it.

The thrill of writing so much so quickly under a deadline was inspiring. Before, when I was writing classical music, I'd spend 6-8 months working on a single piece. And here I was ripping off lyrics and a vocal demo every single day. I didn't have time to fuss over making it perfect. I didn't have time to worry about whether or not it would be any good. I just had to write as much as possible, record it as well as I could, and hope I labeled everything correctly.

With the clock run out, I submitted everything I had written. Looking back it's easy to see why they passed on me. I think only a couple of the songs are actually marketable in the traditional broad-appeal sense. At the time, I had felt like I was writing really honest tunes. I hadn't ever earnestly tried to write "pop" music before. The equipment I used - an interface and a microphone - were still new to me.

Soon after my portfolio got passed over, the UK label switched platforms for its briefs. I could never quite figure out how to use the new platform and felt out of loop. At the same time, the shininess of what they were offering was waning for me and I felt increasingly less interested in being an EDM songwriter.

So when I thought about what songs I would group together from this time period in my life, this collection, the rejected songs from my foray into the world of EDM publishing, seemed like the best fit. And this is where the title "Evolution" came from. This album, to me, is a rebirth. Not just a new chapter, but creative primordial goop. The missing link. I couldn't have written any of the stuff on Voyager or anything that came after without this record. 

I was terrified to let go of everything that made me "me". I was bolstered in part by some fantastic advice I got from composer Dan Visconti, who had told me that sometimes in life in order to have room for something new, you have to create empty space from something old. I had never thought about it that way before. It was both affirming and terrifying. Saying "yes" to ghost-writing EDM music, saying "no" to classical music / expectations, both of those things created space that allowed the seeds of Bad Nomad to germinate.

For all of that, I'm grateful.