Bit Depth

Tyler Thomas is a trombonist and all around great musician. It was great to reconnect with him and have deep conversations about music and its importance. You can find him on Instagram @tyler_thomas_ig

Love never fails. It's going to be okay. I might be wrong.

Since I am still bad at organizing things, instead of an interview this week, I decided to show you, loyal listener, some songs that have yet to be released by me. All of these were written as far back as 2017 and I had made demos for a class. Some have been updated or refreshed but they are still essentially demos - proofs of concept rather than full tracks.

00:18 - “We Are One” - This was my strange attempt at making a “world peace”, hippie style song. I think if I were to do a full production of this, I would need “We Are the World” levels of involvement. I tried using science as motivation for unity. This is a song that is not likely to be released on a full album any time soon because I don’t feel like it fits for me as an artist, nor do I think it fits with any album concepts I have percolating in my mind at the moment. I’m somewhat embarrassed of the song, I think, but it is what it is, so here you go.

04:16 - “Trauma (Live)” - Ok, so not exactly unreleased, since I’ve already played it on the podcast, but still has yet to get a proper release. This was played for an Electric Pizza concert and it features Breck McGough on backup vocals, J.R. Edwards on Cello, and Trevor Lindley on drums. I wrote this song from the point of view of a soldier with PTSD and how this person would cope with the things they had to do in the military. This will definitely make its way onto a future album.

07:52 - “The Vicious Cycle” - This one is from the point of view of a drug addict who has gotten to the point where he no longer wants to harm his family with his addiction, but he still has a long way to go to make up for his mistakes. For whatever reason, I felt the song’s character had an accent. I think it has more to go with the production, but I think the demo shows what the song is capable of, and it’s one of my favorite songs that I’ve written.

12:16 - “Star Destroyer” - Sometimes, I give myself tasks or inspirations for future songs, like “Write a song with a mantra” or “Make a track with no sustain”. For this one, the inspiration was “Make a song like an anime opening”. There’s a story in this song, which is like an anime in itself, and it’s sci-fi inspired and pretty cheesy. It was a lot of fun to sing in this style. I know this will make it onto a future album.

Patrick Conlon is a wellspring of knowledge, be it academic, or general life advice. I happened to express some random frustrations I had in mind, and he offered a lot of insights on how to navigate situations regarding shame and music.You can find Patrick’s stuff on his website and his Instagram:https://www.patrickconlonmusic.com/https://www.instagram.com/patrick_conlon_music/

Love never fails. It's going to be okay. I might be wrong.

Patrick Conlon is a composer, violinist, artist, writer, teacher, and administrator. He is the Assistant Director for ACM@UCO and teaches there, as well as plays violin professionally for a variety of gigs. We talked about learning music, composing, what makes art important, spirituality, and his guiding philosophy. Although I already state in the podcast, Patrick has been a mentor to me in my time at ACM, and I am extremely grateful for all of his time and advice. With that, you should definitely check out what he’s got going on at his website: www.patrickconlonmusic.com as well as on his Instagram: www.instagram.com/patrick_conlon_music/

Love never fails. It's going to be okay. I might be wrong.

After doing a second podcast and finding out that it didn’t record, I had to get Jonathan Edwards back on to do the second podcast. We talked about music, composing, communicating about our craft, and stuff we enjoy listening to, among other things. You can find Jon @tuneselectgo on Instagram.

Love never fails. It's going to be okay. I might be wrong.

I didn’t want to break up the (power) cycle of the Electric Pizza concerts, so here’s the third Power Cycle (Jonathan Edwards, Breck McGough, and myself) concert, which was on November 4th and titled “Remembrance”, inspired by November holidays. I’m not all that patriotic, but it was interesting to do. If you want to watch it, it’s on the Jazz Lab’s Facebook.00:17 - Electric Pizza Theme - Composed and performed by L. Keith White09:04 - Laptop Rondo - Composed by L. Keith White and Power Cycle; performed by Power Cycle23:10 - Trauma - Composed by Santiago Ramones; performed by Power Cycle, featuring Trevor Lindley on drums27:01 - Pastel Skies - Composed and performed by J.R. Edwards30:17 - Honoring Veterans - Composed by L. Keith White and Power Cycle; performed by Power Cycle36:43 - Gratitude - Composed by Santiago Ramones; performed by Power Cycle and audience members43:08 - Roses In December: In Memoriam Kathleen Rose - Composed and performed by Breck McGough47:34 - November Celebration - Composed by L. Keith White; performed by Power CycleNotes: Laptop Rondo, Honoring Veterans, and November Celebration had instructions from L. Keith White, and was put together by Power Cycle.Gratitude involved audience members reading a poem I wrote.The concert was recorded and mixed by Bryan Mitschell.

Love never fails. It's going to be okay. I might be wrong.

Since I am still dealing with a cold and still don’t want to be coughing into your ears for an interview, here’s the second Electric Pizza Concert, which was a Halloween show. This is a concert that I played on October 8th of 2018 with Power Cycle, an electronic trio that includes myself (Santiago Ramones), Breck McGough, and Jonathan Edwards. We’re all graduate music composition majors and we’re led by Dr. L. Keith White. Since this is a live recording, you can hear applause, talking, mistakes, and all the other things that can be heard at a live concert. You can watch the concert on Facebook through the UCO Jazz Lab page, which I would recommend, since there are a lot of visual elements that make up the show. The program is as follows:

00:16 - Electric Pizza Theme - Composed and performed by L. Keith White

08:20 - Prelude in Fear Minor - Adapted from Johann Sebastian Bach, improvised by Power Cycle

13:26 - Discomfort 2 - Composed and performed by Santiago Ramones

15:46 - Lullaby - Composed by Breck McGough, performed by Power Cycle

20:12 - Cocaine Nightmare - Composed and performed by Santiago Ramones

24:50 - Psychokinetoscope: Hommage a John Carpenter - Composed by Breck McGough (fixed media)

28:40 - A Ghost Story - Composed and performed by J.R. Edwards

32:31 - Nosferatu - Live scored/improvised by Power Cycle; short film edit by J.R. Edwards

A note about Electric Pizza Theme: This is an omnisensory piece of music that includes hearing (music), seeing (looking at the performer and pizza), feeling (holding pizza), smelling (smelling pizza), and tasting (eating pizza). While this piece is performed, pizza is delivered to the audience.

A note about Nosferatu: Jonathan cut down and made a version of the original Nosferatu film, which we live scored.

You can find everything Jon Edwards does on his Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tuneselectgo/You can find Breck’s music on his SoundCloud:https://soundcloud.com/breck-mcgough

Since I was too busy to record a podcast for this week, I wanted to try something different this time around. This is a concert that I played on September 10th of 2018 with Power Cycle, an electronic trio that includes myself (Santiago Ramones), Breck McGough, and Jonathan Edwards. We’re all graduate music composition majors and we’re led by Dr. L. Keith White. This was the first concert of our “Electric Pizza” series, which are free concerts with free pizza at which we play experimental, original, and electronic music. Since this is a live recording, you can hear applause, talking, mistakes, and all the other things that can be heard at a live concert. You can watch the concert on Facebook, if you like.Here is the program, with timecodes:00:19 - Electric Pizza Theme - Composed and performed by L. Keith White08:33 - Piece for Three Laptops - Wonder - Composed by L. Keith White, performed and improvised by Power Cycle14:55 - Mirage - Composed by Santiago Ramones, performed by Power Cycle18:43 - The Daydreamer Meditates - Composed by Breck McGough (fixed media)22:38 - Piece for Three Laptops - Hunger - Composed by L. Keith White, performed and improvised by Power Cycle29:29 - Ancient Caves - Composed and performed by J. R. Edwards33:28 - Exit - Composed by Santiago Ramones, performed by Power Cycle37:44 - Piece for Three Laptops - The Unknown - Composed by L. Keith White, performed and improvised by Power Cycle44:21 - Bedimming (Mvt. 1) - Composed by Breck McGough (fixed media)47:49 - Bedimming (Mvt. 2) - Composed by Breck McGough (fixed media)50:40 - Machinations III - Get It - Composed by Santiago Ramones, performed by Power Cycle54:43 - Eric (excerpt) - Composed by J. R. Edwards (fixed media)A note about Piece for Three Laptops: while this piece was “composed” by L. Keith White, it’s a structured improvisation, meaning that there are loose directions given to the performers, and the performers improvise based on those directions. Each time it appears on this concert, the music is inspired by the subtitle - Wonder, Hunger, The Unknown.The music was recorded, engineered, and mixed by Bryan Mitschell.

Love never fails. It's going to be okay. I might be wrong.

Troy and I discussed race and how that interacts with our culture, how we can improve conversation, and what problems we are still facing. You can find all of Troy’s stuff, including his new song, “Headache”, on his website: http://troyanthonysmall.com/

Love never fails. It's going to be okay. I might be wrong.

Troy Anthony Small is a singer, teacher, arranger, and producer. He has an interesting background and we had a really fun and deep conversation. We get way into music and morality. You can find all his stuff, including his new song, “Headache”, on his website: http://troyanthonysmall.com/

Love never fails. It's going to be okay. I might be wrong.