[the art for Summer Thunder, by Cindy Nguyen]
As I type this, I'm listening to, exporting, and uploading the eight tracks that make up Summer Thunder, the first album I've ever seen through fully from concept to recording. It's been an incredibly long process with many stops and starts, difficulties of all possible kinds, and hours of blood, sweat, and tears.
I started writing the material that would comprise this album about four years ago, while at community college. My vision was one of intense, chaotic, and eclectic composition. At the time, I was frustrated with several things: the boundaries I felt being applied to my creative expression, the difficulties of organizing groups of musicians, and the relative scarcity of musicians who were interested in pursuing and collaborating on the types of music I wanted desperately to make.
All these things led me to a conclusion: I should simply write the music I want to write regardless of the resources available to me, so when the day comes that I meet musicians interested in and up to the task of playing it with me, I'll have plenty of good material ready to be rehearsed and performed. So I wrote. What went into this writing? Struggle and progression with my own abilities, a from-scratch approach to song form, the fine details of rhythm and harmony, and the myriad intricacies of arrangement, especially composition for drums as a non-drummer.
But the challenges of creating an album neither begin nor end with composition, especially when undertaking the work almost completely alone. On a tangible level, there was the challenge of finding a drummer up to the task of learning, performing, and in a couple instances, even writing and recording the parts for the album. I lucked out with Jakob, who turned out to be a reliable, skilled, and creative collaborator. Not only that, but his home was only a 30 minute drive away from the school at which we both studied, and in his basement was a drum kit with a solid 9-microphone recording setup. Each weekend during the 2017 spring semester, we would drive up to his house to rehearse and record drum parts. It was difficult to hand off my music to someone else in many regards, but Jakob learned quickly from notation, and as time went on, our process streamlined itself into very productive and fluid sessions. In this regard I was quite fortunate, as finding a drummer for this music took years.
In other challenges, luck was far from a relevant factor. My tracking of the guitar and bass parts was mostly crammed into the last couple months of school, and so learning to track myself - efficiently and at the pace required to submit the rough mixes for my senior thesis - was an on the fly process with lots of trial and error and improvisation. Mixing was a challenge too, as it was my first time mixing a real drum kit, and as production is a much newer area of skill for me.
The challenges weren't simply technical and musical, however. I also had to challenge my capacities for focus, self-regulation, mental and physical health; learning to balance work and breaks, give myself proper sleep, maintain good hygiene and nutrition, and discipline my recording process all summed up to make the task absolutely monumental. Psychologically and physically, it required immense stamina to continually subject myself to the composition, performance, and refinement of the same eight pieces of music, towards the goal of crafting a something I could be proud to show others and identify with as the fruit of my labor. The physical tension of focused and repeated recordings and the alienation from and self doubt of my own art were things to constantly contend with. And of course, on top of this all, I was still keeping up with classes, and life!
Now, I have less than two days until I release this project that consumed my time, thoughts, and efforts for years. I'm very excited and not-insignificantly nervous to release the first proper Cold Stars album, Summer Thunder. This album is an eclectic combination of many kinds of high energy, heavy, and intricate forms of music that I've loved and otherwise been drawn to over the years, and I feel it strongly represents me as a composer, musician, and producer.
This stuff is heavily influenced by bands and artists such as Tera Melos, The Fall of Troy, Animals as Leaders, Yowie, Krallice, Torche, Elder, Tigran Hamasyan, and Ni. If you're at all into metal, math rock, prog, jazz, western classical music, or anything intense and intensely experimental, I would strongly urge you to check out the two singles I've released so far from Summer Thunder, and to listen to, share, and - if you really appreciate what I'm doing - buy this album, my labor of love, when it comes out in two days on June 21st. Provided below are links to my Bandcamp, Soundcloud, and Facebook pages, so you can listen and get more information about Cold Stars, the name I primarily create music under. The link to my Bandcamp page is in my bio here on Steemit as well. If you enjoyed this brief insight into my work, art, and process, let me know in the comments! If you like or make similar music, feel free to share that with me as well, as I'm always excited to discover and talk about new things.