Atoms Apart

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  • Writing for the new album (really)

    Ok, so we’re still here.

    It’s been a while, but I just wanted to write and let everybody know we’re still going. I (Mike) moved to Belgium a few years back, but came back last year. We played the most awesome Fort Reno this year, and got to see so many of our buddies there.

    What else?

    We’re in the studio. I’ll post pictures soon!

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  • STOP AAPI HATE: The Benefit Album

    Our friends Ted and Sheryl cut the idea to put together this compilation during all the hate and attacks against us. We were very honored to be asked to join and contribute.

    https://www.tedreyes.com/post/stop-aapi-hate-the-benefit-album-is-here

    We’ve had our song, Fault Lines, in a unfinished format for a while, but could never quite figure out how to center the lyrics. Only after witnessing all these attacks against our elders, and our community did it help coalesce the idea properly.

    My parents met in America, went back to the Philippines to start their life, and had me and my brother. They weren’t cowed by the legend of an American existence, because they had already experienced it. Unlike my peers, we were never told that we had to shut up and just get along. So I’m thankful for that. Growing up in America, I assumed that Asians weren’t meant to be part of the conversation. It was weird enough to just grow up here but not be born here.

    I’m worried that nobody cares about us here, and that we only have ourselves in the Asian community that cares. I’m hopeful, but don’t expect it.

  • Mix/Master Work

    Bang bang

    Yay! Both big projects that I have been working on have released this past week. My extended brother Mike (not me Mike but other Mike) and his band Forgotten Favorite have put out their 2nd album, and I got to do a little production work on it.

    This was also my first full master attempt, so nice of the boys to let me use them as a guinea pig. I’ve had the Fabfilter suite for a while, but never really got try it out and put it through basic paces until now.

    I had to do a few revisions of the master, but I was really happy to put my ears to work. Even though these VSTs are renowned for their beautiful GUI, I would just flip back and forth between the presets and really focus. Afterwards, I would pick the ranges for the bands and just listen. Anyway, nerd stuff, but a great use of my COVID time.

    Definitely pick this one up. Not only was I shouting along to all the songs, but they are donating all proceeds towards the local DC / MD Black Lives Matter org. Win win!

  • Requiem Remix!

    It’s here! This has been a secret quiet project for me and Emil and I’m glad it’s out in the world.

    Coup Sauvage writes:

    Hold onto your church fans (and your face masks), @coupsauvage are back with another sermon for the children. We are reuniting one-time only for a special deluxe re-release of “Requiem for a Mountaintop.” Released in 2015 on our “Psalms from Ward 9” EP, the song was written after the deaths of Michael Brown, Eric Garner, and Tamir Rice. Equal parts elegy and call to action, it was our way to honor and celebrate the many black and brown lives lost as a result of police violence.

    We never imagined the song would still be timely in 2020. Or that the list of names of people killed at the hands of the police would keep growing. All these years later, we are still angry, we are still in mourning, and we are still giving voice to our outrage the best way we know how – on the dance floor and in community. Now more than ever, we are dancing to rejoice, we are dancing for solidarity, we are dancing for our survival.

    In response to the latest demands for racial justice, we’re re-releasing the original “Requiem for a Mountaintop” single. We’ve also added four new remixes produced by some of our favorite black, brown, and queer artists from the DMV including @cultfreedc & @atomsapart. All proceeds from Bandcamp will be donated to the Movement for Black Lives and ONE DC. Join us in supporting local artists and help us raise funds to continue the fight to make Black Lives Matter.

    We started working on this a few months back, and I was really excited to do a proper remix for friends that I really respected and had created musical work that wasn’t a rehash of the same old same old. I wanted to be respectful of the amazing original song but at the same time, still amuse myself.

    I put down some bass and guitar and some basic chords, while Emil started picking out synth tones and interesting little drum fills. I mixed and mastered it here in Laundry Room 2, my studio in Belgium.

  • A Cover + Remixes forthcoming!

    Ok, to be honest, I just wanted to throw in ‘forthcoming’ into a post. I mean, there is one coming up, but it didn’t have to be announced like a ball. Anyway….

    I did a little cover with my friend Sean Urban this week just for fun. He had told me about a little tribute series done on bandcamp, where they have a bunch of bands do interpretations of a band every month. Sean had the guitar ready, so I just threw some vocals and arrangements on top of it. You can find it here: https://prfmonthlytributeseries.bandcamp.com/album/june-2020-smashing-pumpkins

    I’m not that into covers, just because they require an organization which I don’t have the effort for. But it was nice to do this for a second. I’m going to leave BC’s current political views off this post, and just pretend I’m still under 30 and loving this.

    Most of my week and the previous weekend have been spent working on a remix for some friends of ours in DC. I’m very pumped! Emil threw on some excellent riffs already, and you can hear some of it on our Instagram.

    I don’t know when that will be out, but it’s due next week, so I’ll be a little under the rader (ok, except for IG). Feel free to ping us there, and see if you can guess who its for.

  • A show + new music

    I’m playing a show this Saturday! You can register here and check in and say hi.

    https://www.crowdcast.io/e/virtual-ria-porch-fest/1

    In the context of our falling apart country, I worry that music feels very small, but I think this is a little of what I can contribute.

    Oh machines.

    I’ll be on the RIA Main Street Virtual Porchfest next week, so the picture above is me just testing out the tech for it. Should be great. I’ll send out the link eventually, or you can follow at this link:

    In much more mundane matters, we are back for a bit. I’m going to avoid doing the apology of not updating this thing and just get on with it. Now that COVID got us, I’m sitting here catching up and going through things. Let’s update the website, why not?

    Me and Emil are writing sporadically, and I’m doing some writing with a few friends, putting together beats and what not. Also, I moved to Belgium! They speak Flemish and French here. Which have a lot of vowels. I’m not used to that.

    Standard ‘standing against a wall’ shot…

  • 2020. Wow.

    So 2020. This is really happening. Crazy people protesting staying inside followed by the same exact crazies saying black people are overreacting. How are we going to make it through this? I can only hope that our not to be named leader gets voted out.

    I don’t really feel qualified to speak about the systemic racism against the black community in our nation, but there would be no United States without them. Period. It’s unforgivable that a nation who claims to be “under God” would let this inequality continue. Thank you to the protesters that are out there speaking the truth to a monolith that’s ignored them for so long.