Neuron Dreamtime: Recent Episodes
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Here it is in all it’s glory!
This album was recorded in bathrooms and closets, nurseries and bedrooms. Within these digitized wave-forms are the sounds of our surroundings, our families and our lives. Music imbued with our humanity, our fear and our hope.
Reminder that purchase of the album on Bandcamp gets you two bonus songs.
The second single from the Moth To Flame project was let loose upon the internet on Wednesday. “Cinder” is one of our favorite tracks on the album. It has an eerie quality to it that took over early in the process. Dave has his own meaning for the lyrics he wrote and I have my own interpretation of what the song is about as well. We hope the listener finds their own meaning.
This whole album has been an experiment of sorts. We both just wanted to create something together, something that was unequivocally ours by melding our sensibilities together. It’s certainly not perfect like a AAA studio album and we knew that’d be the case from the start. We did our best to not chase the perfect take, although a couple songs did elicit that from us towards the end.
Mixing and mastering. To me they are almost one in the same. I think a really good mix probably doesn’t need to be “mastered” per se. I just try to keep an eye on clipping and watching my frequencies so that everything that’s in the song has a nice little spot to sit in the spectrum. Sounds easy I guess but sometimes I get so full of doubt about my ability that I start to overthink and run in circles. But I think I’ve leveled up with this project as I’ve modified my workflow within FLStudio to be more efficient. I made it a mantra to “don’t get it perfect, get it done”.
Album out this Monday, July 22nd @ https://moth-to-flame.bandcamp.com/album/moth-to-flame
Debut self-titled album coming July 22, 2024!Hello again you lot. It has been, what? A year and a half since my last post here. Well what can I say, life has me busy and exhausted but it’s all good. The kid is growing and learning at an exponential rate. It’s incredible. Neuron Dreamtime music is at a standstill but it’s all good. Instead, I spent what free time I had during the last year recording music with a lifelong friend, David Miller. We learned to play guitar together, we’re still neighbors to this day and we are super excited for this project that we’ve titled ‘Moth To Flame’. It’s all good.
(Scroll to the bottom for a visualization video for the first track “Healing Winds“)
(Visit Bandcamp to preorder a pysical or digital copy)
It is a six track self-titled album with a runtime of 26 minutes. It all started in the spring of ’23 when David and I reconnected with our old past time of jamming acoustic guitars on the porch. Soon he picked up on using Audacity to record and Google Drive to share tracks. Then it was off to the races. And it was all good.
Once we had the songs we wanted I would then spend a few months mixing and mastering and driving myself insane to the best of my current ability. Let’s be honest, we are both very much aware that this album is not perfect, that was never the goal, we just did what we did with what we had in the allotted time we have as family men. The building blocks for some of the songs date back to our late teens. We must be finally mature enough in both mind and spirit to put something cohesive like this together. These songs will forever have a special place in my heart. The whole process was cathartic to say the least. It was all good.
Anyway, I’ve rambled on enough. I will be updating the site once ‘Moth To Flame’ releases by embedding the Bandcamp player into the “Collaborations” page.
Here is a visualization video for “Healing Winds”.
Thanks for stopping by and reading and listening and allowing us into your lives.
-LM
The following is the blog post turned script for episode 3 of Mind Overrun.
To start, as I alluded to in the first episode, I have a sort of fear of public speaking, good old fashion stage fright. This podcast is an exercise at confronting that fear.
Second, I am to be a father next year. With my wife and I expecting our first. I find myself in an introspective space. A place of vulnerability and potential. And I ask myself the questions I’m sure most first time fathers ask themselves. What will I teach our child? Will I succeed in being a parent and raise an intelligent and thoughtful individual? Will I be a cool Dad?
So with these audio recordings I think about our child growing up and the probability of them becoming curious about what I “do” or what the possibilities are and in a realistic sense if I were to be struck down tomorrow or fifty years from now, at least there’s a small remnant of me left behind. In a way these episodes are for the kid, like lore notes or journal entries in a post apocalyptic video game. Because I know one thing for sure, all of our time is limited on this planet and you never know when your number might be up. There is no such thing as time to waste, nor time to throw away. And these words and the words I share with friends are here for posterity’s sake. For as long as there is a way to store and retrieve it. For the sake of always being able to hear my voice or read my words and feel the love. For however long that may last. Impermanence rules all but the chain of life runs forever.
I hope to continue creating after the initial months of our beloved newborn noob. I know I will lack sleep and have very little free time but as time passes I’m sure I’ll find new ways and adopt a newly evolved process.
Time is the most valuable thing and love is the most precious. And with those two things you can find peace. Whatever I may find myself doing I will do so with the same love and attention. So, sure, not everything ever goes as planned but everything happens anyway and time ticks and our hearts beat the countdown to our final exhale. And as we ride the spiral we still share and relate. We still bond and create. We can still give meaning to everything close to us.
My process is one of play and exploration. One of mining the depths of improvisation and synchronicity in an attempt to capture or at least imitate the magic that is found. Iterations often follow, as a brief change in perspective can open other doors. So try things in different ways. Play but pay attention. And always hold sincere intentions.
To create is to wield the power of the divine. Harness the universal expansion to bring novelty and meaning into existence where there was nothing before. When I paint, or produce music, I feel as if I am part conduit and part conductor. A receiver of consciousness that translates into movement, the coding of life, of experience. Conjuring islands to sprout in the sea of impermanence.
Now that our greatest collaboration is on its way, I can’t help but feel that I now have more confidence in my choices, in my identity, in my power of will. Doubt and mistakes will never go away but my relationship to them has changed. My perspective has been altered. And with it, so too will my creative process adapt and survey new lands.
Check out Mind Overrun on Anchor.fm and Spotify. You can also find it through the Google Podcasts app and in a couple other places. Still working on getting it as wide a release as possible. On the podcast I talk with friends and people I know about interesting topics concerning inspiration, motivation and the occasional weird or funny things that float into our minds. It’s all a work in progress and I hope it finds its audience.
-L
Give attention toward that which you want to grow. Cultivate discipline which will pollinate motivation and bloom as inspiration. If you fall out of it, rise again like the sun.
To do creative work one must not wait for inspiration or motivation, one must do the work. To do the work is to appease the Muses. They cater to the devotion of the attempt, to the ritual of respect. For example, sitting your butt in the chair with fingers at attention upon the keys and […]
Not so fast. Do not rush. For if you focus on the finish line you’ll miss the hurdle. Dare not hurry to the next thing. Take a moment to be in the moment and maybe even allow boredom to set in. Alone, with your thoughts and senses. In this realm of momentary moment-ism you may […]
With the soft-launch of the Patreon page, the Estate, out of the way and as I pour more focus into my trilogy of short stories with NaNoWriMo in progress, I feel that I am in new form. I’m trying to change habits and double down on what I love to do. Allocating time and forcing […]
“As the gates open to a roundabout encircling a great fountain, strange songs can be heard from an indiscernible location. The skeletal forms of the architecture appear bare but are interestingly not. The deeper you look into it you begin to recognize fractal forms engaged in a subtle tachykinesic movement. Every surface appears to be […]
Self-doubt craters the path to fulfillment. Puddles of uncertainty splash amidst the trudging trajectory of creative pursuit. With talent and potential set aside, the fuel to push it further requires tenacity and forgiveness. I’ve made certain changes in my relationship with my day(night)-job. It was a decision made with many aspects in mind. In these […]
With a pandemic on our collective and hopefully frequently washed hands, a statewide stay at home order still in effect, and my place of employment basically shutdown since three weeks ago till about the end of April means I’m in the middle of a surprise vacation that’s been dropped in my lap. All this new […]
“Make Lemonade” by Neuron Dreamtime Thirteen Palm Trees Podcast Productions have released the schedule for the next few episodes of the Wasted Local Talent podcast including the Neuron Dreamtime episode and seeing that it has been the customary length of time between posts here on the mother site, I’m back again with another peek into […]
When I began writing this the feeling was that of defeat. No matter how much I plan or prepare something will get in the way to let me know that the universe is impersonal, hostile and ultimately doesn’t care about the goals of a speck of dust. There are 1000 things I want to do […]
As is tradition, the beats of life rhythmically provide waves of disorder and wrench throwing. As much as one may try to stave off any unwanted obstacles, ultimately it seems it’s up to the infinite myriad of interconnected points of reality and the cosmos to kick sand into plans. In the occurrence of such an […]
Two months later I find myself struggling to promote the new album any further. The roadmap laid out up to the release served it’s purpose and I was able to execute it to the T with a punctuality never before seen from myself. But I was so focused on just getting it done, making the steps to the final destination, that I thought very little of what I’d do when I got there, other than a reminder FB post a few weeks or so later. This has always been the case with Dreamtime’s post-release promotion. But I feel, now more than before, that this project I’ve spent so much time on is worthy of the follow up support I’ve neglected to provide. Neglected for reasons as simple as focus shifts to painting, reading, making a paycheck, and generally living life.
It’s an ocean of media, entertainment, music and film out there and I’m trying to build a floating island of my own. A place in the clouds that people may stumble upon and maybe find something they like, that enhances their lives in the way that art does. Or if it’s not their cup of tea then maybe, at least, they recognize the DIY ethic and be inspired to follow their own visions and dreams as well.
So what is next? Promotion of course, starting with this very blog then leading into paid promotion on social media and local promotion via podcasts and correspondence with others, regardless of genre.
There is always something creatively cooking up in my head and sometimes it’s hard to make it out of my head with the idea(s) in tow but when it is achieved and the physicality begins to take shape I pour my heart into it. It can be exhausting but it’s always worth it. This bout of post-release promotion will be no different.
-L
TL;DR- Buy my new record, send more money.