Category: Blog

I was so excited to try out playing a mage in World of Warcraft way back in the day… and then it was so awful. So many amazing spells! And so little survivability…

It all adds up to a pretty awesome album though.

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“These Hands are Made for Crafting” is a song about realizing your hands simply aren’t up to some tasks and that if you want to use them for what really matters — like casting ice bolts and fireballs — you can’t waste them on swinging about heavy weapons. Continue reading “Insipid Liner Notes: Doo-Wop Mage”

“One Crazy Ride” is literally a song about a reptilian alien marveling at her new relationship, wondering:

“Is this one crazy ride for six months
Or is it the rest of my life?”

But that line came from how I feel about being able to make music with AI. Continue reading “Insipid Liner Notes – Star-Shaker’s Cold-Blooded Girl”

Anyone much younger than forty simply cannot have a visceral understanding of what it feels like to live through a decade’s worth of time.

Not a specific decade, mind you. Just the length, like knowing how it feels to sit through an hour or do something for a week. But a decade.

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But deep down, don’t we all want to talk about goblins, gremlins, raccoons, trolls, ogres, pigeons, or other animals or creatures? Continue reading “Hobbies Old and New”

“What would you even do with a hammock at this time of year?” I ask my kid who seems surprised when I suggest we might wait until the summer to get one… despite everywhere being wet around us.

“A slingshot. For pineapples,” the child informs me.

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Notes I wrote myself at 3am:

—ten and seven are the factors of Steven
—what if Ariel grows into the sea witch??? Continue reading “Nonsense of Various Types”

I spent hours talking to Claude about the nature of paladins in order to keep nudging the lyrics to “Call to the Light” around until they properly established the right tone for opening this album.

It turns out I have a lot of thoughts about paladins. Continue reading “Insipid Liner Notes – Doo-Wop Paladin”

There’s so much to explore in an album inspired by the druid class in Warcraft/Diablo. It’s all about transformation — cat form, bear form, travel form, flight form. You’re a whole kaleidoscope of different animals and even a tree sometimes.

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“Back to the Wild” sets the stage for our main character to begin training as a druid.

“La-da-da-da leaf, la-da-da-da leaf.” Continue reading “Insipid Liner Notes – Doo-Wop Druid”

Cobalt Starstrong and the Clashing Greens is one of the silliest, most ridiculous things I’ve ever made, and I love it so, so much.

It’s pure, unadulterated joy in the form of retro space opera doo-wop — imagine an early Beach Boys album in space. Continue reading “Insipid Liner Notes – Cobalt Starstrong and the Clashing Greens”

My favorite class in World of Warcraft is demonologist warlock. I love being surrounded by all my demons.

Doo-Wop Warlock as an album summons that feeling — one demon at a time — while blending it with bright 60s harmonies and a touch of 80s synth. Continue reading “Insipid Liner Notes – Doo-Wop Warlock”

Falling asleep last night, I thought it might be time to start actually writing fiction with Claude, not just music albums. I had a whole vision and a plan for a project I wouldn’t mind having be a collaboration. (AI is not ready to touch my main universes.) But this morning…

A mismatch between Claude on my phone and on my computer led to losing the lyrics we’d composed for the first song on Doo-Wop Paladin. And after arguing about paladins with Claude for several hours, trying to recapture that vibe, I’m thinking… maybe not. Continue reading “Music Struggles and Successes”

Okay! Let’s do this.

If you’re gonna make an album that sounds like how it felt to play Diablo back in the ‘90s — but in bright, shiny, cheerful doo-wop form! — then you’ve got to start with the musical question:

What class are you gonna train??? Continue reading “Insipid Liner Notes – Doo-Wop Demon Hunter”