Ether Diver

A while back
@OneBlindMouse and I agreed to post more process threads about our music, so I am getting started on that. Let's talk today about "Apocalypse Pilgrim," a track from my compilation album Is Life in Dreams Are Made Of?

https://etherdiver.bandcamp.com/track/apocalypse-pilgrim

@electronicmusic

#synth #shoegaze #music #Musodon #HowItsMade

Apocalypse Pilgrim, by Ether Diver

from the album Is Life in Dreams Are Made Of?

Ether Diver
Feb 20 at 11:46pmWeb
Show threadEther DiverFeb 20
I recorded this a couple year ago, shortly after finishing the yearlong project that got me back into music making. After that project, I was transitioning to a DAWless setup and looking to expand my musical vocabulary into some new areas. This track reflects all of that.
Show threadEther DiverFeb 20

Musically, this track was an attempt to do something like shoegaze, or more to the point, to incorporate shoegaze elements into what I was doing musically (something I still try to incorporate, fwiw).

Obviously, shoegaze is a guitar driven genre. There are no guitars in this track.

Show threadEther DiverFeb 20

However, at the time I had a Korg Monologue (the monosynth member of the Minilogue/Prologue family), and I kept making guitar-like patches on it (plucky, start kinda harmonically complex but fade to a sinelike tone) -- something about it just led me in that direction.

I also had a Zoom 505 pedal. (An old, cheap and shitty digital distortion pedal from the late '90s/early '00s)

Show threadEther DiverFeb 20
Those two things came together and made the lead sound for this track. I used a lot of pitch bender playing it, which I don't generally do, 'cause it gave me some of that warbly, slidey pitch thing so common in shoegaze. Is it shoegaze? I dunno, you be the judge.
Show threadEther DiverFeb 20
Most of the rest of the track -- the bass and drums, maybe the chords too -- came from the Novation Circuit, which was the sequencing brain behind my setup at the time. I can't, for the life of me, recall if there were other synths on it, but there probably were because I try to use lots of stuff.
Show threadEther DiverFeb 20
The other inspiration for this one came from the title, which is a weird phrase that just popped into my head one day, and the weird quasireligion from Philip K. Dick's "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep" --the liner notes on the song page for the track reference it, but not by name.
Show threadEther DiverFeb 20

And that's about it for this one. Not super detailed, I know, but I hope some insight into the inspiration, what I was hoping to accomplish and how I did it was helpful, or at least interesting.

TL;DR try distortion pedals on your basic synth sounds sometimes, and read sci-fi for inspiration.

Show threadEther DiverFeb 20

Final thought: Sure do appreciate you reading all about this track, but I'd appreciate it EVEN MORE if you'd spend two minutes of your life listening to it:

https://etherdiver.bandcamp.com/track/apocalypse-pilgrim

Apocalypse Pilgrim, by Ether Diver

from the album Is Life in Dreams Are Made Of?

Ether Diver