An origin story of sorts: I learned to make music in Garageband using premade loops starting in middle school, but in 8th grade my dad introduced me to a MIDI* keyboard and a new realm of possibilities was opened. Snuffed Candles (track 1) was the first piece I ever put together entirely using notes I played through that little keyboard. Before I gained microphone recording capabilities around 2012 or so, all the music I recorded was through MIDI. It's a very flexible way to try out many different sounds and synths, and allows for some strange possibilities, like the flutes pitched into the bass register on "Breath," or the frenetic piano piece accidentally switched to the "radio sounds" setting that resulted in the chaos of "Radio." It also allows for a lot more editing after the fact than recording in audio does, and allows writing of pieces purely through musical notation as well (e.g. Written Work).

The MIDI Years is a compilation of some of the more successful (or at least interesting) experiments with MIDI composition from 2007-2014. The tracks are organized in my best approximation of chronological order, which ideally coincides with increasing dexterity. All the sounds on this record are produced by MIDI, except for the crudely recorded saxophone and desk "percussion" on Cahora Bassa. I hope you enjoy this little window into my education in digital music!

All proceeds will go the Palestine Children's Relief Fund. If you have a moment, please call your representatives and ask them to support a ceasefire.



*You may ask, what exactly is MIDI? Well, the American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition defines "midi" as
1. A skirt or coat of mid-calf length.
2. A coat or skirt having such a hemline.
3. The southern part of France.

Clearly that's all wrong. Per Wikipedia, "MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) is a technical standard that describes a communication protocol, digital interface, and electrical connectors that connect a wide variety of electronic musical instruments, computers, and related audio devices for playing, editing, and recording music."

That's technically true, but not very helpful. Basically, MIDI for me was a way to play a note on a keyboard and hear that note played off my computer by a wide range of instruments or synths. The notes are encoded as the dots and lines you see on the album cover, and can be switched around to different instruments after being played, resulting in some interesting effects. Thank you for coming to my TED Talk.