Yes, It's Really Me (... sorta)

Dearest Dorothy,

I hope you enjoyed the last letter. It should comfort you to know that I'll be going back to my usual schedule of writing. Before I move on however, I wanted to let you in on something. Some spill-over from the last post, if you will. Two VERY interesting facts were brought to my attention:

1. The release date for SUADADE was March 11th, 2014. March 11 was also Romeo and Juliet's wedding day, according to Shakespeare (albeit 712 years earlier). In some aspects, it's quite appropriate when you consider the story of the album.

2. I recently released another song on Halloween (yes, I guess it's a thing now). It is a cover of Slipknot's "Prelude 3.0”. Funny enough, Slipknot's newest album debuted at #1 around the same time.

Do you see? None of that was planned! Things just fall together so magically! It's all quite astounding, really.

Anyway, I have something new to shine your attention onto. As I mentioned before, I've had the pleasure of talking about SUADADE with those who've already heard it quite a few times now. Hearing all the theories and connections make for quite the conversation, especially for me. But one of the most common questions asked is who the songs were about. Or who from my life are the characters based on. Or simply; "How much of your music is REALLY YOU?"

Now I think I spoke about this already in a previous letter where I mentioned: "... I wanted the same artistic freedom that a director would have fleshing out a movie in his head..."

This means I don't want my music to be solely based off of my life. I don't want my songs to feel like a page from a journal. At the end of the day, I didn't want to limit my music to my reality.

Because why should I? Did George Lucas base "Star Wars" on his experiences during college? Did Alexander Dumas base "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" on his uncle? Did Mary Shelley base "Frankenstein" on an actual man made from different peoples’ limbs sown together, and animated by electricity? I'm aware my last two examples aren't film directors, but I think you get what I mean.

With all that being said, the real answer is that my music is ALL ME. It's all about me. It's all from me. It's all from my life.

For the longest time, I've been saying that my songs don't contain any particular element or influence from my life. That it is simply their distinct presentation which is informed by my perspective. Perhaps I needed to think this in order to have finished the album. Perhaps I needed some sense of distance or separation between me and the events of the album's story, in order to feel comfortable enough to tell it. However, I've recently began doing some honest retrospection, and I've come to realize that no matter how much I divorce myself from the content of my music, it has to all come from somewhere, and for me, that place happens to be my life.

What this basically means is that while I might not name anyone in a song about losing a loved one, or describe certain events with the utmost veracity (or heck, even lost a loved one to begin with), I can still harken back to the actual emotions I felt during then or a time similar to it, in order to fill in the gaps between the poetic embellishments and artistic liberties of the song. So is the song about losing a loved one, or about not getting the last slice of pizza? Ahhh, well grasshopper, that’s the beauty of what I do! In all seriousness, I’ve come to learn that my perspective doesn't only shape a song’s presentation, but also its inception and core meaning. I felt this necessary to share with you.

I think this is all I can say on the topic for now. A magician never should reveal his entire bag of tricks. Besides, I don’t wanna burn you out. Save your energy for the next letter. I’m gonna weigh in on a conversation that is quite heated at the moment, so it should be quite the read.

Enjoy The Fall,

theRave

Easter-Eggs and Clean Chakra

Dearest Dorothy,

You must have been worried as to why this message comes to you so late in the month. Well my precious, it’s quite simple, I’VE BEEN BUSY MAKING PROGRESS. Steps in the right direction take a certain amount of effort, regardless of how small they may or may not be, because at the end of the day, it all adds up. Summing it up quickly; live shows will happen soon, music video will happen soon, new music will happen soon. Yea, PROGRESS.

But that’s only half the reason. I specifically waited until this day to write you. Why? Because I work with numbers, I work with time, and I work with energy. Heck, if you factor in sound, then that’s what all we musicians do! Those initial three elements however, aren’t as separate as you might think. As a matter of fact, they’re very much intertwined. You see, I believe that dates and numbers work in tandem to (and bear with me here) give off certain energies at certain times of the day, to steer you a certain way (meta-Dr. Seuss in the house). None of this is to say that we’re puppets on strings with no control of ourselves. But rather that we are locomotives constantly moving forward, and are presented with countless options for paths. Every path has always been available; it’s just that some are presented more clearly at certain times than others.

So what about this day? What happened today that was so damn important?

Well? Come on, you should know this…

THAT’S RIGHT!

It's my birthday!

Yea yea, so I wanted to write you on my birthday. There’s no way I’d rather spend it, to be honest. But maybe in writing today, I’d be more clear than usual. Or perhaps I’d write in a way you’d relate to better. I believe in things like this, I study things like this, and it’s all because of what happened on Halloween night last year.

The year was 2013, and it was (and hopefully shall remain) the worst year of my life. I won’t go into the details of all that, but it was rough. Yet on October 31^st, 2013, I sat on my floor with a guitar on my lap, in the dark, with the moon shining down on me from the sky through my window. I began to reflect. The year was pure shit, but it did have some “interesting” moments. One in particular had to do with a demon bitch. Not demon like she was “evil”. She was just a girl who was… a stranger. A girl who just needed to be saved. A girl who didn’t give a fuck, but really could.

Sitting on that floor, strumming that guitar; it instantly came to me. The verse and chorus, BOOM, music and lyrics right there. That song made its way onto SUADADE. It was the first complete song I wrote for SUADADE, and therefore made the most sense to put as the first song on the album. The song was “Black Sclera”.

If you listen to it, you’ll perhaps notice that it’s one of the darkest songs on the album. That was an intended effort on my part. Yet after I finished recording the song, I noticed its length came out to exactly “10:31”, the day I wrote it. That was not intended at all. From that moment on, I knew. Everything had a purpose. Everything had a meaning. If you can’t see it, it’s because it hasn’t been completed enough to be presented to you yet.

Keyword: YET.

This is by no means an original thought. There are countless musicians that have been examining the correlation between numbers in relation to music, and the ether long before I ever attempted to. For example; my personal favorite jazz wunderkind, Pat Martino, has pointed out connections such as the 5 black keys on a piano to the 5 human senses, or the 7 white keys to the 7 chakras. He’s even delved deeper so far as explaining how consonance and dissonance is the same thing. But that’s an entirely different conversation…

By opening my mind to notice the ethereal, I saw how it gave meaning to my work, more than it already had. I noticed it in other places, and decided that this trend must continue. Continue it did; sometimes intentionally, and other times not.

More instances regarding track length include:

• “If Only You Knew”, whose length is indicative of the time of day mentioned in its second verse.
• “Ibid.” continuing the theme from “Black Sclera”, therefore sharing the same track length minus a digit.
•  “Illunga” being “07:07”, with 7 in numerology meaning all things regarding the inside of a person, thus corresponding with the story and theme of the song itself.
• “The Callout” being the only track with a length consisting of consecutive digits. Thus setting it apart from all the other tracks as not really being a part of the whole. It also serves as a source of juxtaposition between both halves of the record, while having almost nothing to do with either. Yea, think on that one.

Track listing was important as well:

• Track 10, consisting of digits 0 and 1 whose numerological meanings when juxtaposed correspond with the song’s theme.
• There are 12 tracks in total. If the album was a play and you split it down the middle, it would have two acts. Tracks 1-4 are Act I, tracks 5 and 6 are the interlude/intermission, and tracks 7-12 are Act II.

Other easter-eggs in the album were simply audio-manipulation and production-based:

• The binaural beat occurring all throughout “Black Sclera” that gives off the effects of a certain “narcotic” when listened to in a certain way (if you downloaded the album off of BandCamp, the instructions are already in the track).
• The spoken-word/poem going on in latter half of “Illunga”, which offers a completely different meaning to it than what is being sung.
• The poem in the beginning of “Creationship” which offers a suggestion as to what the latter half of the album is about.
• The 2 audio messages occurring in “God’s Teeth” that reminisce on a few key plot points of the album.
• The not-so-hidden sound effects that basically paint the picture of what happens to the main character at the end of SUADADE in “DNR” (Hint: That title is quite telling).

Even tracks like “Ironrockhard” that are completely frivolous and out of context to the larger picture were intended to be just that! I mean, listen to what the heck he’s saying for crying out loud! Whereas “The Callout” is more of a concrete realization and exploration of the tone set in the previous track.

But this wasn’t part of the process for making just the music. I took on this methodology when naming the album.

It was originally going to be called SAUDADE; this was the plan all along. The definition of the word was what I wanted to define with the music, because it already described the sound of the album. But when choosing the font type that would be printed on the cover, nothing looked right. I tried other fonts, and they didn’t look right either. I already had the font type that I wanted to use for “spells and curses”, but nothing for SAUDADE worked well in relation to the overall vibe of the cover. That is, until magic happened.

I’d like to be clear; I can’t remember if the so-called “magic” was due to the late-night delirium that set in as a result of slaving away for hours, or just sheer luck. Either way, I was messing around with the font and the album cover, and figured I’d type it again. I did, only this type I typed it as SUADADE.

SUADADE

‘Hmmm… I misspelled it’ I thought. But I remember looking at it for what felt like a solid 10, maybe 15 seconds. It fit, and it worked. I couldn’t explain why, and I didn’t understand why. But the way it sat above “spells and curses”, the way it took up its space in the picture; it was perfect. I learned earlier in the recording process not to question those little moments of magic. I learned to just trust that voice inside and go with it. I figured hey, nobody gave The Beatles shit for not spelling it “The Beetles”, so this shouldn’t be a big deal. Thankfully, I was right.

…

WELL, that sure was a lot of info. Aren’t you tired of all that reading? Damn, I would be. I feel like I’ve been rambling for HOURS! But how about that, right? I mean, does daddy make up for the times he drops the ball, or what? I figured you’d be a little miffed after that last post, so I hope this makes up for some of it.

We’ll get more personal next time, or rather, I will. I’m feeling a lot more comfortable writing to you. I’ve got some work to do but I’ll write you again real soon. But there you go; now you know me. Or rather, now you know how I think, when I create.

Love Actually,

theRave

A Slight Left Turn

Dear Dorothy,

I know what you're expecting. I know you've been waiting for it. I guess I made matters worse by teasing you about it. I know I said that I'd explain it all to you. That truly was the intention, you've got to believe me. I really want to tell you everything, but I can't. Actually, no, that's not it. It's not that I can't. It's just that I won't.

You've got to understand that I've written 2 drafts that I've scraped prior to this. In these drafts, I basically laid it all out for you. The story, the meaning, the little easter eggs, everything. Yet each time I read them back, I felt like a total rube. Who the hell am I, thinking I even need to explain this?  Do people even need an explanation? Do they even WANT it? In case you haven't noticed, I hold my music in pretty high regards. But in writing an explanation for what was the largest endeavor of my life at that point, I felt like I was belittling it. It simply felt constricting. Actually, it just felt insulting. Insulting to myself as a songwriter thinking that my music needs explaining, yes. But more so insulting to the (would be) listener.

I know what you're thinking; "I'm the listener, so how can you tell me I'd be insulted by something I haven't even read?" Well, that ties in with another key philosophy about how I create with Spells and Curses:

As a creator, I view every piece of content I'm about to release through the eyes of a consumer

That doesn't mean I change my work to fit what I think a potential listener would like to hear. It means I won't release a song that I wouldn't listen to myself. I wouldn't create a video I wouldn't watch myself. Therefore, I most certainly would not post something that wouldn't stimulate me in anyway (text or otherwise). Basically, I won't put my name on something I can't get behind, and for whatever reason, I just couldn't get behind me giving my own music the "rap genius"-treatment. It just felt too weird.

I guess what I'm getting at is that I have no problem telling people what the album or even the songs are about. If anyone asks me in person, I'd be more than happy to explain it all to them, in what would hopefully become an interesting dialogue. But writing it on paper just felt pretentious. All I was missing was a monocle, a glass of brandy, and a beard to stroke on.

I imagine I felt this way because I love SUADADE. I mean, I REALLY the album I made. If you ask me, it was the best album of 2014, and I stand by that 101%. However, it felt like I was an architect praising his own blueprints. It just felt more snobby than I'd allow myself to be.

Here's the funny thing about releasing content/media in the 21st Century; once you release it to the public, you can no longer dictate how it'll be consumed because it's no longer yours. Celebrity leak picture scandal, anyone? In my case however, once I release an original song, although I'm the creator and owner of that original work, that copy you purchased is yours. No one can tell you how to listen to it. If you wanna stick that CD inside your toaster, you have every reason in the world to do just that. Likewise, if you want to think that SUADADE is about praying mantis falling in love with a unicorn princess, no one can nor should be able to tell you any differently (and you might not be too far off). If there's one thing I learned since SUADADE's release, it's that a lot of people interpret art differently. My mapping out the entire story of the album robs you of the entire experience of listening to it and visualizing your own story. Obviously these interpretations won't be VASTLY different from one another, as there are certain elements that are just obvious and almost a staple (the theme primarily). But it's those little details that people would interpret differently. These interpretations could change a character's motivations, reactions, and even identity.

In summation, baby, if I just spoon fed it all to you, it would literally take all the fun away from YOU and anyone else who would listen to the album. Maybe I will one day, when I'm 5 albums deep, or on SUADADE's 10 year anniversary. Until that day, out of respect to the intelligence of anybody that would listen to SUADADE now or in the future, I'll just zip my mouth shut on this one. Anyone that wants to know about it can ask me in person, and in doing so partake in some good conversation. Otherwise, give it your own go. Heck, your head-canon might be 1000x better than what I originally had in mind.

But, all this doesn't mean that I can't get into some of the more specific easter-egg-y parts of the album. You know how slick I can get, bae. So I'll write about all the hidden gems in SUADADE next time. Don't worry, it won't spoil anything for you. Matter of fact, it might make you like it a lot more. I hope you're not mad.

Peaches and Cream, baby.

- theRave

Listen with your Eyes / Watch with your Ears

Dearest Dorothy,

So much awesomeness has happened since I last wrote! So much, that it would be hard to write about any of it without ending every sentence with an exclamation point. Therefore, I’ll just lump everything into one sentence, let’s see: I played my first show, was on cable tv, saw cuts of the music videos I’m working on, wrote and recorded new songs, made some new friends, and finally won a game of Monopoly! I’d say everything’s on the up and up. I’ll get into the specific about all that in due time; unless you’re curious about the Monopoly game, because it was A MASSACRE. For now, let me continue the train of thought from my last correspondence.

Ah yes, SUADADE.

I sent it out to you back in March so I’ll assume you’ve heard it by now. If so, then you probably have some questions on what the heck it was all about. Well, you’re probably not alone. You see, I was fortunate enough to get some feedback on it, and while the response has been positive (overwhelmingly so, might I add), what really blew me away was how close folks were to figuring out the entire story! And here I thought I was being clever… >=( So, I figure the least I could do would be to dispel some rumors and theories, without spoiling the entire listening experience. Here goes…

For starters, let’s just state the obvious: YES, IT’S A CONCEPT ALBUM.

This basically means that there is one unifying, over-arching story occurring from track 1, up until the end of track 12. I know what you’re probably thinking; “You’ve never recorded anything on your own (or at all) before, and for your first foray into recorded music, you wanted to record an entire concept album?” Hell yea. Why the fuck not?

However, that’s not to say when taken out of context, each song can’t stand on its own. These songs would do very well as singles telling their own stories. I made certain of that much. However, when played in the order that they’re in for SUADADE, along with the intervening skits, they take on a more holistic approach to storytelling, where each of the individual songs serve as the scenes that make up the entire movie (or in my case, album).

That right there was huge in terms of the philosophy behind the songwriting and production for SUADADE. I wanted it to be a movie for your ears when played from beginning to end, while still being able to deliver powerful individual songs if a listener didn’t want to go on the full ride. That being said, I wanted the same artistic freedom that a director would have fleshing out a movie in his head: manipulating things like scenes, imagery, color, space, silence, etc. I wanted to play around with these components, just aurally.

In keeping with the “movie for your ears”-mindset, I wanted there to also be something that would capture the (potential) listener’s eye. Whether it would be the first thing they’d see about SUADADE, or something they’d refer to while listening to the music. I needed something that would serve as the theatrical poster for my movie, the calling card for the music, and the overall mood indicator that would sum up the range of emotions within SUADADE.

I needed my album cover.

However Dora, as you know, it’s never that simple. Unfortunately, things don’t just fall onto your lap whenever you need them to. That is of course, until they do. I can't really say that I was searching, but I can say that I knew when I finally found it; the perfect album cover.

SUADADE

It was in this picture that I heard every note of my album. It was in this picture that I felt every emotion in SUADADE. The colors, the composition, the stylized presentation; it was all there and I knew it was the one. Thankfully, it was the work of someone I already knew and was lucky enough to call a friend;

Ms. Jaina Teeluck.

If you haven’t heard about her, that’s fine. She just happens to be one of the best up-and-coming visual artists/photographers in the New York area. You know; the kind who’s had her work showcased by galleries and companies? No biggie. So I guess you could say I got pretty lucky, because all I had to do was ask her for permission to use the pic, and I got it. Since then, we’ve been working pretty closely together. Suffice to say, every image you see on this site has been taken by Jaina (unless otherwise stated). That also goes for the cover art of the tracks on my Soundcloud.

As for the album cover itself… Ahh yes, that mesmerizing image of a beautiful woman, dressed up and staring off into the distance. How the heck does that explain anything about the album? Well, I’m feeling a little pooped out already, Dorothy. I hope you don’t mind, but I’d rather explain that some other time.

Hmm, come to think of it, I didn’t really explain much about the album, did I? Alright then, I promise to get into the story and its underlying meaning the next time I write you. Until then…

Be Good,

theRave

Ideas in Motion

Dear Dorothy,

I realize I didn't quite explain anything (at all) last time. I'm sorry about that; I was basically in ten different places at once. However, I'm here now to rectify this.

So where to begin? You're probably wondering "why?" I guess that's as good a place to start as any. I'm not one for the details, and here's to hoping you aren't either...

You ever put all your chickens in one basket? Don't. Don't think about it. Don't do it. Don't even think about thinking about doing it. Life is filled with lessons, just waiting to be learned. Sometimes the only way to learn (and I mean REALLY learn) is the hard way. You hear the same kinda message in today’s aphorisms: "Diversify your portfolio", "Don’t settle", “Better safe than sorry”, etc. Suffice to say; I LEARNED, and I’m happy I did now looking back.

So there you are a few bumps later, and you're basically on your own. You're totally cool with it too, but you've still got things you need to say and do. You're not done. Not even close. Before you know it, you're in an empty basement. A BIG, empty, basement. Dora, the next time you're in a vast empty space surrounded by walls, do me a favor: sing. Start singing whatever ditty comes to mind. Forget how your voice sounds, or what the words are if you have to. Just sing a melody. I guarantee you, everything will start making sense once you feel the natural reverberation of your own voice reflect off the walls and come crashing back against your body. It did for me, and that was the birth of the idea.

It wasn't novel by any means, but still pretty extraordinary, I thought:

What if I did it on my own?

Collaboration is what makes music awe-inspiring (more on that another time), but what if just this once, I tried putting all of myself into something tangible alone? Luckily for me, this ain't the 80's and there's more possibility now than ever. So if you're like me (and I know you are ;D), you buy all the recording gear you can afford. You take out, download, and buy every audio production textbook you can find. Most of all, you get yourself a DAMN comfortable chair (I went through about 3 because my ass is rather special). Those were the ingredients in addition to the guitars, pedals, amps, mics, blah blah blah.

Ahh! I'm losing you, I can tell. Allllriight, I'll skip past the technical mumbo-jumbo. Let me just finish by saying that once I got everything set up in front of me, that's when it became real. It was do or die. That's when the buck fell on me and I no longer had any more excuses. Looking back on the entire process, I realize it was more therapeutic for me than anything else. You go through the grinders enough, that eventually, you wanna regain the pieces of yourself that you've lost. I guess that's what I was trying to do then. Either that or just trying to find a way to accept it. Ha... wanna hear something funny? Despite "setting up shop" in that huge ass basement, I only really felt comfortable secluding myself off to a small corner of it. Wanna hear something crazy? I'd actually pray and speak with all my gear, asking them to work with me and not fuck me over, because it was my first time recording anything. I Coach Taylor'ed them good, I tell ya what. Actually, come to think of it, I think I might have taken a few pictures.... hold on lemme look...

Yeaa, I found one! How 'bout dem apples:

YES, that is a bathroom, and YES I did prefer the sound of my vocals there. Not sure I'd do it there again though... But that was it; humble gear, in a humble space, trying to capture something visceral. I spent the next 2.5 months recording what would later become the basic stems of SUADADE.

Hmm, this is probably where I should leave off for now. I gotta get going but I'll write again soon, I promise. I'll go into some of the deeper things about the album, later. We're just not there yet, Sweet D. But we will be. Soon.

Yours,

- The Rave

WELCOME x MANIFESTO

Hi there,Welcome to the website and it's first post. I think you deserve an explanation. Consider this it's preface.

I am Spells and Curses. I am the only wizard behind these curtains, Dorothy. This will always be me talking with you. Other people may come in and help contribute to my part of the conversation (musically or otherwise), but at the end of the day it will always be just me and you. Our dialogue.

What started as an idea and has since turned into many things. I'll explain this in the coming weeks so that you can get the most out of this experience, but don't worry about that now.

Enjoy the music. More will come.

theRave