I’ve finished my first music project of 2011: the Beatspeak EP. “First music project” implying that I’ll complete something else before New Year’s Eve…lol, I certainly hope so.

I can’t believe I’ve been recording music for seven years now—it’s incredible how time flies. Listening back to my first album, Idea of a Boyfriend in 2005, it’s obvious how much I’ve progressed as a singer, songwriter, producer, and engineer since then. In fact, I have a strong urge to re-record many of the songs on that album; I cringe a little when I listen to many of the tracks, whether it is due to my singing, guitar playing, or mixing, though there is a lot I still like on that first album.

From the acoustic singer-songwriter style of Idea of a Boyfriend, I’ve consciously challenged myself and branched out to other music styles to develop as an artist. In particular, I’ve worked really hard in arranging, producing, and mixing my work. After songwriting for over a decade, I feel quite secure about my melodies and lyrics; the challenge has always been the production and technical side of things. Making good beats and synths to complement my songs still takes a lot of work, and let’s not even get into the ordeal that is audio mixing…

Electric Blood, which I completed in 2009 after three years of work (two of those years were mostly spent not working on it because I didn’t feel ready as a producer), was a landmark; I’d finally come up with an album full of beats and synths for my songs (and a couple of Kylie covers) that I was happy with. I was aiming for a full-out vocal house album, though I ended up making a dance-pop album; my verse-chorus pop influences and instincts overpowered true house, with its breakdowns, buildups and looser, longer track structures. I don’t think Electric Blood is perfect, but it was the best that I could do at the time, I am happy with most of it, and it was most definitely a big step forward from Idea of a Boyfriend.

From Electric Blood on, my modus operandi in my music work has been to mix pop music with another genre. I’ve only just realized that, in effect, that’s arguably a definition of pop music itself; taking other genres like rock, R&B, dance, country, etc., and simplifying them into something easy to remember and like.

My most recent direction was guided by black music: R&B, rap, and a little bit of gospel. The Break EP, completed in October 2010, was a slower, more solemn collection of songs, and with Beatspeak EP, I finally did what I’d wanted to do for a few years: combine pop songwriting with hip-hop beats. Lyrically, I also wanted to steer clear of love or sex, common topics in black music, and talk about other topics, something I always try to do in my songwriting. However, I’ve also realized I don’t need to consciously avoid writing about romantic or sexual topics; we’re clearly not tired of love songs even after decades of listening to and enjoying them.

Beatspeak EP is to me the best work I’ve done yet, especially in terms of production. With it, I think I’ve finally reached the point where I feel confident enough about my music to share it with the world. Cue new photo shoot and mp3 uploads to various sites…

Ambient and shoegaze are where I’m heading next, a nice way for me to flip the script after concentrating on beats for a few years. I’ll have to finish the collection of acoustic covers I’m working on first, and that’ll take me a while (weeks? Months?) because I need to put in serious work on the guitar before I can record. This’ll be a needed break from staring at the monitor and playing the mouse while using music production software. I’m a little tired of fiddling with virtual knobs, converting audio files, and mixing a track for the 16th time. It’ll also be a needed break from the pressure I put on myself to finish whatever music I’m working on at the moment. Gotta give myself some time away from making music to meet new people, do new things, and incidentally inspire my songwriting.