EtherReal
1996-1997
I had been using Scream Tracker for at least a year, and its limitations were blatantly apparent, so I found that I had outgrown it rather quickly. Thankfully, a friend of mine had discovered a much more useful tracker, which used 16-bit samples of any length, and allowed for more effects and pattern lengths. It was just more user friendly. It was called Fast Tracker. I loved it immediately, and it was what I used until 2001, in its various versions.
So it’s this Fast Tracker period that I like to consider the beginning of my mature phase, because as the program became better, so did my ability to create better music as a result. The stuff I was writing was fuller and warmer sounding, and was on it’s way to becoming less a good collection of grooves and more about different things. By this I hoped that the listener could get something out of it other than just a good vibe.
This was the first period that I actually considered trying to make an album. I did in fact do this, but I didn’t try and sell it or myself, I just made copies and sent them to friends. I guess I didn’t think any of it was that good. But it was also during this time that I met a new contact, who published a couple of my 8-bit songs on local techno CD compilation, and with whom I worked on a third for that same collection. it was quite a rush at the time, to have my music on a real CD that I didn’t burn myself, but the elation was short lived as the project fizzled out after the first run. We had been hoping for a sequel release.
Shortly after that is when I started working on Headspace. I started trying to emulate my favourite techno and dance bands but while adding my own flavour to the mix. When it was done, I felt a sense of completion, but in retrospect, a couple of the songs didn’t sound completed, and the album didn’t flow. There were too many genres, and things sounded a little cold in spots. This is largely why I made the decision to ‘remaster’ this collection in 2006.