Behind the Album
Originally, Spectres was only a collection of songs I had written and put together while at college. While it took me between the years of 2016 and 2017, I wouldn’t publish or release the music until the Spring of 2023. Because of these factors, the album really had no intended story that unified the tracks, something I intended on doing with every subsequent release.
The album itself was its own set of challenges. Since I had no clue how publishing and releasing albums worked, I had to look for a company to go through. I had chosen Tune Core, a company I still currently use. I also didn’t know what to label the genre as for this album. I originally had it set to “Orchestra,” only to find out that that would require me to provide permissions from musicians, something I did not have because I used only sounds and samples, aside from some recorded guitar I had personally done. I landed on just labeling it as “Electronic.” In the end, the album was released and my journey as a storyteller had officially begun.
The actual story for this album would not come until halfway through production of my second album: “Apocalypse Now.” I realized that characters I was using in that story had a backstory and that that backstory was a bit dark and mysterious, somewhat matching the original vibe of this album. I then was able to envision scenes for the new story and that formed the basis for this album’s story.
The music for this particular album was heavily inspired by the MechWarrior 2 OST, SMK, and Metroid with some elements of Skillet thrown in for good measure. It’s in large thanks to these factors that this album has a very video gamey sound, something I have been trying to maintain and explore anew since.