I construct types of "plate" reverb systems that my musical partner Mitch Anderson and I have dubbed "Ductverbs", as the original sheets of metal I used were made for ductwork, go figure. Since then all types of metals have been used. The "thing" about my Ductverbs is that you can use multiple transducers, amps, speakers, piezos, as many channels as you can wrangle up. I do not set these up as permanent stations, but rather as moveable objects that constantly change along with me.

There are two particular tracks that showcase the "Ducts" very well, and in very different ways. For "Kings Of The Source Age", the drums were recorded dry, while the percussion overdub track was recorded with the Duct enacted. I will sit with the ducts, the piezos, the mics, sometimes for hours to create the sound I want with them. I view them more as an instrument at this point anyway. The duct sound for KOTSA, to me, sounds like what would be a "sampled" reverb. I feel it has a certain characteristic, a certain sheen that makes plates so desirable. This track has that, a top end that seems to enter the stratosphere from the south rim of the Grand Canyon. Like, let's get a company to sample that verb sound, because it's gorgeous.

The other track is "Quick City Man". I was inspired by the Detroit sound of the 1960s and 70s, and how many live recordings came out of Detroit as major label releases. Many shows were recorded at Cobo Hall, which is now a convention center in Detroit. If you have ever been to a show at Cobo Hall, or even Joe Louis Arena, or any "ice arena" for that matter, you know this environment. There is a sound that comes through the tunnels of the passageways that bring you into the arena. The sound comes as this massive entity echoing off the concrete. And THAT is what I was looking for in "Quick City Man", the tunnel sound of a live show at Cobo Hall, Detroit 1972!! To me, this is the opposite sound of "KOTSA", but using the exact same tools, just different placements, different EQs. One reverb is leaving Earth, the other is diving down into it.

My father was in a band called The Coachmen that put out two 45s in the late 1960s. I can't quite recall when I first saw the records, maybe the age of 4 or 5, but I remember wanting to do the same thing, make music and put out recordings!

I grew up listening to what my family listened to. There was a lot of classic pop and rock music from the 1960s and 1979s being played. My older sister, along with my four step-sisters, listened to rap, hip-hop and R&B, of the 80s and 90s. As a younger brother, I looked up to my sisters, and fell in love with the music they were listening to. I probably learned about 2 Live Crew, and 2 Pac at "too young of an age" but that is how it played out. And I am glad it did.

I didn't get hit with the "rock" bug until middle school in the 90s. It was at this time the Yakbak was making its way around. If you don't remember the Yakbak, it was a device that recorded sounds up to 7 or 8 seconds, you could play it back, mess with it, that sorta thing. My friend Brant owned one, and brought it to school one day loaded with this 8 second sample. The song was "Bulls On Parade" by Rage Against The Machine. The part recorded on the Yakbak was the famous Tom Morello "ouwow-wouwow" (yes, that is how I hear it) wah pedal sound, with Zack De La Rocha's vocals screaming "QUIT IT NOW!", then the band hits and the Yakbak's memory ends! I walked around with that thing all day long, "KA-WIT-IT-NOW!!!" I can say for certain it was that moment I was going to create music forever.

It has been a long time since middle school, and my Rage days. Shortly after that I put myself on a journey that will continue on into the next dimension. The music commonly known as "Jazz" was what I found on my journey. There is no end in that music, and I reference writings by Amiri Baraka, Charles Mingus, and people of modern times like Nicholas Payton, and Adrian Young and Ali Shaheed Muhammad of "Jazz Is Dead". I found absolute comfort in knowing you don't know where you are headed sometimes. To explore the dark, is to explore eternity.

I mentioned in the previous question that listening to "Jazz" was a turning point for me. There is a specific moment in time that encapsulates this all. In the mid 2000's while living in Mt. Pleasant, MI, I became acquainted with musician, writer, photographer, educator, record store manager, Mike Johnston. He was managing New Moon Records in Mt. Pleasant, and I would visit frequently. He has a group called Northwoods Improvisers, which was established in the 1970s, and is still making new music today.

When I met Mike he was playing with an instrumentalist, author, and poet, named Faruq Z. Bey. Faruq was a Detroit musician that came out of the late 60's James Tatum Jazz School, playing with The Tribe in the 70's, then making his own way with legendary group GRIOT GALAXY. He authored several books, one of them based on Alchemic Musical Theory, and I think that was put out by the University Of Michigan.

The story of Faruq Z. Bey needs to be told, and it will. There are just so many obstacles preventing people from listening to his music, most of them legal issues. Anyway, at the time I met Faruq, he did not speak much. Even Mike Johnston said he barely spoke to him for the first year they played together. And really, what did Faruq need to say to me, or anyone for that matter, at this point in time? He is a Sufi King, he's royalty.

But on one strange day in May, at a Northwood's concert, Faruq would come up to me smiling, and give me a hug. This man of royalty, of intelligence, and knowledge beyond my comprehension, who said maybe only 12 words to me prior to this, gave me a HUG. He stood at 6'5", but he might as well have been 10 feet tall. Now, if you haven't listened to Faruq's music, I describe him as someone who will play you like a puppet. Meaning that once you were in his presence, you really had no control over yourself. You were automatically immersed in his playing, he was in control. I've really never heard anyone, or anything like it. So when this man embraced me, it was like I was being lifted up into the Heavens, to show something sacred, to let me know that everything is OK, and that when we move on we'll meet up later, in the next dimension.

I say find a mentor in your town. There are remarkable people living in your area, and some of them want to talk, want to pass their knowledge, their findings on to you. There are so many voices that never get heard, find them.

I have been working with headphones since I was eight years old. I am now 39. I used headphones mainly because the environments I was in forced me to use them, apartments, dorm rooms, etc... I was lucky enough to start with a vintage pair of AKGs from my stepfather. Those allowed me to hear fine things at a young age. I then moved on to more of a "hifi", or "audiophile" style headset, not normally made for studio tracking. This was a recommendation from Mitch Anderson, and it was the greatest recommendation. For some reason it made sense to me that I would use headphones that are made for reference listening at home. I use headphones for every step of the process. I have wonderful reference monitors, multiple ones, and rarely use them. I find that headphones set me in the dark, in my own world, and I can create freely.

As a child I often feared the dark. But it was also a place for me to hide, escape, and become a part of other things. I would later learn that the ancient Kemets (what is now modern Egypt) would teach their children to not fear the darkness. For the darkness enabled them to see, study, and know the stars, and even know their exact location during the daytime. This seems so logical, yet so simple to me now. However, there is something to be said about "creation" coming from darkness. The Master, Sun Ra himself knew and stated that all creation comes from darkness. He claimed that each of his performances, each recording session, always started with the lights going out, or breakers switching off. Only then could they begin the session.

With the Audeze LCD-X headphones, I have once again found sanctity in the darkness, this time with ultimate fidelity as my guide. The responsiveness and sensitivity level of these beautiful devices are coherent to that of humans. Meaning I can visualize and execute the exact placement of a specific sound or frequency I am intending for as if I am drawing it up on a board. I use the LCD-X headphones while tracking, engineering, overdubbing and mixing. My process is akin to that of the 1930's and 1940's, where the musical piece is played throughout without the use of "punch-ins", augmentation, or correction of any kind. Overdubbing is done in the same process, in which each piece is played over top of the next, creating a completely new mix of the now overdubbed sounds. This process continues until the song is complete.

I have been using the LCD-Xs since February of 2023, alongside the Linear Tube Audio MZ2 headphone amp. These two pieces of gear allow me to have complete control over the sonic aspect I visualize in my mind. My musical partner Mitch Anderson, who is a multi-instrumentalist, radio broadcast DJ, co-creator of Black Circle Radio, and music finalization guru, is also a sponsored artist of Audeze and Linear Tube Audio. Mitch and I have separate studios across the state of Michigan, yet these brilliant pieces of gear allow our creativity to flourish as if we were doing it side-by-side. I give ultimate praise to Audeze which allows me to manifest what I hear AND see in my mind.

Mitch and myself set a rather large goal for us in 2023. We decided that we would release a record a month for the entire year, beginning in December of 2022. We have now completed this enormous task. Like many creative processes, it's had its "ups" and "downs", moments of frustration, and tireless nights. Through all of it, the Audezes were there, and I can't imagine doing it without them. They have changed my conceptualization of art and the creative process so much that I can grow and learn from myself as an artist, and even by my own critic. I can't thank them enough.

There are so many people that have helped, and influenced me along the way. People like my partner Jessica, Mitch and his family, my family, the former band I was in, Beast In The Field. The music seemed to bring so many people together. I have made so many connections because of it. Ones I never even thought possible. I have to say thank you to all of those people, anyone who helped, anyone I shared a stage with, the impact is incalculable. And thank you, too, Audeze, for believing in this journey, and future things to come!!