{"id":55,"date":"2025-03-01T18:26:51","date_gmt":"2025-03-01T18:26:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/darrenizzard.com\/?p=55"},"modified":"2025-03-01T18:26:51","modified_gmt":"2025-03-01T18:26:51","slug":"blips-and-bleeps","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/darrenizzard.com\/index.php\/2025\/03\/01\/blips-and-bleeps\/","title":{"rendered":"Blips and bleeps"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I’ve used Spotify links here for convenience. Not everyone likes Spotify. Don’t worry, these tracks are available pretty much everywhere.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, it’s been a long time since I updated this site. And I’ve been doing things. Music things.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I started making music many years ago but as time went on it fizzled out. Real life got in the way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Space<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I didn’t give up entirely, though. Once in a blue moon I’d still write a new track. I used a few of them as background music for my YouTube videos. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then, in 2015 I made one called Space Voice which got a bit out of hand and ended up at nearly 8 minutes long. I thought, let’s see what happens if I put it out there. So I released Space Voice<\/a> as a single. It got a few listens, and a couple of friends liked it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Shades\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Two years later I was experimenting with some animations on YouTube and made a soundtrack for one of them<\/a>. It was a bit bass-heavy and weird – honestly, a bit muddy – but the fact I wrote it specifically to put online led me towards making it another single. This was Shades<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then, during 2020, everyone at work decided to set ourselves a task to do during lockdown. I set myself the task of making a new EP.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

To cut a long story short, I did it. This became The Night Wall<\/a>. I even got a friend to collaborate on one track: Back in the Box<\/a> featured KURLY on vocals and guitar, and he did a great job.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This made me think, why did I stop making music like I used to? I used to be making new stuff non-stop. Is it just a matter of getting older? Or perhaps just too many distractions? What if I disciplined myself to work on music regularly? What if I streamed work on music so people would expect<\/em> me to do it regularly?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To my surprise, the rusty gears started to turn again and ideas started to come. I started work on a second EP.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"From<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

After a few weeks I had enough tracks for that EP. I didn’t feel like stopping, though, and kept going. The EP became an album: From The Sky Down<\/a>. It included noises made my home-made synth, SoundMaker, and I revised two tracks from The Night Wall with new vocals1<\/a><\/sup>. I hired AlexArtMe to do the cover art, and her design led me to restructure the track listing into a loose concept album. I’ll talk about that another time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Life<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

At this point I’d got the attention of one or two people online. In particular, Project Dits<\/a> was (and is) my first big fan. He promoted the album on his streams and was very encouraging for me to continue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I began work on another album soon after, and after some months, Life as a Passenger<\/a> was complete. This included the track Gordon’s Theory<\/a>, which featured guest appearances from John Panettiere, Project Dits, Aisha Anime, KURLY, Chris McAuley and Elfie Oakwood.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Someone<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

AlexArtMe, as usual, provided the cover art, depicting Gordon as a dragon surrounded by his theories.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2024, I released a third album, Someone Like You<\/a>, in which I remade and extended one of my earliest music tracks from about 1992, Stratosphere<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Towards the end of the year, a fourth album came along, The Telescope<\/a>, once more including a remake of one of my old Amiga tracks, in this case Universe<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

That brings us up to 2025, and I’m part-way through making a fifth. You can see how it’s coming along most Sundays at 2pm UK time on Twitch<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n

  1. I can’t stand the sound of my own vocals. I don’t know why I keep letting myself get persuaded to do it. I much prefer hiring other people or using SynthV. \u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/li><\/ol>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    I’ve used Spotify links here for convenience. Not everyone likes Spotify. Don’t worry, these tracks are available pretty much everywhere. So, it’s been a long time since I updated this site. And I’ve been doing things. Music things. I started making music many years ago but as time went on it fizzled out. Real life […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"[{\"content\":\"I can't stand the sound of my own vocals. I don't know why I keep letting myself get persuaded to do it. I much prefer hiring other people or using SynthV.\",\"id\":\"ac9a3898-c5ef-4bde-a3df-dfd7a0d29e8c\"}]"},"categories":[12,20],"tags":[19],"class_list":["post-55","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-me-talking","category-music","tag-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/darrenizzard.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/darrenizzard.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/darrenizzard.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/darrenizzard.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/darrenizzard.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/darrenizzard.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":65,"href":"https:\/\/darrenizzard.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55\/revisions\/65"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/darrenizzard.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/darrenizzard.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/darrenizzard.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}