Tangled Roots Project
I grew up surrounded by distinctly American music—jazz, blues, rock, folk, bluegrass, R&B. Though these influences have always shaped my work in electronic and electroacoustic music, I’d never intentionally written in those genres. This project deliberately explores that tangled mix of roots—outside my usual compositional comfort zone—mainly because it sounded like it would be fun while challenging.
I began each piece by writing charts and entering them into PG Music’s Band-in-a-Box (BiaB), using it to audition and export stems for drums, bass, rhythm, etc. Then came the deeper work: importing everything into Logic Pro, cutting and comping bars and phrases to shape coherent performances. I often worked in circular fashion, refining parts in response to others already in place. Some tracks include added loops or percussion; one replaces all BiaB parts with sample-based rhythm.
Everything was mixed and mastered in Logic. Three tracks—“Moving On,” “Canon of Flowers,” and “She Looked Back” (with keys and solo by Adam Holzman)—were previously released in different mixes.
Every track involved hands-on editing and decision-making. BiaB doesn’t write music—it translates ideas into sound. The artistry comes from the choices made along the way. It felt much like producing a traditional session, only with virtual players.
To enhance the experience, I had Chris Perry in Toronto create immersive Atmos mixes and binauralize them. The spatial clarity makes each instrument more clearly distinct and brings out their interplay—another plug for Atmos for music! I think the project hangs together well, even as each track branches off into a different direction. And yes—it was fun!
