Seth Werkheiser

Digging For Music

The last album that came my way via a DSP algorithm was VOWWS‘ ‘Under The World,’ back in 2018. For real, two years since and Apple Music nor Spotify has really surfaced anything for me.

These days I just go to Bandcamp, pick a genre that I’m interested in at the moment, then look for album art that intrigues me. It’s how I found these amazing albums:

If you’ve been listening to music for years, and buy albums, you know shit that looks good most of the time sounds good. It’s how DJs source music from local shops – finding shit that looks cool is a great place to start. And now with Bandcamp, it’s even easier.

Compare with this Spotify playlist, one of the biggest for “Dark Ambient,” with almost 7,000 followers.

It may has well be a fucking Google Sheet. No artwork, no branding, no vibes.

Same with Apple Music. Sure, it’s got the cool Apple playlist branding, and while it has album art, you have to use binoculars to really tell what looks good.

Of course, this is all a ploy to get you to hit play. Just trust them, and don’t worry about that album art, I guess.

All that said, nothing is black and white. I still use Apple Music for streaming a playlist on my runs. I also stream NTS radio via Apple Music, and some DJ sets via the MixCloud app.

There are so many ways to listen and consume music. Bandcamp, though, is the closest we got right now to the local record shop, and the feeling of digging through the used CD bins (my favorite).

Above I just outlined how I dig, and maybe you have better luck than me with the big streaming services. So keep digging, friends. Support artists and musicians when you can and buy their music.

Keeping Things In Focus Even When It Sucks

From today’s ‘Soft Run’ newsletter:

“There’s grit to running fast. Every now and again you’re gonna feel good and just let it rip – great! But you gotta bring it back. You gotta rest. Trot. Shuffle. Walk.
See, just as you seek to get that fast pace, search for that slow shuffle, too. You want to be in control at all points during your run. How can you be in control when you’re running fast if you can’t do it when shuffling along?”
Stay Focused Where You’re At

If you want to learn how to play guitar, you have to get good at picking it up everyday. Dream someday of writing for an audience of 1000s? Better get good at writing for 10 people today.

I’ve been running for almost 4.5 years, and this is the first where I racked up 1,000 miles. It took a lot of shitty, slow, gross feeling runs. Expecting each run to be a joyous flowery affair isn’t reasonable, just as expecting each guitar lesson to feel amazing doesn’t make sense either.

Finding the grit to keep going when it doesn’t feel good is the hard work, and everybody has to find their own path on that journey.

God Chose You So Let’s Do This

https://twitter.com/AoctaviusW/status/1337432994596982787

I fucking love this:

The first thing I said when I contacted Porche was ”hey I’m the photographer on assignment to photograph you for TIME and I truly understand if you want a Black woman photographing you” She stopped me and said, ”Baby, God chose you so let’s do this” ⁣
@AoctaviusW

Putting this here, linking to it, filing it here because it hit me today, this Tweet. This block of photography and text, flowing through my time line.

In our work, where we’re at, our circles, our circumstances – yeah, I don’t believe it’s an almighty fatherly figure who held me in his hands and dropped me off in Pennsylvania 44 years ago, but…

I’m here. You’re here. Let’s do this.

It’s so easy to forget the art and the magic and the grace and the power we have in each day, every interaction, every email, everything. I look at the circumstances I’m in, we’re all in, and realize while there’s so much further I want to go, I must remain grateful with where I’m at.

Let’s do this.

My to-do list is long, there’s incomplete projects, things unfinished; let’s do this. Maybe not just out of obligation, but perhaps it’s these foundational moments that are seemingly trivial are going to lead to great things.

I had no idea learning how to play bass in 1991 would get me here, today. That a hobby I took up 29 years ago would land me the clients I have, the career that I have, the everything that I have. It’s good, it’s bad, it’s ugly, but it’s where I’m at.

“Baby, God chose you, so let’s do this.”

That Tweet is from Adrian Octavius Walker.

Goodnight, Metal Friend – MIX 07

Long walks on gloomy days, evenings folding laundry, or staring at the ceiling, here’s a four song mix to accompany your journey. This one features Moss Moist Moth, Alphaxone, weglowski, and Sana Obruent, guarding you with a layer of comforting sound and static.

More of these Goodnight, Metal Friend mixes can be found here on Mixcloud.

Albums and Numbers

I love this bit from Bandcamp, as they’re doing away with ranked lists:

The goal here is to change the Best of the Year from a math equation into a discussion.
Bandcamp

As I remarked on Twitter, it’s hard enough to rank athletes who deal in hard fast numbers like wins and points. Like, sports stars have a record of Championships, and even the one with the most is still debated as being the “best ever.”

Ranking sure makes bands, labels, management and the entire music machine happy (who doesn’t want to say they were an outlets number one album in 2020?), but I think the discussion of what albums just simply mattered in a certain year is important, too.

Four Tet Collaboration with Anna Liber Lewis

I’ve been thinking this for years – musicians need to collaborate with artists more often. Not just for music videos, but for stuff to get people to watch.

I’ve heard of Four Tet, but never gave them much of a listen. I think I found this video from a Twitter. The color caught me, the imagery. So I gave it a shot.

Like, in 2020 you’re just looking for a shot. As an artist, a band, a musician, a writer, whatever.

Appearance and branding and presentation really does matter. I don’t care how technically proficient you are, if your album art is sitting next to another release with better looking art, you lose.

Like, this is science. This is biology. Shiny objects get noticed.

So I left this video open for like 2+ hours the other day while working. Another hour today, and I’ll probably revisit a few more times.

And you know which artist I looked up today on Spotify?

Four Tet.

Choosing is a Choice

The final fight scene from the third Matrix popped into my head while on my run today, the part where Agent Smith asks Neo, “why go on? why keep fighting?”

Which sort of aligns with running, right? Why keep this pace? Why head out the door? Why go down the road to hit three miles when home is up ahead? There’s cake at home!

Why go on? Why do anything?

“I choose to,” replies Neo.

Choice, the big theme in The Matrix. It all comes down to choice.

Staying home and watching movies and eating snacks in a choice.
Heading out for a run is a choice.
Starting a podcast is a choice.
Ending a project is a choice.

I’ve been writing in public (as my buddy Dino puts it) since the early 90s. Like, coming up on 30 years or something. Zines, blogs, newsletters, social media – so much writing, spread out so many different places.

Some of that writing got me jobs, adventures, friendships, heart ache, whatever. Writing in public got me here. What I did is partly why I’m here.

So why write? Because it can lead somewhere.

Why run? Because it can lead somewhere.

Inaction is needed, rest is vital. To reinvigorate, grow, and expand. There’s a season for rest, and a season to move.

Objects in motion stay in motion.

How to Speed

From my recent Substack newsletter, ‘The Soft Run:’

So when you’re out of breath, slow down. Recover. Tearing down your body isn’t helpful when it needs rest.
You’re not failing, you’re recovering.
And slow just means more times outside, not looking at your computer, or reading emails.

Whew, Substack sure is a thing, but whatever, I enjoy writing a newsletter like that, without need a full website and all. Check out the full list of pieces I wrote here.

Sundays are for Making Doomy Mixes

Five song mix, featuring Everly Pale, Seffi Starshine, and Laurie Spiegel.

A few months ago I didn’t really know that “dark ambient” was a thing, but I’m really enjoying this new season of discovery. This only started during the pandemic, but also because I deal with heavy metal everyday, and have since 2008 or so. I’m not quitting metal by any means, but it’s my day job, I need to give me ears a rest.

It’s been fun learning a new piece of software, too; Serato DJ Lite.

I didn’t really know how to make a mix – I tried just stacking the tracks in Abelton Live, then ScreenFlow, but neither was very fun, since they’re not really made for that. Not a huge fan of Serato aesthetically, but it does the job.

The process of making these mixes is fun, too. Finding the music on Bandcamp, keeping track of stuff I find, downloading, managing those tracks, arranging each song, then the fade in and out, while recording the mix in real time to Audio Hijack Pro.

I’ve been making these on and off since May, and they’re a great distraction to *everything* that is going on these days.

If you dig this, I have more mixes here on MixCloud.