Seth Werkheiser

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.

Creating The Holidays

Christmas was always my favorite – the sights, sounds, smells.

What I realize now is there’s so much nostalgia, and seeing now how so much of that was crafted for me.

My parents bought the tree, played the Christmas music, bought the presents (SPOILER), put up the lights.

Young Seth was just along for the ride.

Even a few years back, when living in NYC, driving home for the holidays was something I went into knowing that mom would have candy dishes filled with Christmas candy, and lights would be up, and there’d be a big tree.

I walked into those settings, like the perfect movie set, every year.

Unless I craft them for myself, they don’t happen now, which is sort of a metaphor for life.

Don’t hang around all the athletic friends I did like in my high school days, which means I don’t do as many athletic things. I gotta start them… on my own.

Don’t hang around all the musician friends like I used to, so I’m not operating on the same wavelength anymore, feeling motivated to keep up with my peers and keep crafting. I have to start that each day on my own.

These days I gotta put up my own Christmas lights, buy some holiday-scented candles, put on some Christmas music.

Nostalgia is a wild thing. I don’t want to let go of those memories, and it’s impossible to know if currently, in 2020, I’m doing anything worth remembering in 10 years, but I if do nothing, the answer is pretty evident.

A Simple Man Making His Way Through the Galaxy

*** MANDALORIAN SPOILER ALERT ***

This part in the new episode (Season 2, Episode 6, ‘The Tragedy’) gave me all sorts of feels.

“We agreed in exchange for the return of my armor, we will ensure the safety of the child.”

“The child’s gone.”

“Until he is retuned to you safely we are in your debt.”

First off, Boba Fett. Here’s a character that I saw when I was a kid in the 80s. I had the action figure. Yeah yeah, that was technically Jango Fett, but still.

I even endured the horrible prequels to understand a bit more of the back story, but here we are.

It’s now 2020, and ~~Boba~~ Jango Fett is a menacing fighter, and a man of his word. Maybe it’s the state of the world we live in now, but seeing the culmination of decades of lore and mystery, it’s just refreshing to have a character not be a total shit bag.

Mounting the Mountains

“It never ends.”

That’s the thing that hit me a few days ago.

At the moment I got lost in the minutia of my work, in that it never ends (something I’ve know about working in and around music since 2001). It never stops.

I think that’s in parallel to life right now; the uncertainty, the mess, the chaos, the death…. it never ends.

Or at least, I don’t see how it ever gets back on track. I don’t know how I’m ever going to be in another basement show in the middle of summer, surrounded by sweaty shirtless dudes, in a room with zero air flow. Like, how?

When will I get back on packed bus bound for NYC, and sit shoulder to shoulder with absolute strangers again?

All of the normal things we’ve done, thing we did for DECADES… every day it’s further away, being stripped away. It never ends.

March feels like seven years ago, just as this morning feels like it happened last week.

As I write this, I just got off a video call with (technically) with clients, but really they’re fantastic friends, and I’m glad I got to share a bit of that on a Friday night.

I also wrestled with a flow of never ending work stuff a few hours ago, where it felt impossible to keep up.

But I also watched the new episode of the Madalorian.

And ran five miles.

A lot of these things used to be mundane, expected, nothing special, but now they’re like mile-markers, big events, in a life now void of major movements.

Thankful for the here and now. No idea how many chapters this weekend will have, but planning on accepting every second.

Delightful Electronic Music

This year has me diving into lots of electronic music, and these two recently popped up via Twitter and I am stoked.

Soundtrack for Admiring the Moon

I can close my eyes, count my breaths, and then I’m in a dark room filled with strangers and speakers stacked to the ceiling. The only light is from a few bulbs on stage, the air thick with reverb and feedback, a low rumbling hum wraps around my rib cage.

Since live shows aren’t a thing anytime soon, I like to go here when making these mixes. Count the minutes before the next track, stay present, feel the music in bones and my thighs like we used to.

If you like this, I have more here.

Always Link to Your Stuff

Remember your links when posting engaging content!

Metal Bandcamp Gift Club, where we gift people we don’t know from their Bandcamp wishlist on their birthday.

Got a Patreon? Link to it. Got a piece of press? Paste a pull quote and link to your Bandcamp. New video? New song? Link. To. It.

Worried you’ll come off looking spammy? Hah! Social medial algorithms ain’t letting 70% of your fans see your content without “boosting” anyways!

People unfollow all the time. Sometimes even by accident. Oh well. Link to your stuff. Make sure your links are in your bio. Set up a website with links to everything. Start an email list.

“But what would I even put in my email list?” Start with the 1000 pieces of content you post everyday on socials. Pick the three “most engaging” items. Boom (and include a link to your Bandcamp).

If you do all these 100% right does that mean you’ll be a star?

NOPE. But don’t take yourself out of the game without even taking a shot (horrible sports analogy).

I’ve been in and around this online music jam since 2001, I’ve seen a LOT. I remember mp3 DOT com and Rdio and Napster and Best Buy end caps and street teams. Put your links where fans can click them. Start there.