Category: Daily Loop 2021

I was awakened at 4:30am to the sound of my cat terrorizing a mouse (the cat won), and the morning followed suit. Worked most of the morning hours, though made my coffee extra strong, which was a treat. Played around with new tools for my day job (Close Mondays), then got busy making this loop.

This loop is not as fully fleshed out as I’d like, but it’s something. You’ll notice (maybe) that there’s actually bass on this one, as I got inspired by by the recent “Precious Metals’: Starring Les Claypool & Robert Trujillo” video that was uploaded a few days ago. Weird being a bass player since 1991 and hardly ever playing it with any of these.

LIKES

“Breaking NBC: The U.S. death toll from the coronavirus has topped 500,000,” @kylegriffin1

“People want to work with individuals whom they enjoy and can see themselves working with. Skill can be built, but personalities stick,” @jelfish67

“Why do bands say that they have a rhythm guitar and lead guitar? Just say one only knows power chords and the other is a narcissist. It’s fine,” @Amygdalatx

“why are we not all obsessed with Bandcamp?” @helloitsaudrey

On the weekends I avoid making social media assets for these videos. One, because I need the break, but two, hey, if you’re a fan; visit my site.

That’s the thing with “managing your own site.” Why would people visit it?

You see what some sites do to get eyeballs; top 10 ways to monetize your site, the best dresses at the recent awards show, 13 songs from the 80s that we love. Those get written because they work.

That’s now saying you have to make the same thing, but try to copy the spirit. People that like what you do – what else do they like? What else do you like?! Write about that. Or make videos about that. Or make a podcast about that. It’s hard for your main thing to be the draw unless you’ve already created the big thing and get traffic and eyeballs and fans from that.

LIKES

“it’s weird how it’s assumed that everyone wants to start a business,” @mama_emeritus

Video by Ricardo Esquivel from Pexels

Welcome to 50, huh? That’s fifty mornings since January 1st, 2021 that I’ve been posting something like this here on this site. We’re 50 days into 2021. Wild.

Music loop just came about from layering some ideas on top of other ideas. Didn’t spend much time on drums or any lead part. I think this loop could really use some vocals, but that’s for another day.

Video-wise, yeah. That came together at the last minute, with sort of “why not” attitude. Now I feel like I need to incorporate video loops along with this whole thing. Again, why not?

LIKES

“I love to be at the grocery store with a dude behind me at the checkout who is very proudly not wearing a mask and say “why are you trying to kill us” over and over until he’s literally backed up 12 feet from my cart and won’t make eye contact with me anymore it’s very chill,” @CosmicChambo

“me, looking up from my screen after 11.5 months straight: why do my eyes hurt,” @mollyshirreen

Mornings are for coffee, staring out the window, and understanding that this music doesn’t need to go viral in a Tic Tok video. The internet isn’t just for fully finished, agency-approved deliverables. The internet doesn’t have to be completely filled with polished, HD videos and studio produced hits.

There was still room for small bands to sell CDs in music stores back in the day, alongside the big hits and holiday albums.

LIKES

“I’m tired of badly edited images of black and brown people. Poorly exposed frames with recycled presets slapped on has got to stop. It doesn’t help tell the stories of black and brown folks,” @aundrelarrow

“I would not recommend friends work at Mailchimp, especially women,” @justkelly_ok

“My line is “a single newsletter email sign-up is worth 10 Instagram followers,” @Katieiscrafty

Video by Zuzanna Musial from Pexels

It’s okay for things to feel heavy, and miserable. We suffering a collective loss, a mass grieving. Being creative requires energy, going for a run requires energy, doing the things you love require energy, and these days a lot of energy is spent on the sole task of surviving. Getting through the day.

Today’s loop is just that. No fancy arrangement. No vocal parts. It gets by on the loop, even if it’s simple in measure, much like all of us these days. Just surviving.

LIKES

“every day i wake up and see emails. why,” @bijanstephen

Video by Kelly Lacy from Pexels

Lovedrug’s ‘Down Towards the Healing’ came on tonight, at just the right time. That slow, quiet build-up at the 3:00 mark came on and crushed me. The perfect storm, the stress, the anxiety, the doubt, the chaos, the fear – it all came out. This 17 year old song opened me up.

Seeing more and more how this nearly year-long isolation is hitting me, and those around me. People I talk with, work with, keep in touch with via email and DMs.

Hang on, friends.

LIKES

“Web 4.0 will be everyone discovering that actually Web 1.0 was amazing and bringing the bulk of it back. Less surveillance, less centralization, less complexity,” @dhh

Video by Mike from Pexels

It’s Monday, a holiday, another loop. Still leaning heavy on the Novation Bass Station II, all without really knowing what I’m doing, and hell, I don’t know much what I’m doing with Abelton Live, but I’m doing my best, making things that make me feel good, so that’s all that counts.

Set up a “homepage” for SETH ATOM, which is the moniker I’ll be using for my music going forward. Seth W. started in 1998, 23 years ago. I’m obviously not the same person today, and my middle name is Adam, so it works. Whatever.

LIKES

“I need to get into the habit of turning my phone off for a good portion of the day, disconnecting from the internet and just spending my days focusing on art. Create an environment where I’m drawing instead of anxiously checking notifications. Social media is hell,” unknownrelic

“Reminder: The tension means you are growing,” @gumroad

Video by Stef from Pexels

Today I walked downstairs to make coffee and realized I have a full morning to myself to make music. Not that it was just an option, but it popped in there, on its own, which is new. Maybe doing these 45 days in a row has knocked something loose, in a good way.

LIKES

“I love spending hours itemizing expenses and depreciating assets for self-employment taxes, only to find that it adds up to literally 6 dollars under the standard deduction,” @mollyfmielke (one of the many reasons I just bit the bullet and signed up for Bench [referral link])

“The most American thing I can think of is that 57 people voted to convict and 43 voted to acquit, and the 43 people won,” @what_eats_owls (in response to the acquittal of former President Donald Trump)

Video by cottonbro from Pexels

I haven’t left the house in over a week because of all the snow. The roads are fine, but there’s an unplowed alley to contend with, so I’m just gonna lay low and use what I got in my cabinets.

Today’s loop started out one way, took 14 different turns, and ended up here. It could have taken another two dozen directions, but I wanted to get this out there and work on other stuff. This was primarily made with the Novation Bass Station II, though I’m still trying to wrap my head around everything it can do.

LIKES

“Just maxed out a credit card on a film camera !!! What pushed me over the edge was thinking “who cares about money. We’re all gonna die anyway,” @RitualsofMine

Video by Jake Heinemann from Pexels

My cat woke me up at 5:30am, chewing on some plastic bags I left on the floor of my bedroom. Had to shoo him away, and closed the door, but couldn’t get back to sleep. Basically the cat helped me make this loop today, since I was up way too early.

LIKES

“It’s almost like workplaces stopped training people up or promoting people from within or investing in their own employees and ended up creating a structure of incentives that rewards job hopping,” @carolinedraws

Video by Danilo Obradović from Pexels