[Sorry for the faulty links/anchors!]
Yesterday afternoon, while looking at my blogging Wunderlist (an AMAZING to-do list app for apple iDevices/Mac OSX/Android/Windows and even just online) I began thinking up ideas for upcoming blog posts. Among ideas such as a pop-up flash photo trick I know, working at KC Fashion Week, and talking about my dream of writing/illustrating a children's book, one particular idea came up that I should have thought about a long time ago.
Today I want to talk about a good friend of mine and the absolutely dynamic music he makes. Garrett creates electronic music for his project by the name of Arson Makes Me Hot. He and his music are essentially what got me interested and listening to the broad spectrum of electronic music about two years ago.
You can go straight to listening to his music or reading about him, his music, and us working together. Or both!
Garrett
I'm not about to write a biography, so I'll just keep it simple. Garrett Van Valkenburg (is it two words? Garrett tell me) is 21 years old. He's from Kent, Connecticut. He's been trained in music composition extensively. For AMMH, he typically works around the genres of chiptune, dance, house, hardstyle, and D&B. Besides electronic music, Garrett has a liking for post-hardcore and alternative music as well. He likes fire, video games, and baking. This closes the nutshell.
When I'm talking about his music, I'm probably not using the proper terminology, but I hope it works.
Too many electronic songs are made so simply and are good hits. But it's songs like his where it feels like you're listening to some sort of digital symphony composed of samples, built upon layers and layers and layers of sound, without sounding like a huge mess. He told me that this type of style was his initial goal and it's what he loves to do. A popular group that I first recognized this in was Crystal Castles, which I actually made Garrett listen to for the first time. He places intricacies and simplicities in the perfect place, blending every sound so seamlessly, it's just a complete pleasure to hear.
And of course, the song he made for me. n_n
Links
Soundcloud -- regular music posts and downloads
Bandcamp -- high quality album downloads
Facebook -- like and share his music
Twitter -- contact him
Tumblr -- follow him
Garrett's Personals:
How It Started
We first met on tumblr, when I was a socially inept My Chemical Romance fan. If you know of MCR, then you probably know that the fan base (particularly the crazy fan base) is mostly made up of females. Male MCR fans were hard to come by, especially their opinions on the music and not so much the aesthetically pleasing face and body structure of the handsome band members. Because of this, I took a liking to a his blog and followed him.
I liked electronic music for quite some time before meeting him, but I grew tired of hearing, "Oh, like unce, unce, unce," from people after telling them what my favorite music was. Also, people assumed that I was the type to go clubbing and knew how to dance. Being a complete introvert, especially back then, I could only deny so many claims before I gave up and stuck with good 'ol alternative.
After talking for quite a while, either a few weeks or months, we had so many similar ideas and interests, we became really good friends. We both made it very apparent what our talents were; he was great at making music and I was great at making visual art. Wanting to be a part of his incredible music, I asked (I think) to design a few things for him. A lot of time has passed since then, but we still work together like pb & j. I've designed some logos/artwork for him to use, as well as given him critique on some of his songs, which he appreciates. I love quality music and analyzing the basic components of song listening, even if I have little knowledge of technical song composition and music in general. He gives me credit for the artwork and created a song for me, which I posted up above.
Curently, he's being a lazy bum with making songs and I'm in the thinking process (aka the 'relapse' stage of procrastinating) of designing his tumblr-hosted website.
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