"Gummy" is my 14th studio album, and my most eclectic. Just a quick breakdown from track-to-track.
1. "Next First Breath" is a Depeche Mode style song about experiencing new things and experiencing familiar things as though they were new.
2. "Homonym For Haha" is a Hip-Hop EDM crossover track, with a lot of fun puns and other wordplay. (a synonym for "Homonym For Haha" is "Sounds Like Fun")
3. "Turn On The Stereo" is a classic hip-hop style song about the power of music to bring people together, told through the story of overhearing a neighbor's music, until it spreads around the world, "one home at a time," and even the dolphins dance along.
4. "It's Friday" is a Jazzy Hip-Hop song with a 3 minute long piano solo at the end, about embracing today.
5. "Let's Just Go (Groove Mix)" is a song about taking risks that I sing for about 3 minutes, and then rap at 176 BPM.
6. "Living In My Memories" is a Dark Synthwave track about moving to a new city 6 months before a pandemic hit.
7. "Unreal Like a Dream" is harder to define as I rap for about 1 minute, and the rest of the time, it's just music. I dreamt the guitar part, and built the rest of the song around that guitar part. The lyrics are about the rest of that same dream.
8. "We Were There" is a jazzy hip-hop track about appreciating moments with friends and family, and includes a reference to my favorite book series ever, "The Wheel of Time."
9. "Track 9" is written in 9/4 time with a bass line that starts on the second beat, and complex lyrics. Yet, the vocals are almost traditional hip-hop. Maybe you'd call it sci-fi hip-hop. It's my favorite song that I've ever made.
10 "Let's Just Go" is a lo-fi jazz ballad with pop influences, and is the original version of the song. The Groove Mix is the version I created later.
I am very proud of the album. Gummy is what my niece calls me, so both the album title and release date (January 19th, 2022 - my birthday) have personal meaning for me.
A quick note about the mastering for the album. I used Cloudbounce to master 6 of the songs. I used Discmakers' Soundlab to master Track 9, Next First Breath, We Were There, and Next First Breath. The single version of "Next First Breath" is actually a Cloudbounce master, if you want to compare the two for yourself.
