Yesterday I released my first album of original Eve Online inspired songs over on Audiomack.
The album contains 10 original songs written by me and produced using the Suno platform. As I've stated before you are totally free to feel anyway you want about that fact. I would encourage you to listen and enjoy the music that I have spent the last four months working on and judge for yourself. I've enjoyed writing songs my entire life and I'm just pleased that I can finally bring some of them to life. Would I prefer using real musicians and renting out a real studio space? Of course. Unfortunately I'm just a poor struggling artist. So this is what you get instead.
Let me tell you a bit about each track.
1. Why I Play
The title song is based on the following video I created 10 years ago:
That video is a poem I wrote that explains why I play Eve and was intended as a funny animated project. Mostly it was for practice and for fun. So I took that poem and expanded it a bit into a song. If you watch and listen to both you'll easily see the evolution.
2. Cruisin' In Cruisers
I released a whole music video for this song just last week over on my YouTube channel.
I listened to a LOT of Yacht Rock before I sat down to write this one. I wanted to try and write something like that for Eve Online, the angst, the longing, the wind in your hair, lost love, but the determination that flying around in spaceships is more important.
3. With Ships Like These
There was a time when my phone would start randomly playing Jack Johnson's "Times Like These" whenever I started my car. Turns out the software needed updating, but those few days forced that song back into my brain and I began thinking about it as an Eve song. And that is where this song originated. I wanted to challenge myself to create a song that made sense and included as many spaceships as I could get into it, without it turning into a list.
4. F1 Monkey
The next two songs are really anthems to play-style choices in Eve, F1 Monkey and Logi Bro. I think when you listen to this you'll get the sense of humor and respect I have for other people's choices - I wanted to ensure that I wasn't making fun of anyone - but telling a story about how our choices are our own and equally valid. Even if I don't always understand the reasoning behind them.
5. Logi Bro
And for this anthem I just wanted to create a great song that celebrated the heroes that fly Logistics and keep us alive during fleets. They all deserve it. And I'm still waiting for them to be included on killmails.
6. Stay Frosty Rocks
This is a rock version of a song I released last year.
If you've read this far you're probably just starting to realize just how much music has played a part in my history and we have just barely scratched the surface. I didn't write the original version of this song, that was given to me by an anonymous fan who also created the production on the rap version in the video. I altered some of the lyrics to create the rock version on the album. My next album will be a funk/rap album and will feature yet another version of this track.
7. Mine Ore Die
This is a slogan I created well over a decade ago and I used to sell t-shirts and stickers with it, I also created and handed out stickers with this slogan on it at Fanfest. I wanted to create a powerful metal song about my industry friends and how important they are to all of us. I hope I did that.
8. Wishing You Were Dead
This song makes me laugh. I wanted to create a song that my victims would write, a lament from all those families whose loved ones have been murdered in ships exploded by me over the years. I imagine there are entire planets of people who literally hate me. So what kind of music would they write?
My goal with all of these songs is to help bring the universe of New Eden to life through music and I think this song does that better than anything else on this album.
9. Moving to Ouelletta
This song started out as a Billy Joel style song about a young man who had enough of living in High-Sec and wanted to be a Pirate. It changed a bit over time and eventually turned into the version you hear here. The theme stayed the same, just the style evolved over time. I really like this one and all the little buttons in it, from leaving family, to exploring a new life.
10. Laundromat Mornings
Another music video I released a few weeks ago:
Unlike the other songs on this album this one is "real world" and is a very special song for me. I wanted to capture the emotions of Fanfest and the history of making friends over the past decade and more.
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I have more songs in the works and you can hear a song at the end of every "Safe Spot" podcast, some from this album and other unreleased songs. I enjoy doing these and right now I need as much joy in my life as I can get.
Onward and Upward.