Hello dear friends and random wanderers,

I’m introducing my first ever completed Android application into the wild. It is called Nebula Live Wallpaper and is basically a bunch of dots made to look like outer space (as best I can). I want friends who have android and know how to download and install unsigned apps outside of the market to check out this apk and put it through the paces.

The rundown of the app is that it’s a live wallpaper that gives you star and “stardust” options which control density (number of stars/amount of dust), the rate they blink and their general brightness. There’s a lot of processor use involved so I need people to let me know what phone they are using and how it performs on the home screens.

When you install the apk, there is a Launch icon, but all it will do is show the settings. It is to make debugging easier, and I will be removing it for release. Otherwise once you install the apk, treat it like a normal live wallpaper.

My major todo for official release is that I would like to add the ability to dig into the user’s photo gallery to choose a background photo, such as an actual starscape. I would include a set of these images (like apod) in the app, but I am wary of licensing issues.

Here’s the apk! Nebula Live Wallpaper

Image by MelvinSchlubman via Flickr

Well, I played my first live performance in about 4 years last night. A big thanks to Buenos Airwaves and the people of the Sycamore House in Harrisburg. It was a blast! Hopefully I’ll have some pictures up.

I’m learning a lot about the music I make and the genre I play in. When people ask me what kind of music I make I have a bunch of different answers ranging from electronic to laptop rock. Playing music using computer software and various electronic peripherals is fun and affords infinite creative control, but performance-wise I find it difficult to engage the crowd. When playing on stage behind a guitar there is a raw energy of always connecting with the instrument that feeds the excitement of the crowd. Playing behind a computer makes me feel more like a drummer – trapped behind a bevy of equipment, separating my energy and crowds energy. I really have to learn to adjust my thinking from being a guitar player who isn’t used to having that wall to being more like a drummer and going nuts like Animal to project a massive amount of crowd enraging energy.

The other part of that equation is the music. The electronic sub-genres that are most accessible to enthusiastic live crowds typically have very very simple beats. The magic of these genres is more in the production, quality and attention to detail of the sounds than in the creative explosion of rhythms you’ve never thought of before (exceptions apply, of course). For two completed (and one upcoming) albums my rhythms and beats reflect a mash of playful exploration, hip-hop and dance. I typically find this inhibits the typical dj-driven dance floor movements. Driving, continuous, uninterrupted beats are the order of the evening in almost all situations where you want people to dance all night long – that and recognizable tunes (mostly stateside).

But I’m learning. In addition to these reflections that I wanted “on paper” for future reference here is a checklist of things for future performances:

• Always have takeaways. Have freebies and sell-ables that people can take away from the show. I went in with nobody knowing who I was and I left with maybe 3 people knowing who I was. Moreover, there’s no telling if they will remember my name, my music’s name, or even this website.
• Practice on a PA sound system setup and bring it whenever possible. No offense to the Sycamore house, but my sound was terrible. I wasn’t used to being in a sound system. I didn’t know their sound system. When my main beat tracks weren’t shining through the other layers the way they should have, there was no way for me to know it was because my stereo output was jacked into a mono input.
• Build and maintain various live set list projects in Live and Reason. After a massive number of attempted sync settings I finally caved and pulled in all my tracks and samples into one HUGE Live project. Seriously, over 50 tracks and over 150 scenes. Then, with Reason slaved to Live I was loading new Reason files for different sections of the set. That ended up being near-fatal because many tracks were setup to get signals from the same output from Reason. Halfway through the set 3 tracks could be running the same sound making it 3 times louder than it ought to have been. The solution I want to explore is to build several live sets that include various configurations of songs from my repertoire. Each set would be laid out not by song, but only by track and sample so that the live performance would be more creative and responsive. Also, each set would have only one associated Reason file with every instrument wired to outputs one-to-one so that there won’t be any track “bleeds”.

Anyways, the show was a great learning experience. I’m hoping to finish MetaTheories this month! (The last track is in the production phase) Afterwards I want to have a record release show and begin passing out the album to try and get more shows. Hopefully at some point next year, I will see you – the internet – out on the dance floor jamming to one of my tunes.

Ethereal Nation vs. Buenos Airwaves

So it’s 100% official and here’s the flier. You can get the full sized at flickr to spread around or use this one. The shindig is going to be September 30th 8pm @ the sycamore house (221 N. Front St., Harrisburg, PA). Cover will be $5 for charity (see the sycamore house site for more details).

Just to celebrate, here’s another new track from the upcoming album.

Sarah by etherealnation

That's right. APC 40.

I admit it, I’ve been terrible to update my blogs. Recently I’ve gotten back into it (see also Talk is Sheep & 53R1A75). So I figure the trend should extend to this blog as well. So check it out, I’m teaming up with Buenos Airwaves (music here) to do a show somewhere in Harrisburg on Thursday September 30th. I’m still waiting to figure out the specific location and time, but would love to see as many of you viewers and listeners out there to party. Also, it’s a fundraiser to send BAW all the way back to Buenos Aires and work with teens there. Finally, here’s a new track on my upcoming album (that I’ve been working on for like 3 years now, I’ll finish soon – I swear).

Fact by etherealnation