Waves of Change
A newsletter update (featuring images & videos).
Hello, dear readers, listeners, and viewers!
My production at auva has slowed as of late, for a number of reasons. First, as I mentioned weeks ago, I started a YouTube channel! This has somewhat taken over my life, as each video requires hours of editing, to say nothing of creating the thumbnail, chapters, video description, reels for social media, the list goes on.
Since I first posted about it, I’ve made four other videos, including:
How NOT to Listen (which I’ll probably re-title at some point)
The next couple of videos will most likely be about writing practice, but I haven't filmed them yet.
Speaking of, I am working on another visual-poem-film, similar to “I JUST WANTED TO GROW TOMATOES,” except it’s only about 2 minutes long, and I wrote the words. I didn’t read them though—I delegated that task to a very skilled actor friend, and I am so excited for you all to see it. The video is completely edited, but I am still working on the score—because I can’t ever do anything simple, I am writing 6 micro-pieces for it, which is taking more time than I had anticipated. Basically, it’s about finding the right tone and music so that it will “marry” the images on screen (and in this case, the words, as well as the tone of my reader’s voice).
I’m getting there though, but I’m a bit delayed because of—you guessed it—another video. They’re just taking over my life! I love it, but it also feels like I’m on a really wild rollercoaster ride that I just can’t seem to get off of (which is also how my dad described what it’s like being on LSD. I thought that was a great simile—he’s more writerly than he thinks he is!)
Currently, I’m working on a video that will essentially function as a brief interview with me and a demo reel featuring many samples of music I’ve written in the past year or two. My website is also being redesigned (by me, because I obviously don’t have enough to do), and that video will be the centerpiece, in a sense, because I am now focusing on composing music for video games.
I will continue to edit and write for work, and I am also dipping my toe in video production/simple commercial work, but my dream career has always been composing for video games. I had all sorts of ideas about myself that kept me from actually going for it—these ideas were also part of why I stayed in grad school for so long, and why I strayed from music (temporarily).
But now that I am owning up to what makes me happy, excited, and inspired, my life continues to move me in directions that I can barely believe. I’m reading books about game design, writing for video games, and video game art. I’m watching all sorts of videos about game development, testing out various game engines, and sketching out ideas, all while reading 100+ year old books about music orchestration and theory. Somehow, all of this makes sense to me. It’s strange, even surreal at times—I can finally look around at my life and I say, “Yes, this is where I was heading all along.”
[If you’re not on social media, I shared this video excerpt on Instagram. The song is called, “Tile by Tile,” by the incomparable band, Alvvays. I used my fancy video editing to not only make the lighting in the room look much more moody, but I also used an affect to lighten my face as well as the microphone. I did a much better job on the mic than I did on my face—if you look closely you can see the residual glow around my head.]
The push to finish my demo reel video is also coinciding with Game Sound Con, a convention for sound designers, composers, voice actors, and other people working in the gaming industry. My goal is to have the video ready by conference time, so that I have something I can actually point to as an introduction to me and my work. I will certainly share a link to it here, when it’s ready. For now, if you’re interested, you can read my brand new music bio, which I wrote over the weekend.
I think I am out of creative updates, for the time being. I am really excited about sharing, “Scattered Dreams,” with you—I think it’s a beautiful little film, and even though it’s only 2 minutes long, it is packed. I am already thrilled with the outcome but I definitely need a break before doing another one.
Thanks for being here! And thanks especially to my new paid subscribers and to those who bumped up their subscriptions from free to paid. It means the world to me!
I hope you are all healthy, rested, and taking good care of yourselves.
Warmly,
_daniel of auva_
P.S. Here’s another music video from social media, albeit without my fancy audio setup (it’s another Alvvays song, from the same album. The song is called, “Pressed.”). To me, this part of the song is like an incantation mixed with a declaration of emotional independence, a moment where poetic witchyness meets unapologetic autonomy. Enjoy!