Today is my favourite day of the year: Boxing Day. One of the only days of the year where I have absolutely no commitments. It’s nice to just have one full day of absolutely whatever I want. Not to mention, it’s one day after Chrimbus and I have a bunch of cool stuff to mess around with.
Most notably, I received a Komplete Kontrol S61 from my parents. Though, I partially paid for it, and then acted really surprised when I opened it Friday. I believe Kontrol is close to the final piece of the puzzle to make my creation studio complete. Of course I’ll always want different toys and gadgets, but with this I can write much faster and intuitively.
In other news, I submitted an offer on a home I’ve been admiring for months and it was accepted. Of course, there needs to be a home inspection and a bunch more conditions before it’s actually mine but, if all goes well, and I’m guessing it will, it shall be mine. I’ve been saving up for years to buy a home and I’m ecstatic it’s finally come true. So the next project for the studio shall be acoustically treating the room for the most accurate listening experience possible. I know a decent amount about acoustic treatment but actually doing it will teach me much more.
Since we talked last, I finished my 12-week course at Berklee Online. It went by so quickly but I learned quite a bit – more than I expected to. I finally kinda know how to compose. For everything before this course, I could stumble my way through a song but now I have a much better understanding of song construction and form. Feel free to check out my final project, which I’m quite proud of. It’s called Hills. You can also download it too if you wish.
But anyway, I find once late December comes, I end up reflecting on the year – as cheesy as that is. I’m pretty happy with myself in 2015. I accomplished a lot that I set out to do. Mainly releasing PGEP and completing a term at Berklee Online. I also ended up buying a house at the tail end of the year, too! 2016 is already set up to be pretty dope year. I’ll be playing live as Poly Gecko for the first time; moving into a new home; releasing hopefully two more EPs (one solo, one collaboration); continuing to learn how to swim; continuing vocal lessons. There’s some other crazy exciting news but I’m too superstitious to post it 😉 But, yes. Exciting times ahead. I think the band will get together for the first time in the next few weeks and start jamming and piecing together a live Poly Gecko set. If you’re reading this and have experience with Apple MainStage 3, drop me a line. We need to talk.
So to end my final blog for 2015, I thought I do a quick countdown for my favourite music of the year. Only four of these artists I knew before 2015 – the rest are all newcomers to my life. Here’s the list of my top 12 favourite albums released in 2015:
12. Noontide – Humans
11. Transition Roads – Ominar
10. How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful – Florence + The Machine
9. 2nite EP – TWRP
8. Play With Me! Collection – Matador
7. Taking Flight EP – Ryan Hemsworth & Lucas
6. Caracal – Disclosure
5. Siren EP – ATTLAS
4. Ep5 – Nerve
3. Do Androids Dream – Andrew Bayer
2. Scene EP – ATTLAS
1. Another Eternity – Purity Ring
No album was as exciting to me as Another Eternity was, and still is. And seeing Purity Ring live in October only solidified my love for their music. It’s just such a sweet blend of innocent vocals and aggressive bass and I love it.
Anywho, that does it for me this year. I hope you had a splendid holiday and I hope you all have a sweet New Year. If you’re looking for a sweet party on NYE, come to Marquee / Seahorse for 90s Night / Tupperware Remix Party. I’ll be there, drinking Horsepower.
Stay true,
Ryan