Tuesday, August 6, 2013

Autotelic- Animated Series Intro Theme Song Score

My friend and music buddy Matt Martin and I created this theme song for an animated series. It was a lot of fun and we did all the music composition and sound effects.

Monday, February 11, 2013

TED Theme Resample Remix - TEDx Claremont Colleges - September 2012

To create this, I sampled the intro soundbite that plays at the beginning of each TED video. I chopped it up and transformed it to create all the sounds. I then recorded live guitars and programmed some electronic drums to complete it. It was a lot of fun!

I also remixed and produced some mashup style songs for transitions and breaks at the TEDx Claremont Colleges event. Below is a short description and audio player to listen to what I created:

Track 1 : "What We Know" by The Spirits of Music

Track 2: "Sexy Change Gonna Make Me More Closer to Human" - a mash up production of White Zombie, Gavin Degraw, NIN, LMFAO, and live guitars by Jeff Fajans

Track 3: "Tribe West" - a mash up of Tribe Called Quest, Kanye, and Audioslave

Track 4: "The Honk" - an original production by Jeff Fajans and Matt Martin

Track 5: "TEDx Intro Play" - a sampling and resampling with live guitars of the TED video intro theme, by Jeff Fajans

Just Let Go, by Autotelic - Released April 2011

This is my latest self-produced EP. I think it is a big improvement from my first one, although still not quite where I want to be yet in terms of production. Overall though, I think the songs are pretty badass and they all have a unique vibe to them. This EP was a lot of fun because I got some of my music buddies (J Rhodes-Girl That Cuts My Hair, Steve Mitchell-Same Way, and Jason Riley-Just Let Go) to help me out. I was even trying to get the haircut franchise, Knockouts, to use the first track for a commercial, but unfortunately it didn't work out as they thought it was too sexual. Whoops.

Ruidoso, by Autotelic - March 2011

These are some more sounds that myself and Matt Martin created on a trip to Ruidoso. These are pretty trippy, weird, sci-fi sounding little ditties that would be pretty cool in a creepy video game or the like. The first track is actually just the sound of an animated theme song we did, which you can see above, if you haven't already watched it. The best tracks on here are Trippy Shit and Glitch Bitch, but the Honk gives us a laugh because when we made it, we pictured it being a new dance phenemenon with people doing "the honk," and the little bell dings just sound funny.

Soundscapes ; Released Nov 2010

This is a collection of soundscapes that I had been working on over the years from when I first started learning Ableton Live by taking some really amazing music production with Ableton Live classes at Berkleemusic.com. I picture these tracks being music for video games, short film stuff, title pages for computer/games/programs/websites etc. It was a lot of fun using Ableton as an instrument and just messing around with the different possible sounds and beats and seeing what kinds of things I could come up with, with no overall goal in mind when doing so other than experimentation and fun. My favorites are the first track, Defunct, IttyBen, and Spy Games.

The Spirits of Music EP, by The Spirits of Music - Released 2007

This is some pretty original sounding stuff if I must say so myself. This is my band from a few years back consisting of Matt Martin on drums and Colton Boyles on vocals and bass, with myself on guitar. We really created some pretty awesome music. Our writing process was very organic and nothing was ever forced. Basically, we would get together and jam out different ideas, improvising and being spontaneous. We definitely experienced some deep levels of flow whenever we jammed or performed. Each time we would play a gig, our songs would be different. We kept ourselves open to letting things evolve naturally rather than being fixed to a rigid arrangement. This is the kind of music that for me is the most fun to play and create, because one has to be completely present, actively listening to others, ready to respond to anything, and open to take chances. We really jammed our songs out, and I was always surprised at the types of things that came out of not only mysef, but also Colton and Matt. Often, we had no idea where certain ideas or motifs originated; at times it was as if different spirits of music were possessing us as we played and we were conduits. Thus the name or our band. Our EP was recorded in Dallas at Luminous Sound and engineered by Brad Prakope

Autotelic - Autotelic ; Released December, 20, 2010

My first self-produced and self-tracked EP, Autotelic. I had a lot of fun doing this project. It was my first attempt at creating my own EP, doing all the songwriting, arranging, producing, and performing all instruments. The main purpose of making this EP was for me to really get immersed into Ableton Live, a music production software platform. I find that I learn best when I am working towards a big goal and really experimenting with and experiencing what something is about. It isn't perfect, and looking back on it, there is a lot of room for improvement, but hey, ya gotta get started somewhere. Being paralyzed by perfection was something that really affected me, but doing this project really helped me work past it. It's better to get going and embrace mistakes, learn from them, don't let perfection cripple you, and reflect on what you've created. With that being said, the production isn't the best, but I am happy with the songs and the main feel of them. My favorites are C Blues (Every Girl I Touch I Lose) and Death of Me. I think these songs have a really cool and unique feel to them and plan on re-doing them to make them really sick.