cosmicriftmusic

[cosmicriftmusic]

Blog Post 3 Dec. 30 2016

What’s up guys!! 2016 is drawing to an end, which is wild to think; because, I’ve had a massive lifestyle overhaul. I got a new job in January, put on 16lb of muscle, started back in college, celebrated my first anniversary with my wife and started back making music for the first time in way too damn long! I can definitely say that I finished out the year strong and had a great time with all of my co-workers, friends, and family. 

So...it turns out that I was totally right and did not get ANY songs done this year. However, I have been brushing up on my skills like a madman. My new track got some positive reviews from my top Soundcloud supporters. I’m now hitting about 2,500 plays on my Soundcloud per month so wow...thanks for all the kind words and support! Sometimes us music makers don’t feel very good about ourselves because we’re massive debbie downers but music lovers like you bring us up up up! So again...thank you very much for all of the love, support, and generous compliments. 

For those of you that haven’t heard the track yet, you should get to hear it about when I said you would which is January 6th but we’ll see because I haven’t even sent it off to get mastered! I’m supposed to be doing a remix for a really cool artist but I haven’t heard much from him so it’s a bit up in the air at the moment. Anyways that’s about all for now so I’ll see you next year!

Thanks for reading I appreciate your support! Please feel free to message me on Facebook, Tweet me @CosmicRift, follow me on Instagram and tag me where you are while listening to my tracks, and if you haven’t signed up to my newsletter do it now so you don’t miss a beat! You’re awesome and I love you all!!

[cosmicriftmusic]

Blog 2

Hey everyone it’s finally Wednesday which means my last final of my first semester back to school in two years. I’m excited to say that as a full time employee and student that after today I will have passed all my classes!! I’m scared for next semester but I won’t worry about that today because future Brian will know what to do when the time comes. On a very important side note, I’d like to thank everyone recently who has come out to support my music across my major social media platforms since I started back this August. While a lot of people negatively associate the numbers of social media with vanity, I tend to think differently. The truth is that the followers, subscribers, and likes aren’t just numbers on a website. The numbers are actual, real people, in this world who openly support what I do and I can’t stress enough how important that is not for just myself, but for other creators like myself who seek validation for our art. It’s a great feeling to do well at something you love and be rewarded with the praise and support of others.

As far as music updates goes, things have been quite dodgy in the last few months. I’m actually nowhere near where I had planned to be, imagine that, in regards to having tracks done. I had written several songs since August but have yet to complete them. However, I can say that this is a good thing because a good friend of mine has been helping me greatly improve my tracks. Along with that friend, I created an awesome group of people who produce trance similar to mine so we’ve been able to grow with each other for several weeks now. Opening myself up has definitely enhanced my overall sound and got me more familiar with new techniques and styles.

I had originally planned for five releases by the end of February, which now seems obviously optimistic, not because I am incapable of it; but, because I was certainly not ready for it. For those of you that are just now beginning to follow me, you might not be aware but I was on an extended hiatus due to career changes, personal choices, and lack of self-confidence. Because I took such a long break, my creativity, productivity, and post-production techniques I had learned in the past had to be brushed back up on. I had made the mistake of thinking that I was still Superman but I’m glad that I did now because it really got me back up to speed and now I sound even better! I’m actually very happy with my new track that is nearing final completion and I’m very certain that I will be able to contribute greatly to our scene with it.

I’m going to do my absolute best NOT to hype you guys with release dates that are unconfirmed or imaginary because life happens so my schedule changes. However, what I can say is that I am in the works of making it possible to release a track every three to six weeks but no later than eight weeks. I had decided that I want to do this because I personally believe that I write a lot of great music but not all of my tracks come to fruition. I chose to challenge myself so that I could become a better writer and producer with the added benefit of sharing with you all how I love to spend my time. With all that in mind, I’ll say that there will be a new track out by or before January 6th of 2017. I did make that promise so I would love to start off the New Year with something fresh, exciting, and inspiring for the many months following.

Thanks for reading I appreciate your support! Please feel free to message me on Facebook, Tweet me @CosmicRift, follow me on Instagram and tag me where you are while listening to my tracks, and if you haven’t signed up to my newsletter do it now so you don’t miss a beat! You’re awesome and I love you all!!

[cosmicriftmusic]

Blog 1

It’s been a long time since I last blogged so it’s kind of weird to be writing again. I decided that I would start back because it was something that I had missed. I enjoy writing because I can go back to see what I thought in the past, and evaluate who I was at that time. I wanted to start off by saying that I began writing music again in August but had decided to hold off on blogging until I felt more comfortable with my state of mind.  I did this because I was very doubtful that I could hold onto the excitement and passion of creating after letting go for so long. This began to disappear through countless mornings and a number of evenings of deep introspection.  I realized that I had to let that fear go, but most importantly forgive myself for letting myself down.

               To briefly summarize the last two years, I decided to quit music production and become a welder. I taught myself the craft, made fantastic money, and had learned hard work through true grit. However, I was as you could guess, not happy, with whom I was or that my world revolved around an industry that I had very little interest in. I decided that I would go back to school and get education because there was “somewhere I belonged.” I changed jobs within the company this year and suddenly loved my job! I had time to get back into fitness and even managed to put on 16 pounds of muscle so that was awesome and I felt great. My problem was that I started to listen to trance music again, and had become jealous of old friends who had stuck to what I could not. I remembered all the kind words of encouragement I had been given throughout my many years only to feel deep, painful, regret. I felt that I had let so many people down in my life, but most importantly and as cliché as it is, I let it myself down. When I quit I had denounced my craft to my wife so, I had to make some not so fun decisions that led to very terrible conversations with her about picking up again. Thankfully she has been very supporting of my decision, so my transition back into my old life has been smooth.

Now that I’ve gotten my sob story out of the way I can talk about the fun things. Over my 8 years of being a music producer I’ve learned one thing. I’m very incapable of sticking to my word; however, that doesn’t mean that I’ve been a liar either. What it means is that I’ve always had a knack for setting a very high standard that could not be reached at my current level of capacity. One of my promises to coming back was to set challenging goals that were currently within my means. Secondly is to purposely challenge myself with uncomfortable domains so that I can learn. Thirdly, I would become a finisher. I had always written amazing music, posted a demo, and then you’d never see or hear the end of it. I want to change all of that and this is blog my future self’s accountability. Finally and most importantly, set the bar low and adjust it with every accomplishment. I have already been struggling with these new promises, but I am getting better each and every day.

Let’s wrap things up by getting to the meat of what this post is really about.  I decided in September that my current focus is to write, produce, and release 16 songs. I started my writing in September and will begin releasing in December of this year and continue onward into November of 2017. It’s a massive undertaking for me but I believe that if I want to grow as an artist, I must challenge myself.  I’m having a lot of fun and making a lot of new friends, so if you’re interested in connecting be sure to check me out on my websites.

One last thing, HUGE shout out to the MASSIVE support I’ve been getting since I have come back! I appreciate all the plays, likes, comments, reposts, and messages on my SoundCloud. I know you will all enjoy my new stuff so stay in touch!! ;)

Thank you for reading and see you soon!

[cosmicriftmusic]

Blog Entry 06 4.21.14

Hey everyone it has been a while since I last blogged. My last blog was actually an audio blog that I did on the 30th of last month, which is another huge gap for my blogging. I have been getting a little behind on blogging and music. Most of it was honestly from just being burnt out from my music life. If you’re a musician I am sure you already know what I am going through, but if you don’t it’s not too difficult to imagine. For me, it’s a culmination of many goals being set, and firing away at each one of them separately. Now, I’m at this point where I’m completely spent with little progress everywhere, but nothing major actually accomplished.

If I try to be successful at everything, I always end up being a failure at everything. I don’t know for sure if this is the likely scenario for most musicians or even entrepreneurs, but I’m willing to bet it is. I am starting to think it’s best to pick one particular task or one project and focus on it until it’s absolutely finished. In the past, I know I have had success when I complete a massive project and then ride off that success into my next project, but sometimes that doesn’t always happen. Sometimes I feel like I did so well that I earned a break, but I am slowly realizing it is extremely counterproductive for myself. I think it’s counterproductive because I know I’m capable of getting into a groove where I am consistently writing music every day, but if I skip one day it can literally throw me off for weeks, if I don’t get a handle on it. 

Now that I think about it, I wouldn’t be writing this now if I didn’t get back in my groove. I have this habit of listening to podcast about successful entrepreneurs or motivational speakers; it’s kind of cheesy but I swear it works wonders. Every other day I listened to artist, musicians, book writers, motivational speakers, and everything in between talk about what they did to jump start their day, be successful, and accomplish their goals. I did it because I don’t have a lot of influential people in my social circle who really inspire me. I never really understood what a successful person was or how they carried their lives until I started to hear these people talk about their day-to-day schedule.

Before I went off to Atlanta tonight, I downloaded one of my favorite podcasts and burned it to a CD, yeah I know I need a new radio, so I would have something to listen to. Lewis Howes, the man who runs the podcast, interviewed this man and they talked about a whole ton of topics, but one of them really stood out in the light. They talked about how they both went to private schools and they had itineraries, and it kind of blew my mind. It blew my mind because I went to public school, and if you’ve ever been to public school, it sucks. If you come from a family that never gave you much discipline, typically you did really shitty in school, or you learned to study and/or cheat your ass off. Anyways, this whole “itinerary” thing got my mind racing in the right direction.

I started to realize that my best days were when I knew what I was doing, even if I didn’t know it. When I’m being productive, I typically wake up between 6 a.m. and 8 a.m. I usually eat the same breakfast: eggs, oatmeal, hash browns, and drink a hellaton of coffee. After I am finished downing my coffee, I write down what I need to do and I’m off! When I had this routine, I was on top of the world, but my biggest issue was day-to-day planning. Every day I had this huge list of eight or ten things I absolutely had to do that day, but I had no idea what I was doing the next day. The next day was completely set aside until the next morning, so this caused problems. With my day job, family life, and social life, it was very stressful to mentally keep track of my music life, so I came up with a solution on the way home.

I am into some really weird shit when it comes to Lifehacks, but even this is crazy for me. I came up with the idea of creating a weeklong itinerary that included my: work life, social life, music life, and everything in between, with as much detail and specification as possible. I’ve never forced this level of well thought out planning for my life, but I think it’s the next step I have to take in my life. With this itinerary, I’m hoping that my life will be much more streamlined, and lead me to further success later down the road. I have no idea how it will work out the first week, so I’m expecting it to be crazy as I jump into this new lifestyle management scheme. I hope everyone enjoyed a good Easter with friends and family, and I hope you enjoyed your dinner!

[cosmicriftmusic]

Let It Go

Over the past year and a half I have had to learn to how let people, things, and situations go. A major life event such as a divorce seems to really put things in perspective and provides a sense of clarity that may not have been there before.

Things

After my separation, I looked at all the “stuff” I owned and purged. I stood there looking into the back of my car and realize that everything I…

[cosmicriftmusic]

Blog Entry 04 3.09.14

        Last night I had one hell of a night in Atlanta with my best friend, and a fellow trance music producer friend, who had originally invited me to the event. We went to see Arnej, a progressive, trancy, all around basdass Dj, at the Opera Nightclub. The music was outstanding, the energy was all around us, and there was no shortage of beautiful women.

        My friend and I were super pumped because we hadn’t been to a club together in ages. In fact, the last event I went to was Armin Van Buuren at Wild Bills two years ago. I actually don’t go to a lot of clubs because it’s awful for my ears so I don’t go often, but when I do I always have a killer time. However, I plan on going out more this year; because, I’d like to meet more local music producers that would like to collaborate. We arrived at the club fifteen minutes before ten and walked the block with a cigar in hand. My friend and I love cigars so that’s our thing anywhere we go. After we finished scoping the streets, we decided to make our way over to the entrance of Opera.

         I had never been to Opera so I was expecting a big line, but it took us no more than ten minutes to get through security. After I handed my ticket off, I walked up the stairs to this big door leading into the club and went in. The first room had two ladies at coat check, so we bypassed them since we already knew we wouldn’t need our coats in a club. We made our way down this short hallway and there it was, this beautiful hardwood dance floor, chandeliers up top, and two bars. The opening DJ, Immanual Steiner or Microsis, was a local who warmed us up really well for an hour until Arnej’s set.

         All and all it was just a wonderful experience. Arnej played several different genres, which really made me happy because I love hearing different styles of dance music. The crowd was going absolutely bonkers because of that too. My friend and I also met two lovely ladies and their friends so we had the luxury of enjoying the later half of the show with them. After Arnej shut the club down we begged and pleaded for one more song, but it just didn’t happen unfortunately. We then walked our new friends to their car and headed off back home to my quite peaceful town.

        I can definitely say the last week has been a blast, but also very frustrating. I last mentioned that I was waiting for my new track to come back from the studio I was working with. Unfortunately, I am still waiting for that track, but now I’m a bit fed up with the quality and the service. I will be finding new mastering studios tomorrow that hopefully work out better. On a good note, I am happy to say that I am almost seventy percent done with another uplifting trance track. I am also currently in the process of starting two collaborations with my good friend DJ Reckless Ryan, and a new friend Michael Fearon. I am also planning to start working on a few new remixes, but I am trying not to get too ahead of myself.

       I’m happy to say that I have my first gig the weekend of St. Patricks Day in Athens, Georgia on Friday at my friends Fraternity House. I have my best friend, who went clubbing with me, to thank for that, since he knows a brother. I am not sure if it’s open invitation, but if it is I will surely be inviting more folks out through my Facebook. I plan on playing nu disco, progressive house, house, electro house, trance, and if I think I can get away with it, drum and bass. I have not mixed out in quite some time so I am really excited to be hopping back on the horse so soon.

        That’s all I can share for now, but I do want to give special thanks to everyone supporting my music recently on SoundCloud. I am almost at two hundred plays on my most recent track, and it feels wonderful. As a Pro Soundcloud user, I have been watching my stats and it’s really amazing to have so many people all over the world enjoy my music. I am glad that I can be sharing the music I make and love with people who share my passion of good music. I promise I will have a new song for you soon, and many more in time.  

[cosmicriftmusic]

Blog Entry 03 2.24.14

           Seven weeks ago I made a goal that I would finish at minimum one track every forty days. Today just so happens to be day number forty. It’s quite unreal how fast time has gone by. I kept a journal of my progress and I think it is amazing that 41 days ago I was setting up my new studio desk and monitor stands. I can’t help but laugh now, at the frustration I had while putting my desk together. My biggest worry was over a part I had accidentally broken on my desk. I was afraid it would giveaway and tumble everything onto the ground during the middle of the night, so I am glad that hasn’t happened, yet.

            If you have been following me, then you know I unofficially finished my first track of the year roughly four weeks ago. I sent out what I had to some of my favorite trance record labels hoping for feedback, and quite possibly a signing. To my surprise, neither of those happened 26 times, which to some degree was a little upsetting. After crying for a week straight, I decided it was time to stop being a little bitch and get back up on the horse. Kidding. Actually, I started working on a remix that I loved, but never finished. Story of my life. When I couldn’t write music, I decided to practice sound design, find new music on SoundCloud, or catch up on some music business blogs I follow.

           Eventually I pulled back up my track that I had sent out and thought to myself ‘what can I do to make this track better’ instead of ‘what did I do wrong?’ For days, I went crazy with adjusting and rewriting almost everything. I started piecing together new melodies from here and there until I loved it. After a huge overhaul, I woke up the next day and I hated everything, so at this point I was just frustrated. I gave the old melody a try one more time, and suddenly everything came back and then some. I decided to piece some of the new melody with the old melody and it sounded even better.

           I had my best friend come over to have a listen to the new and improved version. He liked what he had heard up until a motif that sounded ‘off’ to him. At first, I didn’t think much of it, but I’m a reasonable man, so we worked together to make it right. The change was very simple, but it made a world of difference. Within minutes of hearing the difference, I must have thanked him a dozen times. At this point, my goal was creeping up on me slowly, so I buckled down and got down to business.

           Before I went off to work yesterday, I made my final post-production adjustments. I decided that there would be no redo, alteration, or a sudden change of heart after today. This week, for the first time, I am sending my track to be professionally mastered, or what I call the 'beautification process.' I am also working on setting a deadline for the release, but there are a number of unknown factors to account for. I will spare you those details; because, they are dreadful to even think about. I am aiming for the release to be next Thursday in March, if everything goes to plan.

           It is incredible to think eight months has passed since my last track Wayward, so I am really glad to be closing the gap shortly. Everyone knows nothing goes as planned, so I’ll be sure to keep you in the loop about my release as everything unfolds. As always, thank you for reading and until next time. 

[cosmicriftmusic]

Resilience. The most important thing is how you handle knocks. They are inevitable. They will make you feel like crap. But the more longer you linger on them, the further your confidence will tumble. Counter swiftly: try again, try something else, but never dwell.

http://oliveremberton.com/2013/why-do-we-need-confidence/

[cosmicriftmusic]

Blog Entry 02 2.17.14

              I meant to blog yesterday, but didn’t quite have the time for what I wanted to write about. Last week I was working on a remix competition for Appointed Records, and unfortunately I have to admit to not finishing it. The night before it was due (Saturday) I was way too mentally exhausted, so I could not manage to get the sound how I wanted. I would have stayed up to finish it, but I knew from experience that mixing while fatigued doesn’t typically end well. I didn’t beat myself up over it like I normally would have, since I know there’s always going to be more music to work on. More than likely I will look over it in the near future, and release it for free via SoundCloud.

            Currently I am wrapping up on my first track of the year that I already sent out to labels. Unfortunately, I didn’t receive any replies back, but I was expecting that to happen. I was hoping to get feedback more than anything, so I am more disappointed by that. However, I am very glad that it has been a few weeks since I worked on it. Suddenly I have this fresh new take on what the track sounds like, and it has really given me a lot more room for experimentation. Whereas before I had this mix and it was almost engraved in my head that this is how it has to be.

            I said that I would have my track released by this week, but I think I am going to take that back and here’s why. I had not really put too much thought towards the idea of spending more time on my tracks until the other night. I heard Ruben De Ronde talking on A State of Trance 650 Horizon. I think he was talking to Armin or someone who was interviewing him when he said this, but he said, “I try to release two good tracks a year.” I thought to myself…two?? Two isn’t much, but if you have ever heard a track by Ruben De Ronde you don’t need me telling you how perfect it sounded. What he said got me thinking about how I work, and what I might do differently.

            Typically I spend about two weeks on a track, which for me ranges roughly around sixty to one hundred hours. For the longest time, I thought that was a huge amount of time to spend on a project. By that amount of time spent, I’m practically begging myself to finish it; so I can start a new track or at least take a damn break. Now, I don’t want to spend twenty-six weeks on a track, because that seems to be a bit too perfectionist and quite possibly over the top. What I have been thinking about though, is spending more time on my projects, but also having two other projects that I am working on. With that in mind, I do not know when I will be releasing my track, and I will do my absolute best not to run the hype train like I always do when I cave from excitement.

[cosmicriftmusic]

Blog Entry 01 02.15.14

            For those of you that don’t know me, my name is Brian and I have been producing electronic dance music, mostly trance, for over five years. This year was a real turn around for me in a lot of ways. Last year I was struggling with a lot of my own personal demons that wanted nothing more than to crush my spirit and dreams. I was so broken from my failure and let down back in 2012, that I foolishly quit working on music and worked full-time and then some, for nearly eight months. I learned a lot about life and a whole lot more about myself during those long grueling months.

            Back in October of 2012 I called it quits after a huge flop from setting highly unrealistic goals. I had all these amazing plans and goals I deeply desired to succeed in. I thought I was finally ready to make my way into the trance music scene and show the world my unique sounds. Unfortunately, when you’re young and naïve this can lead to downfall, even if you have a million dollar idea. I got caught up in one too many ideas and projects at once and, my brain could not keep up. I started falling down this hill and before I knew it I was tumbling all the way to the bottom right back where I started.

            I was highly depressed and lost all of my motivation. For some reason, I decided to start working two jobs to just think about life. I figured that I would take some time to really figure out what I was going to do with the rest of my life, and make some damn good money while I was at it. I took an overnight warehouse job, my first real “man” job, and then I worked an easy barista job during the day. I had a lot of fun working hard all night by myself, and even more fun serving coffee to beautiful women and friendly seniors by day.

            The first few months I was still beating myself up really bad on the inside. Things eventually got better and I started being nicer to myself, but I still was not ready to make music again. Regardless, I was far too exhausted from working to even think about working on music; however, I did start to think about why I quit. I thought about where things went wrong, why they went wrong, and how I had handled it. I realized that I had to be nicer to myself and accept the fact that I failed, but not allow that failure to negatively shape my future.

            I ended up quitting my barista job last February, even though I loved the work, and loved was an understatement. I went from working nearly eighty hours to a reasonable thirty-to-forty, so my stress levels and fatigue went down. I then went from overnights to day shift, which was really weird now that I think about it.  I wanted to go back to school in the fall so that I could get a decent job to work while I made music, so that happened. I started back college and loved it like crazy, but realized I wasn’t going to get where I truly wanted to be in life.

            I finished out the semester strong, for the most part, and then decided I was going to hop back on the horse. I was setting my studio back up again because I had a computer failure, which took ages to get situated properly. And shortly after I had my studio set back up I had this huge pitfall that no one expected, which was my brother moving back in. He had moved a few years ago to Florida, so I quickly claimed the room as my studio. Before he arrived home I packed all my gear up once again and put it straight back in the closet.

           Months went by again and suddenly it was New Years Eve. I was in Athens, Georgia at a huge frat house party with my good friends because we knew a brother. As the night progressed, we had a blast meeting all the brothers, playing drinking games, and of course, introducing ourselves to beautiful women. When the ball dropped my friend and I were spraying champagne on the unsuspecting dance floor, yes the house had a dance floor, and shortly afterwards the party simmered down. It suddenly hit me that it was no longer 2013 and now it was 2014, so I took some time to think about it. I did not have the epiphany that I expect most had that night. Needing to find a significant other or the lack of more money in my life were the last two thoughts on my mind.

            I started to think about my alter ego and where he had went. Where did Cosmic Rift go? I missed that guy! We made tons of music together, we loved it, and we were good at it! I missed working for hours on end writing music, and I knew that I had to do something about. That night I made a commitment to myself that I was going to stop making excuses, quit wasting time, and put myself first when it came to my goals and dreams. I did not want to oust people from my life, or ruthlessly put myself first. I just wanted to stop giving away my time!

I promised myself I would rebuild my studio, start working on music, and continue planning my goals to make my dreams come true. January 15th rolled around and I had successfully purchased a new compact desk, new studio stands, and rearranged my very small room to fit what space I needed. My studio, is already ten times better than what I had and best of all, it works for me. I produced my first track in eight days, and to this date have been working for thirty-one days. I spend my off days and weekends working on music, reading manuals, watching tutorials, and catching up with old music producer pals. I read music books on my breaks, and listen to business podcast while cooking. I started eating right again, sleeping eight to night hours and waking up typically between five to seven in the morning, journaling every day, reading blogs and books, and most importantly, being happier with my life.

            I wanted to share my story because I hope that it might inspire you to find your spark in life, or to keep that flame burning. I missed the friends I left in the dark, and I felt terrible because I genuinely enjoyed the relationships I had with those people. I wasted a great deal of my short-lived life trying to fit in to what I thought I had to. I don’t regret my journey because I needed that paradigm shift. I needed that experience because I had to know what I must do. This year I’m sticking my neck out, I’m getting uncomfortable, and I’m ready to make mistakes. Before I let you go, I want to share this quote I have on my board that put my world to a stand still:

  “You can make a habit of avoiding potential loss. Most of us get excruciatingly good at this. But one day, there will be a tragedy you can’t dodge. The gap between what you could have been, and what you have become.”

  Thank you for listening to my story, and good luck with yours.