About the Music - An Introduction to "The Mystery Figure"

Welcome back!

It has been a while since my last post, but I promise I haven't gone away for good. I've had a few changes in my life, some good and some bad, but nothing too extreme. I thought I would take the time to post about my music project, "The Mystery Figure".

About The Mystery Figure

The Mystery Figure is a music project I created in early 2010, when I was a freshman in high school. I always had ideas about creating a band of some sort and making music... and this one quickly became something much more bigger. The original story behind the band name is about an alien character I created, but I didn't create that much information beyond that at the time. I knew that I wanted the band name to be something along the lines of other band names I had known at that point - Fall Out Boy, My Chemical Romance, Good Charlotte, Killswitch Engage - basically, band names with an interesting background, but something that also makes people question, "Why is that band called that way?"

The story about the alien character itself is a long one, and is going to be told through a series of releases, starting with PERADVENTURE. I'll cover this story later.

Beginnings of the Band

So, the idea of the band had begun. I composed eight "songs" for the band in the winter of 2010 (January - March 2010) for a school project. Really, it was just writing random lyrics for songs I never made, but it lead to me "composing" a couple of them. This would be my introduction to the piano. See, the teacher for the class where I had made up these "songs" wanted me to pursue the project because she thought it was a good thing for me to do. She introduced me to the teacher who would become my piano teacher for the rest of my high school career (Sophomore - Senior year). I went to the piano lab and met with the teacher, and I started "composing" these songs.

Honestly, it ended up being a great project to pursue because it led to me learning how to play the piano, and starting the compositions I recorded in 2016.

For three years (2010-2013), I became fully focused on learning to play the piano; I had already learned to play the basics of violin, alto and baritone saxophone, and the acoustic guitar, but never stuck with any of them because I'd change schools or I "got bored" because I already knew what was being taught. When I started learning piano, my musical education was actually quite different from what I'd learned. My piano teacher taught the class the basics, of course, like how to read music notes, how to play with two hands, and how to present yourself in a public performance. But he also knew that some students were "ahead" of others; he focused on helping the students who didn't fully understand how music was read, or had trouble with playing with two hands, and allowed the students who knew the basics to move ahead and even try composing their own music. I took that as a personal challenge, and started composing three of the songs I later recorded.

Initial Compositions

The first three songs I composed were "Ninety Eight", "Illusions", and "A Penguin's Tale". "Ninety Eight" was the first song I composed, and I literally only started with the opening chords - if you hear the "Single Version" of the song, the opening chords are the ones I composed. All I had was the opening verse of the song, but I later created a demo version, which I never recorded. "Illusions" was the second song I created, and it only became a song I made by accident. Originally, I had wanted to play "Ninety Eight" as one of my songs for my final exam - a recital in front of family and friends who attended. When my piano teacher rejected the original demo version for "being too slow", I took chords from "Ninety Eight", moved them around, and made it faster. If "Illusions" sounds similar to "Ninety Eight", then that's why it does. Finally, I composed "A Penguin's Tale" after the summer of 2010. This song was based on a dream I had during that summer. It is written in the same key signature as "My Immortal" by Evanescence because I decided to learn how to play the original demo of that song, which I had found online.

Continuing My Progress

After I graduated from high school, I didn't know when I'd be able to record or compose new songs. I had a digital keyboard, but it wasn't the best for someone who knew an intermediate amount of music, theory, and piano. I was lucky enough to get a digital piano with a pedal as a gift from my father, which I still use today. Here's the keyboard if you're interested in knowing more about it. I started university that fall, and I tried to get into my uni's school of music... but it didn't go well. Regardless, I continued my studies, but composed music whenever I could. Yet it wouldn't be until 2015 that I composed new material.

I wanted to get into the school of music for my university, but realized it would be a long time before I'd ever be able to get in. I might have learned a lot of instruments, but I never got a good education in music. My experience with music has been limited because I'd move schools and the instruments I wanted to learn were not available at a different school. I couldn't afford to get private lessons, and I didn't know that YouTube had videos full of tutorials on how to play instruments. Yet those lessons, while very helpful, can sometimes omit important information like how music actually "works". Music theory explains the basics of music - like how to read notes, create chords, and play the notes - and it also dives into a more thorough explanation of exactly why music is made the way we know it now. They can also forget technique, which explains how to play certain notes like notes with staccato or phrasing in songs.

This led to my enrollment in non-major music classes, classes available as elective courses to students who were interested in taking them. One of the classes was a music media literacy class. Basically, you learned the basics of programs like Audacity, GarageBand, and Sibelius to make music. If you're unfamiliar with Sibelius, then it's not a problem - the program focuses on music notation, aka "writing" music. It's a beautiful, amazing program but costs a lot for individuals. It's been used by professionals in the music industry to make songs. With Sibelius, I composed a fourth song, "A View of the Ocean". I wrote it about an experience I had with a friend where I had misjudged who they were and let my prejudice of them get in the way of getting to know them.

That summer, I composed a new song, called "Underwater Adventures", which is the interlude for PERADVENTURE, my first release. With these five songs, I had started on a journey of recording and releasing my own compositions. During 2015 and 2016, I created three more tracks: "Memory is the Key", "Happy Dreams", and "A Victory Song for the Lost". That composes the eight songs from PERADVENTURE.

PERADVENTURE

The album was released on 18 March, 2016, on SoundCloud. You can hear the album here on my SoundCloud, and even download it for free. It's all instrumental, and takes about 43 minutes to listen through to the end. Even though it's not a perfect album - some tracks have errors, and I didn't get the opportunity to correct them - I still am proud of having something recorded. Don't worry though, I plan on releasing a "remastered", more "correct" version of the album in the future.

Here's the tracklist for the release:

1. Ninety Eight
2. Illusions
3. Memory is the Key
4. A View of the Ocean
5. Underwater Adventures (Interlude)
6. Happy Dreams
7. A Penguin's Tale
8. A Victory Song for the Lost (Hidden Track)*

*Even though "A Victory Song for the Lost" appears on the tracklist of the album, it is a "hidden track". A Penguin's Tale has a couple of minutes of silence after the song, after which there is an "intro" to "Victory Song". If I had released this album in a physical format, the track would not be listed, except within the booklet.

The story behind the album is as follows:

• Ninety Eight is an introduction to our story. A main character, perhaps a man, a woman, or someone who identifies as a different gender, finds themselves regretting the relationship they are in because they are insecure of their feelings towards their partner (who also can be either a man, woman, or other gender). They sneak away from their loved one in the middle of the night and drive away to leave them forever.
• Illusions is a direct continuation of this "running away" sequence, only it's meant to be more darker about the situation. The character clearly regrets leaving, but is conflicted about going back. They take a look back at all the bad things in the relationship, justifying their choice to leave.
• Memory is the Key is meant to be a song about nostalgia. Officially, all of the songs except this one and the interlude have lyrics, but because I don't sing, I didn't include them. Memory is the Key was composed to remind the listener about good times in their past, and is also a pretty emotional song for me. Within the storyline, the main character then looks back to the good things in their relationship, and decides to make the choice to go back.
• A View of the Ocean is about your prejudice. It is taking a look at the fact that you clearly committed an error in judging a person before meeting them, and that's an important lesson I learned. In the story of the album, the main character physically sees the ocean, distracting them from a disaster up ahead; they almost crash, and swerve off a "cliff", which causes them to fall into a body of water. It's pretty weird, and quite upsetting, I know.
• Underwater Adventures is the interlude of the album. I think you might know where this goes... Our main character is slowly "drowning" in the body of water (probably like a lake or a deep river, or maybe even the ocean itself). They cannot escape from their vehicle and start giving up on survival.
• Happy Dreams is meant to be one of the more happier songs on the album. The main character is going through flashbacks of their life, thinking through all the happy moments of their lives.
• A Penguin's Tale is based on a dream I had. In the dream, I "woke up" in my room, got out of bed, and walked out of my house because it was raining outside. When I opened the front door to go outside, the front yard disappeared and was replaced by a world of ice. The door I had opened disappeared, and I found myself standing on breaking ice. I noticed another door a short distance away, and realized that in order to escape, I had to get through that door. The ice below me broke, and shifted. Huge pieces of ice floated in ice cold water, some of the broken pieces making huge splashes that created a tunnel to get to the door. I jumped across the broken ice floating in the water, opened the door, and found myself back in bed, where I had started. It was a reoccurring dream for awhile, but I never fully understood it. When I composed the song, I knew it had something to do with this dream.
  Within the story of the album. this song is meant to be representative of "death". The main character has accepted their fate, and lets themselves slowly fade away into the final moments of life. That's probably why it's so sad.
• Finally, there's A Victory Song for the Lost. This was the last song I recorded for the album, and I love it. It's one of my favorites, along with Memory is the Key and A View of the Ocean. The Victory Song represents the part of the story where our protagonist has discovered that they were actually rescued, and have awoken on dry land, coughing out the water in their lungs. Someone - or something - saved them. This person is merely happy to be alive. That's basically what the song is about: being happy to be alive, even through the worst of times.

Now, most people might classify this release as an "EP" because it's really short in terms of number of tracks, which is true. Most albums usually have like 10-15 songs, although some have less and some have more. I consider it an album because it passes the "limit" on an LP, if I had released this as a LP vinyl record. Those usually hold about 42 minutes, and I managed to pass it by 1 minute. It seems kind of dumb to get all technical and stuff, but it's how I view my recordings. I see the eight songs as an album because that's all it needs. It doesn't need more songs and it doesn't need to remove any songs.

A Quieter Light to Illuminate the Dark

After I released the album, I suddenly found myself full of inspiration. I always get inspired by the large amount of artists I listen to, so I find inspiration within their music, lyrics, and performances. I decided to pursue this self-recording process. I'm currently working on that project, which I have titled, "A Quieter Light to Illuminate the Dark". It is a "part two" of the first release, and, as aforementioned, will be a story about an alien character I created. You can check out my YouTube account to see some of the videos I've already posted, which includes demo versions of the tracks I plan on releasing soon. I'm pretty excited about this album because I have 10 songs planned for it, and I think it's going to be much better than PERADVENTURE in terms of recording.

The title for "A Quieter Light to Illuminate the Dark" is meant to be a play on words. Usually, a person refers to light as it being soft (like "soft lighting") to refer to lights that are dim. My title is a play on the word "softer", which can also refer to sound. Instead of the album being titled "A Softer Light to Illuminate the Dark", it becomes "A Quieter Light" (light can't produce sound, which is where my play on the word soft comes in). The title refers to lights that are too bright for me whenever I'm in the dark - like when you turn on your bedroom light after waking up in the middle of the night, and you're suddenly blinded by the brightness of it. It also refers to the depression I'm going through, where sometimes I find that being around people who are too "happy" are a bother as opposed to my mental illness, which usually tells me that being sad and unhappy is the better option.

I hope to have this release out soon. It's genuinely one of my favorite projects I've made so far...

Final Notes

There's a lot I could continue writing about my music project "The Mystery Figure", but I'll leave it here for now. I've covered a lot of information, and I hope you enjoyed reading all of it. I'll check back in next week to update you guys on other stuff I have going on in my life. If you'd like to keep up with me at a daily interval, you can follow me here on Tumblr or on Twitter. That's where I usually post things. My handle online is usually "intrpidbhaviors", so feel free to look me up.

If you're interested in updates about my music project, you can follow my YouTube, my SoundCloud, and my Music Tumblr account. Please leave comments about the music, or like the video/song in the appropriate sites. I appreciate any feedback (although I would like to mention again that I am aware of the mistakes I made for my first album).

Otherwise, I hope you have a great day! Thanks for visiting the blog.