About the Music - Ninety Eight

Hi there!

I hope you're enjoying my content so far. I know it's long and possibly not too interesting (like a TV show perhaps), but I'm glad if you read it.

As I mentioned in the previous post, the first song I ever composed was a track called "Ninety Eight".

Background

This first track was a quick demo I had composed during my first semester of piano. I took this class during my sophomore year of high school after accidentally discovering the school had a piano lab the previous semester. I stumbled upon the class when, during a different class, I had been asked by the teacher to pursue a "songwriting" project I took a part on. These "songs" were just random verse / chorus / verse tracks that I never actually cared about because I had actually made them just to get something done in the class. Had I bothered to give it more consideration, I probably would have released those tracks as demo songs.

When I started piano during the fall of 2010, I had already known a bit about music. I studied violin for two years in elementary school, and continued to pursue music when I studied the saxophone and acoustic guitar in middle school. But I was unable to continue those lessons for a few reasons.

I didn't continue violin because the elementary school I attended, which provided the lessons, had shut down after my second year of studying.
I didn't continue guitar and saxophone (first alto, then baritone) after middle school because I didn't know if it was offered in high school.
My former counselor (who originally signed me up for high school) had no idea that I was interested in music, and I assumed I wouldn't have the option when I went to high school. Little did I know, my high school actually had a marching band, a jazz band, a piano lab, a drama department, an art department, and a dance department (and a dance company, as well).

Apparently, the school also had an orchestra. I think they stopped the program before I got there, unfortunately.

It makes sense, then, that I didn't sign up for piano until I was in my sophomore year of high school. My piano teacher took the time to dive into his teachings, providing not just performance and basic theory, but also taking the time to incorporate more theory, formal performance, and challenging techniques for all of his classes. He gave quick history lessons that tied into his teachings, and even allowed us - his students - to make up compositions if we chose to do so. This definitely helped me to begin my journey in piano composition.

Composition

"Ninety Eight" was the first song I ever composed on piano. At the time when I composed it, I had only come up with the opening chords. Actually, if you take a listen to this version of the song, you can hear what chords I'm referring to - as opposed to the actual "album" version of the song, which includes an introduction that I added during the recording process. I liked what I had, and even came up with some lyrics for this opening line.

I'm leaving this town

I'm leaving tonight

Don't you dare cry

For me my love

I wasn't exactly sure what the song was about, or why I even came up with that. There was no significant event in my life that inspired this song, there was no artist or album or song that inspired it, there wasn't anything that happened to me that let me come up with this. The closest I could give you is that at the time, I was either exploring Coldplay or Death Cab for Cutie, both two of my favorite bands, and was probably inspired by one of them. There is no direct song or album that inspired this, though.

I spent the next few weeks within that piano class composing while learning everything my piano teacher taught me. I even had begun to think about recording the song, and I did so at one point. That original demo version is long gone. I didn't back up my recording, and had no idea if I even could get it from the computer I used to record it (I could, had I bothered to use a USB drive that I had lying around). But two good things came from that recording: the title and a first reaction.

I came up with the title "Ninety Eight" when I was recording the song. I recorded that demo that doesn't exist anymore, and I was saving it. GarageBand asks you to name your files, and I didn't want to save the track as "My Song". I tried coming up with a name just as the class was ending, and I quickly typed in "9879" as the title. The title comes from that original demo.

I also got a first reaction from my piano teacher. I showed him the song (under an artist name I had created... guess which) and he didn't like it. It was a good thing, too, because I was interested in performing the original demo live. This initial reaction, which at first disappointed me, actually lead to the creation of my second composition, "Illusions". I'll write about "Illusions" in my next post.

After performing "Illusions" and realizing that "Ninety Eight" needed to be reworked, I kept it memorized and would come back to it whenever I could. Fast-forward to 2015, and I'm still working on the song. For a long time, I switched around different parts of the song. Originally, the demo version of the song started off how it does now, but would switch to the "outro" portion of the song that is now at the end. Then, it picked back up to the "verse", and go to the "chorus". This slow version, I realized, was what I needed to change about the song. The tempo couldn't change in the middle of the song because it didn't make any sense to go from fast to slow and then back to fast again. I made that slow part of the song the ending, which then leads into "Illusions".

Illusions

I never actually intended to make "Ninety Eight" and "Illusions" two halves of one whole. I actually never considered it until I started recording PERADVENTURE. I've always loved when two or more songs in an album "flow" from one to the other. The moment when they're going from one track to another is something that I think is pretty interesting. That's why I wanted to incorporate that into my songs. Within PERADVENTURE, you can find different times when the tracks allude to or flow into one another. Considering the story that revolves around the album, I thought this would be a good way to demonstrate that the songs all relate to one another.

PERADVENTURE

I chose "Ninety Eight" to be the opening track for PERADVENTURE because it was the first composition I had actually finished. Other songs I'd composed had never been complete; they were simple melodies that will probably never be considered for anything or have since been forgotten.

"Ninety Eight" itself is a song about running away from your problems. Within the album, it is the opening track - and the introduction to the storyline. Our main character (who has no specific characteristics; this person could be male or female or of another gender, of any race, religion, sexuality, etc.) is running away from the relationship they are currently in because they are unhappy about it. I always imagine a driving sequence in my head - the main character sneaks away from their loved one in the middle of the night, and drives away to clear their head. While out on the road, they impulsively decide to get away for good. No suitcase, no clothes, no food, just the car and themselves. They get on a highway and drive for an entire day. By the end of the song, the character has found out that they can't go on any farther. They stop somewhere to park, and start thinking about what it is that they have done. This leads into "Illusions".

Lyrically, it seems more like a breakup song told to someone who doesn't want to be in a relationship anymore. It's almost like they're breaking up with someone. But, of course, I didn't record the vocals for the song because I don't sing well, and I focused more on the instrumentation of the song. I don't expect the lyrics to remain as they are; in fact, if I ever reach a point where I'm working with another person on these songs, I'll probably have the lyrics changed to reflect the actual story of the album and song.

Artwork

Every song on PERADVENTURE has its own artwork. I did this because I love knowing what each song has for a cover. All of the images I used for each track is a picture I took on my old smartphone, an HTC One M8. They were all edited to be in black & white, but also have a color version (which can probably be found online, whether on my Instagram or Tumblr - they also are available on my Spotify account for each track's playlist, but are currently hidden. I'll share them in the future).

Image of the inside of an elevator, focused on the buttons.

Links

You can hear "Ninety Eight" on SoundCloud and YouTube. I uploaded different versions of the song. The first is the "single version", which is just the main song itself. The second is the "album version", which includes an introduction. This introduction is actually a cover of Twenty One Pilots' "Implicit Demand for Proof" from their self-titled album. I added this cover as an introduction because I wanted to add something to the song that would make it sound better. Of course, the band's song is used without their permission, but not to try to steal their content or make a profit out of it. In fact, I'm a huge fan of the band and I like the music they make. If I were to sell the song "Ninety Eight", I would re-record the song and omit this introduction, of course. But I currently have no intentions of ever selling my music to the general public; considering the fact that I do this for free and it is not the best recording ever, I don't expect anybody to buy it or donate to me at all. If the band themselves (or their label) want me to take down the song, then I will gladly do so, as it is their content and it was used without their permission. For now, you can hear these two versions online in the links below:

You can also download the song on SoundCloud or on Google Drive:

If any of these links are broken or not working, then please let me know. Alternatively, if you would rather rip the songs off YouTube, then you are more than welcome to do so as long as you do not share the work on your own channel, site, etc. Please do not repost or use my music without permission for your own projects, personal or otherwise. If you are sharing the music with other people, then know that it is okay to do so. Otherwise, ask if you are unsure about how to use my music.

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