A Soundtrack to a Book?
Attention is an asset in this era, and there's a lot of shit out there
asking for ours. Although technology makes it much easier to
create, it also creates another layer of competition.
Because everyone can create, everyone who desires to will.
Some of it will be good, some great, some terrible, some mediocre
but nonetheless the number of people creating has definitely gone up.
Which from a standpoint of creativity is the dopest thing, but from
looking to capture attention for whatever that thing is you've
created it begs for a smarter approach.
Stories connect everything
Storytelling has always been something I've felt an ease about. Whether its music and writing lyrics, or
filmmaking, or even branding and sales, I can see a story in it. So being that I have these ambitions and
desires that are really separate entities and crafts but still share a connectedness, I told myself If I could put
them all into one project that would be dope, the book, the music, and the vision for the film it would eventually
become.
So What is TOUCH about?
TOUCH is a short story crime thriller about a thief who's life comes under threat after pulling a diamond heist. A
new enemy forces a deadly pressure on him and In the struggle to think and maneuver his way through all
that's come against him, he must overcome or he may not survive. ( That's the short version )
The book is really the story of one of the many films I want to do. But, since I don't have the budget and im still
learning filmmaking, I said I can just start here and build the foundation of it for much less.
I treated the EP like I was composing a score but also making a mixtape or a soundtrack , and musically I
wanted to have each track sort of be the sonic representation of the moments in the book that carry the rhythm
of the story. Each track's title are the name's of themes I felt anyone could understand whether they read the
book or not, but if they did, they could understand the moments in the book I picked them from.
This whole project has stretched me as a musician, storyteller, filmmaker, entrepreneur, and many other things.
It has opened the gate to me taking control of my creative and business ambitions. I did every aspect of the
book and music myself not because I wanted to just have all the glory and recognition, although it doesn't hurt
when it comes to marketing, but because I have no team and never wanna make excuses for things I wanna
accomplish. But I also wanted to learn all the aspects of putting projects like this together. I didn't have a
photographer to shoot me for the cover so I shot the picture of the book cover with my DSLR camera and self
timer remote. I didn't have someone to design the book cover so I did, in Pages and Keynote on my Mac. I've
been producing music for about 5 years but really had to dig deep the past 2 years to try to learn more. So all
the production, instrumentation, and vocals are me, but I didn't know how to mix and master music, so I made
this EP my way to learn. Learning these skills puts me in a better overall position for my ultimate goals and I
know when the time comes for me to build my teams for Filmmaking, Music, and Business I will know how to
communicate with them more effectively because of it. I definitely underestimated how much it was gonna
challenge me to put this thing together, but no pursuit of greatness ever came easy.