Each week, the Endlesss team and its community will showcase one worthy talented individual to sit in the spotlight. The talent in our community is endless, but these are our specially hand-picked ones to watch: the true game changers.
This week, we're celebrating oddSTAR - a legacy member of the Endlesss community and fast-rising star in the charts with 'Night Sky Fading'. By having a play with different musical processes, and recording an unpolished late-night vocal, he created a stand-out Rifff that quickly climbed its way to #1 on this week's charts.
Check out what he had to say about Endlesss, his latest Rifff, and those on his radar below...
When did you start using Endlesss and what drew you to coming back and sharing your music?
I've been an avid user of Endlesss since April of 2020 and have organized my entire musical workflow around it now. Loop-based composition was not a new concept to me, but once I discovered the incredible ways in which I could warp and evolve my own loops rapidly on the fly via effects while safely capturing every iteration, I was hooked. It presents vast possibilities for fearless experimentation and dynamic creation of song structures that are quite different yet intrinsically related since one evolves naturally from the other. It's mind-blowing! Combine that process with an amazingly collaborative and supportive community that has helped me explore new styles and expand my musical horizons far beyond the limits of my own imagination and you have basically created my ideal musical playground.
Did you make music before Endlesss? If so, how has your process/inspiration changed?
I've been a musician for many years and a member of both performing bands and studio projects, but I've most often operated as a solo artist. In all that time, I've been remarkably "unproductive" from the perspective of having live recordings and/or finished tracks to present to the world. In the past few years of using Endlesss, I've performed more live (online) shows and created more finished tracks than in decades of prior musical endeavors! You could say that's my own fault (and I would agree) but something about how Endlesss is designed to be fun to use, the fact that it captures everything I create, and the perpetual encouragement of this community has really inspired me in a way I've rarely felt before...except possibly when achieving that elusive magical chemistry with just the right bandmates. Unfortunately, I live in an area where it is difficult to find others that share the same musical tastes and aspirations. Even when I've been fortunate enough to find a promising collaborator, getting together to practice while lugging all of our gear across town has always become a huge hassle, and too often our busy lives end up interfering. With Endlesss, I've found the ideal solution to that problem as I can sit at home at any hour and link up with other like-minded musicians from all around the world, many of whom are eager to play and create together. Even better, it requires almost no setup time to simply start jamming whenever the mood strikes, even if your available time is short. It just fits perfectly in my busy life.
When creating 'Night Sky Fading', how did all of the elements come together, i.e. which part did you start with, and how did it take off from there?
One thing I've learned about creating music spontaneously and reactively in Endlesss is that things often don't end up where you expect. I've been trying to find ways to make use of my available time more efficiently, so I have recently combined exercise time with jamming in Endlesss. Sounds dangerous, right? [Disclaimer: I am not recommending that you attempt it!] Don't worry--in this case it's only while riding my stationary bike! Anyway, I had intended to create a series of rifffs during one of these sessions from which I could potentially build some edgy industrial-sounding tracks. I was arguably successful with a couple of them which I will hopefully present in the near future, but when I tried to intentionally create a slower industrial track, it basically turned out to be an abject failure. Around 2am the following night (when I should have been sleeping), I decided to test out some new vocal music apps I had acquired on my phone so I pulled that "reject" Rifff back out and sang some experimental late-night, half-asleep lyrics into my phone and <abracadabra> magic happened! I love happy accidents!
Who would you recommend on Endlesss to others?
That's a dangerous question... I'll have to demur and say: EVERYONE! Truly, I've played with and learned from so many amazingly talented individuals on Endlesss that I hate to omit any of them out of respect for their talents.
If forced, I'd probably end up listing the names of the entire community. Instead, I'll brazenly turn this into an opportunity for shameless self-promotion by saying that I am periodically active in the following excellent groups, side projects and/or Collectible Jams:
Stellar Flame (with Firephly)
Odd Little Face (with Littlewing and n0face)
You and Me and Rainbows (with caerickson)
Tonic Tower - Dungeon Jam (with pre5et, Firephly and Littlewing)
d4wn.0f.d3c4y (with fancyspectacles, n0face, Littlewing and failsafe)
<Insert Mysterious Project Name Here> (with OmniJess)
Track Club (with a bunch of awesome people but too many to list here)
AmpSider (with more awesome people too numerous to enumerate)
Oh, and if you are reading this and are not yet on Endlesss, then know that my real answer is: YOU! YOU should come play with me on Endlesss!
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Want to nominate yourself or a fellow collaborator on Endlesss for the next Artist Spotlight? Get in touch: send us a message on Discord, our social channels, or email us team@endlesss.fm!