Music

In the summer of 2020, when COVID-19 was ravaging the world, I was reminiscing about where in the world I would love to be right now… Those thoughts and memories took me to the beaches of Ibiza.

The late afternoon vibe was really something else. The planes flying overhead en-route to the nearby IBZ airport. The waves lapping on the shore. The atmosphere. The music – a prelude of chill-out vibes designed to bring the beach-goers up in readiness for the big night ahead.
Sadly, I wasn’t going to get to Ibiza anytime soon, so the best alternative I had was to recreate that vibe for myself.  This moment was the catalyst for what became Vianso Vibes EP.
Recreation of the Ibiza vibe took the form of opening up GarageBand on my MacBook and I just started playing around.  And as the sun began to set own oasis, I had the makings of a track… Nothing special I thought, but inspiring enough for me to want to finish it.  With some very rudimentary skills I completed the track,  I named it Lockdown Vibes, as at that time we were very much locked down and only leaving the house for supermarket provisions.
This first track became the catalyst for a further 19  tracks over the coming months.  A further three tracks to complete the Vianso Vibes EP.  This was followed up by In The City EP  which was conceived and created during a month-long trip to back to San Francisco. And the full 12-track album Mixed Vibes.
Over the course of the summer of 2020 Graham, Rhiannon and Erin were regular reviewers of my tracks and became confidents, sounding-boards and source of feedback and encouragement, I’ll be forever grateful.
These tracks were and still and approach evolution.
With the aid of YouTube and a my ‘creative-techie’ mindset I progressed in my production abilities, learning new tools, techniques and styles to progress my skills with each track.  From a workflow perspective I felt GarageBand was lacking and Logic Pro X had a more professional set-up and I transitioned to that program producing 15+ tracks before the trial version even expired!
Many of the tracks began as challenges. Be that a new style or genre. Use of acappellas – single words, random phrases or complete songs. Some were designed to make use of specific skills and techniques.  The aiming being to complete a new track whilst gain new and developing existing skills.