So why this music, and why this album? Whenever an author of a creative work talks about what they’ve made, it comes with a risk: a risk of overstating its importance, a risk of saying too much, or too little, a risk of saying something controversial or offensive. But there’s also the chance of commenting on something new. So thanks for listening to this commentary on my debut EP, Wings Are Weapons. For the creative, the world isn’t finished yet. It has to be changed. The world has to be made different than it was. So, why this music, and why Wings Are Weapons? In late 2011, at the age of 41, I got bored with the music I was listening to and bored with my own drumming. I had reached a decent level of skill on the drums, but so did 100’s of other drumming talents I was watching on drum videos and on YouTube. At that point, I realized I can’t compete on good, but I can compete on unique. So, there was this need to repurpose the drums and eventually, the drum sticks, in a new way. When I was 15 or 16 years old, I took Ju-Jitsu lessons where I was growing up on Long Island in New York. My teacher was very traditional so we had to study a weapon as part of our training. I chose the sai - you know, those fork like weapons used by the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Raphael. We learned that the sai were originally used by peasants in feudal Asia to pick up bales of hay, kinda like we use those two pronged holders to pick up corn on the cob. We learned that the peasants would turn common farm implements into fighting weapons because that’s what they had. Throwing back to my time learning how to use the sai, I started filming myself in early 2012 using my sticks as fighting weapons. In essence, I weaponized the drum sticks. The positions of the sticks in the videos reminded me of dragonfly wings, so the metaphor stuck. Then in mid 2012, I took video stills from that video project and printed them as these dark dreamlike images on flexible vinyl. I did a few art shows around Seattle. At these shows I would hang the photographs, set up my drum set, and I would play solo drums while demonstrating my newly developing martial art - I called it the Dragonfly style, and called myself Dr. Agonfly. But, I needed a soundtrack to play drums to, and I wanted the music to be original. And so in early 2013, with wings as weapons in hand, I set out to invent a new sound - a sound that would define my new direction and my future tribe of fans. Of course nothing is ever new. The new just borrows from the old and makes us look at the old in a new way. At this time, I was just finishing up a prolific stint playing drums in some of the Northwest’s finest casinos and showrooms. I had been playing all the top 40 favorites - from Justin Timberlake, to J Lo, to Britney Spears. I cut my teeth on deep dance grooves on some of the most impressive stages in the Northwest, and was getting paid handsomely to do it. Despite the good paychecks and modest local fame, I had to stop. I set out to focus all of my musical energy on creating the Dr. Agonfly sound. I had always been a heavy Metal, Industrial, and 80’s Darkwave fan, but I was looking to dive into other genres and musical styles. So in late 2012, I started hearing about this electronic music producer called Skrillex. He’d been out awhile but, his music never hit my radar. I got my ears into his debut EP, then Bangarang, then the rest. At first, his glitchy chops didn’t make any sense to me. Then it was like, [bleeping] A this stuff is freaking awesome, you know. Then it was a quick jump to Porter Robinson, Zedd, Knife Party, Deadmau5 and .. well, you get the picture. I knew for sure this was the direction I wanted to take the Dr. Agonfly sound. But while these sounds were awe inspiring, I knew I didn’t want to just copy what I was hearing. I knew I had to remake and reinterpret these sounds. So I grabbed a copy of Logic Pro X when it first came out and got to work. While all this was going on, I was working on the drum stick moves. I invented kata, or stylized fighting choreographies for the drum sticks. I continued to film and make more images. So here we are about 4 years later, mid 2017. Instead of a traditional drum set, I stand and play a set of electronic drums positioned inside of a 7 by 5 foot drum cage. I have a DJ rig as part of the setup so I can spin my original tracks while performing on the drums. And now, described here for the first time, is my brand new, 7 track debut album. So here goes. What follows is my commentary on the concepts, sounds, and process of making the Wings Are Weapons EP. I hope you’ll contact me at dr-agonfly.com to let me know what you think. Salute to the Tribe, stay tuned for future track releases, and I’ll see you out there at one of my live shows, thanks for listening.

Enemy Man is the opening track on the Wings Are Weapons EP. And, I really meant it to be an epic narrative or kind of folkloric telling like, “gather round children and hear the tale | of this guy who lives inside of your video game …” One of the most epic rock opera tracks of all time is Flash’s Theme by Queen. I mean, everyone knows and loves “Bohemian Rhapsody,” right? But Flash’s Theme, this track is universal. Flash Gordon, he’s the savior of the universe, he stands for everyone of us, he's a miracle, king of the impossible .. but .. he’s just a man. And he’s like, who me? I’m just a guy. Don’t put all this [bleep] pressure on me, and I think parents do this all the time with their kids, Or, at least mine did with me. When we come into the world, we have no enemies, our parents make the game. Then teachers, then childhood friends, religious leaders, then grown up friends and love interests, then bosses and workplace colleagues, then governments and reference groups. They fabricate these .. enemies … these outside others, these who are "not of our tribe" who mean to do us harm or at least set to disrupt our way of life. But they're made up, by those who make the game. Video games are life in cameo. A game maker tells us who to shoot at and kill, and we get points and awards for getting better at doing that. But, the so called enemy is just "a guy," a guy who's just trying to live a life inside his own tribe and set of rules made by those who make his game. In this track, the Enemy - who's just a guy - wants to exit the game, maybe find his own game, make his own rules which may or may not include making up enemies to fight and kill. But he can’t. He's been made to be an Enemy, generic and accidental. He's Everyman's enemy, and he's trapped in the game because we keep trying to kill him. As he defends, he cements his role. He’s a threat only because the game maker made him so, but he persists as a threat because you as game player make him react. And so the game maker makes money, and the players play, and the fighters fight, in the end, the enemy isn't the game maker at all, or even his virtual opponent in the game. It’s the game player, the real person who engenders enemies even outside the video game world, because real game makers tell them to. Real life soldiers are the obvious extreme, you know. War makes generals. There’s a hint at the end of the track that Enemy Man will get out, and leave the game, as he thinks about controlling the vertical and horizontal (a reference inspired by TV's Outer Limits). We get a twinge of fear as we know all reality starts with a thought, then a mission, then an incarnation. This track sets up a sequel, you know. This is Part 1. So, when does Part 2 come out? Stay tuned.

Octet is the second track on the Wings Are Weapons EP and it’s a chorus of 8 voices. It’s my simple play on counting to 8. Why 8? 8 represents infinity, abundance, power. In the world of computers, a byte is 8 bits. There are 8 pagan holidays, Yule being the best known happening around Christmas time. And Hanukkah lasts 8 days. There are 8 immortals in Taoist philosophy. And Krishna is said to be the 8th avatar of Vishnu. I think, I think this is my favorite track on the album. The drums are so big and “splatty.” And the buzzing sounds on this one are pretty epic. Like on all the tracks, I played the drums live into my MIDI interface. That means all the hits, durations, and velocities are all mine. Then I found just the right snare and kick samples to complement the voices. This is a model for the way all modern drum tracks can be tracked and recorded. I mean, why limit yourself to one set of drums with the limitations of those shells, heads, tunings, room dimensions, and microphone placements. When I play into my MIDI interface, I capture the details of my human performance and then later, I can make the drums sound like anything I want. I mean, why take hours or even days to set up the “perfect” drum recording when a very competent and experienced recording engineer can give you a sample of a recording he or she made under perfect conditions, with top of the line microphones? MIDI tracking wasn’t as advanced 30 years ago, so for sure it made sense to refine and define your drum sounds in an expensive studio. But not so today. It’s no secret that I hate purism for the sake of it. And that goes for mixing and mastering with physical consoles with physical knobs and faders. I think I do just fine using my beastly-powered Mac Pro and dual monitors, using the best console and hardware emulations available. That said, I really like Octet for its big and open drum sound and its seductive play on using 8 voices to move the track forward and tell the story.

Möbius is the third track on the Wings Are Weapons EP. And it’s absolutely by far the most precious and sentimental for me. This track is about a boy playing in his imagination with just sticks and dirt. And there's a thunderstorm coming - in his mind or what we're not sure. You hear that ambient sonic energy of twilight, that we all know, that time of early night when our mothers would call us home to bed, of wind rustling through trees, the chants of hide and seek with our friends, the burning hiss of cicadas, the heavy breath of dogs, of frogs chirping, and dragonflies buzzing. The track is inspired by a little boy near where I live that I saw playing in the road by himself, immersed in a world, completely oblivious to people and things around him. I called him Möbius because he was such a puzzle to me. I mean how could this little boy be playing by himself for hours, and with such contentment? Isn't he lonely, you know? It seemed far from it. I never said hello or disturbed him, I felt like it would destroy the magic - for both him and myself. I wanted to feel sorry for him, but I couldn't. He seemed so content in his world. The long modulated mid bass drones are my take on the “anti solo,” a reaction to instrumentalism and over practicing your musical instrument. It’s like, it’s all been done before. Let’s hear something different, you know, Eddie Van Halen and Yngwie Malmsteen have left the building. We just don’t hear ripping guitar solos in today’s music anymore. It’s no secret that I hate guitars. My long, buzzing drones are a reaction against “shredding” (I’m air quoting here) and becoming “a god” on your instrument. It took a few weeks to get the lead buzz sounds to modulate in a big and interesting way. To me, this track is pure cinema. The snares are especially warlike. The mood is nostalgic for boyhood innocence, and there’s a storm coming. The drums on Möbius play tricks on the mind, like a Möbius strip in mathematics. I put a high pitched triangle on the approximate quarter notes so we can find the musical bars. Without that reference, it’s hard to tell where a bar ends and another begins. Ultimately though, it’s a little boy’s fantasy of being bigger than his body will allow him to be … like a soldier, or a superhero. He’s the little boy in all of us who never wants this fantasy to end. “Adulting” is so overrated, you know?

Weaponizer is the fourth track on the Wings Are Weapons EP and it’s the first track I ever wrote. I’ve been told my whole life I’m a “pretty decent” drummer, but when I first started using Apple’s Logic Pro X in late 2013, I didn’t even know how to make a simple “four on the floor” kick drum pattern. Then I gradually learned how to play MIDI notes into Logic and use drum samples. I turned my back on live acoustic drum recording with microphones, and never looked back. I wanted to write a track that defined my music, an anthem for my tribe. It’s about a Dragonfly in battle: small but mighty, fast and agile, buzzing, darting. Not Godzilla big. There’s enough of that “enormous bass” sound out there. I wanted to do something different. I wanted to look at my blank production screens and ask, “How would a dragonfly sound when it’s fighting?

Ah … Porn of View is the fifth track on the Wings Are Weapons EP, and it’s kind of a joke. An obvious play on words. I mean, today everyone is taking selfies and sexting each other and whatnot. So I thought I’d turn it around and write a track about secretly snapping a video of someone getting busy with themselves. By RIAA regulations, I had to make the track explicit but there’s really no foul language in this track at all. It’s like “Alfred Hitchcock” nasty if you will. Sex is implied but never mentioned. In fact, I wrote the melody to be as slinky and smarmy as possible. I call the buzzing sax sound in the track my “rave sax.” It has a naughty sounding buzz to it and you’re likely to hear it again in future tracks, so stay tuned.

Planets Beyond Pluto is the sixth track on the Wings Are Weapons EP. This track is for all of us who wonder what it would be like to zoom out of our solar system into the reaches of the unknown. With current space ships, just getting to Pluto would take about 10 years, and that adventure by itself would be pretty awesome. But this track happens in the future, and opens just as our ship buzzes past Pluto. What happens beyond this former ninth planet is where the real adventure begins. I really like the drums on this one - driving and powerful - as we escape the gravity of the solar system. And then there’s this drop - into the emptiness of space. But of course we find it’s not so empty. After careening through lush guitar sounds and textures, there appears this … Voice … I think I mean it to be the voice of God. It’s telling us something Big and Awesome, but we can’t quite make out the words. This Voice is strangely kind but frightening at the same time. And when it’s finished delivering its message the ship drives off again, into the deepness of space, onto new adventures and possibly the discovery of other deities. This track leaves us still inside the journey, contemplating just how far we can go. The guitar sounds on Planets Beyond Pluto was my attempt at building a guitar synthesizer inside Logic Pro X. It’s no secret that I HATE guitars. No matter how much you “shred” or become a “god” on the guitar there’s going to be this nine-year-old girl in Korea who’s better than you. So why bother, you know? Guitar in popular music was born, it evolved, and has mostly died. I mean, when was the last time you heard a ripping guitar solo in today’s popular music? So building a credible guitar sound inside Logic became a sort of mission, and I feel like I kinda nailed it. I worked for like six weeks on learning how strings vibrate, where pickups get placed for different tones, and how to design transients to make the listener believe there’s actually guitar strings being picked and played by a human. I spent some more time understanding how a guitarist uses arpeggiation to invent solos. I did some slick arp programming and … voilà … you know, my virtual guitar player was born. And this process is still evolving, so stay tuned for future tracks.

Hands Will Rise - This is the seventh and last track on the Wings Are Weapons EP. For this one, I wanted an old school sort of industrial synth pop sound. So I got my inner Depeche Mode into the studio and got to work. The opening bass line brings me right back to that dark ominous feeling you get when listening to early Cure, Siouxsie, Sisters of Mercy, and Gary Numan. It was really tempting in general to give this entire album a modern EDM polish … like, drive all the low end and drums into a digital limiter, add a lot of stabs and rave-y high end, and make it sound all Big Room festival like Martin Garrix. And, I think it does sound modern. I think the buzz-driven sound could well be featured at any of today’s basshead festivals. But it’s also got this old nostalgic 80’s Darkwave feel, like New Order and Joy Division whom I adore. And I think there a lot of music fans out there who would appreciate the attempt I’m making here: to use modern track production tools and perspective to revisit that Darkwave feeling. But without it becoming (you know) “the next” in the lineup of that genre. My big hope is that my fans will hear something new here, you know. Here’s a guy who’s throwing back and taking a vibe from a genre and making a brand new buzz out of it. Kinda, dare I say - like Skrillex did for dubstep. The lyrics of Hands Will Rise … “I’ll steal your eyes, hands will rise …” In Norse mythology, dragonflies are thought to steal the eyes of bad children. In fact, the name given to them is Öyenstikker or eye stinger. In my self-portrait photographs, my eyes are missing. It’s not that I photoshopped them out. I just lighted my face in such a way to make my eyes appear absent. It’s as if I’m saying, “I’ll steal your eyes, if you're not using them.” Overall, it’s been a great pleasure to produce and present the Wings Are Weapons EP and I hope you’ll contact me at dr-agonfly.com to let me know what you think. Salute to the Tribe, and I’ll see you out there at one of my live shows. Thanks for listening.