Here it is in all it’s glory!
This album was recorded in bathrooms and closets, nurseries and bedrooms. Within these digitized wave-forms are the sounds of our surroundings, our families and our lives. Music imbued with our humanity, our fear and our hope.
Reminder that purchase of the album on Bandcamp gets you two bonus songs.
The second single from the Moth To Flame project was let loose upon the internet on Wednesday. “Cinder” is one of our favorite tracks on the album. It has an eerie quality to it that took over early in the process. Dave has his own meaning for the lyrics he wrote and I have my own interpretation of what the song is about as well. We hope the listener finds their own meaning.
This whole album has been an experiment of sorts. We both just wanted to create something together, something that was unequivocally ours by melding our sensibilities together. It’s certainly not perfect like a AAA studio album and we knew that’d be the case from the start. We did our best to not chase the perfect take, although a couple songs did elicit that from us towards the end.
Mixing and mastering. To me they are almost one in the same. I think a really good mix probably doesn’t need to be “mastered” per se. I just try to keep an eye on clipping and watching my frequencies so that everything that’s in the song has a nice little spot to sit in the spectrum. Sounds easy I guess but sometimes I get so full of doubt about my ability that I start to overthink and run in circles. But I think I’ve leveled up with this project as I’ve modified my workflow within FLStudio to be more efficient. I made it a mantra to “don’t get it perfect, get it done”.
Album out this Monday, July 22nd @ https://moth-to-flame.bandcamp.com/album/moth-to-flame
Hello again you lot. It has been, what? A year and a half since my last post here. Well what can I say, life has me busy and exhausted but it’s all good. The kid is growing and learning at an exponential rate. It’s incredible. Neuron Dreamtime music is at a standstill but it’s all good. Instead, I spent what free time I had during the last year recording music with a lifelong friend, David Miller. We learned to play guitar together, we’re still neighbors to this day and we are super excited for this project that we’ve titled ‘Moth To Flame’. It’s all good.
(Scroll to the bottom for a visualization video for the first track “Healing Winds“)
(Visit Bandcamp to preorder a pysical or digital copy)
It is a six track self-titled album with a runtime of 26 minutes. It all started in the spring of ’23 when David and I reconnected with our old past time of jamming acoustic guitars on the porch. Soon he picked up on using Audacity to record and Google Drive to share tracks. Then it was off to the races. And it was all good.
Once we had the songs we wanted I would then spend a few months mixing and mastering and driving myself insane to the best of my current ability. Let’s be honest, we are both very much aware that this album is not perfect, that was never the goal, we just did what we did with what we had in the allotted time we have as family men. The building blocks for some of the songs date back to our late teens. We must be finally mature enough in both mind and spirit to put something cohesive like this together. These songs will forever have a special place in my heart. The whole process was cathartic to say the least. It was all good.
Anyway, I’ve rambled on enough. I will be updating the site once ‘Moth To Flame’ releases by embedding the Bandcamp player into the “Collaborations” page.
Here is a visualization video for “Healing Winds”.
Thanks for stopping by and reading and listening and allowing us into your lives.
-LM
Finally finding time to coalesce some photography, video, audio, words and ideas into their respective places. My poor back has suffered for a week due to my poor posture on the flight home from Florida. I just had to look out the window for nearly the entire trip. Watching the Earth below go from light reflecting waves of ocean and swamp into the rolling hills and hollows of home, as the clouds meandered and shrouded as they pleased. The evening job hasn’t helped much, but the coworkers have. I work with some wonderful people who can always make me laugh.
The new album has been growing into something really special. I’d say it’s somewhere near half complete. Most of the mixes are in a comfortable place and I’ll be coaxing out some vocals within the next couple months. Then it’s off to mastering, then out to the world.
As for art, there are some small things that have manifested, a couple paintings and drawings connected to the short horror story (Flayed In Exile) that I was lucky enough to have published last year in audio/podcast form for Hawk and Cleaver’s “The Other Stories”. While the short is only just a chapter in a larger story that lay dormant currently, the images reinforce the direction I’m going and hint at twists and turns I have plotted out, so I don’t know when or if they will be shared.
Other things that are bubbling to the surface as I begin to block out time for Spring weather activities and personal goals. Including a podcast of my own. Probably free-form format with smaller bits breaking up a fifteen to twenty minute conversation or monologue. Still bouncing ideas off friends and family. Still incubating.
There. I did it. First post this year updating visitors new and old about the connectivity sparking behind the scenes. It can be difficult sometimes to find a reason to update or blog, especially when I purposefully shy away from social media because I know how much of a brain-hacking time-suck it can be to me with little to no benefit. It’s hooked me before and can do it again. Instead I choose to give attention to that which I want to grow.
I try to limit my “scrolling” to no more than an hour a day, which distances me from the FOMO and other traps of an engineered algorithm tuned to keep the dopamine loops rolling for as long as possible. But sometimes with that distance comes a quelling of the urge to share things on here, my own little nook on the internet.
Till next time (which will probably be when the album is done), remember to give attention toward that which you want to grow. Cultivate discipline which will pollinate motivation and bloom as inspiration. If you fall out of it, rise again like the sun.
I am still. I am here.
–L
“Make Lemonade” by Neuron Dreamtime
Thirteen Palm Trees Podcast Productions have released the schedule for the next few episodes of the Wasted Local Talent podcast including the Neuron Dreamtime episode and seeing that it has been the customary length of time between posts here on the mother site, I’m back again with another peek into the labyrinthine Dreamtime neural network.
So mark your calendars, or don’t, I’ll remind you, November 29th is the day you’ll hear wise cracks, pop culture references, and may even notice how awkward I am during interviews. What I mean is that I’ve always been on the introvert side of the spectrum and the shyness tends to increase once the red record button is pressed. This sometimes results in bouts of internal panic causing me to forget what I want to say, get all mixed up and repeat things, say something dumb or downplay something. I will often let others steer the conversation and on some occasions I’ll clam up almost completely into a spiral of self imposed embarrassment. Of course this is not always the case for every situation as it’s different with people I know well or see often. I’m always looking for ways to change this about myself like doing interviews, taking on a more person-to-person responsibility at the money-job, and working myself up to do open mic standup.
So to prepare for the interview I assumed there would be a list of questions based on what was available online about myself and ND, so I thought about what standard interview questions would be; the origin, the influences, the tools, the philosophy, etc. I went so far as writing notes about ND and coming up with answers to anticipated questions. Upon meeting the hosts, when I said I was nervous, I was reassured that “it’s just a conversation” and to my surprise it turned out to be just that. But of course I was keenly aware that we were recording and instantly forgotten all the preparations I made.
Thankfully, Daniel and Jed were friendly and funny. Taking the pressure off of me by giving each other a hard time and cracking jokes in a way only friends can. I eventually felt very welcome in their studio, like I was a friend bonding over a shared sense of humor. In spite of my own anxieties, it didn’t feel like I was expected to act a certain way to fit their mold. It was our first time meeting each other and while I honestly don’t think they really looked too deeply into what ND has done or listened to many songs, I feel their intentions were genuine and well placed. They truly do wish to use their platform to help shed light on the talent out here in WV, no matter how popular or unknown. But because it may be too much to expect to familiarize themselves with ND when there is so much out there and relatively unknown to the point of near invisibility I can’t hold that against them. Alas, I am disappointed in myself for not being able to delve more into Neuron Dreamtime, into the origin, influences, tools and the philosophy.
Now it may just be a trait of being an artist but I usually find myself picking apart a piece of work. My own worst critic as the cliche goes. It’s the same when painting. Perfect is unreachable, unattainable but it’s also strangely imaginable. And I’m usually looking back on how things went and how they could have been better. An interview is something I’m not used to anyway. When making music or painting there is time to step away and collect oneself, even this blog post has taken me almost two weeks to write, to edit and reword as to better express myself. With an interview its limited and for the most part a one shot go with little editing. So I think back to all the missed opportunities to say more, to elaborate upon what ND is to me. Meanwhile there is always this site with its various pages and links for anyone wishing to peruse and discover what Neuron Dreamtime is. If anything, the podcast will bring a little more local traffic to this site and people can let the content speak for itself.
So as always, I tend to laugh at myself and accept that it’s just part of the human condition to be awkward. Life is so damn absurd sometimes you simply can’t take it seriously. You’ve got to stop and laugh often. Laughing and making people laugh is something I love to do as much as painting and recording sounds that resonate and express. I love to do these things and share them but there is usually hesitance on my part due to how I humbly view what I create, it’s not the greatest but it’s something. Maybe with clever editing the podcast will be coherent to me and I won’t sound so amateurish. Or maybe this is all just a case of me over thinking. It happens. In any case its sure to be entertainingly silly while doling out laughs.
I normally feel I don’t deserve any kind of spotlight other than the one I shine myself into my little corner upon the things I make. I just go at my own pace, do my own “thing” and I am aware that one persons “thing” can’t be appealing to everyone. I know this because I can see my minuscule, but totally inspiring, fan-base by way of statistics from this website, Facebook, Bandcamp, Youtube, and Soundcloud. I can see how many people read this, listen to what and click links. Honestly it surprised me that they accepted my application to be on the show. I almost didn’t seize the opportunity to apply in the first place because of my modesty surrounding ND. In some lights I feel it’s not worthy. It’s a testament to their willingness to help local talent be seen by bringing me on to inevitably bomb but be funny while doing it.
Self deprecating thoughts aside, I do feel that true success is relative and not measured by an objective abacus of wealth and influence. You set your goals, you achieve them, no matter how large or small they seem to other people. Find what gives your heart a beat, then dance to that beat. Then try to drown out your inner heckler.
These guys at Thirteen Palm Trees are just like that. They love doing what they’re doing no matter how odd it may be to others and they want to share their light with others. Overall it was a good experience, a positive one, for overcoming my shyness and stage fright and showed me that the podcast format is something I could get into and hope to do so in the future. Although I failed to elaborate on what ND is (sometimes even I don’t know) there is always this website and the future opportunities. I hope to be this eloquent next time I have the pleasure of sitting down, chatting and laughing with the crew at Wasted Local Talent about music, pop culture, and joking about Male pattern baldness and life.
Good people.
10/10
Will visit again.
-L
PS: You can find Thirteen Palm Trees and all their episodes on all major Podcast streaming providers. Below is the aforementioned schedule and be sure to check out their other podcasts: “Video Game Mythos”, “D&D, Kinda”, and “Gurus of Gaming”
When I began writing this the feeling was that of defeat. No matter how much I plan or prepare something will get in the way to let me know that the universe is impersonal, hostile and ultimately doesn’t care about the goals of a speck of dust. There are 1000 things I want to do and 1001 things I need to do. Sometimes its like I’m spinning so fast I’m about to shatter into a thousand pieces.
It’s been a rough few months, needless to say, no matter how well I thought I was prepared or how detailed the map laid out before me. This is life, thus is flux. Plans falling apart or postponed until further notice. Mechanical things failing. Roads disappearing and canyons appearing instead. Car dealers dealing. Missing friends. Mandatory overtime for months on end at the job that pays the bills. This sort of onslaught wasn’t necessarily a walk in the park, nor was it anything new, but as it turns out I am very good at hiding the struggle and trudging through.
I have always had trouble asking for help but never-the-less I am always grateful for the help offered by family, friends and neighbors. I am grateful to my loving wife for making me feel like a rockstar. Grateful to my family, parents and in-laws for their calming words of wisdom and support. I am grateful for every acknowledgement, kind word, and laugh shared by strangers, coworkers and the like.
I know that things could always be worse and that compared to most things going on in the world I have it made in the shade with lemonade and I’m able to promenade. So then I get bummed that I feel bad about my situations while so many others have it far worse. Depression is a tough gremlin to shake sometimes once it has latched on and everything seems to be stacked against. Just gotta persevere onward and adjust to new variables. The map is not the territory and the territory is in a constant state of flux.
So now, as I finish writing this, months later, for my partially neglected website, the variables have indeed changed again. Bought a fresher ride, with some hiccups. The driveway is now traversable, but not perfect. Overtime is ending and I am highly recommended for a promotion at work, just gotta update and apply my resume. The once postponed Wasted Local Talent podcast interview happens in just a couple days but I’m still nervous. And there are a couple opportunities opening up for things I’ve never done but want to do. One is to bring Neuron Dreamtime live in a collaborative freeform manner and the other is for me to address my love for comedy during an open mic night.
Hope to have more positive stuff to write about in another month or two but until then, flux this and carry on.
-L
Here’s an ambient improvisation from a couple weeks ago.
Two months later I find myself struggling to promote the new album any further. The roadmap laid out up to the release served it’s purpose and I was able to execute it to the T with a punctuality never before seen from myself. But I was so focused on just getting it done, making the steps to the final destination, that I thought very little of what I’d do when I got there, other than a reminder FB post a few weeks or so later. This has always been the case with Dreamtime’s post-release promotion. But I feel, now more than before, that this project I’ve spent so much time on is worthy of the follow up support I’ve neglected to provide. Neglected for reasons as simple as focus shifts to painting, reading, making a paycheck, and generally living life.
It’s an ocean of media, entertainment, music and film out there and I’m trying to build a floating island of my own. A place in the clouds that people may stumble upon and maybe find something they like, that enhances their lives in the way that art does. Or if it’s not their cup of tea then maybe, at least, they recognize the DIY ethic and be inspired to follow their own visions and dreams as well.
So what is next? Promotion of course, starting with this very blog then leading into paid promotion on social media and local promotion via podcasts and correspondence with others, regardless of genre.
There is always something creatively cooking up in my head and sometimes it’s hard to make it out of my head with the idea(s) in tow but when it is achieved and the physicality begins to take shape I pour my heart into it. It can be exhausting but it’s always worth it. This bout of post-release promotion will be no different.
-L
TL;DR- Buy my new record, send more money.
Shown above is the CDBaby store copy of the album with the art that will accompany all digital copies. The image is from an old drum head I painted years ago (seen in background) as it was hanging in the studio window, back-lit, making for nice textures while bringing out all the layers of color.
The variant packages were painted using the same method on 22×28 inch poster board that was then cut, folded and glued, by hand, to form one 10×10 inch gate-fold style case while the remaining “scrap” pieces made covers for a keep case and a jewel case. These packages are limited as follows:
• 4 variants of jewel-case categorized as “Tourist”
• 4 variants of keep-case categorized as “Explorer”
• 4 variants of gate-fold categorized “Cartographer”
Each of the 12 variant packages will only be available as merch through our Bandcamp on March 2nd.
-L
It brings me great pleasure to finally announce the release date for “The Map is Not the Territory”. March 2nd, 2018 will see the sixth album digitally and physically distributed by CDBaby and their many streaming affiliates. It is to be accompanied by a severely limited physical CD release with unique packaging options available only through our Bandcamp. More details to come as the date draws near, so stay aware.
Since December, DJ Mac’s Post-Alternative Visions: Volume 4 has been available featuring many returning contributors. It’s the current home of ND’s debut “Make Lemonade”, a somewhat optimistic punk-rock tune dedicated to the young entrepreneurs who keep getting shafted by The Man.
Lastly, as one can see the site has been streamlined and updated. The playlist is now always up top and will continue to play while the site is being navigated. The menu itself has also been simplified and dead links removed.
After a series of DIY vehicle tune-ups, Halloween celebrations, multiple overtime weeks at work, an art exhibition, and just recently a cabin getaway with the love of my life, the energies now feel right to roll up my sleeves and finalize the album. I had envisioned a late September release but as mentioned above, life is a roller coaster and sometimes you have to relinquish control and throw your hands up to just ride the ride, embracing the twists and turns as they arrive.
With calmer happenings focus can be forged while being careful not to inspire poor posture or aggravate the carpel tunnel by clickity-clicking everything into place as the music is now 100% complete. But considering the clusterfuck holidays known as Thanksgiving and Christmas are just around the corner I am now thinking of a New Years debut as highly probable. I am, however, still undecided on the Kickstarter project to back the album, if it seems I can squeeze the crafting of backer packages into the schedule then that’ll be great.
Alongside new ND material there is new Robot 7 material coalescing as collaborative talks and temporal sketches emerge. Coincidentally, DJ Mac’s Post-Alternative Visions compilation #4 is just around the corner with returning contributors and new. The ND track chosen for our submission is unique to our catalogue as an unreleased post-punk-rock inspired tune I hope will find a home among others. The compilation is due for a mid-December release.
Till next time here, into the shadows I crawl back again.
-L
Neuron Dreamtime 
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