A Deep Dive on Flurry

This is actually from a 2-part series I posted on my Instagram 2.5 years ago about my writing process. Recently I went back to read it and realized I probably should have made it a blog. So here is that IG post in blog form, and with a few new edits from 2025 me.

Part 0: Intro from 2025 me

I originally wrote this track in 2022, and released it in January of 2023 (before I even went to school for music production!), so here's a little bit of backstory.

This track was written as a tribute to the game Celeste and the composer, Lena Raine. I found one of her medium posts on how she created her synths in Massive, so this track was sort of a homework assignment to myself to try to create those synths.

Feel free to give the track a listen, because the next few sections will be going in-depth into this work!

Part 1: a musical narrator [original]

If I'm composing for myself, then the story being told might be mine. But if I'm composing for someone else, then my goal is to be the musical narrator for theirs.

When I write a track, I like to envision a world or an emotion (or both) that takes shape from it. Often that plays out in the form of a scene or story that is unfolding in my head. What I see doesn't need to be the same world or story that anyone else sees, the point is that it can hopefully guide you on a similar journey. If I'm composing for myself, then the story being told might be mine. But if I'm composing for someone else, then my goal is to be the musical narrator for theirs.

Chaos is the feeling I was going for with this track. I don't think chaos is really good or bad, it just is. I find sometimes that the good or the bad that we may attach to "chaos" really comes from within us. When chaos is bad, that's what anxiety feels like to me.

There's a musical concept that gives me a similar vibe, and that's polyrhythms. If you don't know what polyrhythms are, the main thing you need to know for this post is that there are multiple musical voices playing different rhythms at once. If you know how to listen to the different voices, then the chaos is navigable, but if you don't, then it can become an overwhelming cacophony of sound.

I added polyrhythms very intentionally with the piano and some of the synths beginning around 1:30 in my track. To be honest, my first introduction to making that cognitive link between polyrhythms and chaos was not with the Celeste soundtrack, but actually when I first learned Chopin's Fantasie Impromptu back in high school. That piece remains in my muscle memory because that was a time filled with bad chaos for me. Listening to the Celeste soundtrack (which also makes use of polyrhythms) reminded me of this, and so that was what I chose to explore here in this track.

Also, fun fact: I actually have a very old recording of myself playing Fantasie Impromptu in high school, so if you're interested, check that out below!

Part 2: the kick is a heartbeat [original]

I spent the first half of my composing time laying down the piano, melody, synths and other textures, and I spent the other half of my time just working on the drums.

I have two kick drum tracks: one comes in when the bass enters at 1:00 (the "regular" kick) and the other I call "the heartbeat" which comes in at 0:15. I wanted this track to be held together by the heartbeat, as if it were reminding you that you're still here, still breathing.

The idea for that doesn't come from Celeste, but from listening to Natajassa by Lisa Bella Donna (another of my favorite synth artists! Definitely check out her stuff). The kick in Natajassa is a steady beat that anchors you, and even though that track goes on a tremendous journey, the kick was there as a rock and foundation through this wild musical adventure. That feeling of having a rock to ground yourself on was my goal with the heartbeat. In Flurry, I sidechained most instruments to the heartbeat to really cement that role of holding things together.

There are also two snares: the regular snare of course, and then a reversed sample of the same snare, which I think of as "an intake of breath". If the kick/heartbeat is there to anchor you, the snare represents your breath. Going back to the theme of chaos from yesterday's post: Is it a sharp intake of breath? Is it a struggle to breathe? Or is it even and regular?

The rest of the drums add more technical detail. There's two different crash cymbals (and a reversed crash that makes the "whoosh" noise) to propel the track from section to section. There are some really crushed out toms to make the song feel big and dirty, and make the fills hit a bit harder. The hi hats cue the energy of the section that we're in. The snaps provide a feeling of (haphazardly?) being bounced around with the ping pong delay.

All of this together in my mind makes the track move and breathe.

Part 3: Reflections from 2025

2025 me again. It's kind of wild going back to something I wrote almost 3 years ago and seeing how much my work has evolved.

I've crossed genres.

I've written music that is now out commercially in games.

I've picked up new skills and new trades.

I have an entirely new community.

But I never stopped telling stories.

One of the things I was not prepared for in trying to do creative work professionally was maintaining the sheer amount of mental fortitude that it takes to stay on the creative path, and maintaining it over the course of years. There will always be people who tell you to do things a certain way to "succeed". It might be an algorithm. It might be a mentor. It might be yourself. And after you spend years working on this work, it's really easy to listen to those other voices.

On the bright side, your skills grow. Previously unachievable things become more achievable. But then you find new goals and new skills that you wish to attain, and that's when when you're most prone to perfectionism and dissatisfaction with your work.

I am really glad I wrote this deep dive in 2023, because reading it again I'm reminded that everything in this blog post still holds true. The one thread that continues to tie my creative work together is that I tell musical stories.

I haven't released as much of my own personal work lately because I have been working on my skills and my style. And quite frankly, I've been focused on a lot of different things that have distracted me from releasing music.

I think it's time to change that sometime soon.