Life in the fast plane

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[ʸᵀᴾᴹᵛ] Steamed Hams Inc.

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FELIX STUDIO JOURNAL: #4

I grew up listening to a lot of punk and hardcore music. Real counter culture, fuck authority, political records. It’s a bit odd, I was never interested in politics at the time but those records still resonated with me. I think something about how DIY the movement was appealed to me. I loved that punk records were being made for essentially zero dollars, proof that anyone can do what they want if they’re determined enough. Electronic music felt the same to me. A kid gets a laptop, pirates a bunch of software, and makes a song that appeals to a bunch of other kids. Same concept.

I remember reading somewhere that the music you listen to in high school is the music that shapes who you are, and I guess that’s true for me. I just never realized it until i started digging into my own lyrics via this album. A lot of the themes I write about feel punk to me (minus the politics). Fuck it and do your own thing. Write for yourself, who you want to be, and if it helps others who have similar feelings, that’s a bonus. 

Worry, my next single, is out 4.20.

And you can pre-save my album here on spotify / apple / etc

-felix

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FELIX STUDIO JOURNAL: #3

So I want to talk a bit about creativity and what that means to me. Creativity occasionally happens as a lightning effect, something that hits you randomly while you’re walking about town, or listening to something, or eating a great bowl of ramen. Not sure what it is that triggers those moments, and I am thankful when they do. But there’s another type of creativity that I fuck with, it’s the daily grind of showing up and slogging away at something even when you don’t want to be there. Because that’s where the real decision making happens. You have a deadline, you stress, you get creative. It’s not pretty, or romantic, and I love that about it. De-mystifying the whole process of how to make something is important, because it’s what encourages anyone and everyone that they can do it and be great at it too.

PS: my next single ‘Faces’ drops this friday.

-felix

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FELIX STUDIO JOURNAL: #2

All of the lyrics on this record were written by me with the vocalists**. Not to name too many names, but sometimes I feel like there’s a large disconnect between electronic artists and the vocals they end up putting on their record. I’ve tried that process on a few singles, but the record never really feels as important to me, because the lyric isn’t about something I’ve lived or am passionate about. This doesn’t work for everyone, I get that… we’re all busy traveling or whatever and sometimes it’s not possible to get in the room with someone and write a song. However, I felt it was important when making the most personal album of my career to do whatever I could to make that happen. 

One of my favourite experiences was flying to Sweden to write 2 songs with 3 amazing writers. After I came home, myself and the vocalist, Iselin Solheim, finished the lyrics over Skype the next following weeks. We made it work. At the end of the day if the record is great, I’m a fan, but for me personally, I’ve always been more proud of the work that I’ve put out where I was a part of the entire process. It’s taken me a long time to get to the point where I’ve felt more accomplished as a lyricist, hundreds of writing sessions over the past 7-8 years, and I’m still learning. But I know that the lyric is so crucial for getting people to understand what you’re about. It’s literally 50% of the equation of a song, so why wouldn’t you want to be a part of that process? I encourage more artists in my scene to do the same. I promise it’s rewarding. That being said, this album is really personal. I’m very nervous for you all to hear it.

** Just for full disclosure because I’m trying to be honest with this whole process: there were 2 songs on this album where the vocalist sent me an idea that was awesome… we tried everything to work in the same city and write it together but just couldn’t make it happen because of scheduling conflicts. I really wanted them on the album though because they are extremely talented and I felt it would have been foolish to not include them.

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felix studio journal: #1

The songs are written and the album is delivered. It’s done. The whole thing. No changing anything now. Part of me was not sure if the album was too long but i’ve decided that OVER-delivering is better than under-delivering. Personally, I hate when an artist says they have an album coming out and it’s only 25mins. I feel like that’s not an album… so mine is 18 songs.

Writing an album is always tough because I think it’s easy to get caught up in how big the project is, and that can be daunting. This time around I tried to simplify things, and solely focus on the fact that it’s just a collection of great songs. I knew if each piece of writing was something personal, and each production was something I was proud of, tying them together into an album would be much easier. I had to write a lot of things to get here, i actually wrote an entire album and then scrapped the whole thing. It didn’t feel like it was me. I threw 30-40 songs into the trash bin, never to be seen again. This album though…. this thing feels more “me” than anything else I’ve ever done. I hope you feel it too.

Release date and title will be announced soon.

-felix

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