MRCNCB

[mrcncb]

Start Select

marc encabo start select (dec ep 2017) [014/xxx] compiled 12/26/17

Bandcamp: https://marcencabo.bandcamp.com/album/start-select YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DdPTUWdimio

—

how does your breath affect you?

—

[liner notes]

—

the last of these little EP projects for this year is here!!!!! woooooooo. thanks to everyone that’s been keeping up and checking these out, i really appreciate it. and to those of you who might be checking this stuff out for the first time or on a whim, thank you for listening and i hope you find something that you like or can bump. :) i’ve been out here in florida for the last 5 weeks or so on a gig so i’ve been spending most of my time trying to absorb this experience but i wanted to make sure that i could still put out a record this month that still could fit in with the pretty widespread palette of things i’ve ended up putting out this year for this project haha (also there’s definitely been months that it’s been harder to put an EP out than this one lol). again thank you so much for listening to all the tracks and reading these if you have been haha and i’m gonna take a bit to really reflect on all these projects this whole year after this is out haha. much love <3

—

“start select” is a short collection of ambient beats and instrumentals that i centered around more nostalgic and warm tones and themes to me. i used a lot of different layers of samples, synths, and processing to capture a couple different shades on these tracks. hope you enjoy!

—

[menu screen]

made this beat late at night early into this florida trip. had an idea to use the more retro percussive sounds with the wurly to create a more chill beatstrumental. reminded me of a title screen from a old video game haha. layered a voice memo i had from a breathing meditation on a gig i did.

—

[options]

i decided to roll with some 8-bit retro video game vibes on some of these tracks lol. i found this sample and threw a little drums and bass on it and i liked the vibe as is. very electronic a la jojo mayer kinda stuff.

—

[tutorial (interlude)]

this is a voice memo from me playing piano at sam ash in clearwater, fl. haha. i affected the voiceover with the pitch shifter to give it a backwards growing up effect (i also played around with some tremolo and verb effects to really widen the range of the track haha)

—

[button mash]

just a simple short banger, i realized after i tracked this that this has a lot of the pieces of “ambient beats” that i’ve put together on some of the beat tapes this year (and especially on to:shore, which is the first of these kind of projects that i put out a couple years ago).

—

[save point]

a lot of different moods in this one. put a little marimba and high tonky piano to simulate a save point kind of underscore you might hear in a video game or something.

[mrcncb]

Something Fun

marc encabo something fun (nov ep 2017) [013/xxx] compiled 11/12/17

Bandcamp: https://marcencabo.bandcamp.com/album/something-fun YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6yMGH0vAJZE

—

music is fun

—

[liner notes]

—

ep no. 11 is here! it was a nice change up to be able to have both the tracks from last month’s EP and this one all ready to work on in advance (as opposed to having to scramble to write, record, and mix everything in a couple days like the last couple other EP’s hah). i felt like i could really take my time on this one in terms of the mixing and it’s always a nice little challenge mixing a bunch of multi-tracked stuff and trying to make it sound the way that i like while still trying to keep the essence of the live performance. i wanted to get this one out before i head out of town for a gig for the rest of this year so this one is coming out way earlier than i’ve put out any of the other EP’s this year (and probably for the better haha) as of right now i don’t have anything for the 12th EP so i’ll definitely be brainstorming that’ll be doable away from home haha. for those of you that actually read these lol, hope you enjoy!

—

“something fun” is a collection of cuts from a live reading session that lawrence and i put together at the pi shop. the first two tunes on this EP i wrote for this session exclusively, and the third one is a track that i’ve had for a year or so sitting in the “tunes i’ve never gotten to hear” folder on my laptop lol. there’s definitely a lot of little compositional things that i’m trying to work out that are pretty prominent in these tunes, but for the most part i tried to keep everything pretty simple from the conception to the final versions of these demos. for these sessions we wanted to be able to create an environment where we had to force ourselves to write, workshop, and put together songs in a controlled amount of time. for these takes personally i wanted to capture the initial moments of a tune without doing too much prep or rehearsing to kind of let both the music speak for itself and let the players instinctual interpretations come through. i’ve never been much of a rehearser anyway haha. there are a couple flubs here and there but i don’t think they take away from the tunes at all. thanks for listening!! special thanks to the cats on these tracks y’all are bomb

cats: harry ostrander - trumpet lawrence pi - sax chris halo - guitar andy yoon (dude my autocorrect keeps wanting to change your name to “andy goon” lol) - guitar jay hemphill - bass flint lidar - drums marc encabo - keys

—

[cream puffs]

straight d’angelo sexy 6/8 groove kinda thing. i started with the initial chord progression and melody on keys and let the groove kind of write the song as i worked on arranging it for the group. the “b” section of the tune changed a bunch for me in terms of where i wanted it to go and which pivot modulation i wanted to work with (lol) cause i didn’t want it to stray too much and i wanted a way to get back to the original progression without it sounding too out of place. the ending was just an idea i had walking around the house while i was trying to figure out a better “b” section and i ended up just throwing that onto the end as kind of a bridge play out kind of thing. can’t go wrong with a iv jam lol.

—

[something fun]

this one started with the chord progression idea in the rubato piano intro, i kinda made that the “chorus” and the horns play it a couple times in the tune as that and then in the outro i just used it as a way to transition into the pivoting chords at the end. i would say that’s one of my go-to types of “endings” that i’m trying to sort of write out of my compositions (or more like not try to end up there every time lol). this one i definitely felt more of a vulf vibe as i was writing it and it’s at that very happy stroll tempo lol.

—

[brannigan’s crossing]

this was an older one that i wrote on the TH2 piano with flint and lawrence a couple years ago. the whole song is in 5 really and i started with the original four bar idea in the beginning. the change up in the middle is just me trying to put a backbeat in while keeping the quarter note the same (so you could really count 5 all the way through there and it would add up, but i split it so it’s two bars of 4 and then a bar of 2 to add up to 10, then it gets kinda weird after that but i simplified the sections for this particular read down) it’s one of those tunes that you have to hear to get and looking at it probably is way more confusing than it has to be lol.

[mrcncb]

Duskbound

marc encabo duskbound (oct ep 2017) [012/xxx] compiled 10/25/17

Bandcamp: https://marcencabo.bandcamp.com/album/duskbound YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RUCBRIZOaz4

—

on the way home.

—

[liner notes]

—

we’re finally at the final quarter of this project! thanks to everyone who’s been keeping up with this or has checked out of any of these projects at some point. the rest of my year after november is gonna be all disney florida stuff so i wanted to get a head start on putting together and putting out these last couple EPs. hope you enjoy these tunes!

—

“duskbound” is the first collection of tunes that me and lawrence recorded at his pad in october. for this session i brought in tunes that i had wrote but never played and recorded for the most part from my last year of college in 2016. it was cool being able to look back at these tunes and seeing what kind of ideas and content i was writing back then and being able to hear those realized after being a year removed from school (i swear it never feels like it’s been that short of a time lol). shout out to the cats that recorded these, thanks for your time and your music.

cats: lawrence pi - sax donghee kim - piano andy yoon - guitar tom kendall hughes - drums marc encabo - bass

—

[pan fry]

i wrote this tune for a trio i was trying to put together, but it never materialized haha. just a pretty simple AABA kinda shuffle head that kinda reminds me of some music i remember from playing gunbound growing up. doesn’t ever really go back to the head cause i don’t like doing that lol.

—

[found]

brian blade fellowship-y kinda vibe on this one. i remember thinking of the ideas to this tune on the old piano at tramp house 2.

—

[ephtique]

this one was another that i wrote after school and also at the old piano at tramp house 2 i believe. i thought of the bass line first and then the melodies are just all alt-y out patterns haha. this one was a fun one to workshop also.

—

[duskbound]

old ballad i wrote i think earlier in the year in 2016. i remember playing this one at a gig once before and i had the post-solo section a lot longer. decided to make it a lot more simple and keep the solo form even. rainy day vibes for sure.

[mrcncb]

Mug

marc encabo mug (sep ep 2017) [011/xxx] compiled 09/30/17

Bandcamp: https://marcencabo.bandcamp.com/album/mug YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eE-CWMrRA5Y

—

making a fist is the same as gripping a cup of coffee.

—

[liner notes]

—

here’s the second of this double EP month! i started putting this one together after i tried recording what would have been the 6th song from the previous project and my blue snowball mic stopped working for some reason (i did drop it pretty bad lol). i remembered that my midi keyboard was in the garage so i grabbed it and just unplugged my usb mic and then bam, instant beats LOL. i guess there isn’t much backstory to this one other than it being my best attempt at putting together some beats in a couple hours haha. the title also has no relation i feel like lol. anyways, enjoy the vibes.

—

“mug” is my attempt at a quick fix beat session lol. i definitely went very loose on the tracking and mixing to give it a more organic kind of feel. there’s definitely a lot of vulf compressor on the rhodes tracks and i like using it on the master cause it warms everything up a little bit. i didn’t do too much plugin tweaking, mostly just balancing everything level-wise and tweaking the tones to fit what i like. excited to focus on more live ensemble writing hopefully for these next couple EPs, look out for those! but yeah hope you enjoy this one!! thanks for listening.

—

[a lil bit]

dang this one felt pretty good when i was putting it together. i think i first heard the little “plink plink plink” part in my head and then i put together my best tom kendall beat that i could LOL. can’t go wrong with i-iv always feels good.

—

[progress]

this was the first beat i put together for this project. i laid the drums down first and it was giving me some “redbone” vibes so i put that funky bass line also to kind of channel that a bit. i couldn’t find a sample that i liked so i grabbed a random audiobook recording that i had saved… i don’t think it makes much sense but it’ll do for now.

—

[so long]

i wanted something a little bit different in tempo and feel so i went with a slow half time how typical lol. with the plunky lead line it kind of reminds me of a weird credits scene kind of underscore haha. threw the record vinyl sound in there to keep it classy.

[mrcncb]

Reruns

marc encabo reruns (aug ep 2017) [010/xxx] compiled 09/29/17

Bandcamp and lyrics: https://marcencabo.bandcamp.com/album/reruns YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RgAACKYGbfQ

—

dream, try, do good. life lessons live in “boy meets world” reruns.

—

[liner notes]

—

here’s another double EP month! after coming off of a creatively dry month in august and tour with leather tramp during the first half of september, i knew that i was going to come out with either one or two singer/songwriter projects for these EPs. i ended up writing and finishing the 5 tunes on this project all within the last week (i really wish i could get that process going earlier in the months, lol). i know jay’s told me a bunch but i feel it too- just how hard it’s been especially down the stretch to feel creatively inspired enough to pump out these EPs every month. what i’ve been trying to tell myself is that i have to write out these songs and tunes and ideas no matter how busy i get or uninspired i feel. there’s really no use for me to be keeping these ideas in my head so i’d better get them on record and let them breathe a bit haha. i talked with jay during tour about the dream and vision of leading our own groups some day (more sooner for him haha i don’t know when i’d ever put a group together for this kinda stuff if ever lol) and i feel like i’m taking steps towards crafting songs that i feel like i can be attached too. sometimes i look back at some of the old songs i’ve written back years ago and i’m definitely glad i’ve stripped away a lot of the fluff and ambiguousness in the writing. there’s still a lot of work to do though and a lot of life to live before i can feel like these songs are for me to hold on to. i think i’m definitely gonna focus on more instrumental writing for the rest of these EPs this year but it’s been a journey exploring these songs and my creative process with these kinds of songs. this was originally going to be a two parter but my blue snowball mic crapped out on me after recording “paper thin” so i guess these 5 songs wanted to be on the same project lol. if you’re still reading this thanks for reading my rambling thoughts on this and i hope you enjoy this project and these songs. <3

—

“reruns” is a short collection of poppy singer/songwriter stuff that i feel like don’t have any specific connotations or life experiences tied to them. i tried to either capture a feeling and spread it on thick like i would cream cheese on a bagel (that’s a weird analogy lol but that’s what i thought of first) or create a character or situation and try to phrase it in a way that i could find applicable in my own language and writing. this particular group of songs is pretty mixed style-wise and so are the subject matters, but i tried to follow the flow of the songs during the writing process and i wanted to let the songs be what they wanted to be in the moment while writing them. i had thought to add bass and some light percussion after recording the guitar and vocals but i decided to just leave the tracks as is. i wanted to see how the songs would breathe and stand up on their own as if i was doing them at a coffee shop open mic, haha. if you’ve been been listening since the beginning of this project thanks so much for following my weird musical exercise lol much love <3

—

[needy blues]

this was the first one that i recorded for “reruns” (actually i think i ended up putting the tunes in the order that i recorded them haha strange). the conception for this one started on me just wanting to write a blues and then i didn’t even finish the blues form haha. the sections on this one kinda wrote themselves, i let the chords be pretty simple and predictable and the melodies kind of just follow the contour of the music. i remember thinking halfway through writing this that i thought i was writing way too cheesy (who knew lol) and then i mentally just told myself i’m just gonna go all out on the cheese. a lot of the vocal on this track is one-take also so excuse the weird riffs that i’m going for lol instrumentalist problems

—

[lullaby for flowers]

this one started with the first line of the verse and i tried to center the whole tune around the idea of giving flowers and why people do that anyway lol. the chorus sort of reminds me of a weird movie or musical kinda soundtrack song but i dunno, i feel like the cheese is in full force on this project so i just let it happen. in my notebook i wrote “stop this train groove” so i could remember what i had played for the guitar part lol.

—

[burn down]

there’s a whole lot of little fragments of characters and ideas in this one. it doesn’t really all connect to make one subject matter but i think i wrote the chorus as such a vague anthem-y kinda thing to contrast the verses. i was envisioning a band while i was putting this one together and i don’t normally do that when i’m writing singer/songwriter stuff so it was interesting for me to see how my writing process changed a little keeping that in mind.

—

[reruns]

part of me still thinks that chorus doesn’t really fit for this song, but this is what i had on paper and i just ended up recording it. i kept singing the chorus wrong also and that also makes me feel like it needed to be for a different song. anyways i wrote that line about the office reruns last and i kept thinking that it doesn’t really make any sense and phonetically it sits really weird but i just liked how ironic it was and i feel like i hear every couple weeks or so that i should just watch the office so i should probably just get netflix at this point lol. on the guitar take that stuck on this track, the phone in the kitchen rang right as i strummed the last chord so i had to go with that take. i think it fits super nice actually.

—

[paper thin]

i wrote and finished this one less than a day ago! the verse melody was stuck in my head before i fell asleep that night so i wrote it real quick in my notebook before i went to bed. i originally thought of a character that was super fragile and i was writing it from the perspective of someone who cares about this person for some reason. the end anthem-y section of the songs is a weird perspective change that i think is missing some sort of in-between lyrical or musical connection right now but i liked how that section turned out. this might be a nice one with a band also.

[mrcncb]

Made

marc encabo made (jul ep 2017) [009/xxx] compiled 07/31/17

Bandcamp: https://marcencabo.bandcamp.com/album/made YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wEOqn1CtKgA

—

made = music and dictated excerpts

—

[liner notes]

—

the turnaround on this EP was crazy quick! i finished EP no. 6 (edam) on the 25th and i had 6-ish days (more like nights after playing shows every night this weekend ahhh) to think of something for this project, conceptualize and record and mix and all that yadda. i ended up bouncing a couple of more production-based ideas but decided on these tracks. think of them as kind of like an audiobook meets a beat-tape lol. i forgot how crazy it is working on a real tight deadline and a lot less time than i thought i would have… but i hope you enjoy these! they are very raw and experimental but if you are into any sort of audiobook-y kind of tracks i hope these are nice to just put on and kinda vibe out to.

—

“made” is my exploration into crossing audiobooks and beats (lightly lol). these tracks and arrangements were pretty off the cuff and i pretty much played the samples through and live accompanied them to generate the progressions and beats that are on these tracks. all of these spoken excerpts are from public domain books from librivox and i tried to pick out stuff that had some content that was cling-able but these are all pretty old excerpts so a lot of it might sound a little funky haha. i’ve been getting into listening to a lot of podcasts and audiobooks on my long drives since i’ve been hanging in my car most of the time lately it seems, so these are definitely just for those set and forget kind of moments. i hope you get a kick out of these tracks and i’m definitely gonna try to explore this more in depth on other projects.

—

[coffeeshop] *excerpt from “six cups of coffee” “coffee - v. the right and wrong ways of making coffee, as described by mrs. d. a. lincoln" pd recording from librivox.org

this one was actually the last sample i started on, but i ended up liking how this one turned out the best! i let the instrumental go longer cause i just liked how it turned out lol. picked out this pretty weirdly funny excerpt on how to prepare coffee lol and i wanted a very coffeeshop type of chill beat so i layed some simple boom clat beat and then played off of a 2-5-1 in Db because it’s a go-to warm key for anything haha. “coffee is stimulating”

—

[rmmbr] *excerpt from “memory: how to develop, train, and use it by william walker atkinson” “chapter 1 - memory: it’s importance” pd recording from librivox.org

not much to this one, just kind of a splat clat kinda beat and a bit of a more staggered chord movement playing off of sub-dom functions (the ii and the IV) and kind of anchoring off into different progressions. this one is less consistent with the progression but i think i wanted something that was a little more moving and changing.

—

[morning train] *excerpt from “how to live on 24 hours a day by arnold bennett” “chapter 7 - controlling the mind” pd recording from librivox.org

ditched the piano on this one for guitar just cause i wanted to change it up a little bit. i thought it was a little bit easier to work with guitar sounds in the context of making the voiceover fit. harmonically just playing off movements in Eb starting on sub-dom’s again (IV and ii sometimes) this one is def more hip-hoppy with the electric guitar vibe. the spoken on this one was very bass-y so i had to re-export this one a bunch of times trying to control that

—

[how to breathe] *excerpt from “a guide to health by gandhi” “chapter 3 - air” pd recording from librivox.org

this one was a fun voiceover to work with. just content wise, i was super tuned in to this book haha. this was the first sample i started on and i went with a super simple beat with no particular snare sound just kind of a bounce-y sound effect and a nice round kick. i wanted to just let the excerpt speak for itself so everything musically is just nice backdrop. the chord progression i’m playing on is kinda only connected because of the melody notes (its like Ema7#11 - Abma9 - Ama7#11 - Gma7#11 or something like that lol)

[mrcncb]

Edam

marc encabo edam (jun ep 2017) [008/xxx] compiled 07/25/17

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B7XjhG1dn6k Bandcamp and lyrics: https://marcencabo.bandcamp.com/album/edam

—

rainy days won’t stop the sunlight from shining.

—

[liner notes]

—

so this EP is obviously coming out a month late haha. june was a pretty rough month in terms of having to drive back and forth from LB to SD all the time to catch work and keep those relationships going while trying to live back home. i tried to scrape by some time to push this project out at the end of june but i got sick around the time i was at a gig at the end of the month, so i was pretty much incapacitated for a couple days into june. it’s been a couple months since i’ve delved into songwriting in general so this month’s ep is a re-exploration into that and hopefully trying to get better at this art. hope you enjoy the tunes!

—

“edam” is a collection of songs i’ve written within the last 2 months. i usually write songs and lyrics on my laptop or on my phone, but i’ve been trying to break away from that and i’ve been keeping a little journal that i take around everywhere that i’ve been writing my tunes in. i was talking to jay about this a couple weeks ago about songwriting and how for this project i tried to not record ideas as i came up with them and left the songs to just be lyrics on a page. my thought process was that if the melodies and songs in general held up each day and the next, that it was something that was worth keeping and that would stick. these songs are a couple that made it through the two months of this particular exercise for me. it was also nice diving into mixing all of these tracks because it’s been a while since i’ve been able to just sit down and practice that. i recorded all of these sounds on my old blue snowball usb mic from high school because i don’t have any nice recording gear at home here in SD, so i did my best to try to make it sound the best i could haha. the title “edam” comes from a type of cheese because all of these songs are pretty cheesy lol. as always thanks for listening!

—

[today]

this was the first tune that i wrote in my little black notebook. i started with the chorus and that kinda became the focal point of the song for me. it’s just a nice simple song about wanting to see and be with someone that you really care about and how much they make everything better each day even if you might not be able to be with each other all the time.

—

[stay awake]

slow tune no. 1. i realized that this track and “honest” are pretty similar but i guess that’s because i was working on all of these tunes all at once haha. this one i started with the phrase “oh well i guess” and i tried to capture that kind of lackadaisical feeling that you can feel when things are not going so well, and all there is sleep even when there’s so much to think about.

—

[if that’s what it takes]

i started on the chorus with this one as well. this song is pretty much about being into someone and seeing them everywhere and just trying to express that admiration that you just can’t shake.

—

[honest]

sometimes you just think “i’m not over you” and that’s the most honest you’ll ever be and it’s not that you’re even thinking about them still it’s just coming to terms with reality which i think can only be good

—

[edam]

this one kind of just wrote itself. i don’t really like writing tunes like this that are inherently cheesy on the surface and it totally reminds me of a song that i would have written in high school but this one ended up in the journal haha. just another feel-good song about someone that means a lot.

[mrcncb]

These Are The Rooms I Think About Sometimes

marc encabo these are the rooms i think about sometimes (may ep 2017) [007/xxx] compiled 05/31/17

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-624hpLbTw Bandcamp: https://marcencabo.bandcamp.com/album/these-are-the-rooms-i-think-about-sometimes

—

goodbye tramp house 2

—

[liner notes]

—

so i pretty much drew blank this month, lol. it was tough having to think about moving out and figuring out where everything was gonna be after this month, so these are tracks that we tracked in my room at the tramp house in march. i had originally wanted to wait to record more tracks for a more fuller project but i ended having scrap the last three days of the month and just decided to work on these tracks for the may ep.

—

“these are the rooms i think about sometimes” is a very very short compilation of instrumental tunes that me and larry were working on for an in-house session at the house. the three tunes on this particular cut were ones i wrote pretty off-the-cuff and are just small experiments and explorations in different sounds compositionally and within the context of a small instrumental ensemble that are a little less traditional and delve more into pop and rock sounds.

—

[marbles]

i remember writing this one on my crappy casio keyboard back home. i don’t know if this is the case with other people but i feel like on that particular instrument there are just some chords that sound better than others. anything in Bb for some reason just seems to ring better on that piano. parts of this tune i wrote impromptu while jamming with flint (mostly that B section before the solo section). the odd bar phrases in the A and B’s are mainly to break the monotony of the 4 bar cyclical phrases which are pretty natural and common in this kinda style.

—

[nah]

people keep saying that this sounds like something off of theo’s heartbreak hits. it probably is, because i kinda pumped this one out the day of the session lol and i must have had residue from that record still in my head. either way i think this one is kinda cool and i definitely like writing in this more pop kinda form for this kind of ensemble.

—

[you do you]

club band 2018. haha. i keep telling people i can’t wait to start this club band. i want to take a dj’s gig away at some club, just once. i would love that haha. also i think it would be way cool to just have a full band at a club instead of a dj. or with a dj. rafa orchestra vibes for days.

[mrcncb]

Exitstence

marc encabo exitstence (apr ep 2017) [006/xxx] compiled 04/30/17

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=feV-Eg3x2so Bandcamp: https://marcencabo.bandcamp.com/album/exitstence

—

the nearest exit may be right behind you.

—

[liner notes]

—

tour month!

so most of this month i spent overseas with low leaf and the ascension doing a europe/uk tour. i had a couple different ideas on what i wanted o try to do for this month’s ep project but ended up deciding that i should try to just absorb the whole experience overseas rather than trying to focus on too many things haha. i ended up taking a couple different clips of miscellaneous and ambient sounds from the different places we traveled to, between things like train stations, really dive-y underground bars and even outdoors in these big and picturesque european towns. with limited time to put this particular project together (by the time i got back into town i had maybe a couple hours to finish the tracks), i decided to let this project be a completely soundscape-y and raw kind of experience, trying to capture a couple different moments aurally and aesthetically that i had on this tour (it was an amazing and eye-opening experience for sure… i can’t wait to get back overseas!)

—

“exitstence” is a collection of soundscapes, ambient noises, and short grooves and melodies that i programmed and put together entirely during my trip on tour. i had bounced between the idea of doing another beat tape or an ambient library kind of ep, and ended up with the latter just based on the kinds of tracks i gathered on my trip. it’s more in the vain of the very very first project of these eps that i put out (even before “lines” in january 2017) called “to:shore” (https://marcencabo.bandcamp.com/album/to-shore), which was a beatstrumental-esque project interlaced with some soundscape stuff that i programmed on a family trip to catalina island. each of these tracks i programmed in a certain setting, from on an airplane, on a train, to even in a place with no wi-fi. i’m not normally accustomed to this type of music and aural stimulation, but i hope you enjoy these mini-snapshots of some experiences i went through on this europe/uk trip. thanks for listening!

—

[genau]

i’m not gonna lie, i’m not sure i remember exactly when or where i put this one together. i just remember after listening to some of bryan and angelica’s meditative tracks on tour that i started piecing this one together slowly. the main melodic line on the bells is kind of the glue between all the other noises on this one, and i think i had a beat track programmed on here that i decided to not have on the final export. messing around with some automation on this one also.

—

[clock out]

this instrumental got pieced together on one of the longer train rides. i watched the beautiful scenery in europe go by out the window of the train and it got me singing this groove in my head that i formed and put into more of a pop-like song form. i played a lot with the ranges of some of the sounds on logic and got some cool percussive sounds out of them. i heard a lot of bryan’s playing on this one so that’s why there’s the lame midi flute on this haha.

—

[i’ll just go di it’s cool]

this is a voice memo from our show in stuttgart, germany that i warped of the audience sound. it’s pretty bare but i processed the heck out of it and automated a lot of different parameters so it kind of sounds claustrophobic. that’s the vibe i was going for anyway haha.

—

[no wifi]

dang so this was a pretty rough night. we were at our airbnb in london and the wifi was super whack so no one really got to use any of it for that night anyway lol so i sat in my dark room and programmed all these really annoying sounds. i was thinking of the old aol internet ringtone that you used to have to sit through back in the day when you wanted to use the internet lol. this is another one of those claustrophobic soundscapes also so i apologize for the weird vibes if you’re not into that (i don’t really think i am tbh but this manifested onto this project, just gotta go with it with these ep projects lol)

—

[vs]

this one i programmed on the plane ride back to the states. i think i had woke up from a weird nap and the cabin was lit with red lights and i was trying to capture the kind of dazed and off-centered feeling of waking up on an airplane or just from a pretty bad nap. there’s a lot of overlapping phrases and sounds coming in on weird beats to accentuate the off-feeling of the soundscape.

[mrcncb]

Growing

marc encabo growing (mar ep 2017) [005/xxx] compiled 03/31/17

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2XHIxTa5QI4 Bandcamp: https://marcencabo.bandcamp.com/album/growing

—

growing up is finding your inner child again.

—

[liner notes]

—

i definitely hit a trump-sized wall on this 3rd month, lol. aside from this project, i felt like march was a pretty productive and fruitful month for me, musically, emotionally, physically, spiritually… all that good stuff. creatively, i felt that i was trying way too hard to be artificially artistic and that made for many nights of failed writing and composing sessions and a lack of good sleep (double whammy). this month was definitely a learning moment in how to center yourself as a composer and how important it is to have a grasp of your own abilities and the influences around you in order to find yourself in the creative zone more often than not. i’m sure my musician performer friends know what this is like when we are performing- we kind of have a switch that goes off or a place that we go to in order for us to find ourselves in our best place to express ourselves in the more organic and excellent way possible. that’s the goal anyway haha. it’s also hard to find a reserve of energy for our own music when we are pouring ourselves out into other creative projects as well, and i think that’s a factor that i have to come to terms with and find a way to break through the tough moments of creative drought and produce.

—

“growing” is a collection of rough ideas and extremely raw song sketches. i tried way too hard to be artsy with this but decided that this was the most organic way to present this music. i’m slowly getting to know this new guitar that i’ve recently gotten, so a majority of the textures and palettes of these particular tracks are expressed through that instrument. i’ve included a couple of voice memos that i’ve had saved on my phone that i feel like would have never left if i hadn’t forced myself to include them. i feel that they show a different perspective on how i like to sketch out ideas musically. the main tracks themselves might be a little bare but i hope you can enjoy the simplicity and rawness of the tunes. i would have loved to keep them for a little longer and try to paint more with them, but for me the exercise of this ep-a-month project is to have to release these songs into the world when they are calling to be… definitely a lesson in livelihood as well. as always, thank you for listening :)

—

[pup]

this was the first track i recorded for this project. i’ve always loved that c6/9 chord shape on guitar and have written a bunch of different grooves based around it. this one was just an improv take that stuck lol. i kind of envisioned a snarky puppy-esque groove and melody on this demo (hence the name haha) when i hit record. this track and “oh susanna” are an exploration for me to get comfortable on this particular instrument and as a guitar player. it’s been an adjustment after being a “bass player” throughout college and being a piano player growing up in church, but i’ve grown to really embrace the intricacies and the roles that come with the instrument.

—

[th (diddle 1)]

this voice memo is one from a couple months ago that i caught of gracie playing piano in the living room at the house. i was sitting outside on the porch couch and thought the distant piano was a delicate backdrop to the rush of cars during the early evening.

—

[usually]

my go-to loop chords and vibes lol. i’m probably gonna use this track for something else, but i decided to leave it bare for this project. nice and simple.

—

[too bright to sleep (diddle 2)]

this voice memo was a tune i was working on late last year for the first EP project that didn’t quite make the cut. i don’t quite remember the direction i wanted the song to go in but i liked the vibe it created especially with the voice memo-y quality on it, lol.

—

[oh susanna]

i’ve always wanted to flip this one! this isn’t quite the version that i’ve been trying to arrange for a full group, but i wanted to groove a little bit on the guitar. this is one the folk songs i’ve heard growing up that i’ve always had the melody stuck in my head.

—

[oyasumi]

this tune was one that i brought in for a reading session that lawrence put together this month in my bedroom lol. we didn’t get to record this one during the session, but i figured i could record a demo take for this record especially since i wrote this one on the guitar. i originally wrote this particular version of the song in 6/8 but i felt that the stripped down nature of the recordings on this EP didn’t translate into the playing, so i smoothed it out into a more 4/4 groove to feel the time better.

—

[desu]

this memo is actually the original capture of the “oyasumi” melody. just recorded it in the living room real quick and obviously you can hear where i kind of drift off into a different melody and direction, but i loved the original melody that i had.

[mrcncb]

re:source

marc encabo re:source (feb ep 2017) [004/xxx] compiled 02/27/17

YouTube: https://youtu.be/CX9gaPnndvw Bandcamp: http://marcencabo.bandcamp.com/album/re-source

—

life is more than a “grocery list”.

—

[liner notes]

february has been a conglomerate lesson in patience and resourcefulness for sure. from getting my car window shattered and most of my gear stolen (thank you everyone that helped out again, i couldn’t have asked for that ever and i’m eternally eternally grateful for real <3), to having to plan for changing tour and work plans… i don’t think i’ve ever fully gotten to sit and just soak it all in hah. that and me underestimating the inherent mental and emotional “drain” from pushing myself to be in a creative space last month and this month definitely made this project a little harder to get off the ground. i had a couple different ideas in mind coming into this month for potential explorations and groups to record with, but i eventually had to work with what i had in the time frame. like the last project, i hope “re:source” is able to reach the ears and souls that it’s been created to reach, and i am always thankful for your time that you take to read these (if anyone ever actually reads these lol) liner notes and listen to these tracks. enjoy.

—

“re:source” is a small collection of beats and instrumentals i created using mostly pre-segmented loops that i recorded live and arranged in post-production of these tracks. to my disadvantage, i ended up starting to record these tracks more than halfway through the month (this is really a 10 day ep lol), so i allowed room for imperfections and discrepancies to live in the takes of the loops that i recorded. i tried to not have to do more than 2 or 3 passes of any given part or section, and left it for the mistakes to create an organic thickness that i didn’t have to necessarily have to add in or process into the tracks. i recorded all (well everything except “worshipful”, which is a bonus track that i added on last minute haha) of the live acoustic tracks in two sessions, and forced myself to have to work with the tracks that i had and didn’t allow myself to re-record for a cleaner or more refined take. being pressed for time, i definitely relied on my piano playing to carry a lot of the tracks on this particular project haha. the final product on these tracks definitely aren’t as refined as i would have liked to get to, but i suppose this is all part of the “EP-a-month” experience. i think that in the end i’m still proud of what these tracks turned out to be :)

thanks for listening. <3

—

[grocery list] feat. liz chavez - vocals and violins

this one was actually the last of the piano samples i recorded. just tried to sing a line while playing some worship-y r&b movements on the keys. liz was there when i tracked vocals over the instrumental and i had her just hit record and lay down some extra sizzle. the pi shop is such a great zone to just vibe out… definitely gonna try and explore the state of mind i was in for this track a little more.

—

[factory reset]

this track actually got the ball rolling for me for the direction of this project. i was just brainstorming some ideas on the keys and ended up with the initial rhodes loop that i recorded. after that i just played drums along with the track and that was that. simple.

—

[no worries]

can’t go wrong with a blues, lol

—

[jesus loves me]

always have loved this hymn. it was probably one of the first ones i ever played while i was still taking piano lessons when i was younger lol. no beat on this one, i was thinking a la “i’ll fly away” off of ye’s college dropout album.

—

[worshipful] feat. Chad Fronteria - spoken vox

i added this track on as i was finishing mixing and mastering the other 4 tracks. i found the logic project file buried on my laptop, it was an old midi loop i probably had put together for fun at least 2 or 3 years ago haha. threw a little piece of one of chad’s messages from sound house, thought it’d kinda fill out the track a little. definitely threw me back to times when i could have more quiet time early in the mornings… sometimes at church, some moments in my old apartment up here in LB, and the moments i remember waking up super early for middle school and high school and watching my bedroom window tint that beautiful 5am sky blue. love it. quiet time = essential.

[mrcncb]

Lines

marc encabo lines (jan ep 2017) [003/xxx] compiled 01/30/17

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=roUDTS8k9Tc Bandcamp and lyrics: https://marcencabo.bandcamp.com/album/lines

—

noun: in its purest form, a line’s function is to connect.

—

[liner notes]

**tl;dr: please enjoy this small collection of sappy, bubble-gum pop songs… more [different] kinds of music to come soon! <3 thanks for listening.

—

“an exploration into the not so ‘comfort zone’.“

first, some general notes on this year-long endeavor:

this is the first of [potentially] 12 projects that i’m trying to put out this year (2017). the goal is to record and release an EP or a short compilation of tunes out per month. ideally this process involves all the writing, arranging, recording, and producing all in the same month the project is set to be released in, but the ultimate goal is to be honest and organic with the time frame and the resources that are allotted. i wanted to fight the complacency that comes along with creating art as an artist and combat the “perfectionist” mentality that can stunt our growth as artists and creators. i’ve had a lot of ideas of different types of music that i’ve wanted to explore and perform, so this is my medium for that.

it is both an amazing blessing and a great obstacle that music and the creation of music has become so much more accessible to people through new technology and social norms like streaming and social media. i had a feeling that with the way the world seems to be shaping up, with anger, hatred, and division becoming a driving force in society- that this year would be a time that artists need to be spreading their passion, love, and organic individuality with others and sending it into the world. this is my hope that art will never die and that artists and others alike will continue to create and enrich environments that foster positivity, love, and self-expression.

—

this project, “lines”, is a collection of songs that i’ve written from both years ago and up to within the last month. i loved writing these “singer/songwriter” type kind of songs in high school, and i let that part of me slip away when i went to college and decided to pursue instrumental performance as my main focus. over the years i’ve always enjoyed (and still are enjoying) performing with singer-songwriter types of artists and groups, and aside from church music i’ve always felt like my playing has been the most “at home" when i’m playing and collaborating with those types of artists and their music. to those that i’ve worked with and had the pleasure of sharing music and time with over the years, thank you.

i was never really comfortable with listening to my own recordings and projects, so it’s been an adjustment for me to try to embrace this particular experience with this project. i recorded these all in larry’s bedroom (which i’ve been dubbing “The Pi Shop” lol) and came in with the tunes in their rawest form, just lyrics and chords. for some of these tracks i didn’t even attempt to piece together the two until i hit started recording. the idea i had for pursuing this project was two-fold for me:

one, to force myself out of my comfort zone and piece these songs together in not the most ideal environments, in a time place where recording or writing and singing these songs might not be the most optimal or well-timed

two, to let go of thoughts, feelings, and experiences that i might have just let clutter up the closet in my head (and on my laptop lol), and to let go in order to make room for new things. i know for myself that i can get lackadaisical with throwing things out and not finishing things, so i feel like releasing some of these lines, songs, thoughts, whatever… is me allowing myself to slowly let these songs go and fly away where they might need to go. these tracks are absolutely far from perfect, but this is coming from the “not so comfort zone” after all, haha...

for fans of bubble tape, cotton candy from the fair, and medium-rare chicken, i hope you enjoy this small collection of stripped down songs i’ve written.

love, marc.

—

[breathe easy]

thank you, for sharing love, being love, and showing me what it means to be understanding.

—

[tie it up]

these last 6 months or so being out of school has been crazy, unstable, exciting, depressing, salty, and a whole other collection of words that don’t really go together lol. positivity never has to die, though…

—

[rain]

there are people that it is just insanely easy to be with, to talk with, to be around. thank you, for making me feel like i’m home, especially in times where i don’t feel like i know where i should be.

—

[i don’t mind it]

an oldie!!! lol i wrote this one in high school, i remember it got shared a bunch of times on tumblr for some reason but it was just another sappy love song. i’ve always just wanted a version of this that wasn’t the one i recorded on my old blue snowball usb mic so this is for anyone who was listening to my whack songs back in the day, haha.

—

[it’s when]

this is a poem about the feelings that won’t ever be spoken.

—

[black]

this is a dog song. it’s not about how much time you have, but how you use it. quality time = everything.

[mrcncb]

to:shore

MRCNCB to:shore [002/xxx] compiled 11/30/15

https://marcencabo.bandcamp.com/album/to-shore

---

noun: for the moments your mind needs some space.

—

[liner notes]

this is the type of project that i’ve been trying to get myself to put out for a while. i challenged myself at the start of this year (2015) to create: to put some sort of musical compilation out every month. as we all know, life can get in the way of things that we really want to do, and so i had to put that endeavor away for a little while. it’s been a humbling experience being up here in Long Beach for my undergrad in music. there have been a lot of things i’ve just started to realize about what living this life is really about. as a person, musician, friend, stranger, role model, student, teacher. i feel like i’ve started to really embrace a love for this music thing. but i’ve had a lot of moments where i’ve started to question if this is the trajectory that i really want to follow through with. that’s for another time though.

i think it’s important as artists, as creative-minded thinkers, that we always strive to create. to externalize our art form. it’s selfish to keep your craft to yourself. i truly believe that. nowadays it’s so much easier for people to generate art. to express themselves. i think that’s a beautiful thing. it helps us grow as people to express ourselves artistically and you never know what kind of effect that can have on people listening or observing your art. this particular compilation is an assortment of some old voice memos i had on my phone from the last year, a spoken word piece i recorded earlier in my undergrad, and some light sound arrangement that i put together. i tried to force myself to compile these tracks in less-than-optimum places, like I put together “zone” on the boat ride back from Catalina Island this last thanksgiving break. it’s definitely a more ambient, minimalist type of listen. for me, i feel like the best time to listen to these tracks is when you need some room to breathe, whether that time for you is deep in the late hours of the day, or right when you wake up in the morning. those are my favorite times to meditate and unwind.

please enjoy.

—

[heir]

space is important. (i like making beats)

—

[no fishing]

i found a clip of waves in my voice memos. i must have been on the beach. earlier in the year i went up to sac town and collected a bunch of little sound clips from different spots around town… which are all on my old galaxy phone that I don’t have anymore. i originally sampled a part of the voice memo where i had dropped the phone and processed it into a fat snare-like sound. i ended up taking it out though because it didn’t really fit the vibe of the track. the spoken word in the track is an old one i wrote and recorded 2 or 3 years ago. it’s hidden on my soundcloud somewhere. i felt like it needed to be there, so i threw it in.

—

[zone]

i programmed this one on the boat ride back from Catalina Island this last thanksgiving break. definitely much needed break time with the fam. i really only started the session on this track because i wanted to distract myself from getting seasick on the boat. it worked. i think there are 15 or 16 tracks on this one, and i tracked them real loose each time and just quantized them all at the end. it’s tough to really hit some of those lines using the musical typing window in Logic. conceptually, i wanted to capture the feeling of being the boat in the water.

—

[munk (interlude)]

i love rain+jazz. this is an old recording at croce’s in San Diego that i got off of an old tape recorder (actually it was a new tape recorder i bought on amazon). i’ve got a bunch of old recordings on my bandcamp that i rarely ever listen to anymore. they are all pretty bad but there are some nice ones somewhere there.

—

[concentric]

i had a voice memo of this tune on my phone that i played on piano. it’s for a completely different ensemble but i thought this synthesized rendition turned out well. kinda vibey.

—

[garibaldi]

school is tough. money is tight. art is forever.