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The Making of Lost Frequency
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| Coat of Arms - By Adam Cartwright |
In 2010 I had an idea. I wanted to create a crossover between my
two passions: Music and Comics. I had been working on a sci-fi comic for a few
years and the idea of bringing music to the world and art to my music was
really exhilarating. My band was on the rise, working on our first album (Self Titled), and I was eager to create
some original music. In short, Adam, Miguel and I wrote a few songs, the band
disbanded, I bought the rights to the music, and reformed the band with a
completely new membership.
The new band recorded/released Unavenged as a matter of necessity,
because we desperately needed recordings that were reflective of our new sound,
however, I hadn’t stopped working on this ‘Space Album’ idea I had. In fact, I
was already in talks with Yoshitaka Amano (Final Fantasy) about cover art, and
swapping emails with a Japanese translator who could help me communicate with
my future collaborators.
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| The original sketch from June 16, 2012 |
The intent was to write a series of songs that all tied together to form a story that would tie into the comic book world. I would attempt to collaborate with a few key composers and musicians whom I greatly admired, and who had inspired me to become a musician. As a kid, I specifically started listening to music so I could hear the catchy tunes from video games, and as a teenager I learned to play the accordion so I could play those tunes. The idea of possibly talking to and working with the very same people who unknowingly introduced me to music still gives me goosebumps, but I made it my goal.
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| Big Dreams for Vinyl |
Since the band was a democracy, and the others didn’t fully
understand my vision (I was notoriously bad at explaining things back then), my
Space Album kept getting pushed further and further back in favor of learning
more video game covers for live shows. Being a live band, there’s a pressure to
always bring new music to the stage and it’s not as easy as you might think to
learn too much new material at once while maintaining a regular set of songs
people have come to expect from you. However, I was able to forego more sleep
than the others and by 2012, I’d already written outlines for 20+ songs. I was arranging
these songs into sequel stories/albums. I actually had a release schedule too,
which outlined proposed releases for the next few years, leading to a meeting
of the characters from the comic with those of the Space Album in 2018. It all
seems sort of silly in retrospect, but I was really passionate and organized
about it. I also must have been annoying because on more than one occasion the
band basically said that I was forbidden from mentioning the Space Album or
anything to do with it for three to six months.
The music, which was fully original, drew inspiration from video
games to give many of its songs context in a story sense. A careful ear can
discern subtle nods to the Mass Effect, Diablo, Silent Hill, Wizards & Warriors,
Metroid and more.
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| Character Concept - Adin |
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| Recording with Eric |
Between 2013 and 2014 many amazing things happened. The stars aligned and Amano
was able to find time in his very busy schedule to create not only the cover
art, but 9 additional pieces for the album, I also finally made contact with the
right person on the DOOM II HRII team, and I also flew to Boston to create the
System Shock inspired ballad with Terri and Eric (who composed System Shock and
created the effects for the SHODAN voice)! A series of extremely fortunate
events (and two amazing tours across Florida and the EU) also led to us working
with Tommy Tallarico on a track! On the side, I also started working with Wily
and Bruce (of the NESkimos) to create 15 rough songs for a new story within the
Space Album/Liberty setting. I also somehow got to hang out with Brian Johnson
(AC/DC) a few times (just us! It was insane!) and he said quote “I love that Hacked
song!” Mind. Blown.
I cannot express how great these two years were from a writing/creative
perspective.
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| Concepts for Grey and Arkhain by Casey Bailey |
However, on the band front, Moose’s job became increasingly
demanding and he had less and less time to practice or learn new material. The
two times we arranged for him to go to a recording studio were both cancelled
by freak accidents (he nearly drowned himself after hitting his head on a rock,
and after recovering from that he was hit by a car while riding his bike and briefly
hospitalized). Moose and I had Phil (Careless Juja), Michael (Star Lake), Adam
(RE), and Wily (NESkimos) record live drums for the entire album, while Juja,
Michael, and Johnny recorded live guitars and bass for 1/3rd of the album
to help speed along the recording process, unknown to the rest of the band. The
others, who were now out of college, had less and less time to learn the songs
outside of our limited and very busy practice schedule. Since many of the songs
would probably not be performed live, having close friends record parts for the
album, with Moose’s blessing, seemed logical from my perspective. However, when
revealed, the others were not as enthusiastic and expressed that they wanted to
contribute musically to the album (which is understandable). So, all of these
tracks, about six months of work, were completely scrapped. Around this time it
was also put to a vote that I would not be singing on the album, as I have a
fairly limited vocal range.
Powerless without the others, progress on the album slowed and eventually
ceased. We set up deadlines multiple times that we consistently missed due to legitimately
great opportunities like shows, tours, and the chance to write our own video
game soundtrack. The band created/released the Big Blue EP and started talks of
a completely new full length cover album that would be recorded before the Space
Album but by that point my own ability to spend the entirety of every weekend in
Orlando had also diminished as met my future wife and I got started on my
career path.
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| Lone Survivor by Casey Bailey |
While I was leaving the band, and at their request I didn’t mention
the Space Album for about nine months until after they were squared away with the
incredibly talented Jackson. They actually had a joke inspired by a Fight Club
line: “What’s the first rule about the Space Album”. By this point I was fairly
disheartened, and basically took the best tracks from the various Space Albums
I’d written that could fit the story of Lost Frequency and cut everything else
that even felt vaguely weak to me or that didn’t directly push the story
forward. Clearly the one album would be it, if it would ever happen at all. I was
fortunate to be working with the incredibly composer and musician Steven Melin
on two of the last “missing” tracks I needed to complete the story after the
cuts were made. I was now able to effectively use my own experiences in
creating the album to write better lyrics too. While I’d started the album
superficially writing about the emotional journey of the protagonist, to me the
creation of the music itself now represented a very personal journey of loneliness,
bitterness, silent victories, anger, euphoria, and depression, which I was able
to use to write better lyrics. In many ways the album’s very tone is a
reflection of its creative process.
Sometime after I left the band we started talking about the Space Album
again and it was agreed that it would make the most sense to release it as
Random Encounter, as the art strongly reflected the membership of the band, I
had approached all of the guest artists as the band Random Encounter, and because
Kit & Konami had both invested time in learning the music. Somewhere around
late 2015 we had a meeting where Kit promised to create the drums for the
album, Konami & Kit would both work to create the guitars and bass for what
was left, and I’d work on accordion, violin (did I mention I took two years of violin lessons?), and keys. It was fairly hard work
and Konami & Kit vastly improved upon my creations and added their own
songs to the mix as well, which I swapped out for more cut songs.
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| Anyone recognize those guns? |
At some point, when I used my comic’s social media to mention the
Space Album, the band expressed that most of them were unaware of my plan to
set the album’s story in my comic book universe. It had been years since we’d
had any formal discussions about the album (I’d only just been ‘un-banned’ from
talking about the album… again) and they’d felt blindsided by this idea. The
short version is that the Space Album would no longer be a part of my comic
world.
A full year and a half or so later, the final tracks were submitted
and much to my delight, probably due to time constraints, my original vocals
for one of the songs was passable enough to be left in! I will say that while Konami is a much better vocalist than I am in most ranges and styles, and brought a dept I couldn't have hoped to on pretty much everything he touched, there's something about singing the words to your own song that feels nice. Brandon Strader worked
his magic over the next few months to make the album sound great while Kit and
I revised the story booklet. Hearing the final mixed songs brought a smile to
my face. Strader, Kit, and Konami did a fantastic job.
Though I had deviated some from my original intent, I’d
accomplished something far greater and grown up somewhere during the process.
So, inspired by the very people who helped bring it to life,
fueled and lovingly crafted with real and very raw emotions, Lost Frequency is finally
complete! I hope you’ll take the time to check it out now that you know the
story behind the music:
