Back when I was in high school, I was a shy, gangly kid, and during my first school dance, I realized that if I were ever going to get any dating action, I had better get off the dance floor and into a band. A multi-year rock ‘n’ roll “career” was born: Rock, blues, jazz, funk, ska, metal, punk, rockabilly; I’ve played it all—even earned a living at it for a while.
Later on, I discovered what was then called “electronic music.” I spent hours with Buchla, Moog, and ARP analog synthesizers, creating what I thought were freeform masterpieces. But upon re-listening, they might be better described as self-indulgent flapdoodle.
Now there’s GarageBand, and I can again indulge my twisted musical sensibilities. My contribution to this month’s GarageBand collection, "Daydreaming at Work," is an example. Most of it is composed of straightforward Apple Loops—distorted, chopped, and channeled. There are also a number of FX loops from Apple’s Jam Pack, including Abstract Atmosphere 023, Glass Breaking Loop 01, Vinyl Scratch 23, Car Start Loop 01, and Phone Sound Effect 04, along with edited MIDI loops.
Finally, there are three MIDI sections—including the ending—that I wrote directly into an empty MIDI loop, using GarageBand’s Command-key pencil tool, and to which I added effects in the Track Info dialog. The whole 15-track shebang took about four hours to create on a Dual 1GHz Power Mac G4 Mirrored Drive Door.
Okay, so "Daydreaming at Work" is strange—but, then again, so am I.
