Mister Chill'R's Descent into "Music Madness"

It all started with an Apple Macintosh computer. Many eons ago, back in the personal computer "Age of Enlightenment" (1987), Mister Chill'R and his adoring spouse, Mrs. Chill'R, purchased a little Macintosh mainly to keep track of Mrs. Chill'R's ever expanding collection of VHS taped movies. And wanting to learn more about their new little machine, and to commune with their fellow Mac'ers, they joined the local Mac users club. For several months the meetings concerned themselves with demos of word, spreadsheet software and new peripherals and the like.

Some months later at a Mac users club meeting, what to Mister Chill'R's wondering eyes should appear nestled next to a proud little Mac, but a synthesizer keyboard, an amp and PA speakers. Oh! What wonders did this portend? With a click of the mouse, beautiful music began to pour forth from the speakers, a cover of Jean Michel Jarre's "Oxygene". "Wow!" Mister Chill'R excitedly thought, "Now I know what computers are REALLY good for!" With that musical epiphany and blinding flash of sonic inspiration, Mister Chill'R began his long, strange adventure in computer music land.

His first steps on that journey began by pouncing on the poor, hapless computer musician, grabbing him firmly by the collar, and demanding to know "Please, please tell me how you did that!" Freeing himself from Mister Chill'R's frantic grip, the computer musician told the feverish Mister Chill'R that he would have to get synthesizer of some sort, a MIDI interface (Mister Chill'R didn't have the least notion what these mysterious items were, but he would find out or die trying.) and music software for the Mac. Oh, and did Mister Chill'R play a musical instrument, read music, have a knowledge of music theory and song arranging? Mister Chill'R cast his eyes down, quietly shuffled his feet and mumbled that, no, he didn't. But he could learn!

And that's exactly what Mister Chill'R proceeded to do over the next few years. While toiling away by day in the high tech "Silicon Forest" in the environs of Portland, Oregon, Mister Chill'R would disappear at night into a spare bedroom that now became his music studio. There he would read all he could find about music notation (Kind of like learning a foreign language, he discovered.), music theory and song arranging. He experimented with different types music software until he happened upon Passport Design's "Master Tracks Pro", an early Mac MIDI sequencer. After several false starts, he discovered the MIDI interface and a synthesizer module that would work for him. He then began to make, note by note, in "step time", covers of pop songs. The results sounded somewhat like music, and, encouraged by these primitive first attempts, Mister Chill'R persevered (or perspired, or both).

Mrs. Chill'R remains way cool with this bizarre musical monomania of Mister Chill'R's. Her theory being that if he is in that spare bedroom making strange sounding musical noises, he's not getting into other more dangerous and expensive male-type mischief! And she knows where he is. Males have a tendency to wander, she's discovered, if not closely monitored. And the songs got better, at least to Mister Chill'R's ears, to his long-suffering friends' and relatives', ears. Or, at least they were way too polite to say that some (or all) of it sucked.

But it did indeed get better, helped along with more powerful computers, audio sequencers, audio loops and samples, and software synthesizers. With the aid of Sonic Foundry's ACID and a stack of loop and sample CD-ROM's, Mister Chill'R's little "Ruff Kutz" did sound more musical and song-like, not to mention, original. However, these little songs were still very rough, not of "professional" quality. Mister Chill'R needed to learn how to professional produce, mix and master his songs. He rapidly discovered that that was an expensive and time-consuming educational endeavor conducted at schools far away from rainy old "Stump Town."

But wait, yet another epiphany! This one due to the Internet and Google, bless 'em. Mister Chill'R, searching for music production courses that he might be able to use (and afford), found, right here in good old Portland, the Spun Academy. And it had music production courses. Not only that, it was a non-profit, so the price was right. So, Mister Chill'R took himself down to Spun, and listened to what Brandon Neustel (aka DJ What!?) had to say. He said all the right things and they had all the proper hardware and software. He signed up and was accepted to the music production course! Mister Chill'R's life was filled with great joy.

But the most wonderful part of Mister Chill'R's musical journey was about to unfold. His instructor, Brennan Murphey (aka Epsylon), a young man of extraordinary knowledge and talent (He makes the most outstanding Psytrance I've ever heard.), not only did he impart his wisdom and skills to Mister Chill'R's inquiring and eager mind, but also kindly listened to some of his "Ruff Kutz" and, to Mister Chill'R's euphoric delight, pronounced some of them worthy of professional production for commercial release. And more wonderful yet, he offered his production, mixing and mastering services to Mister Chill'R while Mister Chill'R learned these skills at Spun. Mister Chill'R had indeed ascended to Nirvana! Oh rapture!

After several months of hard work, but really great fun, of production polishing, mixing down and mastering, some of the results are what you hear here. By the bye, Epsylon also created the fabulous artwork that you see here. Mister Chill'R will never be able to thank him and his lovely and talented lady, Domanique, who designed this page and my misterchill-r.com site, enough for this wonderful opportunity to share my music and songs with all of you out there. Listen and enjoy!

Yours in music and FUN,
Mister Chill'R