'Into Sporks', the second track to be released in advance of Bird Rib coming out later this month, features kitchen sounds sampled and combined with a manic, sugar-fuelled energy. My singing is also in there, too, towards the end. Definite nods to late 90s-era IDM/Richard D. James (one of my heroes).



I made the track in Logic, firstly sampling loads of kitchen things - glassware, cutlery, chopping boards, plastic containers, egg shells, the gas hob clicking on, etc. I used some shortcuts to avoid being bogged down with programming - the arpeggiator MIDI FX was useful for generating rhythmical patterns at different durations, and I slowed the whole project down so I could jam in the fast melodics live. Then I nested the elements within layers of bus effects - all percussion stems through Stutter Edit, all melodic elements through iZotope Vinyl to detune and filter groups of instruments together, then everything once again through Stutter Edit. Aside from sampled things, I sang bit, and used Sound Iron's Glitch Hero and Spitfire Audio LABS keyboard/piano instruments.

As I did with 'Deedee' last month, I decided to make my own music video for 'Into Sporks' - this time in collaboration with my lovely friend Charlotte White, a.k.a. Restoration Cake. As I was composing and producing the track I was envisioning someone cooking up a storm, stirring, mixing, clattering around the kitchen… so the idea of a top-down cooking tutorial seemed like a fun thing to try and choreograph to fit with the music. I booked out some 4k Blackmagic cameras from the uni's media department and travelled up to Bedford to Charly's place to film her creating a key lime pie from start to finish. Not knowing at all what I was doing, I mistakenly had RAW 4k format selected on the camera, which meant that I filled up my 250GB SSD cards within minutes and had to switch to my phone part way through the process - this will explain the change in colour and stabilisation in the final video. For the edit I downloaded the free version of Da Vinci Resolve and taught myself how to create crude paint-style animations. It was a fun process, but by the end I was feeling SO grateful that I work in audio media and not video… those render times were not fun.

[again, for some reason embedded youtube video won't play - you can watch it here: https://youtu.be/hZS0xXQMUcc]



I'm really pleased with how the first two Bird Rib tracks are being received. I've had some exciting radio play here in the UK, as well as in the USA and Australia; also some playlisting here and there on Spotify and Tidal. It's so rewarding to have people engage with and enjoy the stuff you've made - thank you to everyone who's listening. x