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Tribrix, the Tale of an Accidental Musician
I never thought I'd be heading up a music operation. I began making music in 1989 with a drum machine, a casio synth, two tape decks and a cheap mixer that a friend of mine lent me. It was crude, and the sound was terrible. Soon I got an electric guitar, a 4-track and later a PC based midi setup. I took each technology to the limits of my talent, and always found the results lacking. My instrumental music at that time was interesting, for sure, but it wasn't mainstream and I didn't pursue or expect it to find an audience.
Building on a love of metal, punk, classical, and dance music, I began to develop the musical idea that would become Tribrix and even began the painstaking work of building the first tracks in that style. But I got frustrated with myriad difficulties in realizing my intentions and the project lay dormant for a few years.
In 2005, I took it back up. By then, technological advances had streamlined the process of recording, and the first demo of TechNoel, a Rocktronica Christmas album, was completed in a few months. It was a personal project, an album I made purely because I wanted to listen to it. Once the demo was complete, though, it seemed silly not to share it with others so I passed a few copies out to friends. They played it at Christmas parties that year and word came back that people really liked what they heard.
My hobby had an audience!
With the TechNoel demo finished, I went back into the audio lab and began to record other material—some based on Beethoven's work, some completely original, but all instrumental. I shared this with my sister, who has no idea what to make of instrumental music. Figuring she probably represented a lot of people, given the popularity of songs with words, I thought to take a stab at making some music with lyrics. It was just about then that some muse decided to reach out to me and before I really knew it, a song called "I Don't Wanna' Fight" sprang into my head—words and music, all at once. I rushed into the studio to record a demo version.
At that moment, laying down the vocal tracks, things took a turn. Almost without realizing it, my hobby morphed into a calling. What had been an amusement was suddenly a passion. Soon, through this community, I found myself very busy making music with other people as well as on my own.
It never occurred to me I'd be making a career of my love of music, but thinking about all that’s happened since I first began my little analog sound experiments. But I think I bring a fanboy's perspective to the music- making process, which isn't such a common thing, at least, I don't think so.
* Gear. As you'll see, I'm one who never bothers to replace my starter gear even after I get really into it** (there's so many other instruments to buy first). Here's the list: Squire Affinity Strat by Frender, Squire Affinity J Bass by Fender, Shure SM 58, Ion Digital Drum Station, Synsonics Drums, Roland U-220, M Audio Keystation 49e, Casio MT-540, Casio VL-1, Sound Gizmo, 1.83 Gz Dual Core MacBook Pro with 2 GB memory, Boss Distortion, Boss Noise Gate, Boss Compression, Boss Digital Delay, Ibanez Chorus, Zoom 505 Mk II, Griffin iMic, M Audio Uno, and various acoustic rhythm devices.
**The guitar is actually my second guitar. I originally had a Sears Harmony electric, though it's gone, I think I still have some scars from playing it
.
I never thought I'd be heading up a music operation. I began making music in 1989 with a drum machine, a casio synth, two tape decks and a cheap mixer that a friend of mine lent me. It was crude, and the sound was terrible. Soon I got an electric guitar, a 4-track and later a PC based midi setup. I took each technology to the limits of my talent, and always found the results lacking. My instrumental music at that time was interesting, for sure, but it wasn't mainstream and I didn't pursue or expect it to find an audience.
Building on a love of metal, punk, classical, and dance music, I began to develop the musical idea that would become Tribrix and even began the painstaking work of building the first tracks in that style. But I got frustrated with myriad difficulties in realizing my intentions and the project lay dormant for a few years.
In 2005, I took it back up. By then, technological advances had streamlined the process of recording, and the first demo of TechNoel, a Rocktronica Christmas album, was completed in a few months. It was a personal project, an album I made purely because I wanted to listen to it. Once the demo was complete, though, it seemed silly not to share it with others so I passed a few copies out to friends. They played it at Christmas parties that year and word came back that people really liked what they heard.
My hobby had an audience!
With the TechNoel demo finished, I went back into the audio lab and began to record other material—some based on Beethoven's work, some completely original, but all instrumental. I shared this with my sister, who has no idea what to make of instrumental music. Figuring she probably represented a lot of people, given the popularity of songs with words, I thought to take a stab at making some music with lyrics. It was just about then that some muse decided to reach out to me and before I really knew it, a song called "I Don't Wanna' Fight" sprang into my head—words and music, all at once. I rushed into the studio to record a demo version.
At that moment, laying down the vocal tracks, things took a turn. Almost without realizing it, my hobby morphed into a calling. What had been an amusement was suddenly a passion. Soon, through this community, I found myself very busy making music with other people as well as on my own.
It never occurred to me I'd be making a career of my love of music, but thinking about all that’s happened since I first began my little analog sound experiments. But I think I bring a fanboy's perspective to the music- making process, which isn't such a common thing, at least, I don't think so.
* Gear. As you'll see, I'm one who never bothers to replace my starter gear even after I get really into it** (there's so many other instruments to buy first). Here's the list: Squire Affinity Strat by Frender, Squire Affinity J Bass by Fender, Shure SM 58, Ion Digital Drum Station, Synsonics Drums, Roland U-220, M Audio Keystation 49e, Casio MT-540, Casio VL-1, Sound Gizmo, 1.83 Gz Dual Core MacBook Pro with 2 GB memory, Boss Distortion, Boss Noise Gate, Boss Compression, Boss Digital Delay, Ibanez Chorus, Zoom 505 Mk II, Griffin iMic, M Audio Uno, and various acoustic rhythm devices.
**The guitar is actually my second guitar. I originally had a Sears Harmony electric, though it's gone, I think I still have some scars from playing it
.
Music 
Collaborations
| Title | Genre | Released | Plays |
| Apocalyptictronica | Electronica | Jan 6, 2008 | 1067 |
| The Electronica Cadavre 5 | Electronica | Oct 28, 2007 | 964 |
Blog
| Inappropriate Artist Collaboration Voting | April 14, 2008 |
Inappropriate Artist Collaboration Contest has only 17 votes (out of how many thousands of members)
Comments (2) | Read more »
| Merry Christmas 2007 | December 21, 2007 |
Holiday greetings . . .
Comments (6) | Read more »
