“The broadest umbrella I could put this music under is electronic, like synth-pop. The actual genre that probably best describes it is dark wave or goth-pop, as I affectionately call it.
It will move your booty, but it’s also a bit of a bummer.
The Goshen experience is different for everyone. For me, the style of music I play is not typical to the Goshen area, he says slowly and intentionally [laughs], so it’s been a unique experience playing my nook of music.
While I tell you that I play electro-dark wave stuff, I have a little policy that these songs have to hold up bare bones. So, for example, I played a place close by in Elkhart, an acoustic show – just me, myself, and a guitar.
They’re still depressing songs, but they need to hold up melodically, and then I can come back and put the bleeps and bloops on it.
With this current project, Hypnagogia, I’ve played a couple of shows around Chicago, but I have a show coming up at Witches Brew in South Bend, and I’m playing The Well in South Bend, as well.
And I deejay a similar vibe [as Plague MD].
One of the first things I remember as a turning point was a band that I heard. It’s been my favorite band ever since, and it’s super-influential, and that’s Depeche Mode. I heard them obviously when I was very young, but when I heard them again when I was older, I fell in love with them.
I began reading their lyrics before I even listened to the music, and I was hooked. They’re still making music, and they’re still pushing the genre forward a little bit.
The other pivotal thing for me was realizing more of a concept that was just in my head. It was, ‘Don’t be afraid to create it, and don’t be afraid to lose it.’
The idea is that I’m an artist creating something out of nothing all of the time, so there are no guidelines there. There’s always a palette.
That was a lightbulb, turning point for me: there is always silence to fill.
I’m saying it’s okay to make it, to have the idea and do it and be like, oh, shoot, that’s garbage and then let it go away. But I’ve seen other artists get tightly-wound about always having a recording device with them or some way to get it down – and I think it’s also okay to have it in you and until – for as long as it takes you to get it out and down – for it to be whatever evolution of that thought or inspiration it is in that moment.
It served me, at least, as a creative person, to say, ‘Don’t worry.’ That it will always be there, and just accept that it will be.
I’m finishing up some production on a full-length recording for Hypnagogia. I’m editing, producing, and finishing up the last tweaks and bits for a full-length release that should be ready as soon as early autumn, probably October.
It will initially be available on all streaming platforms, and if you’re so kind, you can buy it from my website. And down the road, there will be vinyl and possibly a cassette.”