My first gameboy album from 2008! It's not remastered in any way, I just wanted to make sure it was preserved. I nearly lost it. Thanks to Evan, Ryan, and Sawyer for helping me locate the files.

I have to admit that I was embarrassed about this album for a while. There's a roughness to it and a visceral explosion of ideas that I excitedly crammed into each song. Nonetheless, there's something very special to me about them that I see more clearly now that I'm older. While I lacked some in technical finesse, I had a plucky teenage doggedness that allowed me to finish these tracks rather quickly.

By my teenage years I'd played the piano some, touched a guitar a couple of times, and sampled my Gameboy camera and other sounds using Windows Sound Recorder. I was hungry for music and the internet was an enormously formative outlet for me--I wasn't culturally trapped in the small, rural Minnesotan town I grew up in. I fondly remember hot summers spent in the den of my house, packed with friends as we plumbed the depths of the internet for funny and strange videos. I'd listened to Kid606 and Future Sound of London and Aphex Twin and Boards of Canada and Locust Toybox's discographies, all 50 discs of the Merzbox, my friends were introducing me to things like Speedcore and Metal, and I was mastering Slayer on Guitar Hero (which is what directly led to Unconquered Soul, my attempt at a Slayer-style song).

Like some chiptune folks, I had memorized the sound test codes of my favorite NES games when I was kid. The sounds of those old chips laid their roots in my soul at a young age and the music from those games moved me in ways many other things still don't to this day.

I was 13 when I discovered that people were making original music with homebrewed software on old consoles, including LSDJ for the Gameboy. I downloaded all the chiptune albums I could find for a while and desperately wanted an LSDJ at a time when they were temporarily unavailable everywhere. I was so obsessed that I read its manual online before I ever got my hands on one, so when I finally did have the opportunity to order my first one from 8bitpeoples I already knew how to use it and got started right away.

The powerfully simple interface of the LSDJ provided me a medium to release what amounted to a lot of pent-up creative energy. At the age of 30, I now appreciate how this work is a snapshot of my teenage years. I was 17 when I released >4 on Treble Death System, a now defunct net label.

Each song was built around a simple melody, and some of those melodies I came up with using the detuned piano on my front porch, the same piano I was playing when I took lessons at the age of 6 or 7. Ayrn was named for a close friend of mine, whose main theme I originally came up with using a Casio in his bedroom. Train Ride Through an Ancient Forest had some post-production using a program called Forester written by Leafcutter John. Jet Set Grind (named for a favorite videogame) opens the album with cut up recordings of me playing my cousin's guitar. Everything was mastered using some Fruity Loops VSTs and Audacity.

I remember walking around my hometown at all hours of the day and night with friends and little more to worry about than finding ways to entertain ourselves. The train tracks running through town became symbolic to me as I looked forward to my journey in life. I've since lived in Minneapolis, Mankato, Miami, and Dallas, I've learned a lot, and I've grown to be a little nicer to myself. I'm glad I can return to these songs and hear my roots and the energy I had when I was younger. Don't throw away your old work, even if it embarrasses you--someday you'll be glad you kept it, and returning to it may yield some insight for you.

I've uploaded a handful of photos with these tracks--Gameboy Camera photos I took in those days while walking around with friends. Special thanks to them for being a part of my life!