Eclectronica Vol. 15 - One & Only

Due top my struggles with late stage capitalism I am later than ever to release this years duo of mixes and yet, I find myself releasing this at the perfect time. This years's Eclectronica is volume 15 - One & Only, and I don't think there's been a more important moment to reflect on this theme. We have one life, one planet, one voice, and one chance. This is the moment where we need to set aside all of our differences, disputes, past traumas and grievances and stand together for the final time against the rise of fascism. It's here in our face more obvious than it has ever been and even the most extreme victims of the propaganda machine are starting to wake up and see reality for what it is. Authoritarianism is an unsustainable model of rule that governs with fear and never seems to learn the lesson that love always wins. Fear tries to bully what it doesn't understand into submission. But you cannot bully love. Love is passion. When they use fear to back the world into a corner like a scared cat it is love that compels us to strike. To rebel. To live. Love is bravery in the face of evil. Love is violent when necessary. Love stands up to fear until shrinks and cowers as it shivers away into the darkness. If you love yourself, your tribe, and your planet then you must fight to protect it. Because the billionaires are not playing fair and it is time to get real. The pace of progress is accelerating and we are decades from either a permanent dystopia or a permanent utopia. Which one will you choose? I choose love. And I will do anything to, and I mean anything, to protect it.

Eclectronica Vol. 14 - Rock & Roll

I present to you Eclectronica Vol. 14: Rock & Roll! This cheeky set illustrates why I love electronic music so much. Because it can be every and any kind of music. Rock, Blues, Pop, Classical, Jazz, Historical Speeches, Ted Talks, Things You Step on in the Woods, Memes, Whatever! If it's a sound you can take it and manipulate it into as unique and personal an experience as you can imagine. No genre is safe from anyone with a computer taking something they love and turning it into a new and exciting piece of art. It is by an infinite degree, the most comprehensive and inclusive form of artistic expression possible. Not matter what instrument you play, or whether you play one at all, you can record or create any sound you can imagine, create a rhythm and a melody and harmonize it with anything else your heart desires.

Eclectronica Vol. 13 - Angels & Demons

It's that time again and as I find myself doing an Eclectronica writeup for the 13th year I think of how lucky I am to have discovered a passion for chill and beautiful music to carry me through my days and help so many more do the same. As I think about my lucky number I am reminded that though the number 13 was considered lucky in so many cultures in the past, colonialism has re-written its significance as it has with so many powerful symbols in so many cultures throughout history. While I thought about how I was going to put together this set and what kind of vibe it would need in order to do justice to such a powerful number I thought about the perceptions of good and bad and how so many concepts of right and wrong are often skewed by societal conditioning and even changing from minute to minute within our own minds. I thought about the struggles I have personally had to endure over the last three years and the ways I had to grow as I fought to follow the path of righteousness while my own inner turmoil fed me fear, resentment, and existential dread through the lens of my subconscious biases and the very real conscious harsh reality that my loved ones and I lived through.

And with that, I present to you Eclectronica Vol. 13 - Angels & Demons. I hope they inspire you to reconcile the light and dark parts of your inner world and recognize that without witnessing and giving space to both, one cannot be truly free to accept themselves for the challenges that make us who we are.

Eclectronica Vol. 12 - Down & Out

Content Warning: Raw Human Experience.

Two years into a pandemic is more than enough for even the strongest among us to break down. Inadequate support from governments. Unchecked algorithms pushing many of our loving and compassionate community down misinformation pipelines of fear, mistrust, and hyper-individualism aligning them with white supremacists and other extremists. Losing friends and family to stark differences in ideology, death, or just plain dangerous levels of ignorance. It's enough to make you want to give up. I wanted to. At one point in an autistic meltdown, I was literally kicking and screaming at the top of my lungs at 6am that I wanted to die after yet another night of watching a love of my life scream in agony for hours on end because her body can't hold itself together and the medical system mismanaged her. I couldn't take any more of the unbelievable selfishness, stupidity, and arrogance of humans who prioritize their inconveniences over the well-being of vulnerable people, the planet, and even themselves while I'm working 24/7 to bring a woman I love back to health for 2 years.

I am privileged to be held in those spaces by two partners who support me and bring me back to a sense of safety when I feel lost and I do my best every day to bring what joy I can to the world and create changes where I can. This is all we can do. We have to support each other as best we can, but fighting to find peace and safety in the death throes of capitalist colonialism is exhausting. Some days are better than others and we need to hold on to all that glitters to manifest the future that we deserve. The world is super hard right now, but we can make it better if we work together towards positive solutions.

This mix series follows my journey to the depths of my despair. A path from grief and hopelessness to understanding and renewed empowerment. When we fall we peer deeply into the intricacies of the world's failings, but bouncing back from that perspective makes us stronger, wiser, and more capable to challenge them. The lessons we learn from our darkest places give us the tools to burst out of our comfort zones and make the changes to our inner and outer worlds that we didn't know we needed. 

Eclectronica Vol. 11 - Hide & Seek

As the pandemic forced us to hide in our caves for the past year under threat of a deadly virus, I like many of you was forced out of all that I knew. Every aspect of the career that I have built for myself over the last 15 years relied on mass gatherings. I wouldn't be honest if I didn't say that the toll on my mental health was severe. But as time goes on we adapt, and so too do we learn about ourselves in the darkest of places, and grow in ways that while painful at the moment will help us to be more resilient, and grateful for better days to come. Through these challenges, we are also able to seek out new ways of finding joy in the world. New ways to connect with each other. New ways to create magic that we might bring to the world in ways we didn't know we were capable of. As I release this gift to the world nearly half a year later than usual due to my mental health and overload from life's challenges making me procrastinate on making the artwork, I am looking forward to creating more soon for the first time in a while, and being able to share some of my love for music in front of real people on the open fields as the world begins to finally open up. All my love, and I hope you enjoy these mixes as much as I have for the past half-year <3