The Archives Vol. I
The Archives Vol. I is The Archivemonger's debut full-length album, featuring a total of 13 tracks and a run time of 41 minutes where various styles and influences merge together to create a unique soundscape, utilizing elements of progressive metal and math rock, featuring modern electronic production techniques and a unique vision, not only musically but artistically, that ties together a whole universe of stories to come with each future volume.
Enough of the marketing pitch, here's the real story:
This project originally started as a way for me to make lots of different styles of music and explore what I liked, when I liked, and put it all in one place, or archive of all my music, which is where the name of the project originated from.
I debated this for long, but kept creating music in many different styles. Eventually, I started getting booked to make music for other people, video games and varied music/ audio tasks, which I was elated about, but made me realise that this project had a purpose: me.
I needed a place in music to call "home", some place where I could make the music I liked, just because I liked it, where I wouldn't have to listen to directions, notes or write to a pitch, which presented a whole other challenge as well.
And that's how the project was born.
After scratching 3 more album's worth of music in other styles, I decided to take it seriously and produce this professionally.
Initially the album was going to be much bigger (about 21 tracks), but the structure was the same: an intro, the following story, an interlude, the second story and an outro, like it is now, except there was a third parallel story right in the middle and a second interlude. This section was actually different as far as style is concerned, a mix of influences such as Mastodon, Deftones, Yomi No Kuni, Stoned Jesus and the lot; much more doom/stoner metal.
There were even tracks where I put lyrics and it also featured some screaming.
Ultimately, however, I decided to scratch that section for two reasons: time & scope. Maybe it'll make its way back at some point on Vol II or a spin-off album.
To come back to Vol I, the album is meant to resemble a book, with references to writing structure such as PROLOGUE and EPILOGUE, but also a reference to the middle, physically, of a book; SPINE, that works as an interlude for the album.
This structure will come back on any albums of the like, since the whole project is meant to resemble a big library (archive), with each book (album) telling a story.
As far as style is concerned, and as I mentioned, I like a lot of different genres, but there's always been a few a little closer to my heart. With this album, I've tried to grab little bits and pieces of each and put them all together; it's been difficult because most of these tracks have traveled in time and it's proven to be a challenge to translate some of them to this mix of styles that I wanted to experiment with and create, but in doing so, I feel as though I've unlocked the tools to explore my own sound, which might not have come through on this volume as much as I'd have liked, but makes me really excited for Vol. II, since I feel I have a way better grasp of the direction I want to take this project in after the mess that Vol. I has been.
I take this as a learning experience like no other and a test for many things where I've luckily come through the other side with some knowledge, some cool music, some personal growth, yes, some real big headaches, but ultimately a big smile and something to look back to in time and be proud of.
Can't wait to explore more with this project; I think the future is looking bright in this little spot so I'm just going to head towards it and hope for the best.
I'll leave you with some interesting points about each track that made the cut for the first album now, cheers!
Fancy a listen while you read the story of each track?
PROLOGUE
PROLOGUE was originally called "Abstract Intro", more as a working title than a final idea honestly, but it was originally intended to give the listener the idea of entering a massive, cold, dark library-like archive made of stone walls and floors, with really high ceilings where it smelled of dust and moist wood through a heavy wooden door.
This is one of the oldest tracks in the album, dating back to sometime around the start of 2020 and it's probably also the one that's had the least amount of change; it was originally a little longer, calmer and didn't have transitions from EPILOGUE or to No Man's Land. This was a decision that was made during production to use this track as a glue for the whole album essentially: it not only works as an intro itself intro the album, but transitions really smoothly to No Man's Land as well as functioning as "outro" for EPILOGUE, making the whole album seamlessly loopable.
No Man's Land
This is probably the track that's changed the most in the whole album (also because it was half-written almost 3 years ago): it was originally about 6 minutes, with a full 2 minutes of ambience intro; really ethereal and moody guitar improv with voices and pads and such.
I ultimately decided to scratch that altogether because I thought it was too much coming from an ambience track such as PROLOGUE and decided to transition it smoothly into what we now know as the start of the track.
The name is also totally intentional because there's a total of 5 sections in the track, none of which come back at any point or have necessarily anything to do with each other as far as motifs or riffs is concerned. It was meant to be a track to spark the sense of exploration in the listener, taking a tour through different ideas and preparing them to have an open mind for what's about to come later on in the album.
Cleek
This track was called "Battle" for the longest time and stayed that way until I decided to revive it for the release. It was written 3 years ago as well and it's stayed 90% the same, making it the 2nd least changed track in the album, having mostly re-done production and recording tasks on it to prepare it for release, which is probably the reason why it's my least favourite and I've debated for long whether to pull it out.
I just thought my writing skills were much better than this, which ironically, I think is why I ultimately ended up leaving it in because it's a nice reminder of not only how long this album (and project) have been in the making but also how much I've improved as a musician and professional.
The name just means "large hook" and I though it sounded cool and weird enough for a track name.
Duck Eyes
There really isn't that much to say about Duck Eyes; it's always been called that and it was left half-written some time around end of 2021 / beginning of 2022 so I decided to finish it in 2023 when the album started production.
It actually has two of my favourite moments in the album: the riff breakdown in the beginning with the Dave Grohl reference (Song For The Dead drum intro) and the solo-like section towards the end of the track where the drums and bass make this tight groovy pocket.
It was also fun making all the signature changes and metric modulation bits.
Actually, it was the hardest to record now that I remember; it took quite a bit to memorize that last section at the end and it was specially difficult to nail a clean take.
(I guess there was a little to say about it then...)
Sunway
About two months before the release, I sat down at my desk, put on the whole album and listened to it all together in the right order for the first time ever.
I was moved by the story it told and the flow of it, but for some reason I felt it was missing something.
That something was Sunway.
I decided to scratch one of the songs and replace it by this; originally the album was going to have two interlude tracks and ultimately decided it was a better decision to just leave SPINE.
The album felt a little lopsided without Sunway in the first part and although it was scary to start a whole new track from scratch when I was supposed to be doing other tasks, because the album had been finished already, I think it was the right call.
This makes Sunway the newest track in the album; it was also the one where I felt the most pressure while writing, being so close to the deadline, and was worried it might end up feeling rushed and shoehorned, but I think it turned out alright!
Erf
I wrote 4 bars of a riff sometime in 2020 after listening to a really inspiring prog guitarist online, which later turned out to be the man behind the project "Wave Types", so this track's working title was "Cooke" for almost its whole life.
I stumbled upon this riff in 2023 when starting production on the album and although it was more of a sketch than anything, I couldn't leave it that way and decided to re-make it. This track was an exercise of variation for me; grabbing an initial idea and giving it different flavors and shapes.
I also remember having a specially good time writing the solo in the middle section.
The name "Erf" simply means "plot of land"; I love a good weird-sounding name for a track, but also it reminded me of some green pastures out of someone's yard; very uplifting and peaceful in a happy way, like a summer evening out when you're a kid.
SPINE
When I first started thinking about creating a solo project, one of the albums that inspired me the most at the time was Who Bit The Moon by David Maxim Micic.
In that album, there was a track called Beaver Moon. While listening I always would get this warm feeling and also thought it worked really well for an interlude track so, sometime later, without realising, almost subconsciously, I wrote this track.
It wasn't until I unearthed the project that I realised it reminded me of something and what it was.
It's funny how everything worked out as well, because on this track you can hear subtle waves moving, and I called it SPINE because the whole project revolves around the idea of a big library, having each album be an individual book telling a story, and this track works as an interlude as well as a reference to the middle of the book (physically, not as far as structure is concerned). As you can see on the cover of the album, in the book represented there's a little beach in the middle of it where the river widens and splits. This is intentional, because that's physically in the center of the piece and the track is also half-way through the album as far as the listener is concerned, so it works as a resting place.
Since it's sonically very different from the first portion and the second one as well, I thought of this track as sort of a palette cleanser for the following tracks.
Also, I actually didn't sing it, but recorded a virtual instrument with my voice back in 2020 and later used it and played it on a keyboard, so for me it's like travelling back in time a little, hearing how, for some reason, my voice's changed.
Fjall
If I absolutely had to pick a favorite track in the album, it would have to be this one for a number of reasons.
First off, technique-wise, it's the most different thing I've written for the album, being heavily inspired by my all-time personal favorite band Toe, for it's math-rock elements, and Polyphia's Tim Henson's playing style with elements of synth wave and ambience that I feel give the track a very unique soundscape overall.
Second, this track has been not only written, but fully finished for the longest time in the album since 2021; I even tried re-mixing it at the start of 2023 but couldn't achieve a better product than the original, so all I did to it was proper mastering for the release. That's all.
Another reason why I like it so much is because of some personal experiences I've had with it like using it in a visual-novel-like video game I made some time ago for practice, going for drives listening to it and the fact that it's my favorite person's favorite track as well.
How many times have I said favorite already?
Anyway, "Fjall" means mountain in Old Norse and other Nordic languages and sometimes I write using visual cues, so if you want to see what I was looking at while writing this click here.
The track explores only two elements in the form of sections, one is in Cm and the other in C. This is totally intentional since I wanted to convey a sense of duality, much like any mountain, that for every step you climb up you must climb down as well.
Dalr
Following the theme, "Dalr" means "Valley", in Old Norse as well, so this track was designed to fall from Fjall, conveying the descent to the valley and slowly rising from it towards a cliff that falls abruptly into the abyss.
I like to imagine the listener approaching the edge of the book in the cover, suddenly feeling the weightlessness.
Whenever I hear the fall from the build-up, my stomach drops and my face lights up, so I use it sometimes to pick myself up with some warm fuzzy feelings swirling around.
The track can also be interpreted as the interlude for a mini-story within the bigger story that the album tells, joining Fjall and Grogg together, giving even more meaning to the concept of valley between these two mountains.
The end section was meant to convey that sense of void and weightlessness mentioned and, while working on it, I referred to it as "Grogg's dream", since that's exactly what I wanted it to sound like.
Grogg
While "Grog" is an alcoholic beverage, "Grogg" simply doesn't mean anything.
I don't even remember how I thought of it but all I recall is thinking it sounded like a name you would call a troll or a goblin, and that was enough of a reason for me to use it as a track name.
This track was meant to mix some of that Plini ambient sound with heavy riffage and it's the first track in the album to feature the beautiful sound of Shakuhachi for the solo section and transition, heavily influenced by John Waugh's saxophone solo in Plini's Pan, but with a twist. You can definitely expect some more of this on upcoming music; I love a good jazz-influenced solo on a djenty/prog track and I think I can improve a lot in this aspect having had this experience as well.
You can also hear one of the most recognisable motifs in the album, presented in its full form, contrary to references to it from tracks like PROLOGUE (background synths), Cleek (lead guitar towards the end of the breakdown) or Dalr.
Pillow Head
This was one of the most fun tracks to write and record, specially all the flute lines and harmonies, of which you can clearly hear Shakuhachi and Shinobue, while there's layers of Ocarina underneath.
The main riff was also super fun and flowy to play.
I thought it would be nice to mix everything I like into one track; heavy prog riffage, traditional Japanese flutes, complex drums, fun, colorful basslines and synth-riddled production.
Funny enough, while part of my daily work life involves being a session musician on other people's music through these traditional Japanese flutes, I didn't even think to include this part of my life in the album until I started writing Pillow head, somewhat towards the end of production for the album. I'm happy I did; if Fjall didn't exist, this would've taken the first spot in my heart.
Also, I've been told this track could fit in Mario Kart on the solo sections.
Musk
Musk is one of the most story-riddled tracks in the album.
I wanted it to be a celebration; to myself for finishing the album (I wrote this last initially, before deciding the album was lacking Sunway), to the listener for having made it this far into the story, and most importantly, to my two wonderful dogs, to which the track's dedicated to and served as inspiration for.
It needed to convey a sense of uplifting joy for all of these reasons, which I was able to nail thanks to my Deftones-influenced brain.
The clean section around the 02:10 mark was written intentionally, as a metaphor for my dogs' dynamics in their relationship with each other, where the guitar on the left represents the bigger one while the one on the right is meant to portray the smaller one's attitude; as if they were having a conversation with each other, making for a perfect couple.
When I was but a 10 year-old kid, the older one of the two came into my life, full of energy, joy and playfulness, and I remember, whenever we'd get tired of playing together, I'd lay down with her and rest my head on her ribcage. The human brain's most powerful way for memory recalling is the sense of smell, and ever since then, her musk has been a sweet reminder of how much better my life's been with her in it, so this track is one more way for me to say thank you, even though she's deaf now and can't hear it, this is their song.
It's also a thank you to you, the listener, reading this, for sticking through, paying attention and giving my project some love by listening to my sonic stories.
EPILOGUE
Last but not least, this track is another pilar for the album to stand on, not only tying everything together, but serving as a closing metaphor for the structure of a book as well as providing the base for the album being loopable, bringing it back to the soundscapes of the first portion of the record at the end, and acting as "credits" music in the beginning, putting the track somewhere in-between the idea of interlude, intro and outro all together.
Thank you
Although I make music for myself first, because it's an experience like no other and I couldn't imagine a world without this joy I get from making it, it's wonderful to be able to share it and it certainly would not be the same without people listening.
Even though I've explained a little about each track's story and the album itself, I've only told what I thought was relevant and more important, because I still want you to make up your own story; every time someone listens to a piece of music, there's a new version of it born from imagination, so by listening you're creating and expanding this experience. So thank you.
I hope you had as much fun with this experience as I did.
I look forward to creating more in the future and bringing you along with me if you're up for it.