"Ode to Tempest" sounds like an abstract and metaphorical title, but it’s actually literal. It’s an ode to that analog drum machine/synth by Dave Smith Instruments and Roger Linn that was just discontinued in 2020. For the last ten years, I’ve made music almost exclusively on my DSI tempest. I consider it like a guitarist does his favorite acoustic; it's like an old friend.

In honor of this, I wanted to capture what it sounds and feels like when I just plug my headphones into the Tempest and start playing. I wanted other people to feel that feeling, to feel the joy of playing with a drum machine, the joy of loops, the joy of turning knobs and being amazed by what happens. Because of that, I decided to record just the raw sound of the tempest without any added effects or transformative plugins. So, it’s became a sort of concept album about the tempest and the unique way I use it, how I express myself through my instrument.

The result is a varied, experimental, and sometimes just plain weird album that doesn’t sound like much else. It captures many emotions and every shade of light, with some darkness mixed in.

I recorded the album late last summer during the first quarantine here in Quebec. During that time, my sister-in-law and her husband went on vacation and asked Amélie and I to house-sit for them. They live in a suburb of Montréal that really feels more like the countryside. They have a nice-sized property on the river and their house is somewhat isolated from the surrounding neighborhood. As I’m sure you all know, during the isolation of this past year, it feels like a miracle just to go somewhere, anywhere different for a day or two. We were only 25 minutes by car from our apartment, but it felt very exotic. It felt like we had space to spread out and relax compared to our little apartment.

It was during that time that I recorded most of the album. The writing and recording process happened almost simultaneously. I barely thought about anything; it was very intuitive. It helped that I had decided not to overproduce this album, to keep it raw. Because of this, I could just focus on the songs themselves. These aren’t just beats looping over and over again; they are dynamic songs that take the listener on a journey, each one taking place in a very different locale. Each song has it’s own spectrum of colors and emotions.

Since I wasn’t thinking much while making the album, it wasn’t until I was finished that I stepped back and reflected on potential meaning. When it comes to instrumental music, the meaning is even more subjective than lyrical songs. There are no words to guide the listener. They must fill in the blanks themselves. In this case, you can’t even take too much from the song titles.

In keeping with the album’s concept of raw expression and literal focus on me and my drum machine, all of the song titles are exactly the title of the beat as I saved it on the Tempest. When I am writing a beat, I don’t care at all about the name I’m saving it under. At that point of the process, all I care about is saving the idea. It’s just like a baby idea that needs to be saved, or protected, so I can come back later and nurture it into a song. For that reason, I always save my beats under the first thing that comes to my head. It's always something random. So any meaning you ascribe to these songs based on their titles is purely coincidental. However, once the album was finished, I did start to find my own vague sense of meaning in these songs.

Ten years is a long time. It’s a long time to be making music, with the same drum machine no less. The Tempest has been with me for ten years. It’s moved all around the continent with me. It was with me when I was living out of my car in New Orleans. It was with me when I met my wife. No, I wasn’t literally holding it under my arm when I met her, but you know what I mean. It’s moved with me through life’s highs and lows. I’ve poured my emotions into making songs on it and found catharsis. Basically, it’s my instrument and that’s important because making music is one of the most important things in my life.

I tried to capture all of those different emotions and moments in the different songs on this album. Enjoy.