cloudfarm

 Standard description: Album 1. I created the basis for this album and its songs in the tenth grade. Further arrangements, new song parts, and some redone lyrics were incorporated during the recording process, years later.
 Album cover: The idea for the cover was there from the start. I chose the dullest of the older pictures I took of the view on my 3DS.
 Credits: I did everything.
 Equipment used: electric guitar, two acoustic guitars, electric keyboard, desktop amplifier, harmonica, toy tambourine, USB microphone. Cheap stuff.
 1. Noise: Spring. Opens with performance of the obsessive-compulsive closing ritual before the placing of the guitar back on the stand. The end at the beginning, and then the new beginning: airy guitar inspired by the seemingly classically trained boy in my music class playing what I believe were his own compositions (he wouldn't say), simulated church bells, tinkling music box, bagpipes, like the ones mentioned in the lyrics of Chapters, and the ocean tide. All improvised (edited also) on Easter day, in my room with the window open. The neighbours hosted their family celebration; the kids were playing outside. It's like he's criticizing me for playing too high. This was the only song recorded out of the tracklisting order, either after Summer Song or Back to School Anthem.
 2. Always: Song number 32. Hopeful beginning of summer. Love song, not of a romantic relationship. Different experiences pieced together: traveling train tracks, passing the neighbourhood pool, only sleeping for one hour of the night at a group sleepover before breakfast, visiting my elementary school during spring break, isolated. Ultimately, leaving home, whether with someone or alone, and returning having learned something: life adventures. After a long winter depression contemplating death and my future, I woke up in the morning and spent ten hours recording the instrumental. I retrieved the toy tambourine out of the garage, the keyboard out of the basement. Synth set to Chapel. It's the first song I've ever recorded truly. My fear subsided, I decided I was going to make an album.
 3. Let's Burn in the Sun: Song number 39. Pleasant French music. I guess they got sunburns. Ouch! This one leads into the next. It's easy for a young person to become bored and let the sun melt them away with all the free time they're granted during the early summers of life. Still, it was pleasant.
 4. Summer Song: Song number 61. I was in tune with the moon and tired of melting, waiting for something to happen. The summer after grade nine, I laid on the couch in the late night eating pizza pockets and watching "Clark and Michael". Following the winter of death, I ran on a treadmill and recorded in an endorphin-induced sleepy state. The running stopped, but the recording continued.
 5. Back to School Anthem: Song number 63. I wrote this song at sunrise before the first day of grade ten. Anthems for a Seventeen Year-Old Girl by Broken Social Scene was one of my favourite songs. No one likes the end of summer, but there's hope in new beginnings.
 6. Chapters: Song number 78. Commentary track, after the fact. My friends kept making jokes at the cafeteria table when I just wanted to talk. You can learn a lot from your younger self. A shopping bag from the major book store, Chapters, was in my room. Excluded lyric: "Nostalgia sets in from the sweet scents of acne cream and semen". The previous householders left us small rounded dark green tiles which created an atmosphere I much preferred. Deterioration formed a large hole. We covered it with special extra-strength duct tape in the meantime, but a renovation was necessary.
 7. Halloween 2014: Song number 72. I was on the recliner, watching television, guitar in hand, "going fishing". I don't know remember what I was watching; I vaguely remember Charlie Brown. A catch! "Joey, the giant turkey, ah...", I sang strumming the G, E minor, and D chords, in that order. I remember seeing a giant turkey on the screen. I named him Joey. Then I made it about the Halloween night I spent at my friend Jimmy's house. "Ghosts walk the streets at night": there's a lot of walking recounted in this album. People don't sing enough about walking considering how much we do it. Thus started the tradition of writing a Halloween song every year. Sunlight shines down from a high-up narrow window when morning comes. First at Jordan's, then at Jimmy's.
 8. Give Me Life: Song number 64. I picked up a guitar first thing in the morning and strummed a tune in an agitated state. I saw her on an expensive boat docked at a modern house and then at a grey and red facility (like a dam) across a large deep rectangular gap protected by railing, massive waterfalls from each side crashing down into itself. I never actually liked anyone in high school, but I'd fantasize like anyone.
 9. Long Winter: Song number 74. Fantastic winter romance. I thought this song would be like four minutes and a half long. It's Jackson's favourite. He sang it at work and a coworker asked him what it was. If it resides in your heart, it's real, in some sense. Idea came before execution, inspired by discovery of Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, not yet well-acquainted with it. I sang the chorus for the first time seeing the snow fall through my window in the early winter. Nothing happened.
 10. Christmas 2014: Song number 76. The only Christmas song as of yet. It was already over. The lyrics don't speak very true to me, but aren't exactly wrong. I was already over it. Boring celebrations at extended family's houses. What? TimeSplitters isn't cool anymore?
 11. Bus Time: Song number 71. In grade nine English class, we read Speak. I was too embarrassed to admit that I enjoyed it. I related to Melinda. My favourite part was when she ditched school. The third chorus was supposed to end with "when you're on the bus" instead of "try to learn from them". I forgot that I had changed it when recording. School is bus time.
 12. On the Floor: Song number 81. Originally titled "Ontario Night". Lying on the hardwood floor, face in a puddle of drool, at night with the lights off. Let's Go Away for Awhile by The Beach Boys appears in it somewhat despite Let's Burn in the Sun imitating its title. The idea of two instrumentals on each side of the album, excluding Noise, was taken from Pet Sounds. On the Floor's true inspiration was actually Pulse by Yotam Perel, though.
 13. Daytime Moon: Song number 79. Simple and Clean by Hikaru Utada was the first song I ever felt a strong connection to, I think. Also refers to All I Want to Be Is Free. I recently saw a squirrel climb to the top of a very tall tree. Back to the trees, back to the sea, whatever. A daytime moon represents looming danger in current bright circumstances. The cycle continues progressing onwards.
 Note: I analyze the songs after I write them, from an intimate perspective. Anyone could make their own interpretations.