In 2009, my mum went back to the Netherlands without me for the first time, I was in the middle of university and it wasn't an option for me to go as well. Amongst my standard Hugo Boss and Armani fragrance requests, I also asked her to bring me back the album 'Imagine' by Armin van Buuren. I had recently started listening to electronic music after a lifetime of punk, rock, metal and classical music. The first electronic songs I remember really listening to were 'Sail' by Armin van Buuren, 'Adagio for Strings' by Tiesto, and 'Exploration of Space' by Cosmic Gate. Mum being my lovely mum, brought back not only the album, but the 'Armin Only - Imagine' DVD taken from his live concert. I remember sitting down and listening to the album, it was really a new experience for me. It was completely different to what I was used to and it really struck something in me, I loved it. Watching the DVD only made that grow, seeing so many people just enjoying the music, seeing that big grin on Armin's face as he stood at the front of it all. I said to myself, this is what I want to do. I saved up and bought some decks and got an old computer from a good friend and started playing around with a few things. Again, I thought wow - this is what I want to do. I said to myself that by the time I was 22 I would have something to show to labels.
It would have been in 2010 when I built a computer with the purpose of running some music and audio programs, inspired by this new music. When I first started I really didn't know what I was doing, I just started learning. Musically I had some idea as I had learned piano and guitar from a young age, but conveying that through a computer was a completely new experience and something I really enjoyed. So, for a long time I just practiced, learning new things about the programs I had and all of the little things like structure and how particular sounds are used in electronic music. There was a time when I had a song that I thought was pretty good, so I showed a few people but I was still really shy about it. I would always compare my work to that of Armin, Tiesto and Cosmic gate though, so any time I thought I had made something half decent I became my biggest critic and threw it onto the pile.
Then in 2011 I started to really feel like my music was starting to sound pretty good. I started to show more and more friends, and they really liked it. I remember when a friend sent me a message asking me when my stuff would be online because he had one of my songs stuck in my head, that really made my month. Over time I had more comments like these, I remember when I showed my mum a song I had made and a song I love from Paul van Dyk, 'For an Angel', and she said she liked mine better. Sure, she might be biased and I don't think in any way that any of my music is at that level yet - but that was awesome. So now I had turned 22, and I thought hey, a couple of years ago I said I'd have something to show to people by now. I listened to some songs I had made, and some new stuff I was making and I thought yeah, I think this might just be alright! Then thanks to Nina Las Vegas and Triple J I had the chance to meet Armin van Buuren himself. So I got some of my music and got in my car, and the whole trip to Sydney I was thinking, oh my god, I'm not good enough, there's no way I'll ever be good enough! I walked into the studio, and there was Armin mixing a set. I just sat there with a grin on my face, enjoying the music, thinking that here was the guy I watched on my DVD and now I'm a couple of metres away! Afterwards he did an interview, and then I got the chance to have a chat with him quickly before he went off to his next gig. All nerves, I gave him a USB with some of my music on it. He said he'd listen to it but to send it in to Armada anyway. I never heard anything back, but I never did submit that music to Armada. Again, I started thinking that it wasn't good enough, and if I only had one chance to have them listen to my music, it needed to be good.
So then it was 2012, and I had a few things happen in my life that knocked me around for a while. I didn't really do much of anything for quite a while, but after a time I was able to turn some of this into inspiration for some songs. I said to myself that it was time to take the next step, go more public with my music and get a CD together to send to some producers and labels. So that's what I started doing, I picked 5 of what I thought were my best works in progress and starting working really hard on them. Then I started thinking of names for the EP and 'Sunsets and Silhouettes' jumped into my mind. Then when I started getting close to being ready for the next stage of mastering, I thought ok David, you've wasted enough time - it's time to share your music with more people! So the facebook page, my soundcloud and youtube channel were launched. Now it's July 2012 and I'm so close, closer than I ever have been before. I've finished all of the songs, I just need vocals done for two of them and then the whole EP mastered and produced. I'm really proud of where I am, sure on the one hand you could say that I haven't achieved anything yet and maybe there's some truth in that. The way I choose to see it though, is that I've stepped out of my bedroom. I've gone public. I've created an expectation among my awesome group of family, friends and fans that I will soon have an EP out. I've worked for years to get to this point, and I'm really proud of this collection of 5 songs.
I will finish the EP, it will be sent to labels. Together, we will make sure that my music is heard.
What happens if nothing comes of this EP? Well, something has already come of it, people have heard previews of the songs that they never would have heard if I didn't take these steps, but let's just say nothing else does - then I'll just have to keep practicing, keep producing, keep sharing, and keep trying until something does happen.
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