Showcase

Showcase Introductory Note

Hello! My name is Eric Wagenbrenner, and I am a Design student at Freestyle Academy. I have grown to love producing music, designing album covers, photography, singing in choir, playing soccer, hiking, running, and working hard in school.

 

For my Showcase, I am presenting my Senior Zenith project which contains two different projects. The purpose of the Zenith project is to achieve self-direction by creating our own deadlines and meeting them, managing the time and effort we put into our projects, and ultimately creating our most epic Freestyle project! My project was to produce three electronic songs with Reason as well as design art for my album cover. Producing music is a passion for me because I have always had a special connection with music that I don’t have with anything else. I want to emphasize the challenges I came across while producing my music. There were times where I was frustrated with my songs because they did not turn out how I wanted them to at first. However, with a lot patience and effort, I was able to produce something that I am proud of. I do not consider myself a fine artist but I am very satisfied with the album cover art because it is original and beautiful.

 

How do you think I can improve the flow of the songs? The songs are all short – should they be longer? How much instrumentation is necessary for creating a great electronic song? I hear many songs that are overproduced but still manage to sound good, but I also hear songs that have minimal production and sound good as well. Based on this observation, how much production do you recommend I include in my songs?

 

Next year, I plan to study Pre-Social Sciences at the University of Washington in Seattle. I am beyond excited to live in Seattle for the next four years. Although I am majoring in Social Sciences, I plan on taking music production classes, participating in theater, and singing in choir.

 

You can contact me at:

ericwagz66@gmail.com

 

Chosen Projects

Album Cover Art: “Abstract”

For my album cover art, I wanted it to be minimalist so I kept the design plain and simple. Simultaneously, I made sure the designs were elegant to look at. The name ‘Abstract’ popped into my head at some point during this process. I wanted the name to be ‘Abstract’ because it sounds cool and something that an electronic album would be called. I liked the name as soon as I thought of it. But that wasn’t enough, I had to see if it work by actually seeing the design for myself. After many different designs and patterns, I ended up with the images I have below and I am pretty happy with how it turned out.

Tracks from album: Spaced, Valence, and Delirium

These are the three tracks that I created for my EP! The first song ‘Spaced’ was supposed to be a totally slow and relaxing song that stays the same the whole time. However, I was a little conflicted about whether I wanted the song to pick up or not to fit a more electronic-dance vibe. Eventually, I decided I wanted it to be both relaxing and something to dance to. The song ‘Valence’ is about a combination of different kinds of music. The actual term valence means the “combining power of an element” so I thought it would be a fitting name for a song that does that. When I first created the song, it began with a mid tempo, zen type beat. Then halfway through the song, a pop melody emerges for a few seconds and then the song returns to the original beat. Essentially, the pop melody was sandwiched between the main beat. I thought this was a cool idea at first but then I realized… “Why not just start the song with the pop melody and keep it as the backbone for the entire track?” This was a good idea as I like how the song turned out versus how it originally sounded. The final track ‘Delirium’ is my personal favorite because I think that it is the most unique. I decided that the best way to close off “Abstract” would be to do something totally different so I created a track that incorporated bongo drums, dance-club beats, and disco sound synths! This song turned out really well from the get-go which I am grateful for and so major revisions were not necessary.

 

My songs are really a combination of different genre including Electronic, EDM, Trap, and Pop music. I was able to successfully accomplish this and my album cover effectively displayed the art that I designed for it in a way that I am very satisfied with.

 

When I was creating my album cover, I was very hesitant because I did not consider myself to be a very good artist and that I was even considering having someone else design it for me. However, after deciding to take a leap of faith and design it myself, it turned out well and displayed my artistic vision. I discovered that I am capable of designing artwork. If I ever need to design an album cover for another artist or create another musical album of my own, I know I will be well prepared with the skills I developed while creating ‘Abstract’.

The songs on the album are the forte of my zenith project. I wanted them to be different, short, and display my artistic vision. I feel that I successfully accomplished this with the tracks through the use of different instruments and creating different moods. I learned that a good electronic album doesn’t overcomplicate production, but does more with less instrumentation. My production skills definitely improved during this process even though they didn’t necessarily end up how I had originally planned. For example, the first song I produced is called ‘Delirium’. The song was originally a five minute long crazy dance beat track that I thought was cool at first but turned out to be a little annoying. After I made all the other tracks, I scrapped the track for Delirium but kept the name because I didn’t want to give it up. I then made an entirely new track that was totally different than the first one I made. I called this track Delirium instead. I am definitely considering going into music production as a career because I honestly had so much fun creating the album. I think that taking classes in college is the way to go for a career in that field. It was truly a pleasure to create something so original that I am able to call my own.