This is a track that I produced when I was experimenting with the Innovator project. It is very hip hop styled, sampled based, and focuses heavily on the drums and bass. I really wanted to try and tell a story through sound and for this track, I wanted the story to be about being strong when your afraid. The track starts off with a quote from the MMA fighter, Conor McGregor, where he says, "the more you seek the uncomfortable, the more you will become comfortable so.." and that leads into a guy running and panting in the rain. I tried to make sure the footsteps and deep breathing was clear over the drums to emphasize that uncomfortable feeling. I decided to incorporate a lot of gunshots, bullet shell droppings, and thunder throughout the song not only because they sound pretty cool but also to bring it back to the feeling of being uncomfortable and struggling, sort of like if you were in a war zone. The piano melody is supposed to represent each step you take towards becoming stronger. Towards the end, you can hear a woman shriek which is then followed up by a laughing clown. I really like this part because a fear of clowns is something that a lot of people have, and once again it brings the idea back to being afraid and uncomfortable. During the build up, I have the 808 sub bass hit more and more often as it leads up to the climax which is supposed to convey to the listener that something big is about to happen. When you listen to the track during the build up there is a snap which is actually 2 snaps layered on top of each other, and during the climax I use the same 2 snaps and layered a snare on top with reduced low end. I really wanted to make that the focal point of the climax, that everything that was going on was part of something bigger. Everything that happens during the climax revolves around the half beat. I removed the hi hats where they overlapped with it and put a very light sidechain on the half beat snare. Also, you can very quickly notice that the volume on the half beat is much louder than almost everything else in the track. Finally, the track ends with another Conor McGregor quote about working hard, everyday to better yourself.

I took inspiration from a producer named Imagined Herbal Flows when creating this track. I really enjoy listening to him and appreciate his unique style and attempted to reinvent my own version of his music. This genre of music is called downtempo so as you can probably infer, it is generally pretty relaxing and slow. I set the song to 100 beats per minute and began to work on a drum pattern. I found a very light click sounding kick and an 808 kick. I put a low pass on the 808 kick and layered it with the click sounding kick. I also found a very unique sounding clap and put a lot of reverb on it so that it would sound like a lot of people were clapping simultaneously. I made some very simple chords for the build up and a tropical like melody for the climax but slowed it down heavily. I spent a lot of time working on the hats and implementing the shakers because this track really focuses on the drums due to the fact that it is very slow and doesn’t really have an overarching melody. I set all of the melodies to the higher octaves and focused on using mostly pluck sounding synths to create a happy vibe. The cello and violin have the same melody and are set to the middle range so that they just fill in the spectrum under the main melody. The low end is primarily filled by the bass which just sits under the plucks, violin, and cello to give the song that warm feeling. After layering the kicks, I removed some of the low end because I didn't want it be very strong. Finally, I’ve always found the sound of ocean waves calming and decided to put in that kind of sound effect and I think it worked out pretty well.