What is Organ Grinder about in one sentence?
It’s about exploring sounds and rhythm and the ability for music to create a feeling or energy - other than that it’s not a themed album or anything. How did you come up with the albums name?
The art came first and I was thinking 'what title might connect in a cool way to the image?' The idea of an organ grinder playing his organ with a monkey as part of his street act seemed cool. It connected with the monkey image of the cover and the idea of a one man musical performance. What was your inspiration in making this?
It’s a tough question because while I don’t necessarily think about what's inspiring me at the time there are always ideas that are inspired by things you hear or want to explore, for example Space Bigfoot was inspired by the original movie the Thing. When the monster is first revealed it looks a bit like a bigfoot from outer space and I thought 'that’s a cool (or funny) idea for a song'. So that’s kind of exactly what you’re asking about, just taking that idea and imagining a track that might pay that idea off.
Poltergeist Jazz was inspired by the idea of using some jazz elements like horns or a loop of a jazz beat and trying to make it sound like a totally different kind of electronic music. I always loved the dissonant jazz incidental music from the old Spiderman cartoon. I wanted to get some of that vibe in there. Mostly I just love exploring musical ideas and experimenting to see what ends up being cool. Did you binge watch any tv shows or movies while making it?
We had watched all of the Halloween movies in a row (over several days) and a version of the Halloween theme ended up on the album so I guess that counts. Was there anything unique that happened while making this album?
Anything that you won’t forget when you look back at the process.
I experimented with playing live drums, recording them and looping them and chopping them up to create something new. I also played with some backwards guitar tracks here and there but probably the most memorable thing that happened was the creation of ‘Song for Grey'. As soon as the piano part took shape I thought of my daughter and decided to dedicate the song to her and kind of thought of her spirit or energy as I was creating the music. It’s hard for me to listen to that song without an emotional response and I’m sure I’ll always remember that experience of how that came about. The cover art is definitely eye catching. How did you come up with it?
That was something I painted quite a while ago, just as a kind of weird colorful and somewhat creepy image. When it came time to search for art for the album that seemed like it might be a cool fit. Any plans of new music in the works?
I’m always planning on new stuff. I tend to get sort of obsessed when I make music and while I totally love the process it takes a lot of energy so I like to kind of decompress for a bit before getting back into it. I probably will have new music ready to release in early 2022. Also I’m hoping to do a very small run of organ grinder on vinyl that will hopefully be ready after the new year.
Michael Anthony: Since I've started listening to EGM, I have been loving his past 2 releases. The beats on each track are different and creates an awesome vibe. He blends different genres of music and makes them into his own. I will be looking into more of his music from previous releases and highly recommend everyone to do the same.
