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Making Music + Music Makes Me


image: jean-guillaume bastien

A strange twist of fate turned this classically-trained pianist into a synth-loving chance operator that I call:

Public Axis
(get it? Public access programming?) 

It’s is all about me hiding in, from, and behind the Internet
... albeit very loudly.

You know that pressure when you’re about to post something online?
“What if this is dumb? What if this makes me look like I don’t know what I’m doing?”

Public Axis is the dispreoccupation with that inner critical voice through music that is bad, kitsch, and meant for public access television that may not be seen by anyone at all.  

I’ve been on a musical journey that started as raw as recording chance operations on my iPhone to composition and arrangements on a DAW to playing in some classy recording studios with other musicians. 

Here are a couple of tracks that I made or perform on that you may enjoy hearing ︎︎︎

“Fall Back and Wave Again”

This song came about because I wanted to try engineering a piece of audio that I had recorded spontaneously on my phone. I’m really into plug-ins lately like the Solina, so I added some Strawberry Flutes and Organ effects. I also added an audio effect to the piano recording to emphasize the pressing of the keys, almost like an old and tired upright piano. It’s simple, raw, and captures the mood of Autumnal nostalgia for me.


“Viens mon minou”  

This three-way collaboration between myself, Jean-Guillaume & my cat who is constantly chatting while we play music together. Composed & engineered within one day, this track is dedicated with amour to all les petits minous in the world.



“Blood Moon” by Shepherds

In 2016-2017, I started to nourish my quiet dreams of music performance and collaboration albeit very casually. Not long after that in Spring of 2018, my longtime friend, Adrian got in touch asking if I would play piano on an upcoming Shepherds track. When the time came, I entered the studio, it suddenly made sense. Dim-lit, orchestrated silence, a wooden upright piano, cushy headphones, and a clear and reassuring voice spoke to me from the engineering booth. The chimy, clanky sound of the keys moved me more than Steinway grand pianos I had played in the past. Through this surprise, chords and transitions rolled out in different textures.



︎︎︎See Also: jardin botanique 
︎︎︎ Creative