My name is Beto. I’ve been making music since 2014, and I have a one-person band called The Fishermen & the Priestess. I first heard about Jamuary in 2016 when Cuckoo posted on his Facebook page, and I was able to complete it successfully for the first time in 2021.
For my songs I usually play the guitar together with the OP-Z. I like making ambient downtempo, but I also do a lot of weird experimental music. I love using cassette tapes, and some of my favorite songs were 4-track cassette collaborations done by mailing the tape from person to person across the US.
Hi. I’ve been making music most of my life – violin and jazz piano in school in the 80s, jamming with synths and computers in the late 80s-90s, getting more serious with VST plugins in the 2000s, performing with St. Louis Osuwa Taiko in 2010-2012, and getting into Eurorack in 2016. More recently I’ve started playing bass guitar, integrating it with my hybrid hardware/software setup.
In addition to some older projects, I’ve released several albums on Bandcamp since 2018, in the general category of improvised dark ambient / drone.
This will be my first Jamuary, but I’ve previously participated in NaSoAlMo and FAWM a couple of times (and completed a double-length NaSoAlMo once). I also intended to release one track per week in 2016 but it wound up being 120 tracks, and another 261 in 2017.
I’m an amateur living in Seattle, an adult with ADHD, and find that creative challenges like this are practically mandatory for me to actually complete musical works.
I participated in FAWM in 2011 and completed 14 songs for voice and ukulele. One person who saw these videos ended up performing one of my songs at a folk club in Manchester. I’ve signed up for FAWM and similar monthly challenges in several subsequent years but never managed to get anywhere with these.
In recent years I have participated in some of the weekly Disquiet Junto Project challenges hosted at the lines community. I’ve completed 32 of these assignments over the last five years, mostly using software instruments and samples in Ableton Live and Numerology Pro. I rely a lot on happy accidents, using randomization, converting non-melodic material to MIDI, and repurposing MIDI drum loops.
Otherwise I have an assortment of small electronic instruments such as a Tocante Bistab, a Shbobo Shnth, a Standuino Microgranny and a Soma Rumble of Ancient TImes and tend to create noise with these – along with a Bastl Dude mixer and a handful of guitar pedals – that approximates ambient drone. I sometimes do this in public places, both in the shopping and industrial districts of Seattle, using a powerbank and rechargeable portable speakers.
For Jamuary 2023, if I manage to finish anything, I hope to do a combination of improvisations on external instruments and more composed work on my 10-year old MacBook Pro.
Welcome, @Starthief! 261 songs in a single year is really impressive! My record was 100 songs back in 2019, and that was with 31 songs for FAWM and 53 for 50/90.
I just followed you on Bandcamp, curious to hear your music!
Welcome, @Yasha! I’d love to learn more about your performances in public spaces, are there any videos or recordings of them? I have a Microgranny and I love incorporating it into my songs, and recently I started a whole project involving the Microgranny and old cassette tape singles.
My public performances are rather half-baked — I’m just trying to build up sound environments outdoors that I find compelling. I really like the open air and our neighbor complains to my wife whenever I set up on the balcony.
Lately I’ve been just taking my Tocante with an autopan/stereo tremolo pedal, a looper pedal & a reverb pedal. I’ll build up layers with various textures and stereo movement and improvise on top of that. Otherwise I’ll mix together several synths/noise boxes and improvise over that on the Tocante.
This is rather limited by the weather (which is frequently too damp here) and needing a table surface to work on. This takes me to certain picnic tables next to a bike trail, or a concrete bench structure in a square in the center of the Ballard shopping district, or to the concrete blocks being illegally placed along streets in industrial zones to keep RV campers away.
I don’t have any recordings unfortunately. I don’t carry a smart phone or have a portable recorder. (But I’m suddenly thinking that I should buy a Zoom H1N with the Xmas money from my mother-in-law, especially because I could really use a stereo audio interface for Jamuary.) All I have are two photos from four years ago, when a friend was walking by.
My Microgranny is the pre-Bastl v1 model which I bought used. I do like it, but it’s been acting flakey lately. I hope I can pick up a Bastl Microgranny before they stop making them altogether.
I’ve been making and playing music since I can remember which is well over 25 years. I started off as a DJ but rapidly moved towards Acoustic Guitar and songwriting.
My partner got me heavily into Radiohead and Thom Yorke and ever since I’ve been obsessed with developing my sound which led me to synth.
Despite all the negativity around Volcas, I find them intriguing and they play a big part of my music as well as my Mikro Korg and Arturias.
This is the first time I’ve really heard about this but I really respect what Cuckoo does and love the idea of contributing.
I have been making electronic music since 2014. Mainly just for myself and in my home studio but I am planning on releasing music this year. I’ve dabbled in pretty much every electronic sub genre there is but find myself coming back to house and techno. This will be my first Jamuary so I’m pretty stoked this site exists! Excited to hear all of your sonic creations.
Greetings everyone and a Merry Xmas I’ve been attempting to make modular music for a few years now. I’m not musically trained, don’t have much knowledge of musical theory but I can hear a good melody now and then when I stumble across one. My workflow is happy accidents and mistakes which works for me. I put my music on YouTube to help others who are boggled by the complexities of modular just so they can see that there are no rules and whatever brings a smile to your face and satisfaction to your belly is all that counts.
I’m a GAS collector of boutique instruments from folks who put blood sweat and tears into doing limited runs of their creations so I hope some of these might make an appearance during Jamuary. My first one hopefully will be Pluto and Cosmos together, should be stellar (sic).
Anyway Happy New Year everyone and looking forward to hearing inspiration.
You might have heard some of my tunes online as I have written a handfull of theme songs for MatPat’s game and Filmtheory channels althoughI don’t think that truly represent what my style is but it’s a great introduction.
Two years ago I started building a hardware midi studio (after +25 years of software only) and jammin has became a big thing in my creative life. I just love to write 16 bars, loop it and start tweaking those knobs like there is no tomorrow.
Had tons of fun with Jamuary last year so I cannot wait to start jamming but will prepare myself a little better than firs time.
To make the game a little more challenging I like to give myself ONE HOUR per jam.
All best of luck and don’t forget, having fun is the most important ingredient of this challenge!
I guess a quick note about myself: I do live/improv/spontaneous techno with a small modular system, plus some other gear. Currently in incubation/practice mode, plan to start performing sometime mid-'23.
Jamuary striking me as a good opportunity to do a daily practice among peers while I’m still finalizing the rig. Looking forward to participating.
Hi @beto and others!
I’ve been making music since before I can remember:)
I began with simple cassette tape swapping/dubbing experiments and grew.
I eventually got my hands on a computer and a copy of MOTU Performer (MIDI only at the time).
I ended up skipping college to become a recording engineer… I just knew I wanted to make records!
Over the decades, my career evolved and I started making music software. Once I found myself doing product design full-time, making music using a computer turned into work… so I took a long sabbatical (also during that time I had a kid, became a single parent, and didn’t have a ton a free time for music).
Then, a few years ago, I became an empty nester, and found the solution to my, ‘not wanting to make electronic music using a computer’ with a combination of Eurorack + guitar pedals!
Now I spend every spare millisecond I have making music again!!
Last year was my first JAMuary, and even though I didn’t do all the days, I loved it!
I’m looking so forward to sharing and hearing what everyone else shares!!
Hello everyone. I started making music in Scream Tracker on DOS when I was a kid. This was somewhere in the 90’s. Moved to impulse tracker and fruity loops later on, but then when I became 19 or something it all stopped. I graduated from school, got a 9-to-5 job, a girlfriend, that later became my wife, a house, kids, etc.
I tried making music from time to time, but since my job consisted of sitting behind a screen all day (I’m a programmer), I simply did not get any inspiration anymore when sitting behind a screen during my spare time.
So fast-forward to 2020: there was a pandemic (maybe you’ve noticed?) And everyone was looking for a hobby to kill the time. So was I, but this time I bought a Pocket Operator. And it was that hands-on experience with a physical piece of hardware, that immediate interaction, that forced-upon set of limitations in my hands that re-triggered my joy for making music.
So one Pocket Operator became 2, 2 became 3, I bought a mixer, a midi controller, I bought my first groovebox, I sold some stuff, I bought some more, it was a whole new journey.
So now I’m here, ready to enter 2023, starting with Jamuary.
Hi everybody,
I’m Carl from Sweden and go by the nick janglesoul, but make music as The Gentle Kind. I’m a singer-songwriter with plans of making an album in 2023. I have a lot of songs written that could be recorded, but I also have a wish to see if Jamuary can take me into new and interesting directions. I hope to take this first month to experiment and play with my setup. My ambition for Jamuary is mostly sound-design, creative routing, making discoveries – but some experiments will probably become songs too.
Guitar and vocals are my main instruments. The easiest genre to put me in would probably be indie-folk, but I play around with house, techno and jazz as well. Lately I’ve become interested in Bossanova and 60s-70s Brazilian music. Folk-funk psychedelia like Shuggie Otis, Charles Stepney productions (Terry Callier, Rotary Connection) etc are also sounds I gravitate towards.
So, that’s the vibe I want to explore. Soft guitars with spaceship synths, phasers and dub effects.
I forced myself to release three songs in 2022 to overcome my resistance and procrastination.
My name is J. Louise. I’ve been a musician my entire life, starting as a saxophonist. Over the years, I worked as a session musician. When I moved to Phoenix, Arizona, US, I worked full-time at an online retail store selling musical instrument parts. When the company was sold last year, I partnered with Tim Stoel at Stoel Music Systems as Artist Relations and Marketing. So, in other words, I get to play with modular synths all day.
My favorite type of music to compose is trance/house, but I recently found that generative music is fun to make too. I’m not sure what Jamuary will look like for me, but I’m going for it.
I’m mrbill82 (or Bill) and I have been making music since I was a kid, but more seriously in the past 5 years. I play a range of styles, mostly chillout type stuff but also some folk and disco-funk. I am terrible with genres. I have been thinking about trying this challenge and am going to attempt it this year. Aside from music I enjoy cooking (@mrbill82 on fb/insta but not tiktok).
I am an electronic music producer based in Hamburg Germany and make music under the name HVDN.
As a child I learned classic piano but that seemed very uncool to me when I got 14/15 so I picked up a guitar and founded a noisy punk band with friends. Later I joined another band which fell apart when everybody moved to other cities.
Being in a new place on my own I started experimenting with Cubase, later it became Logic, now i am a big fan of Ableton.
Since a couple of years also hardware came into the setup which I found especially helpful when squeezing a session between job&family. Often I find it quicker to get going when there are buttons to press and knobs to tweak
Last year I did Jamuary for the first time, missing just a few days. I got a lot of inspiration from it and it was loads of fun.
Now I am excited for the next one.
Let’s do it 2023
Hey, I’m an experimental/noise/industrial artist who has been makin music since 2017 on my own. I usually do everything through my DAW since I haven’t had the equipment but recently got an arturia microfreak synth that I run effects on through FL. I’ve done collabs across states and had a project released through a small label in another country. Hope yall have a great day and creations!
I’m icky and I’m relatively new to music production. I dabbled a bit in college but career got in the way and I’m dipping my toes back in after a decade.
Currently working in Ableton with a Push 2, a full suite of Volcas, an MPC One, and a collection of Moog and Behringer hardware synths.
Looking forward to going on this journey with everyone and pushing myself to be creative daily. Can’t wait to see/hear what everyone puts together!
I’m Julian, all of Zelikovich and half of Radioactive Sandwich. I’ve been moving towards dawless for a lot of my composition these past few years, and I’m finally releases solo music for the first time in almost 20 years this past summer. I’ve been a fan of Jamuary for a few years now, and I’m looking forward to seeing what everyone has to offer!
My record was 100 songs back in 2019, and that was with 31 songs for FAWM and 53 for 50/90.
