Squint Eye

I released a song on July 31, which seems to have pushed Ba.Ren.Chi above 14,000 plays on Jamendo. I still like that service because of how well curated it is, the simplicity of uploading and keeping track of content, and the fact that it’s free to anyone. SoundCloud shares some of these features, though it is less carefully curated, which means the content is all over the place in terms of quality and one occasionally receives junk responses from paid services.

Otherwise, I use Landr to help get things out to all the subscription based streaming services. They issue a “promolink” like this, which will take you to Spotify, the iTunes store, Apple Music, YouTube Music, Tidal, Deezer, and Amazon Music. Landr also has a mastering service, which is the main thing I use it for, though they offer lots of other services, too, including putting musicians in contact with one another, professional mixing, and more.

But this is something I do in my leisure time, not a second job, not an aspirational goal. I do it because the music is a joy to create. It comes to me when I’m walking the dog, or as I’m waking up in the morning, or eating lunch. The joy helps me to set limits because, with all the services and tech tools, it’s easy to get lost and start spending time and money you can’t really afford. One response on Jamendo came from a record company asking if I wanted to do a demo. I double checked to see if it was legit, and it was, but then realized the joy was already slipping away. No thanks.

“Squint Eye” came to me on a plane. I had my laptop with Finale notation software on it. I had earbuds. Instead of watching movies, I wrote on the way there and on the way back, then polished a bit, and it was done. Found a cool pic of cat’s eyes that suggested the squint I had in mind. Played around with the image in Photoshop, and here it is.

Besides calling it “James Bond-ish,” here’s how I’ve described it: Syncopated left-hand piano riff picks up fast conga underneath, then piano melody dances around it with a pizzicato strings interlude before guitar, bass, and drums blast in with a bit of electric dissonance. Second time through soprano sax floats over the top with some melancholy before the blasting and dissonance comes back and fades away.

I’m thinking that the title came from my own squinting as the dissonance started rising towards the end, which happens sometimes. Thought of the cat later.

The best response so far came from someone called “Daniel definitely” on SoundCloud, who wrote, “Can I marry this song?” Sure, Daniel definitely, though maybe not in a church ceremony.

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