Artist and designer Kathleen Warner, who performs under the moniker Lyrah, breathes new life into a classic on her irresistible new track “Everywhere”–track eleven on HIGH FREQUENCY Volume 2. Written by the late Christine MvCie and originally released in 1987 on Fleetwood Mac’s 14th studio album Tango in the Night, “Everywhere” lends itself perfectly to Lyrah’s dance-focused sound and show stopping vocals. 

Drenched in reverb, adding an otherworldly, cavernous quality to the immediately recognizable 80s’ synth intro, Lyrah’s topline dances across a lush chord progression and the pulse of a heavy kick drum while angelic harmonies fill the track with celestial choir of her own making.

Prompted by a request to cut vocals for a version of the song a friend’s label was planning to release, Lyrah recorded the vocals while in London this summer. After learning the label had gone in a different direction, Lyrah found herself returning to the song’s potential. “Anytime I was on the train commuting to sessions in London I was working on it and on the flight home. I didn't know if I'd put it out, I just wanted to see it through and make the version of the song that I heard in my head. The immediate thing was different chords. And because my background's piano, that's what I normally start with. The chords shape the world of the emotion, and I wanted to hear a little bit darker of a twist on it. Then I was like, “I love the song. I should probably put it out.”

Now back in Los Angeles, Lyrah tells me about her musical upbringing while surrounded by family heirlooms like her childhood piano and her grandmother’s “therapist couch” in her home studio in Los Feliz. 

She begins by recounting starting piano lessons so young (age three) that her dad had to convince the teacher to take her as a student by pitching father-daughter lessons. “I eventually surpassed him, and then he just focused on making me better,” says Lyrah. “It shaped my brain, it's like learning another language. Piano was one of the first things in my life, it feels like so much of who I am.” 

She practiced obsessively and as her skills developed, she discovered a love and talent for singing, too. “I sang at school masses, church on the weekend, at weddings and funerals, I sang at everything–nursing homes, skateparks.”

Hoping to continue her vocal education, she began studying opera at age 12. “There weren't many vocal coaches in my town, and I wanted a voice teacher, and that’s what they specialized in. I have an appreciation for classical music, but it’s not like I wanted to sing opera. Then I got stuck, and I could only sing that way,” says Lyrah. “I was a little kid confused about her voice because all my vocal muscles were strengthened to be this head, resonant type voice, and I didn't know how to sing anything that sounded more natural. Then I had to refigure out my voice in high school, because it was really bothering me.”

While continuing her more conservative musical endeavors as the pianist for her Catholic high school’s choir, Lyrah also started a band and began transcribing pop songs on her piano and writing her own songs. “The sound I landed on comes from wanting to be different from the sound I did growing up. There was always so much pressure on that type of music, it was very stiff performing. And it often wasn't for me. Like we'd be at a restaurant, and if there was a piano, my dad would be like, “Get up and play us a song.” I'd always be embarrassed. And I was a little perfectionist, so I’d excuse myself to the bathroom to warm up my voice. It was a whole ordeal. I couldn't just relax and be at dinner. I’d always be ready to perform,” says Lyrah. 

Feeling hemmed in by her classical training and her hometown of Johnstown, Pennsylvania–a city with a population of 18,000–she set her sights on a big state school for university as a way to expand her horizons. “It was a great experience growing up in Johnston, but I wanted so much more.”

Accepted to the honors college at Penn State and awarded a scholarship, she enrolled as a bio major on pre-med track. “I was soul searching what I wanted to do with life, never thinking it was music, because I didn't think that was practical. But at that same time, I started meeting people that were making electronic music.”

Discovering the electronic scene in college ignited her creativity and sense of self. “Making dance music is the funnest music that I could possibly make. Singing at church versus at a basement party passing tequila shots? I was like, “This is the music I want to make.”

Starting to cut vocals for electronic producers and writing toplines, she eventually got plugged in with Axtone Records, Swedish House Mafia DJ/Producer Axwell’s label. “They would send me demos, I’d write vocals, and send it back. I never knew what artists it was for, and no amazing cuts came out of it, but it was great practice.”

Having embedded herself in the local music scene, she began to notice a need for connections between venues and musicians, which ultimately peaked her interest in tech as well. “I wasn't a tech person at all, but I wanted to make a site that would connect artists, musicians, and venues and let people have a place to play wherever or whenever,” says Lyrah. “Because of diving into that world, I started meeting people on campus that were building startups. I just wanted to learn as much as possible, so I was helping them with things like marketing.”

After initially focusing on front end development, she kept gravitating towards product design. “At that point Figma didn't exist, so I was using Photoshop, devouring YouTube tutorials, trying to recreate apps. That was the thing that I loved outside of music was design. And then I taught design classes in college.”

Upon graduating, she moved to the Bay Area for a product design role at a startup and eventually landed at Facebook. “It was a business decision to fuel the passion,” says Lyrah about working for the tech giant. “I'd go home from work, work on music, wake up and do it all over again. I was sitting on all these demos, and I was trying to figure out my sound within it. Then I created Lyrah as a project.”

Needing to create a boundary between her work persona and her musical endeavors, she created the moniker Lyrah to alleviate some of the pressure she’d been putting on her music. “I created the different name because I wanted the separation. As you can tell from my upbringing, I'm a perfectionist and a people pleaser. It felt too personal to put out music as myself. And I never felt that the songs were perfect enough to put out. Now I would feel fine if I had to put out a project under my name, but at that time I couldn't do it.”

Pushing past the fear, she released her first song “Don’t Make Me,” in 2018. “I was physically sick to my stomach,” says Lyrah. “But people are nicer than you think they'll be as you build them up in your head as critics. Which is a lesson that I just have to keep relearning. And now I’m pretty detached from being crippled by what people think of something.”

Soon after, Axwell (Swedish House Mafia) added the track to his playlist “Weekend Weapons” offering full-circle affirmation that she was in fact, on the right track. 

As she gained confidence and built momentum with her music, she planned to quit her job at Facebook in 2020 to pursue music full-time. The pandemic threw a wrench in her plans and she stayed for two more years during which she relocated to Los Angeles in order to be closer to more music opportunities. 

By early 2022, she had made her mind up to take the jump before life threw a halting curve ball. “You wait your whole life to do music full time, then the day before my last day, we learned my brother had cancer. Immediately I'm not even thinking about music because it didn't make sense anymore. For those first few months, music was only coping, and I had no idea how to make anything more of it,” says Lyrah. “I was so depressed, I wasn't excited to post on the internet.”

Unsure if she wanted to continue pursuing music professionally, Lyrah came close to calling it quits before another unforeseen event shifted her trajectory–this time, a sign of encouragement. ““In The Leaves” came out, and that was the first song that changed things,” says Lyrah. The emotional and riveting track released in 2022 now has more than 4 million streams on Spotify.

While “In The Leaves” garnered attention, Lyrah’s early adoption of web3 began to prove fruitful as well. After helping out with design for an early Grimes’ drop and being the sole product designer of the Record Deal Simulator for the CreateSafe team, Lyrah began researching music NFTs. Inspired by indie acts like Verite who began utilizing the technology, Lyrah started experimenting with her own drops on foundation and later joined Sound where she has 217 collectors. Her recent collaboration with Daniel Allan, “I Just Need” provided a standout moment with the song picking up traction on Tiktok and Spotify in addition to selling out on Sound. Lyrah is currently working on a stripped version of “I Just Need” as well as her forthcoming EP.

With her brother now in remission and her music journey flourishing, Lyrah is more motivated than ever. “Feeling like you could be close to giving up, like everything in life is piling on you–I feel the complete opposite now. And I think only because I felt that contrasting way before, I'm now throwing everything at this. The biggest mental shift that I've had is I feel like I deserve success. And I didn't really feel that way before.”

Collect Music NFTs from HIGH FREQUENCY Volume 2. “Everywhere” is the eleventh track to be released from HIGH FREQUENCY Volume 2. “Everywhere” is dropping via Sound at 2pm PST on December 19, 2023

Read and Collect on Mirror

For New Jersey-based artist, producer, and community leader Jadyn Violet a path in music was anything but expected. 

With pressure from his family to pursue a more traditional and secure career track, Jadyn went to college to study business before abruptly deciding to drop out and change course. 

Jadyn had danced for years in high school and was always interested in music and visual art but felt constrained by family expectations. “I was told that passions can only stay hobbies and nothing more. I was always trying to get good grades and a high SAT score so I could get into a good business school because that’s what my family told me to do. I was just aimlessly going about my life without knowing what I wanted to do, and then I had a moment of falling in love with music, it all changed for me.”

When a breakup spurred the need for catharsis, Jadyn looked to music as a creative outlet and produced his first song. “Ever since I made my first song I was like, “Okay, I want to be a musician.” I saw how feelings that were heavy on my chest could get lifted off and put into a song that then other people can listen and feel the same energy I’m feeling and experience the same healing I'm going through.”

Leaving for college and learning to stand on his own two feet helped him deeper his sense of self and gave him the confidence he needed to go against the grain and forge his own path. “I think the transition from high school into college kind of detached me from my family, which has its pros and cons, the pro being it helped me detached from their ideals and thinking that I had to do things just because of the foundation they laid out before me instead of thinking on my own and having my own passions, and believing that I can pursue them,” says Jadyn. 

By his second year, he decided to leave school and give music his full attention. “The most pivotal moment for me was my second year of college when I ended up dropping out. Coming from an immigrant family household, being the first generation growing up in America, dropping out of school was like the worst fear for any Indian parents. I got a lot of backlash for it, but I knew that it was better to go down my own path rather than face a lifetime of resentment towards my parents. When I decided to pursue music full time I didn’t necessarily know how I was going to do it, but I knew it was possible, and it was just my journey to figure it out.” 

Five years later, his journey is a testament to dedication, passion, and the power of human connection through art. An often lonely and difficult journey, Jadyn has channeled his experience and feelings into a multi-layered world of his own creation with his recent collection Raver Realm as well as a growing online community and IRL event series called Violet Rave.

After discovering onchain music in 2021, Jadyn started hosting a daily Twitter Spaces called “Violet Rave.” The radio-style network gained traction attracting a vibrant community spurring on the suggestion for Jadyn to throw an IRL rave. “I thought it sounded cool, and I thought they were absolutely crazy. In hindsight, I'm very grateful I ended up doing it. We threw the first rave in Brooklyn for NFT NYC, and had about 250 people come out from all around the world. That was my first realization that okay, “This is the thing that I've always wanted. This is the community that I've always wanted to build. And it's happening right in front of my eyes seeing all these people in real life, putting voices behind the profile pictures.” Ever since, I’ve felt like I needed to go all out on this. So I kept hosting the spaces every single day, kept growing the radio network, threw the second rave in Virginia, a month after threw our third rave in Cincinnati, Ohio, a month after that threw our fourth rave in Miami at Art Basel last year where we had over 500 people. This year we threw raves in Denver, LA, and New York, and now we're doing our eighth one in Miami at Art Basel again. It's kind of absurd to see all of this kind of come out of nowhere in the last two years. It's been a lot of hard work and really exciting.”

The growing community inspired his cornerstone collection, Raver Realm, a 1800 token collection representing a body of work encompassing nine songs and nine associated characters that are part of an “immersive musical odyssey.”  

Personifying music through hand drawn characters representing different emotions and experiences, Jadyn conceptualized Raver Realm as a way to explore loneliness, discouragement, love, heartbreak, and lust with a goal of creating connection between the characters, the songs, and the audience. “I took nine new songs that I worked on for a year, and turned each song into characters that people can relate to beyond just the production and lyrics. I wanted to explore how to take this feeling of loneliness and battling with barriers everyday by myself and turn that into not only a song, but a character that people could really connect with. That was my entire purpose for Raver Realm, doing the raves throughout the last two years, building this culture and community, so that it actually makes sense to have a collection out there that people can be a part of and so that there's already something to be a part of.”

Unique characters like “Miss Influence,” “Comeback Kid,” “Rockstar Shit,” and “Dancing Damsel” are associated with various realms such as the Underground Realm, the Ethereal Realm, and the Dystopian Realm and embody a personality and story associated with each of the nine tracks from the project. Collectibles include utility that translates to the real world raves, such as gaining free access and getting free drinks. In addition to community building, the raves also function as Jadyn’s live performance platform. “I want to create a community where people can come together based on shared experiences, shared hobbies, shared vision, and shared alignment where people can grow together all based on the foundation of music and art. I think that's very important,” says Jadyn. 

While working on Raver Realm, Jadyn wrote and produced over 100 songs including “Asleep at the Switch”–track ten from HIGH FREQUENCY Volume 2. Showcasing the heavier, trap-influenced side of Jadyn’s musical repertoire, “Asleep at the Switch” is an outtake from developing the Underground Realm where he used a darker musical palette. “I've made over 100 songs during the last year to get the final nine for the Raver Realm project, and “Asleep at the Switch” is one I made while creating the underground realm–the realm that encompasses that type of music. It was very fun making it. I made it in New York with a couple of friends. They were just getting lit, jumping up and down in the studio. And I was just really just going crazy on the song–heavy trap drums, 808s–and it's a vibe.”

Overtop heavy trap 808s, Jadyn approaches the beat with confidence finding a grungy flow amid the experimental soundscape. Resulting in what he aptly calls a “heavy mosh pit vibe,” “Asleep at the Switch” is a departure from Jadyn’s more popcentric material, shifting the focus to one of his first musical infatuations. “It’s a heavy trap song, which is kind of the foundation of my music career. That's how I got into the love of making music, and I was like, “Man, I need to stop trying to cater towards what other people will like and just put out something that I like, because that's what matters the most,” says Jadyn. 

Staying true to the life altering gut instinct to listen to his heart and follow his joy, Jadyn continues to push onward with plans to release the Raver Realm songs, “Asleep at the Switch,” and other tracks from the vault on DSPs next year in addition to continuing to foster the Violet Rave community. “I think Violet Rave and Raver Realm have legs and a lot of room to run. And I'm in it for not the next one or two years, but the next 20, 30 years to see what we can really create.”

Collect Music NFTs from HIGH FREQUENCY Volume 2. “Asleep at the Switch” is the tenth track to be released from HIGH FREQUENCY Volume 2. “Asleep at the Switch” is dropping via Sound at 2pm PST on December 07, 2023

Collect and Read Issue #54 on Mirror

Collectors of “Relief (Solo) on Sound will receive 1 airdrop for RELIEF arcade tickets on Zora that unlock power ups within Heno.’s RELIEF pixel game will be added to the allowlist for the song’s upcoming lyric video drop on Zora, and be added to the allowlist for Heno.'s forthcoming album I'm Tired of Being Hypersurveilled, dropping in January 2024.

“Relief (Solo),” off Heno.’s upcoming album I'm Tired Of Being Hypersurveilled, marks a turning point in the poignant narrative of the artist, producer, and innovator’s larger concept project. Accompanied by the "RELIEF pixel game" where arcade tickets minted on Zora unlock “power ups,” “Relief (Solo)” soundtracks Heno.’s character’s pursuit of an escape. “Dealing with a topic like surveillance, there's a lot of nuance, and a lot of ways to go–different topics or subtopics to speak on. But I knew escape, relief or pursuit of being free was a sentiment that needed to be on an album like this,” says Heno. 

Motivated by Heno.’s personal experience as a black man in America–the project’s allegorical storyline was introduced by a three-part short film released last January in which Heno.’s character attends a PTSD Anonymous meeting that turns out to be a ploy for the S.Y.S.T.E.M. (Securing Your Safety Through Extreme Means) to spy on attendees. Eventually, his character is kidnapped (as depicted in the “Neybors” and “SIMMER DOWN” videos) before being thrown into a simulation seen in the interactive RELIEF pixel video game at which point Heno.’s character realizes he must find relief and escape. “This is the point where I recognize I need to get out of the simulation one way or another, even if it means I have to burn the establishment down. I needed to get out. And I wanted to capture the frustration and the feeling of being gaslit while dealing with surveillance and people invalidating your experiences.”

Written, produced, and performed by Heno., “Relief” (Solo)–the ninth track off HIGH FREQUENCY Volume 2–viscerally captures the feverish and exhausting feeling of being chased. “It started with the production–playing around with different synthesizers, and then I came across certain sounds that sounded like a chase. The beat sounds like I’m running from something, I'm literally trying to get the fuck out of there, and that urgency of being in pursuit.” 

Both futuristic and retro, the industrial nature of the track is perfect for the addictive video game, while simultaneously drawing attention to the very real experience that fueled its creation. “You gotta make this shit make sense for you but for me, freedom from it all (as well as relief) is what I really want.”

Designed by DaCirkus, the pixel video game presents the “Instant Relief Simulator,” a commentary on modern day capitalism where the game’s objective is to “get as much money as possible, so you can buy your life and rise up the ranks.” 

With a goal of onboarding fans to web3 and reaching the cross-section of gaming, music, and crypto, Heno. teamed up with Da Cirkus to make the vision reality. “There's synergy between music and gaming, so I've always wanted to explore that. To have someone like DaCirkus see the vision and go, ‘Cool, I get it. Let's build it out,’ is always a blessing.”

After releasing “Relief (Solo)” on DSPs alongside the arcade tickets and a tokengated version of the video game in September, Heno. presented the forthcoming VR experience of the game at his recent exhibition “The Edge of Surveillance.” Hosted at LA’s NeueHouse in partnership with Coinbase and Zora, the event featured a demo of the spatial audio VR experience designed by  Taramoves, unreleased music from the album, and a panel on digital sovereignty. 

Up next, Heno. will showcase the next iteration of the project at this year’s Art Basel at The Gateway with NFT Now and Lens where commissioned visualizers from incredible black artists like Andre O'Shea, Jah, Yosnier, Shay The Surrealist, and others yet to be revealed. It’s a full circle moment for Heno. after speaking on his future plans at last year’s Art Basel. “I remember saying that I want to branch out into building worlds and showcase that in all these different mediums, so to be here at this point this year with an album like this–having a VR experience, having a pixel video game, being able to create short films, being able to tell this narrative in this way, has been as experimental as it's been a joy to push myself creatively. It's kind of crazy and full circle.”

Intentionally patient, building and rolling out the project over the last year, Heno. has meticulously set the stage in order to contextualize the album. “The whole album is a loop. Essentially, it's the story of me becoming a person of interest, being put through these simulations of sorts, and trying to escape. The viewer is rooting for me, but I find out upon escaping that it was all a loop so it takes you back to the beginning. The music is very straightforward and on the nose. There's a song called “Gaslighting,” about being gas lit, there’s  a song called “Question Everything,” about questioning everything that you've normalized.”

Tackling a heavy and often polarizing topic, Heno. wanted to prime his audience in order to facilitate a larger conversation. “This year of slowly unfolding this story has been one of extreme patience. We built this surreal world where there’s this story of me getting kidnapped and all this stuff, but at the end of the day, it's really rooted in real things. Sometimes you kind of have to create this offshoot, so people can look at something objectively, and then have a conversation that isn't rooted in personal bias.”

When we first featured Heno. in HIGH FREQUENCY in October of 2022 he had just released his single “Jansport Freestyle” off his 9-track EP In The Meantime, a project that served to introduce the topic of surveillance. The song details when police, who had the wrong address, physically intruded HENO.’s mother’s house without a warrant, kicking down the doors and wreaking havoc in the middle of the night. Announcing the larger project via a Mirror crowdfund campaign, he wrote that his artist journey has been a “safe haven from a world that constantly perceives me as a threat by simply existing in this country as a 6’4” Black man with dreads.” 

The irony of being tired of surveillance and scrutiny while embarking on a project that requires him to speak on the subject publicly is not lost on Heno., but it’s a sacrifice he’s willing to make. “Good art is polarizing. You’re going to have to feel a way. You can't be passive when it comes to an idea like surveillance. You can either like what I'm saying or you can not like what I'm saying, but you're gonna have to ultimately decide how you feel. I'm not here to solve surveillance, but let’s talk about it, because I'm tired of it. I'm sure we all are. And here's why I'm tired of it. Let's have a conversation.”

Using the album and its related content as a catalyst, Heno. hopes the conversation will expand beyond the personal into a more global, collectively conscious discussion. “Surveillance affects everybody differently. You see it across cultures, we see it across nations when powers have the ability to control your resources, your internet access, and control the narrative, it's not just happening in America. I'm tired of it in America, for sure. And being a black man in America, the experiences that I have, but it's something across cultures. I'm Ethiopian and Eritrean, and my country is in conflict right now. And you have a similar situation with Israel and Palestine,” says Heno. “It's a polarizing topic, all of these things tied together. I just want to stand on something as opposed to being complicit. I don't think this is going to be the end all, but at least it’s sparking the thought that we should be talking more about how normalized this has become, and how we're all affected in our own ways.”

Intent on using his music to shed light on systemic issues and spark important conversations, Heno. continues to utilize web3 and experimental mediums as a vehicle for meaningful long-form storytelling. “My whole goal as an artist is to use personal context, story, and experience to have universal conversation.”

Collect Music NFTs from HIGH FREQUENCY Volume 2. “Relief (Solo)” is the ninth track to be released from HIGH FREQUENCY Volume 2. “Relief (Solo)” is dropping via Sound at 2pm PST on November 30, 2023.

Read and Collect Issue #53 on Mirror.

On the heels of her full-length album FUTURE SHOCK, Dot embarks on a new, even more fearless chapter. 

When I last spoke with Kate Ellwanger–the producer, engineer, vocalist, multi-instrumentalist, and entrepreneur who performs under the moniker Dot–she was deep in the world of House music, finishing her full-length album she’d go on to release in August of this year. 

Constantly evolving, she has since begun experimenting with faster BPM’s incorporating Jungle and Drum and bass into her live sets. After being invited to perform at Louis The Child’s Alter Ego Festival where artists choose a style divergent from their usual offering, Dot decided to play an all Jungle set later incorporating the new genre in her main stage set at Elements Festival in Pennsylvania where crowds flocked in the pouring rain. “I'm mixing in some faster BPMs, a lot of breaks. It's very late 90s, early 2000s, kind of rave culture influenced. Definitely very UK inspired,” says Dot. “I think for a while I had impostor syndrome about experimenting with Drum and bass or Jungle. I felt like, ‘Oh, I don't live in the UK, so I’m not allowed to make a ton of UK House. That's not my thing.’  But I finally gave myself permission to lean more into that and kind of follow my heart. A lot of it is very heavily inspired by gaming, like old PlayStation music. I was obsessed with so many of these games as a kid, so it’s been fun giving myself permission to lean into it a little more.”

After her festival run, months of album promotion, and a change in management, Dot is now back in the small town of Ketchum, Idaho–where she’s been based the past few years. “There's been a lull with traveling and I've just been out here in the mountains kind of resetting. I needed a few months to go back to the beginning and figure out what the next direction was gonna be.” 

Thankful to be surrounded by nature, Dot is honest about the toll the seclusion of mountain life can take. “In my personal life the past six months or so have been super tough. And as beautiful as it is to live in this mountain town and have access to nature, it's really hard for a lot of people who live here, especially women. Depression rates in women are a lot higher, statistically, in mountain towns like this.” 

Feeling depleted and isolated, approaching her next project felt insurmountable. “I put out an album this year, and there were aspects of it that I love, and I'm super proud of, and there was a lot that happened with the release that I was really disappointed in. Coming off of that, it was so hard for me to feel like I could make music again. I was really grappling with the idea of fully quitting this year.”

No stranger to the art of endurance, Dot has been pursuing music professionally for over a decade and competes in mountain races such as the 54-mile ultramarathon in Bryce Canyon she recently completed. She has a B.A. in Music from Chapman University, a Master’s Degree in Music Production, Technology, and Innovation from Berklee College of Music, was part of LA’s Team Supreme, and started Unspeakable records in 2014 all before her breakout album Life Support in 2021–for her to even contemplate throwing in the towel is a sobering reminder of just how difficult a career in music can be. “I was feeling like, “I don't need to keep going through this cycle, because it's so hard. And I've been doing it for so many years.’ So it's definitely been a bit of a darker period this year. It wasn't even writer's block, it was despair feeling like, ‘What can I possibly say right now that doesn't feel derivative or like I'm following this formula.’ Some good that came out of that was giving myself the freedom to explore new genres and not feel like I'm only locked into House.”

Attempting a breakthrough while still feeling hemmed in by her usual process, she afforded herself a chance to reconnect with her musical roots and go back to the basics. “I've been going back to the piano, and playing jazz standards again, studying harmony again, and transcribing Bill Evans solos–going back to my roots as a pianist, and not even thinking about Ableton or anything digital, just playing the piano. That led me to start sampling the piano, and start working some of that back into my production.”

Finding her footing and regaining a sense of creative energy, Dot once again finds the spark to keep going. Her new song “Begin Again,” –track eight on HIGH FREQUENCY Volume 2–embodies this journey. “It's hard to get that energy and that momentum to start again. This track is really representative of how that feels.”

The sound of piano invites the listener with a comforting ease and beautifully romantic quality before the beat hits, steady and unassuming, introducing Dot’s ethereal vocals singing “feel your love again.” While the track builds, it ebbs and flows creating waves of sound that eventually crash into an infectious dance break. “That's a lot of resampled piano, from crappy iPhone recordings, not even using any nice microphones or anything to record it, it's very off the cuff,” says Dot. “I'm trying to capture this moment of finding the inspiration to take those first steps again, towards a new direction, or into a new project or a new chapter.”

Unfiltered and raw while still exemplifying Dot’s impeccable attention to detail in her engineering work, “Begin Again,” exudes both the magic of playful creativity and the excellence of studied perseverance. 

Kickstarting her creative resurgence, Dot has multiple new EPs in the work and says she’s interweaving her more recently explored genres with both her House mainstay and piano background. “I still have one foot in House and one foot in Jungle and Drum and bass,” says Dot. 

As she tackles yet another climb up the proverbial creative mountain, Dot’s fans and community fuel her on the hard days. “Personally I'm still kind of in a bit of a depression, just barely starting to find my footing again with being consistently creative and making things,” says Dot candidly. “The weight of the professional obligations every release cycle gets heavier and heavier. I'm willing to carry that weight, because I love music so much, and I love my community so much. I want to keep going, if not just for me then for them.”

Carrying the weight of the increasingly intricate complexities required to build success across creative output, touring, promotion and the added layer of web3, Dot says her web3 community has been invaluable. “One of my saving graces this year has been working on getting this new web3 label and collective off the ground called PORTAL Music. We just did our first collaborative mixtape that just dropped.”

The project started as a week-long challenge where producers made new songs daily based on guidelines and creative challenges. The best tracks were then minted on the genesis mixtape, introducing PORTAL as it blossoms into a vibrant artist and collector community and onchain record label. “I haven't had as much funding this year–most people are in the same boat–but we still managed to pull off an amazing artist retreat back in June, out here in Sun Valley. We put together a showcase as well, here in town. And so much of the community came through to support.”

Encouraged by the response, Dot has started to play warehouse shows in the nearby city of Sun Valley and continues to look for ways to connect IRL with both her local and online community. “It's been really nice to figure out this year how to bridge web3 and all of these online experiences with more in person events and doing them at locations other than LA or New York.”

Focused on utilizing web3 as a community building tool as she fearlessly forges ahead with her music, Dot continues to inspire as a leader, innovator, and creative force. “I think it's really beautiful to see how people have gotten creative to explore web3 as a community building tool, first and foremost, and find new ways of rewarding collectors and rewarding fans bringing them even more into the fold or into the creative process in some ways. I think that's really special to see and that's why I'm still here and why I'm still active.”

Collect Music NFTs from HIGH FREQUENCY Volume 2. “Begin Again” is the eighth track to be released from HIGH FREQUENCY Volume 2. “Begin Again” is dropping via Sound at 2pm PST on November 21, 2023.

Read and Collect Issue #52 on Mirror.

After premiering the song in web3, DEEGAN plans to release “Make It Better” with DSPs on November 22 alongside a moody, 80s-style music video minted on ZORA. All Sound collectors of “Make It Better” will receive a free edition of the music video token.

Collect “Make It Better” on Sound today, November 09 at 2pm PST.

Los Angeles-based singer, rapper, writer, and producer DEEGAN follows the flow of inspiration on dancy, experimental pop track “Make It Better”–track seven on HIGH FREQUENCY Volume 2. 

Produced by DEEGAN, Eldar Zey, and Matt Allen, “Make It Better” sparkles with ethereal soundscapes, pop earcandy, and DEEGAN’s uncanny creativity in wielding his multidimensional vocal chops as his lead instrument. 

After a session with Matt Allen who had written the song’s chord progression, DEEGAN and Eldar burned the midnight oil to follow a stroke of inspiration. “It was one of those where you download it from the universe and run with the momentum the second you’re inspired,” says DEEGAN. 

Before calling it a night, DEEGAN took a voice note with an experimental idea for the chorus. “I was like, ‘I’m going to say each word individually, and then auto tune it really hard and chop each word short,’’' says DEEGAN. “I thought if I go to sleep and don't at least get some proof of concept, it's gonna escape me and fly off to someone else. I was able to achieve the next day with my microphone and in the DAW exactly what I said on the voice memo. Most times it's like, “I said I was gonna do this and then I start playing with it and it becomes something else.” But I remember the satisfaction of saying it out loud and then following through with that idea and it coming out exactly how I heard it.” 

Letting the verse lyrics pour out over the beat, DEEGAN made room for the song’s thematic concept to reveal itself. “The overall theme, once I started letting it spill out of me was like, ‘through dark times your partner can be the stronghold or the rock for you. Other lyrics are the contrast of that when you become codependent and start dumping all of your trauma onto your partner. It's about the healthy balance of that spectrum.”

The song is accompanied by a nostalgic, moody 80s-style music video, directed and edited by DEEGAN and filmed by Daniel Abary, capturing the duality of the Los Angeles landscape as a possible metaphor for the opposing nodes in love and partnership. DEEGAN plans to release “Make It Better” on DSPs November 22 and mint the video on ZORA, where every Sound collector of the song will get a free edition of the video. 

DEEGAN’s ability to use his voice in creative ways–whether singing, rapping, or as an experimental instrument–is the secret sauce to his music’s ability to reinvent and push boundaries. The infectious hook in “Make It Better,” being the perfect example. 

Since DEEGAN was a kid, he’s found ways to channel expression and creativity through the instrument of his voice. “My dad was a voice actor in his youth and my mom was a linguist, so I got that ear,” says DEEGAN. “As a kid I was always imitating things like Cartoon Network, Spongebob, and even some of my friends. The voice has always been my creative pen and my outlet first.”

His talent for singing became apparent when he joined the middle school choir and was given the eighth grade solo, acing a rendition of “Somebody To Love” by Queen. His mother, recognizing his gift, encouraged him to pursue music in high school. At first he was resistant, and tried out for the basketball team instead. But as fate would have it, he got the flu and didn’t make the team. As an alternative, DEEGAN auditioned for the school play and landed one of the lead roles. He proceeded to devote his extracurricular time to music joining the advanced chamber choir competing in rigorous singing competitions where he performed acapella opera songs in quartets learning to sight read intricate choral songs, perform split harmonies, and master music theory. Meanwhile he started to produce beats, direct DIY videos, and write his own music inspired by his love for hip-hop and musical inspirations like Tyler The Creator and Frank Ocean.

By college, DEEGAN’s main concern was finding a way to set his music career in motion. Facing unexpected challenges with his physical and mental health during his junior year, he dropped out, moved home to Connecticut and enrolled in online school. Connecting over their similar circumstances and experience, DEEGAN became close friends with EDM producer Jack Book leading to a serendipitous series of connections. “When I got sick and went home and was working on music, I met one of my best friends Jack Book who is a pop EDM producer and singer. I had never made EDM or listened to EDM, I was always into rap and folk and indie, but we became besties. He had a really bad sickness too, and had dropped out, so it was like we were the two dropouts in our hometown who loved to do music and were both going through a really rough time, so we were hanging out everyday.”

In 2019 DEEGAN moved to Los Angeles, sharing a bedroom with Zack Ely (frontman of the band Petting Zoo, co writer for DEEGAN’s League of Legends song ‘You and me Makes Us’ and childhood best friend), in a house full of roommates, determined to forge ahead. Meanwhile, one of DEEGAN’s hometown friends kept bugging him to release “Sailor,” a song DEEGAN had made in 2017 while in school in Arizona. DEEGAN was hesitant, but decided to go for it. “I moved to LA, dropped “Sailor” on a whim and immediately got my first editorial playlist and people asking me for the song and stuff like that. I was following my gut and intuition and trying to just let the universe play out. That was 2019 when I was like, ‘Okay, we're going in. I got that first check of validation.’ So from 2019 to now it's just been full force trying to do the music thing.”

The stars continued to align when DEEGAN met Daniel Allan over Facetime through Jack, who had been working with Daniel on EDM music for years. Looking back, DEEGAN sees it as a butterfly effect, all the pieces connecting full circle to where he is today. DEEGAN ended up writing on multiple songs for Daniel’s groundbreaking project Overstimulated, throwing him in the creative mix of the web3 music community where he’s since released collaborations with Mija, Reo Cragun, bloodywhite, LNRZ, and Daniel Allan. “If I hadn’t met Daniel through Jack, he wouldn't have asked me to write on his beats for Overstimulated. Then I met all of his friends and now it's this whole friend group of people with bloodywhite, Eldar, Reo and Dave–all these wonderful people that I met just because of this butterfly effect. It’s just kind of beautiful how all that worked out.”

When the pandemic forced DEEGAN to move home again in 2020, his web3 community provided creative inspiration to help see him through. “I moved back home for COVID because I couldn't afford to live out here. I was working at The Cheesecake Factory and everything was closed, so I went back home during COVID and was collaborating through email, which I hadn’t done before. Having that network of people to take this journey with meant so much. It constantly inspires me and constantly pushes me to do more and be the best version of myself by absorbing all of their greatness and creativity.”

Now back in Los Angeles, DEEGAN continues to make strides in his music career. He recently released an EP with indie label Hit House, landing a major sync deal for his song “You and Me Makes Us,” as the theme song for the League Of Legends video game.

He is also the editor for the Invest in Music podcast, where he’s able to flex his video editing skills while collaborating on the editorial side of the web3 music landscape.  

In the process of independently releasing a series of singles both on Sound and on DSPs, DEEGAN showcases his versatility and growth with a steady stream of delicious new offerings. Spanning from experimental, pop, rap, to R&B, DEEGAN never shies away from pushing the envelope. 

Gearing up to launch a new series on his socials called “Deserves a Verse,” DEEGAN continues to find innovative ways to follow inspiration when it strikes. Taking ten minutes a day to write eight to 16 bars over miscellaneous beats, he plans to make a collaborative mixtape using these mini verses as a starter pack for new song ideas. “After about 13 songs, I'm going to give out those acapellas probably through web3,” says DEEGAN. “I thought it'd be a fun writing exercise–get the verse out, do it over the beat that inspired me and then continue that inspiration by handing off the acapella to someone who can reproduce under it, and then we make our own individual song.”

Humble, warm, and insatiably creative, DEEGAN’s talent and determination lights the way towards destiny’s call.

Collect Music NFTs from HIGH FREQUENCY Volume 2. “Make It Better” is the seventh track to be released from HIGH FREQUENCY Volume 2. “Make It Better” is dropping via Sound at 2pm PST on November 09, 2023.

Read and Collect Issue #51 on Mirror.

Growing up in the entertainment industry in Los Angeles having signed her first record deal at age 13, 21-year-old Annika Rose embodies self-awareness, songwriting prowess, and vocal ability beyond her years–all of which shine undeniably in her new song “Unforgettable.” Stripped back from its original production, the piano ballad makes room for the sheer impact of Annika’s stunning vocal performance. Her lyricism is both vulnerable and clever, while her melodies roll off the tongue effortlessly dancing over the minimal yet cinematic soundscape.

Co-written and produced by Paul Phamous and Bailey Lindley, “Unforgettable” paints an honest and nuanced picture of Annika’s experience. “I have a pretty complex relationship with my mom, as most people do,” says Annika. “The song sort of stemmed from our relationship dynamic.”

Taking on new meaning as time passes, “Unforgettable” shapeshifts in a way that only timeless songs can. A testament to Annika’s tenacity and growth, through highs and lows she remains steadfastly committed to her craft. “Looking back, I can recognize my voice getting a little bit more clear and a little bit louder and a little bit more pointed.”

Finishing “Unforgettable” over the course of the last two years, it’s an apt representation of her reverence for the process. “It was a really subtle, slow burn for it to be fully finished and complete, constantly going back in and making really minor tweaks.” Her patience pays off. “Unforgettable,” track six from HIGH FREQUENCY Volume 2, lives up to its name.

The maturity heard in her music is not by happenstance. Annika devoted her adolescence to music and has over a decade of professional experience. She started her first Youtube channel at age seven and joined her first band at 10. She was then scouted by an A&R in the UK to be part of a rock-influence girlband at Louis Tomlinson’s imprint label at Sony Music UK, and signed her first record deal at age 13. “That was how I started doing sessions and working in the LA writer circuit. I was in that band from 13 to 15. We were just writing and writing and writing and rehearsing and in lessons and doing all the classic development stuff and getting the music together.”

Two years into development the band was dropped before releasing any music. Around this time Annika’s parents split up and her mom remarried. Seeking refuge in her piano late at night, Annika began writing songs for herself in secret while working as a session writer for other artists.

It soon became clear that it was time to use her voice to tell her stories and step out as a solo artist. “I signed another record deal with Tap Records and put out my first EP Ventura Boulevard, which was really cool because it was the first time that I took all of these secretive little songs that I was writing on piano at home by myself and gave them life. It felt like a really strong representation of where I was at the time and encapsulated a very specific time of life from girlband to complete explosion of family to coming back together in a completely new format.”

When the pandemic forced her to make yet another shift, she took it in stride joining web3 focused collective NVAK in 2021. “The most enticing thing about web3 to me coming into it was the fact that there were no rules. People were fed up and redefining success,” says Annika. “I love the fact that people are trying things differently, and doing things differently and experimenting.”

After releasing a series of singles on Sound and various experiments, she’s now focused on her next body of work. “Now I'm figuring out what the next chapter is going to look like. But I have too much music for my own good, like too much. Gotta find a way to get it all out.”

Annika’s superpower is her ability to stay grounded and center her art. Her charm, openness, and talent is radiant and her authenticity, refreshing. “I don't always stay energized. I have very real moments of defeat,” says Annika candidly. “But when I close my eyes all I think about is music. When I come home at the end of a long day of making music, I want to write another song. It's just not a question, it has to work. That’s been my North Star since I was a child, there's never been another option. I just have to keep reinventing, like you just have to. And lucky for me, music is my favorite form of therapy.”

As she relentlessly forges ahead, finding space for mental health and wellbeing has been crucial. Reconnecting with her childlike love of music as a way to quiet the pressures and competitive nature of LA has been key. “My competitive nature lies within myself and not with other people. And I think it's tough to be in a place where people are constantly climbing the same ladder as you. They support you until you start climbing a little bit higher than them, and then they want you off the ladder. And I just do not operate like that, because I think there's room for everybody. I think we sometimes forget that there's a really innocent and pure, untainted reason as to why we all started doing this in the first place and to try and reconnect with that is so crucial for your emotional health and to your craft. It’s a disservice to your art if you are trying to do it for other people.”

A recent trip to Switzerland with a childhood friend served as an especially helpful reprieve. “We just sat in Switzerland in a fucking field with cows and wrote songs together for two weeks,” says Annika. “We brought an acoustic guitar with us everywhere. I mean, we were so annoying, we would sit at a nice restaurant and bring our guitar because it felt so good to just sing to sing. There was such a deep gratitude at the sound of music, and somebody's capabilities. It was such a necessary reminder that it's a superpower to be able to do what we do. And it's really a fucking gift. People need music to heal. Not everyone can make it themselves and not everyone has a safe outlet for their emotions and for processing. Seeing how resonant it was with other people, it was so pure. Like, wow, oh my god. I really do love music. I felt so inspired and wanted to get home only to bring the songs that I wrote there with my friend to life.”

Creatively energized and brimming with new music, Annika’s biggest priority is finding the most authentic and confident way to share her art with the world. “The greatest act of courageousness is believing in yourself. That is the scariest thing ever to do, because I think we live in a culture that asks us to be self deprecating and constantly compare ourselves to other people,” says Annika. “It may not be on the timeline you anticipate but believe that it's something worth sharing and somebody somewhere will find it and connect with it. I think the bravest thing you can do is believe that you have something to offer.”

Collect Music NFTs from HIGH FREQUENCY Volume 2. “Unforgettable” is the sixth track to be released from HIGH FREQUENCY Volume 2. “Unforgettable” is dropping via Sound at 2pm PST on November 03, 2023.

Read and Collect Issue #50 on Mirror.

Take a bite out of “PASSIONFRUIT,” the juicy new track from LA-based singer-songwriter, producer, artist, and innovator TK. Track five from HIGH FREQUENCY Volume 2, “PASSIONFRUIT” paints with technicolor. TK’s intoxicating, velvet vocals dance over a bouncy deep house beat produced by Pete Rango and Matt Lee. An invitation to a wonderland of pleasure, the sensual lyricism foreshadows a tantalizing storyline that will play out in Eternal Garden, a narrative franchise being brought to life by TK’s new creative venture studio GARDEN X. “PASSIONFRUIT” really expresses the feeling of a certain moment within the universe of Eternal Garden,” says TK. “I’m really excited to debut this as we roll out certain parts of the story.”

After dropping his genesis token in March of 2022, TK was inspired to expand the psychedelic inspired narrative into a larger digital world. “My Genesis NFT “Heaven On Earth” was a song about two lovers that find a mythical garden, take shrooms and go on a metaphysical trip, falling even deeper in love,” says TK about the idea that evolved into an onchain concept album called Eternal Garden. “Everybody that minted the NFT was able to access the narrative behind Eternal Garden as a project.” When 700 Eternal Garden NFTs minted, the project became widely considered a case study and led to a series of live performances globally. TK later released Eternal Garden ORIGINS, a prequel to Eternal Garden, his second concept album that resulted in 7,000 mints. 

Having created an air of intrigue and mystique around the project, TK considered ways to expand. “I came up with the idea for Garden X, which is a creative venture studio with a core focus on developing Eternal Garden as a franchise. Obviously that involves music, but it also involves literature, film, gaming, and any other medium that can help us tell the story of Eternal Garden,” says TK. “There's the creative layer, but also a protocol layer that we're developing, which will allow outside contributors to come in and create storylines based on the IP that we are generating and releasing out to the public. Derivatives are on the table, and things of that nature. It's a really exciting project that we're building.”

After putting together a team while working towards an ambitious vision, TK and Garden X plan to release their flagship project in November featuring TK and five other artists. “From there, we're going to release individual projects for each artist who all have their own unique storyline within the Eternal Garden and see where things go from there.”

Immersing himself in web3 during the pandemic, TK has been in the mix from the start. He joined the Sound chat before the platform’s launch and became a member of Mochi DAO. Now in addition to his work as the founder of Garden X, he is an active community member participating in experiments such as wavWRLD’s wavGAME where he was recently   chosen as the winning collector’s selected artist. “It's been an interesting journey trying to find financial and creative freedom as an artist in this algorithmic age,” says TK. “I’m grateful to be working at this intersection of music and tech. I definitely believe in everything that web3 has to offer artists like myself. I'm the type of artist that wants longevity.”

TK’s lifelong passion for music has always been his driving force. “I've been a musician my entire life,” says TK. “I grew up singing in church and watching Disney movies. A lot of my early influences were early 2000s pop acts like S Club Seven, Madonna, Christina Aguilera, Ricky Martin, and Coldplay. On the R&B side a lot of Brandy, Craig David, Toni Braxton, and Michael Jackson, and when I moved to the US, I got a lot more into hip hop, and rock music – classics like Jay Z, Nas, Eminem and alternative rock like Linkin Park, Green Day, My Chemical Romance, the list goes on and on.”

Spending his early childhood in the UK, he then moved to Maryland where he pursued every available musical opportunity. “Throughout school, I was in every musical endeavor that you could do–concert band, marching band, jazz band, concert choir, gospel choir, classical music, and performing arts where we would sing and dance and play instruments like every genre of music from the1920s up until modern day. When I was 15, I started a band called Cloud 9 to play our school talent show. We went from playing nursing homes and churches to eventually playing theaters and Live Nation ticketed concerts and touring the country playing original music. As I was doing that, I was also writing and producing for a lot of artists.”

After entering a Guitar Center songwriting competition in 2014, TK made the top 10 out of 30,000 applicants catalyzing a life-changing chain of events. “They flew me out to LA and my mind was made up. I was like, “Wow, this is incredible. I want to be out here.” I came second in the competition and got to meet a lot of people that worked in the music industry. That manifested in moving out to LA a year later to write and produce for Will Smith, Jaden Smith, and Willow Smith.”

Doors continued to open for TK as he began ghostwriting for some of the biggest names in music. “It snowballed into me working with Diane Warren, which led to me working with artists like Rihanna, The Weeknd, Justin Bieber, and Big Sean.”

The whirlwind experience only fueled his dreams, though not without challenge. “I did the whole independent artist thing for years, and was able to get some momentum and traction, but it's really, really tough out there and super competitive, especially if you don't have the necessary resources.”

Looking for ways to carve out his own path, TK prioritized web3 and has since become a leading innovator on the forefront of music and tech. Blending R&B, hip hop, electronic music and alternative, TK’s music breaks barriers and showcases his extensive range and talent. The quality of his work speaks for itself with obvious attention to detail. 

As TK continues to build success for himself, his destiny is in his name. “​​I'm Nigerian and my middle name is Adétokunbo, which in Yoruba means royalty from a foreign land, or, in my case, prince from a foreign land. TK is the common nickname or abbreviation for that name.”

Collect Music NFTs from HIGH FREQUENCY Volume 2. PASSIONFRUIT is the fifth track to be released from HIGH FREQUENCY Volume 2. PASSIONFRUIT is dropping via Sound at 2pm PST on October 26, 2023.

Read and Collect Issue #49 on Mirror.

What started as an effort to capture beauty, turned into a container for grief as electronic music duo KarmaVioletta approached the making of their song “Humanity”–the fourth track from HIGH FREQUENCY Volume 2. 

“I started the initial idea on a plane looking out the window during sunset feeling like, “I want to capture this emotion somehow.” I made the soundscape, and then we wrote the rest of the song this weekend,” says Karma.  

“The past week, we’ve had a ton of emotions about things happening on the global scale,” says Violetta. “We tend to put our emotions into our music, and kind of process in that way.” 

The brainchild of Miami-based artists Karma.wav and Violetta, KarmaVioletta often serves as a vehicle for catharsis for the musical duo and couple. A focus on shared humanity has always been core to their message and music, and their latest song is no different. “It’s a reminder that there is some continuity between us,” says Karma. “We're all one species.”

“Maybe we're just hopeful dreamers, but we believe in humanity, and we dream of a time that there's peace on our planet,” says Violetta.

While Karma and Violetta investigate the role of artists in moments such as this, they say their intention is not to oversimplify or minimize, but rather to offer a childlike expression of wishing things were different. “Music and art is childlike. It's coming from an element of play and there is a naivete to it. So from that perspective, it's like that inner child perceiving this much conflict for the first time.” says Karma.

Both Karma and Violetta grew up around music, and look to it now as a form of grounding. Born in Vancouver, growing up in Kaui and Miami in a musical family, Karma learned drums at age three and later picked up guitar, piano, singing, songwriting, production, and DJing eventually launching his solo project Karma.wav. 

Violetta was born in Germany and raised in Russia and has been singing as long as she can remember. Her mother taught piano–an instrument she later learned alongside guitar–but for many years something held her back from writing her own music. 

“Seven years ago or so I moved to Miami and had this huge breakthrough. I started doing a lot of inner work and going to sound healings and meditations. In a meditation, I had a flashback of myself as a little girl, and my mom was talking to my teacher. I overheard my teacher say, “Oh, she's not creative. She's more analytical,’” says Violetta. “My whole life, I told myself, “I'm not creative.” I had that limiting belief, and it wasn't even mine. It was a teacher who put that on me.  When that came up, I was like, “No, I am shifting this narrative.” I started singing to myself as an affirmation: “I am creative. I am creative.” That was when my life changed. I started songwriting, and melodies and lyrics just started coming to me.”

Embracing her newly unblocked creativity, Violetta started a jewelry company and embarked on her musical journey as a solo artist, songwriter and DJ. 

In 2019, After meeting through mutual friends while on a boat in Miami, Karma and Violetta quickly became friends and started dating a few months later. Their shared musical passions naturally lead to the pair making music together, so much so they decided to start their own project as the duo KarmaVioletta. Five years later, they’re engaged and still making music together and can be found performing live at Miami clubs and burner parties (Burning Man offshoots). 

The duo also runs their own metalabel, wavWRLD, as part of their ongoing efforts to build a more sustainable pathway for artists through web3.

wavWRLD runs various experiments like their project wavGame–an interactive “Collect to Connect” gamified model–where the winning collector scored a one-on-one live concert with TK, the artist of the collector’s choice. 

Up next for wavWRLD is wavCURATE, a curation experiment connecting curators across multiple minting platforms to create a multiplayer playlist in an attempt to incentivize a higher correlation between music quality and mints and rewarding curators. 

Interested in the potential of community and technology, KarmaVioletta says centering the ecosystem rather than individual pursuits gives them purpose. They wish to prioritize a larger collective’s goals while also celebrating self expression and the uniqueness of every artist and collector in the space. Whether in web3, their Burning Man community, or in their music, this ethos underpins their efforts and perspective.   

Holding on to the power of shared humanity, KarmaVioletta maintains hope for a better future.

Collect Music NFTs from HIGH FREQUENCY Volume 2. “Humanity” is the fourth track to be released from HIGH FREQUENCY Volume 2. “Humanity” is dropping via Sound at 2pm PST on October 19, 2023.

Read and Collect Issue #48 on Mirror.

Get lost in the ethereal waters of Green Ring’s “Adrift.” The New Hampshire-based artist and producer, also known as Robby, delivers melodic shimmer and flawless harmony atop a mesmerizing and brain-relaxing house beat in his new song “Adrift,” the third track from HIGH FREQUENCY Volume 2. 

Using his “walk in nature” vibe check, Green Ring says the song passed with flying colors. And we couldn’t agree more. The floaty, whimsical instrumental is the perfect companion for an autumn stroll. “That's usually my test,” says Green Ring. “I love going for walks in nature, so I’ll put on a song and see if it passes the vibe.”

Nature is a theme present in the narrative and work of Green Ring, the moniker Robby chose on account of its association with the power to transport worlds–an effect he hopes his music can accomplish. Referring specifically to the key required by magic portals found in “the Wood”–a place between worlds in The Chronicles of Narnia, a book series that captured Robby’s imagination as a kid–Green Ring represents the power to transcend. 

Infusing his music with this childlike wonder, Green Rings takes a playful approach to his production process. “The music comes out from playing around with samples and different sounds–melodies, chord progression, harmonies–and just seeing what grabs me.” 

The ease embedded in the melodies and movement of “Adrift” is indicative of Green Ring’s instinctual ability to find the sweet spot while experimenting with sound. Made while taking a break from a track that was giving him some trouble, “Adrift” embodies the flow in which it was created. “I hit a point one day where I was just like, ‘Let me take a break from grinding on this other one, and write a new idea for fun. “Adrift” came out in like the next two hours,” says Green Ring. “Listening back right after I finished working on it, it just really connected with me. I think it's going to be my favorite thing I've put out so far.” 

Green Ring’s musical journey began as a kid, playing a friend’s piano whenever he got the chance. His love of skiing and nature led him to Denver, Colorado for college where he discovered the world of electronic music while attending shows at Red Rocks Amphitheater. “Going to a bunch of shows at Red Rocks sent me into the electronic music realm. Seeing folks like Odesza or RUFUS DU SOL at Red Rocks was mind blowing and sent me down the whole rabbit hole.”

Inspired by an interview where Kygo talks about starting his career with simply downloading Logic and messing around in his free time, Green Ring began experimenting on the DAW, making music as a hobby. When met with the choice whether or not to renew a lease in Colorado and continue working at a job in real estate finance, he chose to move back home to New Hampshire and pursue music as a career instead. 

Finding joy in the ability to invest his time and attention towards fueling his passion by making music, he encountered a challenge all too familiar to independent musicians, one that ultimately led him to web3. “As we all know, the money isn't immediate or easy to come across as a small independent musician. That's been the most challenging part. What brought me to the whole web3 world was trying to figure out the business side and how to actually make music a full-time living.”

Since 2021 Green Rings has teamed up with heds, cornerclub, Ziggy Ziggy, and LNRZ on various projects and drops. He was part of cornerclub’s “Dance Music for Introverts Volume 1” and won LNRZ’s SATELLITES remix competition with his track “Humming.” When he first encountered NFTs he says his priority was connecting with the music community and finding ways to contribute. “I'm just like, ‘What's going on with music communities in the space? And where can I make music, because that's how I want to tap in.” 

Currently working on new music with half a dozen demos in the queue, he recently performed a virtual set during the Polygon Music Festival in Decentraland and is looking forward to getting his feet wet with future live events. Green Ring also curates “Drifting Off,” a Spotify playlist he has grown to over 17,000 followers, another avenue in which he connects with fellow musicians and fans to bridge connections around his musical niche. Dedicated to melodic, emotional, and mostly instrumental house music, Green Ring continues to find ways to transport us to otherworldly places. 

Collect Music NFTs from HIGH FREQUENCY Volume 2. “Adrift” is the third track to be released from HIGH FREQUENCY Volume 2. “Adrift” is dropping via Sound at 2pm PST on October 12, 2023.

Read and Collect Issue #47 on Mirror.

Escape fair weather friends, vapid parties, & FOMO to the sweet sound of Sara Phillip's angelic voice atop a minimal, moody, and synth-laden beat of her making. Showing off her blossoming production skills and flexing her clever lyricism, "Angel City" is the perfect comfort for the gloomier days.

“Most of us are artists because we feel a lot, probably too much, but I think that's our biggest strength–we have a capacity to feel for so many different people,” says Sara Phillips as our conversation about her music veers into an impactful tangent covering everything from LGBTQ rights, reproductive rights, and racial equality. All matters she speaks on with compassion and authority. 

The LA-based, Montreal-born singer-songwriter started doing fundraisers during the pandemic on IG live, an idea she integrated into web3 by donating 10% of the majority of her drops to various non-profits. “The Trevor Project is one organization that I've worked with before, they do incredible work for the LGBTQ community. I identify as part of that community and have a lot of people I love who are a part of that community,” says Sara. “We've come far in a lot of ways, but there's also a lot that still needs to be done, and a lot of people who really struggle and a lot of people who need help. I think it's easy to get in a bubble in progressive places where it feels queer friendly, but that's not the majority. It's really important work what they do with crisis and suicide prevention.”

When talking with Sara, her warmth is palpable and her capacity for empathy makes her incredibly easy to connect with. It’s her authentic ability to speak to the heart of things that makes her music and her voice so powerful. And as a bi-racial, queer woman, her voice is needed more than ever. 

With nearly 400,000 monthly listeners on Spotify and 518 collectors on Sound, it's clear her music resonates. An active member in the web3 community since 2021, Sara is fostering a meaningful relationship with her audience through her undeniable talent and steadfast pursuit of her lifelong love for music. “I’ve always been a really big music fan. As a kid I listened to music all the time. Never thought I would sing or do music professionally. I didn't really think that was a career. In my town, I didn't know anyone who was an artist,” says Sara. “I played the flute in the school band, and then got a guitar when I was 16. My sister's boyfriend at the time taught me some chords, and I would lock myself in my room and play for like six hours at a time learning cover song after cover song.” 

Beginning to write her own songs, she took up piano and eventually began posting covers online. “Any free time I had, that's what I was doing,” says Sara. “People started to like them, and that kind of gave me the confidence to keep doing it.”

After college in Canada she moved to New York with dreams of being an artist in the big city. “I didn't really know anybody. I just went and started gigging anywhere I could. I would go to places and be like, ‘Can I play a show here?’ I just started booking gigs and working whenever I could. I worked under the table as a bartender to make it work.”

The concrete jungle afforded her the space to thrive, an experience she describes as liberating. “I think in a way that was empowering, the fact that no one knew me. It was easier to set up my life there and not feel shy about being an artist.”

After releasing her first original song on iTunes, artists and producers began reaching out asking to collaborate, eventually leading her to LA. “I didn't know if I would feel as inspired in LA because New York just feels so alive with art and creativity. I came out for a couple of weeks and did some sessions, and I was like, ‘Oh, this kind of feels like where I could be.’ I moved for the summer–my plan was not to stay, but then I stayed,” says Sara. “It felt a little more structured, which after a few years of floating around in New York was what I needed.”

Her time here since has been a mixed bag, one that’s been ultimately positive but not without its challenges. “I didn't think I would love LA as much as I ended up loving it, even though my new song is about hating LA,” she laughs. 

“Angel City,” track #2 on HIGH FREQUENCY Volume 2, paints a gloomier picture of the LA experience. Offering an honest rumination on the disillusionment of romanticizing pursuing an artist career in LA, Sara notes fair weather friends, vapid parties, FOMO and other soul-killing agents as causes of metaphorical death in the City of Angels. 

Fully produced, written, and performed by Sara, the track’s minimal, moody, synth-laden beat shows off her blossoming production skills while her inviting vocals let her clever lyricism take center stage. “I've been getting more into production,” says Sara. “This one I did 100% by myself. I’ll be dropping it on DSPs as well, and it'll be the first song of mine on DSPs that I've both produced and written. I'm a little nervous, but very excited for that. I've done vocal production for a long time, but am still new to beat production. My LNRZ drop, “I don’t feel like dancing anymore,” was the first song I ever produced, and that was only a few months ago. I'm trying to get a little bit better as I go.”

Coming together over the course of a few months, “Angel City” is the marriage of two separate ideas that found their way to each other. “I had this idea for a really long time and had some of the lyrics but no melody. When I started this beat, I didn't go into it thinking it was for “Angel City,” but once I had most of the production fleshed out, I was like, ‘It kind of feels like driving through LA.’ Now that it's all together, it’s a perfect fit. Sometimes that happens, you have ideas swirling and then something new happens and they kind of marry each other.”

Her patience paid off. Tasteful and relaxed, the production choices feel appropriately introspective and comforting, indeed, perfect for soothing the often lonely journey she describes. “Everybody’s dying here, that’s why they call it Angel City. Everybody’s lying here, my god they make it look so pretty,” she sings, later offering a particularly relatable line: “I’m sick of the parties, but I still want to be invited.” A likely experience for anyone chasing success in Lalaland, Sara’s no stranger to this feeling. “It’s the dichotomy of being tired of it, but also wanting to still be a part of it,” says Sara. “You're still caught in the middle, not completely over it, frustrated and kind of jaded by it, but you still have this need or feel this pressure to show up because you feel like if you don't go, you're missing out, or they'll stop asking you.” 

Luckily, finding web3 has alleviated some of the sentiment. “Through web3 I've made a lot more artist friends than I have in LA,” says Sara with a laugh. “The freshness of web3, I think, made a lot of people excited about their craft and about music again. At least it did for me. It's also a testament to people wanting to collaborate. It feels reinvigorated and way more exciting than the traditional space lately.”

Currently in album mode, Sara is hard at work on her first full-length effort, an endeavor she’s been eager to undertake for years. "I am an album girlie through and through. I think a lot of real music fans are album people, too. I just think streaming has not lent itself to that, so people's habits have changed. But I love a story and a cohesive project from beginning to end. That's why I've always wanted to do one. I’ve put out a few EPs, but never a full-length project. So that is coming next year. We're working on everything for it now. I'm very, very excited about that.”

In the meantime, Sara’s been impressively active with one off releases, collaborations, and live shows. Her LNRZ drop, “I don’t feel like dancing anymore,” racked up 1,5000 mints while her single “House On Fire” brought in 500 mints on Sound, and she’s collaborated with artists such as VALÉ, Tarot, Caly Bevier, Daniel Allan, Lucas Radouch, YULTRON, ONEIL, and Giorgio Gee. “It's been my highest year for streaming, which is kind of interesting. Keeping consistent is something I'll take forward, and try to do even as I get the album ready.”

Building momentum and making meaningful connections along the way, there’s no doubt that great things are ahead for Sara. As we eagerly await her next era, and a debut album that is sure to make waves, we’ll try to leave the fomo behind and get a good cry in the car to “Angel City,” instead. 

Collect Music NFTs from HIGH FREQUENCY Volume 2. “Angel City” is the second track to be released from HIGH FREQUENCY Volume 2. “Angel City” is dropping via Sound at 2pm PST on October 5, 2023.

Read and Collect Issue #46 on Mirror.

To dive a little deeper, we recently caught up with Daniel to chat life lately, self discovery, and of course, all things music.

It’s been another big year for Daniel Allan. He launched Daniel Allan Entertainment as a way of breaking from the traditional artist-label path, played his first major festival stage at Electric Forest, and has been making waves both on and off chain with his new project Duality.

One thing Daniel Allan hasn’t quite conquered yet though, is jet lag. Calling in from England, he’s taking advantage of a “flat swap” with a friend who’s currently staying at his spot in LA. Just back from a day at PIRATE, a nearby recording studio that grants access to heds NFT holders (heds covers the fee), Daniel’s still adjusting to the time difference.

Swapping jet lag horror stories, he tells me about missing a tennis court booking on the first day of the trip. “I played tennis in college so my girlfriend booked a grass tennis court for us,” he says. “We landed at like 1pm, got to the place at 2pm, fell asleep, and woke up at 2am.”

I had no idea he played tennis in college, yet I am unsurprised. Every time I talk to Daniel, I seem to learn a new layer of his. Today is no different.

He goes on to tell me about his summer, mentioning trips to Michigan, Paris, and Tokyo. I say I hope he’ll have some time to rest when he gets back to LA. He laughs, and says he’ll touch down at LAX eight hours before he gets back on a plane to see family in Kentucky.

“This year is definitely the most that I have traveled.”

Tokyo, he says, was a highlight. Primarily because his show was the day he landed, and had a week to enjoy himself afterwards without performance pressure “If I'm traveling somewhere, I usually have a show on the last day. So I've never really fully enjoyed it, because in the back of my mind, ‘I'm like, fuck, I have this thing.’”

For Daniel, it’s apparent how surreal it all still feels–flying around the world to play shows and make music. When playing his first major festival in Michigan at Electric Forest, he notes a small detail as specifically memorable. “Honestly, the most fun part about the festival was being in the golf carts, I’m like “Ah, I’m an artist in the golf carts!” You know, I thought it was the coolest shit ever.” The anecdote he chooses to share feels indicative of his own internal process, possibly his way of staying grounded while increasingly on the move and reaching new heights.

“When I was 16, I was like, ‘I'm gonna play a music festival, and it's gonna cure everything. I'm gonna be the happiest fucking dude on the planet. But as I've started playing them myself and befriending people that play so many of them. I've realized that it's all levels of the same shit. There’s always going to be a bigger show.”

Grappling with this, he’s careful not to mistake life for fantasy. “Experiencing it myself on a very small scale, but especially seeing friends and thinking like, ‘Damn, if I were in your position, I feel like life would be the sickest shit ever.’ But that’s not always the case.”

Thanks in part to his growing self-awareness and pragmatism, he’s found renewed purpose in making music as a way to center himself amidst all the changes. “Getting used to playing shows has been a new experience for me,” says Daniel. “I think it's reflected in a lot ofmy new music. The pivot this year has been focusing more on dance-centric music”

The shift began with the release of his track,“Ball!,” and is felt throughout his new project Duality.

An outtake from Duality, “UES,” follows suit showing just how at home Daniel feels on the dance floor. Short for Upper East Side, the opening track on HIGH FREQUENCY Volume 2, is the perfect club record. “UES” shines with endless dimension, moving between layers with ease and edge, offering a full body rush of sonic sensation. “Last November, I went to a club in Miami and was like, ‘Oh, I should be making dance shit. I made “Ball!” on the flight back, and “UES” was one of the first dance songs that I made after that.”

Teaming up with indie act URL for the track's topline, Daniel's production skills shine, as do his instincts. “I was in a Zara in Bali and Shazamed this kid, URL, and DM’d him immediately. I was like, ‘We have to work on music together.’”

Once URL and Daniel linked, they immediately clicked and the song poured out. “He sent me a hook and I produced the song in like 15 minutes,” says Daniel. Surprised by how much his friends liked the record, Daniel was struck by how often fan favorites tend to be songs he’s spent the least amount of time on.

This phenomenon became especially enlightening for Daniel after receiving feedback from a trusted producer on a now revised version of Duality. “He said something along the lines of like, “Bro, I know you're good. Stop trying to show me that you're good.”

Both flattered by the compliment and shook by the revelation that he was perhaps overproducing in an unconscious effort to prove himself, he looked inward. “It was very much a moment of like, ‘Oh, you think I'm good? Like sick, but also, I began to question if I was making music for the right reasons. He was telling me not to overthink my music. He was like, “We don’t spend 10 hours in a day as producers to make a song in 10 hours. You spend 10 hours a day in the studio to make a song in 15 minutes that you like–the amount of time you spend on a song has nothing to do with how good or bad it is.”

A reminder to trust his intuition, Daniel afforded himself more permission to follow what feels good. “Maybe it's not a coincidence that the songs I make in like 15 minutes are some of people's favorite songs.”

“I Just Need” with Lyrah is a perfect example. Gaining traction on TikTok and Spotify, as well as onchain, “I Just Need” was the result of a quick, last minute idea from Lyrah that came at the tail end of a session. “I got a very visceral reaction to that song,” says Daniel. “What’s meant the most to me has been artists who I really genuinely look up to have reached out like, ‘This is a really special record. Send it to me, I'd love to play it at a show.’”

Co-signs from his musical heroes are the sweetest wins for Daniel. They tell him to keep learning to trust himself. “Every song on this project has had such a journey, like the first track, “Duality,” San Halo played at Electric Forest and brought me out during his set, and we played in front of 10,000 people. And then I was at Lollapalooza, Paris and turned around and he surprises me, and brings me on stage and plays the song.”

Having just released the project’s fourth single, “Safe” with Madalen Duke and Tisoki, Daniel’s finding his rhythm both onchain and beyond. Releasing independently on Distrokid, releasing a song every two weeks on DSPs alongside his Sound drops, Daniel and his team are setting a new precedent. “This feels the most sustainable,” says Daniel. “When I did my seed round, the whole point was to be able to put out music at a pace that wasn't dictated by a marketing budget or a label. It’s very liberating.”

Alluding to the duality of life as his own CEO and as an artist, the project explores the tension between the two roles. “I've lived my life onchain as a businessman, and then I've lived my life as an artist, which are two very fucking different things,” says Daniel. “I have business Daniel and I have manic producer, creative Daniel and I don't know that they would be friends.”

Reconciling this reality, Daniel’s finding this season of life increasingly edifying. “It’s been a time of self discovery. Not one groundbreaking thing or thought, just a bunch of little ones that have compounded this past year.”

Learning to get past the wall has become his greatest defense. ““UES” specifically was a turning point for me in finding a little bit of a purpose, and gaining more confidence in my artist practice,” says Daniel. “I always hit some sort of a wall when I'm working on a song. What I've really tried to make the biggest priority in the studio is to always finish the thing that I’m working on. I'm not saying a final mix/master, but a demo. That way, you can have closure on the idea because if you start a loop, and then come back to the loop later, the possibilities are still too endless. Whereas if you close the loop, you have something to objectively look at and can make a sound decision on the idea. It's kind of like building this weird muscle. I think just being able to finish it gives you the most confidence as a producer, or as a writer or as an artist.”

Another source of encouragement fueling his sense of purpose has been producing for other artists. Most recently working on projects for Emilia Ali, Daz Merchant, and frequent collaborator Reo Cragun, Daniel’s found a new channel for creative expansion by setting aside the expectations around his own music and following a fellow artist’s vision.

By the time we wrap, it’s late in England, and he’s just polished off what was left of a pint of ice cream while charging his phone by the laundry machine in the kitchen. “​​I should have done this at the beginning of the interview,” he says, holding up the empty carton in the camera. “But yeah, no, that was fun. That was a lot of fun. It was cool to rediscover this song.”

****

Collect Music NFTs from HIGH FREQUENCY Volume 2. “UES” is the first track to be released from HIGH FREQUENCY Volume 2. “UES” is dropping via Sound at 2pm PST on September 28, 2023.

Read and Collect on Mirror.

Inspired by the caliber of music showcased and the enthusiasm of our growing community, we are delighted to present the project’s sophomore effort, HIGH FREQUENCY Volume 2 curated by NOISE and HFV1 collectors.

Thanks to hedsVOTE, collectors curated HFV2 by casting their votes from a ballot of community-nominated artists, resulting in an inspired list of noteworthy talent. Based on the results and artist availability, we are pleased to announce HFV2’s lineup. The compilation will include 10 tracks by 10 artists and will feature a bonus track to close out the season. 

HIGH FREQUENCY Volume 2: Artist Tracklist 

1. Daniel Allan

2. Sara Phillips

3. Green Ring

4. KarmaVioletta

5. TK

6. Annika Rose

7. Deegan

8. Dot

9. Heno

10. Jadyn Violet

HIGH FREQUENCY Volume 2 is brought to you by NOISE.

NOISE is a DAO brought together by the shared belief that web3 and blockchain technology can positively impact the future of music. Formed in December 2021, our core group consists of investors, music industry vets, and artists who are leading the way for musicians in web3 including RAC, Daniel Allan, VÉRITÉ, Dot, DeafBeef, Holly Herndon, Matthew Chaim, Jonathan Mann, Dadabots, and more. Together, we are pooling our resources to collaboratively invest in and support the emerging web3 music ecosystem. To date, NOISE has backed web3 music projects, and collected hundreds of NFTs from artists who are pushing the space forward. Check out NOISE’s collection here.

A new movement in music.

At NOISE, we believe we’re at the beginning of a new movement in music characterized by musicians who are digitally native, are starting their music careers in web3, are using the funds and support from their early work to refine a sound that is distinctly their own, and who, long-term, will become the global stars of tomorrow.

And while we’re excited about this future–we’re also aware that we have a lot of work to do to make it happen. As NOISE, we want to be the go-to brand for collectors entering the space by highlighting up-and-coming artists and making it easy for fans to collect their first music NFT while offering a community of like-minded fans and enthusiasts.

Everything you need to know about HIGH FREQUENCY Volume 2.

In preparation for our first release, we wanted to share some insights into what you can expect:

• First Drop: Thursday, September 28 

• Upcoming Drops: Released every Thursday 

• Supply: Open Edition

• Price: .003 ETH

• Weekly Editorial Features: Each release will be paired with a long-form feature highlighting the associated artist, published in HIGH FREQUENCY via Substack and Mirror. We think music is deeply human and want to share the story behind each song and the artist who created it.

• Artwork: The art for HIGH FREQUENCY Volume 2 is designed and created by music producer and artist Willaa. 

A place for music collectors to connect.

Collect any NOISE NFT on Sound or Mirror and gain access to our collector Telegram – a place to build community and share our enthusiasm for onchain music and the emerging ecosystem. 

Please join us on Telegram here.

Read and Collect HIGH FREQUENCY articles on Mirror.

To warm up the dance floor in the meantime, we have a special free drop this week from WILLAA, who you may know from his visual designs for the HFv1 artwork. Another side of his many talents, we are bringing his first drop onchain—“Analog”—in this special edition of HIGH FREQUENCY featured tracks.

For WILLAA, music, tech, and visual art have always been inextricably tied. 

While in college pursuing a degree in graphic design, WILLAA’s interest in DJing blossomed as he began to find community, inspiration, and guidance from other DJs. 

After graduating and moving to San Francisco, he took on a product design role at a music start up, where both skill sets and passions continued to grow. “That was a crossover between worlds. I was working on this music app, and then hanging out with musicians and DJing for fun all the time,” says WILLAA. “Music, design, art, work, and fun were all mixed together–it was all kind of the same.”

Eventually, he began DJing at clubs which then spurred an interest in producing. Starting to make his own music and remixes, WILLAA challenged himself to create in short sprints, getting in as many reps as possible in order to hone his production skills along with his full time product design work. Over the course of the past eight years he’s been refining his style, taking cues from the dance floor, and playing his hand at various creative experiments. 

“The trick for me was to create a forcing function for myself to make time to practice and make more music. I would do little sprints. I would say, ‘Okay, I'm going to make a song, start to finish in two hours, and then I'm going to put it on my SoundCloud.’ I would challenge myself to do that, and that's how I really got over the idea of stuff not being good enough, or not being perfect because I would finish it and put it out.”

Finding his confidence by testing his music at events, WILLAA found his flow using each show to perform a new track. “I started getting validation from the dance floor and playing my new music in an actual party setting. What really makes people kind of lose their minds at a party is when you hear something brand new for the first time. That was the feeling that I was chasing, ‘How can I put my twist on something?’”

His efforts proved fruitful, landing deals with house/tech label Chub Rub and electronic label Dirty Bird, among others. Continuing to focus on repetition, his style evolved naturally as he continued his commitment to consistency and output. “The stuff that I feel like I've spent the longest time on is not even the best. The best stuff just kind of happens. It's like lightning in a bottle. Almost like you kind of capture that inspiration. You're making something new. It feels right. And if it sounds good, it is good. And that's it. Not overthinking it has kind of been how I approach my production.”

Looking for more opportunity to share his growing catalog in a live setting, he and a few friends cooked up the idea to host community-oriented techno shows in the park. Serving pizza and playing house music, they began Pizza and Techno. “We started hosting renegade parties where we just brought a pizza oven, brought our speakers and CDJs and played music in the park and cooked pizzas.”

Pizza and Techno caught steam, and they moved the party to San Francisco’s Audio Nightclub. The recurring event ran for three years before Covid slowed things down. “It's not at the level of frequency of what it used to be, but the whole feedback loop was, ‘let's throw a party, and let's make music for the party.’ Every three months, we would put out a compilation with various artists from the party.”

WILLAA continues to find new ways to make music amidst the changing seasons of his life. “I still love house and techno music. I don't go to clubs anymore. I'm married with a kid on the way, so it's a different part of my life right now. But there was a time when that was all that I did basically was work, Pizza and Techno, and partying on the weekends.”

Always looking for ways to expedite the execution of his ideas, he’s now increasingly integrating AI to help utilize his time and energy on creative projects. “My mindset in how I’ve adopted AI is to use these tools to dramatically explode the amount of stuff I'm creating and the amount of things I'm able to do. When Stable Diffusion started getting a little bit better and some of the generative video stuff started coming out, I holed up to make music videos for all my music. I was like, ‘I'm just gonna start exploring crazy visual treatments that go with the music that I like.”

One such experiment involved a remix and music video for Jonathan Mann’s song “Googol.” Another set out to make a LoFi generative Christmas album called Midnight Daydreams. Setting no limits on his creativity, WILLAA is a dedicated student with a playful and restless spirit. “I'm basically a creative ADHD machine. If I don't have something to do, I'll make something up to take my energy and my focus.” 

Optimistic about web3’s ability to connect creators and fans, WILLAAA continues to find ways to expand his creative community–HIGH FREQUENCY having already benefited from his visual work where he designed the artwork for the HFV1 series.  

Now, we get the chance to feature his musical talents with his first onchain music drop, “Analog.” Finding its groove somewhere between intergalactic futurama and retro funk, “Analog” oozes with undeniable flow and danceability. Easy listening and inspiring natural movement, the song captures a euphoric, weightless feeling. “It's called “Analog,” because it has a crunchy kind of texture to it, which is meant to be kind of analog sounding. The ironic thing is nothing about it is analog, it's samples and synthesizers. Everything is digital, literally. But it kind of has a nostalgic feel to it.”

At the end of the day, WILLAA’s music–as with all his creative endeavors–aims to find joy in self expression. “I think of it all as one big blend of different aspects of being creative, finding ways to express myself and do stuff that I like, and make things that make me feel good upon reflection then sharing them with other people and hopefully, it makes them feel good too.”

Collect Music NFTs from HIGH FREQUENCY. “Analog” is dropping on Sound at 2pm PST on September 14 free to mint for a week.

Read and Collect HIGH FREQUENCY articles on Mirror.

The next iteration of Noise’s mixtape will be curated by the community, specifically by all of the collectors and supporters of HIGH FREQUENCY and Volume 1. Last week, we asked for your nominations, and yall really came through. Covering a wide array of talent, genres, and web3 approaches—this list is absolute FIRE. 

HFV2 Nominations: 

• Grady

• Deegan

• Peter Saputo

• LATASHÁ

• So Tuff So Cute

• DLG

• Lyrah

• Sound of Fractures

• Ibn Inglor

• Heybela

• Daniel Allan

• Sara Phillips

• Elcee the Alchemist

• Heno

• Green Ring

• Mark Evans

• ROHKI

• angelbaby

• TK

• WesGhost

• Annika Rose

• Felly

• Sophia Alexa

• Alexander 23

• harris cole

• Pussy Riot

• JON WALTZ

• Allan Kingdom

• Dot

• Verite

• Healy

• Beachcrimes

• DEFFIE

• RUDE CAT

• pearson

• Alec King

• vaarwell

• Ben Kessler

• San Holo

• sober rob

• BLONDISH

• pat junior

• serboy

• Dabow

• Jadyn Violet

• Keyon Christ

• Vivid Fever Dreams

• TAROT

• Suave

• Toha

• Kaien Cruz

• Isadore Noir

• FUTRxLGND

• Ed Balloon

• Acutek

• KarmaVioletta

• Three Oscillators

• Al3C

• OmegaKid

• demotapes

• Omotayo

• El Khefe

• valentina cy

• MAi

• ALYSS

• X&ND

• KASBEEL

• Yaxx Castillo

• Alex Purdy

• greydient

• Twenty Duce

• JED XO

• max pretends

• VOID

• Chugar

• Losi

• A KID called BROKE

• Nessy the Rilla

• Alex Paul

• Trincao

• Xcelencia

• Sadye

The next step is voting! Open to all HIGH FREQUENCY NFT holders–both for HF Mirror articles and HFV1 Sound drops–voting is LIVE now and runs until September 2 at 9:30 pm UTC.

Vote HERE.

Voting for HFV2 is brought to you by hedsVOTE, a voting protocol designed by our friends at heds. To cast your vote, connect your wallet holding HFV1 or Noise DAO Mirror NFTs and select the artists you want to see featured. After making your choice(s), click “Cast Vote” at the top and sign.

A huge thank you to heds for making this happen! We are stoked to experiment with a decentralized curation model and can’t wait to see how HFV2 shapes up.

One thing is guaranteed, great music is on the way!

Read and collect on Mirror.

The caliber of talent in web3 music continues to inspire us. With over 5,000 NOISE holders in our collector base, we are eager to showcase more exceptional music and bring in even more collectors to the scene.

For the compilation’s sophomore effort, collectors will be able to participate in a community-driven curation model to select the artists who will be featured on HFV2. Using the Heds voting protocol, all holders of HIGH FREQUENCY & NOISE NFTs are eligible to vote. 

To start, we need your help!

We’ve been compiling a list of potential artists for season 2 from our existing collectors and community members, but we want to hear from you: what artists should be included in the vote?

Please comment your nomination on this Twitter thread, send a message in the HIGH FREQUENCY Telegram, or email us at editorial@noisedao.xyz no later than August 22. 

Once the list of artists is finalized, collectors of HIGH FREQUENCY Volume 1 can vote beginning on August 24. Voting will be open for one week. 

We will then use the results to curate the compilation and editorial calendar according to artist availability. The first music and editorial feature for HFV2 will drop in mid September. 

Our goal is to produce a collaborative, community-driven album that is reflective of the ecosystem and celebrates the talent driving the space forward. We believe web3 can positively impact the future of music and want to champion both artists and collectors who share our vision. 

Cheers to HFV2!

Read and Collect on Mirror.

In a fascinating twist of roles, Wallace collaborates with NOISE to bring this electrifying track to life. You'll have the opportunity to mint it for free for a week, beginning on Thursday, August 3rd at 2pm PT/5pm ET on Sound.

Created amidst the backdrop of her journey from the hustle of New York to the creativity-infused vibes of Los Angeles, "Light Me Up" is a heartfelt narrative of embracing change, surrendering to the past, and the soulful power of starting anew.

For a deeper dive into this intriguing transformation, Wallace joins her old friend Aly, for a tell-all conversation. With a bond that traces back to their early days when Wallace managed Aly, this reunion is set to reveal the untold stories behind the track and Wallace's journey since.

Wallace Morgan embodies a tapestry of talents—a multidisciplinary artist, a resonating singer-songwriter, and a sought-after writer. Born in the 90s as the youngest of three, she is the quintessential free spirit of her family. With a penchant for deep reflection and an insatiable curiosity, Wallace identifies herself as a profound feeler, a relentless over-thinker, and someone perpetually intrigued by the raw, enchanting, and enigmatic facets of life. Her music—rich with pop sensibilities—serves as an exploratory vessel, diving into complex psychological themes beyond mere personal relationships. Her songs are not just personal narratives; they critically examine systemic issues that inadvertently impact mental health at a deeply personal level.

"Light Me Up" represents Wallace's powerful shift from feeling controlled by life to taking control of her own. The song emphasizes her acceptance of things she cannot change. A personal anthem, the track came to life during a writing session with the producer and writer, Dajuan, in Fall 2022.

The song tells a story from Wallace's life—her move to LA in 2019, a day that started with a car accident and ended with an earthquake. After a successful cross-country road trip, she got in a car accident on her first day in Los Angeles. Though everyone was okay, it was a shocking experience. And just hours later, while she was trying to relax in her new apartment, an earthquake measuring 7.2 on the Richter scale shook the building.

These major events often shape us, and for Wallace, they inspired "Light Me Up." The song reflects the big changes that this day sparked in her life. “Light Me Up” is the first song she’s released in 2023, and will be the opening track of a five-song project to be released later this year. "Light Me Up" marks an important milestone in Wallace's musical journey.

No stranger to reinventing herself, Wallace has navigated a path filled with twists and turns. Beginning her journey in the high echelons of the music industry, she initially worked for prestigious magazines and major labels. Throughout her career, Wallace has worn many hats: journalist, publicist, and music manager, with stints at Rolling Stone, Republic Records, MOXI MANAGEMENT, and Mint Music Group. Nowadays, she's carving a fresh path in the world of web3 and becoming more embedded in the music community emerging from it.

Her dual passions for writing and music are intertwined, and Wallace does not view them as separate. She's striving to create a more sustainable model for her work, one that supports her livelihood, whether it's her newsletter funding her music or her writing for projects like High Frequency. Although the financial equation isn't perfect at the moment, she envisions a future where it could be. This future offers her a sustainable life where she can continue her profession in a way that respects and honors her creative process.

Adapting to new beginnings is an ongoing part of life, a concept Wallace knows all too well. The phrase "I can't run from it," in the new track, reflects her inability to escape the feelings of anxiety and burnout she experienced in New York. It felt like these feelings followed her to LA, taking physical form in a car crash and an earthquake upon her arrival.

But as Wallace came to realize this was all part of the plan, the larger picture began to take shape. It wasn't about resisting these struggles, but rather surrendering to them, much like a phoenix rising from the ashes. She recognized she couldn't avoid herself, her problems, or the world around her. She had to face these challenges head-on, allow herself to undergo a profound existential crisis, and question the beliefs and social constructs that no longer served her. It was a call to metaphorically set everything ablaze and start anew, a transformation encapsulated in “Light Me Up.”

In the end, Wallace reemerges. She acknowledges that everyone is navigating their own unique journey, arriving at life's significant turning points when they're ready to face them. She has observed that as individuals, we are remarkably resilient. This journey, with its crashes and subsequent rebirths, forms the very essence of human creativity and self-discovery.

****

Collect Music NFTs from HIGH FREQUENCY. “Light Me Up” is dropping on Sound at 2pm PST on August 3, free to mint for a week.

Read and Collect HIGH FREQUENCY articles on Mirror.

Last week we closed out HFV1 with a free mint from NOISE member and producer, artist, founder extraordinaire Reo Cragun. With 24.4k mints (tbd if the bots found us lol), it’s the perfect way to book-end our compilation album. Cue the fireworks! 

We launched HFV1 in February with the goal of highlighting up-and-coming artists and bringing more collectors into the space to get their first music NFT. 16 releases later, and we’re glad to report more than 5,000 unique wallets participated in minting tracks from HIGH FREQUENCY Volume 1. With more than 24,000 mints and over 5,700 followers on Sound, we are thrilled with the outcome and are energized to keep going.

The compilation is a reflection of what NOISE aims to represent—a shared belief and vision that web3 can positively impact the future of music. A huge thank you to everyone who has participated in this project, from artists to collectors to builders, it’s been a collaborative group effort fueled by passion for great music. 

Along the way, we saw creative through-lines and micro-genres emerge. We’re inspired by the stories and unique perspectives of the artists involved, and view the tracklist as a snapshot of the ecosystem at this special moment in time. Forever onchain, HIGH FREQUENCY Volume 1 documents the emerging sounds and movements of onchain music as it continues to evolve. 

The visual style of the project also showcased exciting changes as our visual designer Willaa catered to evolving infrastructure and a wide array of sonic palettes. With each GIF syncopated to every song’s BPM, the visual narratives blossomed instinctually according to each song’s storyline. When viewed as a whole, the body of work is a beautiful representation of the dance between cohesion, experimentation, and the vision of every artist who contributed to the album. 

By putting together the album, we also learned a few things along the way. Working as a team, we adapted weekly and found ways to refine our process with the intention of better serving our growing community. 

We will be taking a summer hiatus to rest and reflect as we gear up for Season Two of HIGH FREQUENCY and Volume II of The Compilation Album. There is lots of work to be done, and we are excited to continue on this journey.  

A massive thank you to all of the incredible artists who participated–msft, Black Dave, TWERL, Deegan, Mija, Sloe Jack, Iman Europe, Aly, bloody white, Dadabots, Matthew Chaim, Jamee Cornelia, Pauline Herr, oshi, camoufly, Haleek Maul, Karma.wav, and Reo Cragun–we couldn’t have done it without you. 

We are so grateful to our entire community of collectors, and want to highlight some of our most frequent and active collectors–Crittie P, VividFeverDreams, PixelGlyphMan, cooprecords.eth, luckybrick, and serboy.  

And a big thanks to Sound for being our technology partner–specifically David, Katrina, and the engineering team for real time user support.

Looking ahead, we plan to further involve our growing collector and artist community in curatorial decisions. Our Telegram will move to a token-gated model this summer for all holders of NOISE NFTs while Volume II of the Compilation Album will be curated by holders. Rumor has it, a membership NFT could be brewing as well. 

NOISE is also cooking up a few new projects, so keep an eye out on our Twitter in the meantime. 

TLDR: 

• HIGH FREQUENCY Editorial Season One–crushed it. 

• HIGH FREQUENCY Volume I: The Compilation Album–immaculate vibes, goals accomplished, lessons learned, pumped for the next iteration. 

Last but not least, check out NOISE member Adam D’Augelli’s interview on the Invest In Music podcast where he gives a fantastic overview of NOISE and all things HIGH FREQUENCY.

Now go touch some grass and frolic to the sweet sounds of great music. 

We’ll see you here back in the Fall!

Read and Collect on Mirror.

To celebrate, Reo’s new track “what it’s like to lose” will be free to mint for a week on Sound, starting today at 5pm EST.

Meet Craig, the alter-ego of the one and only, Reo Cragun.

Foreshadowing the artist and producer’s next musical chapter, “what it’s like to lose” offers a sneak preview of what’s on the horizon for the LNRZ founder. Reintroducing his darker, moodier, more braggadocious side, Reo revives the character first introduced in his 2018 EP Craig. 

Created as a response to industry pressure to stay in one lane musically after the release of his debut album Growing Pains via Virgin Records in 2017, Reo conceptualized the persona as a vehicle to express all sides of himself freely. “I'm not a very bravado person by nature. I have a pretty simple life, to be honest. Craig is kind of the opposite of that. The side of me that’s extravagant, not afraid to express my thoughts, and has strong opinions–that's the character.”

Bridging the gap between Reo and Craig, “what it’s like to lose,” weaves between the more thoughtful, contemplative Reo and a more impulsive, in-your-face Craig. “The song is pretty light hearted at first, then ramps up and I get a little bit more bold. At the beginning I'm talking about this girl, how she was putting on a show. I couldn’t see through it, but it was actually good for me. Then by the end, I'm like, ‘It’s 2 am, I'm going 70 on the 405, fuck it. I'm not sleeping. I'm about to go do some reckless, arrogant shit,’” says Reo. “I’m explaining a little bit of my journey as a person and an artist through both perspectives–the well thought out and meticulously planned Reo side of me, and then the not afraid to speak my mind, a little bit arrogant, Craig towards the end. The beat actually pitches down a few semitones and it gets a little darker to get the message across that it’s a different guy talking.”

Currently working on a longerform project further exploring this duality while continuing to build LNRZ, the web3 distribution company he spearheads with Clear Eyes, Reo is leaning into his multitudes. “The LNRZ journey, the large amount of change in my life, and the multiple hats that I'm wearing resurfaced wanting to talk about more things than I have been in the last couple of years.”

What started as an experiment two years ago, LNRZ has now evolved into a full blown business with Reo at the helm. Implementing a weekly curation model featuring music from different artists every week, LNRZ is leading the way. “Honestly, it’s kind of mind blowing. We started this curation journey seven months ago and had 20 unique collectors. Today, we're at around 1200 unique collectors. So it’s been a pretty big half of the year for us.”

Though he’s no stranger to running his own business as an artist, Reo’s honest about the new responsibilities and learning curve of overseeing a company. “I’m in a lot of leadership positions. I think self awareness is super important. And that's why, I'm not afraid to look stupid. I asked for a lot of help. I trust the people that I work with on a daily basis to make the right decisions as well. It's a work in progress.”

The journey hasn’t been without its challenges, but the passion and consistent growth has kept the team rolling on. “The challenge has been that it didn't really exist onchain, so there wasn't a lot to reference. There's a whole bunch of amazing curation in the digital art world, things like Art Blocks, for example, that initially inspired some of the ideas we wanted to execute. And the community that they've built,” says Reo. “Another challenge has been that LNRZ was self-funded for a very long time. And it's hard to incentivize people, but we were able to go pretty far with not a lot of budget. I owe a lot of people favors,” Reo laughs. 

The motivating factor has always been the music and better servicing artists–a North Star that has proved invaluable to the project’s unfolding success. Quality control, cool factor, and heart also make a strong case for the project’s allure. The weekly drops, the collaborative longform project Satellites, the website and drop mechanisms, Mirror posts, and the LNRZ HQ Twitter, Lens, and Telegram all exude a feeling of heartfelt excitement. “I think the greatest thing, from my end, is just being able to release great music. It's really a joy. When people are excited to work on a project, and they're happy with the outcome. It's pure collaboration to get creative in different ways. There's a lot of moving pieces. But at the end of the day, as long as the artists are happy and thriving that keeps us going.”

Looking to expand their reach and better support the artists in their community, Reo and his team are dedicated to finding new pathways for growth and sustainability. “You gotta ask yourself, ‘What does a web3 company look like in music?’ I think it's bigger than only releasing music NFTs. So, in the next few months, we're branching out and doing a bunch of things that will empower creators and allow them to monetize in new ways. And build community at an accelerated growth,” says Reo. “We want to champion artists. That's the main goal.” 

With multiple projects in the LNRZ ecosystem on the way, Reo and his team are making an effort to listen to feedback from community members and build more democratic ways of ideating and decision making. “The last few months there has been a lot of voicing that the space isn't perfect, and I think that's ultimately very true. So we came together and decided to take this time to try and make it better. Try some new ideas and experiments and hopefully get everyone to collaborate with us. That new frontier is what’s going to start in our ecosystem in the next, probably, two weeks, which we're excited about.”

With the hope of further growing community engagement, LNRZ has plans to release new infrastructure later this month. “We're releasing a new vehicle to further support music in the space. Something we hope a lot of community members will get involved in and something that we can get excited about on a weekly basis that's not just collecting music.”

Looking beyond music NFTs, the hope is to create multiple revenue streams for artists and various avenues for community growth. “We don't want to just release music NFTs, we want to actually promote the growth of the space. And in order to do that, we need to start having deeper conversations, rather than just what the next drop looks like. That's the goal with this side project. We have a lot of other people in the music community backing it, so this won't be just a LNRZ project. We're spearheading it, but we want to rally the troops. It will hopefully be one of the bigger democratic approaches to growth in this space. We want to see a lot of people win, and a lot of people benefit from this.” 

Scaling, in Reo’s mind, is a matter of continuing to build the curation vehicle while also cultivating an environment and culture that attracts a further reach of community and artists. “I think music NFTs will be our bread and butter for a long time, but the goal isn't to just be the best at doing music NFTs. The goal is to service the artists in the best possible way better than anyone else can do it. We got to build this thing into a place where everyone wants to be or work alongside with. Do a whole bunch of good shit and work hard, and I think we make that a reality.”

Reo maintains this attitude as both artist and founder. Choosing to mint “what it’s like to lose” for free to close out HIGH FREQUENCY Volume 1 in collaboration with NOISE, Reo’s current focus is on accessibility and exposure. His main concern is getting people excited about the space and the music in it.  

“I do not think that a lower price point devalues art. I do think that it makes it more accessible, but that does not mean that it's necessarily worthless,” says Reo. “What is more important to me, a $1,000 or 1,000 people who believe in what we're trying to build here? And I think the honest answer is 1000 people who believe in what we're trying to do here. That's what I'm excited about. More people hearing what we're working on. More people listening to my music, I would take that 10 out of 10 times.”

Acknowledging the layers involved, Reo adds that there’s a “time and place for everything,” referencing J Cole’s 2013 Dollar & A Dream tour where tickets were priced at one dollar as a poignant example of when the time was right for such an approach. “That was how he really had explosive growth. He wanted to do something big for his community, and the people who truly believed in his music. That doesn't mean that the show was actually worth $1. I think there was way more value in that show. It just all depends on how you look at it.”

Seeking new perspectives as he continues to workshop his artistry, his business, and his personal development, Reo Cragun maintains a sense of rare humility and openness. “I'm not good at taking credit for a lot of the accomplishments and accolades underneath my belt. Oftentimes, it’s not necessary,” says Reo. “I try to be a student first. I think that getting ahead of yourself, and thinking too highly of yourself can prove to be dangerous. So, I don't take myself too seriously.”

With a tempered, thoughtful, and meticulous Reo running LNRZ, he opens the door for his more audacious side to come out and play in his music. “I'd be lying if I didn’t say sometimes those thoughts enter, and I do take myself too seriously.” Capturing this relatable human balance in the character of Craig, Reo makes room for all his dualities to shine. “I'm excited. Craig is back.”

****

Collect Music NFTs from HIGH FREQUENCY Volume 1. “what it’s like to lose” is the sixteenth track to be released from NOISE, for HIGH FREQUENCY Volume 1. “what it’s like to lose” is dropping on Sound at 2pm PST on June 22, free to mint for a week.

Read and Collect on Mirror. This week’s mirror article is also free to mint.

Miami-based multi-hyphenate artist, producer, and community builder Karma.wav lives up to his name with his new track “YOUR LOVE.” Transcending to a new dimension, “YOUR LOVE” ebbs and flows with the rejuvenating wash of cool water as if its audio waves are a karmic gift received on account of love. “I started writing about love from a general perspective,” says Karma.wav. “The feeling of when you're with someone, and you feel that love from a very primal point of view.” 

After being introduced by a glitchy, synth-laden instrumental evoking a yearning for connection like an alien trying to make human contact, “YOUR LOVE” opens up into a shimmering brilliance as Karma.wav sings, “When we’re together your love gets me high.” Karma.wav’s fiancé, Violetta, who is also his creative partner in their music duo KarmaVioletta, sings harmonies adding a subtle infusion of romance. As the song builds with the bass, Karma.wav skillfully utilizes the push and pull of silence and energy in a massage of euphoric frequencies creating an immediate mood boost. “I played around with the synths to really have this element of a lot of energy, then silence, then energy again.” The result is a rush of delight.

For Karma.wav, music has always been constant in his life. “I was exposed to music from a very young age,” says Karma.wav. “My parents were hippies, that's why my actual birth name is Karma. They moved to Vancouver from Mexico City, and took me to a lot of concerts from the time I was one.”

His parents, both descendants of Eastern European Jewish refugees who immigrated to Mexico City during WWII after their boats were rerouted from Ellis Island, ran a hemp clothing company in Vancouver, Canada before relocating again to Kauai, Hawaii where Karma.wav spent most of his childhood. When they took him to see bassist Jaco Pastorius at the age of three, he asked for a bass. When they got him a miniature guitar as a more age appropriate stand-in, he wasn’t fooled. “My mom’s like, ‘You never let us live that down. You were like, ‘this is not a bass.’”

Soon after, his grandmother gave him a drum set, fueling his love for music. “My grandma came to town, and I begged her for this little white drum set. That was one of my first instruments that I really started to dive into.” When the family moved a final time to Miami, Karma.wav had begun exploring other instruments and took an interest in the Warped Tour scene. 

Playing in bands throughout middle school and high school, he eventually discovered electronic music and started to learn how to produce in Ableton. “Music has always been the main practice in my life. And it’s the thing that made me love learning. When I was in high school I'm like, ‘Oh, high school is boring, because I don't enjoy what I'm learning.’ Then once I started learning how to produce I got this love for learning that passed on to other disciplines and other practices. I'm like, ‘Oh, this class is actually interesting now, because I understand what it's like to learn.’” 

Honing his personal style over the years, Karma.wav’s music is as intuitive as it is soulful. “I make a lot of alternative r&b music with a lot of electronic influence. I like music that has a happy, sad quality to it. Sadder chord progressions, or what we perceive to be sad or more melancholic, kind of create a feeling of happiness or nostalgia–that's the music I most gravitate towards. It's kind of introspective. It's music that maybe you'd listen to on a car ride alone at night.”

After transitioning from playing in bands, one of which was signed to a label, to launching his solo project Karma.wav, he faced a new learning curve. “I took all this time to learn how to make music and now there's this whole other side of things: How do I figure out marketing rollouts? How do I figure out where I want to play my music? Who do I put on my team to help me with these things?”

He looked to web3 as a resource in this process where he found the Songcamp community. After participating in Camp Elektra and Camp Chaos, he was inspired to start his own experimental laboratory–wavWRLD. “I really like this idea of the metalabel, which is not a label, but a group of people focused on a series of releases and experiments. I look at it as a startup for culture. At wavWRLD, we've really been focused on creating unique, intimate experiences that connect artists with true fans.”

Interested in the relationship between sound and its environment and how that relates to the correlation between technology and music, Karma.wav and wavWRLD are on the frontlines as culture evolves. “I think music has a direct correlation between the environment it's made in. From an evolutionary perspective, when birds do mating calls, the frequency of the sound waves are based on the density of the forest. You look at Mozart and the music was made for a specific type of room. You look at hip hop and subs in car speakers,” says Karma.wav. “I think we're in the early innings of figuring out what the next evolution is, with onchain being a new way of experiencing music. I think the previous era led music to become abundant and somewhat disposable. We kind of lost that deeper connection to music that maybe people had when they were buying a vinyl or their first 100 songs on an iPod and keeping their own collection. I think we're kind of coming full circle back to that. I think we're headed to a deeper level of connection with music. And probably also a new medium of music given AI and collaborative experiments where large groups of people make one piece of art that contains music.”

wavWRLD has been experimenting in various formats with the goal of deepening the connection between the collector and the artist. They have just launched a new project called wavGame–an interactive “Collect to Connect” gamified model–where collectors can win a one-on-one live concert with their chosen artist. Part of a larger experiment called wavROOM–“Tiny Desk meets MTV Unplugged” intimate performances that are recorded and minted–wavGame involves eight artists from the wavWRLD collective in the spirit of creating a closed loop between the digital world and IRL.

The overarching goal for Karma.wav is to keep making music and building connections. “I created wavWRLD as a place for myself to be able to create more music, talk about creating music, and play that music live with other people who have similar interests or have a diverse point of view that want to contribute,” says Karma.wav. “I make music almost every day–that's always something I try to come back to like, ‘how can I maintain this practice and then use different technologies and different tools to enhance it.’” Leading with his desire to learn, Karma.wav is forging new pathways for artists and collectors while staying true to his first love, making music.

****

Collect Music NFTs from HIGH FREQUENCY Volume 1. “YOUR LOVE” is the fifteenth track to be released from NOISE, for HIGH FREQUENCY Volume 1. “YOUR LOVE” is dropping via Sound Swap at 2pm PST on June 15.

Read and Collect on Mirror. There are 10 editions of this article available for 0.003 ETH on Mirror.

Versatility, originality, and vision, Bajan producer and rapper Haleek Maul confidently exudes all three as he delivers raw, unfiltered grit and style with his new track “LOOT.” Underscored by a bright, Afro-informed beat, Haleek’s flow effortlessly moves like strokes across a canvas as he paints with deep, brooding tones which create a captivating juxtaposition. “I’ve got different modes, and this one is really aggressive,” says Haleek. “We need multiple perspectives, and it's okay for things to be a little raw. “LOOT” is really heavy and kind of fun, too.”

Having developed his sound over more than a decade–a distinct marriage between Afro Caribbean culture, hardcore hip hop, and melodic influences–Haleek’s music is emblematic of his whole being. “I've become more and more comfortable with all that I am. So now my music is a really fluid transmission of where I’m at, what I'm doing, or how I feel. I'm making more interesting, formless things–songs that are more like paintings and feel more fluid. I’m distilling the music down to a more pure form.”

Growing up in Barbados, his first exposure to music came from family. “My uncle had all the rap albums–Life After Death, Ready To Die, Eminem’s The Marshall Mathers LP, so I listened to all those albums by the time I was eight or nine. My sister was more on the smooth vibe. She used to listen to a lot of Jill Scott, Amy Winehouse, stuff like that. So I had hardcore hip hop and more conscious, melodic, feminine perspective music playing growing up.”

Haleek started rapping in high school where he began to consider music as a career path. “The school I went to for high school, you needed good grades to go there, and there were more privileged people there. That’s where I got exposed to the idea of being an artist as a profession,” says Haleek. “People there were rapping, and it was a competitive thing. It became a little scene.”

Starting to release music under the moniker Haleek Maul at age 15, he leaned into darker, more experimental hip hop. “I recorded on a webcam mic for a while, and then I met Strat, who had studio time for me. So I started going there every night and he helped me refine my style,” says Haleek. “It was real heavy, some crazy fucking music. I was on some really dark times but it was good though, because it was real creative. That was the fun part.”

His 2012 album Oxycoteen turned heads and gained the attention of major music blogs such as Fader and Pitchfork. “Early on I met a lot of really cool people, got to get in a lot of rooms, and experience music for real at 16.” Over the next ten years he played shows, signed with various labels, released multiple albums, and moved to New York and London. Now back in Barbados, Haleek has reconnected with his roots, integrated all he’s learned with all that he is, while returning to the childlike wonder of why he started making music in the first place. “I had to do a full circle. I went from, ‘Oh, this is fun,’ to, ‘Oh, this is serious,’ to, ‘Oh, this is fun again.’ Ten years later, my style has changed. My perspective has changed. I want to make art in a way that makes me feel good.”

Having spent the last year in the studio, Haleek’s found his rhythm in an instinctual creative approach and newly energized confidence. “I think I'm in a really good flow, I've made hundreds of songs in different styles, all super original, in my opinion.”

Adding web3 to his tool kit taking a multi-dimensional approach to sharing his work and creating in community, Haleek founded HOLDERSLAND in 2022–a music and media incubator focused on African and West Indian multi-hyphenate artistry. “HOLDERSLAND is a response to me being signed to a record label and not really feeling like they provided all the services that I needed,” says Haleek. “The perspective on how to monetize music was a bit one dimensional. And it's not their fault, it's just how the music business has worked for a very long time.”

Focused on amplifying and chronicling artifacts from the new Carribean, HOLDERSLAND’s mission is to build bridges and break down barriers by taking a holistic approach to distribution. “People don't care about music alone anymore: it's output. What’s inside this person's brain?” says Haleek. “People immerse themselves in the way that you think, how you dress, your slang, your story. Music is the nucleus, it's one of the purest forms, I think. But it's all these other things that come around it, too,” says Haleek. “HOLDERSLAND is about embracing that, distilling it, and building the wider identity of Caribbean and African creativity.”

Haleek’s 2022 release “VERIFIED” is a compelling example of this potential. A web3-community project, the “VERIFIED” music video is a stunning, and truly gigantic feat in visual execution that has since garnered over five million views. The phenomenon of the video’s resonance with African and Caribbean communities and its exposure worldwide is only a glimmer of what’s possible. “We're doing a lot more shoots in Barbados and working with a lot of artists in the Caribbean. With HOLDERSLAND we’re really trying to build out the Caribbean and Africa in that way–create new connections and present them to the world in a fresh way.”

Brimming with new material and energized by his community, Haleek is well positioned to continue making his vision reality on a global stage. His leadership, creative perspective, and raw talent forging the way.

****

Collect Music NFTs from HIGH FREQUENCY Volume 1. “LOOT” is the fourteenth track to be released from NOISE, for HIGH FREQUENCY Volume 1. “LOOT” is dropping via Sound Swap at 2pm PST on June 08.

Read and Collect on Mirror. There are 10 editions of this article available for 0.003 ETH on Mirror.

HOT DROPS: Annika Rose and the Nvak Collective team up to release gamified, music video “Bruises,” minting out all 2,500 digital tickets.