Keyboard’s Last Stand EP
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Growing up, my dad loved Amiga computers. He knew they were better than everything else out there and he wanted to take advantage of everything they could do. He bought a Kawai keyboard and hooked it up to the computer to show how the computer could play the keyboard through MIDI cables. It didn’t see a lot of use, but it was cool. I liked playing the Kawai because it had a cool wammy-bar type joystick on it. I would sit and bend notes and play the trumpet part from “Garfield and Friends” all day.
Loss of Energy
6-7 years after the company went bankrupt, my dad shut down his Amiga and packed it away. I asked for the keyboard and took it with me up to DC. When I turned it on I noticed the sound was distorted and the drumbeats would often stick or disintegrate while playing. I checked the batteries in the back and they were leaky and gross. The condition only got worse as time went on, so one day in 2006 when I was staying home sick from work I decided to record some songs that tried to take advantage of the keyboard while it’s Idiosyncrasies were still somewhat controlable.
Declining Health
My voice was weak but I was driven. I grabbed some lyrics I had written in college notebooks and margins of work papers and massaged them into 3 songs and a cover of a friend’s song. At the end of the day I was generally happy with the results, but not quite satisfied. It had a magic but it had plenty of flaws. I decided to let it gestate until I figured out what I wanted to fix. More likely I was just waiting until it was long enough ago that I could post them and say “Thes was a long time ago!” to cover any embarrassment. It’s my way, sometimes.
Hospice Care
I took those 4 songs, added two other songs that were one-offs I had posted before that fit with the feel, and here you have it: Keyboard’s Last Stand An EP of sortof sad songs with low-mixed low-key vocals and walls of warped keyboard sounds made by a sick man and a sicker keyboard. The cover song is “Exterminata Beat” by Emperor X.
End of Days
Enjoy it in good health, and toast the dear Kawai keyboard which will probably get a Viking burial soon.
