Well, here we are… It’s been about a year since “Shapeshifter” was released over on INVIBES. And a lot has happened since then. If you’ve been following me since the EP (or if you’ve been following me since I started, actually), thank you! It’s been amazing to see everyone’s reaction to the EP as a whole as well as the tracks that have followed (alongside many other things). I’ve gotten a lot of kind words over social media comments, YouTube chats and Discord messages and I am very grateful for everyone’s support on my music that’s been released since then!
However, I’m going to take this time to make a blog article to reflect upon what happened. This might be a long one as so much has happened but I feel like this is one I’d like to talk about. Plus, maybe I’ll share a bit about what’s coming in the near future.
Last year, I basically announced I was working on an EP in May, when I celebrated five years of the Grownden project. The whole EP idea started because I sent some demos to a friend who A&R’d over at INVIBES, and he said that he’d be interested in an entire Color Trance EP over on INVIBES. That person was none other than MSFT, a name you probably recognize off the EP as a collaborator for “Ukiyo” (more on that later, he also now produces under the name TAOMIN so you should go check out his stuff there if you haven’t!).
I’ll be honest; I actually thought about doing another EP prior to the announcement. In fact, I almost thought about doing something larger but I just canceled it due to the fact that I had no idea what I was doing with it. However, I basically said I had so many projects I was working on that I “might just end up making one”. So I decided I’d try and see where I’d go with it. I knew I wanted this EP to have some sort of story or something connecting it together to make it interesting
Of course one of the things that came to mind was “Shapeshifter”. Something about this fit because I was experimenting with sounds that were new back then, plus I had just moved on from progressive house production to full-on Color Trance. I basically had the same mindset I do today; I enjoy messing with weird and unique sounds to see what I can come up with.
But of course, it also took deeper meaning. I basically decided to make this an EP about change, self-discovery…. Something along those lines. But of course, I wanted it to be open-ended. I enjoyed the theory of the story being open to those who were willing to take a chance to think outside the box and maybe find a deeper meaning that maybe someone else couldn’t think of. So that was a fun idea.
However, the EP did run through its own hurdles. I was making some challenging tracks that did take some tinkering to get just right, plus me and MSFT’s collab did take a bit longer than expected as well as art. It got to the point where the EP was delayed a few times but eventually found its way to being released in August after being premiered in my Welcome to the New World ID showcase series.
And what an experience it was to finally get it out there on August 30th.
"THERE WILL BE A TIME WHERE ONE MUST GO THROUGH METAMORPHOSIS / THIS IS THE MOMENT WHERE ONE DISCOVERS THEIR ABILITIES AS A SHAPESHIFTER / AFTER THAT THEY GO THROUGH A PHASE WHICH IS CALLED UKIYO / RIGHT BEFORE HAVING A MOMENT OF INTROSPECTION / AFTER THIS THEY WILL KNOW THEIR TRUE POWER AND SOAR / INTO A NEW GLORIOUS AGE OF REBIRTH" - Teaser text originally posted in my Discord as binary code
Everyone in the INVIBES Discord got a chance to listen to it, and some people really liked it! Though I’m gonna be honest, thinking back, it was probably a curveball for most folks in that community. INVIBES is a label known more for progressive house than progressive trance (by this I should mean stuff like Manse & DubVision, not any proper deep progressive house or whatever Beatport categorizes it as). So it probably made sense that most tracks on the EP were going to be a bit out of the crowd.
But I honestly think this EP is still my finest work to this day. It features a bunch of neat sounds that I had learned during my sound design experimentation as well as showing my growth as a producer in the trance field. Something about coming back to this EP occasionally has really shown me how I evolved as a musician and grew into the creator I am today. Let’s dive into some of these tracks, why not…
The following contains paraphrases of messages between me and a few people via Discord messages. If you are one of the people I contacted and I accidentally paraphrased incorrectly, feel free to let me know.
Metamorphosis
This was the intro track that I had some fun with but also struggled to piece it together. I envisioned this as a song about change, or rather, the feeling of seeing it come out of nowhere and the feeling of uncertainty about it. When discussing it with the owner of INVIBES, I mentioned the definition of metamorphosis being “a change of the form or nature of a thing or person into a completely different one, by natural or supernatural means”. I also pointed out the example of the butterfly.
I don’t remember what came first off-hand… the break or the drop. Pretty sure it was the break because I originally planned on making a melodic drop for this, but after experimenting, I thought a bass drop would work better. And even then, that only needed a lot more experimentation to see what would work. I almost considered looking for someone to collab on it, but eventually I settled on a sparkly melodic groovy bass drop inspired by a bit of earlier 2010s progressive trance. And I think it’s sick.
As for the break, yes, that’s actually me doing the speech. As you can tell, I’m not the best nature documentary impersonator, but I decided I want a nature documentary impersonation to go alongside an ambient break. I wanted it to fit the track’s theme and title, so I wrote a script revolving around butterfly metamorphosis and adaptation. I heavily referred to this site for research because I didn’t brush up on my butterfly knowledge since school, so shoutout Drexel University’s Academy of Natural Sciences for having a page that practically saved me from going down the Wikipedia rabbit hole.
Of course, let’s also discuss that chord staircase. Something inside me thought to make this chord staircase for the track and it was the most chaotic part because of its composition. I did, however, run into one problem; how the heck do we go from here to the buildup? Luckily, the owner suggested maybe having an extra chord in there would help. So I did that, and then silence, and then the buildup. You pair that with the rest of the track and boom, “Metamorphosis”.
Shapeshifter
With change, sometimes people have a hard time adapting to it. Heck, I even have a hard time adapting to specific changes, and maybe you might too. I think that’s just part of the human experience to not be able to adapt to specific changes, but this one song basically has an implication of going through a change and not knowing how to readjust and, as time goes on, it shows and becomes more evident.
Ahhhh, the title track…. Where do I begin with this one? This basically started out as an experimental bass drop that eventually reached out into a break, and I think I made that idea in a day? And I wasn’t sure what to do exactly with the second drop. The first drop was already bonkers enough with some classic prog trance bass energy as well as some color elements. But how was I supposed to follow it up?
That’s right. I chose violence on this one.
I experimented around with different sounds and tried to do different layers and versions of them, creating a chromatic, colorful explosion. Lots of automation, a few different tracks, crazy amounts of effects… I think we’re only scratching the surface on this one. This is probably one of my favorite bass trance attempts I’ve done, in all honesty. The overall weirdness and chaos in this track just makes it completely bonkers whenever I either re-listen to it or drop it in a mix. I love it for that.
Ukiyo (w/ MSFT)
Unfortunately the problem with change is sometimes it causes a person to think. And in this case, it causes a person to think about life before the change, basically for nostalgia purposes and also escapism from a hard time due to the change. Unfortunately, you learn later down the line that this is no longer the case and what is happening is, essentially, happening.
So not going to lie, I actually started this idea after watching the series finale of Owl House (I don’t think I’ve told TAOMIN this? I’m gonna send him this paragraph to see if he wants any other comments given but this will probably be new information to him, so sorry TAOMIN if you’re reading this and I never told you LOL). Eventually, I did send him a earlier drop concept for the track, and he was extremely excited about it and wanted to work on it with me and… the rest is history!
I should also mention TAOMIN and I have had a background of collaboration ideas prior to his current alias, including a track that we had already finished but more-or-less had issues finding a home for. Luckily, this track had already been finished and signed before this track was even brought up, but we then were talking about our next collab ideas. Unfortunately, our other projects we worked on essentially died as we were at creative blocks for where to go next.
And then this came about. I’ve thought doing a progressive house/trance style track would probably be an interesting way to show some variety on this EP, so me and TAOMIN talked about doing this track for the EP and, once we got around to working on it, it was an easy process.
We essentially worked on what was a nostalgic rush of progressive house energy for the first half of the song with some color in the mix as well. I’m gonna be honest, at that point I was already on my way out the door with prog house production, but this was a fun project to work on with the level of euphoria that we sneaked into this one. Also we were able to incorporate the jazz portion of the track and put jazz into prog so I think we could consider that another bonus.
TAOMIN’s touch over on the track really helped as he added in his mastery of mixdowns and arrangements. He helped me out a bit with the breaks, drums, and a bunch of other things. Of course, we also added in a bit of some other unique elements as well. TAOMIN’s background mainly consists of electro house and progressive house and mine basically is made up of trance and color bass / color music.
That being said, that’s the context to the second drop; we essentially found a way to fuse our elements together and create something overly chaotic and satisfyingly unique. I think I originally sent him the concept for it? I just whipped up something that ended up almost resembling TAOMIN’s style in Ableton, and then I sent it and asked “what if we did this for a second drop?”. And that is exactly what we did; a chaotic, stutterry drop that ends up taking no prisoners.
And the title? We actually gave each other some naming ideas, but I think it was TAOMIN who came up with “Ukiyo”. For those wondering what it means, it’s essentially a Japanese word that, as described by TAOMIN himself, means “living in the moment, detached from the bothers of life”. We decided to go with that name because it just fits, especially with the plot of this track.
This was such an awesome project to work with and I’d like to thank TAOMIN for helping me out on this one and also putting up with me on how out-of-the-box some of the ideas I sent him were, especially for a prog track. Seriously, though, we had a fun time making this one and we all appreciate the support on this track!
Side note, TAOMIN no longer produces under the MSFT alias so if you like “Ukiyo” and like euphoric progressive house, you should go check out his new music under his new alias. Here’s one of his songs to get you started.
"The One" by TAOMIN and Newman.Introspection (Interlude)
Eventually, there will come a point where you go through a change and realize it’s more-or-less here to stay. And maybe it makes you think about life, things, maybe yourself… This is one of those tracks where I feel like it’d be best if you came up with your own viewpoint, so I’ll leave it at that.
I come from a background of making two short EPs beforehand that had no interlude whatsoever, but for some reason I had an idea to do an interlude for this one. I wasn’t sure how to go about this, so I did what every musician does in the twenty-first century when they’re confused; Google it. And I saw a blog article that had three words stick out to me: disrupt the flow. So how do I go about this? That’s right, jazz.
I don’t even know what caused me to do this. I came home frustrated one day, and when I’m frustrated, sometimes I try to get my emotions out by distracting myself through a project, and, in one night, I made the entire idea; a jazzy 4/4 interlude that doesn’t sound 4/4. I don’t even know how I did this. I came home frustrated and this was it.
Perhaps it was the stuff I was listening to at this time; I was not just listening to Color Bass and Trance, but I also listened to a lot of jazz tracks (stuff like 80s Weather Channel tunes, jazz fusion tracks (not the playlist I linked specifically but that's the closest example I could find), The Rippingtons, even modern and smooth jazz too). It probably didn’t help me and my brother found an album by Yes called “90125” (not even joking, that’s literally the name) after leaving Spotify on in the background one night and then just me listening to specific tracks off it for the longest time.
Heck it, the album is so good I don't feel like linking it. Here. Have an embed. Listen to it after you're done. Not just the first track because it's popular but front-to-back.
Something just told me “bro, we gotta do jazz for this one”. And… that’s it. Jazz. With a bit of color and also it leads into the next track. That’s basically it.
Soar
We all reach a point during a change when we think about it, and we realize maybe, just maybe, it’s not as bad as we think. In fact, we can learn that we’ll be able to readapt to it after all. It’s with this you would feel something you’ve longed for this entire time; joy, euphoria, all these positive feelings… Sure, it will take a while to readapt, but that time will come to those eventually…
Holy shoot, this is one of my favorite tracks off the EP! Growing up, I was inspired by a lot of different progressive trance artists. People like Above & Beyond (they just put out a new album that YOU NEED TO GO CHECK OUT), Paul Arcane, Sound Quelle & Max Meyer, Eskai & SNR (I think they’re now known as Elevven nowadays), Maor Levi, Ilan Bluestone… Literally I was (and still am) very addicted to the genre.
The fact that I was able to make a sound inspired by both these talented artists and also the color sounds I’m currently getting inspired by is just crazy to me. This was one of the songs that made me realize “holy living shoot, I’m getting to make the tracks I’ve always wanted”. And I still experience that feeling whenever I make something. That feeling of knowing that you’d be making something thirteen year old you would be literally all over the place for….
That right there is the standard for most of my tracks; make something not just I enjoy but also something I would’ve enjoyed at age thirteen or fourteen. At that time I was already listening to a bunch of trance tracks from Anjunabeats, Statement!, Enhanced… Heck, I even listened to a few episodes of Group Therapy here and there. It was awesome to make something inspired by a sound that basically ruled my childhood.
But anyways, back to the track we’re talking about… This was an idea that was made before the EP was even being made, and it was also the demo that my friend TAOMIN told me that I should make an entire EP out of for INVIBES. I was making a casual Statement!-stylized bass drop, and it was so good I wanted to finish it but I didn’t know how. Then I basically made another project with a break idea, and then it clicked. I basically had an “eureka” moment by combining the bass drop and the break as they fit together like puzzle pieces.
And it is with that you get the final result today… a entirely euphoric unapologetic track that describes my sound; chaotic, melodic, euphoric, and holding absolutely nothing back. I really love making tracks like this because it’s not just something I enjoy, it’s a testament to the sounds I grew up with. Everything that basically led to this moment in one track. I literally loved every minute of producing it, and this is why it’s one of my favorites off the EP.
Rebirth
Life happens, and things change often. It’s just a cycle of life. This isn’t anything that we can stop, sadly, but we can learn to readapt with these changes. Obviously not all at once but it is possible to take our time and relearn the ropes of everything. And while we’re at it, maybe we can take that time to learn about the world, the people you’ve met, or even yourself.
The project that started it all. In December I sent this to INVIBES and, had I not sent the other demo over to my friend, this would’ve been it. But it wasn’t it. Instead, I was sent on a journey that led me to making six projects, trying to come up with a good basis for my sound, attempting to reach deadlines and failing at the same time, trying to keep up with a collab, and, overall, juggle all that while dealing with personal matters I was dealing with at the time.
I would not have wanted it any other way.
This seemed like a good way to conclude the entire EP, by bringing it back to where it all started. This was another Color Trance track that would’ve followed up my previous release on the label, “Motive”. However, this follows up the other tracks in the EP instead, leading it to be a moment where you reflect on everything and wonder.. what happens next?
I made this idea and sent it back in December while I was on a high with my then-recently modded 2DS. The 2DS is one of my favorite handheld consoles ever and, after modding it, it made me more nostalgic and happy to see one of the devices I practically grew up with get a second life. Obviously I doubt I’ll be seriously using it in public again due to its age (maybe? But I mean if something breaks and I’m out, I’m cooked), but I still love popping it on and playing on it every now and then.
While I’m on this rant, I should also mention my entire Trance genre-move was practically inspired by one of my favorite Nintendo games of all time; Miitopia. I’ve pretty much said this before and I’ll say it again. This has been one of my favorite games from Nintendo, and I played the death out of this on my 2DS. I still play it often on the Switch version, but I’d say this game and quite a few other leftfield 2DS games paired with some progressive trance really defined me as a person and got me to where I am today. I still wish Nintendo would make a proper sequel, that’s the only reason I will buy a Switch 2 (though I SERIOUSLY hope it gets on the OG Switch because I don’t feel like spending $400 on a 50/50 console when other options exist, also the videos I’ve seen of the console breaking don’t help).
I should mention my current on-the-go gaming setup is a Samsung Galaxy A23 with a Razer Kishi, but at this time of writing, I’m currently looking to upgrade it to something more dedicated.
Speaking of the 2DS, the name “Rebirth” basically comes from my Animal Crossing New Luxury town. New Leaf has always been a favorite of mine in the Animal Crossing series, and when me and my brother heard about this mod, we had to download it. And it’s been fun to play this mod and revisit one of my favorite installments of the series with a few slight improvements. So of course, to pay homage to that, I named the track that.
And because I was heavily involved in playing my modded 2DS at the time, I made it 2010s inspired and also made it sound dramatic as possible. This was the sort of trance I was listening to; dramatic, chord heavy feel-sy type music. The sort of stuff you’d listen to at night that feels adventurous and what not. I kind of wanted to make that sort of style for this one to not only pay homage to the trance music I grew up listening to but also the era I mostly played my 2DS.
And with that, I felt like this was a good way to end the EP; paying homage to what started me off in the process; a silly little demo inspired by a modded handheld that eventually turned into an entire EP about the concept of change. It’s crazy how things work out in the end, and with that, I’m ending the deep dive into the tracks off the EP. Thank you for reading this portion of the blog post!
After the release of the EP, a lot of things happened… let’s see…
Various Singles Get Released
I ended up getting a release over on New Game, a label owned by Neoluminum visual artist Gramix. That was a highlight because I started getting more into proper progressive trance after the EP with this track inspired by the Frutiger Aero aesthetic. I essentially made this while customizing my computer to look more like a Frutiger Aero setup, and it somehow managed to sneak into the Hypeddit Trance Top 100 at #63! Huge thanks to Gramix for releasing this one on New Game as well as everyone supporting the track!
And this little Frutiger Aero-inspired track basically started off a series of releases that followed after the EP. This series of releases also include “Half Alive” with TAOMIN (still known under his MSFT alias) and the “Back to You” remix for Michael Ace, Intrust & Nathan Brumley. A year later I also released “Summer 2017” as well as “Space Cadet” with Intrust, plus, of course, “Never Stop” (I’ll discuss this one in a bit).
Me and 99 Other Producers STAND AS ONE for Charity
After that, I was involved with a project that went under the name HUNDREDFOLD. It was a very chaotic project but we as a group of 100 producers somehow managed to get everything together and make one track. It’s been fun working with these people; I got to meet some cool producers while helping out with a project that was going to raise money for some awesome charities. Plus we all managed to cover quite a few different styles in the matter of seven minutes. Which was nuts.
Hausman Drops "Horizon" Early
Then in November, I had a track that was coming out via a compilation I was invited to participate in: SHUTTLE RECS AUX. It was a multigenre compilation that featured everything from pop to lo-fi to even trance. So I decided to work on “Horizon” specifically for the compilation and, considering Enhanced Progressive legend Hausman DM’d me on Instagram a month before (I don’t even know how he found my music but I’m still in shock over it LOL), I sent it to him as well for promo. I didn’t think Hausman was gonna play it considering I was practically a nobody in the industry (I still partially am a nobody in the industry LOL).
And then he drops it on Twitch. Riiiight when I’m not on.
I was screaming. I missed it, but Hausman debuted my track LITERALLY WEEKS EARLIER than the track was supposed to release. So immediately I had to post on Instagram and thank him in the process. It’s honestly crazy to think it still even happened in the first place. So Hausman, if you’re reading this, thank you so much for playing “Horizon” early as well as some of my other tracks!
Eventually, the track gets released alongside the others in the compilation. And, quite honestly, it was pretty cool to be put alongside some other dope tracks! The compilation was jam-packed with different styles from different people and, if you haven’t checked out the compilation, I think you should, it’s worth a listen front-to-back! Thanks SHUTTLE for inviting me to be part of it!
Double Win on the Neoluminum Remix Contest
The Neoluminum 2024 Remix Contest winners livestream hosted by label owner Desx. If you watch this, be prepared for some... moments LOL.
One of the things I looked forward to since a few months prior was hearing the results of the Neoluminum remix contest for 2024. I submitted three remixes and tried to Color Trance-ify a few of my favorites from the label, and, to be honest, I didn’t think I was going to win. It was one thing to have Color Trance on a multigenre compilation, it’s another to actually win with Color Trance on a remix contest hosted by a dubstep label.
And somehow I managed to win. When the Remix Contest Winners video was streaming on Neoluminum’s YouTube, I was screaming when Desx (the owner of the label) announced I won with my remix for her track “Magic Mirror”. It was crazy to think that somehow Color Trance would’ve won in the contest, and I am extremely grateful for Desx and the Neoluminum team’s support on my remix for said track!
But that wasn’t it. After a warning about “too many good remixes” for “Vision” by Trianglory, a remix EP was announced. I doubted I was gonna get on it due to the fact I won on “Magic Mirror”, but NOPE. Here comes another slide with not just a bunch of other talented artists’ names on it, but also my remix. It was beyond crazy to think I managed to win with not just one Color Trance remix but another, and yet somehow that happened. If Trianglory / Desx / Neoluminum’s staff is reading this, I’d just like to say thank you so much for the opportunity and I’m really glad you guys like the remixes!
The Basscraft Set
OK, this one was a wild story… One day, a producer I checked out a few times during my early days on SoundCloud came in. This guy’s name is Sybranax, a Poland-based trance producer who has been literally killing it in the Y2K/uplifting scene as well as many other parts of the trance scene. It’s been really nice to meet him and, eventually, we ended up starting a collab together! Wonder when we’ll get it released….
Anyways we were working on the track and one day he asks if I DJ. I said yeah, and he offered me a spot on his friend’s Minecraft festival. Eventually, I would end up meeting his friend Michael Wojcik (an Elliptical Sun artist OF ALL PLACES), who hosted Basscraft, the festival he was talking about. We’d end up messaging each other here and there as well as voice chatting a few times, and then, a few weeks later, I sent over my set for the festival.
It was surreal to be able to DJ for the first time at a festival. This was my actual first “serious” attempt at DJ’ing, and it was also where I dropped a few tracks as IDs, such as “Spectre”, my Neoluminum remixes, and one more… which will eventually come out. But it was really awesome to be able to do this, and I’d like to thank Michael for letting me bring some Color Trance madness to his festival as well as Sybranax for letting me know about this in the first place (and also collabing with me)!
The Guestmixes
A bit after Basscraft, I end up meeting Michael’s friend Seren Santiago (who I then barely knew). He invited me over to his radioshow, Aphelion Radio, to do a guestmix after being on Basscraft. I decided to do it, and I dropped some progressive trance tracks and showed off an earlier version of what would become “Never Stop”. It’s been incredible to not just be a part of his show but also hang out with his community in the chat too as the show went on! Occasionally I still hop in every now and then not just for the new tracks but for the wholesome energy his audience brings. It’s kind of nice!
Along with that, I also got invited by my friend Noveci to do a mix for his birthday episode of his show Novels of the Past (alongside some other mixes from Clayne & Sample Bandit). This one was a little tricky, mainly because my limit was 30 minutes and my tracks are usually pretty long, but I still had a good time recording this mix! And his community was fun to hang out with as well, especially during everyone else’s sets as the genres got pretty chaotic!
Both of these mixes are over here if you'd like to check them out!
I’d like to thank Seren and Noveci for letting me hang on their show and bring some Color Trance to the table! It was really fun! I’d also like to thank Hausman for allowing me to be on his show too, especially to celebrate...
The ClubHaus Release
I think one of my biggest releases this year also came in April. For background, in October I ended up getting a DM from Hausman about the possibility of being on his label ClubHaus. I asked him where I could submit my tracks if I have any for his label, he gave me an email, and that was it… for now.
In December I sent him a demo for “Never Stop”, and he really liked it (and even dropped it at a support act for Jason Ross… still can’t even believe that happened)! After a few tweaks, we settled on a release date. I got to working on some promo content for it, and then, a little while after, the track came out officially!
Before the release date, though, on the same day my guestmix for Novels of the Past came in, I was also invited to do a mix for Hausman’s ClubHaus Radio. Of course I couldn’t pass it down (two Color Trance mixes in the same day? Heck yeah!). I decided to do an entire hour mix of nothing but Trance music, and of course I brought some IDs as well (not just “Never Stop” but a bunch of other new ones too!). And it got so chaotic and awesome.
It’s been amazing to be able to release on Hausman’s label, and I’d like to thank him for letting me release on his label as well as take over his radioshow for about an hour! Also a huge thanks to everyone who supported the track as well, it’s been nuts. As well as that, I still cannot believe that on the day it was released, Farius dropped it on Enhanced Sessions 797. I was screaming as soon as I saw that happen. If Farius is reading this, thank you for dropping the track on the show!
Also if you enjoy the track and indulge in music production, why not check out my behind the scenes video on how I made the track?
Next time I do one of these, I'm going to do this on a platform that isn't CapCut on my phone. This was a fun video to make but I'm not going through the stress of editing this on mobile again.
After this era, I’m not really sure what will happen next but I’ll give a few hints for what happens in the Beyond Shapeshifter Era… First off, I do not plan on doing another edition of Welcome to the New World, at least not this year. I’ve made this decision due to the fact that I’ve already been playing a bunch of IDs in my mixes for the past few months, and I’d rather not do anything repetitive by doing a showcase of mostly stuff that’s already been showcased. That being said, I still want to do something special for my birthday, so you’ll hear more about that in the coming weeks.
As for new music, yes, there will be plenty of that coming up. Some of them may be an ID I’ve dropped somewhere, or they might be something brand new. I don’t think I can publicly confirm what tracks will be coming out or what labels they are going to be a part of, but don’t worry because you’ll know soon enough. I’m really excited to get these tracks out, and I hope you’ll look forward to them!
Also you might’ve noticed this already but yes, there’s a new press photo! This one was drawn by my brother mrrussellgro on Discord. I’ve decided to ask him to help me out with some artwork and, after doing some discussing and planning, we’ve worked together and made this! The background is a heavily edited photo of Holland, MI during a walk I took there, and the character is mrrussellgro’s unique take on an anime-inspired art style. I really love the end result, and I’d like to thank him for helping me set up a visual backdrop that pairs with the sound of where the project’s headed from here!
Well, that wraps up this long blog post about the Shapeshifter Era. And what an era it’s been… It has gone from just two demos to all of the sudden one of my most favorite projects ever, and after that it’s taken me through so many unique opportunities. I’m grateful for everything that has happened along the way. It’s not only shaped me as a musician / producer / DJ, but it’s also shaped me as a human being overall. I’m extremely glad I got to be able to do all this and I’d like to thank everyone who made it all possible.
The era technically isn’t over? But a new chapter begins nonetheless and, while I’m a fan of looking back at the past (goodness knows I’m a 2010s nostalgia enthusiast), I’m excited to see what’s up next for the Grownden project. If you’ve been sticking with me since the EP, thanks for being here! And if you’ve been here way before that, thanks for staying on the ride for this long!
I hope you’ll continue to stay with me as things get a bit interesting from here. I’d appreciate it if you come follow me on the platforms I’m on, such as Spotify, Bluesky, Instagram, etc… Maybe even join me on my Discord server and be a part of my community? Lots of exciting stuff is coming so I’d suggest you find some way to get notified and follow me on everything you can. I promise it’ll be worth it!
Thanks again for all the support on this era, can’t wait to see what this era has in store!
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