The Story of How I Made a 68 Song Album

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This is the story of how I created a 68 song album called Adventures of Goop.

Here is the album:


Here is the music software I made (Beat DJ):


There is a lot to understand about this album so i'll break it into chunks. I also talk about this in the video.

1. Goop

Most people believe they are singular—a monolithic personality. But there’s an idea that a person can be comprised of multiple parts. In extreme cases, this manifests as dissociative identity disorder. In more common cases, you get a “system” that functions as a whole.

I believe I am a system with multiple parts. One of these parts is named Goop. He is my “body energy” and is responsible for unconscious movements like scratching an itch, tying my shoes, playing guitar, dancing in a flow state, and much more. I visualize him as a black, fluid goop that fills my body. When he is unhealthy, he gets stuck in one place or even pushed outside my body—like when I haven’t been stretching or drinking enough water. When he is healthy, he flows freely, and so do I.

I got to know him through an Internal Family Systems (IFS) therapy session, and we became friends through an unconscious language—a kind of mutual understanding. He showed me the ways he helps me daily, and I became deeply grateful. This connection made me more inclined to listen to my body rather than indulge in unhealthy habits.

Goop and I went on adventures. We attended raves in the woods of Washington, California, and Montana. I performed music, and he danced. The songs were named based on the vibes I get from something I call the Realm of Infinite Potential (a place where fantasy and ideas originate) blended with Goop lore. It’s a magical place I hope to bring to life through my music.

2. Soniare, Beat DJ

The software I used to create this album is my own invention. It’s called Beat DJ, and my company is Soniare (a combination of “sonic” and “software”). I see Beat DJ as a portal to the Realm of Infinite Potential. Right now, it’s more of a peephole, but its capabilities expand each week. Someone once called it a “trance machine,” which feels apt.

Beat DJ is a cybernetic system rooted in first principles of music theory, combined with practical tools for modern musicians. The idea is for the performer to initiate their performance, which entices the audience, creating a feedback loop where the performer reacts to the audience and the audience reacts to the performer in real time.

Many songs on this album are recordings of live performances. These songs wouldn’t exist without the audience members attending those events. There’s a strong synergy that happens in these environments, resulting in unique music. Capturing that energy and releasing it into the world feels incredible. I believe distribution could even begin at the rave itself, spreading the emotions and ideas of those moments into society.

3. Tuning & Microtonality

In Western music theory, we predominantly use one tuning system: 12-tone equal temperament. Classical, jazz, pop, and most other genres rely on this system. However, there are infinite alternative tunings, often referred to as microtonal tunings.

By default, Beat DJ uses microtonal scales derived from the oscillations of a vibrating string. For instance, a guitar string vibrates with many wave patterns, creating harmonic frequencies that count up like 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and so on. Beat DJ uses these harmonics to construct scales.

The tonic of these scales is always tuned to the BPM (beats per minute) in Beat DJ. This means that, at its foundation, the harmony resonates with the rhythm. Since rhythm is essentially slowed-down harmony, syncing the two seems intuitive.

Most music software doesn’t make this process straightforward because, for much of human history, retuning instruments between songs was cumbersome. In group settings, a standardized system was necessary. But with computers, we can now retune on the fly, which makes perfect sense for precise electronic dance music.

4. Album length

This album is:
- 68 songs
- 8.61 GB
- 8.65 hours

And that’s after cutting out a lot.

I think this demonstrates how much music an artist can create in a year with the right tools, experience, and workflow. In fact, this album was even easier for me to create than last year’s album, which had just 17 songs. It was almost effortless—many of the tracks were made accidentally while testing Beat DJ, and the rest came from live performances. I believe this is how music creation could be for many artists: a free flow of ideas, captured and later shared.