I remember back when I was in elementary school, there was this new fad on the internet: Blogger. You could share your thoughts & post about your life, work, ideas, start a comic strip series, write an episodic drama, anything goes. Click post, and boom, there it was for the world to see.
I had friends back at that time who had blogs and while whatever they posted was probably brainless, it was inspiring & electrifying because it was oddly satisfying to organize your thoughts, spice it up with pictures & other design choices (almost like a scrapbook), “publish” it, and then see it available on your official, publicly viewable domain. Perhaps it enticed that curious, creative side of me the same way the simple act of recording myself on a camcorder to then watch back what I just did was incredibly fascinating & exciting.
Fritos, bean dip, video games, and best friends. Doesn't get much better than that. Good times. Late 00's, as middle schoolers. Couldn't find any older images that perhaps more closely fit my story but ah well, this one vibes with the narrative.
It’s crazy to me how far things have come since the early 00’s. While blogs certainly aren’t dead, platforms like Tumblr & Twitter almost seemed to have replaced what blogs were originally intended for: sharing thoughts, ideas, one’s art, etc. Years ago I certainly would’ve been one to also reach for Twitter or Facebook, but perhaps—like many other people—I’m starting to appreciate what blogs did for the internet before the days of everyone going to Keyboard War with each other. Are these glasses… rose-tinted?
Anyway, I simply realized that there is a blog feature available in my website creator and when I saw that, my brain immediately jumped back to all those years ago when my friend showed me his blog for the first time, and that thought had me smiling. Ok, maybe it was just a little smirk. But it got me thinking: “hey, I have all these thoughts & things that I know about in the video game & music realm that I can share with the world now, why not?” So yeah, why not? Once upon a time I made videos sharing my thoughts & knowledge, but putting together & editing videos is becoming more difficult as I’m getting more and more busy with work & life. So, perhaps this is—in a sort of ironically backwards way—the next “evolution” of that outlet for me. Oh god, am I getting old?
So, since we’re just at the start of 2023, I am deciding now that I am at least going to try and blog here & there this year, and just see how it goes. I won’t guarantee it will work out or that it will last for any stretch of time, but on the flip side perhaps this is the start of something new.
What you can expect to see from this blog is tidbits on music production, songwriting, & mixing, video game music and things that stand out to me or that I love in other games, my viewpoint as a composer, answering questions about music production, video game music composition, & the business, and probably more.
That’s basically the plan at the moment. Let’s see how this goes.
-Garrett