The Audio Archives

This is my first brand and Youtube channel that I built. It also houses the first music I ever produced and released on my own as an indie creator.

This brand/content/music will always hold a very special place in my heart. 

I learned SO MUCH about content creation, YouTube, solopreneur-ship, online business, and most of all - what not to do - when building a brand. I sold the Learning Time Fun YouTube channel and website in 2023 but still retain all the rights to the songs I wrote, performed, produced, and released.

Relaxified is my second online music project as well as my first music only brand. It was the most therapeutic experience I've ever had writing and producing music.

I started composing songs during the COVID lockdown while living in Germany.

I can't overstate how much Relaxified helped me process some of my biggest mid-life crisis mental struggles, including processing my mainstream Mormon upbringing and my permanent exit from organized religion.

After processing 40 plus years of bullshit baggage that was keeping me from the peace of mind I sought, I was finally able to start rebuilding something far more beautiful and authentic to who I really am underneath the numerous artificial layers.

Alas, Relaxified hasn't been a commercial success; however, it has absolutely been an overwhelming personal and emotional success. That, I think, has made the thousands of hours writing, recording, producing, as well as the many frustrating YouTube title and thumbnail changes well worth the cost... okay, maybe not ALL of them?

This is my third music project and the one I've spent the least amount of time on overall (no competition of course 😉).

I focused on doing everything faster. Quicker productions, loops (have I sinned as a "real" musician - LIKELY!), a bare bones launch, and lots of graphical assistance from Ai. All this was in an effort to challenge myself to make quicker decisions and to quell my inner critic.

It mostly worked out, but I didn't enjoy the process much.

My biggest takeaway from this project was that FASTER DOESN'T MEAN BETTER (at least not for me). In fact, it's the first time I've written and produced songs that felt somewhat meaningless to me (not at all my usual). I didn't fully connect with the music as much as I wanted to. I didn't dial in my productions to levels I'm really happy with. I didn't refine my songs until I truly loved them.

This project helped me recognize that instrumental music in and of itself isn't enough to fulfill my creative needs and that artificial shortcuts can be really fucking dangerous.

I was faced with an incredibly frustrating question: 

Should I hide behind the safety of a third (or fourth) faceless brand - OR - FINALLY open up to everything both beautiful and terrifying about myself - to the oh-so judgmental public sphere!?

After waffling far too long, I chose the latter.