The Marketplace
Album
Spotify / Apple Music
I wrote this album as a love letter to the OPM rock and punk classics I grew up on. At the same time, though, production and music in general has come a long way since the days of Parokya’s Gitara or Taking Back Sunday’s Cute Without the E. So I wanted to capture the image we have of these in our heads, rather than just create an album that’s basically “those songs except it’s 2018”. It’s a polite and worshipful nod to the music of the past, but with fairly modern musical sensibilities. I called it “The Marketplace” because of how it contains ideas from many different sources — sort of like the open marketplace of ideas — and additionally parts of it weren’t played solely by me.
Don’t get me wrong, I love the way that music is evolving, and I try my best to keep up to date with the latest songs. Also, I know that pop music tends to be somewhat cyclical, with people moving away and towards certain genres decade-by-decade. However, sometimes you just can’t help but think, “where’s the rock, man?” So that’s what this album is, or what I intended it to be. It’s an answer for anybody’s who’s wondering where that stuff has gone. I’m delighted that it’s starting to make a comeback in today’s sphere, but really, it never left.