An introduction to who I am and what I'm doing
An introduction to who I am and what I'm doing
There’s not too much to it, I’m just a guy playing around with a midi keyboard right now. I do web development as my day job, which I do generally really enjoy, but it doesn’t feel creative. Mostly because as an employee for a contract company, I work for a company that works for other companies. This means I don’t get a huge say in how things look, or how I do things. So after vaguely being interested in other creative outlets (drawing, writing, etc.) and realizing that I was really bad at them, I decided to try music.
This isn’t my first time being in a musical context. I was in marching band in highschool, and marched a WGI line Rhythm X for 3 years, but it was all on cymbals. It’s not the most musically challenging thing (though it might not be exactly what you think). For example, for years after doing that, I still struggle to really read written music. Rhythm I’m alright at, but notes are… not a strong suit. So when I started making music, I wasn’t expecting to be very good, but unlike my other creative endevours, I at least had some background in it.
I found that I really enjoy it, and feel genuinely good while doing it. I didn’t intend to share my music originally, it was going to be a personal thing that I would make for no reason other than as a creative outlet. Naturally I changed my mind, seeing how this website exists, and I host my songs on two different platforms. Really the only reason I did this though is because I wanted to experiment with some webdev tools, and figured if I made the site and the music, I might as well share it. I don’t particularily feel like I make great music, but I think it’s good enough to share with my friends.
As for where the name bang-tilde or !~ came from, it’s got a bit of meaning, nothing very deep, and also a kinda nerdy. An exclaimation mark is often called a bang for brevity when talking, and tilde is… just the name of the mark. In programming, ! often means “not” and ~ is the home directory of a computer. So it literally means “not home.” I went with this because I like the idea of not having a defined place to have to be to do what I do (though I do love a desk where things a better / easier, I’m sure I’ll talk about that sometime later). Because I like to always have my things on hand, my bag is important to me, and central to the name. I keep anything I could need with me almost all the time. I always have my keyboard, my computer, my journal, and my headphones in my bag (among other accessories to the core items). I don’t have to be anywhere specific to do what I want to do, thus the name !~
