Author: Mark Bray

I Don’t Know For Sure Meditation Works, But…

I don’t know for sure meditation works but today I did a 5 minute meditation. Not long after that I took a show and a song just popped into my head. Then the melody came right out and I was singing it. Then the beginning part of the song started going through my head.

I had to hop out of the shower, grab my guitar and phone, and start recording. Voice Memos are the greatest and such a fast way to capture the moment. It all came so fast.

I’ve had sort of writer’s block for a while and nothing new has come out. I also have not been meditating regularly. After recording that short song bunch of new guitar riffs came out. I recorded them too. Maybe this is a sign of more to come?

Bass Music – Hope For The Future

Many years ago I used to spin records on an internet radio station called interFACE Pirate Radio. It was really ahead of its time as we were streaming live with video from our apartments way before YouTube or Twitch.

Back then we were using RealAudio and almost no one was set up to receive our broadcast. We had to show people how to install it and set it up and even go to people’s houses to set them up so they could hear the channel. Things have changed so much since everyone takes for granted that they can stream video right to their phones now.

I was playing a lot of old-school Dub and Dubstep back then. It was an underground style of music from South London. I even used to go to a club called Underground SF to see dubstep artists like N-Type, Vex’d, and local favorite Juju. After a while, Dubstep took a more commercial turn and got more popular for a while but the sound wasn’t the same.

Fast forward to now, I’m seeing huge crowds at festivals listening to what they call “Bass Music” and come to find out it is basically modern but very similar to old-school dubstep. I saw a festival broadcast on YouTube that had Black Tiger Sex Machine and Svdden Death that woke me up to what is going on today. It was a little flashy but still cool.

Now I’m watching Of The Trees live from Red Rocks. He is playing such deep minimal dubstep and crushing a huge crowd. It seems to have come full circle and back to really cool stuff and the people are loving it. I feel like the world wide dance revolution had reached the masses in an incredible way.

The future is here and the youth can see, hear, and are receiving the message. It is incredible to see these masses grooving hard to the beat and incredible visuals. We have come a long way from streaming to a handful of people at a time to huge festivals getting hundreds of thousands of streams in just weeks. There is hope for the future. Let the kids rule!

Getting Started Again One Habit At A Time

I’ve been reorganizing the studio and setting myself up so all my projects are ready to go at all times. Now I’m starting up production again one habit at a time. Last night I started painting again.

Sometimes I get out of the habit of doing things and it can be as simple as having the equipment set up and ready to go to get started again. It’s always easy to give up if there isn’t much time and all you get done is clearing a table to work. Now I have a small painting studio, live drums, drum machine, keyboards, guitars and amps all set up and ready to record in one room.

Now that things are set up it should be a lot easier to build the daily habits of creating. I’m looking forward to making more and bigger paintings, recording new music, and performing live online from the studio. Now time to grab the skateboard and hit the streets! ( see it all on my socials @markalanbray )

The Perfect Daily Productivity Plan

Doing daily habits can be a bit challenging when your creative mind likes to take over and come up with new projects all day. I’ve tried lots of planners, checklists, and productivity tools to try to keep me on course. They typically can work for a few days or maybe a week at most but I have never found the perfect daily productivity plan but I have a few tips that have worked over the years.

The two things I have stuck to the most have been the Bullet Journal (Does not need to be name brand) and the Reminders on my iPhone. I don’t even really use all the features in Bullet Journaling. I probably got my technique more from GTD (Getting Things Done). My technique is pretty simple.

1. Make list of everything in your head
2. Put a dot beside it if it is something to do
   Put a dash beside it if it is just information
3. Once you complete something put an X on the dot
4. Sometimes it is good to go through and consolidate your list. Put a line through anything you moved forward to another list.

It’s a great way to destress and just let everything out. Then I use my Reminders and I forgot to mention index cards. Yep, you can get a whole pack of them for cheap. I will use index cards when I’m not using the other things or as a supplement with lists I need to take with me or specific projects I’m working on that day.

These systems serve me well when I need some direction and also when I’m super productive and need to track more projects. I don’t always use my journal and reminders but they are often very interesting snapshots of what I have been doing at certain times in life.

Time For The Season Of The Walking Meditation

It’s that time of year again. The grassing is getting tall and it is time to get the lawn mower out. I’ve been tracking my steps so this year I’m going to see how far I walk while mowing my lawn. I need the extra steps and this should do it. Plus in the summer here in Ohio it is like taking a sauna at the same time.

I’ve got a 1/4 acre and it takes about an hour to do the whole thing if I hurry. I suppose that could come out to around 3 miles or so. Now the bonus on top of getting a workout is that I have to wear earplugs and listening to music is just too loud. Soooo, I have a full hour of mower noise and ears ringing to get in a good long walking meditation.

Believe me, my mind can take me to a lot of places in that amount of time. It can be quite the workout just keeping my thoughts in check let alone the actual mowing. This year I’m arming myself with some fresh affirmations and techniques for self-transformation. Hopefully all that time mowing this year will result in much bigger things than just keeping the grass short.

Sometimes Changing Bearings Only Shows You Are On The Wrong Wheels

On my quest for a nice cruising skateboard, I grabbed some cruiser wheels from a cheap board and threw them on the board I wanted to ride. It felt super mushy and slow so I thought, let’s replace these super slow bearings. They looked like they spun way faster than the stock ones that came with the wheels.

I took out my board for a test and the same thing! Super slow and mushy. I knew it had to be the wheels. They didn’t seem any softer but evidently the type of rubber and core can make big difffererene. So I grabbed my 3DM Cambria 62MM 80A wheels and threw them on the deck and sure enough. Super fast and smooth.

Since I’m on a roll with skateboarding philosophy, I suppose in life and skateboarding, even if you change your bearing you may not get the results needed if you are on the wrong wheel altogether. Whatever that means, my new setup rocks. Time to skate!

Changing My Bearings

I picked up a cheap little skateboard to cruise around the other day while on a trip. It was fun and definitely served the purpose but it seemed a bit slow and mushy. It almost felt like I was riding underwater.

When I got it home I compared it to an old board I had laying around with some Bones Reds bearings. Wow! The difference was amazing. Them Bones spin forever and the new ones on the board I bought stopped within a few seconds.

Is there an existential moral to this story? Maybe if something you are doing isn’t progressing fast as you think it should try changing your bearing? Or how about it’s almost always better to build a board and pick your parts rather than taking whatever some company wants to give you all in one off-the-shelf.

Whatever the case I put my good bearings in some fat wheels and threw them on a good board and am going for a cruise! Have fun! Later!!!

One-Person Production Team

It was cold and rainy today so I headed to the studio this afternoon and got a mix done of a new Zentropia song I recorded March 4th, 2024. I’m keeping it simple these days with beats from my MPC2000XL going through some effects, Bass on my Fender Jazz Bass and my Charvel Model 6 guitar with a bunch of delay and reverb. I can make a lot of noise with 3 tracks. Well, actually 4 since I split off the snare for some extra heavy dubs.

Now it’s time to make some art for the cover and come up with a title. This first mix is pretty straight with all the tracks playing through. I’ll also do a few alternate mixes with a lot of space and ambience and one may be just the drums. Ohhh, and one more thing, how about a visualizer video to go with it to post on YouTube? All, right. I got my work cut out for me but I’m a one-person production team and it’s Friday night. Maybe I play for some of this to come out next week. Have a great weekend.

Last Bit Of Winter

It appears we are experiencing the last bit of winter up here in Southern Ohio. High today of 42° and low of 20°. I’m starting to see flowers bloom and things turning green so I’m ready for skateboarding, biking, and hiking but at these temps, I may need to hold off for a few. 

Time to get some new recordings done, paint a few paintings, and work on my online shop. First thing are a couple of mixes I need to get done for my project, Zentropia. I’ve been recording under that name since around 1994 or so when we were playing live as a rock band with me on keyboards. The rock band performed and recorded till around 1999 when it switched to a studio dub band then eventually my main solo project. I’m still using my old MPC2000XL for beats and laying down heavy bass and space on top. Deep Space Dub is what I call it. So, thanks to the cold weather we may get a few new things to listen to. I’ll keep you posted!