@FreakFormal - @Aalasteir (Q) - Index

Q: How would you describe yourself?

Q1: I would likely describe myself as an introverted brain rotted man who plays music sometimes, not too much to me.

Q: What is your opinion on having idols?

Q2: I think having idols is awesome! In a non-parasocial way ofc, I always have people and artists I look to and get influenced by, my favorite artist right now is Quadeca, someone I look up to HARD. I tend to wear my influences on my sleeve, but usually in an aesthetic and vibe way. 

Q: What does it mean to be human?

Q3: Got me the tough questions 😭 I’ll try to articulate this as best as I can. To me being human is finding happiness in whatever you do, and persevering through challenges. As well as maintaining relationships and connections.

Q: How did you discover the NG website? What made you decide to join the community? Do you feel differently about the site now compared to when you first joined?

Q4: I’ve known about New Grounds for the longest time, but one of my best friends and frequent collaborator @realityreimagined convinced me to start posting here. He would boast about the great and receptive community. He’s a fantastic producer and artist. He actually has new music coming soon. I'm so excited for him.

Q: The story of your username: FreakFormal

Q5: I wish I had an actually cool story for my name, but I came up with it when I was around 12. I just really wanted to become an artist, I would daydream about it all the time and had a day where I tried to come up with a name. It really just came to me in the shower after a full day of trying to come up with one. I told my mom immediately, who didn’t care lol. I think it’s a good name, ever since freaky became popular I knew I was cooked tho.

Q: Why would you describe yourself as a boring person?

Q6: I just don’t do much outside of music. I watch a couple of shows and movies and a lot of YouTube. And as far as other hobbies I literally have nothing else, I do work and am in school so it takes up a decent amount of time, so it's not like I have a ton of time outside of it, so I think music is a good use of it.

Q: Your dad has been a positive influence on your musical development. How did he inspire you to learn as many instruments as possible? How did you become interested in creating electronic music? Also, how would you say you've been influenced by artists like John Mayer and the Red Hot Chili Peppers? How have they shaped your perspective on music?

Q7: He just loved jamming with a lot of instruments. He played piano, guitar, and his main instrument, bass, which he’s crazy at. Helped me realize the possibilities, so I learned guitar, bass, drums, piano, and ukulele I guess it’s fun to play. As far as getting interested in electronic music, it was just the easiest avenue for what I had, just a computer and a bedroom. It was enough for me since I use mostly free software and fit my more pop sensibilities anyways. With John Mayer and The Red-Hot Chili Peppers, they really just showed me what diversity can look like in music. Just an example of different genres my dad liked. While I do listen to them, I don’t too much. Some of my favorite acts right now is obviously Quadeca, Hippo Campus, Dayglow, Magdalena Bay, and Keni Can Fly. I’ve never liked pretentious people who didn’t like more mainstream artist to fit their predetermined aesthetic, I listen to drake but love finding more underground artist too.

Q: What types of videos do you watch while playing Minecraft? Do you find the experience relaxing, and what do you usually do in the game?

Q8: I look at alot of random video essays and I have a few comfort channels. Some of them being Best friends today, Slushy Noobz, and SuperMega, I don’t have a gage for how popular they are so I hope someone knows one of them. It's most definitely relaxing to me, as far as minecraft I usually play survival, a lightly modded survival, or bedwars. I also play a couple Roblox FPS like bad business, definitely not much of gamer but relaxing is the perfect way to put it. I'm a major passive player, mostly focusing on the video more than the actual game.

Q: Describe your experiences with walking. Do you walk almost daily in your local park? Why do you think it's a good way to clear your mind? Would you recommend taking walks as a positive practice?

Q9: Walking is so awesome, I try my best to take almost daily walks to my local park. As overused as it is, touching grass is real, the combination of looking at nature and seeing people brings the right chemicals to my brain atleast for me. I always think about what I wanna do musically or in general during my walks while listening to music or a podcast. I definitely recommend people to try it once, I honestly can get depressed if I don’t walk for a while.

Q: How did you become interested in filmmaking, and what projects would you love to work on in the future?

Q10: I would just watch alot of filmmaking video essays and liked movies ofc. I used to write bad scripts when I was little to live out the director dream. I dabble with it with a few music videos I do, but I’m definitely not that good, I would need to practice a lot more to do real stuff with it. I would love to make a movie one day tho, or work on a short film.

Q: In school, you were a band kid. What does that mean? You exclusively played keyboards, such as marimbas, vibraphones, and piano.

You were also in a jazz band. What does it mean to improvise, and what are the core principles of musical improvisation in jazz? How did you learn to read and interpret music while being in a jazz band?

Q11: Okay I was more of a kid in band, not invested in the culture, but loved playing with people. Improvising to me is just coming up with melodies based on chord progressions. A core principle is to listen to the people around you and stay in the scale and progression, which was usually 2-5-1 for me. I just got better at reading notation faster and playing different inversions of chords. Like if I saw “Amaj7” I knew different ways to play it right away. I’m not amazing but enough to get me through and it helps me come up with new melodies faster for songs I make. 

Q: How do you define music?

Q12: Another hard question. I personally define it as an emotionally charged group of sounds that says something about the human condition. As pretentious as that sounds, I love sincerity in music, I need to feel connected to it. I try to be as honest as I can with my music and write about what I’m experience in the moment, to create a snapshot in time almost. I like to think people can sense it and hopefully connect with it.

- Story of the conception of the "Look! You’ve loved!" album

I was trying to skate with a couple of my friends and immediately sprained my ankle. I had about a week where I was just in my room, where I made the first three songs cause I had nothing else to do, which included I's on me. I was already thinking about making something focused on love, but that made me focus to start cause I didn't want to waste away in bed.

Q: How long have you been skating?

Q13: Oh I don’t actually skate 😭 that was one of the only times I did and even then I immediately sprained my ankle so I probably won’t for a while. I did skate lightly when I was little, but I would exclusively cruise and not do any tricks, so I would just take scenic trips.

Q: How do you know when an album is finished?

Q14: I wish I knew how to answer this, I really just live this quote CakeWalk gives me sometimes. “A project is never finished, just surrendered.” I don’t consider myself a perfectionist, I like moving on from projects when I get tired of it. Especially while I’m trying to make a name for myself, I wanna throw as much as I can at the wall, I obviously do try to make them as good as I can. I listen to my music alot before release to make sure I like them, tweaking what I can but not stressing over it. I work very spontaneously. And with knowing when an albums finished, I like to tell a type of story when I make an album, so I usually have an emotional journey in my mind when I make an album, so when I think there’s enough songs to tell it, I think its done. I love concept albums, I hope to eventually make a proper concept album that tells a story and has a tight sonic sound.

Q: Your advice for creating music

Q15: Honestly, create alot, it really is a muscle to exercise. Follow your intuition and create what you like to hear. There’s nothing wrong with wearing your influences on your sleeve, as long as it’s not just copying. And there’s nothing wrong with wearing your heart on your sleeve, people connect when your being sincere. I live by this one Pharrell quote since I heard it, “Make something undeniable, and make it equally as infectious” paraphrasing but close enough. Do what you want without fear, words I still try to live by today.