A. Mosiah Garvey (Rekuiem) - I've had a passion for all things creative as long as I can remember. It only makes sense to me that I've been able to find my newest voice in the world of music. A borderline obsession, the time I spend producing/composing and then of course sharing in my works, has been one of the most rewarding experiences I have had both the courage and initiative to tackle.
Music and I go way back, like most of us, it was always present in my life. When I was a youngster, (5 or 6) I used to sit down at my parent's piano and play songs that came to me. I started piano lessons, first in elementary school. But I stopped soon after, I felt like the joy of the music had left me, when I sat down to practice scales, or play some lesson from the book I quickly felt bogged down by performing.. But what I did take away from it was a new found understanding of the piano itself, music as we know it, and It propelled my desire to play even more.
I found my ear, though now, in all the times I had been trying to play songs from the video games I loved so much. I had my own arrangements, of zelda songs (Gerudo Valley, Zora's Domain, Kakiro Village, Lost Woods, Song of Storms), Sonic songs (Starlight Zone, Special Stage, Oil Ocean ), Final Fantasy (The Chocobos, the battles, the towns, and the ever familiar victory fanfares) and of course Dire Dire Docks from Super Mario 64. Fortunately my parents encouraged me again to take more lessons seeing how often I just loved to be in front of the piano.
In middle school, I began my second batch of piano lessons, and this time I let the practice become about re imagining the exercises not just playing them, I let my imagination run wild with the homework, and found even more comfort with the piano. It was an incredible time for my imagination. Not only was I getting more more insight to how to extract the glory of the infinite silence of thought, I was also making my creations come to life with RPG Maker 2000. This is how I really began to make music, not just perform, or play. I learned about MIDI, and got my first keyboard, a large silver yamaha, with tons of instruments, drums, songs and beats to play along with. I could hook my keyboard to my computer and make midis for my game or I could record 5 songs right on to the keyboard itself (5 channels and nearly 100 ms of latency!).
I started taking Voice Lessons and Music Theory, with the creator, founder and Director of the Pied Piper Children's Theatre, which came to be housed in Holy Trinity Church, where I had gone for the larger part of my life. I had done shows before, but Rey-Rey, encouraged me to take voice lessons as well, and I gained not only confidence in my singing and voice, but also got more into music theory than I had ever been taught before. Not just in the technical but in appreciation, history, culture and an understanding of the overwhelming desire we have to create and share. Now I sang what ever was in my mind when I was doing something thoughtless. Singing songs from my mind, while cleaning dishes, or just alone and bored.
By now I had graduated from High school, but the world reared its ugly head at me, and all the time I had spent, learning, creating, performing, and doing well in school didn't remove the Scarlet C's printed to my name for only doing the homework I could learn from. I wasn't going to spend any more time than a teacher's spot check to show that I'm "trying" playing the number/letter game we make to offer grades for having a piece of paper that looks like you did your homework. It doesn't matter if I got A's on the test, I didn't sacrifice my time, like the rest. I suppose one could have just gotten into the lunch time copy scrambles. But I wouldn't, it seemed even worse than doing repetitive homework on whatever subject, topic, or "new formula" that you learned in class or 6 minutes into 40 math questions about 1 concept. So having fallen on my own sword, I didn't get into any college I applied to. Just of High School, this was the start of a very scary slope.
Faceless rejection is not easy, especially when all you want is to receive an education. I had lost all of my faith in what we call academia, and with the loss of confidence, my light began to fade from my vision. I figured I might just wither away. But, I kept going, I soon bought my first and only iPod, and for a very long time it was my salvation, I had a growing library and the internet was a hunting ground for more, of anything. I listened to whatever new music I could get my hands on. I got into school during the year out of high school. Good old, SUNY Potsdam, which I choose with the old "catch a tiger by the toe."
At this point in my life though, I don't expect anything great, Maybe I'll get 2 years of good courses out of it, But fortunately my education ended up not coming from the classes I took, it came from the group of friends I built. We would talk on and on and on, going on drives, smoking, and often it was a more rewarding experience than the actual in class discussions. We talked about everything and anything, holding hour long conversations. Music, too had come back to me in an awesome way. I was beginning to really hear and see beauty. It was a shame so much of my time spent there didn't amount to much good outside of that. I packed up all of my stuff and got the hell out of there, it was in that moment, My light was no longer being obscured.
Do I remember how one day I decided I should have downloaded a DAW to make music in years ago, and quickly invested my time into learning all the ins and outs, just exploring the program freely, I quickly got comfortable, using my new tool, and after a move, doing a show and working for the Theatre. In the start of the 2011 I published my very first song on to Newgrounds' audio potal. "Ressurection Theme" I didn't even realize how significant that ittle would be to me now looking back. (http://www.newgrounds.com/audio/listen/394429)
I got my very first "review" from a total stranger it was thrilling I didn't realize it would feel that good when people hear your music:
"It may be because Im tired...but this song is tripping me out. Im...seeing colors. Very nice. Keep up the good work. Other than that, I dont really know what to say. This song is just too awesome." -MaskDeUH
Some I write this now, 2 years and in 10 days what will have been another 6 months in addition. Rekuiem and Mosiah, the two sides of my music. The song of my death, and the light of my self, engaged in an endless battle fought in every song. I'm not making gimmicks here. This is truly my music.
Welcome. I hope you Enjoy.
Stay Tuned. It's different.