Behind The Tracks: The Conduit - Tripcode (Single) (2022)

Tripcode is a track that I wrote, performed, mixed, and mastered in my home studio of Orlando, Fl. Writing the guitar parts is typically how I start the composition of most of my songs and lately, I've really been enjoying the Hans Zimmer soundtrack from the movie Dune which sounds like a mix of Phrygian and harmonic minor modes. The song consists of three different key signatures altogether that I thought blended nicely when incorporating these specific modes and it makes the music eerier and haunting. The odd time signatures make it feel a bit more engaging and helped to elicit the exact feeling and groove that I wanted when writing it.

During the writing process of the song, I was mostly contemplating the concept of how a collective or mass consciousness is engineered by a central intelligence. It seems like this model of consciousness is natural and isn't only adhered to by humans but by other animals like bees and ants as well; however, when reflecting on the concept it feels extremely unnatural and the music that's made can be a disturbing byproduct. It's a testament to what is felt when you work to distinguish yourself and then meet with opposition by the collective and the centralized power that dictates their actions. Metalcore seems like an opposing force to any hierarchy or authority to me, like a counterculture or even a paramilitary sometimes. It's the type of music that conveys "I wrote this because I knew you'd hate it, and fuck you." With that being said, the music in this genre is often beyond reproach from an artistic and production standpoint and listeners like me love it.

Tripcode took about a week to write the instrumentation for and then several months to incorporate various production details, electronic parts, and vocals. Songs of mine typically don't take this long to put together but the format was a bit complex for me to write vocals to and maintain some degree of style. Music doesn't need to be technical or complex just for the sake of being challenging to write, I want a song's complexity to serve a specific purpose and be written with a high degree of intent.

Something worth mentioning for me is that I'm a Berklee College of Music dropout, which I'm not proud to say, because I would love to have been an autodidact who's never been institutionalized by any type of formal education. I value education but self-education is paramount and more effective from my point of view. This is why it was worth mentioning. As soon as you have to learn with 30 other people in a classroom the knowledge then becomes non-specialized, and to me knowledge is only worth something when it's specialized and unique to a producer. A great example is a literacy, an extraordinary skill rendered almost worthless because most people can read, so you'll likely never get paid to read, but it comes in handy if you want to read this article and learn more about The Conduit. Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy "Tripcode"!