When I’m
not at school or at work, you may see me in front of the TV, watching a show or
playing a video game and just enjoying the heck of what I’m doing.
When I’m
not doing my homework for the next university course or preparing my lesson
plan for the next English course, you may find me in my room, wearing my large
headphones and working on my Digital Audio Workstation (DAW for short). Between
me and that screen would be a MIDI keyboard, a piano-shaped instrument that is
connected to the computer and allows me to finish up my compositions which was
inspired by what I had watched or played previously.
When I’m
not busy cleaning up the room and organizing my place, you may see me in the
basement, moving things out of place like chairs, couches, weights, lights, any
apparel that wouldn’t show up on the camera set up at the one end of the room.
And after spending more or less an hour moving things around, I move the camera
into the right position, put the lights in place and set the microphone stand
in the correct position with the small mixing table and computer nearby. I open
up my DAW, make sure the headphones and microphone works, and I proceed to the
camera and click on the red button. Once the record light is flashing, I return
to the computer and click on “Record audio”. All that’s left for me to do is to
put on the headset, place herself in front of the microphone, wait for the
musical cue and then sing.
And when I’m
not watching videos on YouTube, I work on putting everything together on my
video editor, syncing up the audio with the video, adding extra footage to the
music video, rendering it before finally uploading that video onto my YouTube
channel.
This is
what a recording session looks like at home. It may start with a small idea,
but it involves countless hours of production. This creative side of my life is
what defines me as a passionate music artist with the heart of a geek.
My name is
Jayhan and I’d like to start off by telling you a bit more about who I am
exactly.
I’m a musician driven
by my passion.
To be more specific, I write music and do vocal covers. I compose orchestral pieces for
soundtracks, but I also like to arrange my own tracks and film my performances.
I’m a storyteller constantly exploring ideas. I write scripts and stories, but I’m
fascinated by hearing stories from creators themselves, from aspirations to
little Easter eggs they’ve added to their works. It is that very notion that I
use to keep my content interesting and entertaining for my audience.
I’m a nerd always savouring entertainment. Nothing can describe my love for
entertainment, except if I do so in one of my music projects. From superhero
cartoons to action-packed movies, from sci-fi comics to mystery novels, this
influences the content I come up with.
I’m an
artist juggling with work. I currently work as a language teacher and I’m a full-time university
student. I’m very dedicated to my channel, but I’m unfortunately limited with
the amount of content I can put online, considering the workload. I’m hoping
this will change in the future, but this is what you viewers have to expect.
I’m a
fighter living the dream. Despite the drawback, I’m still just human, always finding ways to
live my dream. The only way I can accomplish that is by doing what I love
doing, because knowing that my work can entertain you makes my dream come true.
It gives me a greater sense of accomplishment, knowing that I can find the time
to create satisfying music content for my audience and to see them enjoy it. And
as a content creator, I can only encourage you to follow that same dream.
Now that you know who I am, here’s some
anecdotes to give you some idea how I started out and where I’m at today.
My first cover uploaded on YouTube
My first
music project uploaded onto YouTube dates back to April 2009. I had recently
bought a new digital audio workstation (DAW for short) and decided to
experiment a little. So I made a quick recording with the worst microphone you
can possibly imagine – a computer mic, which was terrible in quality back then
– and I recorded Terru’s Song from the movie Tales from Earthsea, which was a
Japanese animated feature film by studio Ghibli. With the help of my DAW, I
added some reverb to the recording I made and uploaded onto my first YouTube
channel, which isn’t the same as the one I currently have. When I look back at
this cover, I have to say that it was a nice try at something new and
different.
My first arranged track
The second
music cover I uploaded was different in which I used soundpools provided my DAW
to create an instrumental track and sing over it. For those who don’t know,
Soundpools are a collection of music samples that be played in loops. In other
words, you load a drum track from your soundpools and you’ve basically got
yourself a rhythm to sing to. And that’s what I basically did as I covered the
Hymn of Fayth, a song from the acclaimed PlayStation 2 video game “Final
Fantasy X”.
When these
songs were uploaded, I was quite happy with the response I had received. People
really enjoyed my music-related content on my old YouTube channel, so that’s
when I decided I should create another YouTube channel for my other music
projects. And that’s what basically happened.
Combining “geek” with “music”
I’m a huge
nerd when it comes to entertainment-related topics. I grew up influenced by the
music that was used on entertainment platforms, most of which were cartoons,
video games, movies and TV series. I would sing along to the German opening
theme of Digimon because it was so great and it got me excited for the series.
I’d get hyped during the final boss battle in Sonic Adventure 2 when Crush 40’s
song “Live and Learn” played in background as I was set on a time limit to
destroy an alien lizard in space as it attempted to annihilate Earth. Even the songs
that didn’t have any lyrics to them and were just instrumental, I’d still try
to mimic them. From shredding guitars to the brass section announcing that the
series was about to start, it was during these moments that music inspired me,
combining my music skills and my nerdiness. It’s turned me into what I am
today: if you’ve seen some of my more popular content, then you’ll realize that
they’re all related to the things I grew up with and that I still love up to
this day.
My first original (and geek-related)
song
My first original
composition was the original theme song of the Michigan Ghostbusters, also
known as GBMI, and that dates back to October 2014. It was inspired by my first
meeting with an actual the actor Ernie Hudson from the Ghostbusters movie
during a convention the month before. Our encounter was heart-warming to say
the least; I remember writing down the words that were exchanged and the
overall feeling of our discussion. From that encounter, I was inspired to look
up anything Ghostbusters related and I came across the Michigan Ghostbusters,
who had actually created their own webisodes. I saw them, I liked them and
decided, “Hey, this could use a theme song. Maybe I can ask them and see if
they’d like that I give it a go?”
And that’s
where this whole idea of doing geek-related music came from. Because there’s
nothing more wonderful and self-affirming than combining geeky things with
music.
Channel activity and future content of my
channel
Now, unfortunately
for me, my YouTube channel has been around for seven years and I’ve only been
slightly more active in recent years. As mentioned before, I’m a full time
student and a part time worker trying to find the time to not only make the music,
but create the video as well. Uploads will be unfortunately irregular, but I do
try my best to keep them as great and original as possible.
This is
also the opportune time for me to announce that I will be changing some of the
nature of the content on my channel. As I am a media and communications
student, I’d like to appeal to my “geeky side” by uploading videos that
consists of reviews and journalistic research based on entertainment. Don’t
worry, if you have been subscribed due to my nerd-based content, then this will
be interesting for you. One of the projects is that I will invite guests to
tackle specific shows (most of them cartoons) and discuss the production and
nature of the show, its pros and cons, and the Easter eggs. As this is still a project
that’s being worked on, music video will still be uploaded.
Now that
you know a little more about me, I hope that these anecdotes can inspire you to
go out of your way, find time and use your creativity to do what you love
doing. Whether you enjoy what I do or not, my dream has always started somewhere
and will bring me someplace else as long as I continue making content.
