Most of his life, Atlas of Silverbraid Music had been working artistically as a designer but never musically in any way, shape or form. His friends played instruments and wrote songs but Atlas liked technical drawing, three dimensional modelling and a lot of gardening too.
The 2019 pandemic was an interesting time; tragic for many people over the world however it also provided enough peaceful, silent solitude to allow music to flow out. This is how Atlas would describe it:-
There had never been any past musical training, nor was there any expertise with an instrument either; however there was an understanding of the mathematics of music and the feeling that he could write music.
A Venezuelan friend showed Atlas how to use a digital audio workstation and that was the opening of the tap. Learning music theory, production techniques, and writing songs in his favourites genres happened concurrently.
Atlas likes orchestra because of all the people playing together in harmony to create music that moves us. Uplifting Trance is great too because of its energy and euphoria. His first few songs were written without knowing how to play an instrument though he is learning to play piano and guitar.
In May 2024, Atlas released his first cover song, an orchestral arrangement of Coldplay's 'A Sky Full of Stars.'
Atlas grew up in England and did a lot of interesting things. He was a designer, volunteer, neigbourhood champion, and horticulturist. In 2017, he went to Holland for the Women's Euros Final and a week in another country changed him.
"Should I Move Country?"
One night whilst sleeping, Atlas had a dream - he was elsewhere near a large boat. It was sunny and you could see the sea. His hair was braided. All of a sudden he was calling me over with his hand. It was me calling me. The simple answer was yes.
Many of his favourite trance songs were always played in Ibiza so the plan was to go there though at this time Atlas was not musical. 2020 came and Atlas arrives in Valencia, from where he could take a ferry to Eivissa.
Day one, he falls in love with the City of Oranges and has not really left. One week in Valencia became two more and then an extra four. Covid and quarantine interrupted the holiday and meant Ibiza was for another day.
So there was a German, Peruvian, Colombian, Venezuelan and an Indian in a Valencian flat-share. The German was an engineer of some kind, the Columbian and Peruvian were students, and the Venezualan - a music producer.
The Venezuelan had been a bedroom producer for many years in his home country with considerable experience with FL Studio. He took a simple motif Atlas had suggested to create a song in a 2 hour tutorial of the digital audio workstation. By adding instruments to a channel rack and writing patterns in the piano roll, Song 001 was born - listen in the video below.
Song 001 provided a basis. The next day Atlas opened the piano roll in FL Studio and sketched out some chord patterns using C Major, D Major, E Minor and G Major to make Song 002. Atlas didn't know how to play a musical instrument, didn't know much about music theory, and couldn't read music either. Even at this early stage, the harmony and the mathematics behind music was intuitively understood. The visual interface of the piano roll was a great help too.
Song 002 expressed some understanding and inner creativity but was not a complete song. It was easier to to learn more about music by studying an existing song so Atlas chose 'Pure' by The Lightning Seeds. The idea was to remix with different instruments and musical ideas?
The Lightning Seeds were a popular band in the 1990's headed up by Ian Broudie and their songs are very musical. At the time, Atlas was using the trial version of FL Studio. The project file was not saved so only an audio render of Song 003 remains.
Studying an existing song was the right idea but Atlas needed to reimagine an entire song in one session; so a popular song by the The Turtles was chosen. A synthesia piano tutorial on YouTube provided the notation that was transcribed into FL Studio.
You Showed Me is a lovely song that has been covered by many artists who might have changed the key from the original to suit them. Atlas went for something brighter to match something he saw in one of The Turtles live music videos. Everything was still being kept simple as Atlas explored the native instrument library in FL Studio. Tropical sounds may have influenced Song 004 - listen below.
Whilst Atlas was studying music theory and production techniques, his Venezuelan friend taking the name "Alx Tayler," was actively writing songs and invited Atlas to accompany him one afternoon. Atlas did not know what was going to happen or where they were going, very little was said but a camera was needed.
"We had our bicycles and went up the Turia garden until we were at a recording studio in Valencia near Alameda."
Atlas was asked to make a documentary style video whilst Alx would sing and record a song called 'Imperfecciones.' The video was hard to make with no prep time but the song was very good and wonderfully sung.
As a child, music was taught at Atlas' prep schools. Each school had a choir and weekly music lessons. Atlas had small keyboard, wanted to learn trombone, and could sing too. At secondary school music was taught for the first two years only. There was not enough exposure to music overall back then so the prospect of being a musician or composer never came to mind.
The feeling to write music came back after Atlas had been working with plants for a considerable number of years - it was inner direction or intutition. It was a feeling that grew over time and going to Valencia changed everything.
Having never been musical to suddenly bursting with musical creativity, Atlas realised he needs to pursue this - what a gift it is to be musical. He knew he still had a lot to learn and focused on music theory, learning to play piano and music production with a digital audio workstation.
Michael Wynn of 'In the Mix' had the most comprehensive set of FL Studio tutorials, Karen Ramirez was a delightful piano teacher on YouTube. Atlas started piano lessons at a local music school when Sky Full of Stars (Orchestral) was being arranged which also required studying orchestration. So far Atlas is largely self taught.
Atlas had the desire to play piano long before he started to compose any music. As he didn't have a keyboard, Atlas used an online virtual piano for starters and watched performances of pianists. The music from a Star Trek TNG episode called 'Inner Light' was particularly moving. In the show, it is written for a flute like instrument which Captain Picard plays solo. Later in the series, he plays a duet with piano.
An online piano played by a qwerty keyboard is an interesting, fun and limited experience; and it did help Atlas discover he had an ear for music. Eventually Atlas acquired a Yamaha digital piano and played it everyday for fun. He now has Knight K10 acoustic piano as there is a huge difference in sound quality against a digital piano. Learning to play instrument is wonderful because Atlas will be able to compose at the instrument, play songs he has written as well as other songs he likes.
Further collaborations with Alx Tayler followed as an artist. Atlas being a keen photographer used an image he took of Sandra (the model) to make the cover art for Cuerpito (listen below). A later song called 'Lo Siento' which means 'I am Sorry' provided an opportunity for Atlas to make an animated video to capture some emotional depth.
Music is not just the song you write. Every song needs artwork for it to be released on a streaming platform so artwork should be thoughtfully prepared. Most songs are still acommpanied by a music video and promotion nowadays means making long and short form content. Music has provided an Atlas at opportunity get better at artistic drawing, photography, video production, VFX and storytelling.
Song 005 marked a breakthrough for Atlas as he was able to take ideas and write a complete song. It is short and simple and influenced by Reggaeton which is prominent in Spain and amongst latin-americans who Atlas had got to know. He looked to use that distinct style that characterises reggaeton in different ways.
"Song 005 is a relaxed chill song which used native instruments in FL Studio and the reggaeton beat is played by the steel drum-like instrument cycling though a four chord progression so it has tone. Use of different octaves with the main synth allows the music to evolve until we get to a finale which deserves to be in its own trance song."
Atlas did not grow up with latin music and reggaeton which is a whole other world, so reinterpreting the reggaeton structure based on what he knew allowed for a different type of musical creativity and the result was Star Bursts (see Discography).
Star bursts is Song 006 as it was started first but it is Song 007 which changed how Atlas thought about the music he was trying to write. Song 006 was arranged by thinking of the digital instruments as an orchestra so Atlas decided to find an orchestral suite to use in FL Studio. Spitfire Audio had a pack that could be used freely and Song 007 is where some magic starts.
Assigning different patterns and technques to different instruments of any section of orchestra allows deeper harmony in the overall piece. It meant Atlas could pursue orchestral music in addition to electronic dance music but where orchestral music comes a bit more naturally. Purely as a learning exercise, an orchestral suite allowed Atlas to have some creative fun with Despacito, a very popular latin american song - listen here: