Less Than Three

What you see is what you hear. No play along or pre production. Just me, my violin, effects, a loop pedal, and the moment.

This album was six years in the making. Not because it took six years to record. I captured all the footage in 2019 and 2020. But because I got stuck at about ninety percent complete and could not quite get myself across the finish line. Until now.

I released one track with live video per week, finally closing the open loop that had been fragmenting my attention for years. Finally becoming a person who finishes what he starts.

Question + Experience + Insight = Album Concept

The Less Than Three project emerged from the combination of a specific question, a specific experience, and a specific insight.

Question: How do I bridge the gap between the spontaneity I love in live looping and the consistency I need to feel confident performing, every time?

Insight: Limitations foster creativity, and freedom within them.

Experience: A live Mexican television performance that motivated me to prepare differently than ever before.

The flow of inspiration, or trickle

Live looping has this beautiful improvisational element that I love. With just a looper, multi effects and an instrument, you are free to build any sort of loops, on the spot. It can lead me anywhere, and sometimes leads me to musical places I never would have imagined. But it is not always obvious what to do. The inspiration does not always flow. It is easy for it to fall flat or get monotonous.

I used to fully improvise all of my performances, a double edged sword. Sometimes I had totally inspired shows where new ideas came out better than ever, in real time, in front of the audience. But other times I had totally underwhelming shows: nothing seemed to click, no interesting new ideas, I could not even remember anything interesting I had done before, and just barely held it together through the end of the set. Super uncomfortable. I never knew which it would be. It was unnerving.

The pivotal experience

When I got invited to perform live on Mexican television, I thought it might be a big turning point in my career. In a certain way it was, but not how I expected.

I had just two and a half minutes to make an impact, and I thought millions of people might see it and become fans, so I carefully planned how each loop layer would build, then rehearsed it in my mind over and over. I wanted to make all 150 seconds count, and I loved the state of mind I got into while rehearsing.

I also loved that I felt no pressure to try to do anything more complex than I could reasonably pull off in a composition of less than three minutes. The freedom I found in those limitations became the foundation of the entire album concept.

The answer to my question emerged

Develop a repertoire of compositions I had practiced enough to have solid structure, but with room to breathe and improvise within that framework. And emulate the constraints of playing on live television.

First constraint: keep them under three minutes. Force myself to distill each idea to its essence. No endless meandering. Just the core of what makes each piece beautiful.

Second constraint: each composition recorded in one continuous live take. Practice the repertoire until I could reliably perform it live, under pressure.

These versions could always be expanded upon in live performance. If I was in the flow of inspiration with new ideas, I did not necessarily even need to play them, but if I ever felt stuck I would have something solid to rely on.

The journey

I started developing some live loop ideas in the months after the television performance, and on my birthday in November 2019 I recorded the first new composition, Cloud Kaleidoscope. I happily announced the project, trusting I would make it all happen.

The locations

I was living with my partner at the time in one of these amazing Shire like hobbit houses in the forests outside Mexico City, called Casa del Arbol, and felt I should make the most of having so many uniquely beautiful locations so close to me. Some of the neighbors graciously opened their houses for me to record in, and I did some recording work at a beautiful hotel on a quartz mountain in Valle de Bravo while they were renovating, with permission to shoot my own videos in my free time.

Some locations we had the whole day. Others just half an hour. That time pressure actually often helped. It sharpened the focus, similar to live television, made me jump in and record while we had the chance, forced decisions, and prevented endless perfectionism.

Dropping the ball

I found I could not maintain the intended weekly pace, so I worked on recording them all first, and finished all the recordings by August 2020. Now I just had some cumbersome editing work left to do, some tough decisions about which takes to use, and one composition that I felt I still needed a better take of. These were my weak points. I fell into indecision and started to lose some momentum.

So when I got commissioned to make the KAN soundtrack, it was the perfect excuse to start a new exciting project before wrapping up this one I had been working on for almost a year. I knew I wanted to finish Less Than Three, but I told myself I needed to start on the commission as soon as possible, that it was better to change priorities.

Less Than Three sat at ninety percent complete for six years.

Flipping the switch

Becoming a father in November 2023 changed something. It helped me focus in on what matters most to me. I realized the importance of finishing projects. So here we are. Finally finishing what I started.

After so much time, I might have decided to just abandon this project and move on. But I could not. There is something special in it, and it seemed silly to let so much hard work stay buried. This was never just about releasing music. It is about what I learned as I finally closed a six year loop. If you have ever had a creative project stuck at ninety percent, or generally have trouble finishing projects, maybe some of what I discovered will help you too.