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The Unknown Artist Evan Michael Brown The Unknown Artist Evan Michael Brown

A New (End Middle) Beginning

I rebranded by accident.

Not entirely by accident, of course. But there was quite a bit of serendipity involved.

I’ve never used a slick stage name or a meaningful phrase to represent my personal brand. The right concept remained elusive, so my name has been my brand.

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The Real Cause of Imposter Syndrome

The Real Cause of Imposter Syndrome

Many talented people have dealt with imposter syndrome. It’s the uneasy feeling that you’re not nearly as good as other people think, that you don’t deserve your success, that you’re a fraud who will be “found out” at any moment and your life will come crashing down around you. Imposter syndrome takes “fake it ‘til you make it” and turns it into “I’m still faking it and nobody seems to notice yet, but it’s only a matter of time.”

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Find Your Surf

Find Your Surf

I’ve always been drawn to the romance of surfing. Or at least my own romanticized version of it.

I love how surfers are so dedicated to finding that perfect wave. I love how surfing is the first thing they think about when they wake up as the sun rises. I love how they use surfing as a sort of Zen meditation, a way to disconnect from the troubles of the world, become one with nature, achieve a kind of inner peace. I love how that inner peace and one-ness gives them patience as they wait for the best waves. I love the idea of living in eternal summer, never really growing up or needing to “go back to school” and fit into the restraints of society.

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Creative Procrastination: How to Stop Putting It Off & Create Awesome Shit
How To, The Unknown Artist, You're Doing It Wrong Evan Michael Brown How To, The Unknown Artist, You're Doing It Wrong Evan Michael Brown

Creative Procrastination: How to Stop Putting It Off & Create Awesome Shit

I am a professional procrastinator. Well, I would be a professional procrastinator if I ever got around to turning it into an income source. I’ll do that tomorrow, but for now I’ll write about the pervasive problem of avoidance in our creative work.

You may be one of those gifted people with a preternatural ability to focus, never succumbing to distractions. Maybe you don’t have any sort of attention deficit and aren't prone to wasting large chunks of your day accomplishing jack shit because why not the Internet exists. Well congratu-friggin'-lations, you’re way better at adulting than I am. You can stop here and hang your valedictorian certificate on the wall after reading all of Infinite Jest in a single sitting. I’ll meet back up with you in my next post.

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News, The Unknown Artist Evan Michael Brown News, The Unknown Artist Evan Michael Brown

New Composition Reel

I compiled a playlist featuring samples of some of my compositions. It features a variety of styles and genres I've tackled over the years. Some of these are your first chance to hear samples from the indie film score I spent much of last year composing. Some are from short films, commercials, web series, podcasts and other projects.

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How To Be an Artist With a Day Job
How To, The Unknown Artist Evan Michael Brown How To, The Unknown Artist Evan Michael Brown

How To Be an Artist With a Day Job

There are fifty thousand articles online about turning your creative passion into a full-time career (that's an exact number I counted myself, so no need to check if it’s accurate). Many of said fifty thousand articles include very good advice. You should read them and maybe take what they say to heart. But there aren’t many articles tackling the far more common situation: being an artist and having a*gulp*day job.

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The Unknown Artist Evan Michael Brown The Unknown Artist Evan Michael Brown

The Zen of Film Scoring: Always Change Your Pants Before Recording

With my work on the film score nearing completion, I am focusing most of my creative energies on getting it finished. I have many ideas for general creativity-themed blog posts in the near future, but until I can spend the required time writing them, I give you this film score-centric post to tide you over.

It turns out scoring a film requires developing some creative philosophies (the importance of which I detailed here), using some extremely advanced techniques (and by advanced I mean not particularly advanced, you see what I did there?) and making some interesting discoveries and observations along the way. Here are seven examples from my recent experience.

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The Unknown Artist Evan Michael Brown The Unknown Artist Evan Michael Brown

The Snowman: A Guitar Reimagining

While I dislike the commercial compulsion to push the beginning of the Christmas season so far back it essentially starts on Halloween, I'm hoping this piece of music I'm sharing with you is obscure enough that it won't be conjuring any visions of sugarplum fairies in mid-November.

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The Unknown Artist Evan Michael Brown The Unknown Artist Evan Michael Brown

The Zen of Film Scoring: The Sonic Palette

During my first week of procrastinating/working very hard on the score for I Hate You, I was naturally a bit curious to learn more about the methods and techniques of established composers. Spending time pretending to pick up tips from the pros was an excellent way to avoid the fact that I was freaking out about how the hell I would successfully pull this shit off. One YouTube video wound up being a big inspiration, but not in the way I had initially imagined.

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How To Add Instant Energy to a Song: The Magic Beat
How To, The Unknown Artist Evan Michael Brown How To, The Unknown Artist Evan Michael Brown

How To Add Instant Energy to a Song: The Magic Beat

Years ago, I was listening to the radio when "Toxic" by Britney Spears came on. At the time I wasn’t particularly enthusiastic about admitting I was into a Top 40 pop song, but with "Toxic" it was a different story—I loved it and felt no shame about that fact. There are many great things here: check out that funky-as-shit bass line, the chunky guitar part and how the chords in the chorus build tension with that chromatic descending progression the first time (forgive a few music theory terms here), then release with the incredibly satisfying flat-six-to-five the second time, for example.

But for me the infectiousness of "Toxic" comes down to one primary element, the backbone of the whole song: a rhythm I’ve come to call the Magic Beat.

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The Unknown Artist Evan Michael Brown The Unknown Artist Evan Michael Brown

The Blurred Lines of Music Lawsuits

I got into a much more intense conversation than I usually allow myself to get into on Facebook recently over the Marvin Gaye vs. Pharrell/Robin Thicke copyright infringement lawsuit. I had similar conversations about the Sam Smith vs. Tom Petty controversy as well as an incident involving Lady Gaga (more on that later).

I care about this stuff because one of these cases sets up a worrisome precedent for musicians everywhere. Here's my detailed take on all three.

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