I was in a huge creative and emotional slump for the past few months. My depression got a whole lot worse due to family related issues and I was losing interest in what I loved doing, which was playing harmonica and producing music. I’ve always been open about my struggles with negative mental health, which often placed a target on me for bullying in the harmonica community from the more ill-intentioned people in it. If my extremely blunt communication style was the reason why people refused to know me for a long time, it was due to my desire to be accepted in the harmonica community as an autistic person and wanting to make it more welcoming to people from different demographics and life experiences.
I was recently told by somebody I knew to keep on practicing and making music, even when I’m feeling depressed, because he knew how much music has played a role whenever times get tough for me. So I’m going to keep his promise the best that I can. 2025 was the lowest point in my life since high school (from late 2015-mid 2020), so I hope that everything can come back together for me in the future. My band is going to be doing some shows soon, so I’ll be looking forward to that too (as we have two new members since the last time I played with them).
So in lighter news, I’ve been experimenting a lot with different styles of music. I got into Chiptune music, electronic music made with sound chips found in older computers and video game consoles) more specifically the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive style 16-bit music (like the music you’d hear in the early Sonic the Hedgehog games). I always wanted to make Chiptune music as a little side project, but I never had the chance to do it because I didn’t have a decent laptop until I got my Lenovo Ideapad that I’ve been using for a few years at this point. I started working on this remix of the Joseph James song, “One Track Mind”, a few days ago and I’m having a blast making it. At least to me, the FM synthesizers I used in this mixed with the acoustic harmonica playing has a very distinctive flavor to it. The idea of combining chiptune music and other instruments is nothing new (there’s bitpop and nintendocore, which focus on pop music and rock music respectively), but I don’t think I’ve seen anybody mix chiptune with harmonica before. I might make an original instrumental in this approach as I really like the sound of this.
that sounded awesome! Something in my “future plans” is to give this a shot with a harmonica, this seems to be right up your alley too though:
It’s great that you’re creating again—stay true to yourself and don’t let anyone dull your spark. You’ve got this! Let them talk" is an informal Dutch expression meaning that one should ignore the gossip, criticism, or nonsense of others.
@KeroroRinChou I’m guessing you mixed this? You have the same problem I have when I mix music that I perform on. You’ve put yourself too low in the mix!! TURN THE HARMONICA UP, baby!! C’mon!! You sound AMAZING. Put that harp front and center! A little saturation on it will help it cut thru the mix better as well!
So blown away by your playing. Keep it up!!!
That’s not me playing. It’s Terry McMillan playing.
Hey @KeroroRinChou I have been in a creative slump as well. Our band has been on break starting in December until now. We have recently changed band members and trying to get them up to par. I tried to play a little the other day but thought I sounded horrible probably a little rusty and being hard on myself. I like to write songs and have written a few in the last month mostly blues. I read your post and it inspired me to try again soon. I really want to try a and start recording some songs and got a Akai Midi and a new laptop with enough memory etc to handle it, but having trouble loading the midi program on my laptop. We have a gig in the middle of February so I’m going to try to get motivated on practicing for it. Thanks again for the motivation @KeroroRinChou.