New Album Release: Pumpkin Patches

Halloween has always been one of my favorite times of year. Some of my earliest memories involved carving Jack O’Lanterns, making Halloween crafts at school, and trick-or-treating. I’ve always felt something truly magical in the air around this time. My friends and family are definitely aware of my love for all things Halloween since I usually start doing Halloween activities around the first week of September. So, yeah, I’m kind of a big nerd for the holiday. This year, I decided to start a new tradition. “Pumpkin Patches” is the first of what will be a yearly series of Halloween themed albums.

When I was a kid, I fell in love with the synth and hybrid scores from movies of the 1970’s and 1980’s. Scary movies from that period had some of the most amazing synth scores. The music that composers like John Carpenter, Wendy Carlos, Alan Howarth, Fred Myron and Malcolm Seagrave, Tangerine Dream, Charles Bernstein, and so many more, created for these films is so amazing and iconic. These scores from the 70’s and 80’s, along with the synth driven progressive rock and pop from the era are what first inspired me to start making electronic music as a kid. “Pumpkin Patches” is a celebration and love letter to these films and their music.

A lot of the inspiration for this album comes from the Halloweens I had growing up in Peoria, Illinois and from the autumns I spent running around in the woods with my dog, Sparty, my cat, Sammy, and my friends. The titles of the pieces on the album are all named after these memories and there are stories behind each of them. I even busted out my very first synthesizer from 1985 that my parents bought me when I was a kid, the Casio SK-1, and used it on the album. For the past few weeks, I’ve spent endless hours in the studio surrounded by these memories as well as some Halloween decorations. It was an amazing experience to dive deep into this world and I already find myself looking forward to doing it again next year.

I hope you have as much fun listening to “Pumpkin Patches” as I had making it. Just click on the image above for a direct link to my iTunes page.

Now it’s time for me to go read one of my all-time favorite books, “The Halloween Tree” by Ray Bradbury.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN EVERYONE!

-Dave