WHAT IS THE ILLUMINATION PROJECT???

Some people have been asking me: what is THE ILLUMINATION PROJECT? So I thought I'd make it somewhat easy to find for anyone who wants to know.

THE ILLUMINATION PROJECT is an idea. Its about 24 ideas actually. Starting September 20th, 2011 I have been releasing one song every two weeks online for free streaming/download. Each one of these songs is completely, 100% original and straight from my Logic Express project file. No one else touches it unless I specify explicitly. I will (hopefully) be collaborating with a few different artists throughout the year and will be strongly encouraging DJs and other Producers to remix some of my songs.

When its all said and done, I'm going to be dividing these songs into two full length albums which I'll be selling on itunes, amazon, bandcamp, zune and what have you. "ILLUMINATION PROJECT (PART I): A Dream You Can't Remember" and "ILLUMINATION PROJECT (PART II): Josh the Stampede". Until then, every song will be available to download FOR FREE.


This is my official debut as a solo artist, I'm doing all of my own production/mixing/mastering, and I'm trying to change the way you think about music and how you listen to it.


Please, by all means, enjoy my work and tell your friends.

The Time Has Come

Life:

Have you ever imagined what life would be like if people got what they deserve? Because this obviously isn't the case. Life is unfair. Would your life be better off? Or worse off? Who is behind the curtain illustrating the fates of all of our lives? Some might say "God, of course", some might say "Science, of course" some might say "the gods" or "the aliens man..." Well... whoever or whatever it is that created our existence, I think we can all agree that He/She/They have a lot of explaining to do.

Faith:

There are many reasons to doubt and many reasons to believe, but ironically enough, the things that fill most people I know with doubt are the things that make my faith that much stronger. They dont make me believe in a man behind the clouds who's gonna throw lightning bolts at my ass whenever I lie or cheat, but a cosmic force so great and vast that our brains, merely the size of two fists, are far too small and incompetent to comprehend something so great and wonderful. The truth is, everyone has a god. For some people it's the Holy Trinity, for some people it's Allah, for some people its Yahweh, for most people: its money. Choose wisely.

Music:

I don't write love songs about God. I write songs about a lot of things, but when I write songs about God I write them in reverence and awe and usually write them in metaphors. I go to a small Christian liberal arts school in Santa Barbara, and at this school we're required to attend chapel frequently throughout the semester. Now, what I'm about to say is in no way a reflection on Westmont College or my opinion of the school, because honestly my opinion of the school couldn't be much higher... We sing worship songs for the first 15 or so minutes every time we meet for Chapel, and some of these songs are really great and powerful like "God of This City" and "How Great Is Our God", songs that really grapple with the immensity and power of the Creator as well as his strong presence and purpose in our world. Some other songs however, which I wont bother to name, are like sappy, shitty love ballads that sound like they were written by some college kid with an acoustic guitar who wrote a song for his girlfriend and exchanged "Jesus" for every time he used his girlfriends name. Honestly. I don't know if Jesus would want anyone to talk about him like that, seems a bit disrespectful to me. I mean, for real, is he our savior or our high school sweetheart? Food for thought.

Culture: 

I recently travelled abroad to the UK. Seriously, some of the best two weeks of my life, and not just because I could drink as much beer as I wanted whenever I wanted (although that definitely didn't hurt). I was amazed to experience just how similar England is to the United States. Don't get me wrong, there was plenty different there, but mostly just small things like calling the bathroom the "toilet" and not being able to find Mexican food anywhere... I mean that too, you dont know how much you miss it till its gone. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to experience the social culture as much as I would have liked because I was painfully busy, but when I could I always really enjoyed talking to the people there, usually in pubs. Contrary to popular belief, almost everyone I met was really kind and easy to talk to (once again, I'm sure the beer didn't hurt), except for some of the people in Scotland, but thats just because I honestly couldn't understand a word they were saying. Humans are humans and westerners and westerners. Next I'd really like to travel somewhere a bit more far removed from my comfort zone to really get a feel for what's out there.

Truth:

The other day I was fortunate enough to book a meeting with two notable Hollywood film composers, one of them is best known for his work on the movie Juno, the other one probably for arranging and orchestrating all of the music for the movie Tron. It was one of the most beneficial, and humbling experiences of my life. I learned a lot about the industry I'm trying to break into, which probably wouldn't excite anyone reading this all too much, but I did have one very important life lesson driven home, one I've heard time and time again but never with such real and heavy implications. To make a long story short: the truth is, no matter how talented you are, how skilled, how unbelievably witty and charismatic, you're not going anywhere in life unless you're willing to work hard. And I mean really, really fucking hard. Otherwise you'll just breeze through life, and truthfully there's nothing wrong with that, but thats just not me, so if you're like me, heed this counsel: getting something good isn't half as rewarding as earning something great.