Cirqadian Lights is an indie rock project currently based out of the San Francisco Bay Area. After years of writing and recording songs for kicks and countless open mics at coffee shops and bars, it was time to start an official music project of his own and, in 2018, Cirqadian Lights was born.
The artist debuted with a single, “A Better You and Me“, in September 2018 and subsequently released the EP, “Wake Up, Let’s Dream” in March 2020. The EP tracks are quickly gaining traction with listeners and being added to multiple Spotify playlists.
Cirqadian Lights’ influences include singer-songwriter, indie/alternative rock, British rock, electronic/EDM, film score/classical music genres.
In this interview spotlight, we chat about the band’s newest release, challenges, technology and more.
Full Q&A along with links and music below.
Where are you from and what style of music do you create? (In your own words, not necessarily in marketing terms or by popular genre classifications.)
That’s a bit of a long story. I grew up in a number of countries including those in South America, the Caribbean and parts of Asia. Starting in high school, I lived in several parts of the US, including the East Coast and MidWest. I moved to the San Francisco Bay Area in 2004 and I’ve called it home ever since.
People getting to know my music might quickly realize that my tracks can sound quite different in texture and style from song to song. Taking tracks from my EP, “Wake Up, Let’s Dream”, as an example, songs like “Supernova” and “Make It Through” could sound more indie rock/pop with the tracks centered around the synth keys as the backbone and led with rich percussions. My other song, “How Do We Get It Back?”, could sound like it belongs in the EDM genre with its stylized synth strings, chill vocals, and the climax it builds up to. “My Kind of Trouble” has a bit of a retro/80’s feel with it’s synth pad and quirky beats. The variety of styles perhaps reflects my diverse background growing up and also the influences from 80’s rock bands, 90’s grunge and, more recently, from the renaissance we’re seeing in the electronic music genre. I like trying different styles as it keeps things fresh and interesting for me.
What led you down this path of music and what motivates you to keep going?
In this heavily commercialized world we live in, I believe music is one of the few sanctuaries that can still be intimate, honest and find people wherever they’re at in life. This magic that music holds and the opportunity to create beautiful things that takes on a life of its own motivate me to keep going. Most of all, however, my biggest inspiration comes from my fans.
How is this new release different than previous ones? Were you trying to accomplish anything specific?
I only had one single, “A Better You and Me”, before this EP so this release is really my first significant work. As noted earlier, I tried to do more stylistic variations with this EP – which is easier to do if you only have a single to compare your new works to. 🙂
Name one or two challenges you face as an indie musician in this oversaturated, digital music age? How has technology helped you (since we know it does help)?
As an indie musician, the obvious challenge is the production capabilities. A limited budget for final mixing and mastering via a sound engineer does mean I have to work extra hard to get my tracks in the best shape as possible before having a sound engineer quickly work on it while they work on many other projects outside of my own. Not having a dedicated sound engineer that can spend months with you to grind your tracks to production perfection can be tough. All indie artists need to soldier through this.
Technology-wise, lots of DAWs are becoming pretty powerful and really helps indie artists to unleash their talents from their own home studios. I can attest to it. And, of course, digital content distributors are a godsend!
What was the last song you listened to?
That would be my song, “How Do We Get It Back?”, since I just released the music video for it on the Cirqadian Lights’ Youtube channel!
Which do you prefer? Vinyl? CDs? MP3s?
I do prefer going digital as it is much easier to manage and distribute. In this new age of pandemics, it definitely helps to keep things digital as well. 🙂 As for MP3s, they do not make for the the best audio quality. I would recommend using wav files whenever possible.
How about this one…. Do you prefer Spotify? Apple Music? Bandcamp? Or something else? Why?
Spotify hands down. As it is free to use for listeners, it has a greater impact when trying to reach larger audiences. I can see a clear difference in reach already with my EP only after a few weeks of being released. The analytics Spotify for Artists provides is great too.
Where is the best place to connect with you online and discover more music?
The best way to connect with me is through my Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/cirqadian/
Anything else before we sign off?
A big thanks for this interview opportunity. And a heartfelt cheers to all my fans everywhere. Stay safe and stay tuned, everyone!
