Petals: Tape Breakdown

Summary

At the time of creating most of Petals, I was about to start my senior year of high school. I dropped a project earlier that summer, but it ultimately under performed & left me frustrated. I was primarily on Soundcloud at the time & felt stuck in my place as a bedroom producer

After that, I spent August/September channeling that frustration into darker beats (Yu Yu & Whoa…). Then, I got over that and decided to take my career to the next level creating a new project to be released commercially (Petals). A good friend of mine had a photograph I used for the original cover, and I primarily wanted this project to showcase versatility for a wider audience.

Track 1: KK (Intro)

To start off, we have the intro track KK. It’s one of my favorites I’ve done in this spacey-retro trap style, specifically cause of the flute playing in 2 different octaves. The goal: have an instrumental that was retro, relaxing & bouncy. Listening to it now, reminds me of an old school Nintendo game.

“What does KK stand for?” is something I’ve been asked a lot throughout the years. It’s actually named after Wiz Khalifa’s weed strain “Khalifa Kush” & the popular synthetic marijuana K2. I’ve never had either, BUT the beat’s atmospheric aesthetic sounded like something really trippy & psychedelic-inducing. The project had to start on a bright note.

Track 2: Yu Yu Hakusho

The biggest track from Petals & the one that boosted my production career into new levels. The haunting bell in the background sounded ghostly to me, which lead me to name it after the classic anime “Yu Yu Hakusho” (translates to “Ghost Files”). After gathering the grimey instruments/samples, I knew the beat needed a hard hitting 808 bass. On my last major project under the name Oreezy, I released a sequel to this song titled “Yu Yu Hakusho 2”

Track 3: Ride Out

I titled this track Ride Out because it felt like something that was meant to be blasting through speakers, while cruising down the highway. I found the weird background sample in an Omnisphere Bank, and instantly fell in love with how atmospheric the chords I placed sounded. Because of this, I tried not to let the other sounds take away from it. Instead, I tried to keep the piano, flute, etc. very subtle.

It was difficult finding an 808 bass that wasn’t too deep or overpowering. The one I used on this track is one of my favorites in my collection, because it’s smooth & sits at a nice frequency level. Ride Out is also the last song I produced for this project 3 years ago. The tape definitely needed a “vibe” that was more laidback & dreamy.

Track 4: Lily

I originally produced this song during summer 17’ for my good friend/frequent collaborator Sebastian Summers. I got the idea from Frank Ocean’s song “Crack Rock” off of Channel Orange. The cymbals that hit throughout the Crack Rock instrumental are especially key to my inspiration for this beat. This is the only song on the project named after a flower, and is the very first beat that was made out of the 5. For the re-release, I added a nice/slow breakdown at the very end, which I’m sure will be a fan favorite.

None of the instruments used on my track are live, but I feel this is the closest I’ve gotten to replicating live instruments. I’m proud to say that nothing is sampled though, and I composed everything on this track entirely. I wanted a track to be a breather from the trap instrumentals, but also to show I’m capable of other traditional styles.

Track 5: Whoa… Chill Out (Outro)

Easily has to be Top 5 most random title I’ve ever given one of my instrumentals lol. Although, I thought of title because the beat sounded dark, eerie & demonic. After I made the instrumental patterns, adding the hard hitting trap drums like to this monstrous creation. This was originally released as the first single for Petals, and I believe it was heavily slept on at the time.

Bonus: Yu Yu (Ghost Files)

Many of you are not aware of this track & it is not available on Apple, Spotify, etc. This was also not on the original Petals release 3 years ago. Ghost Files is an alternative version of the 2nd track “Yu Yu Hakusho”. It is strictly available on Bandcamp where you can stream/buy the entire project. The track is now in a 3/4 pattern & has an entirely new groove/feeling.