Hey everyone! Sorry I’ve been MIA for the last few weeks, my work schedule has been pretty intense and I haven’t had the time, energy, or proper state of mind to give y’all a good bloggin’ to. Luckily that is no longer the case, and it is my honor and privilege to present to you this week’s Selection, Goones‘ debut EP: Well.

Well is a blast from the past for two reasons, the main one being that Goones’ music is very reminiscent of 1970s style Pop. Well is just about the cheesiest album I’ve heard in a really long time (maybe even more so than Daft Punk’s new album), and I mean that in the absolute best possible way. Goones’ bass is deep, his synths are outrageous, and he croons like he was born to do it. My only real complaint about the EP is that it’s only 15 minutes long — it leaves me jonesing for more every time, so I usually just listen to it twice.

The second reason for Well’s past-blastiness is that Goones is more commonly known as Sean Negron, who belongs to the JR Masterman class of 2009, of which yours truly is also a member. Everyone always knew that Sean was a talented musician, but I had no idea the full extent of his musical ability.

I asked Sean aka Goones about the making of Well, and he gave me this response:

“I started with Ableton Live 8, where I would mess around on a synth or piano that i would trigger with my midi keyboard. I would find a pattern or something that I liked and from there, my unconcious brain would take over, building on the one idea/riff. I would sing into my laptop and in a week or so I would have a complete song. After I had 5 songs I was happy with, I went to a studio in Northern Liberties (an area in Philly), where i payed a studio 20$ an hour to record my voice and guitar with better equipment. They upped the quality of all my sounds and made the songs sound crisp. It was well worth the money. The lyrics are kind of fragmented thoughts or ideas of something I was feeling at the time. I suppose they can be interpreted in lots of ways. I’ve been told I sound like Joy Division and Hot Chip, which is funny cause I haven’t really listened to either. I like LCD Soundsystem, Crystal Castles, Real Estate, Deer Hunter, Beach House, Depeche Mode ect. Hope you take time to give it a listen, thanks for your time.

(for music nerds)

I use all Ableton instruments and add lots of effects to them to change them. I use a lot of reverb, EQ, chorus, pingpong delay, analog warmth, limiter, gate (a big fan of gate cut outs), and any other weird thing that i experiment with that works. Ableton is excellent at creating electronic sounds. its a great base to make a blueprint of a song, then use other programs afterward to record anything live, like vocals or guitar such as pro-tools.”

Just in case you missed what I think is the most mind blowing part of all that: Goones (aka Sean) made this entire EP by himself.

I’ll post my favorite track for you to listen to, but you should really head on over to Goones’ Bandcamp and give Well a listen for yourself. You can name your own price, and I would highly suggest giving the EP a listen before you download it, because you will quickly see that it is worth giving Goones some of your money so that he can get to work on more sweet, groovy tunes.

That’s all for now kids, talk to you later!

– Zev