STILL FUNK GOD

The Healing Power of Funky Jams and Releasing My New Album

In the beginning…there was Funk God.

Actually, in the beginning of the Covid lockdowns, when the world seemed to come to a standstill, I found myself just beginning Funk God’s musical genesis.

It was a time when everything felt suspended, my first semester of art school switched from in-person to online, and I was frustrated at losing my new embodied creative outlet. Stuck in the house, still living in my parent’s basement, my younger brother and I formed a healthy relationship for the first time. I had begun shedding layers of trauma, though my work was early and pre-therapy, and through weed my brother and I made a peace agreement.

We started experimenting with music production software he’d learned in high school, FL Studio. When I used his MIDI keyboard to create my first synthbass melody, I was hooked.

Over 2020 I made 19 original songs, mostly instrumental electronic funk jams, experimenting with the basics of production and audio engineering. During that period, amidst Covid-19 insanity, I got off all antidepressants, used a ton of LSD, and had a spiritual awakening. No doubt, it helped my creative process, but it also left my vulnerable to spiritual predators in my early rebirth days. I was used for an emotional affair by a sociopathic spiritual manipulator, the last instance of PTSD I would receive after 24 years of complex traumas that I didn’t understand.

I called it my “rock bottom” because it was the final moment of abuse that inspired me to once more try therapy, and thankfully, led to my deep healing process.

In the aftermath of the affair and discard, one of my only comforts was finishing the album. I illustrated the cover and designed liner notes and a CD case (because I HAD to make a physical CD, it was only proper.) Hear Funk God on Youtube.

Heartbroken, traumatized, but proud, I thought to myself, if I can make an entire album, I am capable of great things, and I will survive this. I would call my second album “Still Funk God”, because no matter what, I was still funky.

4 years later, Still Funk God has arrived! It turns out I was indeed still funky, especially after weekly therapy from Genspect.

To make this album I used a mix of new AI production software and Fl Studio knowledge. The AI Suno allows musicians to write prompts to generate loops of any genre imaginable, even including vocals. All samples are AI generated, based on music libraries from around the world. As with hand-made production, I instantly fell in love with the AI sampling process.

Now, I can generate vocals for my lyrics with both male and female singers that sound much better than my testosterone-affected voice. I can also make songs in experimental genres, so obviously I made some funky fusion jams.

This album has 21 original songs with a running time of about 1:15 hours. Genres range from 70s funk, 80s funk, 90s g funk, 2000s electronic, Nigerian funk, jazz, blues, psychedelic rock, pop, and whatever subgenres you’d try to categorize the 8bit opener Praise Be Funk God.

I wrote this from April to July 2024, about four months. Many songs were inspired by my move from Milwaukee to Phoenix, leaving my lifelong hometown for a monumental fresh start in a foreign world. Lyrical themes span growth, uncertainty, faith, doubt, heartbreak, grief, and of course—bein’ funky. Going through a confusing situationhip at the same time as moving, and ending it shortly after settling in, as with my first album, making music and leaning on rhythm and soul got me through deep pain and loneliness as I adjusted to a frightening future.

The album helped me anticipate the moving process, the chaos of love and loss, and inevitability of change in these four months. The final album track, instrumental Soul Search, was hand-written two years previously, encapsulating bittersweet longing for love within myself. Attachment wounds die hard, so the song sums up this life period perfectly.

I’ve already begun writing material for my third album, which I have a feeling I will title Funk God Era. The trilogy begins with Funk God in its roots, discovering my artistic and growth potential, continues transformation and creative abundance in Still Funk God, and by the time I’ve satisfied my itch for a third release, I hopefully will be in a true Funk God Era.

Still Funk God and all its funky glory is available to listen to on Youtube and Spotify. Check it out for yourself and discover jams of all genres, moods, and messages.