11.11.2020

I was raised on House, it’s thumping bass and heavy vocals impacted me emotionally on profound levels. I hated it’s control over me, sweaty palms, whopping deep in the chest, dry mouth, a discomfort of unfamiliar feelings; being read by beats and melody. This was the feeling when I first heard In A Dream by Rockell, screaming my emotions in the song, reminding me of relationships in the school yard. Not to mention it played over and over on top 40 stations at the time… 1998, I think.

Anyway, this record is inspired by my love for pop music, and love, in general. Those very feelings captured in a bottle and left to be danced to are fascinating for me. There’s a section that emphasizes the development of dreams: when the piano begins, it sounds almost…amateur, one note and off beat. The person playing isn’t actually good at the relationship, simply pantomiming a chord progression, heart half-in. Then, on the second open section, or break, the piano becomes more inspired, and finally when the drums drop the piano’s chords progress, these keys become darker. The dream is disrupted.

My dream girl, I’m happy to say, I get to wake up to every day.

They’re more bits about my past and bits about my future coalescing. South East Asia is a place that’s been coming up a lot lately in my life… Jakarta! Let me live. Ahem. The chords and rhythm in the song are references to Crystal Waters’s Gypsy Woman, released 1991, and many other house hits of the time along with the fact I’d been inspired by new House producers.

Each of the songs on this project are inspired by women who’ve had some affect on my life. Noodles in Osaka reminds me of San Francisco nights, talking fashion, and music over ramen; and because I have an obsession with connecting dots, Osaka is a sister city of San Francisco.

The tension and sparseness in the piano section represents temporary friendships, or fleeting connections like noodles in a bowl of broth waiting to be severed by your teeth in each bundle and scoop. Most of the records up to this point were gaining a uniformity with the piano and synth combo, but for the first time Noodles(codename Ramengirl at the time) gave the sound a sense of “home.”

Like, “viola! This is what ten years of practice sounds like!”