Warbler Project (Old)

Warbler Project was an electronic music project I had going from roughly October 2023 to September 2024. Its name was derived from the loose rock band I was a part of in high school, The Jolly Warblers.

Origins of Warbler Project music can be traced back to 2020 from (get this) my attempts at creating a platform fighter video game, but that never came to fruition. Later, right before I graduated from high school in 2023, I had toyed with the concept of making my own music under a name separate from The Jolly Warblers. The first idea I had for a name was Sole Soul Warbler, and I even designed an album cover around the idea that the other members of the Warblers had "gone away" because of graduation:

This never went anywhere, and I believe this cover was the only piece of Sole Soul Warbler media ever created. As I write this, I'm realizing that the font for the titles on the cover is practically identical to the font now used for Midifuture material (Helvetica Neue). How curious.

I didn't pursue much of anything music-based over the summer. However, come September of 2023, the urge to create something "Warbler-based" hit me like a freight train. I don't remember the impetus. I suppose it could have been the influx of new music I'd been exposed to after spending some time at college. Whatever the cause, I knew I wanted to make music... or at the very least, "put out" music.

Naturally, I started digging around in old directories on my laptop, trying to find something, anything, that would be suitable for release under Warbler Project. After finding "Gerridae", which was originally called "Title Theme", I played it for my parents, hence the term "(Demo)" in the final release's title. The rename came from me feeling like I was listening to a water strider zipping around the surface of a body of water. That's due to the percussion and backing synth.

I originally planned to release it as my first single, complete with its own artwork:

College really started to kick it up a notch by this point, and I found myself with no time to work on or release any music. This didn't stop me from coming up with ideas for the project, though. A recurring one was compiling an album with my 18th birthday as a deadline. It was only ever half-serious; I bet on the notion that my schedule would completely shut down any attempts at this, and I was mostly correct. However, towards the end of October and into November, I was able to put together two songs, those being "Passersby" and "There's a Leak in My Bed", which both appear with the suffix "(Early Track)" on The Very of Warbler Project.

Even in a time of little music, I still created exactly one metric ton of sketches for album names and cover artwork. Beyond that, though, nothing came of Warbler Project until June 2024, when I decided to start messing around in GarageBand. This resulted in "Welcome to the Project", and the positive reception to that inspired me to begin working on what would become 3000 the Music.

From its inception to about a week or so after I finalized that album for distribution, Warbler Project was, in my mind, going to be my de facto alias for making and sharing music. It was unique, it implied a "sense of continuity", and hey, it was even four syllables. However, after 3000 the Music arrived on streaming services, I realized that my primary drive as Warbler Project was... well, the release factor. I had been marveling at how something I created was accessible on the same platform that my favorite artists were. The mere fact that a concept which had been kicking around exclusively as an impromptu high school get-together and then was being realized in some context was very exciting to me.

That was almost entirely what Warbler Project had been, though. I realized that having a bona fide musician alias would more closely tie my work to its maker, rather than its "source", y'know? Coupled with the fact that I wasn't entirely proud of multiple aspects of 3000 the Music's final outcome, I decided that a new pseudonym would be the way to go... and after releasing The Very of Warbler Project as a "send-off" of sorts, here we are. My apologies to the approximately zero people who were mildly inconvenienced by the switch from Warbler Project to Midifuture.

Even though completely new music won't come from it, I still have some plans to mess around with Warbler Project. "Messing around" includes a 3000 the Music deluxe remaster and, potentially, live renditions of songs from the Warbler Project catalog. How would I perform something like "My Dog Lambasted the Press" live? No clue! The challenge would be quite fun, I imagine.

In any case, I'll always look back fondly on Warbler Project, and I'll always be grateful for the people who supported it. I wouldn't be Midifuture if I hadn't been Warbler Project first.

Discography:

Welcome to the Project (single; June 23, 2024)
3000 the Music (LP; August 27, 2024)
The Very of Warbler Project (EP; September 11, 2024)

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