The streetlights kept gleaming on the black asphalt.
Recorded during the same session as Imagine and Strawberry Fields Forever, Streetlights on Asphalt is an original song done during the set. Jeremy and Neil have a solid groove line going on here. It’s impossible not to bob your head to it as you’re listening.
With the lyrics, I went with a straight spoken word style, very similar in style to Jack Kerouac’s delivery on his musical pieces.
Each segment is broken into separate slice-of-life urban stories. Each character is briefly described ending with his/her fate and then separated by the chorus line to hook it all together.

Streetlights on Asphalt
Night walking through rain slick streets
she was only looking for a ride home.
Too many cigarettes and too many drinks
and he said just one word too many.
So she walked right out of that crowded bar
no one goes there anymore anyways
All she needs to do is get home
so she can sleep this off
then she’ll decide what she really wants to be.
But for now, she just needs a ride.
The footfalls fell without her notice
she was just too drunk to hear it
The next thing you know
her picture’s in the paper
and everyone’s wondering what happened to the girl next door.

And the streetlights kept gleaming on the black asphalt.

Streetlights on Asphalt by Chilljam is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States License.
Based on a work at chilljam.com.
Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at http://chilljam.com.

Here’s another free album download, Haywire Transmission.
Haywire Transmission is a collection of electronically written pieces that I was working on before I joined the chilljam.com project. After the dissolution of my previous band, Stars Burn Out, I needed to find a new creative outlet. I didn’t really know any other musicians that were available and accessible. So I picked up a copy of FL Studio and started playing around with writing music with my computer for the first time.
When I joined chilljam.com, I found ways of layering these song parts in a manner so that I could trigger them in our improvisational environment. Many of our earliest sessions involved quite a few of these songs, however, we were not regularly recording during that time so many of those original jams are lost to time.

To download the album:
1 Go to the Haywire Transmission Listen :: Album page.
2 Scroll down past the player and you’ll see a link labelled “Download this Album”.
3 Simply click on this link and the album is yours, complete with the album artwork.

Thank you to everyone for your continued support and interest!

Haywire Transmission by Chilljam is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States License.
Based on a work at chilljam.com.
Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at http://chilljam.com.

Listen to the new album, S+G
During the last couple of months, our music has focused in two distinctly different directions.
Some of it has been very positive with bright tones and content focused on joy and contentment.
However, other aspects were focusing on very dark subjects, some of which I’d consider to be the darkest works we’ve done to date. These songs have been focused towards specific concepts which we’re hoping to release additional material for in the future but we wanted to go ahead and compile the material together into an album for you to listen to now.

Immerse yourself in a dark alley and check out the new album, S+G.

Keep an eye out in the next couple of weeks for more!

S+G by chilljam is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States License.
Based on a work at chilljam.com.
Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at http://chilljam.com.

Street Corner is something I was putting together for the film we’ve been working on.
We’ve hit some delay with the film production but I thought we could go ahead and release the track anyway as a separate release.

“Minimal” is the word here.

I was shooting for something with a dark, quiet mood without being drawing too much attention. Something that could work a feeling in the background without interfering too much with the visuals that would be showing on the screen.

Additionally, I was a bit influenced by the minimalist drum lines of some of the more recent R&B. I noticed that a lot of recent R&B songs have incredibly simplistic drum beats, relying primarily on isolated bass and snare strikes to hold everything together.

It was just interesting to see what could be done with some of the most simple layering that I could think of, relying on the space between strikes to give it breathing room.

Give it a listen. Thanks!

Street Corner by Chilljam.com is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States License.
Based on a work at chilljam.com.

Over the last couple of weeks, things have been incredibly busy for us as we’ve just been getting over all the obligations life throws at us in the new year. Because of this, getting together to play in a simultaneously collaborative environment has been difficult. So, instead, we’ve been producing material individually. In as many cases as possible, we’re working on doing some asynchronous projects where we can each record aspects individually and then pass it along to the next person.

Thugs, right now, is just a lonely effort at the moment, but I wanted to post it up anyway. I imagine it may sound different if other members layer onto it and perhaps it would be interesting to post some of these songs as they go through each stage of development.

Thugs by chilljam.com is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States License.
Based on a work at chilljam.com.

Our instrumental pieces tend to be some pretty epic journeys sometimes. Usually, one of us just starts playing something, the others join in and then we mutate bit-by-bit until we find ourselves in a totally different feel or progression. This is one of those situations.
I think the primary aspect of this kind of song is just listening to each other closely and playing off each other’s slight changes. I guess this is what people often refer to as “chemistry”.