Category: News

The Original Grey Castle Soundtrack

Introducing the latest work from Anderhill: The Original Grey Castle Soundtrack. The name of the album says it all. The music was written as a soundtrack for the Grey Castle Podcast by Shaun Castle. Shaun’s new podcast is about dark and spooky stuff like ghosts, seances, haunted places, creepy clowns, odd crimes, etc.

Shaun was thrilled when I volunteered to make music for the podcast. But the truth is that I was thrilled to make the music, too. I’ve been prolific when it comes to composing electronic music the last few years. The fact that we were already into late January 2022 and I hadn’t yet composed anything new was starting to worry me. I was beginning to wonder if my discography was going to skip a year.

I like experimenting with odd and discordant sounds, so when Shaun shouted out for some music for a creepy podcast on Facebook, it seemed like something I could do. I put together 13 tracks within a short week’s time and I think Shaun and I are both happy with the results.

The photo for the album cover is an image I captured of a small worn and weathered sticker on the back side of a street sign in Everett, WA.

You can buy The Original Grey Castle Soundtrack at Bandcamp.

You can follow and listen to the Grey Castle Podcast at Facebook and Spotify, but be ready to get a few chills running down your spine. – dse

Fresh

When I started this website last August, the plan was for the site to be less of a “blog,” and more of an artist’s showcase. However, I’d already created a lot of music and writing that I wanted to show. So I’ve spent the last six months posting my entire Anderhill discography, selected poetry, and edited versions of some classic essays from my old site.

Tomorrow, I complete that process with the last previously-released piece of Anderhill music to be added to this site. So now what?

Now, everything will be fresh. Whether I post poetry, music, news, or essays, it will be new stuff. Expect some new dimensions to the site as well. I’m currently working on spoken word and photography.

I’m excited for this fresh start, but I’m going to be slowing down, too. That was a second goal for this site, to post less often while being more creative. I’m not sure exactly what that will look like. You can neither force nor stop the force of the muse. – dse

Coming Soon: The Grey Castle Soundtrack

New music from Anderhill is coming on February 1.

An old friend, Shaun Castle, recently started a podcast called Grey Castle. The podcast looks at things paranormal, horrorific, and mysterious. The first two epidosdes are currently available on Spotify.

Shaun made a shout out for music as he was working on the first episode. I told him he could use some of my Anderhill music. After all, I often use dark and mysterious sounds that would fit the genre. The first two episodes include music from my Five Birds on a Wire album.

Intruiged by the idea of creating music specifically for the podcast, I offered to create a soundtrack. The rest is history. The Original Grey Castle Soundtrack is the result.

The album includes 13 new tracks using a small grouping of sounds, some a bit creepy I might add. It will be available at Bandcamp on February 1. – dse

The Erickson & Graham Song Collection

Recently, I wrote that I’m working on a new singer-songwriter project after a few years away from traditonal songwriting. Well, one thing leads to another. My songwriting project has led me to revisit some old songs that I co-wrote with my late friend Steve Graham between 1991 and 2003. So along with my new songwriting project, I have a side project. I’ll be reworking the songs from the Erickson & Graham Song Collection.

This idea came to me when I discovered two verses that Steve and I had written that had never become part of a completed song. Steve died a few years ago and I thought it would be the honorable thing to do to turn those two verses into a song.

So, Steve, we’ve written another one, buddy. It was your title and idea: “Coat Tree Memories.” I added another verse or two and some simple music, and presto, the old magic.

After completing “Coat Tree Memories,” I decided to go back into my old songbooks and find every song that Steve and I co-wrote. There are 33 unique titles. Some of those tunes are still in my head as if it was yesterday. Others, however, have slipped away, and unfortunately I don’t have audio recordings, or even chord charts for many of them. But that’s okay.

Here’s what I’m going to do as a longterm musical side project. I’m going to rework the entire Erickson & Graham collection. Back when many of our best songs were written, I was still a beginning guitarist. Now I have another 10-20 years of playing under my belt. I’ve also become a better arranger. I’ve already spent a few hours on the first couple of songs from the collection.

Steve was almost 20 years my senior. He took songwriting lessons from an old-school songwriter who taught him writing styles from the 1940s and 50s, the standards. When I was younger, I didn’t always appreciate that influence. But time has proven the Erickson & Graham songs to be some of the best songs I’ve been a part of writing. It will be an honor to make them shine a little brighter. – dse

The Year of the Songwriter

My Music Room – Photo by Dan Steven Erickson

I’ve often written about being a songwriter, but to date, you’ve likely never heard any Dan Steven Erickson songs. There are a couple simple reasons for this:

1. I’ve been in a songwriting slump. Since I started composing in a variety of electronic musical genres as Anderhill about four years ago, I’ve struggled in writing more tradtional songs. Composing music without lyrics allows for new ideas and creativity. It can make traditional songwriting feel a bit mundane.

2. Real instrument-driven songs with vocals are much harder to record. People might think I’m exaggerating when I say I’ve written over 1000 songs becasue they haven’t heard any my work. Believe me, I have loads of old-school recordings and demos on cassette tapes and CDs.

I’ve got exciting news.

This year is going to mark my return to doing more traditional songwriting. In fact, I’ve already gotten started. Since the start of the year I’ve written eight new songs. My goal is to write 15-20 songs in the first couple of months of 2022. Then I plan to start recording and performing later this year.

I’m going to make a promise. I’ll post some of my new songwriting work here in 2022 even if it’s just me and my guitar on a homemade video. I promise.

However, it’s my hope that I might collaborate with a friend or two and get into a recording studio. In either case, I’m calling 2022 the year of the songwriter. Stay tuned. – dse

Here are some of the songs I wrote in 2022:

Less & More

Soon, I’ll begin the purposeful slowing of how much and how often I post here. As we work our way into 2022, I’ll be posting less, but creating more.

My goal for this site from the outset last summer was to create a space for my works as an artist. I’m doing that. I’m in the process of posting my entire Anderhill music catalog in individual posts. I’m posting several poems each month. And I’m posting edited versions of some of my best essays from the old danerickson.net site.

By spring, you’ll be seeing less posts overall. I’ll likely be posting less essays, yet with a slightly broader range of topics. I’ll continue to expand my creative works, adding photos, spoken-word audio, and maybe even some video before the year’s end. I’m an artist and I want to offer quality work. I’ll be putting more time into what I create. I’m also working on a potential future singer/songwriter album as Dan Steven Erickson, and a future ambient noise album as A Cult of Lies.

So although I might be slowing down on how often I post, when I do post, you’ll be getting more of my creativity. – dse