Music
Many years ago, I released three albums under the name 9 Waves.
Much of the music I released was amateurish and not very good. But some of it was good stuff.
I am in the process of reworking those songs that deserve to be heard and preparing them to be released again in new album formats. I look forward to sharing that music with you once it's ready.
Speaking of which, there are a few songs that I wish to rerecord with guest vocals. Despite years of trying, I have not yet found anyone who will actually sing guest vocals for me. If you're interested in having a guest vox role on one of my songs, please contact me to let me know!
In the meantime, here is a song I wrote for Christmas. I have released this song into the public domain, so feel free to sing it yourself. Rework it, rewrite it, record it for yourself (and share it with me if you do, please! I'd love to hear what people do with my music!).
Krampus is Coming
What is 9 Waves all about?
There were two motivating factors that drove me to start releasing my music. Well, aside from my love of music, obviously...
First, the fact that almost nobody listens to only one genre of music. I certainly don't. My tastes run the gamut from historical music like the works of Bernart de Ventadorn and Hildegard von Bingen to experimental sound collages like Severed Heads and Esplendor Geométrico. Why then do bands limit themselves to creating music in a single genre?
9 Waves creates music in whatever genre suits them for any particular song. We've done some darkwave goth stuff, as well as humorous novelty songs. Not everyone will like everything we do, but I hope you find something you like!
Secondly, we were prompted to release our music as 'freeware' (so to speak) in response to the Napster fiasco of the early 2000s.
When we learned that musicians receive a very small portion of the money earned on record sales, and retain almost no rights to their music (with a few exceptions, obviously), in most cases not even being able to sing anything (their own music or someone else's) without the permission of their record labels, we were horrified. That's not what music is supposed to be about!
And to make matters worse, the number of musicians that endorsed this style of music commerce was staggering. Bands who stated that they only made music because they saw it as a means to financial success sullied everything we loved about music.
A common sentiment I have heard in many places from many people is that some things really only have value if shared. Music is one such thing. It shouldn't be treated as a commodity. It should be respected as the art form that it is. And that means letting everyone enjoy it, regardless of whether the artist is being compensated.
So we release our music for free. Our only condition is that no one makes money off of it.
Not even us.
Why '9 Waves?'
The name came from the ancient Irish myth of 'How the Milesians Came to Ireland.' That story tells of how and why the gods of ancient Ireland moved into the sidhe to dwell beneath the island.
When the Milesians arrived to conquer Ireland, the Tuatha de Danaan (TOO-uh-hah day DAWN-an, the people who would one day become the daoine sidhe) feared defeat, and so asked the Milesian leader to make them a fair offer. This is what he said:
We will go back to our boats and retreat from the shore over the distance of nine waves. Then we will come back over the nine waves, disembark and take this island by force if need be. But if you can prevent us setting foot on the shore, we will turn out boats homewards and we will never trouble you again.
So the Milesians sailed away from Ireland, over the distance of nine waves. When they turned back, the Tuatha de Danaan used magic to summon powerful storms which blew the Milesians ships away from the shore. But the leader of the Milesians called out to the spirit of Ireland, praising the island's beauty and majesty, and the storms subsided, allowing the Milesians to land once again.
After a brief war, the Tuatha de Danaan surrendered, and agreed to split the island. The Milesians would have the top half—that is, the part above the ground—and the Tuatha de Danaan would take the bottom half—the underground half. So they constructed the sidhe to provide passage into the underground lairs, which later also became the portals to the magical Otherworld of the daoine sidhe.
And that's where the name 9 Waves comes from.
Note: This summary was adapted from the story 'Over Nine Waves: The Milesians Come to Ireland' by Marie Heaney, from her book Over Nine Waves: A Book of Irish Legends. The quote above is taken directly from that story.
