I say this at risk of sounding a tad too sappy for my own good, but I'm going to say it anyways.

Shael Riley has proven to be one of the biggest inspirations on my music.

I started out as a really god awful musician. No prior experience with instruments, never played in school band, no history of going to lots of concerts. A friend of mine linked me over to some shitty virtual DJ program I don't even remember the name of anymore. It was pre-set loops that were supposedly impossible to make sound bad, but I think I proved them wrong there.

Anyways, Karius Vega (another truly amazing and inspirational musician) introduced me to FL about two and a half years back. I remember it was the summer between my junior and senior year of high school now. I started playing around with preset 3xOSC synths.

Prophecy turned around and showed me some tricks with FL. I learned how to mix MIDIs and how to use preset Slayer shit. Prophecy encouraged me to get a bit more involved, so I did. I played around in an OC ReMix competition for default FL synths, and took second place.

But really, it's guys like Shael that convince me to keep going. People I can see make music, and listen in to see what they're doing better than I am. It gives me things to strive for. So yeah. I've been trying to get better for a long time now, and I've learned tricks and things. I'm no longer using these preset synths to do all of my work for me. I'm sitting there and working towards things, I'd like to say that I've made visible progress. Matter o' fact. I have. I have made visible progress towards becoming a solid musician.

I've picked up guitar, and keyboard, I've learned how to master a track somewhat, although I still have a long way to go. I've learned scales, and chords, and chord inversions.

But I'm a musician who gauges my progress in comparison to the progress of others. I've got a long way to go, and there are a lot of people who can still whoop my ass. But I'm catching up.

One day I'll be able to hold my own in collaborations and such. I look forward to being able to work with people who helped me get to where I am now in the near future. I just need to prove myself.