Regretfulnot
Regretfulnot is Scott Miles’ debut album as Big Stitch. It's an EP of six tracks that evoke what it's like to make a significant change with hopeful trepidation (or trepidatious hope) and experience joyful disappointment (or disappointing joy). It represents an emotional processing of regret when you live without regrets (or living without regrets when you can't resist feeling regret). Regretfulnot tells a story of escaping a bad place by moving to a new, unfamiliar home rather than your true home. That new home is Halifax in Nova Scotia, Canada. Each track is a short narrative about arriving, living in, or leaving Nova Scotia created from patches of short acoustic instrumental phrases played by Scott in his living room, synthesized glitches, pulsing digital rhythms, bass synth lines, and recordings that Scott took in locations across Nova Scotia. Many electronic music elements and audio editing were produced as part of Scott's learning to create music with computers and digital devices. No sound on Regretfulnot was captured with the intent of creating the resulting track. Instead, Scott collected these sonic patches as a habit (or compulsion) while living in Halifax. After he moved back to his true home of Seattle (with his wife and cats), he quilted the sounds together to emotionally process the regret he (does not) feel about making the decision to live in Halifax. He misses the people and experiences in Halifax but more intensely misses the lost opportunity of having never lived there.
The Merry Times is a techno-inspired track that expresses the joyful meaning that Scott felt from experiencing Nova Scotia's maritime culture. Scott took the field recordings on the shores of Lunenburg, Halifax, and Laurencetown, Nova Scotia. Scott's mandolin is the source of the track's looping hook and granular, glitchy ear candy. The track Further From Home conveys the hopefulness of arriving in Canada, the confusion of living there, and the wistfulness of leaving. Scott played the toneful melody on an acoustic octave mandolin. He recorded it in his living room using a field recorder, likely while waiting for his wife to finish getting ready for an outing. The music overlays recordings of various transportation experiences, from getting situated on an airplane to crossing Halifax Harbour by ferry to walking the city's truck-infested Lower Water Street. Gold Mine brings the listener to the moment Scott and his wife get the keys to the condo they later regret buying. Scott's mandolin expresses the weightiness of the experience and the feeling of deceit (and responsibility) he had while listening back to the conversation recording. Lost Found Lost is about community: needing it, not having it, finding it, losing it, and building it again. It combines a repetitive mandolin riff with sounds created from processing that riff and the only musical element recorded by Scott after leaving Nova Scotia—the pulsing electric bass groove. The tension of the track is created by the juxtaposition of happy people's noises that come in and out of intelligibility. These walla recordings were taken at various events that Scott attended throughout Nova Scotia. Little Stinkers captures the beauty and intimacy of Scott's Nova Scotia experience through the telling of a birding hike that he and his wife took. He hung his field recorder from his belt during the hike and later selected meaningful bites to include in the track. The music was composed using the Polyend Tracker Mini on a plane to or from Halifax. Too Different is a literal telling of the story of the move to Canada, the joyful experiences of being there, and the niggling feeling that something isn't right. The music was composed while studying the music of Scott's favorite microhouse artist, Isolee. The musical elements were melded with recordings of local (bagpipe) music that Scott recorded at the Celtic Colours Festival and the Royal Tattoo Parade. Matt MacIsaac played the solo bagpipe at the start of the track. The spoken word samples were recorded at various events and gatherings that Scott attended during his time in Nova Scotia.
Songwriter: Scott Miles
Producer: Scott Miles
Mixing: Scott Miles
Mastering: Scott Miles
