Last year when I wrote an album during February Album Writing Month 2015, I met T.C. online there and we exchanged constructive comments on each other’s tracks. He was interested in even more online creative challenges, and so I told him about the What if? project.

T.C.’s day job isn’t music, but he’s multidimensional and so by night, he shapes sound. You can listen to his #WhatIfSoundSamples submission, “Resonance,” here:

I asked T.C. a few questions to find out more about his creative process.

What’s your day job?

My day job is supervising a M.R.F. (pronounced murph) which is a Material Recovery Facility. We take collected recycled materials (containers such as plastic, aluminum and glass) and fiber (cardboard, chip paper, newspaper etc.) and separate it out, bale it and sell it.

Tell us about your main project now (musically) that you’re working on.

I’m working on an overtly libertarian (political little “L” libertarian) rock album. […] It’s a post punk, anti war rock album that criticizes both the left and the right in U.S. politics. It started with a question asked in libertarian circles on social media. “What are YOU doing to further the liberty movement?” I guess I figured it was time to do something. I’m really happy with how it is progressing so far, too.

Tell us a bit more about your compositional process.

I very seldom start with a lyric unless I’m collaborating with a lyricist. I do, sometimes, start with a title. So usually it’s a guitar riff or bass line and then a melody and I build from there. Once I flesh out the verse and chorus then I will finish the rest of the verses and then add a bridge if I feel the song calls for it. It is mostly music first, but a lot of times the melody and music and sometimes bits of lyric are worked on in tandem.

 

You can follow T.C. on SoundCloud.

Featured image courtesy of T.C. Elliott.