Chase Greene ’22 (Bachelor of Arts in Recording & Audio Arts) — also known as Insãne Shinobi — released a rap new album, “Gravity,” during spring break. This debut EP is a tragic love story of a man who travels across the world to Tokyo only to find out the love of his life has moved on. Each song acts as a chapter that represents the journey to find love in an unfamiliar place. The EP begins with a somber yet hopeful perspective and uses songs like “Dream Catcher” and “Departure” to describe the optimistic yet unsure journey ahead of him, while the middle of the EP features songs like “Doraibu” and “Tokyo Drift” that represent the man reminiscing on the peak of the relationship. The EP concludes with the title track, “Gravity,” which symbolizes the pain of a broken heart after the man realizes that the love of his life is in love with someone else.
All of the lead vocals were recorded in Greene’s dorm room or at his house, and the background vocals and ad libs were recorded in the studio at Shenandoah Conservatory.
Although recording in a dorm room was not an ideal place to record an EP, I was easily able to correct the sound irregularities in my room with the sound reinforcement skills that I learned in my recording systems class. Additional skills that I learned throughout the recording and audio arts program also helped me create a sound that was unique, yet familiar. Although I had a good basis of what I wanted the EP to sound like, I sometimes struggled with getting my vocals to sound the way I envisioned them to sound. Because of this, I leaned on my peers to engineer and create some instrumental tracks that had the feel I was seeking. Matthew Arvay ’23 (Bachelor of Arts in Recording & Audio Arts), Derek Brown ’22 (Bachelor of Music in Music Production & Recording Technology) and Colby Gustafson ’20 (Bachelor of Music in Music Production & Recording Technology) were a huge help with this project, and because of their contributions, I was able to create the exact sound that I was looking for.
– Chase Greene ’22
Arvay and Brown helped create the instrumental tracks for “Rising Sun” and “Ronin” while Gustafson helped engineer the vocals for the title track “Gravity.” Arvay also helped master the first four tracks in order to strengthen the overall sound, Greene said.
Assistant Professor of Music Production & Recording Technology Graham Spice, M.S., also helped Greene and offered a lot of advice during the process of creating this project.
The album contains explicit language and subject matter. Visit https://ampl.ink/obEDp to learn more.
