It's done! It's finally finished! woo! it won't be public for the next couple of days, but feel free to share the link anyway if you want :) I hope you guys enjoy it!

Friends! I'm extremely excited about this release! "asphalt" is the opening track to a short album that I've been working on for a very, very long time. I had begun to fear this project wouldn't ever see the light of day! "launch" will be a collection of five songs that mark my introduction into the electronic music realm. It started after acquiring Native Instrument's "Komplete 7" (a massive collection of virtual instruments and effects), and was extraordinarily inspired by the sheer amount of power it gave me. Over the course of the next couple of years, I spent countless hours composing and mixing this craziness into being. "asphalt" is the intensely energetic introduction track. It's busy and I hope it makes your head spin--all for the better :) Enjoy! matt

Hello friends, and Happy Halloween! This track is probably the heaviest from Mantra's upcoming album, and it comes at the best time of year for it >:) It's also the first track I've finished with our new lead guitarist! It's pretty ridiculous how much of a change one member can make to the overall feel of a song!* All the other instruments were tracked back when we still had our original guitarist, so there wasn't much room for budging on the composition, but Paul was still able to make it his own. For each instrument, I help to produce/compose the details with each person while we track the parts, so we all have to retain a very strong sense of where we want to take the song--it's a huge process! We've another two songs like this where Paul will have to fill some odd shaped cracks, and then a final two to track from scratch... When will this album ever end?! For those of you that listen to the tracks back-to-back, you may notice some rather large tonal discrepancies between Misguided Adoration and Distractions. Not only is this due to the change in persona, but small tweaks will need to happen towards the end to tidy everything up, as well as a final "mastering" stage that will help to get each track feeling like they belong together. I'm also still finding the sound of the album as it seems to get better every time! I'm just hoping I'll be able to mask the change in players well enough that it isn't distracting! Anyway, I'll post up some more insights into the process in the next few days. And up next I'm eyeing that second videoSong that Mantra's had on the back burner for a while. Or if I burn out, maybe I'll work on another track from my own album! Choices, choices... Enjoy! :) *I've considered uploading the old version we did a couple years back at a local recording studio for you guys to hear and compare ...but it's pretty terrible... so let me know if any of you really are curious :P

hello friends! This song (and video!) has been *long* overdue. "House of Glass" was one of the first tracks that was recorded for the upcoming album (over two years ago). And it's original form even predates my joining the band--nearly four years ago! Once I started playing in Mantra, I did my best to make my parts for the already completed songs as much "my own" as I could manage while keeping the integrity of the form and feel. Jason (our lead vocalist) was the original bass player, and kept the bass lines pretty sparse and open ended, which gave me a lot of room while writing my craziness in underneath the song. I have a tendency to get complicated and busy, even during mellow parts, as the first half of "House of Glass" demonstrates. I followed Jason's original skeleton, but added a lot of nuanced rhythmic and melodic movement that Mark (our drummer) had fun syncing up with. I wasn't a fan of the original bridge, and nobody had any clue how to improve it even as we started tracking the song! Since I had been recording the instruments one by one--drums, then bass, rhythm guitar, lead guitar, vocals, and finally backup vocals--it basically came down to individual collaborations between me and each player to build it into something cohesive. It was pretty rough, and I had no clue how well the ideas would translate until everything was said and done. I had to really believe in my personal overview of the song as I've essentially been playing producer... and well, it is what it is :P This is also the last track that features our former lead guitarist. Our third, and final video will finally show off our fantastic replacement in the flesh! Stay tuned for that sometime in 2015!! ha... In the mean time, I hope you enjoy this one. Have a great rest of the year, and I'll see you in 2014!! :) matt