This was my personal step into a great journey. I had never released a solo album. I am excited to see how well it has stood the test of time and how much I have grown. This album was completely funded by a Kickstarter and it was met with open arms. It helped me out of poverty, gave me confidence and inspired me to meet new people. In some ways it did more for me then I did by creating it and in that sense I suppose it is like many people’s biological children.
I played, arranged, recorded, produced and mixed this album as well as did the artwork and I hope it has inspired other people to take leaps into the unknown to do the same.
In January 2011, I released Slowdrifter with much anxiety. As an artist you always worry what will happen when you are truly honest with the world, because the world will be truly honest with you whether you are ready or not. This album was born from illness, heartbreak, joblessness, misdirection, struggle and sadness in my life, but from it created the opposite of all of those realities.
Dallas-based artist Datahowler has handcrafted a polysynthetic sci-fi cruise fueled by slowly strummed acoustics, hypnagogic vocals, bright piano notes, and Mowgli-vibing drums on his debut LP/space odyssey, Slowdrifter.
Often times I have people tell me how much they love to relax to this music, or how it inspires them while they do other creative outlets and for me this was a great reward. I think when we take bad situations in our lives and we turn them into something positive it starts a chain reaction that resonates with others and I don’t know who resonated in me at the time but this was the result.
This instrumental gem is full of crunchy textures and funky downtempo vibe, occasionally peppered with eerie layered vocal smatterings.
This album was released on CD, tape cassette and digitally and was all done DIY and through support by friends and people around me. Along with that I also gave out tin robots, astronaut toys, vintage space stamps, apollo mission patches, and more just to make the experience more complete. My Kickstarter raised $2,100 which was well over my goal and for that I am forever grateful.
My favorite tracks were Voltage and Prophet. Prophet because I got to play drums and do what I love the most and Voltage because it just felt so electric and good and it was bittersweet like so many other great things in life.
Focusing on themes of outer space & time, Datahowler’s debut solo album, Slowdrifter, is an adventure into 1950s science fiction aesthetics, updated with just the right dose of modern technology.
