Rob Wickline

Initially intended for a podcast format, this is a set of collaborations I did with journalist, writer, and film nerd Alex Vuocolo. These are absurdist stories from a fictional town delivered in a deadpan style inspired by Joe Frank. They remind me of Anton Chekov in their brevity, focus, and small-ness and bring me joy through their subtle comedy. After recording them I wrote something of a score, and had a blast.

This is from my first set of recorded works that I released while studying at University of the Arts - the rest of the record is on streaming services and my bandcamp. It got it’s name from the fact that I was immensely excited about creating my own recordings, but did not yet have the equipment or skills to do a whole lot outside of the synthesizers and samples I had available to me in my computer. So, I did what any good composer does and worked within my limitations, and in effect ended up ‘avoiding’, intentional or not, the process of translating sound directly experienced in a room, through microphones, and into a recorded format.

Learning Curve is a set of two songs. “Beyond Words” is a song surrounded by my frustrations and experiences related to talking about the ineffable, and “Emily Song” is a song exploring the way I relate my love for my partner Emily, faith, and reason to each other. This two songs served as a landscape for me to try out new production ideas and understand what I identify as in a pop producer/writer setting. They are fraught with mistakes and impulsiveness, but remain true to me for their audacity.

I have such a deep and passionate love for classical music; particularly that of the strange, the experimental, the forward-thinking, the challenging, and the new. My training is not in classical, but every once in a while I try to put on my modernist hat and pretend.

This is heavy. I will never forget writing this tune because it was the most therapeutic musical experience I had ever had since it saved me from a week long anxiety attack. I love rap, but I never do it. All things considered, I think I did pretty good.

This was a fun project where I took a recording of a striking and interesting contemporary work for double bass by Heinz Holliger and sampled it to create a spooky track. The challenge of this piece was inspired by the Musique Concrete movement, creating every object using the source and nothing else.