news feed
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jaxcheese in the real world
11-21-2024
upcoming: I'll be at MAGFEST in january and playing drums with magnificent danger at BOSTON BITDOWN in march. if you know me On The Net and you're attending one of these things, please say hello!
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ZERORANGER!!
9-28-2024
I got to contribute a track to the huge and delightful new zeroranger official arr album! wow!
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new PXTUNES: CAVE STORY arr. album
9-23-2024
for cave story's 20th birthday we made the biggest pxtunes album yet!!
hello internet surfers. welcome to the "jaxcheese" homepage.
I've been making computer music and posting it on the internet for ~13 years, as well as some other cool things for other quantities of years. the "AROUND THE WEB" page exhaustively documents my digital life and works. but this site is mostly about my music. (for a taste while you read, check out the playlist over there beneath my face.)
I started dreaming about making music for video games early in life when I played "sonic the hedgehog 2". of course, these days, most video game music does not sound much like "sonic the hedgehog 2". but mine still does (sometimes)! my long obsession with classic video game music makes itself known in everything I write. but I am also a dedicated student of jazz, funk and fusion; and of classical music of all eras. if you're making something cool and looking for crunchy, thoughtful, catchy, and/or melancholic video-game-y tunes, please get in touch!
my musical experience extends beyond the computer world. I am a drummer and violist of many years, with experience in a great variety of ensembles. (lately I'm playing percussion for vgm brass band magnificent danger!!) I've composed and arranged some "classical" music for real instruments (though woodwinds still intimidate me). I'm a theory geek and enjoy transcribing/notating things more than anyone should. I have a large, meticulously-documented collection of CDs and records, and I enjoy listening to and talking/writing about just about anything I can get my hands on. perhaps some of these things, too, are interesting or useful to you...
for years I have periodically tweeted profound/inane thoughts about these topics; in recent years I have begun to transform some of these thoughts into profound/inane essays, dozens or hundreds of tweets long. some people think the writing is pretty good! so if you happen to be looking for a pretty good writer with an encyclopedic knowledge of aged video game music and a sub-encyclopedic knowledge of most other musics, I'm your guy.
you may also know me as one of the internet's foremost enthusiasts of daisuke "pixel" amaya's quirky free music sequencer "pxtone collage". some time after I created a discord server about it in 2016, it (probably coincidentally) had a little resurgence in popularity! now lots of people are making things with pxtone and I try to lend them my expertise/profusely compliment them when I can. I also operate a netlabel of sorts for compilation albums made by me and my pxtone pals.
music aside, I was a student programmer for some years until I became a retired programmer. now I'm a librarian/archivist by trade (specializing in musical artifacts...)! so if your local library's music shelf suddenly gains a copy of the "darius ii" soundtrack, you'll know who convinced the board that it was an item of great cultural significance. I still know my way around a computer too--well enough to "design" this website, at least.
that's all! please enjoy your stay in jax-space.