So Unreal is Eric Fairfax's debut album. The album consists of seventeen songs composed, arranged, recorded, mixed & mastered by The Fax on a laptop computer up in north east China. (August, 2018-June2020) The Fax did all the flute, saxophone, clarinet, synth, piano playing recording mixing & mastering the best he could for only using the DAW(digital audio workstation) for 10 months. Mind you this was the Fax's very first time ever using any DAW. His first experience with the digital audio world. Just not too long ago in August of 2019 The Fax did not know that Ableton, Logic Pro, Reason, FL Studio, Pro Tools or any of the other major DAWs even existed. Fax didn't even know what hertz or a d s r were. Total newb. Until he called up Sweetwater music (a major music gear supplier in the USA). 

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       Fax was back at home in the USA from China in the summer of 2019 to visit friends and family. Fax was was producing all his music on GarageBand for iOS at the time. Fax was a little over one year sober at this point so he was hungry to start making music not just using his iPhone & iPad. He need something more.

Fax wanted to do some Reggie Watts type shit with his sax & flute. So He thought that getting a looping machine would be a good idea. So he called up his local Sweetwater.

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    Steve picked up the phone. "Hey how ya doin thanks for calling Sweetwater. How can I help you?" Fax said: "Hey Steve, I wanna get some info on a looping machine." Fax then explained to Steve what he wanted to do musically. Steve said "Ok honestly you should just get a DAW like Ableton." Fax said, "What's a DAW? What's Ableton?" Steve respond, "Is a computer software program that can do what you want to do and much much more." The Fax was intrigued. Steve went on to explain. The same day Fax purchased Ableton Live light just to try it out. Little did Fax

know that this phone call would change his life forever.

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    The very first time Fax opened up the DAW, first of all it was in triple vision because Fax could not put his RGP scleral contact lenses in his eyes. The Fax has Kerataconus. He was in recovery from CXL (corneal cross-linking) surgery for his Kerataconus. Kerataconus is fucked up by the way. Ain't no cure for the Kerataconus. The DAW looked like a control center in a spaceship. So many buttons, knobs & windows. The Fax started to learn the DAW even with triple vision at the start. "That triple vision DAW action, OHHHH buddy boy I tell ya it was no GOOD!"-Fax. Learning & production was on in full force. No more playing Call of Duty & waisting time.

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    So Unreal is an album telling the story about how The Fax left his home in America to go live overseas in north east China and some of the life experiences he had. The track order is chronological.

No the Fax don't be chillin on a coupe of 40's anymore.

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Track #1: Chillin On a Couple of 40's in Bb is a song about the 2009-2014 days when the Fax was drankin oz of malt liquor in college.  At 2:46 is the truth breakdown. Tells the true feelings of drinking 40's. Getting all tore up and chain smoking cigarettes. Felling terrible the next day all sick and shit. Then you tell yourself that you are going to quit drinking because it's terrible. Then two days after you just got back to feeling good again you repeat the process. Going down to the store for more booze. It's no good. At 3:40 Fax says: "I gotta change my ways someday but for now I'm drankin!" The Fax knew even back in 2010 that this drinking was no good for him but he continued anyway. At 4:23 the lyrics: "You need to give me some liquor, I'm getting tired of chilling on this malt liquor now" represents how eventually you are going to start drinking heavier shit like hard liquor so you can get more fucked up and faster. Goes to show the power of alcohol. Alcohol is the second most addictive substance on the planet under heroine. 

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Track #2 I Need a Chinese Girl in C major is about Fax's obsession with Chinese girls. That's why it has a slower pretty kind of pop sound (This song was written before Fax found out that Chinese girls (at least in Harbin) are very prejudiced  against people with dark skin. Even their own dark skin Chinese. The track starts with a simple piano groove layered with the erhu & guzhung. Chorus is self explanatory. Then Fax adds a Chinese sounding flute solo followed by a shuffle feel & smooth sax licks. Then it's back to the chorus. Fax really didn't want to add this track because of what he knows now but it's all part of the story. After all that's why Fax moved to China in the first place. To find him a beautiful Chinese girl to bring back to the States and get the house, white picket fence, and the dog. That shit never happed. It's ok though The Fax don't really need that shit to be happy. Fax just needs his music. Fax is not a vocalist by any means so it is a little pitchy. He did his best singing on this one.

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Track #3 Ohio in C minor is a song about Fax having homesickness in China. Ohio had a lot of Native Americans living there so it has that Native American feel. Hand percussion and a long ass flute solo. Fax recorded this improvised flute solo in one take on his iPhone laying in bed one night in China. Then added the strings & other sounds using the touch instruments on GarageBand for iOS. But it also kind of sounds middle eastern because of his use of the harmonic minor scale. At 3:02 some heavy synths and kick drum come in to represent all the crazy ass drankin & partying he was doing in China at the time. Getting all kinds of fucked up for dirt cheap & a lot of the times for free. The Chinese in the north east love to drink, especially with foreigners. So if you like to get fucked up all the time & be able to sleep in until late afternoon because of your hangovers every day during the week then go to north east China & teach you some English. It's the perfect job for someone with alcohol dependence. Get fucked up all night, sleep all day, then work a few hours in the evening. Then there is a kind of reggaeton vibe going before the song goes back into the original groove.

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  Track #4 Going Far East in C minor is a song representing the feelings of The Fax when he was about to leave home to move overseas to China. It's a very sad and uncertain type of feel and melody. Horn beeps car door closes. It's time to go to the airport. The groove at 2:00 represents the nervous feeling  Fax had being on that airbus realizing that there was no turning back now. He was on his way to China for real for real. The slow down and introduction of the trap beat represents how everything he thought China was, was totally different than what he could have ever imagined. Surprise! You're in China now buddy boy. Good luck. Fax couldn't read shit, & couldn't speak even though Fax did prepare in advance and taught himself Mandarin Chinese a few years prior on and off on Rosetta Stone to gain a solid language bass but still couldn't make sentences & talk to people. Definitely a huge help though. He could not imagine going to China & not knowing a lick of Chinese. Scout motto "Be Prepared" 

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  Track #5 The Foreigner in  the D dorian mode is an improvised piano solo that Fax added lyrics to. The lyrics explain just the tip of the iceberg of what he felt like living as a black person in China. Krinzkolo has a few words. The Chinese in the track translate to " I don't know, what did you say? I don't understand, what do you mean? I don't understand." 

 

Track #6 One-A-Dem is a very simple groove that stays the same throughout the entire song. It's just an F major 7 arpeggio followed by an e minor 7 arpeggio. Flute solo over

some dreamy synths up top. The "fucked up teeth & stankin' ass breath" lyrics refer to the dental hygiene in Harbin being so terrible. So many times you will meet a beautiful girl or woman and when she opens up her mouth to speak to you, you get hit in the face with the most rancid foul smell. Worse than an open ass hole. It's not just the females either its the dudes too. Halitosis central out there. Brushing regularly & flossing don't exist in Harbin. Short story for ya. When I taught my kindergarten classes I noticed the majority of the children had black rotten teeth that looked like little baked beans. I wondered for so long how a parent would allow their child to have a such rotten mouth. Their philosophy is that if they tell their kids not to brush their teeth then their baby teeth will come out faster.  What!? And they also say drinking cold water makes you fat. WHAT!!? Then Fax comes in with some vocals and his own hype man in the background. The addition of the koto instrument at the end represents how Fax likes the Japanese too. 

 

Track #7 Good person in G minor is a piano feature Fax composed to thank a Chinese police officer that helped him out one day to get into his apartment during a black out.

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Track #8 Deep Inside CHP in D minor is self explanatory. Fax came up with the idea one day on an airbus going from China to America on a visit home. This song was made on GarageBand on the iPad Pro.

CHP stands for Chinese hairy pussy. 

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Track # 9 The Voice of Krinzkolo is a real recording slowed down of Fax's drinking demon Krinzkolo speaking through Fax during a time of possession. Fax's body was so toxic from the alcohol that his sprit could not stand to be inside his toxic body. Fax's sprit exited his body but kept hold by a tether. This is when Krinzkolo & his brother Krinzleakin entered and took over. Fax started speaking all kinds of crazy sounding shit so he decided to pull out his iPhone and record this crazy demon language. Dissonant strings were added to represent the sinister nature of Krinzkolo & Krinzleakin. When the audible English comes in this is Fax's representation of the temptation of Krinzkolo in his head. At 50 days sober while Fax was walking home from hockey practice Krinzkolo almost made Fax buy some beer from the corner store. But Fax stayed strong & realized that this was just more of Krinzkolo's bull shit tactics to try and get let out of the cage. If you ignore the temptations of your addiction & do something else long enough they will eventually get weaker and weaker every time. Until they are gone all together. 

 

Track #10 I'm a Sober Guy is a song about how anyone can get sober and overcome their demons. The melody is an Eb min 9 arpeggio that goes around the circle of 5ths to Ab min 9 to Db min 9 to F# min 9 to B minor 9 and back to Eb. The melody goes twice through this progression to represent how long it can take to reach a sober life point.

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Track #11 Deeper Inside in F minor is a more intense extended version of Deeper Inside CHP.

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Track #12 Ya lil Bitch in C minor was a spontaneous collaboration between Fax & Josh Nasheim on March 30th 2019. They have no idea what the song is about. Fax just handed Josh his iPad one day when they were chilling and said "Make a beat." Josh came up with a sick beat then gave the iPad to Fax and he sat at the piano & put some synth melodies to it and they just started creating passing the iPad back and fourth. Eight hours later this was what they came up with. Who is the lil bitch. Nobody knows.

 

Track #13 C-G-B-F-R in Bb minor is a song about how Fax tried to acquire a Chinese girlfriend in Harbin but all the women said "I can not date you because you are black. If you were white it would be no problem".

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Track #14 The Geedao in A minor is a song about the feeling of smoking high quality ganja. 

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Track #15 So Unreal in G minor is a song about Fax always getting this feeling of disbelief when walking around in the China world.  It is just so different from small town Midwest USA. Zero diversity in people in Harbin. There are over twelve million people living in the city of Harbin China and only about 600 total foreigners. Most of which are Russians or African and people from the Middle East going to Harbin Institute of Technology. There are 0.00001% Black Americans living in Harbin China. It was so unreal to him living there. The work was kind of unreal too. Teaching English only 20 hours a week and getting paid like it's full time work. Cost of living is ridiculous cheap. So much free time. The ability to save lots of money. PYTs (pretty young thangs) walking around everywhere. You just have to like teaching English & its a great job. Fax does not like teaching English though. Fax thinks teaching English is bitch ass.

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Track #16 Good Person 2.0 in G minor is a more intense version of the original Good Person. 

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Track #17 Demon Free in C minor featuring Daja Jolliff is a song about how Fax beat Krinzkolo once and for all after many years of trying. The Fax is now living with no demons fucking with him. The track also has a motivational speech from Krinzkolo himself. 

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Making this album has been a very sentimental, cool and frustrating experience. So many nights stuck at the DAW trying to figure out why there is no sound. Why is this sounding like it is? How can I make something sound another way with out fucking up the rest of the track. A learning experience for sure in the world of digital audio. YouTube is a great teacher. Without the YouTube channels of (Reid Stefan, Musician On a Mission, Underbelly, and Virtual Riot) I would still be clueless in how to produce my own music. 

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Special thanks to Alex Demkowicz & Kevin Scalley my saxophone, flute & clarinet teachers when I was young. You guys gave me my foundation on the woodwinds.

Thanks to Jeff Fudale & his dad Fudale Sr. for being awesome band directors in high-school. And thanks to all my music TA's & professors (especially Lynn Seaton) at the University of North Texas for all your musical knowledge. Thanks to Daja Jolliff for singing so well on my track Demon Free even though I had so idea what I was doing in the production & the mic level was too high.  Thanks to Josh Nasheim for the collaboration and being a true homie. Thanks to my Mom for supporting me through music school. And special thanks to the Lord for getting me sober so I could actually use my God given talents. Without you guys this album would not exist.