Some thoughts I feel like sharing on ENDS:


The last album I'm going to drop under the Dedrick name.

I don't really expect many people to get this out of the music, but a lot of this album is in some ways a deconstruction of the past albums I've released under the Dedrick name (Sleep, Paralysis, 2003, Post, and They Don't Live Here Anymore).

Sometimes this is achieved by grabbing my older material, and making entirely new works with them. Sometimes it's by grabbing an idea from a past album and revising it with more experience. Sometimes it's by pushing some of my older traits to the extremes.


Why is this the last Dedrick album?

I kinda feel like I have said everything I needed to say under this name. A lot of my future ideas are in a completely different universe than the music I've released under the Dedrick name. I want a fresh start for that music to live in.

This album wasn't conceptualized with the intention to be the last album. But as I was finishing the project, it felt like a fitting conclusion. Considering how a lot of the songs are directly tied to older material (even if it isn't obvious the majority of the time), and how there's a pretty common lyrical theme surrounding death, it felt natural to call it quits here.

Also, I just really don't like the music released under Dedrick.

Sleep is just okay ambient.
Paralysis has some occasional moments of greatness, it's also packed with a lot of ideas and ambition. But a lot of the album falls flat, and the atrocious mixing does't help.
2003 is certainly an improvement on both on nearly all fronts. But it's way too long. The album should not have been 90 minutes, and most of the songs do not justify their lengths.
Post was made while in a very dark headspace. Like Paralysis it has its moments, but is deeply flawed. Still, I'm glad I didn't make it over an hour.
They Don't Live Here Anymore is pretty basic Post-Rock and ambient with some pretty great ideas, once again bogged down by a lack of experience and equipment.

I'm not saying ENDS is a masterpiece. I think like my prior work it is very flawed. There're moments I do find straight up bad, but a lot of these songs show growth from the past. And I think some of my more recent work under Settlers Creek shows even more growth from this.

So now that might bring up another question:


Why release ENDS if you feel it isn't as good as some of your most recent work?

Like I previously said, I think it's a good show of my growth as an artist/producer/songwriter/composer. Also as previously mentioned, it feels like a proper send off to what has been a discography full of "mid".

I have also spent countless hours over the past three years putting this album together. The oldest track on here dates back to June 2021 but I started working on this earlier than that. This might show that I'm not fully formed as an artist, but it felt wrong to just throw away three years of work down the toilet and abandon the Dedrick like that.


I think that's all I have to say. I hope you get some enjoyment out of ENDS.