In the Key of K

Earlier this year I published my instrumental song, Mood Swings. It is streaming everywhere (spotify) and I wrote more about it here.

In a nutshell, I wrote, performed, and recorded it in 1997 and it appeared on a cassette tape with 11 other songs. I made copies and sent them to friends. The whole 1997 original album will be out on all the streaming services later this year (2025) or early in 2026 titled as, In the Key of K: Volume 1, 1997 (to be followed by volumes 2 and 3 as they are edited). I’m still re-mastering and re-mixing it with modern tech and I still have some marketing stuff to finish up. It will be out soon! And then there is my new rock stuff that’s coming along nicely, a revamped new merch store with lots of cool stuff being added, and a new album of my classical/solo guitar work…so many good things coming soon!

As mentioned in the original Mood Swings blog post, The title means nothing. I arbitrarily called it that–it had no program. …Until now! I wanted to use this as a test for creativity. I developed a story to go with the music and used AI to generate a few character images and background scenes. Then I pulled it into Adobe Premier and edited it into a story. It is art that is AI assisted but not created by AI. As a long-term do-it-yourselfer, I use all the tools available to me to bring my art and vision to life. You can watch the video to enjoy the story but below are the detailed notes.

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It’s a post-apocalyptic future. No one knows where or how the monsters came to be but they are everywhere and kill every human they encounter. Some say it was a science failure, some say that certain humans were infected with a parasite that mutates rapidly, some say it was a super soldier experiment gone awry but no one knows for certain.

Our protagonist, Mood or Moodie, is surrounded by monsters. Running and hiding seem to be the only options. Eventually, Moodie finds a group of humans and tries to rally them to fight the monster. An argument ensues that there can’t be that many left–when they don’t have humans to kill they turn on each other so they are constantly fighting and dying. Moodie thinks the solution is to help them along. Moodie wants to fight for independence. The group disagrees. They want to wait out the monsters until they all kill each other but no one knows how long that will take or even if it will ever happen. They cast Moodie out.

Now Moodie is running and hiding again. After some reflection Moodie decides to fight back solo. Hunting and destroying monsters is difficult work but eventually Moodie finds a rhythm to it. Taking them out one or two at a time. Then three and four at a time–Swing-ing the swords to destroy the hordes. Fighting until the monsters eventually organize and catch up–a huge overwhelming horde. An organized horde that fights together instead of fighting each other. Moodie is overcome and dies in battle but takes many monsters with on the way into the void.

Does the world end? Do the monsters eventually destroy all the humans and each other? The world resets and begins anew. The world doesn’t care about humans or monsters. Humans are monsters.
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This story can and should be seen as a loose metaphor for people who don’t fit in. The monsters are regular society and Moodie is someone who just doesn’t follow the flock. Moodie never found a tribe but rose up with confidence and courage to live life as a hero of individuality.

My hope is that each song I release will have some kind of merch, video, attitude, ambience, and life of it’s own. This song is nearly 30 years old (as of 2025)! This video represents hours and hours of work so I hope, unlike Moodie, that it finds a tribe. Regardless, it will rise up to be what it is and we, like Moodie, will go down swinging.