Published: October 25th, 2024
Ladies and gentlemen, boys, girls, nonbinaries, enigmas, cryptids, and everyone else in between, gather round. Because I’ve got a HUGE announcement. Probably the biggest one I’ve ever made.
So… if you’ve been watching my socials lately, you’ve probably seen some strange stuff. Cryptic images. Weird hints. That VHS-style commercial called “Pearson Electronics” advertising some mysterious computer called the Caldenrosh 64X.
And you’re probably thinking:
“What is going on?”
“Did he get hacked?”
“Did GT fall into a time travel wormhole?”
Nope. Everything you’ve seen has been intentional. And today, I finally get to explain it.
The Album Announcement:
Yes, I’ve been teasing a new album for the past few months. Throughout the summer, I’ve been conceptualizing and building something that goes beyond just music and starts telling a full narrative. Similar to Peripheral Epiphany (which evolved as the album progressed and ended with a grand finale), this project takes that idea and expands it further.
Unlike Peripheral Epiphany, which shifted sonically as it went, this new project takes things further. WAY further. This is part album, part narrative, part mystery.
And today, I finally get to announce it.
Some of you might call it a "concept album." Some of you might call it a "musical." Honestly, it could be either... I still don’t exactly know what to call it.
Today, I announce my next album in the GuzyTracks discography: More Than Nostalgia!
It’s fully chiptune-based and includes 10 tracks. There’s a poster below showing the tracklist:
Holy. Wow. I cannot wait to finally tell you guys about this one.
This album is unlike anything I’ve made before. It’s more ambitious, more narrative-driven, and much bigger as a creative project.
Essentially, I wanted to take the storytelling could've hinted at in Peripheral Epiphany and push it much further. That’s where the idea of combining music and story (similar to how musical theater does it!) came in. But then I took it a step further and integrated elements of an ARG (Alternate Reality Game). That’s where this album became something different entirely.
Now, this might sound like a tangent, but stay with me: I’ve always wanted to be a video game composer and write stories for games. But many of the projects I worked on never got finished or released.
So eventually, I thought:
"If I can't make stories for games, then why can't I just make stories for music?"
And that’s where More Than Nostalgia began, with the simple concept of a child growing up in the 90s and forming a bond with their computer. As life moves on, that nostalgia becomes the only connection to the happiness they once felt.
So how does the ARG factor in?
Because the story isn’t just in the album. It exists across multiple platforms.
To fully experience the narrative, you’ll explore:
- The album website (which I'll link soon)
- The cryptic videos (like the Pearson Electronics one)
- My social media posts (those cryptic images)
- And more to come!
This project goes beyond a concept album... I think I'd call it a transmedia concept album!
So, as a little taste, why don't you go ahead and visit the now-public album website? Trust me, it'll make more sense once you visit it:
(click on the sound card below to visit it)
Along with all that, there’s also an official album trailer!!! This project was insanely fun to make, and I couldn’t have done it without artists, voice actors, and a ton of help behind the scenes.
The trailer introduces the story:
A nonbinary kid named Jayden Cooper lives with their father in December 1994. They receive a game for their computer as a Christmas gift. They spend the day exploring it on their Caldenrosh 64X, playing with it, and eventually grow attached enough to their computer to give it a name: Computer Jay.
Then the trailer jumps ahead thirty years to 2024. Jayden returns to their childhood room after their father's funeral, tasked with cleaning out old belongings. Before leaving, Computer Jay suddenly speaks, asking them to stay, and presents a floppy disk.
Jayden inserts it.
So, my dear friend, what does that floppy disk represent?
The album.
Track by track, the album explores memories and milestones. From sound cards (Play My Sound Card), to appreciating old hardware aesthetics (Bits and Pixels), to frustrating computer issues (Circuit Breaker), and more.
And, just like Peripheral Epiphany, the project concludes with the grand finale. A medley that mashes up all the songs and themes from the entire album into one long payoff.
So, when DOES the album release?
Well, you probably already saw it in the poster I showed you earlier, buuuuut...
November 8th, 2024 @ 12am EST on Spotify, YouTube, SoundCloud, and more!
Mark your calanders! Well, first convert it to your timezone if you need to, THEN mark it in your calanders.
Before wrapping this up, I want to give a huge thank-you to everyone who contributed to this album. The link to the credits page will be linked in the image below:
There’s a lot more planned for this story universe, and I cannot wait to share more of it with you. Thank you to everyone who’s stuck around, I’m genuinely excited about where GuzyTracks is heading with these new ideas, and I hope you are too...
See ya on release day!
- Mar
