Porter Robinson’s Track by Track Tweet Breakdown during Listen Through

Lifelike

· lifelike — i wanted to start off the album with the simplest and most fundamental possible sounds, which is that “sample pop” and then the sound of the piano

· there's this idea of a "window' or a "portal" that appears a lot in the nurture art... i think of lifelike as kind of serving that purpose on the album. a little portal into the worldview

Look At the Sky

· LOOK AT THE SKY -- i sat on that opening hook since like 2016 and but i only really made progress on the songwriting in 2018 when rika and i took a trip to japan and i worked out of a studio there for a few weeks. that inspired me so much

· the "wait again i will be much better then" vocal sound -- i had to go with the very first demo vocal there because i could NEVER recreate how that sounded

· the countermelody synth in look at the sky that sounds like a female vocal is called "Fire emblem lead' in the project for some god damn reason

· the guitar in this part is played by one of my musical heroes yvette young !!

· there's also a layer in the last chorus of look at the sky called "languagelead' idk why it doesn't sound like the language lead at all but it matched in my head

· the sort of "broken vocal" sound effect at the end of language look at the sky was legitimately my microphone having some weird issue, i tried to record as much on it as possible because i knew i would never be able to remake that sound

Get Your Wish

· MY ABSOLUTE FAVORITE THING ABOUT THIS SONG IS HOW IT GOES FROM NON-SWINGY TO SWINGY HALFWAY THROUGH THE CHORUS

· this piano at the end of chorus 2 is the moment where i cried when i listened to the full tracklist for the first time hahahahahah

· there's an alternate ending version of get your wish with a different outro, it's a cool granulizer solo thing, i should post that someday

Wind Tempos

· aight small storytime -- many of you know that SO SO much of nurture is inspired by one of my absolute musical heroes u/TakagiMasakatsu - he's someone whose music actually deeply changed my view of the world during 2018 i had the chance to travel and meet him with the intention of working on music together. he was extremely extremely generous and hospitable and allowed rika and i to stay in his home. actually one of the kindest people i've ever met once i got there, it felt more appropriate for me to listen to him talk and play than anything else. i got to play the album for him, and play piano a bit as well (which was of course, nerve-wracking) we played piano together a bit which was an absolute dream. at the end, he gave me this USB full of japanese ambient music i didn't know from the early 2000s, and he said he thought i would really love it based on my music that i had showed him i listened to and love that music and that's what drove me to dive into Wind Tempos -- ultimately i included like a 0.5 second long sample of him playing the toy piano from while we were at his home, just as a little wax seal to close the love letter

· one more thing about wind tempos -- the "so holy" sample was always one of rika's favorites, i was going to not use it at one point, but she loved it so much that i tried hard and found a way to make it work in Wind Tempos

Musician

· "GET A JOB" !!!!!!!!! lmfao out of pocket lyric.

· eurobeat reference with those pitched chord stabs /supersaws for sure on musician

· the laser beam loops in musician were 100% inspired by "someone to call my lover" absolutely amazing song u/janetjackson

DO-RE-MI-FA-SO-LA-TI-DO

· one interesting thing is that a lot of people tend to hear their own language in the little "children at the playground" foley samples in do-re-mi -- i hear "wait up" and people in japan have been hearing "ohayou" -- it's actually neither of those languages

Mother

· interesting fact about this song -- all of the drums in Mother are 100% synthesized

· no real OR sampled drums in this song

· i really really cherish the lyrics in the second verse of mother -- "and ive known the feeling you had when you're helped/held the comfort of being unwell so something can cradle you"

· during the vocal autotune solo in Mother, you can hear me changing the parameters on the synthesized drums in real time!! the snare turns into a lazer. very noisy section but so worth it

· the down chorus is undoubtedly the best part of mother

· I LOVE YOU MOM

Dullscythe

· dullscythe -- this started off as an interlude idea, but once i had the idea to put huge drums synchronized them to these arhythmic chops i got so so excited

· dullscythe - the first half has no tempo

· i think I ran a drum loop for bitspeek on this one. these drums always made me think of u/shadient

· I feel like dullscythe has a kind of "pop" ending I cant explain it

Sweet Time

· "Since i met you i don't wanna die no more" -- there were times I worried this lyric was too direct, but i couldnt get away from it

· that little metallic sound into the piano solo is RIKA HERSELF going "PREE!!!" layered with like a bell sound or something lol

· discovering this huge pad sound felt like one of the HUGE breakthroughs on nurture, much like the vocal processing. it's like a choir sound that works like a supersaw

· worlds moment at the end of sweet time not gunna lie

Mirror

· mirror -- i truly feel like this song is the biggest "grower" on the album, the chorus progression and vocal melody are so long but really satisfying once you have it in memory

· i really REALLY wanted to be completely free of shame and fear of what others will think while writing Mirror. getting closer to that

· i thought that being able to predict the negative things people will think and say about you, and changing yourself to accomodate that, was a virtue for a long time. So so so fucking wrong. You just get smaller

· this section of mirror feels like a "live edit" in a really good way

Something Comforting

· i listened to SO SO much vocaloid music from 2015 - 2017 -- it really felt like the only thing that could make me feel something during that time period. something comforting really has that vibe

· i remember when i had the idea to do the D - E - F -G progression for the second chorus of somethign comforting i immediately drove home and grabbed rika and very excitedly showed her like "I FIGURED IT OUT!"

Blossom

· hard to livetweet blossom honestly

· lets just listen

· the guitar in blossom song is actually me playing a guitar sound on the keys

Unfold

· teeds voice sounds like beautiful perfect silk completely unprocessed, it was a lil intimidating being in that room

Trying to Feel Alive

· "trying to feel alive" was the last song written for nurture. it was very very difficult to end the album in a way that felt truthful and helpful, like… i had basically finished the album and i was left thinking: "okay, you're talking about getting better this whole album. is that true? are you better?" - the only answer that felt truthful and helpful was, "although i don't feel complete, i wouldn't want to." this trying to feel alive is what keeps me moving forward

· i was also listening to SO MUCH galileo galilei around the time of writing "trying to feel alive". i really wanted to write something that made me feel the way their music does

The end. #nurture