Personal music update - 2025 edition

New Infinite Runner music is on the way.

Infinite Runner started as a joke. Now, it’s the thing I take most seriously.

Infinite Runner is the name for my latest musical outlet. It’s heavy, moody stuff, and I’m excited to share it. Last year, I released an EP, titled Piece of Cake. In less than two weeks, I’ll release a full-length, titled Time Trials. Here’s the album art.

Time Trials is now available for preorder through Bandcamp. I’ve created some limited edition CDs with hand-drawn covers. Each CD comes with a random basketball card as an homage to Furious Hooves’ Ryan McCardle who passed away last year. Ryan would do this with every piece of physical media he’d ship. Though I didn’t know him as well as others, the impact of fostering community and creativity isn’t lost on me. He will be dearly missed.

Time Trials came together quickly. I was still writing songs the week before I reconvened with George Pauley. In less than a week last year, we tracked drums, bass and vocals. Some tracks we’re still batting around, and they’ll probably be on the next one.

This music does not get anywhere close to where it is without George. He engineered, mixed, mastered, co-produced, and sequenced it. He also sang some backups and did some percussion for this album. Natalie Pauley gets a shoutout, too, for providing amazing vocals, and letting me play drums in her living room. Another MVP is Paul Kintzing. He assisted with some vocal processing and engineering.

Really, they all are making sure I don’t veer into silliness. Sometimes, writing riffs like these, I’ll want to throw some nonsense vocals on top of them like System of a Down, or grunt like Helmet. It can be fun. It could be easier (maybe not on my vocal chords). More difficult is taking it seriously and putting yourself out there in a way that’s true to yourself.

That’s honestly what Time Trials is about — being super-aware of yourself, and the very real anxieties and surroundings, while battling the constant societal expectations. So much of today is about “keep going,” “just do it,” “hustle.” We’re inundated with these messages, with this feeling of having to keep up with chaos. It can make the smallest annoyances unbearable. It can feel like we’re all a frazzled Cathy cartoon panel. Or that dog saying everything is fine while everything around him is on fire. Pick your poison.

Mostly of what we display through social media is some bullshit facade. For me, that front is saying, “I’m a big, goofy, strong boi! Here’s some obscure movie still! Look: it’s Luigi wearing a bikini! Ha ha ha!” It’s a distraction to keep acquaintances at arm’s length. It’s not real. What is real is the overwhelming feeling of seeing everyone on the train with their heads in their phones, the feeling of still searching for a piece of identity when you’re nearly 40, and oh, you just walked over a dead bird on the sidewalk. You didn’t notice it because you’ve normalized it but this bird was different because it was like the eighth dead bird you’ve come across in the past two hours, and isn’t that sad?

I’m grateful that at times like these I can sit, process, and write how I feel then put it to a guitar riff then record it with friends. I’m grateful that I get to share that with you. Thank you for listening.

Sincerely,
Yr Boi
Matt