'Tember

There was a period of time in my adolescence when I would wash my hands up to 14 times a day. I would wash very thoroughly - between the fingers, under the nails - in a certain order for a certain length of time (usually 20 seconds). Apparently, this wasn't normal. A therapist told me I had mild OCD.

Nowadays, I'm not quite so obsessive-compulsive. I have developed alternative ways of relieving stress. On every year for the past nine years, there's a certain project I take upon myself that, while admittedly a bit obsessive-compulsive by way of its format, is one of the most cathartic things I do.

Camp Mix always has to, in my mind, stick to some conceived idea or theme while maintaining a very particular structure that hasn't changed much since its inception. There are always a fair amount of songs, effects, or even themes from my trackpile that get cut and are never used. Since Camp Mix '07, I've liked the idea of using a somewhat "nebulous" trackpile - no real list of songs. Basically, to just "wing it" - to not have to worry about what to cut because there's no real list to sort through. Since '12, I've questioned the need to release Camp Mix in the middle of summer, as there was no longer any Camp to go to...

So here we are, in the middle of September of 2014, and there has yet to be a Camp Mix. What could this mean? Well, it could be said that I'm embracing a completely different approach. It seems that year after year, I tend to let stresses build up which in turn tends to enable some compulsive and destructive habits. But for Camp Mix '14, I'm taking it easy. I could go on in vague verbose about what all that actually means, but I think I'll just cut to the chase...

This will be the first, and only, Autumn Camp Mix. It releases next week. That's Tuesday, September 30th.