On page 131 of Where the Sky Children Fell, you'll find this playlist:
Azure Ray — "November"
Ennio Morricone & Joan Baez — "Here's to You"
Elliott Smith — "Waltz #1"
Secret Zeevs — "Incoming Human"
Bright Eyes — "The Center of the World"
Bjork — "Joga"
Radiohead — "How to Disappear Completely"
Sigur Rós — "Starálfur"
Glassjaw — "Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Silence"
Mew — "Comforting Sounds"
The playlist is written in Sharpie on a blank CD. It is aptly titled PLAY THIS AT MY FUNERAL. The narrator, Elliott Avenue, happens upon this mix CD during one of the lowest moments in his life. Its creator remains a mystery. As Elliott recounts, these songs saved his life. He played these songs "endlessly." I'd like to think he still is, wherever he is.
If you're familiar with these artists, you might lean in a little closer and realize that one of them isn't like the others. One of them isn't recognized. One of them sounds a little strange. If you've compiled the songs into a playlist (as I have), there's one you won't find.
Who is Secret Zeevs?
The moniker belongs to my solo music endeavors. It started as a fictional artist in a fictional world, but over time, it grew on me until it became me. My plan was to write, produce, and release the song "Incoming Human" shortly after I published the book. Three years later, it still hasn't happened. However, while the song is MIA from the mystery playlist, you can still listen to Secret Zeevs. He is a real artist.
Between February 2023 and August 2024, I made 10 songs and released them as an album. It's called Frog Island.
The initial inspiration for making this music was to fight my yearly seasonal depression. I wanted to make art that ran in the opposite direction of it.
Put on the first track and you'll hear sun-soaked synths playing behind the voices of news broadcasters talking about the warm weather expected for the Battle of Flowers Parade.
I wrote, recorded, mixed, mastered, and released this song on my Soundcloud account in the span of 8 hours. Not every track came to me so quickly, though. "The Human Calculator" took 6 months, for example. The creation process was a wild ride.
Each track features an archived audio clip from the 80s or 90s: TV and radio broadcasts, infomercials, public service announcements, etc. I think I went in this direction because it gave me the opportunity to create a soundtrack of sorts. I got to compose a backing track to the sounds from my childhood years. Also, it let me off the hook from singing, which saved time and headaches on production.
If you listen to the entire album, you'll notice that it deviates from the fight against seasonal depression about halfway through. It becomes something else entirely. It could be interpreted as a journey through the spectrum of human emotion. It could also be interpreted as a journey through the five stages of grief. It may sound and feel like something entirely different to you.
I'm very proud of the album.
I entertained the idea of having Zeevs make a cameo appearance in the sequel to Where the Sky Children Fell. That would require me to write the book, though. Right now, I'm not working on it.
So, now you know where Secret Zeevs comes from. In 2025, I hope to finally release "Incoming Human." Whether or not that will actually happen, much like the creator of PLAY THIS AT MY FUNERAL, remains a mystery.
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