Carried Home: Blue Nagoon’s ‘Crestfallen’
Many artists think they’re fixed in a genre. Perhaps it’s a style they discovered early in their musical journey, or their first releases saw success with that genre, so it makes sense to stick with it. Other artists seek to intentionally navigate away from what they’re known for, to break their own rules and try something new. This is the case with Blue Nagoon’s new album ‘Crestfallen’, of which we have commentary from the album’s guest vocalist, Alyssa Fischer, with a concluding Q&A from Blue Nagoon.
Michael Maas is Blue Nagoon.
Masterminded by Alaskan musician, producer, teacher and dedicated music fan Michael Maas, Blue Nagoon became known during lockdown for his retrowave tracks with big synth production. This sound can be heard on his instrumental track ‘Ballistic Frizzle’, released in late 2020.
Beginning in 2021, Blue Nagoon began releasing a string of singles in a similar style with guest vocalists. These include ‘There Is No Right Answer’ and ‘Not Fooling Anyone’ with Heather Mitchell and additional tracks with Shona Osterhout and Patricia Hull. In August 2021, Blue Nagoon released the beautiful ‘Petrified’ featuring a rare lead vocal from Michael Maas before closing out the year by collaborating with Flashback81 and Nikki Simmons on ‘Older Now’.
In 2022, Blue Nagoon released two new singles differing in style from his previous output in anticipation of his full-length record. This new direction with acoustic instrumentation influenced by R&B, chamber pop and chillhop began with the album’s title track, ‘Crestfallen’.
‘Crestfallen’ begins with the atmospheric outdoor sound of crickets, accompanied shortly afterwards by electric piano and programmed percussion. With the drums kicking in, Blue Nagoon is joined by Alyssa Fischer. It’s immediately apparent that her voice is the perfect addition to Blue Nagoon’s new chilled out musical direction. I asked Alyssa how she became involved with the Crestfallen project:
‘Mike got my information from my close friend and music partner, Tom Locher. Tom Locher encouraged me to try something new (especially since Covid had cancelled all of our live performances). A few weeks later, Mike contacted me through email asking several singers if they were interested in working on his songs and shared a folder with a number of his songs to choose from. I immediately was drawn to Crestfallen and sent Mike a sample of my interpretation. Mike responded and asked me to record in his studio. After that first song, I told Mike if he had any other projects, I would be happy to work on them. Shortly after, he sent me all the songs for the album, and I began working on them, and the rest is history.’ – Alyssa Fischer
When Fischer’s voice ascends into the line ‘Love me, come on baby, love me,’ an extra acoustic guitar texture picks out the notes, a small arrangement idea that goes a long way. During a vocal break, Crestfallen is augmented by trumpet by João Sousa, breathing further organic life into this gorgeous album opener. On Blue Nagoon’s YouTube channel, Michael Maas explains more about the origins of the track and breaks down the production of the song.
Mournful strings are soundtracked by rain, with additional electric piano before ‘Collide’ begins proper with an almost hip-hop influenced beat. In its fills, the drums programmed by Blue Nagoon have an air of being performed by a real drummer, allowing potential for Blue Nagoon to put a band together to showcase this album on stage.
Maas also performs electric guitar in this song, noticeable when Alyssa sings the lines, ‘Until I get a night to get what I want from you, there's no black and white, all the lies are true.’ In another breakdown video on his YouTube channel, Michael discusses his use of guitar in the song, citing this pre-chorus part as his favourite guitar line he’s ever written.
An especially excellent part of Blue Nagoon’s arrangement in ‘Collide’ is his use of strings during the chorus, ‘You were the last domino to fall, there's nothing left but you can have it all…’ Michael continues in his breakdown video by discussing Fischer’s layered vocal parts. In particular he opts to pitch down a part an octave instead of using Alyssa’s actual vocal take, to give that area of the song a creepier feel.
The musical structure of ‘Parallel’ is built upon sampling, with Blue Nagoon manipulating a series of samples created by Benjamin Smith. This is in contrast to the more natural sound of strings and electric guitar on Collide, with Parallel containing a whirlwind of beats, synths and additional keyboards played by Blue Nagoon.
The track is united under Alyssa Fischer’s vocal performance. Her harmonies and backing vocals in the chorus, ‘Last night I lost half a year, just like that…’ feature wordless parts as well as closely matched harmonies, lifting Parallel up along with the music. Alyssa describes the recording situation when tracking her vocals:
‘Mike's studio was where the majority of the recordings happened. We had three different setups, one which was in the hallway in a basement where the cord ran under the door (it was during Covid-19, so we were taking precautions) and the second set up was in his laundry room at this house, and the third was in one of his Children’s bedrooms. Each set up was pretty cozy; he had set up a room divider and microphone and ran cords back to his computer set up. I did some of the recordings in my own home, where all I had was a microphone set up. I then sent those files to Mike, where he would polish the vocal tracks and insert them into the track. Mike was super easy to work with and helped me get a good basic understanding of how to record. It was a new experience to record and make music with someone you didn’t get to meet in person for over half of the time, and I loved learning the quirks of recording (since my typical environment is live gigs).’ – Alyssa Fischer
‘Can’t Unring That Bell’ takes a step back from the more chaotic moments underneath Parallel. With the lead instrument being electric guitar, Blue Nagoon adds bass and a programmed beat under Fischer’s voice. Her bluesy expression sets the tone for Can’t Unring That Bell as much as the rest of its instrumentation.
The strings sound like an older tape recording, as if it’s being played on a more mechanical mellotron, rather than trying to imitate their natural delivery. The percussion in the chorus jumps around the stereo mix like a ticking clock. Blue Nagoon later adds brass to open out the sound of this track, creating a feel most unlike its introduction. For the first time on Crestfallen, this track feels like it belongs within a narrative, telling a story as if it were part of a musical.
In that frame of mind, ‘Blue Ticket Interlude’ is a shorter instrumental, dividing the two halves of the album. Focusing on a lulling piano part, Blue Nagoon opts for more natural strings – notice how the programmed performer slides up and leans into a note. Though not necessarily out of place previously, Blue Nagoon adds a beat that aligns this music more with the rest of Crestfallen.
There is an infectious swing to ‘Carry Me Home’, held together by the beat and Blue Nagoon’s electric piano performance. The string arrangement here is full and supportive of Alyssa Fischer’s vocal part. But the real jewel of this track is how it breaks down for Alyssa’s final lines, ‘Midnight in the darkness, I will reach for you, meet me in the middle like you always do.’ It’s here where William Todd Hunt adds saxophone, infusing extra soul into Blue Nagoon’s lyrics. When asked which track on Crestfallen means the most to Alyssa Fischer, this is what she had to say:
‘This is a tricky question! I’ll have to list my favorite but know that this was a hard choice for me. Carry Me Home: I relate to this song so much after being in a toxic relationship and finding a stable and healthy relationship. It is sometimes easy to try and search for faults, excuses why you’re better off alone and want to end the relationship because it feels too good to be true. I thought that the verses in the song illustrate the annoyance of the quirks in a relationship and how it is easy to self-sabotage when things appear too good to be true. Then you have the chorus, admitting that the individual does need and want the other person, which is how I’ve felt recovering from big heartbreaks. Mike puts deep content in his lyrics, and I appreciate that about his writing. He also writes lovely chorus/hooks as well, and this song is my favorite due to the lyrics and melody.’ – Alyssa Fischer
Gentle waves and classical guitar bring in ‘Winter, Holly Beach’. If you listen closely, you’ll hear the warm sound of pad keyboard underneath, taking the edge off of the guitar strings. Alongside Blue Nagoon’s beat is a scraping percussive sound, almost like sawing wood, but entirely more pleasant and fitting. This song is later bolstered by a classical guitar solo by Daniele Belli, bringing a different flavour to Blue Nagoon’s electronic elements.
Alyssa Fischer’s vocal on this track is one of my favourites on Crestfallen, with a similar tone and delivery to British-Pakistani vocalist and songwriter Rumer. The way Fischer weaves Blue Nagoon’s words around the melody is hypnotic, particularly here: ‘I came alone, I sat on the beach and cried, my tears were drops in the cold winter ocean, one by one I'm getting over you.’
The mid-range percussive attack from the opening guitar on ‘In For A Penny’ is almost banjo-esque. From here, there are multiple sounds arriving in quick succession, a twinkling like empty glass bottles, jazz piano, chimes, an electronic fade that introduces the beat, and Alyssa’s vocal. Blue Nagoon later adds more percussion whilst maintaining the jazz feel, propelled by bass guitar and its programmed beat. With both Michael and Alyssa mimicking the melody, Miguel Vargas adds flute to the latter half of the track.
The words on In For A Penny are some of the most intriguing on Crestfallen, including its opening verse, ‘Tonight is the spoonful of sugar, the sweet in the bitter, the glimmer of sun through the clouds, rolling in bringing winter.’ I asked Alyssa if she had freedom to adjust any of Blue Nagoon’s vocal arrangements or the lyrics she was presented:
‘I would say that I had the freedom to interpret the melody, but I tried to focus on what Mike wanted since these are his musical creations. I sometimes took musical liberties when requested or felt that it would enhance the song, and Mike was always receptive to my thoughts. In addition, he sent terrific vocal guide tracks for every song, and those guide tracks made it easy to hear how he originally had intended the pieces to sound. As for the lyrics, I didn’t request or feel the need to change them. A few words were challenging to sing, and I would have to do a couple of takes because I would get tongue-tied, but Mike and I would laugh, which would make it alright and much less embarrassing. But the lyrics were drastically different from singing my standard jazz setlist.’ – Alyssa Fischer
Much like ‘Parallel’, ‘Rest Your Head’ leans more into sampling, especially with both Alyssa and Michael’s voices. The lyrics Blue Nagoon has written are sparse, but assist in a fitting conclusion to Crestfallen, ‘Love, they are long gone now. My love, rest your head on me.’ This vocal manipulation is woven into Blue Nagoon’s music, finishing with the sound of falling rain.
With Blue Nagoon’s genre exploration complete on Crestfallen, Michael Maas assures listeners that he’ll be back soon with more retrowave music featuring guest vocalists. In the meantime, Maas continues to review other retrowave and synthpop music in his monthly YouTube round-up videos. Visit his channel to discover more new music from the genre!
Continue reading for our Q&A with Blue Nagoon. We ask Michael about his change of style on Crestfallen, the musicians that accompany him, the possibility of live performances with Alyssa Fischer and the new music he is working on. All this and more below!
Alyssa Fischer and Blue Nagoon.
1. Your new album 'Crestfallen' is somewhat of a different direction from your usual retrowave style, what originally inspired this change of musical pace?
When I got back into songwriting in 2020 there were a couple recent musical trends that I was particularly enjoying. One was retrowave and the other was the lofi/chillhop/study beats phenomenon. I enjoy the moods and textures used in a lot of that music, but most of it is instrumental and I'm partial to vocal driven music. So I wanted to try taking those sounds and incorporating them into pop songs with vocals.
2. Of course, Alyssa Fischer is a big part of this record. After she sang on the 'Crestfallen' demo, what came next? Did you know you'd be writing a full album for her to sing or did you take it one song at a time?
At first it was one song at a time. "Crestfallen" was the proof of concept. When it turned out so well it inspired me to write another song along those lines, which was "Carry Me Home." Which was also great! I played those songs for another singer I work with and she got pretty excited and encouraged me to keep going down that road. I agreed and approached Alyssa about turning it into a full record. She was on board so in mid-2021 I sat down and wrote the rest of the album in about six weeks.
3. In addition to Alyssa, you also have accompanying musicians on several of the tracks. Did you write these songs with extra instrumentation in mind? Or did that evolve as you were arranging and recording your parts?
They evolved as I was arranging the songs. Most of those were parts that I'd written using plugins but I wanted the real thing for the final recordings. The exception is the classical guitar solo on "Winter, Holly Beach" for which I provided chords and Daniele Belli, the guitarist, composed a few lovely solos for me to comp from.
4. 'Parallel' uses samples from Benjamin Smith, what were those sounds originally? How did you manipulate them for this track?
The producer Bad Snacks has a discord server on which she hosts challenges to make beats using provided sample packs. Smith's sample pack had some melodic phrases, drum loops, and various other sounds. I intended to make a beat for the battle but never finished. It kept calling me, though, and I came back to it when I was writing the album and expanded it into a full song. I intentionally wanted a sample-heavy song on the album since it's often a feature of chillhop. Besides Smith's there are samples from Splice and of my own playing. They're all heavily chopped, pitch shifted, and/or reversed to fit the chord progressions, or imported into UVI's Falcon sampler so I could play melodies with them.
5. You've also written the music for Maureen Longworth's play 'Blue Ticket', was that the inspiration for 'Blue Ticket Interlude'?
Yes! One of the cues I wrote for the play was a plaintive cello theme of which I was very fond which I dubbed the "Blue Ticket Theme." I wanted to expand on the idea and give it a second life so I wrote a B-section and created a chillhop version of it to be an interlude in the middle of the album.
6. You add your voice to the album's final track, 'Rest Your Head', are they the sampled vocals in the piece?
Throughout the song a little bit of the high end of my voice is mixed with Alyssa's, and then I sing the high harmonies at the end. That was a case of my getting so used to the timbre of my own voice on the scratch vocal that I missed it when I replaced it entirely with Alyssa's.
7. I love the art style by Ajreh. Does the cover depict someone specifically, or are they a fictional character?
I can't speak to Ajreh's original idea for their piece but I didn't have anyone specific in mind, I just really liked the woman's look in that piece. It feels like there are a lot of different emotions you could read into that look and I thought she could represent the narrators of the songs.
8. Your production breakdowns on the title track and 'Collide' take an excellent behind-the-scenes look at these songs. Are there more of those coming for the rest of the album?
Thank you! I enjoy getting nerdy about music and I'm a teacher at heart (that's my day job) so those videos scratch both itches. I've learned so much about songwriting and production from others' making-of videos over the years, so I hope to pay that forward with my own videos. I hope to do them for the rest of the album.
9. How do you feel about performing these tracks live? Could there be some shows with Alyssa?
Yes! We've been stymied by covid so far but I'd love to perform them live sometime once things properly settle down.
10. You've cited Burt Bacharach as an influence on this album, do you have an all-time favourite Bacharach piece?
I grew up with my dad singing Bacharach classics around the house. There are so many! But I'd have to say my favorite is his collaborative album with Elvis Costello, "Painted From Memory." Absolutely exquisite orchestral pop music and incredible songwriting. It got me through a very bitter broken-hearted winter many years ago and it still has a special place in my heart.
11. When you aren't composing, what's the music you really enjoy listening to?
I enjoy a lot of different styles of music but I'm always most partial to vocal pop and rock in its many forms. I like hooks, solid songwriting, emotive vocals, and surprises. I especially love when music knowingly walks that line between earnestness and ridiculousness, so I have a big soft spot for stuff like The Darkness and symphonic metal.
12. Beyond 'Crestfallen', you've also got a full retrowave album coming soon, would you tell us more about that?
The new album definitely pushes the retrowave genre envelope. It has the classic synthwave sounds but there's also a lot of influence from late 80s/early 90s pop rock where electric guitar was a primary instrument in amongst the synths. Think Belinda Carlisle, Journey, the crossover hits from bands like Whitesnake. I hear a similar pedigree in Chvrches new album too. There's also some darksynth with modern metal style guitars, some disco funk, and the centerpiece is a 10-minute prog pop track a la Genesis or Tori Amos. So it gets around! I continue to be incredibly lucky to work with talented vocalists who bring so much to the tracks. Alyssa from "Crestfallen" will return!
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Download and stream ‘Crestfallen’ and all other music by Blue Nagoon on their Bandcamp page here.
For more information about Blue Nagoon, visit their official website.
Follow Blue Nagoon on Facebook and Twitter @bluenagoon, and on Instagram @bluenagoonmusic.
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