Album Notes

Hello everyone out there who enjoys music! My name is Todd and I am The Ideal Setback. I\'ve been playing music in some way ever since I was four years old (from piano to trumpet to bass and guitar), and in early 2006 I decided I wanted to start recording and making music. To be honest, I originally wanted The Ideal Setback to be a pop-punk band, because most if not all of my influences up to that point had been made up of pop-punk bands (Blink-182, Green Day, The Offspring, etc.). I tried for several months to get a band together to make this happen, but in the end, no one who was available was interested. I really had no clue what I wanted to do at that point.

In mid 2007, a good friend of mine introduced me to Ambient music. The very first of this I heard was Sigur Ros, which would then be followed by bands and artists such as The Album Leaf, Eluvium, Hammock, and so on. I had finally found music that I really liked and that I could make by myself. The thoughts of using electronic elements had never really entered my mind. I was focused on guitars, bass, and drums. I decided to work with what instruments and technology I had, and in late September of 2007, I finished my first \"demo\". It was 6 songs, 15 minutes, and it was only composed of guitar and keyboard synth. I was pleased with what it came out to be, given the short amount of time it took to record and mix, and also because I was still very new to listening and making ambient music. Eventually, I got better recording equipment, and a better understanding of ambient music (finding that Minimalism could play a very big part) and in October I started recording again, recording and mixing the songs which now are to be released on the album \"Dream Dialogue\". It\'s a very dark album, but with some sense of beauty in it (at least to me). The cd is currently out now via Cdbaby, Itunes, etc.

Looking back on Dream Dialogue, I realize what kind of cd it was. I went in with little ambient experience under my belt, and wrote a record that I didn\'t have a direction for. I didn\'t have an audience in mind, and I wrote what I felt like writing. All of the songs came naturally, and most of them ended up being dissonant. Not to say I\'m not proud of it, though. I just know what I needed to change. When I started to record Window Seat, I had an audience in mind. I had an idea of what kind of ambient record I wanted to make. I went in with the intention of making a more uplifting (or \"happier\") type of ambient record, with still incorporating some minimal aspects. Overall, I feel Window Seat is a much more solid record.