Photo by ROMBO
Most people want chill music when they need to focus. They want lo-fi beats or rain sounds…something that stays in the background, doesn’t ask much of them, or doesn’t distract their brain from its flow.
My brain is the opposite. If the music is too steady, my mind starts to wander toward the grocery list, or the next hockey practice plan, or that one weird thing a player did in last Sunday’s D&D session or what colour the hair of my new D&D character should be. I don’t need a background hum. My brain literally needs a distraction for the part of it that won’t sit still.
That’s where math rock and bubble-shred come in. That sweet sweet polyrhythmic chaos… It is the only thing that matches the speed of my brain switches. And for that, I salute its beautiful, twinkly nonsense.
The Precision
In complexity science, we talk about the edge of chaos. It’s this zone where a system is stable enough to maintain structure but unstable enough to innovate and be creative/new/exciting. This really describes my love for this music. If we look at bands like Polyphia and Gold Necklace, they are on the edge of unstable, while still maintaining structure. Unlike the distorted wall of sound we sometimes hear in traditional metal (which I also love, don’t come at me) or rock music, this music relies on absolute precision. Every note is intentional, even if it sounds uneven or unstable. It’s really about technical beauty (which sounds pretentious, but it’s true!). There isn’t fuzzy distortion, messy feedback, or even loud noise to cover anything up. It is just clear.
When I’m deep in a grant application or mapping out the trajectory of big projects, that precision is a lifesaver. If the music can be this complex and still stay this organized, then surely I can handle this spreadsheet, yanno?
- Listen: Gold Necklace – Tootsie Roll (Literally the perfect track for an afternoon of admin).
- Listen: Polyphia – Playing God (This song gets me every single friggin time it comes on – just brain jump start straight up).
The Pivot
The best thing about math rock is the pivot. A song will be moving along in one rhythm, and then blamo…it shifts. It keeps you on your toes. It’s the audio version of a systems phase transition.
This is just my life. I am constantly jumping between different priorities, different speeds, and different personalities. Math rock doesn’t just provide a soundtrack for that chaos; it makes the chaos feel intentional and like my norm.
- Listen: Origami Button – Rot (Clean, bouncy, and just… impossible to resist screaming out the words in the middle of email).
- Listen: Coletta – Blossom (High bubble-shred energy! It’s bright, technical, and relentless).
The Shared
Then there is The Omnific. They use two basses to create these huge, cinematic sounds that still feel incredibly tight and technical.
Their track “Kismet” is “our song”… the one Moose and I share. It’s the heart of my playlist. Our life is a mix of a lot of different things: my work in Nova Scotia, his roots in Michigan, the kids, the coaching. On paper, it’s a lot of moving parts that shouldn’t necessarily sync up. But like a good track, all those different rhythms eventually find their flow together. It’s a reminder that even when things are moving fast and the technical side of life is heavy, there’s still room for a melody that actually means something.
- Listen: The Omnific – Kismet (Deep, resonant, and the perfect example of two leads moving in sync).
The Final Resolve
At the end of the day, I’m just navigating a world of emergence. I’m managing multiple priorities that all want my attention at once. Math rock is my soundtrack for handling the shifts.
Honourable mention – I was once telling a couple of colleagues about one of my favourite bands, High Fade. I sent them a song, and they found a YouTube comment that they said described it perfectly: “I just lost 600 calories listening to this song”.
- Listen: High Fade – Chameleon (Clean, bouncy, and apparently will make you burn 600 calories just from listening to it).
