It has been 1 year.
Mike here. I’ve decided to commemorate with a small bit of making-of reminiscing.
As a project with the central theme revolving around a distinctly physical medium, it seemed pretty un-deniable that it would involve a lot of paper textures.
In 2021, as a person whose entire career has more or less existed inside whirring boxes and glowing screens, I found myself a little bit artistically exhausted with the digital- craving any sort of excuse to bring in more physically sourced elements.
So, as DEAD LETTER DEPT. development went on, I found myself increasingly now collecting envelopes in the mail that caught my eye, as well as collecting odd pieces of paper found on the ground. I wanted a varied range to source from. Anything now with a stain on it was suddenly incredibly valuable. The rare occasion that some mail got returned to me, was a precious gift. I wish now I had kept the mail that I burned (rather, what remained of it).
Creating the mail was always a big mixture of physical + digital work. Mangling physical paper with writing on it, and then scanning it in was significantly faster and easier to get the right vibe (rather than trying to do it from scratch with digital), and it always seemed to give a better a natural look.
It was also consistently a lot of fun to figure out many weird ways to beat up an envelope.
Audio-wise, for a long while now I’ve made it a habit to always travel around with a portable audio recorder in my jacket whenever possible. Especially whenever I might end up say, in a random warehouse somewhere, with no one around, and a free moment to capture what something snapping or banging in it sounds like. It’s a room tone to me that feels fixed somewhere between a church, a cave, and a tomb.
After doing this for a long while I ended up with a collection of weird & unique sounds I loved, that also came from some key fond memories, but ultimately I never quite knew what to do with them. Until DEAD LETTER DEPT. finally gave me some opportunities.
In the past I was also extremely lucky enough to sometimes work with access to great audio professionals like Daylon Walden, whom I would regularly pester. And who would dispense onto me random jewels of knowledge and processes that would begin to make a huge difference.
You would think after 1 year I would have figured out something flowery and brilliant to say here in conclusion. DEAD LETTER DEPT. felt like a gigantic weird risk of a project, I am insanely grateful to you all. Whether you left a review, told a friend, or simply just got what I was even going for.
Whenever I try to find the words, the only thing that comes, is always:
Thank You
-Mike
