DREXCIYA, 1619

Aqeel and I have been friends for the last few years. In fact, he was one of the last people I met in NYC before I moved to Austin that made me really go “oh dang, wish we had met sooner.” His work ethic and musical choices are incredibly strong and are just a few of the many things I respect about him. Plus, he likes cats. 🐈

A while back we were tossing links of demos back and forth for our respective upcoming works when Aqeel asked if I wanted to take a pass at a guitar line he wrote. Feeling honored (and also a little like I needed to impress) I said absolutely and sat down with his track “Drexciya, 1619”.

His melody was awesome and I had a blast putting my own spin on it and then embellishing a bit. But then in my way, I couldn’t just stop at what he asked for…I started added piano and strings and some textures and sent him back all the stems fully expected him to say “thanks!” but only use the guitar line. To my surprise, he used all of it and made it into a truly epic track.

I hope you have a chance to listen to the track today and if you don’t know of Aqeel, you’re welcome, because now you do and your life is better for having heard his music.

All songs written and performed by Aqeel Phillips

Additional instrumentation:

Robi Gonzalez - Drums on "Going to the Sun"

TJ Dumser - Guitar + arrangement on "Drexciya, 1619" and "Sea-borne"

Cover art is an original painting by Stuart Mcharrie

Design by Joshua Murray

Mastered by Nathan Moody at Obsidian Sound

MC046

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