The release of Continuum: Decade in 1997 pretty much signaled the end of my music run. Family, work, more work, eating and sleep consumed all of my time. All the plans I had for this endeavor unceremoniously tapered off to nothing.

To be fair, it wasn’t nothing. Sure, here and there I’d press the “record” button and play something random for a minute or two. But the years flew by and I had effectively nothing to show for it.

But in January 2015, I finally decided it was time. I would reassemble the studio, make the necessary hardware and software updates, and get serious about this decades-long affair.

Decades.

As I paused and reflected on the passage of time, I began to think of all the technical and cultural changes that had taken place since I started Continuum:

• 1987: Computers aren’t just for nerds anymore
• 1991: The Internet as we know it
• 1992: JPEG
• 1993: Jurassic Park
• 1995: Amazon
• 1995: Burning CDs at home becomes a thing
• 1995: Pixar releases its first feature-length film
• 1997: DVDs become a thing
• 1997: The Dot Com Boom
• 1998: Google
• 1998: Harry Potter
• 1998: Netflix
• 1999: The Matrix
• 1999: Wi-Fi
• 1999: Y2K
• 2001: iTunes
• 2001: The Dot Com Bust
• 2003: MySpace
• 2004: World of Warcraft
• 2006: MySpace Facebook
• 2007: Netflix as we know it
• 2007: Our high-end cameras can now occasionally make phone calls
• 2008: Bitcoin
• 2009: Tall blue aliens bust the box office
• 2011: Burning CDs at home is no longer a thing
• 2012: Keurig machines head home
• 2014: DVDs are no longer a thing
• 2015: Doc and Marty arrive in Hill Valley

It’s an impressive list, and something we don’t really stop to think about day to day. Billions of people making trillions of contributions. And in 2015, suddenly finding myself “in the future,” I decided it was high time to buckle down and do something myself.

As I reacquainted myself with the past, I decided that in addition to working on new material, I would also clean up and re-produce some of my older work that felt deserving of my twenty-first century time. I’d already digitized most of my old analog home recordings; an effort that not only gave me the chance to listen to it all over again but also divide it into two groups: 1) songs worthy of rebooting, and 2) the other 99.9%.

What’s in a Name?

For the first time in history, my Continuum project would have a web presence. For the first time, people other than my immediate family might actually hear what I recorded. My name was now important.

I first thought about grabbing a domain name for the project. Hmmm. Rats. Looks like continuum.com was registered in 1992. Just missed it. But honestly? The project name is more than just buying an available domain.

Between 1987 and 2015, the world population went up 45% from five billion to over seven billion. The world wide web population rose from zero to more than three billion. Over that same period, the lovely word continuum had been used many, many, many times for various music projects (albums, bands, and even a new musical instrument). What sounded cool and unique to me in college was now boring and overused.

Except that I still liked the name. So I took out a pen, grabbed some paper, and started brainstorming. Long story short, I settled on something very simple and very descriptive:

It might not be the most imaginative thing, but in a online world of billions, it’s a little better than what I had before. Plus, it reflects reality. The original Continuum was a lifetime ago. It’s time to see what’s next.

During the first few months of 2015, I finished two songs and part of a third. But then in May something happened. “Let’s go look at houses,” Laura requested on Mother’s Day. Fast forward thirteen months: we moved into a new house. To say I got derailed would be an understatement.

But even after we were done, the move continued to suck up time. Then life happened again. Work happened again. All my other interests happened again and I lost my reboot.

I can’t believe that four more years have now passed since my last “reboot”. I would love to say THIS IS IT, this is the year it’s FINALLY going to happen, but we all know the story of the Boy Who Cried Wolf.

Eventually the wolf showed up. 😉