Introduction

Hey there! My name is Will (who'd've guessed?) I play piano. I love anything and everything music related. I like technology, art, chemistry, history, maths, and having fun. Check things out around here, or don't, and look out for the dust. Enjoy!

History

I started playing piano when I was 9, quickly forming an affinity for the instrument. Around this same time, I started to upload (very poor quality) YouTube videos. They were... not great. Even though they were completely trash, I do wish that I could've saved those videos to have something to look back upon. A bit after that, I also developed a liking towards art and animation. Thankfully, I still have some of the files and videos from this period, so I am able to look back on it a bit. Eventually, though, I stopped pursuing animation and became more invested in chemistry and music as a kind of side hobby. However, around 2020-2021, I went on a purge of my channel's old videos and, instead of turning their visibility to private, I naïvely deleted them all. My oldest video on my YouTube channel now only dates back to January 2021, even though my first uploaded video was in 2017. I regret this deeply.

Going backward a bit, throughout 2019 and 2020, I had tried to plan my life out for the next 2-ish decades. I was very young and stupid, let's just say. In 2020, I decided against pursuing animation as a career after coming to the realization that it would not be something that I could find myself doing for a living (though I still wish to become knowledgeable in art). I did not know of the world as I do currently. In 2019, I wanted to go to college and live in Japan, studying chemistry, learning Japanese beforehand so that I may be able to live there one day. Though, eventually, as the COVID-19 pandemic hit, I realized the problems that Japan was (and still is) facing, and decided not to dedicate myself to live there. So, I gradually dropped learning Japanese (though, again, I still wish to learn it, as I do many languages.) In late 2019, I also got Discord. This was due to the pandemic causing me to be unable to visit or talk to my friends. So, I joined an Among Us Discord Server and started connecting with people. I was also introduced to Tetris and Taiko no Tatsujin in this period of my life. This period of my life was one of bitter loneliness at the prospect of being unable to see my friends for an extended period of time, as I only really saw them in school, though, also one where my interests started to develop more.

After I spent the latter half of my 5th grade year with online schooling, 6th grade rolled around and I joined my school's band program, becoming a percussionist. This is where my interest in music really grew. My band director at the time (and still is for my school's jazz bands) was amazing. I attribute my success and passion for music to him. I feel as though he took my spark of interest in music and ignited it into an intense flame. Around 2022, I started to come to the realization that I like to do music more than anything, and started to let go of my interest in chemistry slightly. I still have a passion for chemistry, however that is not my primary passion. In mid 2022, I even started to make my own (not very good) music digitally. 2021-2023 was the period in which all of my interests started to flourish. I became enamored by the arts, enchanted by chemistry, entranced by technology, fascinated by maths and history, however, most of all, I became encapsulated by my interest in music. During this time, I grew a lot as a person, and started to develop more realistic goals. 

In 8th grade, I joined my school's extracurricular jazz band after quitting American football for good, as I played it for 4 years. This was when my doubts finally faded about my desire to become a musician. I love jazz. Jazz is by far my favorite genre of music. Jazz inspires me greatly, and you can definitely see it in some of my original music. Jazz is just such a fun genre of music both to listen to and perform. It's so diverse, so there's something for nearly everybody. Come 9th grade year and I get into my school's jazz band, join my school's marching band, drumline, and freshman concert ensemble. When 10th grade year rolls around, I'll be doing the same thing. 

I really love music. It's what I want to do for a living. However, I do realize that that is a bit unrealistic, so I do have many, many backup plans. Since I picked up piano, I have also picked up guitar, drumset, bass, violin, and trumpet, though I'm no good at them yet. This is quite a brief history and skips around some key parts, but you can get to know me more through my Discord Server if you care that much. This covers all that really matters. 

Interests

As mentioned in the introduction and history, I have a multitude of interests. Here I'll kind of try to delve into a few of them. 

Simplest of all is music; that one's already been explained.

My affinity for technology came gradually with me delving into the already messy depths of my basement and making an even bigger mess by going through my dad's old boxes[†] and finding old technology, testing it out to see if it still works, and generally tinkering with everything down there. This happened mainly between 2021-2023, and I've still yet to clean the place up haha. Unfortunately, a lot of the boxes are filled with broken glass and smell like absolute shit so I don't think I'll be cleaning it up without some help anytime soon either. You can find my old technology collection here. My collections are also linked below. Becoming friends with Zodi also piqued my interest in technology, especially analog technology, as he works quite a lot with old technology and is partially occupied by it himself. He has an entire YouTube channel dedicated to uploading old VHS tapes. Pretty cool, huh? I aspire to do similar things, which has at times cause a bit of tension between us, but that tends not to last more than a couple of days.  

[WIP]

† During my time in my basement, I also found my dad's old guitars and amplifier. They are listed in my instrument collection here.