Lockdown Diary began as a 2019 New Year's resolution to create a 1-bit song documenting every month of 2020. The rules were simple: every month I would work on a single track, week by week, to document the events and emotional states I felt during those several weeks. On the last day of the month, the track was completed.

I didn't know I was about to document the most tragic, absurd year of my life.

The limits of the software and 1-bit medium itself were a generative challenge, tasking me with creative ways to overcome restrictions. As 2020 beat me down with Covid lockdowns, wildfires, medical challenges, and grief -- both personal and for my country -- my world shrank and shrank. To overcome it, I had to adopt another kind of generative growth. A personal growth.

If there's anything to be found in the ashes of 2020, it's the recordings of stories, voices, and memories we collectively shared. Before this year, so many struggles seemed like aberrations where the pain corroded around a single point and the world continued on indifferently. This year, the entire world stopped as we struggled together.

My goal in releasing this album is to acknowledge, in this wordless medium of emotions, where the personal becomes universal and reflect on this past year of collective strife and personal resilience.

Still, if you would like some of the personal context, are not American, or forgot some of the plot points in the never-ending shit show of 2020, I've included notes about events that influenced me during each month's composition pulled from text conversations with my friends during the time.

You can read an essay about the creation of this album in PixiTracker and my journey through 2020 in the upcoming chiptune zine, ACTIVATE! Vol. 1.