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| Biography |
The Nightstalker is the musical identity of Ronald M. Clifford. Now, everyone's first thought is "Yikes! Stalker!" No. If that were the case, it would be "The Night Stalker".
"The Nightstalker" actually refers to my tendancy at the time to wake up in the mid to late afternoon and stay up until the early hours in the morning. Because "Nightstalker" is one word, I better define it as "stalking the night".
But I'm way ahead of myself, as my life in music goes all the way back to 1981.
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| The Learning Years (1981 - 1986) |
I remember when I was young, I believe I was 4, that my father had purchased a small electronic pipe organ. My father was big into country, and had purchased a bunch of "EZ" learning booklets to figure out how to play some songs. Granted, it was all the 1-key kind of stuff, and the books actually showed the letter of the note on the note itself. But it was enough to get him started.
And it was more than enough to get me started as well. In a very short amount of time, I was able to play most every song that he had. It was at that point that someone determined that I had a talent, so soon, I had a Casio mini-keyboard for myself, as well as a 10-step manual on how to use it, with each step being a more difficult song to play than the previous. I learned about melody and chords in a very short period of time. C became my key of choice, and accidentals became my phobia. Sharps and flats, how complicated! At first, I never really understood what possible use the black keys could have. Ah, the innocence of the naive.
My first organized song appeared during this time, a number called "So I Said". Just basic chords in the key of C, nothing special, but it was the first. I never recorded it, and have never really played around with it, since there's no real ideas behind the song. But it didn't sound horrible, and I think for the age, that in and of itself was a pretty good accomplishment.
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| The Singing Years (1987 - 1995) |
I usually have a stellar memory, to the point where I can remember getting my finger stuck in a doorway when I was 2, and seeing the cable cars at DisneyLand when I was 3. Thus, I am baffled when I say I do not remember why I was selected for the 4th grade chorus.
But there I was. I already knew how to read music, and was already very musically inclined. It wasn't that great of a leap for me to go from the keyboard to using my voice. My teacher, whose name I can't seem to remember either, didn't really give anyone the necessary individual attention needed to develop their voice, though, so it was another case of me learning on my own. But music fascinated me, so instead of frustration, I viewed it as a challenge. Nothing else challenged me in school more than music.
In 5th and 6th grade, I was also part of the middle school chorus. I remember very little about these two years, other than the fact that I made my first of five trips to the All-County chorus in my final middle school year. Again, I have no idea how I was selected, it just happened.
Chorus in 7th and 8th grade bored me to death. A teacher by the name of Mrs. Pierce was conducting at the time, but I lost a great deal of interest in singing for most of those two years. This was largely due to me beginning to learn the guitar. I had dreams of becoming a wild guitar rocker some day, being able to play riffs unimaginable. Having a cousin and a good friend that were able to play well were inspirations, but alas I could never reach the level they were on.
Towards the end of the 8th grade, I had a chance to back the chorus in a rendition of the Beetle's "Yesterday" with my guitar. It took me forever to learn, and almost was tossed out of playing it due to not picking it up fast enough. But the time of the concert came, and I ran through it perfectly - for the first time ever. Amazing how things work out sometimes.
9th and 10th grade sparked a whole new interest in singing. This interest is attributed to one person alone, Michael Van Gelder. He inspired myself and many other students to pursue their musical interests, and challenged all of us to become better singers. His insight, knowledge, and friendliness was something that you just don't find everywhere anymore. It was around this time I began to take myself more seriously as a singer and a musician. For both of these years, I made the All-County chorus once again.
It was around this time I began to actually write music. "The Beginning of the End" was the first real song I put together, followed by "I Love You", "Hypnotized", "The Chance That She'll Be Mine", and "Say Hello" all began during these years. The only song out of those I can take seriously today would be "Say Hello", and do plan on doing so in the future.
Unfortunately, things came up in the family, and after a divorce that forced my mother and my two siblings to another school district, I spent my junior and senior years at another school. However, I was fortunate enough to find myself under the direction of another great conductor, Tom Doyle.
But the "Company", so to speak, that I was with wasn't as great. Because I switched over to the new chorus in the middle of the year, I was accepted to the school's select group on virtue of being in other schools' select groups. This, combined with the fact that someone who had been in the school for about a month got selected as the male lead for that year's musical, and it is easy to see why envy had set in with some of the more established members of the chorus. Normally, students would have to try out to get into the group.
Thus, it was natural for me to feel left out of the group a lot. I often wandered off alone into the sound proof room that sported a piano to continue to work on my music. "Tell Me", "Don't Raise Your Hand in Violence", and "Hold On" were pieces written during this time period that will most likely stand the test of time, and have some added work put to them eventually. "Don't Raise Your Hand in Violence" actually has a live performance to its credit, as I performed it at a small music festival held at the rehabiliation clinic my mother worked at, who is credited with writing the lyrics to the song.
My senior year found me develop myself further as a piano player, and I became a part time player for some of the songs. The running joke was that I was the only pianist in the all girl chorus. I also learned something very important around this time. Don't leave your tenative lyric books laying around for people to find. Especially if you have incriminating lyrics written in them. But that's another story for another time...
I also got selected for the all-state chorus in my senior year. I got the chance to sing with hundreds of other students with voices comprable to mine, and the sound we produced was amazing.
For those of you familiar with my inspirations, it should be no surprise that some Dream influenced pieces began showing up around this time, including "R & M", "Real Life", "When Will I Find", and "Don't Be a Fool". The only one that has survived so far is "Don't Be a Fool", which I actually have the backing music to completed, I just have to punch out the lyrics.
Graduation came and went, and college life began, but real life began seeping in, and after a number of different events, my interest in singing declined. But the music didn't stop.
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| The Silent Years (1995 - 1997) |
Moving out at an early age really kicks your ass pretty hard. But the biggest thing it did for me was made me grow up fast. Thus begins the silent years, a period of time where I needed to find myself musically. Jobs came and went at a furious pace in real life, and left little time for basic pleasures. That, combined with a roommate who really didn't appreciate music, left me rarely using my keyboard. I tried to find a way to write computer music, but never found the tools I needed to make it work for me. I struggled badly during these years to get something going musically. I often wrote music that I would never play. "One in a Million" comes to mind, and is something I may develop in the future. The song "The Nightstalker", not to be confused with the musician "The Nightstalker", is also a piece that developed around this time, based on a very weird dream I had.
The only shining gem that I would really like to have take off is a piece called "Time Will Tell". Unfortunately, I have yet to obtain permission from the writer of the original poem to do anything with this song. One of these days, I'll look the author up and get said permission.
It was around this time that "The Nightstalker" came to be. Not an exciting story, I'm afraid. Just a bunch of friends who played a laser tag game, and I needed a code name. "The Nightstalker" turned out to be what I used, and the name stuck with me.
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| The Tracking Years (1997 - 2002) |
In November of 1997, one floppy disk changed my life. For on this disk was the music program known as "Fast Tracker II". I was immediately hooked. It took me nearly half a year to learn how to use the software, but at the beginning of 1998, I had produced the Dream inspired "Fire In My Heart", the first piece of the incomplete "On Fire" series. By far, my most successful piece online, "Fire In My Heart" has been awarded Track of the Day at ModPlug Central, Top Track of the Week at Trax in Space, and has been used at the Internet Module Monitor as background music, and most recently at Money Management International as hold music for the phone system.
In late 1998, I got involved in the old music site, Trax in Space. When I joined, there were only 1800 songs on the site, only 3% of what it ended up with. I quickly developed my skills as a programmer, and began to work on the site nonstop. In 1999, due to several coincidental circumstances, I moved from Buffalo, NY to Houston, TX. Eventually, we started working on the site full time.
Trax in Space came and went, and during this time I grew more as a musician than at any other period in my life. I began to explore genres I never thought I could write in, including trance, techno, industrial, country (I hate country!), and many more. I released a flurry of songs up until mid-1999, when I became more discriminate of the quality of my music.
The last year and a half saw some excellent releases. "Skin FX: 2000 Energy Mix" was my first dance piece that people enjoyed, "More Emotional Than Anything" was my first real quality instrumental piece, and my first major vocal piece was released, "Memories of the Past". Outpost Music, a group of musicians from around the world, released a music disk in 2001, and with it came one of my favorite instrumental works, "Remember When I Held You?".
In June of 2001, I performed publicly for the first time in six years at my friend's wedding with a song called "The World is Yours". While the planning was riddled with miscommunication and no practice outside from singing to a CD in my car, the performance came out great. One of my friends from StudioKraft mentioned that he wished that was recorded. I wish that as well.
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| The Awakening Years (2002 - Present) |
As I became more skilled in the tracker, my standards for quality in my releases were raised greatly. At the beginning of 2002, something dramatic happened. My standards for quality outpaced my skill within the tracker.
This took a horrible toll on my ability to write quality music, and with the loss of ability, I also experienced a loss of creativity and motivation. While I did get some good ideas during this time, including "Come Back to Me", "Eternally", and "I'm Alive", I have done little with many of them. A song called "Given Up" actually made it as far as production, but I never had good vocal takes with them, and it was never finished.
Inspiration still visited me, but without proper skill, there wasn't much to do with it. I did manage to track and release a complete piece, "Awakening". I almost did so in one day, but took a second day to iron out some problems I found in it. It is my favorite instrumental work yet.
It wasn't until early 2004 when my friend Martin, who goes by slammy, gave me the idea to use a new program called Reason. After playing around with it, I found it easy to not only compose what's on my mind, but to get an acceptable amount of quality with it as well. I later found Sonar, and after wiring the two programs together, a new sense of creativity began.
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| The Future |
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I have a lot of musical goals that I'd like to reach in my lifetime, and a lot of years to reach them. While I have been involved in music for 20 years now, I feel like I'm just starting to get the hang of how to use my talents in music to the best of my ability. So everything here is just the beginning. Many more pieces of music are being shaped and formed into works of art. For me, the music never ends, it only begins.
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