Just me

Cities and Memory - remixing the world

"I chose a clip of an interview of a man from Brazil talking about his experience with jumping the US border, adjusting to life away from his family, not understanding the people around him, and trying to act straight. The reason that I chose this clip is that his story immediately interested me, and I thought that it was such a strong point of inspiration; I immediately had ideas of how I could create an audio accompaniment to his unique and incredible story.
"I also found some relation in the story, as someone who due to my history with mental health has had a lot of experience feeling very distant or different from the people that I was around, I felt that I could be successful in giving justice to the story because I could take my personal feelings that I knew very well and try and convey them through the sounds I was creating.
"I decided to create an ambient track, using very airy and drony synths, along with other samples that explore the soundscape and create interesting tonal moments. The combination of all these elements create an uneasy and unhomely feeling, the notes drifting around and never reaching any root or place of comfort as his voice is woven through the synth tones until the track ends in a strong minor chord, and all the elements fade to silence, leaving the words “I’m Just Me” echoing and fading. I feel that the phrase encapsulated the entire meaning of the track and was poignant and relevant for the feeling that I was trying to achieve.
"I decided to leave a lot of his voice untouched, as I didn’t want to take anything away from the words he was saying; however I did modulate some samples of his voice to fill in the space and contrast the clarity of the main voice samples. The reason that I did this was to try and recreate the feeling of some of the things he was saying, i.e. him not understanding what people were saying to him in a different language. The fluttery and ambiguous vocal clips reflect that concept and help towards the uneasy atmosphere I originally set out to create."
Juan Pablo's migration story reimagined by Finlay Ellis.
Part of the Migration Sounds project, the world’s first collection of the sounds of human migration.
For more information and to explore the project, see https://www.citiesandmemory.com/migration