Bowman is a musician and producer from Austin, Texas. He writes a lot of songs and occasionally performs live. You may have heard his music in Homestuck.

Contact the Bowman for any reason (fair use of material, live booking, knock-knock jokes) at the incredibly self-indulgent email address bowmanisgod@gmail.com.

If you'd like your question answered on the blog, please send a tumblr ask.

homestuck compilation released 4 february 2010

One of Andrew's boldest ideas for us as a team was our initiative to create a series of genre-based concept albums around sets of characters within the comic, which we referred to as "fake bands" on occasion, not unlike Gorillaz. Initially the idea was to create the an album supposedly written by canon Homestuck characters, though eventually it simply evolved into a series of pet projects focusing on specific sets of characters as a supplement to the volumes. Midnight Crew was the first of these efforts, with the premise being that the dastardly troupe would some sort of sinister sub-genre known as "dark jazz".

The jazz premise is loosely enforced throughout the record. Tracks such as Clark Powell's "Three in the Morning", and Radiation's "Liquid Negrocity" rely on instrumentation choices rather than complex harmony and improvisation. Tracks like Gabe Nezovic's ambient instrumental "Livin' it Up" almost gut the sound of jazz entirely. Nonetheless, as a first foray into musical side projects, the album demonstrated that the reader base was ready to listen to an album that lived a bit more in Homestuck's expanded universe.

I often forget my own contributions to this one. "Lunar Eclipse" was based around a sketch from high school. I drew from the sensibility of Weather Report in the arrangement, allowing the bass riff to dominate the sound of the piece, adding eerie pads and atmospheric elements. The saxophone solo is the sole contribution to Homestuck of a musician we only knew as Fenris - the performance was recorded and sent to me via email, upon which I diced and redistributed the samples across the song for a more sparse, moody feel. We haven't heard anything from Fenris since, and as a matter of principle I haven't made an edit that drastic to another musician's performance since.

My other contribution to this album, the production of Andrew Huo's piece "Hauntjam", was mostly a matter of creating a drum part. As a percussionist, I always put a lot of care in sequencing drum parts for lack of an available kit and mic setup.