On August 19th, 2008 I released my debut album “You’re A Little Paranormal” under the pseudonym Goghst through the netlabel This Plague of Dreaming. I’d spent about a year trying to learn how to make music on the computer. Downloading free programs, sequencers, samples and buying a $15 Casio from goodwill to try to bend to my will.

This release was a massive success in my eyes and stands as my most downloaded release I’ve ever made; and I made it having had 3 months of drum lessons when I was 13 as my only musical training.

I followed this release up with a self titled album released 11/28/2008 and drifted away from the confusing name almost indefinitely.

Identity as a music producer has always felt important.

It can be hard to stick with the names we make up for ourselves and it can be really fun to make up new ones.

I’ve released music under over 50 names at this point but the most prominent and important is Starry Eyed Night.

I named this project after the Van Gogh painting Starry Night and the LCD Soundsystem song Starry Eyed. I didn’t even know at the time that starry eyed means optimistic, I thought it was what you called someone who was stoned.

I’ve taken up many names for fun or because I felt like “I’m different now, I’m not the same as when I started this in ability or style! Time for a new name!”; but Starry Eyed Night never goes away, and some very special releases that feel genuine to who I am as a person and an artist I have released under my own name.

In 2024, unemployed, frustrated and trying to enjoy this music making hobby more, I posted a story to Reddit about my musical journey thus far.

This led to my first split release with the artist Skrawek. We’ve done several split albums together and he has been a cohort since the beginning of my “netlabel” Notoriously Ambiguous.

I even asked Skrawek to interview me for my 39th birthday.

In September of 2024 I had this idea for a creative outlet for my growing list of musical aliases. I wanted to run a net label, much like the one that started me off years ago. For some reason though I wanted to do it the hard way. I wanted to build it from the ground up. I created a new Reddit account, a new identity for myself as a label head (Captain Al) and a new alias and musical parallel to Starry Eyed Night.

I came up with a logo using a public domain image titled “swami.jpg” and I dubbed the new page “Notoriously Ambiguous Artist Collective”

I recorded an EP as “Azorida” and published it, posted about it as if I was some unknown Joe Shmoe and somehow I was able to fake it until it became the thing I wanted it to be.

Then I started making posts inviting people to do themed compilations I’ve put out through NA and it really got the ball rolling. I’ve befriended and become acquaintances with probably 30-40 musicians. I run a discord that currently has 21 members. We chat about music, projects, share works in progress and collaborate with each other.

I no longer parade as Captain Al. I’ve hand drawn and updated the swami logo twice to better suit our aesthetics. I’ve shifted focus to try and use NA to encourage my friends to try new things and weird things, no one has to know. A great example of this is a recent demo I put out by someone going as Grtest. Only I know who they are.

I continue to produce music in times of creative bursts and in times of stress and when I can’t sleep. I draw, I collage on my phone and I try new apps, new DAWs regularly. I received a TD-3 for my birthday last year I’m trying to learn the ropes of and I pulled out a guitar I bought 17 years ago and I’m trying to finally learn to play.

All of this music I’ve made over the years feels like an inevitability of an overflowing creative spirit. I’d rather make art and be part of art and music than do a lot of things that are probably more important. I’ll probably never stop creating. When I feel boxed in I just do something else. That’s probably why I have over 50 aliases.

You’ll always find me as Starry Eyed Night though. It’s the name I’m most known for and I’ve come to accept as my own imperfect moniker.

-R. A. Blum

Hi, I’m Raleigh. I’ve been trying to make music through various means for 17 years now.

I started with some emulated gameboy music tracker software, then trying to jam samples together in audacity, to learning to use many other programs and apps over the years. I bought a Casio, a guitar, I used them and abused them. I sampled and edited and produced.

There used to be a windows xp program called hammerhead studio and it was my absolute favorite music tool, I could crest such interesting beats with it. I made a whole album with it that I was so proud of it’s the first one I released under my name.

But first I went by the name Goghst (like van goghs ghost?). I self realized an ep and then I released 2 lps under that name on the now defunct netlabel This Plague of Dreaming. My early stuff was inspired by other weirdo electronica and the netlabel scene.

My influences would grow, heavily inspired by Ricky Eat Acid and Lil Ugly Mane’s many non rap side projects.

This may have been my downfall. I retained most followers of my music as I first transitioned from Goghst to the moniker Starry Eyed Night, my favorite and what I’ve come back around to but I spent years making new projects under new names on whole new bandcamp accounts. I made it hard for my original fan base to find me.

Maybe that’s ok, fans aren’t the reason for making art. But it is nice to share art with like minded people.

So I thought I’d share my little story and share some like to my favorite releases I’ve done the last 17 years.

Up top is the link to my very first ep. I wonder if anyone can figure out the unauthorized sample on it?

Both Goghst LPs are on my bandcamp but I always like to go back to their original uploads here:

(https://archive.org/details/plague023)

(https://archive.org/details/plague027)

Here’s the album I made completely with hammerhead and audacity, a personal favorite;

(https://starryeyednight.bandcamp.com/album/jawgobster)

In the early days of distribution I got scammed, you can find the following album on iTunes and Spotify and I’ve never made more than one $6 check over a decade ago!

(https://starryeyednight.bandcamp.com/album/work)

My favorite release I’ve ever done;

(https://starryeyednight.bandcamp.com/album/top-secret-area)

You can find some free codes for that album if you look through my post history by the way.

How about remixes of a podcast theme for a book company that lead to me being a character in the book Carpathia by Matt Forbeck.

(https://starryeyednight.bandcamp.com/album/angry-robot-remixes)

(https://www.amazon.com/Carpathia-Matt-Forbeck/dp/0857662023/)

A compilation I made awhile back that encompassed all my aliases, a kind of celebration of my favorite tracks:

(https://starryeyednight.bandcamp.com/album/10-years-of-being-starry-eyed)

Last year I returned the the Starry Eyed Night name and released a self titled lp;

(https://starryeyednight.bandcamp.com/album/starry-eyed-night-2)

Over the weekend I released some new material,

(https://starryeyednight.bandcamp.com/album/starry-eyed-night-exe)

And on the 12th I have a b-side mixtape releasing that you can pre-order now.

(https://starryeyednight.bandcamp.com/album/arthur)

I hope there’s something here for some of you to enjoy!

Thanks for reading and listening!

Raleigh, Starry Eyed Night et all.

P.S. here’s as complete a list of alias I have used that I’ll ever write,

Ambient Never-Ending Self Portrait

Chillmiser

Dick Wolf

DJ Grumble

Idaho Batholith

I am the extra second

Gohgst

Grumble

Llama Harbinger Deluxe

Madrepora

MadreporaMan

Madrepora Occulata

Polished Nostalgia

R. A. Blum

Rada Bich

Umbrage Hill

Van Goghst Orkastraw