Authors

Danny Ritz

Files

Download Available for download on Wednesday, July 01, 2026

Download Full Text (18 KB)

Abstract

In 2024, ‘indie music’ is an umbrella term housing different terms and techniques that circle around one concept: authenticity. The emotive and bleak ‘sad girl’ and whimsically eccentric ‘indie boy’ come to mind. When I think about my own work in this context, none of those tropes seem to perfectly fit. I’m a pretty optimistic person with a strange sense of humor and a 4-octave vocal range who makes, as a listener recently described it, “enormous songs with tiny pensive lyrics.” So much of what excites me about making music, though – the thing that gets me – is how music as an artistic medium, more than any other, houses these contradictions. It is an artform designed for seemingly conflicting truths. My CE project, “house in the space,” embraces this notion of contradiction across its entirety. It is as ‘sad girl’ as it is ‘indie boy,’ as anthemic as it is intimate, as analog as it is DAW-dependent. In a society which constantly demands choice – what, who and how one ought to be – “house in the space” asks what happens when we choose, when I choose, to be both. This reflection will outline its development and execution, as well as my larger journey at BerkleeNYC.

Publication Date

7-1-2024

Campus

New York City Campus

Specialization

Songwriting and Production

Keywords

creative project; indie rock; anthemic; intimate

house in the space

Share

COinS