Why this P.E.I.-born composer used household items to make music during COVID-19

In an effort to keep things interesting while staying at home during COVID-19, a P.E.I.-born musician and composer embarked on a month-long music challenge to help pass the time.

Using the sounds of household items available to him, Adrian Irvine decided to compose a new piece of music every day for 30 days and post it to his Instagram account.

If you listen closely to Irvine's improvised quarantine tunes, you may detect the sounds of his coffee maker, the sound of the blade as he shaved or even the sound of him brushing his teeth.

"It all started with this, kind of, 30-day beat challenge idea that I'd seen other people on Instagram do in the past," he said. "Creating something that's a minute-long every day for 30 days.

"And I thought if there's a time that I could pull this off, it's now." 

Finding inspiration in the unlikely

While Irvine was born and raised in Charlottetown, his passion for the violin took him to the University of Toronto. Since graduating, he's been freelancing his talents in Ontario.

But for the duration of the pandemic, he's been staying with his partner's family in Oakville, Ont. 

About halfway through the challenge, on the hunt for inspiration, Irvine began to look at the most unlikely, everyday objects as sources for inspiration.

"And that became a big part of it for the rest of the challenge," he said.

Irvine said he jumped into the spontaneous project without worrying too much about how he was going to remain inspired throughout the challenge. 

It was quite challenging and some days were harder than others.— Adrian Irvine, composer

"I found the most difficult thing was to keep within a sound world that people expected, you know, I didn't want people to always be totally surprised about what they were hearing but then still not get stuck in the same patterns every day," he said. 

"It was quite challenging and some days were harder than others."

'An excuse to spend some time creating'

Whatever challenges the project may have presented, Irvine said using household objects became exciting.

"That was why the found-sound, like everyday objects, were so much fun 'cause as soon as I picked something up it would just spark a chain of events ... and next thing you know, you have a whole thing going," he said.

"It was good to have an excuse to always spend some time creating, so I'm glad I chose to do it." 

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