mac waters - composer

the first in a series of instruments with a tiktok input, tiktokbox 1 is designed as an interactive audiovisual work that exposes the nuances—or perhaps dangers—of the "for you page," tiktok's highly complex and personalized content selection algorithm. the video presented here is a demo of myself using the patch (created using the visual programming language Max/MSP/Jitter), in a 6-minute improv. this series is a work in progress and will ideally eventually culminate in a formal gallery/concert setting for the work.

this work was composed for Victor Lowrie and T.J. Borden of Mivos Quartet to be recorded asynchronously due to our distanced reality during the Covid-19 pandemic.

i was kept awake by my own breath, sounding out Bach’s notes—innately memorized—with each inhale and exhale as I tried to fall asleep. The notes of the Courante from J.S. Bach’s second suite for solo cello (transcribed for viola) had etched themselves into my memory until J.S. Bach himself was giving my lungs permission to move. This theme&variations unites violist and cellist—separated in space and time and isolated from one another—offering transient soundscapes of shared musical identity and, in the process, attempting to catch back its breath.

this is a song that i wrote, recorded, and produced. the song is set to a portion of a text from anne carson's libretto decreation, in which ares (god of war) reflects on the warfare of love, sung in the back of a taxi at night.

It was easy in winter.
It was easy at evening.
It was easy hourly.
Not really.
Easy sugar.

Are you glad sugar.
Are you resisting.
Are you up to your knees.
Not really.
Easy sugar.

this year, 2020, charli xcx released "how i'm feeling now," an album that she created entirely while quarantining in the UK. the album's process was entirely public, with charli xcx not only taking suggestions from fans but directly incorporating fan input into the album as it was being created. after the album was released, she released all the stems for the album, and this is a remix that i submitted for charli xcx's remix contest - enjoy!

this work was composed for members of the Wet Ink Extended Ensemble in 2019. exploring musical subconscious & the individual's relationship to a zeitgeist, this piece reworks justin bieber's baby and transcribes rhythmic and melodic material in order to create a glitchcore soundscape far from its source.

before i knew how to listen to music, i would load songs onto my shiny blue clip-on iPod shuffle and run around my yard listening to them—a soundtrack to my childhood. Justin Bieber’s infamous and iconic single “Baby” may have been one of those songs—I couldn’t be sure. I also couldn’t tell you the last time I listened to Justin Bieber’s “Baby” on my own volition, yet I remember every word. what does it mean to have a listening history that inherently informs our current musical practice and listening mode? what does it mean that this “musical history”—up unto a certain point (or perhaps not)—is purely circumstantial?

this work was composed for members of fonema consort in 2019 and is scored for a chamber ensemble of soprano voice, flute, bass clarinet, cello, and piano. set to a text by lorenzo barajas,erosion as a form of creation explores the disconnected, traversing disparate musical and theatrical territories to unveil the potential merits of a deconstructive performance practice.