David Eisinger

Journal > Dispatch #29 (July 2025)

Posted 2025-07-03 under #dispatch

Big month: birthdays, travel, lots of music. My boy turned one – time friggin’ flies. He is on the move, talking up a storm, and getting into everything.

A smiling baby in a high chair outdoors, wearing green suspenders and dinosaur-patterned clothing, with blue frosting on their face, hands, and the cake-covered tray. Two adults sit with a baby and a young child in a pink dress on a wooden picnic bench beneath a park pavilion, with leafy trees in the background.

We spent a week at Holden Beach with Claire’s family. Great to see everyone, and great to take a proper vacation. Both kids are changing so quickly (Nico starting to walk, Nev taking an interest in swimming and playing piano) and it was nice to take a break from work and spend bunch of dedicated time with them.

A smiling child with curly blond hair wears a pink dress and holds a seashell on a sandy beach, with dunes and houses in the background. Two smiling young children on a deck, one in light blue pajamas sitting on an adult’s lap and the other in a teal shirt holding a wooden chair arm.

Poolsuite FM was the soundtrack to the week, and it inspired me to make a house track one evening. Musically, I spend a lot of time trying to make music that doesn’t sound so electronic, so it was nice to sort of lean into it; my little travel music setup is pretty well suited for it. Check it out:

We then traveled up to Richmond to meet up with my family to celebrate my dad’s 70th. Nice to get all the cousins together, if only for an afternoon. The Richmond Children’s Museum is great.

Two smiling children sit side by side in a stroller, each holding a white plush unicorn with a pink horn. A baby and a young child hold pieces of watermelon at a wooden restaurant table, with a smiling adult seated behind them.

A smiling woman with glasses holds a smiling toddler at a wooden restaurant table, while a child beside them holds a large cup with a straw. A smiling adult sits with four young children on a wooden bench, holding one child on their lap. Behind them, framed articles and awards cover a brick wall.

I took the kids to Angel Island one evening, where I was able to reproduce this Eisinger family classic:

A young child in a green shirt looks up with an open mouth while surrounded by colorful plastic balls in a ball pit. A crying young child with curly blond hair is surrounded up to the neck by green balls in a ball pit, with one arm resting on top.

(That’s Nico on the left, and a young me on the right.)

Finally, my buddy Ken and I met up at the Eastern Shore in Virginia (at the same place we stayed a few years ago). I rented a Jeep Wrangler off of Turo, which was a fun way to try out a car I’ll almost certainly never own. We brought a whole bunch of gear and spent most of the weekend making music.

Olive-green four-door Jeep with a black soft top parked on a residential street, with a red Tesla Cybertruck in a driveway behind it. Two smiling men in a room with keyboards and a laptop. The man in the foreground wears glasses, while the seated man points toward the camera.

Here’s a track we made, called “Heat Lightning”:

It was cool to make music with another person, something I’ve never really done before. Ken’s process is a lot different than mine, more DAW-focused, more live playing, less MIDI sequencing (he’s an accomplished percussionist & his timing is much better than mine). I definitely learned a lot, and I’m keen to lean more into Ableton. At the same time, the genesis of the track came from just jamming with my Circuit Tracks and a few other pieces of gear, so I still think there’s a place for the hardware stuff I’m already doing and enjoying.

That was a whirlwind of a month. We’re headed to Lake Norman for the long weekend, but then hoping to have a slower-paced July. I’d like to get back into running and exercise (despite the heat), get Ableton working well with my setup, and generally just enjoy summer here in Durham.

This Month

Reading & Listening

References