Make Me Feel Alright

Context

Make Me Feel Alright wasn’t planned as an album. It started as a handful of songs I had made for myself.

At the time, I was finishing my Abitur and had just repeated a year because my grades had slipped. That meant being in a new environment, knowing only a few people, and feeling slightly out of place. A lot of nights felt heavy. Around 1 a.m., when everything got quiet, I would open Logic Pro and start building something. Not because I had a concept. Just because I needed an outlet.

Some of the instrumentals already existed. “Liftoff” and “Lucky Break” were originally standalone tracks I had uploaded to YouTube without much thought. At some point, I decided to try writing lyrics over “Liftoff.” That was the shift. Until then, I had mostly stayed in instrumentals because they felt safer. Lyrics made things more direct.

The more I wrote, the more songs accumulated. Eventually I realized I had enough material for a full project. That’s how the album came together.

Writing & Themes

Most of the album is personal.

“Liftoff” reflects a crush I had at the time. It’s almost a daydream version of events — a kind of Romeo and Juliet energy where the feeling is intense, but reality doesn’t fully cooperate. “Make Me Feel Alright” centers on a relationship that had ended. Tracks like “Ocean” carry the same emotional weight in different forms.

There wasn’t a unifying theme written down on paper. The songs weren’t built around a master idea. They simply came from the same emotional period, so they naturally belong together. Looking back, the thread running through them is longing — for connection, stability, reassurance.

Music was mainly a coping mechanism. If I felt bad, I made something. That urgency is still audible in the record.

Production

The entire album was made in Logic Pro on a basic setup. I relied heavily on built-in tools and loops, especially for drums. A lot of melodies were built with arpeggiators because they made it easier to create motion and atmosphere.

My sister once described the sound as “space-like,” which makes sense. I used a lot of reverb and layered textures, probably influenced by artists like Grimes, whom I was listening to at the time. Not because I was trying to copy anything, but because that sound felt right and accessible with the tools I had.

Technically, the album is rough. The mixing and mastering are far from perfect. I used Logic’s built-in mastering assistant and did what I could with the knowledge I had at the time. If I could redo one thing, it would be that side of it.

But the imperfections are part of it. The sound reflects the stage I was in, both emotionally and technically.

Looking Back

I still think “Liftoff” holds up. It captures something very specific about who I was then: hopeful, uncertain, romantic in a slightly unrealistic way.

Make Me Feel Alright is the starting point. It’s not polished and it’s not concept-driven. It’s honest. It documents a period of instability, late nights, and trying to figure things out.

In the bigger arc of my music, this album represents the moment I stopped hiding behind instrumentals and started putting my voice at the center. Everything that came after builds on that step.

It’s where things really began.