Are you a United States federal employee? Were you one? Were you recently terminated?

This looping session is for you. What Trump and Musk are doing to so many federal employees and the service they provide is not just concerning; it’s cruel.

I composed this session around samples I took from a talk by Everett Kelley during the recent Federal Unionist Network “Save Our Service” mass call. It was an inspiring call. Kelley’s words are incredibly motivating. His words apply generally too: We can resist the takeover of the country and government by billionaires and oligarchs if we organize and work in solidarity.

I didn’t know of Everett Kelley before watching the call. He’s the current president of the American Federation of Government Employees. He’s an incredibly inspiring speaker. In this case, he’s working to inspire current and past federal workers and supporters to organize and resist the cruelly chaotic cuts to federal services and workforce.

I was also a federal employee, so I empathize—certainly more than most US citizens—with employees suffering the cruel reduction-in-force (RIF) orders. I worked for the US Geological Survey and was also RIFed, but by orders from George W. Bush. I probably would still be working at the USGS today if not for that RIF. I think it’s the only post-master’s employment I fully enjoyed.

That RIF was different. Sure, folks who didn’t vote for Bush Jr. likely weren’t happy with the decision. (I doubt most of my colleagues on my team voted for Bush Jr. based on the grumbles heard when his portrait replaced Clinton’s.) But the RIF wasn’t done in a cruel way. It was smaller in scale. And, while you could lament the reduction in capacity it would cause, it was not chaotic. (Letting probationary employees go is common when new executives come in.) Even more so, USGS (and other federal employees) suffered a much greater reduction in force under Clinton. (Something that came up often at lunchtime when the old-timers told me the history of the USGS and the federal workforce.) But, again, Clinton’s RIF was different. You could argue the wisdom of the goal (supposedly making the federal government “work better”) or the specific cuts. You couldn’t argue (in good faith) Clinton’s intention and thoughtfulness. The cruelty, chaos, scapegoating, distraction, and hamstringing were not the point.

It is now. And I can barely imagine what it feels like to be a federal worker now.

I tried to put my empathy and imagination of this situation into this looping session. It’s not just the samples of Everett Kelley. I tried to channel the chaotic energy many of us are feeling into a story of trying to organize a collective force and the joy that can come from that work. That force is represented by a mandolin ostinato (repeating looping) in 7/4, which is introduced immediately, gets overwhelmed into a complex set of polyrhythms, disappears, and then can finally marshal other instruments to act in unison with it to reach a climax. I recorded myself on mandolin, electric octave mandolin, electric mandocello, and did the drum programming on a Polyend Play+.

This was a fun and informative looping session to put together. For now, I’ve given up the idea of performing instruments live. (I’m still using the same software to record the instruments and set up the session.) It’s enough for my brain to do the live composition of the clips, effects, and drum machine. It takes a lot of practice to come close to creating the composition (framework) I had in my head. This take was the closest I got. I didn’t come that close to what I had planned to do. I’d forget to bring a clip in, hit the wrong clip, hit the right clip at the wrong time, and so on. But the composition that came out of this live mixing still generally evokes what I was hoping for, plus new ideas simply appeared.

I won’t try to make these sessions “perfect,” anyway. (I should probably do fewer takes than I did, which I’m sure will happen as I get more practiced.) I primarily intend these sessions to generate ideas and material to use in formally composed tracks for later release. The purpose of releasing the videos of me doing the looping sessions is to give you insight into my process, provide some entertainment, and inspire you. But really, it’s to get me used to what it feels like to do live looping, including accepting and incorporating the mistakes and imperfections that are bound to happen.

Enjoy. I hope it does provide some inspiration.