When I bought a Yamaha DX-7 keyboard in 1985, an added perk was a free music computer. This was in the heyday of Commodore and Atari computers, and my Yamaha CX-5M was a similar machine. It came with a program cartridge called MIDI Recorder...I fired it up, plugged it into the keyboard and recorded the simple chord progression that defines this piece. It was a very limited app, but I was fascinated by MIDI and the potential it offered. Within the next year or so, I got my hands on a Mac and the sequencing app Performer. Those were powerful tools at the time, and changed my entire perception of what I could accomplish musically. Then I got an RX-5 drum machine and I was off to the races! At some point, a beat I programmed met the chord progression from the DX-7/CX-5M and Flyby was born. I actually composed the entire drum track before mapping out the chords, melody and embellishments. I recorded the final version at Frank Cutri's studio in Brandon, FL and my friend Mike Conrad sold it to the Florida Hospital Association as the soundtrack for a recruiting video. Flyby was the first piece of music I ever sold, and was a real milestone in my musical journey. Flyby© 2024 - Joey Arata