Let’s not obsess over the details, but several years ago, I somehow ended up with a folder full of voicemails on my computer. Most of them were from my brother (Roger) and skimming through them, I thought it was pretty funny that they all sounded so similar: “Jeff, It’s Roger, [message]”
If there’s one person’s voice in the world who I know, it’s my own brother’s. So the fact that he always announced who was calling really cracked me up.
I had these voicemails for years, and always thought I should do something with them. When his birthday came around I felt a little inspiration, and started with the simple idea of just joining them together.
But that wasn’t enough, so I thought I’d just put a simple repetitive backing part behind it. That seemed better, but I felt like it could be more.
A few days later, using all the time allowed (up to a few minutes before his birthday dinner), I ended up with what you heard above.
His reaction? Unbelievable. On the floor, gasping for air, especially at 1:00, and at 1:30 when the guitar came in and it was clear that these messages were not stopping.
I posted it a couple of other places, too. On MetaFilter music, it ended up getting featured on their monthly podcast, which was awesome. Here’s the clip where they talk about it:
And then, it blew up on reddit, and ended up getting 14,000 plays.
I don’t know if I can ever top this as a birthday gift.