what you should listen to:
anything that makes you happy. however, here’s a specially curated, exclusive collection of unique and independent music. there’s my full discography, and some stuff my friends made that’s very important to me. please do us all a favor and tell everyone about it!
if you’ve been sent here to evaluate my work, please start with phase three.
refractor: the full discography.
lore: refractor is the one-man recording project of owen anderson. i’m owen anderson. i began playing guitar again when i was 17 years old as a means of self-expression. my intent wasn’t to get good, but to learn the bare minimum required to record the new music i heard in my head.
phase three: secrets best kept secret.
i wrote a few letters to indie record labels asking for some help releasing these. i refused to take part in the initiation rituals. now you get to listen to them on my shitty website.
hall of very good (2025)
about: this is my next album. after saying goodbye to the tascam 424, i upgraded to a tascam 488 mkii. it’s the perfect machine! this is my first album without any instruments/plugins from the computer. all effects come from a digitech rp50.
i’m quite happy with how this turned out. it’s more straightforward, radio-friendly indie rock but definitely keeps the melodies and songwriting of the new romantics. this will probably release sometime next year. thanks for listening ahead of time!
the new romantics (2025)
about: this is a batch of ten beautiful (somewhat crusty) songs recorded strictly on lou’s dad’s tascam 424 with a few bounces. it was my grand goodbye to a machine i loved. less production means you’re forced to really listen to the songs, not just the instruments. lou made the art. matt from track star let me cover “true crime”.
each song is written to/about someone. consider that one might be about you.
cowboy superstar (2024)
music video: “wreck”.
about: i bought a bad acoustic guitar in january 2024 and immediately got to work on something. i wanted a more hi-fi sound than my previous albums to accompany the change in my songwriting, so i stole a copy of logic pro x and bought a slightly better acoustic guitar. then i got to work, cooping myself up in me and max’s dutch oven of an apartment. i barely left.
the album is about bad friends, true love, fake love, and confirming your suspicions that the only way to do it right is by your goddamn self, even if you’re still pretty sure you’re the worst.
phase two: owen goes to college.
i went off to college to get more knowledge. ended up on jupiter. thought i was developing schizophrenia but it turns out i’m just autistic. made a lot of stuff in two years, including a very bittersweet breakup album. i also made some great friends and met the love of my life. awesome!
the challenger incident (2023)
about: i worked live sound back in my hometown during the summer of 2023. i recorded a lot of stuff on lou’s dad’s tascam 424 and bounced a lot of stuff back and forth between that thing and my ipad. one of my mics blew up so the drums sound like cardboard.
i like to think of this album as my final voyage into space-sounds before stripping everything away and ending up with an acoustic guitar, but that wasn’t planned or anything. neither was that rocket blowing up on january 28 1986.
smile/circle the drain/leave it be (2023)
music video: “smile”.
about: ok so before i started the challenger incident my love and i hung out in chicago to kick off summer. when i returned to my parents’ house, i decided i was gonna channel my newfound happiness into a pop album.
i started with these three tracks to learn lou’s dad’s tascam 424. they ended up way too dusty and fuzzy for the album i ended up making, especially “circle the drain”.
hi-fidelity from the grove (2023)
about: this was my final project for a music recording class. i didn’t have any material before my guitar and i walked in for a 90 minute studio session. i just picked up some drum sticks, plugged my amp in and tried playing what i heard in my head. i broke my stick on the last fill in “keep up”. my instructor called it there so my roommate max let me back into the studio to help me lay down bass and finish guitars.
lyrics were scattered and scrawled on napkins as i overstayed my welcome during dining hall lunches. i think i got an A- because the mix is a bit muddy.
keep it nice (2022)
about: the aforementioned breakup album. we dated twice and broke up four times, which is pretty funny in retrospect. i kept her drums around for this one. i went back home for my fall break ready to cut out any part of me that still cared about her and it worked. that session returned a lot of bitter songs. the less angry ones were recorded over winter break after i met someone who i learned to cherish more than the entire world.
this one was mostly recorded on an ipad with some bounces back and forth from a tascam porta 05. “fade to grey” really impressed some folks in allen hall, and those folks became my best friends. “something from nothing” is a cover of one of wolfgang’s songs. awwww… friendship!
phase one: my parents’ unfinished basement.
i was working at the sandwich shop and relearning guitar. i met my college roommate max there by asking him which jazzmaster i should buy. my sister introduced me to a bunch of new music that actually sounded like something i could make at home. i ignored it at first, but took a long walk and truly opened my ears. then, the strange cassette fixation from my childhood ballooned into an unexpected avenue of self-expression.
11 sweaters (2022)
about: i don’t know why i called the album that. before heading to college at the end of the summer, i really wanted to put together some songs on the tascam porta 05 to try playing with the band i was hoping to form. well, before classes even started ava and i were jamming on some of these. she told me to make a tape for this guy named wolfgang who already had a cool band and was playing shows.
i passed along that tape and i still remember how i felt that day. it was the first time i felt like my emotions and my effort were recognized.
in the corner (2021)
about: my sister used to make candles until she didn’t. that left a room in our basement big enough to store a drum kit. i recorded a lot of really bad demos trying to emulate the music she showed me before realizing that i was slowly improving. i felt proud and released this.
weirdly enough, a lot of folks online are still listening to this one. not too sure why.
daisy chain: the land-locked punk rocker’s parting gift.
lore: daisy chain was formed in the chicago suburbs around 2021 by wolfgang burtner (guitars/vox) and will vanderlaan (drums). after putting together an ep, they went off to college and were joined by dominic mini (bass/vox). their three-year reign as one of the loudest, catchiest, and most exciting bands in the champaign/urbana scene was comparable to few others. they blended washington dc’s post-hardcore with ’90s alternative rock. although they wore their influences out on their sleeve, they carved out a signature, fresh sound without imitating others or compromising their artistic integrity. as they matured, they continued to evolve towards more emotionally complex songwriting and embraced a greater dynamic range.
as their scene became more and more crowded by upper middle class wannabe punks steeped in fragile, performative individuality; a group that touted its supposed subversiveness as they impotently whipped the dead horse of socially popular anti-establishment sentiment, daisy chain channeled societal alienation and frustration with the world into everything that a college rock band from the midwest had left to say.
this band sure meant a lot to everyone. if things went different, i think they really could’ve made it out of here alive.
public ivy (2025)
about: this album was a well-deserved grand finale, featuring the band’s most addictive songs in high-fidelity. this clean, polished sound was the result of the band somehow landing scott lucas of local h as their producer. during the album’s production, the band knew that their dissolution was likely to follow soon after their graduation from college.
division grew between the founding members of the band as their visions grew apart. this tension was exacerbated by the high-pressure process of assembling and recording a full, polished album as they played to increasingly aggressive and unruly, yet unperceptive and unappreciative crowds.
“canopy club” is a succinct farewell to a musician who plagued the local scene with an unearned ego and the remarkable ability to arouse discomfort in any woman within twenty feet of him.
burning up (2023)
about: this one came out of nowhere. i had already heard most of the songs live, but my roommate max and i were over at will’s place in the dead of winter. we were finishing the leftover beer from his last party as futurama or spongebob or something played on the television.
will asked to show us some demos and we happily obliged. i was immediately struck by how much darker this was than their earlier material. it released to much local praise, but was never promoted as aggressively as it deserved.
daisy chain (2021)
about: it’s clear that these guys were onto something from their first release. if i recall correctly, this was recorded in wolfgang’s mom’s basement, specifically making use of this weird closet as a d.i.y. isolation booth.
“edelweiss pirates” and “breakfast” were mainstays at their 2022-2023 shows. before hearing the recorded versions, i learned to quickly recognize their opening riffs in the same way one immediately recognizes a tornado siren. a warning that you should find somewhere low to the ground and near a stable wall. brace for impact, and watch for large debris.