Emerging from the vibrant intersection of IDM and experimental electronica, Textbook Maneuver, the alias of Bronx-born, New Jersey-based composer Michael Keane, has carved a niche with his unique sound and artistry. His debut album, Adrenaline Slip (2025), has garnered nearly 130,000 streams and critical acclaim from outlets like Magnetic Magazine and Illustrate Magazine, cementing his status as a rising star in the global electronic music scene. With his latest single, ‘Nocturnal Musings’, released on his Life Science Records, LLC, Keane weaves glitched-out beats and spectral textures inspired by nature’s nocturnal rhythms, drawing comparisons to luminaries like Jon Hopkins and Boards of Canada. Having captivated audiences with his immersive compositions, Textbook Maneuver’s innovative blend of cerebral sound design and emotional resonance makes him a standout voice in modern electronica.
In the following interview, we dive deeper into his creative process, inspirations, and the making of his evocative new track.
Can you walk us through your journey from growing up in the Bronx to becoming a New Jersey-based electronic composer?
Growing up in the Bronx, it was a predominantly blue collar neighborhood. I feel growing up there has provided me with a lifelong work ethic; work requires effort, and effort requires you roll up your sleeves and get the job done. You seek help and understanding through support from others but oftentimes, you need to pave your own path. I started on piano as a child, my parents paid for lessons which I did all through primary school and a bit into high school. Though I studied classical music, I fell in love with rock and eventually the heavier side of music. That led me to taking bass guitar lessons and I also bought a starter keyboard/ synthesizer. Knowing I needed to do something to be able to afford to live, I ended up going to college and became a scientist, so music and composition was put on the back burner. My professional life led me to New Jersey.
Now that I am a bit older, I made the decision to get back into music so I rolled up my sleeves, learned a bit about the business side of modern music recording and publishing, founded the label and then began taking electronic music classes. I had taken years of classical piano lessons, paused a bit during my schooling, and then when I moved out to New Jersey, I found a great piano teacher and took up lessons again for several years. She encouraged me to work on my technique, stay focussed on the music theory, and pick up on chord progressions, how melodies and harmonic moments are built. More recently, when I started taking formal electronic music classes, that fundamental knowledge of music history and theory, really helped me compose interesting music based off of improvisational sessions I had played.
How did your classical piano training mix with that punk DIY attitude to shape your approach to music?
The punk DIY mindset is really what allowed me to just go ahead and create the label. I also focussed on making music I enjoyed, ignoring trends. I also accepted mistakes and stuck with my own novice ability on recording, mixing and mastering. Like the early days of punk, you jam, record, and get the music out. I feel that is what I am doing, and nearly all of it on my own. I do have a support system and advisors from the school where I was learning the business/ publishing side and how to work in a DAW. I also treat this as more than a hobby now. I dedicate a certain amount of time to the creation process, mainly at night and on the weekends as I am still working professionally outside of music. Without the fundamental knowledge I have from years of music lessons, I do not think I would be as grounded or confident in what I am doing now. Without that DIY attitude, I think I would be still looking to find a label that would release my music.
What draws you to blending influences like Genesis’s Duke era and The Postal Service in your work?
I have been surrounded by music lovers my whole life. First with my immediate family and then through my friends. My music listening history goes something like this in order of exposure: classic rock, classical, metal, punk, alternative, indie rock, jazz, and then electronic. Once I take a liking to something, I go all in, so my collection in each of those genres is quite large.
My older brother really exposed me to Genesis, and one of the first albums I bought was Duke when it came out. That sound quality on that album, the piano work, synths, keyboards, drums, drum machines, bass and guitar all still sound fresh to me. The songs are not simple but they sound simple. In addition, they are proggy but totally accessible at the same time. There were even a few hits off that album. Fast forward to the mid to late 90s, I became a Death Cab For Cutie fan starting with their lo-fi debut. Then when the side project, The Postal Service came out, it blew my mind. That mix of indie rock with electronica was awesome. It was like the sum of those two parts became something bigger. It was not 1 + 1 = 2. To me it was like 1 + 1= 10.
Even the Duke album, prog and pop came together and made something huge, indie rock and electronica came together and made something huge. So for the Textbook Maneuver songs, I am trying to create a 1 + 1 = 10 as well. I am not saying I am there at all, but that is my goal. Take a few genres or styles, combine them in a very specific and focussed way of composing and see if the sum of the parts creates something new and fresh. Am I making electronic music like IDM or EDM or am I making proggy rock via electronic techniques? I really do not know for sure, it is a risk as I may not fit into one genre, and that can be a blessing or not.
Tell us about how you balance IDM’s brainy side with ambient prog elements to keep things accessible yet experimental.
When composing a new song and then adding layers, manipulating and sculpting the sound, I have one person I am trying to please and that is me. I have yet to challenge myself in trying to sing but I am a fan of highly emotional music, oftentimes the emotion comes from the vocalist. So how can I make strong emotional music without a vocalist? My solution is to use IDM styles and elements to stimulate an interesting mix and then use proggy elements to ramp up the emotional side. Sometimes, the two together create something new entirely and by the time I am finished, I often forget, which was the origin, the IDM side or the proggy side. I have a ton of demos and sometimes I go back and listen and then discuss over, oh yeah, that is the origin of that final song. I made sure to rename the file as “demo xyz, became song 123”. I stay experimental by being disciplined and deliberately practising and learning new synthesizers, plug-ins, filters, etc. Sometimes I want a lead guitar sound and right now I do not own an electric guitar (just an electric bass).
I have found I can take an electronic piano, completely screw with the original sound via plug-ins and other techniques, and manipulate it until I think it sounds like some experimental electric guitar which just appeared on the planet. I also take vigorous written notes in a notebook I call “song specs.” This is becoming my go to guide to study and remember how I captured specific sounds. These synth/plug-in/scu;pted iterations then became “future instruments” to use on other songs. This allows for some tonal consistency across a full album. I grew up on full albums, and the best ones have “a sound” to them. So in certain respects, I am also trying to create a full album sound, the song specs are helping me stay consistent. Another aspect of the experiment, I have made mistakes along the way but sometimes that mistake ends in a tone I have never heard before and then I build off of that. So there are deliberate composed moments mixed in with 100% experimentation on nearly every finished song.
For ‘Nocturnal Musings’, how did those late-night porch sessions with crickets and frogs influence your loops and sound design?
Yeah that was a trip! As I was still just beginning to learn this new world of electronic music composition, I was doing it at night. And no doubt, some of the preset sounds and loops in the DAW were reminding me of the nocturnal noises I was hearing while practising. I think if I was working inside, during the dead of winter rather than late summer, early fall, I would not have put together ‘Nocturnal Musings’.
What specific techniques did you use for the glitchy beats and jagged synth stabs in ‘Nocturnal Musings’ to create that shifting dreamscape feel?
This is purely a loop based track and one of the first I ever created, it was my first time attempting to use Logic Pro. My first thing I wanted to learn was the library of preset loops in the box, so this is made up of 3 specific drum loops that I cut and pasted, panned around, three tracks of different synths, and then three sets of varying vocal pads. So kind of simple in technique but, as I said, it was early on. I took the learnings on sound design to make fresh new beats on subsequent tracks. When I think back to some landmark albums, for example, the Beastie Boys’ ‘Paul’s Boutique’, it was done all with samples so I said to myself, why not put out a couple of tracks made entirely of preset loops but chop them up, tweak, filter and combine them in a way that leads to a new blended sound. It is only on the Strike Joy EP that I relied on loops. My full length debut, Adrenaline Slip, is all newly composed / created sounds. This is also another reason why I put the EP out separately, I did not want to mix loop based tracks with newly created compositions.
How do the themes of a mind drifting between realities play out in the spectral textures and blinking beeps of ‘Nocturnal Musings’?
Some of the pads I used, really sound nocturnal to me so if you focus on some of the subdued layers, your mind will wonder. The beats keep it grounded and the synths, in some aspects, are a little harsh. It all blends well nicely and I notice depending on the environment and time of day while listening, the song evokes different feelings. Listening to it, driving at night is a bit creepy, chilling in the dark can also be creepy or relaxing and then during the day, sounds like a simple tune.
With comparisons to artists like Boards of Canada and Jon Hopkins, how do you navigate staying unique in the experimental electronic scene?
There is such a proliferation of electronic music happening right now, which goes back probably since the mid 70s through the 80s when it went really pop. It seems everyone is also trying to cut and slice and bucket all of this music into subgenres which I really do not fully understand. So I think being a bit of an outsider coming in, I do not have any biases and my melodies and chord structures are mostly started on a piano. I do not care if the synth I pick sounds retro or the beats are a cross between electronic drums, drum machines and analog drum kits. Again, I am just going for a final song structure and mix that feels right to me. I also have ambitions to write for film, television and other media so I always try to create a feeling or a vibe. That and being in a state of continuous learning and exploration is allowing everything I do to feel fresh. At least it feels fresh to me.
Looking back at Adrenaline Slip and now this track, what challenges have you faced in pushing sonic experimentation for media like film or games?
The main challenge is trying to keep all of the sounds coherent and separate enough that all voicings get heard. Sometimes it can get frustrating as I start with a great sound and then it gets lost in the mix so I then need to unpack, remove layers or pan sound left or right across the mix. There is also a stress where you really need to decide if something is finished. Given the way it is working in the box, you can just keep going, keep tweaking, losing sleep and never finishing. I have not formally started pitching to music supervisors yet as I want to get established first and then have a repertoire I can pitch as a portfolio of songs ready to go as potential syncs or to be pleasing enough that it leads to a commission to compose something original tied to another medium. So I guess in the end, the main challenges are time, technique, and finishing so you can start again.
If you could pair ‘Nocturnal Musings’ with any late-night snack, what would it be and why?
I think ’Nocturnal Musings’ while making s’mores on an outdoor fire pit or next to a fire while camping would be a fantastic pairing.
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