Taylor High School - The origin of OSIFC. Robert and Eric knew each other from elementary school, and Daniel came into the picture during junior high school, but it wasn't until Taylor High School that the other three would meet Andrew. Without Andrew, OSIFC could never have achieved the rigorous schedule it uptook in its infancy. Furthermore, the band constantly used free time in the hallways before and after class to brainstorm and discuss ideas regarding songs and advertising. OSIFC developed its original fan base around their fellow classmates at Taylor, as well as a few teachers and parents. OSIFC members often found themselves in the same classes, all served in NHS, and all played instruments in the band program. Such proximity for eight hours of the day ensured constant and speedy progress, and is probably the reason OSIFC was able to release six albums in a matter of almost three years.

Taylor Band - OSIFC's musical catalyst. Since junior high, Robert, Daniel, and Andrew have all played clarinet, and Eric has played tuba. Robert's musical origins may go back even further. However, it was the JET Band that brought it all together. OSIFC has acknowledged this significance by dedicating two albums to remixes and variations of content the members were playing in the JET Band at the time. In the band, three members served as drill instructors of their section, and Robert served as drum major his senior year. All members consistently took parts in skit performances along with various solo and ensemble activities. Eric lent his artistic abilities by redesigning the band's logo, pictured at left, which the band used for several years.

If it had not been for the JET Band event on that rainy afternoon in the spring of 2001, OSIFC and all of its associated projects may have never happened.

Cornell University - The alma mater of Eric and Daniel. Attending the same university was not planned, and it actually came as a bit of a shock to learn that the other would be spending the next four years in the same place. They both enrolled in separate colleges though (Daniel in Arts & Sciences, Eric in Engineering), and while they occasionally dined together for lunch of dinner, they saw far less of each other than one might expect.

Daniel's pre-med class schedule and work load demanded much of his time, and when he didn't have the books open, he was most likely gaming with his friends or catching up on needed sleep. Daniel's roll in OSIFC thus quickly turned into that of a reviewer since he didn't have much time to take part in the composition process.

Eric's arrival at Cornell had the opposite effect. Troubled by the new weather, culture, and work ethics of the northeast, Eric often expressed his frustration with his new home and longing for his old one through small songs. Some of these were expanded to become OSIFC tracks, most notably Once and Forever. Both Eric and Daniel eventually adjusted to the new climate by the time sophomore year rolled around, and Cornell began to offer different forms of inspiration for OSIFC.

Ithaca's scenery and Cornell's old architecture lent themselves well to OSIFC's album art. The beautiful interior of Sage Chapel with its wooden ceiling, stained glass windows, and marbled floor would be used as the front cover on Infinity. Furthermore, on According to Prophecy, the classic interior of Bailey Auditorium would be used in the tray, and the front cover would feature a manipulation of a gorgeous Ithaca sunset.

Cornell affected OSIFC's music as well, most frequently through Eric's sensitivity to seasons and Ithaca's unique weather patterns. The combination of an introductory geology class and the arrival of the remains of hurricanes Katrina and Rita inspired the theme, mood, and title of Heavy Water in the summer of 2005, and a picturesque snowfall on a late autumn night in 2006 would be the inspiration for Ithaca Snowscape.

University of Washington - The alma mater of Andrew.

Rice University - The alma mater of Robert.

University of Texas - Eric and Daniel once again inadvertently ended up choosing the same university, this time for graduate school. As Daniel would be pursuing a medical degree, he chose the UT Southwest campus in Dallas, and Eric, pursuing an MS, chose the Austin campus. Separated by over a hundred miles, their ability to meet up was now even weaker, and all communication between members now took place via email.

Now even busier due to medical school, Daniel continues to play a passive part in OSIFC by chiming in with ideas occasionally and making constructive comments on the creations of Eric and Robert. Given the intense dedication required of medical students, this probably won't change too much in the foreseeable future.

Despite choosing the more relaxed two-year program, Eric still finds himself very busy with classwork and research. With the tasks of writing his thesis and finding a job both looming on the horizon, he is likely to become even busier. Nevertheless, Eric still occasionally finds time to put down some musical ideas, and he as already written several full length pieces since the completion of ATP.

UT Austin's urban setting and crowded streets are not nearly as influential to Eric as Cornell, so he often finds himself using influences from home, vacations, and old memories to develop themes for new songs.

University of Michigan - Andrew's medical school choice.

Stanford University - Robert's MS program choice.

FL Studio - OSIFC's primary composition software. Rarely do we ever use anything else to produce our music. OSIFC started using this software back when it was called Fruity Loops (version 3.0 to be specific) and has stuck with it over the years. It now includes a powerful wave editor and track sequencing capabilities, eliminating OSIFC's earlier need to use Sonic Foundry's Sound Forge and Acid (now owned by Sony). We highly recommend FL Studio to anyone interested in creating digital music.

OSIFC's "sound" is a direct consequence of the way its members use the program. Andrew, Daniel, Eric, and Robert all have unique habits and practices when it comes to composing with FL, and these have all evolved with the development of the program over time. For example, early on, OSIFC relied heavily on the 3xOSC instrument to produce many of its instruments. Today, Robert uses the 3xOSC much more modestly, and Eric hardly uses it at all. These trends have affected the evolution of OSIFC's music just as much as the band's increasing understanding of music theory. OSIFC spends the majority of its time tweaking knobs and flipping buttons on instrument and effect panels; composing melodies and beats is the easy part. This all comes with the territory when digitally writing electronic music.

The Freesound Project - An online repository of Creative Commons licensed sound files, uploaded by contributors from around the globe. OSIFC is very grateful for the many nature recordings and sound effects we've found on this site. Feel free to peruse the site and grab anything that sounds interesting, or upload any recordings you'd like to share with the world.

PCs - Think you can run FL Studio on a Mac? Unless you want to emulate or duel boot MS Windows on it, think again.

OSIFC's first endeavors took place on Andrew's ancient, custom-built PC. With the exception of some funny noises and an occasional fire in the monitor, it served us quite well. Humanity and much of Fallout were written and produced on it, and it was also employed for some Naked Handgrenade tasks. It finally crashed long after OSIFC had ceased using it, and Andrew crossed over to the Mac world for school purposes, but the band still retains many fond memories of that computer.

Eric acquired his Dimension 8200, dubbed For Whom the Bell Tolls, in 2002. Sparingly using instruments to conserve CPU power and leaving the computer on over night to render a song on his family's ancient Compaq were now a thing of the past. Eric's post-Humanity songs were all written on it, and all post-Fallout OSIFC albums were engineered and produced on it. It served the band well for several composing and production sessions over at Eric's house, and it was respected as the computer that never caused any trouble at the many LAN parties it was brought to. Although he has recently acquired an XPS M1530 (named Master of Puppets) to serve as his primary computer, the 8200 is still yet to falter.

Robert's earlier composing occurred on two old Gateways, affectionately referred to as Assnid and Assnid 2. These computers were known for inducing violent mood swings, causing premature hair loss, and occasionally demagnetizing your credit cards. When prompted with the decision of doing what you instructed or fashioning a blue screen on your monitor, they often chose the latter. Fortunately Robert's high school graduation gift happened to be a shiny new XPS desktop, known as Big Blue. His post-Infinity endeavors have taken place on it, as well as some of the groups side projects such as The Man Who Cried Schnitzel. While he too has acquired a laptop recently, Big Blue is still with us as well.

Wang's family has at least four Dell desktops lying around the house at any given time, sometimes more. You would think you were walking into some home grown server farm, but then you'd notice they all had some sort of MMORPG game running. As Wang's composing tenure was rather short, OSIFC didn't spend much time over there.