We caught up with New Jersey-based composer Textbook Maneuver, the experimental electronic project of Bronx-born artist Michael Keane. A classically trained pianist with a punk DIY spirit, Textbook Maneuver fuses cerebral sound design with cinematic storytelling and draws influence from the likes of Genesis (Duke era) and Rush. Under the Textbook Maneuver moniker, his music explores the intersection of IDM, ambient electronica, creating immersive soundscapes ideal for film, television, and interactive media.
His latest single, ‘Nocturnal Musings’ was released on his own imprint Life Science Records, LLC. With his 2025 debut album Adrenaline Slip drawing praise from outlets such as Magnetic Magazine, Illustrate Magazine and WWAM, Textbook Maneuver is quickly establishing himself as one of the most intriguing voices in the global experimental electronic scene.
Tell us about you, how long have you been making music? What inspired you to start?
First off, I am very appreciative of the interview, so thank you. I am from the US, grew up in the Bronx and I started playing piano at a young age, around 8, then picked up bass in my early teens. I started composing in my later teens but really did not start recording, composing and putting out music under Textbook Maneuver until the fall of 2024. I have always been drawn to music, I have a large collection of music that I listen to and I always thought one day I would write, record, and put out music. Throughout my life, I have had melodies come to me, and I would also improvise on the piano or bass guitar and then often write out the music. So I have sheets of music that go back decades. Last year, I was inspired to get serious and record. I began to think about what I would like to do after I have worked professionally in a non-music industry. I have worked as a chemist and business person for a few decades now so it just felt right to start considering music. The music really started to flow so I went with it. At the same time I was learning about recording, how to use modern software and synthesizers to create soundscapes, mix, master, etc. I took an electronic music class as well as a music business class at a local college. I surprised myself with how prolific I ended up being, and was getting positive feedback from friends and family so I established the record label and started releasing the music. For the debut full-length album, Adrenaline Slip, I was also inspired by the astronauts that were stranded in space last year and into early this year so I composed a “Space Trip” suite made up of four songs on the album. Many of the themes, chord progressions, melodies, etc I came up with from those sessions led to many of the other songs on the album.
The music industry is super competitive these days, was there a moment in your life that you wanted to give up on music? How did you manage to stay focused and achieve what you want?
I have a different take on the music industry, whether or not it is competitive, really depends on your goal. I will say it is so crowded, hundreds of thousands of artists and millions of songs each year, plus the entire history of recorded music which is also part of the current universe. It is truly amazing, the entire current and historical catalog within the entire earth’s population’s fingertips with streaming available in pretty much every country. When I was a teenager thinking about playing in bands and putting out music, I was pretty convinced I would not be able to make a living doing that so I went to college and took a different career path entirely. Now that I am much older, I decided to make a simple goal for myself, “bring enjoyable music to the masses.” That is my focus: make music I think is enjoyable, get it recorded and mixed to the best of my ability and get it out to the world. Treat it all with discipline and focus but do not let any of the business side get in the way of the creative process. Given how music has gone online, streaming, etc, it is frictionless in getting the music out. If it makes money one day, that is great but not the focus. My goal and focus is on composing and recording. Artists do deserve to be rewarded for their efforts, but setting a goal and managing expectations is important for any artist. Also, it takes a lot of time for people to get exposed to new music, it does not happen overnight. This may take years to get fully established but the journey and creative process have been an awesome experience and that is where I am getting joy. I called my first EP “Strike Joy” because that is what I am trying to do by making music. Back in the olden days, folks were trying to strike oil or strike gold, I am simply trying to strike joy.
How would you describe your creative processes? Are the music and lyrics written in conjunction, or separately?
Nearly all of my music comes from improvisation sessions. I will spend a bunch of time at the piano or learning a new synthesizer and then I will just start improvising. I start to hear moments that really capture my ear and I then begin to work on song structures, chord progressions, harmonies, rhythms, off of that one section. Eventually it becomes a fully realized song. During this process, feelings and emotions come to me along with a title that is trying to capture that feeling. Right now the songs I have put out are instrumental but the song titles are definitely thought out and the music created inspires the titles. I do have many songs with lyrics, I have not yet put them to music that is coming in the future. For these future pieces, I will be composing based on the flow of the lyrics but for the music I have put out already, it is all pure emotion and inspired by what I was feeling at the time of the improv session.
Where did the inspiration come from?
As I mentioned above, the astronauts were one key inspiration during these particular sessions. The titles express, in my view, what someone might be thinking as they are stuck in space doing what they love while dearly missing their loved ones back on earth. So “Tell Them I’m Not Here (Still in Outerspace)”, you may notice the rhythm of what could be a doorbell or a knock on a door which then becomes something that for me, makes me feel like I am floating in zero gravity, knowing I cannot answer who is calling for me at my house., The same idea for “Spacewalks”: what type of music might I hear in my head if I was attempting a space walk outside of a space station? Then. For the final two songs of the suite, “ReEntry” and “Controlled Landing”, the music has a bit more gravity as I was trying to capture the emotions that might be felt during those last two stages of space flight, knowing you will be back on Earth rather quickly. For the current single, “Nocturnal Musings”, from my EP “Strike Joy” the inspiration was far more terrestrial. For that song, I was composing in a screened-in room, at night, over the course of a few weeks. All of the night creatures and insects were making a beautiful racket each night, so I tried to capture some of those in the form of a song. I also get inspired by films or books. The song “Murmur 1 Perfect Day” was inspired after I watched the Wim Wenders film “Perfect Days”. I was really trying to compose a happy and upbeat melody off of an improvised riff I had written after seeing the movie.
What’s next for you?
I will continue to promote the current songs I have released as Textbook Maneuver; I really want to spread the music as far and wide as possible. As I mentioned, the past ten months or so have been very prolific. I now have many different styles so I will be releasing three more albums. The first one will be as Distance Major, which has a slightly more instrumental rock/ jazzy vibe, my SCITK project (pronounced “Sci Tech”) is my attempt at high energy electronic dance music, and lastly I will be releasing an album under my real name, which will be made up of instrumental piano, modern classical and then each song will be re-recorded with electronic elements. I plan to pitch my entire catalog for film, television, and video game consideration. There could also be some collabs and remixes in the future. Lastly, now that I understand the modern day music business a bit more, I plan on seeking and signing other artists to put out on Life Science Records. I am hoping to be able to coach and grow other musicians and composers. It’s all in the goal, “to bring enjoyable music to the masses.”