This year I finished an album that I’d been planning for the last ten years: Your Call is Important to Us, a hold music concept album. I had the idea for this album years ago, talking about how cool I thought it would be to make an album that plays out like a person on hold. Every time they talk to someone, they get transferred to another department and the music you hear is the hold music. I’ve always had a soft spot for hold music, but I wanted to put a futuristic spin on it. I wanted the album to be: being on hold if the hold music was really good.

- Home Decor
- Glastelle
- Electronics Dept.
- Xavier
- Men’s Casualwear
- Ramda
- Sporting Goods
- Feluzia
The Concept
In the world of YCiItU, things are a bit different from the world you and I know. Technology is more advanced, people are more spiritually evolved, and space travel is a thing. But being on hold is a remarkably similar experience to what we know. In this fantastical world, there is a massive company known as Wave Mall™ that offers practically any item you could want to buy.
In order to create the best shopping experience possible, Wave Mall™ has implemented state-of-the-art technology to create the pinnacle of home shopping excellence. Some of our cutting edge technologies include:
- The WaveSpace Terminal – This is an extra-dmensional terminal that allows you to connect with Wave Mall™ representatives anywhere in the universe; including on other planets, in other galaxies, and even in other dimensions!
- Teletronic Psy Support Team – The Teletronic Psy Support Team (TPST) employs a talented group of psychic customer support specialists who know when you’re dissatisfied with the service you’re receiving. Just think “operator,” and we’ll automatically connect you with one of our team members.
- Empath Connect™ – Our highly-trained team of Empaths ensure that your feelings will be listened to and understood so that we can provide you with the best service. At any time while waiting on hold, you can press 1 to be connected with one of our empaths. Some of our customers even call just to talk to our Empath Connect™ team when they’re having a tough day.
- Heartlink™ – Our Heartlink™ Technology takes customer feedback to the next level. Not only can we receive comments for improvement to our services, we can even receive feelings about your customer support experience that can be felt by our team. If you’re frustrated, we’ll know about, we’ll even feel the same frustration. This allows us to bring you service that is catered to your experience.
- DreamBasket™ Shopping Integration – We’ve partnered with DreamBasket™ and their trailblazing dream shopping technology. Using your Dream Body, you can navigate to thousands of DreamSpace retailers while you sleep soundly in bed. Navigate your Dream Body to Theta Epicenter 3 to find our entire Wave Mall™ catalog available for shopping. Shop while you sleep and wake up refreshed, ready for a new day.
The Voices
I enlisted several of my talented friends to help me record the skits on this album. Each was a mix of a written script or basic concept and some improvisation. Here I’ll introduce you to the characters of Your Call is Important to Us, as well as the voice actors who played them.
Glastelle
Glastelle spent her youth studying Orbital Psychology at the Venusian Institute of Mind Science. Glastelle enjoys reading high fantasy novels, playing board games, and spending winters on worlds with an abundance of atmosphere to stay warm.
In 3042, allegations made the rounds that Glastelle had suffered brain damage from exposure to Venusian gasses. She has denied these allegations and remains a top employee of Wave Mall™ to this day.
Xavier
Xavier hails from a small, sparsely populated world in the Aho Mata Quiassen Sector. His people are shrouded in mystery, as there are less than 100,000 of his kind in existence. They keep their customs and ways of life secret, and are said to have existed for many millenia.
Xavier has received multiple “employee of the hour” awards, and is known for tendency to give strange gifts from other worlds to his fellow coworkers. Xavier is the customer support lead of the Electronics Dept.
Ramda
Ramda was born in the Ramda Quadrant. Everyone from Ramda is named Ramda, and they are known for their love of numerology, which they use to make decisions both in their government, and in everyday life.
Ramda has received the “most cheerful employee” award every year since joining the company. Ramda is the lead manager of the Men’s Casualwear department.
Feluzia
Feluzia is a resident of the Tensel Tansel Sector, from the world of Wundum. The Wundum people are known for their fantastic theatrical performances, as well as for their singing, dancing, and performing prowess. Artists from Wundum have swept the Worldies Awards 563 centuries in a row.
Feluzia is known for her skills as a dancer, and for her larger-than-life personality. Since joining Wave Mall™, Feluzia has joined over 10 different departments, including Sporting Goods, Office Supplies, and the Gardening Department.
Some Inspirational Hold Music
The idea for this album came, at least in part, due to some excellent music that I heard while on hold. I recorded 2 of my favorites, and if I can track down any more, I’ll add them here. There are some hold music songs that live rent-free in my head, but which I haven’t yet managed to track down or record. Here are two classics that helped inspire this album.
“Easiest Listening”
This was the song that started it all. I’ve dubbed it “Easiest Listening.” So jazzy, so innovative, so retro! It plays with rhythm in interesting ways while still being relaxing. This really is so easy to listen to.
“Winter Cheese World”
I have no idea why I chose this name, but strange things sometimes issue forth from the depths of my mind. I found this song so cheesy that it crossed over into being wholesome and endearing.
Album Art
I worked with Dongkyu Lim (also known as Q) from The StudioQ to make this amazing retro album art. I sent Q a pinterest board full of inspiration pictures, mostly focused on 80s technology and office aesthetics. The front cover that Q sent me I loved and no changes were made. However, we went through a few different versions of the back cover that will be used on CD and (hopefully) vinyl releases. Here’s a peek at the process:
The first version of the back cover used the theme of an actual physical shopping mall with signs for the different departments along with extension numbers for the different employees. However I felt it didn’t fit the theme of a phonecall.
Next we tried something a bit more straightforward, with the directory looking a bit more like a digital directory. I really like this version, and almost went with it. However, I really ended up liking the final design more, it felt like it captured the 80s vibe I was hoping for.
I really loved this “phonebook” theme, since the album is a hold music album and the idea is that the listener is on a phone call. The directory idea was a winer, but I didn’t really want to have a full page of listings. Even though it sounded fun to make up other departments and names, I thought it would be confusing. People might think there are more tracks than there really are.
Finally, we decided on this version. It made it clearer how many tracks there are, and also included room for album notes. I also find that it has a certain cheesy charm to it that I think really fits with the album.