New music, new technologies, new distribution of my CD
Hi folks. I have been busy though I’ve neglected this blog for the better part of 6 months. My last posting was March when I wrote about playing a show at Labspace Studio in Toronto’s east end. Since then I’ve been working on the music I recorded with my pal Paul Schedlich, working on websites and video, and finalizing the material for my CD release.
It looks a lot like sometime this fall I will be able to release an EP with songs like “Alright Kids” and “The Legend.” I will be at design school, studying graphics and motion at Centennial College, but I’ll try to keep producing and finishing my musical projects. There are some hot tracks cooking alongside those two as well, a burner I call “Tonight Kids” and a newer tune called “Moving On,” which reminds me of dark rock with funky house beats in a kind of Happy Mondays JoyDivision stew.
My biggest news and proof that I’ve been hard at work is the release of my album “Construct Deconstruct Reconstruct.” It is going live across a number of digital platforms including iTunes, eMusic, Amazon, Napster, Rhpasody and others (via Tunecore) and I’m finishing up the art for the Amazon “on demand” service called “CreateSpace” so people can buy the physical CD. I expect both to be good to go by September.
The video for “Coconut Radio” is almost finished and I am working on a promotional website that will encourage remixing, mashups, and other kinds of audio-video collaboration. Ulysses Castellanos and I are throwing a “free beer” party and sharing, open-source style, all the files and tracks associated with the original mix. I’ll also include a documentary and some stills, plus links to video sources and for those new to remixing, I’ll provide links and ideas about using software like Acid and GarageBand to rework our track. Expect a release very shortly and everything to go completely live by September as well.
I’m working a lot on impementing audio and video through WordPress as a CMS (Content Management System). there are a number of very useful plugins that make adding audio files, flash video and mail lists easy and attractive on your websites (more on technologies like Apture, FLV-Embed and MailChimp in a future post).
On a final note, I hope to make a little portfolio project out of the Coconut Radio video launch by designing a small fanzine as well. Want to try to build in a CD pocket into the back cover – any ideas? Let me know – looking forward to your feedback!
Mike
