An open letter to Indiegogo.com:
About two years ago my band started pre-production on our second LP. We had no overhead to pay for professional services but still wanted to do things the best way possible. Our first LP was done all on our own. We recorded, mixed, mastered, copied and distributed it all by hand so we know what goes into every aspect of making a good product. We had secured a fairly well known musician to help produce the album and had already tracked a majority of the songs. That being said we decided to contact a funding site to help pay for post-production and manufacturing costs. PledgeMusic were the first to come to our attention. We set our page up with rewards and budgeted out a reasonable goal applied for the ‘go ahead’ and got turned down. We got responses along the lines of: “(your music) sounds great!” but “your social networks are a little low…” “Solid support on your Facebook Band Page is really a must” as well as telling us we didn’t have enough Twitter followers to even be considered by the site. The e-mail was riddled with links of sites to help “address (our) fan base growth and gain momentum”. It was all kind of a downer really because we heard about the site in a fairly grassroots manner and were looking forward to all the possibilities. Now we’ve never been in-your-face, shameless self-promoters by nature. In fact, we’re not impressed by artists who pummel there fanbase (or anyone else for that matter) into visiting, liking, or paying for something they aren’t interested in. This includes the “pay to play” mentality where an artist pays for opportunities, hits, streams and thousands of pawned fans. Regardless, we went ahead and funded the rest of the project out of our own pocket and were able to double our fanbase by the end of the next year. What did all of this prove? Well, 1) That we didn’t need anything to prove ourselves and that we were passionate enough to still get things done and 2) That some sites like these are a bit hypocritical when it comes to what they set out to do. If you’re trying to help independent artists, musicians and the likes reach their goals then why would you shut them out for not having enough of something to begin with? Isn’t that the point, to get there? So what we saw were a lot of musicians who had numbers attached to them that got the green light because ‘they had something to show for it’. As most musicians know, bands fall apart, careers change and you’re not always in the same band you started in so you start over. But when you’re excluded from a company who’s idea is based on the “help your favourite artists make and release their records” route then what’s that say about the company? Some of my favorite bands don’t even have social networking sites.
We’re kicking off the last 30 days of our campaign tomorrow and whether we reach goal or not I’ll at least know our project has worth, potential and that no one should give up confidence when their numbers are “a little low”. I’d like to say thanks to Indiegogo.com for giving us the opportunity to fund our third album without all the grief that is irrelevant anyway.
All the best,
Ian
Musician at The Velvet Ants and
Founder of Zeptune Records
Friday, May 31, 2013
Thursday, May 30, 2013
Chi Cheng
Just wanted to take a moment to send out my heartfelt condolences to the friends and family of Deftones bassist Chi Cheng. Gina was kind enough to send a note shortly before they were able to bring Chi back home. I heard about his passing after releasing the last album so I'd like to dedicate the 'Extras' album in memory of him. I can only hope they find peace during this time.
-Ian
-Ian
Thursday, May 23, 2013
TVA3: Introductions
Hard to believe it's been over a year since releasing the last full-length and I'm glad to say 'A/U' and 'Extras' are out now too! For those of you who don't know I started a page at Indiegogo.com this month in hopes of funding a new album. It's harder and harder for some musicians to make things happen without the backing and exposure most celebrated acts already have. What's this mean? Well, artists on bigger labels and who've had these luxuries will continue to sell sell sell. Doesn't leave much room for new talent but hey, I'm happy with our little niche.
The next thing for us (or me) anyway is to keep on truckin' and work on more tunes. We haven't even kicked off the campaign yet and have nearly 25% of the projected funds to reach our goal. Even at 2k it won't be an easy task to get album 3 underway... We still have to write, track, mix, and master this thing. With the help of friends, family and most importantly fans of the band we should see this thing out by the end of the year.
Aside from that we are offering great perks to go along with backing the project. These include:
Full-album downloads
Hard copies of both previous albums and the soon to be
Handwritten lyrics
Your name in the credits and
Even a custom painting by yours truly
At 2k we hope to get most of pre and post-production completed and even help pay for some manufacturing and distribution down the road. Those at certain levels of backing will get to hear the new album before anyone else and even get a copy before anyone else can. I'm also in talks with a local company about having some limited edition vinyl stickers and buttons made for the campaign. So what are you waiting for? Let's make this the best album yet!
Let me introduce the players I plan to have on the album:
Me (on guitar and vocals, and maybe some keys/synth)
Pete deGraff (Bassist, formerly of CLEARTHEWAY, Villain, and Cast Iron Hike)
Eric Sakmar (Bassist, from Run Silent Run Deep)
Youlee Park (Pianist, formerly of Shebore, teacher at Levine School of Music)
Tom Murphy (Guitarist, formerly of Veritoss)
Jordon Zadorozny (Multi-instrumentalist/Producer, of Blinker the Star and Digital Noise Academy)*
Jordon is also going to be my wing man on this project. He recently mastered the 'Extras' b-sides and I'm looking forward to working with him. I'm also looking forward to working with Pete who was an engineer for my previous band Lost in Stereo and has been in a few notable bands himself. An old bandmate of mine Tom Murphy said he could help out too. I don't think we've played together in almost 15 years now. We started our first band together called Blis. I've only recently been introduced to Eric after putting out an ad but I'm confident he'll bring his very best to the table. So there it is, let's get this thing off the ground. We have 5 weeks to go to reach goal. I've even sorted out that I'll have to raise some funds outside of the campaign to keep things running but that's minutia.
Where can you contribute? Visit http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/the-velvet-ants-3rd-album. I'll be posting updates whether it be a lyric, sketch or video for each new contributor. Even if sharing the page is the least you can do it will help us out, and many many thanks to those who plan to or have already contributed!
-Ian
The next thing for us (or me) anyway is to keep on truckin' and work on more tunes. We haven't even kicked off the campaign yet and have nearly 25% of the projected funds to reach our goal. Even at 2k it won't be an easy task to get album 3 underway... We still have to write, track, mix, and master this thing. With the help of friends, family and most importantly fans of the band we should see this thing out by the end of the year.
Aside from that we are offering great perks to go along with backing the project. These include:
Full-album downloads
Hard copies of both previous albums and the soon to be
Handwritten lyrics
Your name in the credits and
Even a custom painting by yours truly
At 2k we hope to get most of pre and post-production completed and even help pay for some manufacturing and distribution down the road. Those at certain levels of backing will get to hear the new album before anyone else and even get a copy before anyone else can. I'm also in talks with a local company about having some limited edition vinyl stickers and buttons made for the campaign. So what are you waiting for? Let's make this the best album yet!
Let me introduce the players I plan to have on the album:
Me (on guitar and vocals, and maybe some keys/synth)
Pete deGraff (Bassist, formerly of CLEARTHEWAY, Villain, and Cast Iron Hike)
Eric Sakmar (Bassist, from Run Silent Run Deep)
Youlee Park (Pianist, formerly of Shebore, teacher at Levine School of Music)
Tom Murphy (Guitarist, formerly of Veritoss)
Jordon Zadorozny (Multi-instrumentalist/Producer, of Blinker the Star and Digital Noise Academy)*
Jordon is also going to be my wing man on this project. He recently mastered the 'Extras' b-sides and I'm looking forward to working with him. I'm also looking forward to working with Pete who was an engineer for my previous band Lost in Stereo and has been in a few notable bands himself. An old bandmate of mine Tom Murphy said he could help out too. I don't think we've played together in almost 15 years now. We started our first band together called Blis. I've only recently been introduced to Eric after putting out an ad but I'm confident he'll bring his very best to the table. So there it is, let's get this thing off the ground. We have 5 weeks to go to reach goal. I've even sorted out that I'll have to raise some funds outside of the campaign to keep things running but that's minutia.
Where can you contribute? Visit http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/the-velvet-ants-3rd-album. I'll be posting updates whether it be a lyric, sketch or video for each new contributor. Even if sharing the page is the least you can do it will help us out, and many many thanks to those who plan to or have already contributed!
-Ian
Friday, May 17, 2013
Extras: The Long and Short of a Weird Little Album
*To stream the album while reading listen here:
THE LONG OF IT: (To skip to the short of it, scroll down)
The first few b-sides Advantage left behind: 'Idle Tears', 'Celestial Shell', 'Over Harbors' and even 'Let's Go with Alice' were far from completion. 'Celestial Shell' had no drums but sounded pretty much okay without, so it became the hidden track on Advantage's first edition. 'Let's Go with Alice' ended up on Advantage but was accidentally a drum-friendly mix I had made Trevor to critique his performance before moving on. 'Idle Tears' just never sat well and 'Over Harbors' was never mixed properly. So we had a few extras there off the bat to either come back to or tidy up some for release down the road. The songs deserved it anyway. I just wish we had taken a little more time with it all, but that's sort of what you sign up for when you bring in outside help or even try to re-ignite what was left of an abandoned idea in the first place. 'Let's Go with Alice' is seen here with new texture and a fresh mix with waaaaay less thunk to the ear-ducts.
Onto the original takes (or Nu Wave versions as we called them) of 'Shapeless and Round' and 'Anyone'. These were basically part of the last rough mixes before working with Ken on the album. A bit more synthesizer on both with quirks that never made it to the final; but the performance is there and I like these versions just as much if not more. The "demo" versions are fairly similar in that they were pre-post-production if that makes sense. Basically skeletal forms of some of the more epic tracks on Advantage. These and a few other demos not found on 'Extras' were part of a disc I had made for Trevor in 2011 called 'Solar Bear and Other Tales'.
'Untitled' (also known as 'Mission Impossible'), 'Thumper', 'Please, Save Room For the Water' and 'Digitalis' were finished, or barely finished I should say before the band's last little hiatus when Roscoe and then Trevor would end up leaving the band. They were the last few songs we worked on together and would be the saving grace to what 'Extras' really needed: a fresh breath of air. 'Untitled' features Roscoe on main vocals and the rest we just had fun with. You can hear all of us on there at some point or another. 'Thumper' like 'Idle Tears' and 'Over Harbors' was intended for Advantage but fell off the radar as well. 'SRFTW' and 'Digitalis' are my favorites though, they brought us back to the spontaneous side of things, back where Lunatic Frame and Pixie Junk left off.
Two other fairly important tracks here are 'Interference 2' and an alternate of 'Shebore'. The first song I remember debuting of (any of this new material) was a quiet version of 'Shebore' with just vocals, bass, and guitars. It sounded clean and fresh and like us, but not like us, all at the same time. Like a slightly more-mature us. Later, I had the benefit of collaborating with my childhood friend Youlee Park (who works at the Levine School of Music in D.C.). She is an outstanding and classically trained pianist and came up with the accompaniment almost immediately. It's a bare bones mix but it sounds so natural with her on there. 'Interference 2' was the dark horse of the b-sides. Again, looking back it had the performance qualities of something that could've ended up on the main album but never did. The pace might have even been better for the song too! It's more calm and collected sounding, even with the tagalong overdubs added later on to fill things out. There's even a guitar-and-vocal only version of this floating around that holds it's weight just as well.
THE SHORT OF IT:
So that was the beginning of the end, members left and everything sat once again. Luckily, and through a chance encounter with Jordon Zadorozny best known for his band Blinker the Star (among other various projects and production work) it looked as though the tracks might spark bright again. For the most part the songs were already mixed and just needed a real boost (or mastering that is); and that's what they got. 'Extras' turned out to be more fulfilling than the album from which they were unintentionally rejected. And that would be the long and short of this weird little album. I won't be too hard on myself this time around. I know some people thoroughly enjoyed/enjoy 'Advantage' and I don't want to take that away from them. Although it exposes some stretch of what 'Advantage' might have been, I think 'Extras' holds a more positive light over what could've been a big messy disgrace and gives some insight to the band underneath, that could've been.
-Ian
ps. All of our albums are now offered in CD form via Velvet-Ants.com and here's the non-deluxe artwork for 'Extras'
THE LONG OF IT: (To skip to the short of it, scroll down)
The first few b-sides Advantage left behind: 'Idle Tears', 'Celestial Shell', 'Over Harbors' and even 'Let's Go with Alice' were far from completion. 'Celestial Shell' had no drums but sounded pretty much okay without, so it became the hidden track on Advantage's first edition. 'Let's Go with Alice' ended up on Advantage but was accidentally a drum-friendly mix I had made Trevor to critique his performance before moving on. 'Idle Tears' just never sat well and 'Over Harbors' was never mixed properly. So we had a few extras there off the bat to either come back to or tidy up some for release down the road. The songs deserved it anyway. I just wish we had taken a little more time with it all, but that's sort of what you sign up for when you bring in outside help or even try to re-ignite what was left of an abandoned idea in the first place. 'Let's Go with Alice' is seen here with new texture and a fresh mix with waaaaay less thunk to the ear-ducts.
Onto the original takes (or Nu Wave versions as we called them) of 'Shapeless and Round' and 'Anyone'. These were basically part of the last rough mixes before working with Ken on the album. A bit more synthesizer on both with quirks that never made it to the final; but the performance is there and I like these versions just as much if not more. The "demo" versions are fairly similar in that they were pre-post-production if that makes sense. Basically skeletal forms of some of the more epic tracks on Advantage. These and a few other demos not found on 'Extras' were part of a disc I had made for Trevor in 2011 called 'Solar Bear and Other Tales'.
'Untitled' (also known as 'Mission Impossible'), 'Thumper', 'Please, Save Room For the Water' and 'Digitalis' were finished, or barely finished I should say before the band's last little hiatus when Roscoe and then Trevor would end up leaving the band. They were the last few songs we worked on together and would be the saving grace to what 'Extras' really needed: a fresh breath of air. 'Untitled' features Roscoe on main vocals and the rest we just had fun with. You can hear all of us on there at some point or another. 'Thumper' like 'Idle Tears' and 'Over Harbors' was intended for Advantage but fell off the radar as well. 'SRFTW' and 'Digitalis' are my favorites though, they brought us back to the spontaneous side of things, back where Lunatic Frame and Pixie Junk left off.
Two other fairly important tracks here are 'Interference 2' and an alternate of 'Shebore'. The first song I remember debuting of (any of this new material) was a quiet version of 'Shebore' with just vocals, bass, and guitars. It sounded clean and fresh and like us, but not like us, all at the same time. Like a slightly more-mature us. Later, I had the benefit of collaborating with my childhood friend Youlee Park (who works at the Levine School of Music in D.C.). She is an outstanding and classically trained pianist and came up with the accompaniment almost immediately. It's a bare bones mix but it sounds so natural with her on there. 'Interference 2' was the dark horse of the b-sides. Again, looking back it had the performance qualities of something that could've ended up on the main album but never did. The pace might have even been better for the song too! It's more calm and collected sounding, even with the tagalong overdubs added later on to fill things out. There's even a guitar-and-vocal only version of this floating around that holds it's weight just as well.
THE SHORT OF IT:
So that was the beginning of the end, members left and everything sat once again. Luckily, and through a chance encounter with Jordon Zadorozny best known for his band Blinker the Star (among other various projects and production work) it looked as though the tracks might spark bright again. For the most part the songs were already mixed and just needed a real boost (or mastering that is); and that's what they got. 'Extras' turned out to be more fulfilling than the album from which they were unintentionally rejected. And that would be the long and short of this weird little album. I won't be too hard on myself this time around. I know some people thoroughly enjoyed/enjoy 'Advantage' and I don't want to take that away from them. Although it exposes some stretch of what 'Advantage' might have been, I think 'Extras' holds a more positive light over what could've been a big messy disgrace and gives some insight to the band underneath, that could've been.
-Ian
ps. All of our albums are now offered in CD form via Velvet-Ants.com and here's the non-deluxe artwork for 'Extras'
Tuesday, May 7, 2013
'Extras' PRESS
Thought I'd share a review of 'Extras' from David Hintz of DC ROCK LIVE: Read it here. The album will release May 17th via Velvet-Ants.com and a few other sites for now. Wider distribution to follow. Also thinking about re-releasing 'Advantage' in the near future (with minute differences from it's 1st release).
Pre-Order 'Extras' for $5 and help support the next album!
More info soon
-Ian
Pre-Order 'Extras' for $5 and help support the next album!
More info soon
-Ian
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