Is it really February already? And was my last post really November? I really can’t believe it. 2011 gone, the Fantasy Bridge release a distant memory. 2012 already a month in and no updates from me on Album No. 2.

I guess it’s time for a little bit of an update then. The bad news is that my faithful iMac has developed a fault, insomuch as it’s firewire port has died. Now any die-hard reader might remember that my Multimix FW is the primary interface for all things musical into the computer.  and that little FW suffix is the give away.  It moves all that musical stuff in and out via that Firewire port. So right now, as I type I can’t get anything from the mixer into the iMac and anything recorded on the Mac back out to the speakers.  The said Firewire port is integrated into the iMac’s main logic board and Apple want the best part of £600 to replace that, and that is getting on for half the cost of a 2012 spec iMac, or potentially a Macbook Pro, so at the moment I’m making do while I decide which way to jump.

I have sorted an interim solution, in that the Roland Fantom G has it’s own USB audio interface, so I can at least listen to stuff I’ve recorded, and if I’m using virtual instruments, or sounds from the Fantom I can record these. It’s put a bit of a kibosh on the writing process, but on the other hand it’s making me think laterally and use some of the other tools at my disposal for writing.  The Fantom and the Alesis Fusion both have built in sequencers for instance, and though their workflows are very different (and rather challenging after the gloriously easy way Logic works) it is a way to change things up a bit.

And what about progress on the album front? I hear you ask.

Well I have six songs written, and for the most part lyrics for all of them.  Also there are demos, in various stages of completeness, but sans vocals:

The Long Song (Title still to be decided). This one’s about the day the Seventh Angel in Revelation blows the last trumpet, signifying the end of the world – Well it is 2012 and there are all these mad ideas about this being the last year in the Mayan calendar, so I thought it a quite fun idea for a big prog epic.

Voices: About the life of a man who hears voices in his head all his life. There is rather a nice  horror movie twist at the end.

Learning to Fly: Which is basically as the title says.  It uses a classic Roland polysynth sound.

The Rhythm of the World: Based around a drum groove that builds up on various ethnic percussion sounds, and a chant-like vocal. Having recorded a demo though, I have discovered that it’s key is too high for me to comfortably sing, so I need to look at transposing it down somewhat.

Why?: A piano based torch song about a post-apocolyptic world where everyone lives underground.

The Embrace of Tides: (working title) A 3 part epic inspired by some of the ideas in David Brin’s Uplift stories and notably the idea that sentient life is drawn to live near ever steeper gravity wells. The three parts are: Event Horizon, Hidden Refuge, and  Light Rider. This is probably the least complete song of the bunch. I kind of know where it’s going, but a lot of the detail is missing. As are, at this point, all the lyrics!

The Long Song and Embrace are going to come in at around 20 minutes each, so I think these six songs will probably make up the album. I have a couple of other ideas rattling around too, and I’m going to carry on writing to get these complete, in case any of the others stick out as being wrong for the album as a whole.

I am tentatively looking to have fairly complete demos of all the songs by the start of Spring, and then start recording in earnest.

I’ll also try and blog a bit more regularly too.

Watch this space.

When I started this blog, it was for the express purpose of chronicling the making of Fantasy Bridge, from sorting out the material, through recording, to it’s final release. Since then I’ve posted a few other entries regarding the post launch activities, up to the release on iTunes last week. So really, apart from sharing reviews with you and letting you know when the album appears in other retail channels, the story of the making of Fantasy Bridge is at an end.

But as I have hinted in the past, there is lots more music to come. Things I already have written, things I want to write, and things that want to be written! So with that in mind this post forms a new start. It’s the day I start talking about ALBUM NUMBER 2.

It doesn’t have an official name yet… I think I know what I want to call it, I have a huge, part written 20 minute prog epic, that will form the backbone of the project, and a couple of other songs that are quite well developed, but I want to leave it a while so I can develop some of the other musical ideas before making the final decision.

So once again we’re back into making-of-mode. There will, I’m sure, be more news on Fantasy Bridge to share with you as time goes on, and I’ll post about those as they happen, but in the meantime…

… Here we go again!

Well, it’s been a couple of months since the official release of Fantasy Bridge, and I haven’t blogged at all since reporting on the big day, so I thought it was high time to take stock, and reflect on the whole make a record  process, and the immediate aftermath thereof.

First up: I am really proud of the album.  I still have an emotional connection to all the songs, which has to say something, since I have now heard the all rather a lot of times.  The whole recording process has been life affirming, everything about the project has either met or exceeded my original expectations.

Secondly: I couldn’t have done it alone.  I listened back the other day to one of the demos I did of Don’t Give Up on Love a number of years ago, and frankly it was rubbish. (and at the time I did it I thought it was pretty much release ready!) So without the collaboration of the following people, Fantasy Bridge would not have come close to  being what it is: Ted Barrett from Phoenix Arizona, whose lyrics for Children of a Forgotten Sun made that song actually possible in the first place. My nephew, Adam Chinn who played the bass throughout. John Cornfield, whose deft touches in the mastering suite took a mix I was pleased with to something altogether amazing. Nick Crosby from New York for much of the guitar work. My long standing friend and often-times bandmate Paul Fuller who dragged the Premier kit out once again for all the drums, Steinar Gregertsen from Norway, for providing the blistering guitar work on the title track, Wim Koopman from the Netherlands whose sax work took the track Quiescence to a whole different level. My friend Andy Ullyott who provided some lovely acoustic and electric guitar on Together and Day by the Sea, and of course, my wife Sue, who not only provided the electric violin lead on Ode to Joy, but who was, I know, very long suffering over the nearly 2 years that I spent obsessing about the project, and without her support, and encouragement, it just wouldn’t have turned out like it has. While I’m thanking people, I should give a shout to the guys at Disc Wizards who took my graphics and created the most stunning packaging for the CD.

Thirdly:  You have to learn all kinds of arcane things to make an album.  It’s not enough to play an instrument and sing a little, and know how to work a recording device of some kind. The artistic and engineering skills required are just the start.  You need to know about copyright, and ISRCs and barcodes, and CMYK and PDFs and paypal and web-coding and .. the list goes on.

Fourthly: it doesn’t stop when the CDs are delivered.  Assuming you actually want to sell some, you have to turn yourself into a marketing professional, you have to prepare a press pack, spend hours searching the web for contact addresses, and emails for likely contacts in print media, radio stations, web sites etc.  It’s two months after release and I’m still working on who else I can send promos to or point the the press/media pages on the website. Currently I’m investigating Facebook ads and Google Ads, as a means of adding to the whole promotional activity, but they are both equally arcane areas to learn. Then I also have to sort out the iTunes question and get the album available there too.

Fifthly: This is hard, and frustrating. You have to realise that most people you send stuff to will not respond at all. Did they get the package? Will they actually listen to it? More importantly, will they do something about it? (And in most cases, the answer will almost certainly be ‘no’) For the most part, that’s all out of my hands. Though I always said that if I ended up with a cupboard full of coffee coasters shaped like CDs, that would be OK, it would be more OK if lots more people got to hear the music, and possibly like it as much as I do.

Finally: When all is said and done, and I ask the question: Would I do this again? The answer is a resounding yes! And to prove it, I already have a 20 minute prog epic 90% written that is likely form the backbone to a follow-up album. And that is a topic for another day altogether!

Well, as you might have guessed, we had a bit of a party to celebrate the launch of the CD.

And played some tunes.

It was a hot June evening, and everyone seemed to be in a mood to party.  It was great to catch up with so many friends from all over the place.

You can see some photos from the event by clicking here. As more pics come in from the various people who were snapping away, I’ll add them to the album.

I have to say DBs Weston did us proud with the PA rig and the lighting.  On the whole, I have to say it was a brilliant night. Notwithstanding the problems I had with the mainstage rig and the monitors.  We got through the first half with half my keyboard sounds missing, but it didn’t matter.  We just had a great time.

The set list was as follows

• Fantasy Bridge
• Together on the Shores of Time
• Autumn Rain
• Endless Ocean
• Quiescence
• Don’t Give up on Love
• Ode to Joy (encore)

I would like to thank Daren from DBs, Sue for all the help in organising it, and putting up with me in the run-up to the party, and of course Adam, Brendan and Paul for helping create the Fantasy Bridge live sound.

Well, here it is…

The culmination of nearly 2 years of work.  The CD, Fantasy Bridge is now available to buy from the MarkOneMusic webshop. Last night we had the launch party at DBs, here in Weston-super-Mare, we had a great evening and once I have the pics back from everyone, I’ll post a blog entry specifically chronicling  the event.

I feel exhausted and elated.  It is the fulfilment of a lifetime ambition. I am very proud of it, and of all the people who contributed to it’s becoming a reality.

I hope you like it too.

So, now I’ve announced the official launch date as 3rd June, I decided it was time to reveal the album cover.

And here it is. Fantasy Bridge.

It is of course only half of the actual image, since, as the regular readers wil know, the cover is a digipak gatefold design.

The design itself was created using Carrara Pro, a 3D modelling and landscape design application.  It’s a big image with a lot of detail – The seascape is a transparent solid that interacts with the ambient light as water, so rendering took hours!

Anyway, I am really happy with the final image.  I think it really captures the vibe I had in mind for the album and the project as a whole.

In other news, I’ve also updated the website main page with the same picture and I’ve begun construction on the Fantasy Bridge ‘Shop’ page too, but this won’t be live until the 3rd June. (By which time I hope to have sorted out creating the Paypal payment widgets, making sure they work, and so on).

Stay tuned for more release info.

Every good album launch event needs t-shirts. Right? So we decided to push the boat out and get some shirts made.

The design is based on the CD on-body image, with the ‘Bridge’ coming out at the viewer.  I’m rather pleased with  how it’s come out.

We found a guy locally who would do short-run jobs called RM Signs and Textiles and he was a really nice guy.  Really switched on and, happy to advise on the best print method for the job.  He even had to do a small edit on the design where photoshop had clipped the top of the circle, which he’s done really well.

So now we have a large pile of t-shirts which I think have come out rather well, and they will be available on the night at DBs alongside the CDs themselves. More about which, very soon.

It was Sue’s idea.  If we’ve got to delay, we might as well do something a bit more ‘special’ to launch the album.

We decided that playing the CD through and me having a go at some ‘unplugged’ versions of a couple of songs, in the back garden with 20 or so friends over Easter would have been nice, but we could think a bit more ambitious.  Adam was up for it, as was Paul (the two ‘local’ musicians on the project). So we got together and started trying out some of the songs. Yes it was working, but we could really do with a guitarist too.  Andy unfortunately had to rule himself out due to work commitments, and of course Steinar and Nick are in different timezones!

But Paul and I thought of a friend from way back who is a good guitarist and who might be up for a jam.  To cut a long story short, I’d like to welcome Brendan Dykes to the Fantasy Bridge family for the launch gig. Rehearsals are very much under way, and I’m pretty pleased with the way it’s sounding.

Then our attention turned to the venue.

So having thought a bit and explored a few avenues that seemed to get closed by either cost, or people not returning emails, Paul happened to mention his neighbour owned a live music venue, and might be worth contacting. Sue and I went to visit Daren of DBs Music Bar in Weston, and he is a really nice guy, with a cool venue, replete with sound system, stage, lighting, bars, and more importantly  a free night on June 3rd.

So we will be presenting about half the album, live to an invited audience on that night, followed by a play through of the CD and some fine retail opportunities.

The countdown to the launch party begins!

Things never run quite to plan do they?

So this week, I got a phone call from the CD manufacturers.  The plant they use had some machinery problems. The result of which is, my CDs are going to be delayed until the end of the month.  Add in the Easter holidays, and this means that 25th April is no longer going to be a viable release date.

Of course there is nothing much the Disc Wizards guys can do about this, it’s their subcontractor that has had the problem.

Anyway, what is to be, and all that.  So, with that in mind we are working on the new release schedule.  And also looking at the surrounding release activities, to try and make a bigger thing of it.

As soon as I know more, I will of course let you good people know too.

Stay tuned for more info.

Well… It’s out of my hands now. The PMCD, the DVD ROM with the artwork files, the permission to duplicate and the IPR declaration form, have now arrived at the disc replication house, Disc Wizards.  These guys seem pretty on the ball too because I’ve already received PDF final proofs of the artwork for approval.

So now all that lies between the official release of Fantasy Bridge is really time. What they have at Disc Wizards, is what you’ll get.

For better or worse.

I’m really quite excited about it!  I hope you are too!

The planned launch date is currently 25/4/2011.  Put it in your diaries.