Show Us The New Stuff!

Ok I've done the songs and new music need new covers. And a title. What did I come up with?

Inspiration

At first I had this trendy phrase: "Over My Dead Like", which I often say these days among friends and family ("Like" as in facebook likes of course), if they go too far. A picture from a holiday in Sicily, Italy fitted right in, with a rebel guy (like me) throwing stones into the sea:

Throwing stones, dare me!

Just to keep an open mind, I tried a different approach. I took some items outside in my backgarden
floorboard, like a mirror, a classical Perez guitar (my latest), and a vinyl album with a picture of
...me.                

I photographed away. All very brownish, autumn, rootsy, so I took that further, when I put a few of   these into some online photo editors and let my creativity have its way:                                              
                                                                                                                                                                       

Mirror effect 2 

Mirror effect 1

Mirror effect 3

Floorboard backgarden

Frontcover: the first brownish ones

Front and back cover examples

 About the title:

                            "Doesn't Ring A Bell"

There's a lot I want to be, but not "famous" in the "media personality" way. A status. 
I'm a musician, not an artist, I always say. 
So JoosTVD doesn't ring a bell and if he does, you won't hear it.....coming!

Design with effect

Best effect in my opinion.

Just happened to hit upon the title while writing a lyric. Maybe I read it somewhere or heard someone's remarks. I always love the double sided meaning of these sentences, in this case "JoosTVD doesn't ring a bell" .....really? Sometimes I knock. Who is this guy? Is he someone famous?    

The end results:
                                  

Front cover with nickname

Front cover for online distribution

Back cover

Inside cover

Next: let me hear a new song, wait... you say you've got a video?

Show Us The New Stuff!

Allright then. Some artwork had to be done. Did it. You must have seen a few snippets already. If you put these pieces together, there it is.

Maybe it's not modern to say in these streaming spotify playlists times, where your songs are mostly shuffle played, I still love the "album" concept though. A year's work and it's more than the music. The package. A promo. To show it. To give it a name.

First: how did I come up with this title?

                                                              "Just Say KNOW"

Such things you don't come up with instantly, but as I read a lot of fine written biographies and watch the eye catching docs, movies and tv-series, a simple sentence or quote always seems to be laying there for grabs.
I already had this song (the first promo) "Not Now". Well, just dare to say NO for once. I guess my father taught me long ago to say that. Then I saw this documentary- Dying To Know- about Timothy Leary, 60s LSD guru/icon (“turn on, tune in, drop out”), read more about him and one quote grabbed me: "Just Say Know" (read more HERE) as a reaction to Nancy Reagan's war on drugs in the 80's/90's: Say NO to drugs. Leary used it in a smart way: just say kNOw. It has more merit: knowledge is power. To say NO to any authority or anything that wants to overrule you is more legit then. It's still the sign of the times. I'm not trying to preach or getting nostalgic, I'm just a musician, trying to be creative. I say YES to that.

So here are the frontcovers and backcover and I liked two of them. There's a release with- for example on Bandcamp- and one- on Spotify and the like- without alias, which is required by AMAdea. I've used (as usual) the latest holiday pictures, this time from sunny Sicily, Italy.

 Walking in Palermo, Sicily. Frontcover- distribution AMAdea without alias

On the one without the alias "The Vanished Dutchman" you can see me walking into the darkness (?) of original mob city Palermo, Sicily. It also became part of the backcover as you can see.

Backcover: songlist, credits, notice that mirror word "WONK"

Frontcover with alias (The Vanished Dutchman)

I liked our sleezy appartment/ hotelroom so much that a picture had to be taken. So that became the official frontcover. In reality It's not all that glamourous though, but just enough to give the stereotyped fame and starstrucked artist some due.

Back and Frontcover

Next: Let us hear a new tune!

Show us your new work!

Voila!
It has just been confirmed that the album is in the distribution process. It takes approximately 4 weeks to appear online, but keep a close watch, some online services are very quick. now i'm gonna take a breeeeeaaak.
 

Proof! Distribution date confirmed

No pressure. Fingers crossed, legs spread. In the meantime I'll keep you updated if there's any change and as I'm working on some visuals, that tasty promo is on its way too. So now you know.
Now let's see where you have to look at this year and the rest of your life.


The artwork.

The original "selfie" pictures have been chosen from some amateurish mobile phone footage, filmed in the bathroom by yours truly. No. 3 became my ultimate frontcover as I liked the welcome sign in my sort of "I invite you all" atitude and the mirrored spotlight above the "starstrucked" me.

1.Here

2.Here!

 3.Here....

Here's the original for the back cover with mirror reflection:

Spotlights!

On the net you can find all kind of photo design editors.
I especially liked the paint department from Lunapic. All kind of echoes of Van Gogh and Kadinsky art that fitted well. Here are a few choices, eyes open or eyes closed:

Close my eyes...

(Starry starry night......) Sagitario!

The title. 

I know it's a bit pretentious...to say Sagittarius, so it became

                                                       Sagitario

It's spanish- which sounds so cool- for  (english), boogschutter (dutch). It happens to be my sign. I guess you'll hear a few characteristics of those on the new album. Playful sounding and with the extra bonus of the word siguitario in it. I'll explain in a later blog all bout it.

The final result (or insult).

Well, we've got that title, the art, so here's the design. I was switching between black or white for the background, both choices eventually made it.

Final frontcover result

for disribution purposes only (only one name prohibited)

We've got the frontcover, for the backcover I've chosen the same design but as a whole in contrast.

A few choices

Kadinskish smile

A white background with all the information you need. Now, what does it sound like? Soon...

Final backcover result with songtitles and credits

Next: promo video/song

Something's cooking!

Hey folks of the good earth! While the snow has covered most of the lowlands here, I've got a few snowballs to throw at ya.
The songs are continiously reviewed by yours truly. Listening sessions on every device I can get my hands on. From crappy monitors of my daughter's pc, the car stereo while trying to drive slowly (failing) or listening to my own comfortable studio sound, it's quite a difficult task to tweak the most- and best sound- out of the ordinary. Warning! I have to keep my ears fresh to notice all the tiny details as I have watched a few audio professionals at work in their own playrooms. Learned so much from these guys, great to have their support. I'm a musician first, just willing to go all the way...by himself..

The Vanished Dutchman 2017

As I've said before, there will be 12 songs. I'm really excited now as I've seen them grow and evolve everyday. All the changes in arrangements that have been coming up....! Typical JoosTVD: groovy popsongs all spiced up with a latinesque, jazzy, rhythm & bluesy sauce.

I guess I'm more at peace and pleased with myself  as before (I know better what to do and what not to now!) as I'm much more confident in my playing and singing and that is saying much.
And then... there are the leftovers. Well they will certainly have a place on the next albums.

Next to the technical side, there's always something needed to stir the curious eyes, like a promo video, artwork. Well those are in the pipeline too. I've been working my ass off.
I also know the title of the album (it's spanish for...) which I will tell in the near future when I'll show you the finished front and backcover cover. These and the promo have their origins in a homevideo shot with my mobile phone. This is the low-budget way as usual.

I'm aiming for a release for april 2017. Soon, soon.

Next: show us the covers and what is it called?

Update the up to date

Animated Dutchman

Although I'm in the middle of recording and writing some fresh tunes, there's always other things I have to take care off, like experimenting with the artwork for the new album. By the way, the above rainbow gif pic will not be used as a frontcover. It's just a example of what an amateur can do these days with a modest picture. Just a simple google search (photo-editor) is enough to find some great ones like Lunapic with gif animation. Back to the colourful acid area circa 1967!                                    

As I said earlier, I'm in the middle of recording new songs (these are mostly the most obvious studio  happenings, like writing melodies & lyrics, mixing, arranging, playing and goofing off) and there's a  lot to choose from, worthly of as least two albums(!) What comes quick, will last, that's my motto.   Sometimes I've got a-wow brilliant-idea (on piano or guitar or a lyric) so guickly played, arranged and recorded, that I often stand amazed afterwards. Two days work. For me, that's the most organic and satisfying way to do it. Ok, it's not like the mind blowing fast Pollock method, but hey, I would if I could play all the instruments  simultaneously. I just try to put the ideas on tape in the moment  you're one with the song. Wow, I must have got an acid brain!  I hear you think: "why not put out the songs ASAP then?" Well, that's because I still believe in the concept of making an album as a whole, not just spreading a few songs as loose ends. Fleshing out the finishing touches takes the most time.   The quantity helps for the learning process. Maybe I will put up some rough mixes here on the blog. I  guess it's just the kick of hearing the perfect fitting sounds, melodies and the exploring, experimenting and finishing of your creations, that makes you work faster. And as I'm getting older, the more flexible I've got. I've read somewhere that Prince- guess any prolific songwriter- works all through the night to finish a song, just to get it done.                                                                                                                                                                 So I better move on.....  In the meantime I'll need a title for the new album, suggestions anyone?