vrijdag 13 april 2018

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!

donderdag 12 april 2018

Delivered!

Dear folks, a quick update. I had a minor problem with the frontcover as it was not accepted by the distribution man due to low resolutions of the picture (quality!), so I've showed them another, better one. It's allright now. Fingers and legs crossed!                         

Proof!

Next: Show Us The New Stuff!


woensdag 11 april 2018

Sent away to the shops!

Yep! As you can see, officially 9 may 2018. AMAdea, who handles the distribution, notes:
"It takes from 3 weeks minimum, to 7 weeks maximum to get it up and selling, once you've given us ALL the info we need. (Usually 4 weeks) Once we send it to them, it's out of our hands and they do what they can to get it imported and active in their service. We push them to get it added as soon as possible, and they always do it as soon as they can."

Proof. Can I get a witness?


I'm glad. At first I was worried that something wasn't right. OMG western problems.

Done it again. Worked like a dog. I've finally decided to send my fresh babies away. Why? Because I like them too much!
Yes, I've got a good, strong feeling about these songs. More than ever I took special care to every aspect of the production process (inspiration, songwriting, playing, recording, mixing, mastering).
I think these tunes are a upbeat, sinister, melancholic, desperate but overall fun and groovy bunch, just like me. Ok, sometimes.

After a long, long ping-pong process (the details) of mixing and mastering that is. That was a very intense 3 months period, but I'm glad I didn't overrush things. These songs needed some breathing and I needed some distance from them once in a while. But now it's time I let you enjoy my new grooves.

Well on the distribution side, that will be taken care of by AMAdea (after approval) and it will take about 3 or 4 weeks to hear the album on Spotify and the like. There are so many streaming sites today, so take your pick.

I'll send a few free download links (Bandcamp) to a few of my supporters too, so maybe a few reviews will come up before the official release in may.
Watch this site for more details, news about the design, covers, promo and tell me..what about a title and.... Soon, stay stuned. Promo coming at ya!