The remix comp is happening, a bunch of people have downloaded the stems.
There's still time to jump on if you feel - https://www.kreasound.com/remix-contest/contest/beyond-5d-remix
Towards the years end, we do a 'State of the Union' report, where we look at what we've done, what we hope to do, what we could do into the coming year.
If you happened by the Stormcellar on such a day as we gather to plot our course, take soundings or coil rope, you'd see us....coiling rope and washing the dishes.
As we look to the horizon, check the barometer and tickle the dolphins seeking secret detail on the future, there's always..
MORE WORK!!
Also Tech.
Brother Bill has been working towards his new idea of multi tracking even the demo pieces, to give us more time to play with the songs outside the studio.
There's never been a better time to be a self propelled artist. If you like making stuff, the tech and the tools are converging. They're getting cheaper, doing more stuff.
SO MANY BUTTONS! What this adjusted demo process will mean for the next project is yet to be determined. I spent some time just turning knobs and banging the drum bits. After a few experiments Mr Wizard quoted Spinal Tap 'I hope you like our new direction' LOL.
Experiments continue.
It's web 3.0, it's web 3.0, so much better than Web 2.0!
'We're emailing to let you know that we're changing our...'
LOL.
We make music. That's what we do.
I make videos. I like making videos.
We make stuff, that's what we do. We like making stuff.
I've been exhorted by Social Media to GET POPULAR for some time. CLAMOUR FOR ATTENTION!!!!!!
Now I'm being told that there's a youtube crackdown on WHO GETS THE MOST VIEWS!!!
Really?
Social Media, Facebook and Youtube are the railways stations and the carriages that transport us.
They are not the destination.
Youtube is a storage facility that wants to be a TV network and wants me to spend my time fighting for attention rather than doing work that is worthy of attention.
Of course, that's my viewpoint. I snarkily interpret their position as 'well if you were popular enough we wouldn't be having this conversation.' LOL.
Hold my videos.
If it doesn't suit, I'll host them somewhere else.
My job is making stuff, not making Youtube great again.
This is a platform on which virtually every song by every artist can be accessed at no cost or at the discounted rate of a cut of a cut of a slice of the advertising revenue.
EDIT - Got asked to add this other comment I said off screen cos it's true -
For 10 years we have stuck to our knitting.
In that same time, 'youtube stars' have developed Successful products that often use Clickbait images (where are those huge boobs I saw in the pic???) or other varieties of Huckster behaviour that wouldn't have been out of place in a 19th Century Periodical.
Now, thanks to the backlash against social media by State based players, cultural insensivity from Yahoos and Yobbos who make obnoxious videos or outright malicious bad stuff, Youtube have changed their parameters.
Now that's cool - businesses grow, systems evolve. I'm cool with the DRM at the moment.
Doesn't bother us. Why? We never played the clickbait OMGZ!!!! game.
No biggie. Doesn't affect our bottom line.
Yet it means that people who have based their business on the things that worked in web 2.0 (2007-2017), are suddenly going WTF and getting 'demonetised' etc. Oops.
Now as a thinking person, you'd might comment, 'hey we played by your old rules, developed a product and were doing ok, now you're changing the rules, what gives'?
You might also start to wonder 'if I play by your new rules and work out how to succeeed, will you pull the rug out again or change the goalposts?'
Especially when the way that they have succeeded, the things that they have done, to become the major player, were 'Bad' but now 'we've stopped doing that'.
'Of course we remove copyright material. Of course we moderate offensive videos. We can't be responsible for what people upload, although we can run ads on it and suddenly discover Virtue when Lucre allows and PR Demands.'
A while ago, Facebook, who relied on our content and the willingness of other people to connect with us in order to create a big enough audience to sell advertising to, have found instead, that it's easier to sell advertising to us, to reach people we already have a connection to.
Net result? I removed FB from my 'most visited' tabs.
If you read the tea leaves, Facebook are deeply worried about what's happening to their crowd.
We're still making music.
...Still making videos.
...Still doing shows.
...Still...doing our job.
While our friends in Tech Land hustle for a buck and keep changing the rules to try and find the next buck, they may have forgotten the motto 'Don't be evil'. Oops.
It doesn't suit the personality of this outfit to be fooled into Hustling for someone else's benefit.
Youtube hosts our stuff, thanks.
We put up content, youtube sell ads, we share revenue.
Sure.
Trying to press me to 'YOU GOTTA LIFT THOSE NUMBERS!!!' suggests that somehow my job is to work for youtube so that they can make a buck off our work.
Our work is NOT 'youtube'.
Our work is what we do.
Watch it, don't watch it, we're still gonna make it cos that what we like doing.
If you like our stuff, buy it, stream it, contribute to us by coming to a gig - It helps us and if what we do helps you, it's a fair exchange.
While Social Media are 'tweaking the algorithm' We're going to stick to our knitting. If we're ever worthy of attention, that's a bonus, not the objective.
UPDATE - It's still on, only 14 days left!!!
I've been wanting to try a remix comp for a while, so here we go.
SAIL AWAY REMIX COMP
Remix one of our songs, because experimenting is part of what we dig about music.
This song is called 'Sail away' from a multimedia project called 5D.
The song is here https://youtu.be/v7LKajNgnnk?t=11m20s
What we think we like: Massive Attack; Blue Lines, Teardrop.
What we might like: Something we didn't think of here.
Rules
1. Be over 18
2. License to use the supplied stems is ONLY provided for this remix comp, not for any other purpose. All rights reserved.
3. Only use our stems + stuff you have copyright to, or that's gonna be cool for us to re-use when we publish it/put it on youtube/itunes or whatever platforms we use. If you submit something you are saying 'it's ok for you to use and it's legal and copyright free for any purpose
4. Winner will decided by the band going 'oh man that's cool' and voting on it. Also we might ask some of our online friends. We may also divine it from the entrails of a Kinder Surprise, through variations in the rate of atomic decay in a piece of fruit, or other variables as yet unknown to humanity or science.
Stems, Prizes & Details on Kreasound.
https://www.kreasound.com/remix-contest/contest/beyond-5d-remix
if I have got any of this wrong or you need to reach us, use the contact form
Never letting a good marketing opportunity slip, I haven't made mention of the fact that our first gig out in the wild, was around this time, 10 years ago.
We'd already finished Whiskey Talking by December 2007 and done our first gig as Stormcellar at the Sydney Blues Society BPOY comp.
Yep 18 Jan 2008 we did our first 'normal gig', supporting the Sydney Blues All Stars with Jim Finn, Al Briton, Robert Suess and...um...hey it was 10 years ago, right?
When I can figure out how to spin that to our advantage I'll let you know.
I can't get all nostalgic, we got stuff to do.
Mr Wizard and Vito have put together a Custom Amp
It does stuff. Things that will impress guitarists. He might post about it. Apparently its very good.
Up the coast the wind was blowing today. the waves. Ahhhh....
Cheers to Rob & Brad on sound and the guys from Halfway Homebuoy.
HH came on so strong we abandoned all ideas of Strong Stuff and went for the gentle.
Big ups to Rosie for rescuing me today when I wasn't up for driving.
I love the drives.
The guys worked hard today, we had a long and strong show last night so it was a doubling down to get up early get on the road and get it right.
Here's a moment of Rosie from last night
Full cred to Sal for extra awesome lighting and sound. A very strong night indeed.
I'm too buggered to blog much more, but there is a story I got told today.
Johnny told me this story.
Some time back, Johnny picked up 'X' who wanted to be taken to a show and Johnny diverted to 'X' to our show.
'X' said nice things about the band.
We think 'X' is awesome. If someone we think is awesome said nice things about our show, we're a little buzzed about it.
However as it's apocryphal and in no wayin heck amd i goign to seek clarification, I'm going to chalk this one up as 'you don't say' and bask in the warm fuzzy glow of maybes.
Thank you x. Loved that song you did.
Thank you to every one who came out and joined us this weekend.