Steve just finished producing and recording Testing Tomorrow for their new project Tribes: an 11 song hard-rock album which is currently pending release while the band courts major-label support. Affectionately referred to as “Desert Rock” by the band, the album shares a sonic palate with early Queens of the Stoneage and Muse while exhibiting a bad attitude the size of Appetite for Destruction.
Via Testing Tomorrow
NEWSFLASH : Dear friends, fans and supporters worldwide. Our master effort TRIBES has been completed. For all of us, this has been the culmination of a lifetime of experiences and effort in the realm of music. TRIBES stands as the gemstone we are all the most immensely proud of. We wish to truly thank everyone who has been part of this dream. Steven Leavitt, Rich Mouser, Anthony Taglianetti, James Law and all the guest players + technical crew that made ‘TRIBES’ a reality. Without you, we would not have done it. Needless to say that now begins a long journey for us as a band. TRIBES will not be released to the public, although some previews of songs will be available through our upcoming full new website. For the next months, we will embark in one of the most intense shopping campaigns we have ever undertaken as a band and as individuals. The purpose is to get Testing Tomorrow signed to a record company that believes in this band and can provide the means and support this album deserves. It was an incredible ride started years back…it’s time for us to bring it home ! Thank you. – TT
Progressive Rock outfit Lobate Scarp successfully raised over $6,500 towards the making of their first full-length album Time and Space.
The album will be mixed on a 52 channel console by Prog Rock veteran Rich Mouser at The Mouse House Studio in Los Angeles.
We are very excited to have Rich on board because of his experience mixing and producing progressive rock outfit Spock’s Beard, who’s 2001 release “V” became the inspiration for Lobate’s title track Time and Space.
During the Kickstater campaign, we made a video of how we recorded a 30+ member choir made up of all volunteers from the indie music community.
If that wasn’t cool enough, we decided to have lead singer Adam Sears jump off a building.
Now that the project is successfully funded we are full-steam ahead for the CD release date of 12-12-12.
Thank you to all the backers of this project, friends, family, and strangers. We really hope you will enjoy the end result!
Time and Space is the full length debut album by Los Angeles based progressive rock band Lobate Scarp. This ambitious album, which took nearly five years to record is sure to please fans of the progressive rock genre as well as music appreciators that are looking for something fresh for their ears. The album has over 55 minutes of original tunes, including the 15 1/2 minute title track.
This video shows highlights of the recording process and was a lot of fun to make.
If you are interested in backing this project, please visit the Kickstarter page:
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/timeandspace/time-and-space-an-epic-prog-rock-journey
Hello friends,
I will be in Austin during this year’s SXSW festival. If you will be there and you want to connect with me you can check out one of two very cool events I will be attending there.
A very cool magazine called ProxART is hosting a showcase at the Lomography store on Sunday, March 18th from 11am to 5pm featuring:
Christopher Paul Stelling
Hi Ho Silver Oh
Conveyor
The Stone Foxes
Unicycle Loves You
Miracles of Modern Science
Dry River Yacht Club is playing an unofficial showcase at Hole in the Wall with other bands from Tempe , AZ Friday, March 16th, 11am – 1am. (I wish I knew the exact time).
Dry River Yacht Club is a very unique band with 9 members that is signed to a very unique record label called 80/20 Records.
80/20 Records is one-of-a-kind because unlike most labels, 80/20 gives an 80% royalty to their artists.
dryriveryachtclub.com, 8020records.com
Also, Rob Franco from The Venus Illuminato has a new Vegan Food-Truck calledArlo’s, which is brand-new and apparently is already winning awards.
I will try to present any more pertainant information as I get it.
Luke Wieting, a film composer I met at a Saundra Lord networking event sent me a quarterly update email to keep in touch and let me know what he has been working on… and it was the first time I’d EVER been happy to receive an email newsletter. Ever.
Here was the introduction to the email:
Dear Friends,
You’re receiving this because we’ve corresponded, collaborated, or are otherwise acquainted, and I would like to share my whereabouts with you. This will only go out four times a year, but I don’t want to add another piece of unneeded mail to your inbox, so if you’d rather not be updated, please inform me and I’ll happily take you off the list.
[Luke then goes on to provide links and brief descriptions of his latest 5 scores]
Thanks for listening!
Luke
First of all, I remember Luke. We met at a Sandra Lord networking mixer and he made an impression. I enjoyed chatting with him about his composing and I made sure to listen to some work on his website when I got home. I have not had any need for or opportunity to recommend a film composer since we met so we hadn’t reconnected since I first emailed him, but I definately liked his work and wanted to keep in touch.
The problem is, I get TONS of email. Think about it, if you’re like me and you know a lot of artists, what do they all want to do?… get you on their newsletter right? That’s all well and good, except for me, I tend to get visual inbox overload, which makes me miss important emails because I simply do not always see through the weekly clutter. This issue has forced me to unsubscribe to pretty much every newsletter I get, including the non-musical ones.
I now manage all my subscriptions through RSS and only read those in my spare-time. What this means is that I often miss out on shows that my friends are playing close by a lot of times because I simply did not know about them, or if someone has released a new track maybe I catch it on Facebook or Twitter… not that I’d see any of that if I were subscribed to the email list anyway, because there is just too much information to process.
Here’s what I liked about Luke’s email:
1. He let me know it was QUARTERLY. Luke’s resume is not a time-sensitive issue. As a composer he’s not selling me downloads or trying to get me to a show. What’s important for Luke is awareness. In other words does he stick in people’s minds enough to be thought of the next time someone needs scoring for a film. The way he handled this reminder lets me know that he respects my time and that he would appreciate staying in touch with me.
2. He used Blind Carbon Copy (BCC). Luke apparently is not using a mailing list manager. Well and with only 4 emails a year who needs one. One of the biggest and most annoying mistakes people make when sending emails to multiple recipients from their email software is posting multiple recipients in the To or CC fields. This is annoying on two levels, one, what if I don’t want everyone knowing my email address and two, now other people on that list can use and abuse my email address. Luke did it right. He used BCC. BCC means that I can’t see who else is copied on that email and that they can’t see me either. Its a show of respect, and savvy.
3. He kept it brief, but informative. The purpose of his email, besides wanting to stay in touch was to let me know to check out links to his newest scoring projects (which are pretty cool, btw). Besides the links he gave informative descriptions so I knew what I was looking for. For example:
Eclipse Master Class 05/18/11
Fujitsu Ten, Columbia College Chicago and The Fulcrum Point New Music Project teamed up to perform sections from classic soundtracks, and my score for “Beast” with a full orchestra conducted by Stephen Burns. Sound Reinforcement showcased Fujitsu Ten’s ECLIPSE TD speakers; they rock.
4. He let people know they could unsubscribe. This is just a good practice, period.
Had Luke not done any of the above things his email might have gotten marked “white noise” by my brain and been skipped over, or worse deleted or unsubscribed. However, I was so overjoyed with the difference in this case that I felt like I had to write a blog about it!
Good job Luke! Nice work too, by the way.
If you’d like to check out Luke Wieting’s reel go to lukewietingmusic.com.
Today I received a CD copy of a heavy metal project I worked on calledFarewell to Graveland by Martyn Lucifer. It was a project that was recorded internationally with vocals, guitars and keyboards recorded in Italy, Bass in Ukraine, and drums recorded both in London and here at my studio with my friend drummer “Grom” Meraviglia.
When I worked on it it was very basic, just some midi drums and guitars to a click track as placeholders for Grom to drum to, so of course it had come a very long way when I heard it again the following year.
What impressed me the most was not only how well the album turned out but also the album sleeve. Not only were there full liner notes with credits and thank you’s but the artist also included lyrics with creative artwork as well as photos of all the players! Even down to the detail of which tracks Grom drummed on as opposed to which Adrian Erlandsson tracked in London.
It was very enjoyable listening through the tracks while absorbing the liner notes as they were intended. However, I am finding this is becoming a rare thing.
I think too many artists these days skimp out on the liner notes on their releases and I think its sad. To me, lyrics, notes, credits, artwork and the like give me the listener more levels to connect with you the artist while listening to your album. It adds the sensations of feeling and looking to the listening experience, making more concrete my mental connection with your music.
Sure it costs a couple more bucks to make, requires more time in design and demands that you carefully curate credits and proof read your revisions, but it also tells a story. And in the end, isn’t that what we do?
Today I was asked a question I get sometimes, do I go by Steve or Steven?
The answer is, well, both. I guess. I mean, I don’t really care. Most of my friends and family call me Steve and I put Steven on my stationary. I’m pretty used to hearing “Hey Steve!” although when working with more than one “Steve” in the same place I will often not respond at all, but only after one too many times of thinking they meant me. In that case, call me Stevie or Bob, or anything unique.
Apparently getting this right is a big deal for some Stevens, who prefer to be called Stephen, or even Stefan. I mean, Stephen Jobs? Doesn’t that sound a little weird? How about Steven Urkel? I mean, to him, variations on his name were like alter-egos. “Yeah, I went to sleep and Stevil made a guest appearance.” “Stevil was back and he was coming for my soul!”
And who could forget how smooth and suave Urkel became when he was Stefan? Oh Laura.
When I was eight I got to meet Bill Murray on the set of Ghostbusters II. You could imagine how excited I was to meet Venkman! He asked me my name and I told him “Steven.” “Steven?” he said, “isn’t that a dog’s name?”
Oh yeah, he was joking. He’s a comedian, that’s what he does. Took me a second though, I was eight.
I think shortly after that I started going by Steve…
While listening to one of my Podcasts on Stitcher Radio This Week In Venture Capital I was very pleased to come across this interview with TopSpin Media founder Ian Rogers.
The music industry has been in such a prolonged conundrum that I’ve been seeking perspective lately from outside the music industry. That’s how I came across This Week In Venture Capital. Host Mark Suster talks to various successful entrepreneurs about their business, how they started, and how they eventually became successful.
Mark talked with Ian Rogers who got his start working with The Beastie Boys during the late 90s. While managing an FAQ for a Beastie Boys newsgroup Mark got asked by the band’s management to do their official website. Eventually he ended up working with Yahoo! Music at a time when companies were first trying to innovate with music on the web.
Mark and Ian get into some nuts and bolts about how and where money is being made on YouTube, how publishing rights issues have killed many a music startup, and how email is still the most effective way to directly reach fans. They also talk about Ian’s venture TopSpin Media which sounds like a killer tool for musicians.
The interview can be found on their website, or I found it convenient to listen to it as a podcast, episode #57.
The Venus Illuminato in the studio at the Stunt Lab recording Civil War Ballad from their new EP Children of the Earth.