Perhaps it’s a tad obvious, but sometimes it seems like an agonizing step back to look at the big picture is in order. Sometimes something will catalyze it, sometimes it will just boil over and catch up… such has been the last few weeks. However, with a new look comes a new walk.
So here’s the deal. To deliberately stay true to CC and to play by its (and everyone else’s) rules, I’m going to make a CC-exclusive compilation of all my clean tracks (that is, tracks that have no traceable samples). There are plenty, some of which had to be slightly retouched. There will also be an unreleased “Guns Blazin” b-side attached to it as well as new album artwork and a whole new delivery. I’ll start from scratch with all of the original mastered tracks and then mix them in a cohesive, digestable fashion to make it so that the album can be listened to front to back in a story-telling manner like “Scientific Method, Vol.2″.
Otherwise, things are going well, albeit a tad stressful. Still working on that Glide remix and also started a new track. My buddy Patrick hooked us up with a gig playing at Kingpin in West Chicago on August 1st at 7pm. $7.00 at the door, 21+… if only this were in the city! It’s a great club, though. It should be good, we just need a lot of people to come.
We’ll be perfecting the set, dropping some new stuff and in new ways. Come check it out if you… live… in the area.
To anyone looking at this who was curious as to why all of my work is down from Jamendo, here’s why:
You all know that I use samples… I don’t really try to hide it. It’s not as shameless as a lot of hip-hop artists can be today, but they’re still there – about as shameless as Fatboy Slim, The Dust Brothers, Beck, any one of my heroes. This music wasn’t made with the idea that it was going to be sold or put on a mass market. However, that seems to have changed. I’m going to have to start being very careful now, especially with the success I’ve garnered from Jamendo, the success that Jamendo has garnered for itself, and how quickly things can happen over the internet these days. The full albums will be made available through other sources and not under the CC license. I’ll be putting together a compilation of “clean” tracks, that is, without obvious samples, and then put it back up on Jamendo with a description explaining why this happened.
Patrick Haour from Jamendo brought it to my attention today, and while it was a tad upsetting at first, I’d much rather hear it from him than someone at a massive label or a lawyer.
So don’t panic. Everything should be alright. I’ll keep you folks updated. Thanks again for the all the support.
A lot has happened since my last desperate post. I do appreciate the support from all of you folks, I was surprised at how many comments I got. All very kind and thoughtful words, and it did make me feel better. It’s easy to lose sight when you’re so heavily embedded in it. For those who were interested, school turned out just fine. Let’s be shameful about it!
College Algebra: C
Intro To Audio: B -
Production I: B+ (Are you fucking kidding me!? I destroyed that class…)
Arabic I: B+ (Are you fucking kidding me!? I failed every test…)
So there are my grades. Funny how that worked out! I’m really glad it went as well as it did considering how truly rocky it was in the midst of all of it. Now that summer is here, there’s going to be some shows but hopefully working on more tracks. I’m in the process of working on a remix for one of the bands from my home town called “The Glide”. I’ll post that once I’m finished with it… the song itself, “Ashes”, has a pretty profound meaning to Darius the lead singer… and if it means what I think it does, it’s profound to me as well.
Since my last post I had a trip to Las Vegas with my new girlfriend and her friends. Holy crap that was a blast. I won’t go too much into that, but I’ll just say I wish I was still there and with the same people.
So anyway. If you look me up on Vimeo.com you’ll find a lot of what I’ve been used in lately. I was astonished to find all of it today… sometimes I’ll search for myself to get an indication as to the traffic I see (as that’s really the payment when you’re a CC artist) and I was pleasently surprised. You’ll also find a fantastic music video done by Harald Walker of one of the deeper album cuts off “The Scientific Method: Vol. 2″ called “Trip Home”.
This might be the best video so far, but Bruno’s work on “Dream Sequence” still blows me away.
Let me take a moment to tell you how incredibly honored I am that anyone puts in the time and energy into making videos of these tracks:
I am incredibly honored that anyone puts in the time and energy into make videos for these tracks. There. It’s been said. I never thought in a million years that I would ever make it even this far or that anyone would value what I do enough to inspire them. Having been connected with the world the way I have over the last year, thanks to my manager Dan Costalis, I’ve gotten results and made connections that will permanently affect the outcome of my pursuit to… well… “make it”. That anyone even reads this blog just melts my heart completely, and I thank you personally as you read this.
Playing shows has been good too. We’ve played… man… since that Reggie’s post? Braydon and I have done 4 shows… Oasis Cafe (total joke), The Cobra Lounge, Rednofive, and North Beach back home. The last three went really well. Rednofive was a result of playing at Reggie’s. The right guy happened to be there at the right time and we got to play for Hairborn Fashion’s Hair Wars victory party. Dave Ragona, thank you. Great fuckin’ guy. We then opened for The Glide at Cobra Lounge, Fantastic Mammals at Oasis Cafe and Bad With Names at North Beach. All great bands, all great guys. We’ve been pretty lucky with the groups we’ve been playing with.
Anyway, I’ll cut this off here I suppose. Things are going pretty well for now… licensing deals left and right and yet ANOTHER music video on it’s way from France… I’m not sure how long it will take, but hopefully French Guy Lucas will hook it up. I’ll keep you folks updated, but I’ll tell you now it’s for “Plastic & Flashing Lights” and it looks and sounds like it’s going to be absolutely bad ass.
Thanks for reading. All of you out there are a huge reason as to why I stick to what I do in here.
Well, while I don’t have many photos to show of that… show… I’ll at least tell the story.
We played between bands for some local groups in the area, particularly Aktar Aktar, good buddies and a very fine band. I had been working a remix of one of their tracks for a solid month between our Elbow Room show and Reggie’s.
Aktar Aktar – Lost In Transit (Professor Kliq Remix)
That seemed to go over well, but the overall rhythm of how we were injected into the show was very abrupt and unnatural. We’re a band. Plain and simple. Braydon and I don’t just “spin” from one track to the next… if you watch any of the available YouTube videos of the Elbow Room show, you’ll see what I mean.
Braydon and I learned an awful lot that night. Some things didn’t go as well as they could have, but I still feel pretty confident about how we did if from no other indication than how we were received by the crowd.
I’m writing this post from a hospital bed. That’s a whole nother story I’ll probably elaborate on later today. In the meantime, check out Aktar Aktar’s myspace page and listen to that remix. I’ll have some more stuff for you guys later on. Thanks for readin’ and stay up.
Not too often do I act on this, but what the hell: You can find one of my tracks on a compilation that’s being put out from Cologne, Germany. Boy, they really eat it up over there. Fantastic.
Also, Bruno Vellutini finished the video he’s been working on of “Dream Sequence” off the last album. He’s a marine biologist studying for his PhD… just to give you an idea what the video is.
