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***Rather
than just post news, press releases, and other band-related
updates here, we’ve decided to develop
our news section and include some opinionated views from time
to time. Think of it as the Chosen Blog if you will. Enjoy!***
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Resolution:
One year later, digital downloads, and reframing our approach
to free music...
Monday, March 31, 2014
The
common expectation that musicians ought to survive by ‘tours
and t-shirts’ is pervasive in this digital age of free access
to music but it ignores the fact that many bands are simply not
in a position to tour. We have already written at length about
why we’re not able to tour and our circumstances haven’t
really changed and most likely won’t any time soon. This
now presents a dilemma for us as we look to releasing future music
online.
For instance, when your fan base is relatively small, and tours
are just not feasible because the expenses are way too high to
make any profit, the rationale for giving away free music all
of the time does come into question. If the only real ‘experience’
you are offering is your original recorded music and not much
else, can this be feasibly sustained over time? When we decided
to release our debut album Resolution for free, we did
it for a number of reasons. The first one was that it would get
noticed and would allow people to hear it completely risk free.
We also wanted to appeal to the ‘try before you buy’
philosophy of music lovers; those cautious individuals who say
they only purchase the music they’ve been able to listen
to and enjoy first.
 Yet,
despite well over 20,000 free downloads, our hardcopy sales and
donations have been extremely low. How low, you might wonder?
Well, we have no qualms about total transparency here and can
disclose that, at the time of writing, we have received less than
€250. Now, of course, that figure can be totally justified
because we chose to give our album away for free. But, to be perfectly
honest, we had hoped that a few more people would’ve purchased
a hardcopy or thrown a small amount of money our way as a token
of their appreciation.
A tiny minority of people were kind enough to give something back
and we really appreciate their support. At the same time, we also
really appreciate those who have downloaded our music and loved
it, telling their friends about us and spreading the word. These
actions aren’t meaningless just because remuneration hasn’t
taken place and we’re not attempting to make people feel
guilty for availing of something we told them to take for free.
Rather, we are stating that we may have to alter this method of
distribution if we are to continue putting out professionally-recorded
music on a regular basis. We’ll explain more about this alteration
at the end.
The various expenses for Resolution came to approximately
€14,350 and having only €250 to put towards the projected
costs of our second album is less than ideal. As we estimate the
future costs for our next full-length release, we are seriously
questioning giving away our music when we have no viable source
of revenue to make back some of the expenses, like the
way other bands can rely on touring and shifting physical product.
Recording the next album ourselves has been considered but that
requires good equipment, skill and the necessary experience, all
of which we are lacking. Simply put, Resolution would not
sound the way that it does had we home-recorded it and this point
cannot be diminished.
Crowd-funding is also something which many bands have turned to
in recent years, yet it appears to only really work for a tiny
minority, many of whom are already established acts with reasonably
big followings. For the rest of us relative unknowns, you’re
essentially being pragmatic about the willingness of people paying
for something in advance which they may not get to hear for a
year or two, depending on how far into production you are. Frankly,
neither of these two options appeals to us much. We want to be
able to record our music with the assistance of experienced professionals
and we’re comfortable paying for this up front ourselves.
But what we would like to do is to reach out to those who find
meaning and enjoyment in our recorded music and ask them to support
us in some small way.
Making the transition from ‘We’re giving our music
away for free’ to ‘Sorry, you have to pay for
it now’ might smack of hypocrisy but the alternative
is a new album every 7 or 8 years, as we try to save up funds
from other sources as best we can. Remember, a two-man band is
at a greater disadvantage than a four- or five-piece group when
it comes to raising money. This isn’t an easy decision for
us and we have wrestled with the idea for some time. However,
we believe we have found a workable solution.
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Buy
'Manufacturing Victims' for €0.99
HERE
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We
will continue to put out subsequent albums for free download,
but not right away. Instead, we have decided to introduce
a ‘time delay’ factor, so that those who do not wish
to pay for our music can do so but they will have to wait a while
after the release date before we make it free. So, when our
next album is released, it will be available for purchase as a
digital download for a mere €2.50 and then become free after
a year or two. This way, it gives people a choice about whether
they want to wait or whether they want to contribute a small amount
of money that will go towards the costs of the next album and
so on.
Now that people have sampled our debut album for free, we would
hope that any cynics out there might understand where we are coming
from. We’ve already dropped thousands into the music and
will keep doing so. But getting €250 back just isn’t
what we expected. No matter what a band does, it is crucial for
them to receive some kind of money in order to keep going. After
all, it is not expected of bands to tour for nothing whatsoever
(although many end up doing just that). We all agree to pay the
price for the experience of the live show and many of us download
music for free and tell ourselves that we’ll support the
band when they come to our city. But what if that band doesn’t
play shows? How then do we display our support?
Given the vast amount of albums out there, we realise that attaching
a price tag may put people off. But considering how much of a
transition the music industry is in right now, we’re willing
to take the risk and see what happens. There is always the possibility
that those who downloaded our debut album would never have paid
for it anyway, so we can only really appeal to those people who
consider our music being worthwhile and enjoyable, and encourage
them to do the decent thing and help us make our second album
an even bigger success.
Finally, we have reduced the price of the Deluxe
Special Edition of Resolution to just €9.99
which includes post and packaging to anywhere in the world. We’ve
also made the three original songs from the second disc of this
edition available as a digital download for €0.99 through
our Bandcamp
profile. Entitled Manufacturing Victims, this short release
basically allows anyone who doesn’t currently own either
of the hardcopy versions to hear the original three bonus tracks
that were recorded during the Resolution sessions. They
are not B-sides but were omitted for reasons to do with not wanting
to make our debut album too long.
So, if you are one of the 20,000 who downloaded Resolution,
enjoyed it, and would like to hear three more original songs from
the same recording, why not spend €0.99 or better yet, pick
up the Deluxe
Special Edition for €9.99 and get the whole package.
Either way, it’s helping us towards getting the next album
out much faster. Thank you for your generosity.
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A great way to finish off the year...
Monday, December 16, 2013
As
the year of 2013 comes to a close, we reflect on what has been
an eventful twelve months. While the dust has long settled on
all the fanfare and vibrant activity back in April and May, when
our debut album Resolution was making waves in media circles,
this doesn’t mean people have forgotten about us. On the
contrary, we are honoured to have been included among Sam
Roon’s Top Ten Albums of 2013 and it is getting featured
in write-ups such as these which makes all the effort we put into
releasing music worthwhile.
We were never under any illusions that we’d see financial
remuneration from putting out an album for free and it’s
undoubtedly this method of distribution that has led to it being
downloaded just shy of 20,000 times from our website alone. We’re
grateful to everyone who bought limited edition hardcopies and
donated money. Thank you to everyone who helped us with everything,
from the creation process right up to the release of Resolution.
Special thanks in particular to Asher Media Relations, Smash It
PR, Voice Coaching Ireland, Alwyn Walker and all at Westland Studios,
and Fiaz Farrelly.
Expect some announcements next year in relation to the details
of our second album, as well as the release of some long-awaited
merchandise which had to be postponed due to lack of funds. We
really mean it when we say there’s little money to be made
from playing niche metal in this day and age.
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On the possibility of touring...
Monday, July 8, 2013
It’s
been several months since we released Resolution to the
public and one particular subject that has surfaced in comments
and interviews is whether we will be playing live. As a quick
perusal of our previous gig dates attests, touring is something
we have experience of and it’s something we’ve never
ruled out from ever happening again. However, considering all
the risks involved and the nature of the underground live music
scene being completely flooded with gigging bands, we have seriously
questioned the (in)sanity of trying to organise a tour for this
album.
Obviously, there are people out there who would love to see us
perform and we are humbled by such requests. But touring, on an
independent level such as ours, is likely to invite more complications
and stress into our lives than the pleasure of another ‘working
holiday’ in a foreign land, playing to audiences, could ever
compensate for. We’re not strictly anti-touring, by any means,
as it really can be a fun experience when the circumstances are
right. But all too often it leads to burn-out, line-up changes
and even break-ups, as we once discovered.
While most people now understand that there is relatively little
money to be made in selling music, this has shifted the focus
onto tours as being the only viable source of income. Yet, contrary
to popular belief, touring can be one of the fastest ways
for a band to lose money because of the costs involved. That said;
some musicians are quite okay with this kind of ‘pay-off’
as it gives them a vacation from their normal life back home.
Moreover, given that people typically pay to visit holiday destinations
for the experience, if a touring band are also paying so that
they can perform music live what’s wrong with that? At the
end of the day, it boils down to what each band is trying to achieve
and what they’re prepared to accept.
The general consensus is that touring has a central role to play
in ‘getting the music out there’, exposing it to new
audiences, as well as just putting on a great live show for existing
fans. A lot of young bands from the time of their initial formation
have aspirations of touring one day. They often start out by saying
they want to ‘record and then tour’, and there are a
number of valid reasons for this. Firstly, touring has been the
standard model since before the music business even came about
and is, therefore, the tried and tested route. Secondly, when
everything does fall into place, and there are many
variables to consider, it can be the gateway to future
financial success and relative stability. But, as with most things,
there is another side to the coin.
Sadly,
many underground bands commit to various kinds of tours that do
absolutely nothing for them. Of course, the rationale behind
such decisions is usually that some good will come of it because
‘every band that ever made it toured at one stage or another’.
While there is a kernel of truth to this statement, it conveniently
ignores the probabilities and real life circumstances that are
part and parcel of the whole touring dynamic. Some musicians,
usually (but not limited to) those who reside within the niche
genres, can adopt a heavily romanticised view of the touring lifestyle.
The notion of being a ‘road warrior’, slumming it out
as a working musician away from the mundane day-to-day trappings
of contemporary life, all in the name of ‘staying true’
to themselves and following their heart, is quite attractive to
many impressionable young people. In fact, it is very easy to
see how one could become embroiled in such romantic desires fuelled
by a sense of symbolic rebellion, as opposed to settling down
and working a boring, ‘normal’ job until retirement
age, like the majority of people in society end up doing out of
basic necessity.
But
while these self-styled musical adherents may proudly dedicate
themselves to playing anywhere that supplies electricity and a
stage, all in the name of being a ‘true’ artist, the
lifestyle can lead many to dire straits, both financially and
emotionally. Of course, these particular individuals may downplay
the negatives of their chosen regime when the subject comes up
in discussion with others, but it just goes to show that playing
live music can mean more to some people than having a relatively
comfortable life. Perhaps many of these kinds of touring musicians
are simply looking for an escape that isn’t there. People
will go on tour and put themselves through all kinds of situations
for certain forms of compensation, not always money. Reputation,
attention, social status; these things are all highly valued within
society. It’s human nature. People will gladly do tours if
it ‘pays’ them in other ways.
Even bands that decide to ‘buy-on’ to small tour packages
will often take the opportunity to publicise how they’re
opening for such a band (and doing a number of dates in different
cities/countries) as though this is some kind of yardstick for
measuring success. But if they had to pay to be there then
just how impressive is it really? While some might look at it
as a result of the band’s hard work and talent, those with
a different perspective on how the industry operates might see
it for what it is: a promoter who needed some financial security
by offering a support slot to a much lesser-known band that were
willing to fork out a significant sum of money for the privilege.
Each to their own. Where we (and many others) draw the line with
touring is when it starts to interfere with other areas of life.
While some musicians adopt the aforementioned self-styled image
of total commitment to music and remain entrenched in a kind of
protective confinement of a limited set of rules (‘I am a
touring musician and music is my life’), we have never felt
the need to restrict ourselves in such a way. And although certain
musicians espouse that touring is a duty no matter what, as though
you’re not as serious a musician if you don’t tour,
some of these same idealists also tend to omit how they’ve
been supported by their parents their whole lives (which has allowed
them to stay in a bubble of their own reality), and no matter
how badly they screwed up, someone was always there to bail them
out of their self-made troubles. Rock ‘n’ roll, indeed.
If there’s any sort of advice or ‘message’ to be
gleaned from this entire piece of self-indulgent verbosity, it’s
that before diving headfirst into trying to make some money from
music, which could involve having to hit the road every few months,
one should take stock of the odds. For example, you wouldn’t
be able to justify spending half of your income on lottery tickets
would you? And why not? ‘It’s a lot of money to sink
into something for which the odds are so high; the money could
be better spent on other things instead’. Those are the
very same reasons that prevent many people from attempting a ‘career’
in the music industry today. Because, just like the lottery, it
is a game of probability. Yes, it requires talent, enthusiasm,
perseverance and luck but no self-serving bias can ever shield
the true reality of the statistics. There are winners but there
are definitely losers (in the sense of not being able to
sustain the lifestyle) and droves of them.
The other difference is that buying lottery tickets doesn’t
involve having to ‘hit the road’, which often means
unpaid time off work or having to quit one’s job entirely
and looking for a new job when the tour ends. No doubt the perceived
status and attractive exterior of the music industry reels many
people in but it’s just one aspect to being a musician in
the digital age. Maybe in order to understand the persistence
of some musicians we need to look at their emotional needs first.
How many bands have members who will hack it out and keep going
regardless of the repercussions, simply because of pride or an
unrelenting desire to be a ‘somebody’? Countless musicians
have at one point or another expressed their relentless devotion
to making music that they would sacrifice everything else in their
lives if it meant they could continue to write and express themselves.
The
search for significance in life is an incredible one. Yet the
real significance of our lives is that we are even here. In a
world of approximately seven billion people, we are all searching
for significance (we evolved to feel that way) but significance
is not the same as conspicuous success. Understandably, the actions
of many people are motivated by wanting to leave their mark on
the world. However, not everyone will have their dreams fulfilled.
Indeed, some people can’t handle the possibility that their
life may turn out to be nothing more than ‘ordinary’
(a truly subjective term) so they try to make their lives super
special and attempt to fill it with things that only a handful
of people get to experience in life. It’s a recipe for disillusionment
and disappointment in a lot of cases.
But returning to touring; we are not all that enthusiastic about
putting ourselves in a very financially risky situation just so
we can say we’re on tour and feel like we’re
achieving something important because there are people out there
who will come along to watch us. As it stands, we receive very
little money through selling hardcopies of our music and donations
and, therefore, are not about to take the plunge into putting
a tour together which could seriously jeopardise the budget for
our next album. Given how so many new acts are being discovered
online and/or through word of mouth these days, we feel it is
worth waiting to see how much our music spreads before committing
to any tours. In other words: it is early days yet. Though, as
time goes on, there is also the possibility that we may never
be in a position to tour.
Of course, risk cannot be totally eliminated but whether we travel
to play in front of 50 people or 500, the expenses are often the
exact same. The difference, however, is that the more people who
turn up the better the profit margins, thus, making it a worthwhile
endeavour. We mean no disrespect to the people who are already
willing to come out and pay to see us play, but having spent a
significant sum of money on the recording and promotion of Resolution,
we are simply not able to perform abroad at such an early stage
in our development. Much like the internet being oversaturated
with music, the live music scene is equally bloated with varying
kinds of performing artists. And if many established bands on
record labels are having a hard time filling venues for their
tours, we can’t exactly expect to be free of the same uncertainties
that permeate the music scene.
The contrast is that having one’s music online 24/7 doesn’t
involve having to take unpaid holiday time off work, arrange transport
and accommodation, and haul equipment up and down flights of stairs
to play a forty-minute set for a mixed audience (who, in some
cases, may not have even come out to see the band but just wanted
to get drunk with their friends). The point being made here is
this: exposure is not limited to gigs and being ‘on the road’
is not one idealised or homogenous experience either. There are
different levels and while every band aspires to play in front
of bigger audiences for better money the longer they keep at it,
this only materialises for a small minority of people.
For us, it comes down to weighing up what kind of crowds we think
we can pull and offsetting the risks against what we can realistically
afford to do. Remember, we’re giving away our music
for free but that doesn’t mean we are made of money
and can run off to do any tour we fancy. As a niche band, we’ve
already experienced the thrill of performing live music in new
places for diminishing returns. We don’t expect to make money
playing this kind of music. But we’re also at a stage in
our lives now where putting ourselves in even more debt for the
sake of a small tour is just not something that appeals to us.
At this point in time, the internet simply offers us more exposure
than any independent tour ever could, as it still allows us to
reach new people but without the expense of being ‘out there’
potentially losing money. |
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Defective Prospection: A Lyrical
Theme Exploration...
Friday, May 31, 2013
Each
of the songs featured on Resolution are about a particular
subject matter. The following piece is one such lyrical theme
for the song Defective Prospection and is taken from The
Collector’s Edition [Art Book + 2CD] version of
the album. It’s a topic which has been heavily inspired by
the popular non-fiction book Stumbling
on Happiness by psychologist Daniel
Gilbert as well as some other literature on how the human
brain works. Have a read and see what you think:
Perhaps, the three most important decisions we come to make
in our adult lives is where we want to live, what we want to do
with ourselves and who we want to spend our time with. Contemporary
life can be extremely complex and competitive in nature, even
at the best of times. From a young age we are told to do well
in school so that we can go to college, get a good job and, hence,
be able to afford a certain lifestyle that will provide us with
happiness and allow us to look after ourselves and the people
we care about. But as we all know, not everyone gets to become
successful or has their ambitions fulfilled. And with bookstores
crammed full of self-help titles and similar get-rich-quick schemes
abound, we are clearly living in an age where rising expectations
and crushing realities collide every single day.
Part of life is dealing with the inevitability that unpredictable
things can and do happen, and that we all must live with some
degree of uncertainty. Many individuals often question the direction
they’ve taken in life. They wonder whether they have made
the right choices or are, perhaps, disillusioned because their
current choices have not provided them with the fulfilment and
excitement they sorely anticipated. What we choose to make of
ourselves in life is something that not everyone figures out in
the same fashion. Some people seem to know exactly what they want,
while others tread a different path, trying on various roles for
size. But often, people work hard towards a momentous goal thinking
that as soon as it is achieved they will find everlasting happiness
and contentment, only to be bitterly disappointed when the moment
finally arrives.
One of the defining features of humanity is that we think about
the future in ways that no other animal can or does. Prospection
is the act of looking forward in time or considering the future;
a mental process facilitated by the frontal lobes of our brains.
But just how accurate are we at predicting how we will react to
future events, both good and bad? While we can step into imaginary
tomorrows, projecting ourselves forwards in time and experience,
our ability to visualise accurately is fraught with imperfection.
Instead of being the logical, calculating machines that we like
to think ourselves as, we regularly mispredict our emotional responses
to future events. This encompasses everything from successfully
forecasting our future feelings upon winning the lottery or becoming
famous, to having children or even being paralysed in an accident.
When we imagine our future circumstances, we unconsciously fill
in details that won’t really come to pass and leave out many
details that will. Just as we don’t recall every little detail
of past events, so too do we fail to conjure up every feature
of a future occurrence. So while most of us enjoy unprecedented
freedom to pursue whatever we think will make us happy in life,
the true reality is much more counter-intuitive. That, although
thinking about the future in positive ways can be extremely pleasurable
for us, we tend to overestimate both the probability that such
good events will actually happen, as well as the likelihood that
they will grant us the lasting satisfaction we think they will.
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Chosen
performing ‘Instinct’
live in studio...
Tuesday, April 23, 2013
Despite
their overall lack of professional quality, low budget music
videos can still be a great way to spread music around the internet
and while we’ve just about blown our budget on the creation
and promotion of Resolution, this doesn’t mean we
can’t come up with something to visually showcase
our music. We don’t expect to win any awards for best band
video but, nevertheless, it’s fantastic that the internet
and accessible hardware and software have made the act of video
making much more democratic. The following short video was recorded
at our own studio space in Dublin on April 17th 2013 and is
a live version of the song Instinct. Naturally, because there
are just two of us, we are making use of a Korg D888 unit to
supply a click track, the rhythm guitar, bass, and additional
female vocals and sound samples, which all come from the album
sessions.
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‘Resolution’
now available, self-promotion in the digital age, and competition
winners announced...
Saturday, March 30, 2013
It
is with great pleasure that we unleash our debut album Resolution
upon the world. All nine tracks are available for free download
from our revamped and updated website, as well as being accessible
via some of our social media profiles (links below). Please
help yourself and let us know what you think. Better yet, tell
all your friends. Moreover, why not create chain emails to spam
everyone in your address book, warning them that if they do
not forward it to at least twenty people they will have bad
luck for the rest of their life. All joking aside, now that
we have finally released our first proper album, we would like
to take this opportunity to talk about a more honest approach
to self-promotion in the digital age and what it means for an
independent group such as ourselves.
Many bands and solo artists appear to spend a portion of their
online time sifting through message boards and networking websites,
such as Facebook, YouTube, and the like, perpetually spamming
people on autopilot in the hope of garnering genuine support.
Those of you who once used MySpace when it was at its peak will
no doubt remember being bombarded with impersonal and oversized
banners, ‘check us out’ comments, abundant friend
requests from unknown bands and artists, and pointless notifications
about gigs that weren’t even in the same country
as where you lived, nevermind the same city. Thankfully, those
times are behind us but musicians are still out there, thinking
up time-saving ways to try and promote and advertise themselves.
Of course, all music needs someone to hype it up and
spread it around but how one chooses to approach self-promotion
can make a world of difference.
Currently, the music section of our website contains various
comments from some of the people that we once emailed about
our music through MySpace several years ago. We did not spam
these people but, rather, looked at their profiles, read what
kind of music and bands they were into, and then emailed them
an introduction to ourselves if we thought they would enjoy
our music. In short, we felt this was a more productive, personal
and most of all, respectful approach and actually made the effort
to spend an hour or so each day looking for people with similar
interests to our own. This involved carefully reading profiles,
emailing people and, in short, not acting like an *ADD TO FRIENDS*
profile collector.
 Because,
when it comes down to it, what’s the point in having 10,000
friends if only 5% of them are genuinely interested in
the music? Why do lots of bands want to clock up as many online
profiles (or ‘likes’) as possible in the shortest
space of time? Is it to give the appearance of success and popularity?
Perhaps it’s meant to impress a record label. Whatever
the thinking behind it, simply spamming as many people as possible
is not the answer and in many cases tends to have the opposite
effect. For instance, when a band sends out a blank friend request
or an agenda-pushing comment, what they don’t realise is
that they could also be sending another kind of message in the
process:
Hey! We want you to listen to us. We expect you to give our
music some time and attention but we’re
not really prepared to invest the same kind of time and effort
into looking at your profile to see what kind of music you actually
like. We couldn’t really be bothered sending you an email
or respectfully introducing ourselves first. We just want to
spend the least amount of time at this whole promotion thing
but get the maximum results.
The
thoughts, communications, attitudes and actions of many musicians
demonstrate this underlying belief in detached self-promotion.
Somehow, many feel they are entitled to an audience because
they can upload music to the internet. Too many bands and solo
artists show little or no respect for their potential fans.
It’s
as though instead of extending their arm, initiating a warm
handshake and having a quick exchange like you would normally
do in person, they prefer to slap a flyer on everyone in the
room without even making eye contact and then move on to the
next person, and the next, and so on.
Bands, by their very nature, are incredibly lazy and for many
different reasons possess a fierce unwillingness to put in the
time it actually takes to properly promote their music in a
manner which does not treat potential fans as though they are
time burglars. Unsurprisingly, a significant number of people
who used MySpace eventually began declining most band friend
requests automatically, worn out from logging on each day to
find another twenty or so new requests, the majority
of which were absolute drivel. Granted, musicians still need
to advertise themselves to a certain extent but with the internet
now over-saturated with mediocrity, it’s about time that
they learned how to refine their approach in presenting their
wares to the world.
Our hope is to put our music out there, make it as accessible
as possible, and simply let people discover it in their own
time through word of mouth or ‘word of mouse’ as is
often the case these days. Despite all the positive responses
from the people we once contacted through MySpace, we personally
feel that direct self-promotion isn’t as effective as when
someone else personally recommends a band. There’s simply
no substitute for the seal of approval that comes from people
whose opinions we all know and trust as opposed to the self-promoting
band that are obviously going to tell everyone how brilliant
they are.
The email approach we took via MySpace five years ago was effective
because it was very different to what most bands were doing
at that time, such as cutting corners with superficial comments
and lazy promotional tactics. But if all bands were to start
sending out in-depth emails, very soon the playing field would
be levelled and everyone would be back to the square one again.
However, what will never cease is peer recommendations. Most
of the bands we all listen to tend to be the same ones that
others told us about first.
Certainly, bands make new fans through mass media exposure (which
is why we are exploring that avenue as well) but it always comes
back to the local music community and the people with whom we
associate. And with the internet in operation that community
now stretches right across the world. Our potential fans are
out there online or if not, then their friends certainly are.
Simply put, there has never been a better time in history to
reach so many people, so easily, and we are extremely grateful
to have this opportunity. So thank you for your time and attention
and thank you for any recommendations you might make to others
about our music.
Lastly, as promised, we recently held our small competition
to determine the winners of the three Deluxe Special Edition
[2CD] hardcopy versions of the album. Congratulations
to Maren Jansen, Chris Palmer,
and John O’Brien. You
will all be contacted via email to obtain your postal details,
as well as to enquire whether you would like to have a personal
message of your choice inscribed inside the CD booklets. As
for everyone else, both the Deluxe Special Edition [2CD]
and the Collector’s
Edition [Art Book + 2CD] are now available directly
from our website. For a look at what’s inside, you can
watch this short preview video.
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Album release date, track preview, and upcoming competition...
Friday, Februrary 1, 2013
Recorded
at the prestigious Westland
Studios with producer
extraordinaire Alwyn Walker at the helm, our debut album
Resolution
will finally be released on March 30th and will be available
for free download directly from our website. Although the digitisation
of music is fast becoming the norm, with album artwork taking
more of a back seat in recent years, we still relish the opportunity
to present our music as a piece of communicative art. Therefore,
in addition to free MP3s, our album will also be available
in two exclusive Limited Edition hardcopy formats. For now,
we have uploaded the first track from the album which can be
accessed below. Any newsletter subscribers will also have the
second track sent to their inboxes.
The
track listing for the album is as follows:
1.
Engines of Belief MP3
2. Defective Prospection
3. The Narcissism Epidemic
4. Mental Clarity
5. Diminishment
6. Instinct
7. Asch’s Paradigm
8. Metaphysical Contradiction
9. The Departure Lounge
The Deluxe
Special Edition [2CD] features a 9-track
bonus disc of unreleased songs taken from the album sessions,
rough mixes, and some drum & bass tracks. This exclusive
set comes packaged in two separate clear jewel cases accompanied
by high quality printed booklets.
The Collector’s
Edition [Art Book + 2CD]
is a beautiful 60-page, full colour softcover book,
bundled with the Deluxe Special Edition, extensive liner notes,
lyrical themes and illustrations for each song, rare photos,
studio diaries and more, all exhibited within an exquisite tapestry
of expanded album artwork courtesy of Fiaz
Farrelly making it a must have item for those who want
something a little more tangible to add to their music collection.
We will also be holding a competition on the album release day,
where we shall be giving away three copies of the Deluxe Special
Edition. To enter, all you have to do is email your full name
to competition@chosen.ie
for your chance to win, with the option of having a personal
message of your choice inscribed inside the booklets if you
wish.
The winners will be announced on the album release day. Best
of luck to everyone! Please note, the closing date for entry
is March 28th.
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