Summer slips away from us here without us being on fire this year.
Tremendous.
It's official, Australia is trying to resume business as unusual. We'll see what happens over the next while.
'Sanctuary' Project for Downtime Season 1 is moving at a regular pace. Great. Big ups to Theo. who is producing the heck out of this. 'Awakening', new studio recordings for the collective is next in line for mixing and fixing and that has started. The subsequent recording session for it is on track with new songs in progress as well.
There is more music than I can write to, quickly, at present. What a wonderful problem to have.
Big ups also to the Neon Nights who are gonna try some singing with us.
We have 3 projects in post/productionand writing underway. Streaming show has special guests. Gigs coming up. Vaccines comng out.
Things may have been rough but you'd be silly to miss the good bits because of the bad :) What's not to like?
Now that we have got the technical gremlins sort of working for this season of downtime, we're doing Special Guests - this week Standup comedian Brian Crumpton from michigan :)
(Brian just pointed out my capitalisation is wrong but I refuse to change it)
We have 9 more episodes of this season and I am feeling pretty OK with most of the stuff that connects to other stuff.
And the best way to make things consistent with Season 1, is, once you have it working, add something to it.
Mid stream failure to Twitch today. FB stream is either based on closer gear (local fb infrastructure and face it what else have they got on content right now, amirite?).
My local Telco seems to be encouraging me to shift to the National Broadband by gradually making my existing connection worse.
I'm at less than 5Mbps up on Cable. That's sad. I get more on a hotspot.
BOOO!! Ep 4 is on FB only facebook.com/stormcellarband and the irony of relying on the Evil Empire as principal host is not lost on me.
Today almost everything worked. Almost. That's a good thing. Good work from everyone and a thank you to our studio guests.
Now that things are working(ish) we're also looking at doing a show on location.
Ah yes also looks like we will be doing some live in person with actual humans shows again...soon...WOW!
Ah it's mighty comfortable weather considering it's the Summer season and we are less on fire than in previous years.
We note with pleasure the arrival of a grandson for Friend Of The Band Mr G.
Even in times such as these, renewal. The show really does go on :)
Downtime Seaons 1 Recordings
Theo, Coggers and Fox are on it. It's gonna be 'enhanced' from the live shows.
So...if I have taken my hands off this then keeping my hands off is a...new skill! LOL!
Bravo to the chaps as they power through this. I basically get to sit back and watch.
'Awakening' Project
The Kid Stays In The Picture has come up a riot. It's more Steely Dan than Steely Dan.
I reckon we have come up with an excellent, excellent forgery. Almost as good as when Regurgitator did the 'song formely known as' (which I legit thought was a new Prince song...).
'White Fire' still eludes me, as Mr Wizard has made some very pertinent observations. Much like 'Fool For You' I know the song is in there if I can unlock it.
Production Line
In this new normal, the guys have a routine for processing the work.
Write the song. Play the song. Record the song. Mix the Song.
Like mad Brewers, we have different batches at different stages and that's perfectly reasonable.
Assembly of the tracks continues, in sequence, once the Downtime recordings are up to mixing stage
Now that there is a regular, productive, operating at sustainable-organic-speed vibe on getting things done,
There is some basic housekeeping work to do so as everything else seems to have settled into a rhythm.
I did a review of current guide tracks and...well...I guess I have work to do.
Godfather J said it the other day 'running out of things to say' and I get it.
Saying that which seems worthwhile may come easily, or it may take some consideration.
Fool For You Videoclip
Ok so COVID is now less a big deal here so...location scout due. Script? Abandoned. WIll film what we can and smile about it.
Patient Farming
We're not trying to plan on Gigs or what used to be. We make what we can, as often as we can, with what we have, and we are still doing that, therefore, this is...normal.
With luck and the continued efforts of the members, we will see more stuff done, as we seem to like doing stuff.
I'll report it, discreetly (LOL) and often with some gentle reverence for the useful secrecy of getting on with things incognito.
I have noticed the return of traffic and aircraft noises as Sydney re-opens. Sort of. Start, stop, start. Methinks this will be the way of things for the next 2-4 years.
Gig's returned...then went away...then returned...then...
People forgot how much they missed live music and then forgot they missed it, or perhaps they have become so accustomed to staying home that there is a permanent shift in Bands/Venues/Patrons/Media/Music/Cultural Relevance.
Meanwhile - Things are going well, and going sloowwwwly.
Theo was due an album and he is producing Downtime Season One Best Of and it's going well
As there are no rules, we are happily contemplating all the ideas we can entertain.
That brings us to Stormcellar Collectives next recording project which is running in parallel to the Best of Downtime. Perhaps 'sequentially' is more accurate.
We're gathering guests, ideas, edits. We still have no conclusion on how to finish the projects.
The Stormcellar material from our recordings in the US last year still needs some attention, and that requires revenue and that requires...gigs.
Slowwwly - Downtime Episode 2 saw me work out some of last weeks tech problems. We are almost there.
I didnt start promoting Season 1 until Episode 6 because it took us 4 Pilot eps + 5 season eps to sort the process.
As we used the time in which we could have a done a technical rehearsal for mixing album stuff, Episode 2 of this season was still a little risky.
I have some local network issues to deal with, and I need to write myself a Server Operation manual so I dont get overwhelmed when things go wrong (and they do, that's tech).
Thus - it's going...it's going slowly. It will take me at least until the end of the quarter to complete the tech stuff we are working on in the back end.
To recap - 3 albums in Post/Development/and editing. 1 Streaming show operational and in development. Additional website changes and other stuff in development.
We're going to fundraise a little to help hire some of our mates as session muso's cos stuff is tough.
You know what we're up to, support it here: paypal.me/stormcellarband.
