the heliotrope preview pack
Hey there,
I’ve decided to do something a little special. Heliotrope is now scheduled for next Fall for a couple of – I think – pretty good reasons:
1) I want to sit back and get some perspective.
2) Bernard Falaise will be adding some tracks but won’t be able to get around to it until late summer.
3) We’re counting down the weeks/days to the birth of Heloïse.
So, to make up for what will probably be a pretty silent summer on my part, I’ve put together what I call the heliotrope preview pack which contains:
- Heliotrope Global Soundscape: A mix teaser of every song on the upcoming album. This should give you a pretty solid idea of its sound.
- swarm-summer cathedral mix: A free version of the new song Swarm. This is not the final version you’ll get on the album. It’s a pre-mix that may or may not resemble what will be officially released.
- heliotrope-preview.jpg: A cover for he preview files.
- heliotrope-preview-wall.jpg: A 1920×1200 wallpaper.
Check out the Soundscape:
Feel free to spread the files around as you see fit – tell your friends, your family, your kids, broadcast them, sing’em out loud ;-)
I’ll be back to tell you guys when our little girl hits our dimension (!) – in the meantime have a great summer and take care.
Later.
v2
The creative process is rarely a linear endeavour. No matter how great you feel about your latest work, chances are you’ll do a 360 a few days later. Projects are in constant flux, “saviour” ideas are suddenly dismissed with absolute clarity, reborn and transformed. As I said about the cover art: it ain’t over til it’s over.
So it has been with the song Heliotrope. I tried all sorts of angles, re-mixed it several times and just pretty much banged my head on the wall with every note in it. In the end though, it headed for the dustbin. Well, not exactly: a portion of it is in my current line-up as a sort of transitional song/thingy entitled années lumière (!).
In its place is this new title song. Not the final mix but you get the idea.
And yes: it really does end that abruptly.
new pictures
I’m testing new lighting ideas – using myself as the subject. I’ve inserted a couple on the front page slideshow. This might impact the look of the album’s booklet. And yes… maybe the cover. It ain’t over til it’s over.
P.S. The martini glass shots are part of the same battery of tests…
facelift
Worked my butt off this morning and the original Heliotrope is now back in the album with a new title. Added a whole bunch of tracks, laboured on the mix – I was still going back and forth even as I was re-working it but I think it works now. I had the same problem on BGD with Craving the Ether. It took me awhile to find the sound that worked. We’ll see how I feel about it in the next few days…
one heliotrope down
Creation is a strange beast. A few weeks ago I released a couple of drafts from the upcoming album, one of which was the title song Heliotrope. My friend Rowley even played it on his show. Well, I’ve been working quite a bit on getting everything together since then and this morning I realized the song just didn’t work. No matter how I tweaked it, repositioned it in the makeshift line-up, up or down… it just didn’t gel with the rest of the songs. So this morning I scrapped it. Boom. Gone.
Now I’ve got a new Heliotrope song that feels exactly how I wanted it to feel: kickass, furious and in your face.
I also have what I believe is a final list of eleven songs clocking in at around 45 minutes. Some stuff from the Lab Unit, some things you’ve never heard. It’s starting to feel like an album – got my iPod ready for a run through before I go to sleep tonight…
News
A very cool write-up about the new songs by Pope JTE over at the Ripple Effect: The Ripple Effect: Rumors Heard in MySpace, Vol. II, Episode 2.
News about my friend Jeff from Mountain Mirrors as well…
take 3
I was out most of the day today. Both Cynthia and Anaïs had a doctor’s appointment and I went shopping for a car – we won’t fit in the one we have now once Heloïse is born…
I’ve been working on two other songs, one of which I’ll probably post in a couple of days.
But here’s another take on the cover idea. I added a burst of light in the upper right corner and some textures. Still need to tweak the lettering. And the orange type is gone. I got that message loud and clear ;-)
cover art 2
This is becoming a weird stream of consciousness but maybe orange type isn’t so bad. Maybe my eyes are shot. Maybe I need to go to bed…
cover art 1
In between songs I’ve started messing around with ideas for album artwork. Here’s a possibility… (update: this is a new version from the one I first posted – orange type? wtf was I thinking?)
it only takes a second to lose someone
The seven notes of the piano intro popped in my head yesterday while the kids were getting ready to leave, so I took 30 seconds to run downstairs and record them. Those 30 seconds ended up monopolizing the day – and a portion of the evening.
It’s no secret that I’m more and more obssessed by how fleeting and finite things are becoming. The news of Natasha Richardson’s death yesterday morning just served as a reminder of this. I think these things carry a lot more impact when you have a family of your own. The more you love, the more you fear losing those you love. I saw Neeson on the Daily Show a few weeks back, talking about his wife and kids, looking happy and content.
Man… you just never know.
the promised
Here’s another rough and tumble mix for a new Heliotrope song called the promised.
Update: 03/18 new version with tweaked arrangements.
Heliotrope
A couple of weeks ago, I watched a TED conference with Elizabeth Gilbert. It was about the artist’s relationship to the creative process. You should watch it. The gist of it is that maybe creation happens in spite of us. Maybe we’re just following the directions of a “genius” whispering in our ear. In other words, maybe it’s out of our control. She mentioned an anecdote from Tom Waits where he said he was driving one day and this song came in to his head. He couldn’t do anything about it, didn’t have anything to record it or write anything down. So he just looked up at the sky and said: “Excuse me, can you not see that I’m driving? If you really want to exist come back at a more opportune time, otherwise go bother somebody else…”. Apparently his whole work process changed after that.
I find the idea fascinating. Mostly because regardless of my love for music I’ve always felt a slave to it. I have notebooks dating back to when I was a teenager that talk about music as a disease. It’s always been something I couldn’t help doing. A song will appear in my head fully formed and I have to try transcribing it as best I can. When I can’t do it in time it leaves and is lost forever. Yes it’s a release and a way to express things I won’t necessarily say out loud. But it’s a fucking pain. I don’t labour on songs in a conscious and deliberate way. I run like hell to bring it into daylight. It’s a birthing – every time.
So now here I am. Again having said I’d do something else for awhile. Again being bombarded by new songs, screaming in my ears. So fuck it. I know it’s pointless. I know I’m probably wasting my time. But if I don’t listen, I’ll go mad.
I’m posting Heliotrope. As I said in my previous post, it’s likely the title song for the next album. I can feel a bunch of them lining up, all in a row. Waiting.
Pushing.
i was a love
Ok, I can’t stop. I’ll probably die with a song in my head and no one around to listen. I do know this: there’s a new album forming called heliotrope - because searching for light has become both a figurative and literal fact of existing. This winter is long and preying on me like a wolf. One of those dark transitory episodes I need to go through. The song is called i was a love. It’s not finished but it’s the start of something.
