Fantasy Future Releases II: Caryl’s Law

Following on from Monday’s post, I’ve decided I’m going to bite the bullet and get as much of my back catalogue recorded and released as I possibly can before I get old and bitter and lose my ability to dream.

Caryl’s Law: Always announcing, never releasing

Unfortunately for me, I find it very difficult to keep working on recordings until they are complete. I end up making a start on something, maybe even getting most of the way there, but then not quite making it to completion. The only exception to this was my work on Synthesis & Synergy for Glitter Punch. Having a deadline, and people I knew who wanted to listen to it, was enough to push me over that line to release.

Another problem of mine was that I used to tease or announce things prematurely. Old fans will know about my attempt to release a double album named Honesty and Integrity.  I thought maybe the pressure of having announced the idea online would act as an ‘invisible hand’ to drive me to release, but I couldn’t have been more wrong. Instead it had more of a paralysing effect than if I had just kept the thing to myself. Of course, there was a happy ending in the form of Vox Artis, though it was so scaled down compared to my initial vision I felt as though I had failed.

The third aspect of Caryl’s Law is my tendency to create album artwork before I work on the album itself. Perhaps this is down to my visually-focussed personality, but I think part of it is that I just really like the idea of having lots of pretty artwork to look at. It helps me imagine what might be. It’s the phenomenon of the potential in an idea being more intoxicating than the realisation of the idea. So, no, me teasing artwork is no indication that anything is anywhere near being closed to finished. Sorry!

Digital Delight the EP

You might remember talk from some years ago of a mini-album called Digital Delight. I’ve bowed my head in shame and set those posts to ‘private’ so I can pretend the idea I have about it now is the one I was always going to execute. *whistles and looks around nervously*

You’ll be pleased to know Digital Delight is still very much a thing, a thing I want to do, and a thing that is actually being done. Again, I’m having to work on a smaller scale than I had initially planned, but in this case it seems to be helping solidify the main concept and express what I had first intended.

Digital Delight is now a nifty little 4-track EP including two lead tracks, Digital Dread and Digital Delight.

These songs document a strange time in my life where I struggled with my mental health and my identity as an artist. I was living out these issues publicly on my YouTube channel while having a few lulzy individuals prey on them for their own entertainment. I wanted to believe if I just kept working under those conditions that I would toughen up, but really it was more like letting other people pick at your scabs. Not long after this I finally got some medical treatment and I haven’t looked back since.

This is the EP I want to have finished before the Bay-bong gets here. Given that I could be giving birth any moment this week and onwards (maybe even as you’re reading this!), I really don’t know if this is a possibility. This is why this series of posts is called Fantasy Future Releases…

Recording status:

• I need to sing a lot and record it and stuff
• Gotta record keyboard parts for last track
• One epic guitar solo required
• Fixin’ mixes
• A master of none… is what I currently have.

All The Way To Yesterday EP

My next project after this will be another EP intended to be a sort of commemorative release for my first home recorded album, Demo Album, or self-titled. I want to be able to release it September 2015 to mark its ten year anniversary. All this talk of ‘ten years since’ is making me feel very old and grown-up… I wonder if by then I’ll have grown out of my constant application of Caryl’s Law.

Either way, there will be five tracks including a brand new one nobody has heard and a moody remix of September Again.

Recording Status

• Zero, zip, zilch, nada
• Except for the September Again remix
• Which needs vocals
• But it’s pretty much there production-wise

That’s all for this week, but next time I’ll start getting down to the total and utter madness of the Fantasy List.

Remember, folks: so long as you’re busy talking about it, you’re not doing it. And if you’re not doing it, you should totes chat to me so we can procrastinate together!