Week 2 Review
Hi everyone, welcome back!
Following my unveiling of this new project last week, I’ve been working and making further developments, especially in terms of outlining how the next several weeks will progress. While I can’t spoil all of the exciting things I have planned over the course of the next month, I can confidently say that everything is coming together nicely!
First, the announcement of my new EP is coming shortly, and although I’m not able to divulge most of the details just yet, I am happy to say that a release date and a record label have been finalized, and full details will be coming soon!
That said most of the work I’ve accomplished over the past week was more along the lines of discussing collaborations, release dates, promotions, etc., and less on multimedia content design. However, I have nearly finished sketching the next few design and video projects and will promptly begin drafting them.
Here's a list of a few of the (creative) things I need to finish before I can announce the record:
- Film and edit a thirty-second announcement trailer
- Finish editing and consolidating the album artwork
- Draft up an announcement poster / flier
…And those are just the things to do before the announcement! I have so much planned and so much to do but it’s going to be so worth it!
Design and Editing Progress
While I don’t have anything new to post from a design standpoint, I did spent a large portion of my week reading and watching Photoshop and Premiere tutorials; I just didn’t find the time to apply those lessons to any personal work. However, when I went to edit my album artwork so that everything would be finalized, the .psd files that the artist I worked with sent me overloaded my computer! While a friend was able to complete this for me, it was still frustrating to require assistance on a very simple task purely based on computational power. So, I might have to find a more powerful machine to work on if I’m going to continue to attempt working with heavier duty projects! Whoops.
While I haven't fully mapped out my plans for the announcement trailer, I do have a few videos I've been using as a reference:
MERLINDA/WALLS | New Album Teaser (via Keats Collective)
RORA Team x Milkshakes | Chicago Show Trailer (via Rora Collective)
Music: Commissions and Remixes
Aside from planning and design work, I did begin work on a few new musical projects this week. The first is a commission for Jeremy Greer, who hosts the “Don’t Give Up Skeleton” Dark Souls themed podcast; I was fortunate enough to be included on an episode a few months back. He is currently putting together a YouTube compilation to help advertise the program, and asked that I draft up an arrangement to accompany the video. While I struggled to come up with something that would complement my style and fit the original work, I eventually decided to do a reworking of "Majula," a selection from the Dark Souls 2 soundtrack in the style of a completely different game: Animal Crossing. I took the original and added extra voicings to give it the jazzy character of the Animal Crossing soundtrack, as well as using soundfonts and samples straight from the game. I also included original solos to give it a truly individual fingerprint.
In addition to that, I’ve started a new remix, this time for Ehiorobo’s “Heir to the Sugar Honey Queen,” off of his DESKPOP debut, Limeade. Taking the original’s soul leanings, I switched it up to much more of a classic hip-hop feel, but with a stronger jazz touch. I was originally going for something far dancier, but the incredibly smooth mood of the original drew me back into complimenting that atmosphere. While I’m only so far into this work in progress, I’m incredibly excited to work toward finishing it!
That's about all that I have to report for this week of the project! Thank you for continuing to join me on this adventure, and please stay tuned as I unveil some very big and exciting announcements very soon!
See you all next week!
Cheers!
- Dylan