PreciseHero

Hey! A video for that song I liked, that one time!

Let’s see where this goes.

….I haven’t even gotten to watch “The Wonder Year” yet…

Digging whenever The Simpsons break into different styles of animation & art.

These days my retro gaming nostalgia has been squarely pointed at the 32-bit era. One of these days I’m going to get around to finishing my Sega Saturn collection & get another PS1.
Relevant thing: Sega Saturn Saturdays 

Possibly the best NiGHTS fan-illustration I’ve ever seen.

Sounds to ease into the day with.

Good morning, world.

The final piece of the puzzle is in place. Doing the final mixes, tweaks, and car test before handing it over to the label. I’m proud to present my latest batch of works.

3rd time’s the charm right? The album is coming out in August & they wanted something to reflect a Summer-vibe so, I dug into my archives and came up with this set of light leaked film negatives from a trip to a nearby lake.

Some kind of awesome.

Thomas Allen’s inventive & imaginative dioramas made from book covers.

Animated music video love.

theatlantic:

Live Out Your Synth Pop Dreams with Google’s Moog Doodle

Tomorrow, Google is celebrating Robert Moog, creator of a modern synthesizer, whose 78th birthday would have been Wednesday, according to The Next Web. The synthesizer has a keyboard you can play with your mouse as well as oscillators, filters, and a mixer, and you can record and send people your creations.

[Image: Google]

Time to rock out!

Never heard of this song. Never heard of this artist. Yet, I’m glad it exist so that I can watch the Rap Critic lampoon it.

This weekend I struggled with my scanner because for some reason, it wouldn’t scan negatives. I tried it on a different computer, reinstalled my O/S, tried it at my girlfriend’s place (all that did was give me a different set of errors)… So, what was the problem? The thing wouldn’t work because a bit of the film was marginally outside of the scanning surface… technology, I tell ya… Eventually got everything working, but in the end I found a picture in a photo album that I liked. 
I thought I’d trashed all of the prints I had of my snapshots, but a few were stashed away in a closet & I found a few “happy accidents”.
Not sure how I managed to do it, but I had a bunch of shots that were just swirls of colours & gradients. Nothing else I had in my archives really seemed to fit, but I like these pictures. I’m sure I’ve used a few of them for random digital releases, but I’d like to see it in print for an official/physical product. Besides, it think the images suit this project. It doesn’t give away what would be on the album just by looking at it. If anything, it looks like the kind of art you’d see on some electronic record or maybe a far out jazz/funk/soul release. I like that mysterious aspect of it. I chose the image with heavy amounts of red instead of some of the more pastel blue/green ones simply because lately I’ve really been feeling the colour red and it just has a certain vibrancy about it.

A little bit of free time does wonders, doesn’t it? I cranked out the last track that was due for recording. All that’s left is mixing in Starling Electric’s contribution to the final song. Time to take full advantage of my R&R time now that most of the work is done!

Minimalist jam dedicated to a friend. There’s only one more track I have to record & I’m not sure of the direction it’ll take yet. One thing is certain, it’ll be rough around the edges like everything else. I don’t know, I feel like there’s enough pristine, expertly mixed, professional sounds out there. I just want to make things that are kind of messy, quickly dashed out, & fun for me. That’s basically the core philosophy of the entire project.

1/4 of the new jams that’ll be on the final release. One is being wrapped up and I’m planning on finishing 2 other tracks by next week so I can turn this thing in!

With the release of “Canon” coming sooner than later, I figured I’d preemptively answer some questions someone out there might have:

Q: You keep mentioning a new project, “Canon” - what’s the deal with that?
A: “Canon” is a collection of all of the work I’ve been releasing via BandCamp, along with new songs, but released physically & through a record label.

Q: Which label, formats, how many tracks?
A: River City Music Entertainment, Inc., vinyl/digital release, 24 tunes

Q: Another Japan only release?
A: Most likely. But, the internet exist so you can import it or maybe some of your favorite online retailers will get a few copies. …or realistically, someone will probably rip it and post it on some Blogger site.

Q: When’s it coming out?
A: Look for it this Summer. Maybe in the region of August. I’ll have a more formal announcement of an exact date soon.

Q: Arrangers? Producers? Beat makers? Collaborations?
A: I did all of that stuff. The 2 guest spots are occupied by Zach Curd & Starling Electric.

Q: Will you be producing anything else after this?
A: Probably not. I might keep a beat or two stashed away for a rainy day, but for now I think I got it all out of my system with this project. I’ve proven to myself that I could put together something for myself, but I’m not at all interested in doing arrangements for others or remixing things. The songs that are being released work for me and have a certain design/sound in mind. I couldn’t see any of the material feeling right if remixed or if I tried to hand out the sound to someone else. It’s sort of personalized that way.

Q: Cover art?
A: I posted an original mock-up of it here, but this version of the art won’t be used for the final release. I have an another idea for what it may look like, but part of being on a label is having them ok certain things in order to promote it better. If it isn’t one of my photographs then it will be something that the label presented & I had to compromise.

Q: What’s this about donating proceeds?
A: Well, if you’ve read my blog enough you’d know that I dig Japan + Japanese stuff. Also, a bulk of my creative support is based in Japan so, I wanted to do my part & give back when I could. Especially after the all of the happenings with the earthquakes, nuclear problems, and so on. So, if this little album of mine actually turns a profit - I’d like to contribute to Photohoku. As a photography junkie myself, I felt like this is one of the best ways to do my part. Think of it as, art funding art in order to enrich people’s lives and have a positive impact. Here’s a hint - the potential cover art will be something from the rolls of film I shot when I visited in the Summer of 2009. 

Q: How would you describe the new material?
A: Free-form, mildly lo-fi (mid-fi?) jams. A looser feel than my previous stuff, but also a lot more fun to perform for an audience. I sort of feel like this is the proper follow-up to “Particle (moments)”. They’re similar projects in the way that I’ve gotten back to making music simply because it’s what I like to do.

Q: Are you doing any live sets?
A: Yes. Well, I’ve only done 1 so far this season. Looking forward to doing more.

Q: I’ve heard your new songs. They make me feel weird.. Will you release anything like your old stuff? I liked that!
A: Nah, won’t be retreading old ground. You’re free to listen to the old stuff as much as you want though. In fact, I’m pretty sure I’ll lose the audience that liked my other sound, not that I’m doing anything too radically different, but I don’t see the rappity-rap/keep it real/true school/revivalist crowd digging this too much.

Q: What are you working on next?
A: Caleb (of Starling Electric/The Boys Themselves) & I have talked about doing a collaborative project using sound collages he’s been putting together, Adam (of Murder Mystery/Ferndale Acid Scene) & I have also passed tracks back & forth we’ve [mostly I] just gotta get stuff done to what he’s already sent me - [waiting for the right inspiration/sound to contribute] and lastly, that follow-up to “Daydreamer Dialogue” will be off of the backburner eventually & make its way to the world. Before all of that goes down, I’ll probably take a bit of a break from writing & recording music in order to recharge.

Q: Are you going back on hiatus?
A: I can see that happening. I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how much more PreciseHero material I have in me/how much more the world needs. After I finish up the collaborative works I think I’ll be done for awhile (if not for good). I have a few more goals as an artist: mainly craft a few more solid projects + contribute to some works that I admire (e.g. tv show/animation/video game). I want to build a solid catalogue for the live aspect and make that more of a focus for awhile at least. Then, it’s quits for good. No ETA on that happening though.