This being a music site primarily, I occasionally remember I ought to post music related stuff on here. Here are some American Expatriate statistics for you:

Instrumentals Composed: 75
Songs Written (for American Expatriate): 10
Songs Written (for Untitled Free Album): 6

Obviously, some (many) of the instrumentals are crap, and the songs may be too. At least a few of them are good though. I’m looking forward to writing the last few American Expat songs in the next couple months and piecing the album together. This, even more than any of my previous work, might well be something that only appeals to me. It’s also about as cheerful as a morgue, at least lyrically, so get ready for that.

The instrumentals are more of a departure from my previous work. Think dirty live drums mixed with spacious piano chords and simple melodies and you’ll have an idea of what I’ve got on my hands here. My guess is there’s still quite a while before you can get your hands on this album (I’m guessing we won’t start recording until at least the summer), but I may record and post some demos before then. If I do, they will be shitty shitty quality, but they might be fun to listen to for some of you.

Also, keep an eye out for news regarding an album with Sarah Clark, and further collaboration with DJ HDL, who sent me something quite awesome the other day.

Good news: I’ve made a new video. Better news: I’ve finally figured out how to export it from Final Cut and put it on Youtube while still preserving the widescreen aspect ratio. There’s no way for me to fix the old videos (they take up too much hard drive space since I shoot everything in HD; I usually delete everything once the video is uploaded), but from now on you’ll be getting nothing but widescreen goodness.

Today’s video is a sort of random collection of things, including some old footage from before my camera broke, some new test footage I shot around the apartment, and a brief performance by yours truly–a new song. Kind of. You’ll see. The beat that you hear in part of the video is also new. No samples.

I have to say, the fact that I’m composing all of the beats on American Expatriate in their entirety has really opened up some possibilities in terms of songwriting. In the past, my beats were always arranged around the sample. The sample determined everything: the mood, the tempo, what could and could not be added, and the more samples I added the more constricted I became in terms of what I could do with a beat.

Now I’m finding that composing my own beats (and having the resources to still have them sound good) is allowing me to make more dramatic changes in my instrumentals, as well as add tons of little extra tweaks to complement the lyrical content. For example, a programmed sounding synth-beat can suddenly break into wide-open, clear-blue-sky piano chords for a moment of lyrical epiphany, and then sink subtly back into the synths. Or whatever, that’s just an example and it will be up to you to decide whether any of this stuff actually works when the album’s finished anyway, but the point is, it’s possible.

I haven’t been doing much writing, but I’m not particularly concerned. I have three songs more or less completely done at this point, a good plan for a fourth, and I’m sure more will come. I still haven’t constructed a solid plot outline for it yet, but I’m thinking that may come after most of the songs are written and it’s just a matter of arranging them properly. The main character and his rather peculiar issue is established and evident in more or less everything so far. I’m not going to tell you anything about that yet, though.

One of my old albums (Hope Flies) has been featured on the free music site MusicRebell. If you have a few seconds to spare, go there and rate the album using those little stars below it. Thanks!

(And, of course, if you don’t already have that album, or are missing ANY of my albums, they can all be got here).

First of all, the good folks over at Veggie Co Records have finally had a go at my Myspace page, which was long in need of an overhaul. I’m still not going to update it much because I hate Myspace, but at least it looks less boring.

I have finished a draft of the first song of American Expatriate, “Arriving”. It’s got a skeleton instrumental and complete lyrics, although I haven’t revised them yet. It describes the narrator’s first moments arriving in China, first while he’s looking out the plane and then later when he’s lugging his luggage up the eight flights of stairs to his apartment. It’s got a chorus that is meant to be sung, so prepare yourselves now: I’ll be singing again on this album. (Don’t worry though, I’ll be getting some knowledgeable help before I record it).

I’ve decided on a writing style for the album that’s heavily influenced by my recent experience writing some short fiction (and reading it). Although the overarching plot of the album isn’t exactly crystallized yet, don’t expect there to be a lot of dialogue. This song, and those that follow it, get the point across largely through a description of the environment, filtered (of course) through the narrator’s somewhat distorted perspective.

Why am I choosing to write it this way? For one, I find it much more interesting than conveying feelings with dialogue. A song already is dialogue in a sense; I can use tone and emotion in the delivery and convey information without having to have the character talk to people. Secondly, it fits one of the overarching themes of the album, which is isolation. This is not to say that the narrator won’t interact with other people–quite the contrary–but my concern is primarily what’s going on inside his head. What happens outside is really only important in that it affects his mind state. Finally, it allows me to paint a visual picture and convey information about the narrator at the same time. Since urban China is an interesting setting, and one that many listeners won’t be familiar with, the more detail I can cram into the songs, the clearer a picture of the setting they are going to get. At the same time, by filtering that detail through the narrator’s language, the listener learns something about him, too. It’s the proverbial two birds-one stone thing.

I’ve also been wanting to bring magical realism into some of my music for a while now, being a fan of authors like Borges, so expect a good bit of that, too. Nothing too crazy, though. I think you’ll like it.

Musically, I’ve got around 40 skeleton instrumentals, of which 3 or 4 might end up on the album, if that. I’m still learning my way around the new Reason, and developing my composition skills. It’s really too early to say anything for sure, but expect real-life drums and stripped-down piano chord melodies mixed with some distortion and occasional electronic intrusions.

We got the CDs in today from manufacturer Built By Icon. They look absolutely great! In case anyone wants to take a sneak peek, or see what 550 CDs looks like in heavy-ass boxes, here’s a quick unboxing video I made and threw up on Youtube.

So the long wait is over. You’re going to want one of these hard copies, because they are sexy, and you can get them from Veggie Co. If you really really feel like missing out, though, remember that the album is available through iTunes, and Amazon as well.

I’ve noticed a lot of people looking for the lyrics to various songs from Roads on the Earth through my stat tracking software. In case you haven’t figured it out yet, they are all available here. (In the music section, click on the link that says “lyrics” right after the album title.

Enjoy.

Roads on the Earth is now available on iTunes. As part of their new “iTunes plus” program, you can download all the tracks in better quality than regular iTunes songs, for the same price (99 cents/song, $9.99/album). So head on over there and check it out, maybe drop a review while you’re at it!

(Of course, it still makes more sense to buy the album from the Veggie Co site, where right now you can get a hard copy of the album for $10 + s&h that comes with a free instant digital download so you don’t have to wait to listen to the songs!)

Roads on the Earth is now available for preorder on the Veggie Co Records site. You can preorder a hard copy for only $10, and as soon as you have preordered it you will be able to download a digital copy so that you don’t have to wait to listen. Then, as soon as we get the discs back from the pressing company, we’ll ship them out to you!

The album is also available on Amazon.com’s digital music store for $8.99, but frankly, you might as well pay the extra dollar and get the satisfaction of owning a real copy of the CD.

Now’s also the time we most need your help. Soon I’ll be posting some posters, etc., that you can post around your area, but start telling your friends and family now. Link this site on any messageboards you frequent, post it on facebook, etc. Every little bit helps. If you work for a newspaper, magazine, blog, etc., and are interested in reviewing the album, send an email to sunzoo@sun-zoo.com, sheeshmusic@gmail.com, orveggiecoco@yahoo.com with “Sun Zoo Review” in the title.

So, unfortunately we have run into an issue with the company we were using for pressing and are going to have to switch companies. This is going to delay the release of hard copies of the album by a couple weeks, probably, which sucks. However, the preorder for those hard copies should be going up very soon, and when you order one you’ll be able to download a digital copy immediately so that you don’t have to wait to hear the album.

That could be ready as soon as later today; obviously I’ll be posting something about it when it does go up. In the meantime, enjoy the song I’m about to post.