Result

Yesterday I wrote a candid post about how I felt now that my single has been released. For some reason, blogger didn't post it and now it's gone. But it was really great, honest.

It's strangely anti-climactic, when I think about how long the process was, from finishing recording and mixing the single (not to mention the 18 months over which the songs' writing gestated), to finally have it 'out'. It's out online, at least- if you go to the iTunes store or Amazon you'll see the three songs that make up the single (2 a-sides and a b-side) alongside an inexplicably blurry reproduction of the sleeve. I could have sworn my painting skills were sharper than that but jah well.

There's a kind of fog of war over the whole thing... There's been basically no press coverage of the release (except for that oddly hamfisted gutting I mentioned below). I met up with my manager today to assess the damage; 60% of the physical copies of the single were expected to be sent to Japan. This, due to recent events, isn't going to happen, presumably because the Japanese have more urgent issues to address right now. So now we have the very real possibility of hundreds of 7-inch DK records languishing in a stock room somewhere until they're eventually melted (is that what they do?) and turned into lino or something.

But something unanticipated happened yesterday evening. We noticed a curious spike in traffic on the facebook page, the website, the soundcloud etc. People from around the world had somehow been lead to our pages- hits had multiplied exponentially.

I was in the dumps this morning, so seeing this was extra special. When yesterday dawned and the single was released online, the DK team wasn't exchanging congratulations. We were 'putting this one down to experience', and coming to terms with the fact that we might have wasted the last six months. So even a few extra hits, and maybe a few purchases has made a big difference to me. None of it looks as bleak as it did this morning.

It took a while to work out why but my managar cracked it; Empire Of The Sun had linked to our facebook. People noticed and listened to us. Some of them liked it, so thank you Empire.

I could leave this episode here, and settle for the idea that Empire just happened to find us and were into it (which would be awesome), but I have a theory as to how they came across us, and I warn you, it's boring. But that word 'candid' is staring at me from the top of this post so I'll continue.

I'm an animator, and I sometimes work alongside a sibling of one of the members of Empire. We started talking about it once and I linked him to my stuff; so I'm thinking this is likely how they found it. I also met with Ministry in Australia a couple of years ago, who at the time rep'd PNAU so it may have happened that way as well. Either way I am very grateful. I want to get in touch with those guys and thank them in person. It was just a simple post for them but it made my day.

So... the SINGLE

At long, long, long last, the first DK single is coming out. It's a double A-side: new song Vinyl, Skipping Ever Backward and old song that everyone's heard already Through The Ice. I think the digital release also comes with Amputee Spirit, which will be weird for me because the song has changed quite a bit since I recorded that version. Anyone who attended our last show at Queen of Hoxton will have heard the new version.



I did the design myself! It took ages though. Lots of umming and ahhing betwixt the label and I. I was hamstrung by having adobe on one computer, having internet on another, and having to travel between each every time someone asked for a minor change. The image above is the back of the sleeve without the small print.

The promo copies have definitely been sent out, because Google Alerts notified me that a website called The 405 (yeah I hadn't heard of them either) has written a review! They hated it by the way, which lead me to think about what I am about to put myself through. I've been writing all these songs for two years, and now they're coming out, and being subjected to scrutiny, I'm going to have to weather it as best I can.

I may sound naive but I honestly didn't think people would hate these songs. Secluded within a rather convoluted piece of copy is a valid point from the reviewer - that songs that plagiarise other efforts aren't healthy. But his references in regards to Vinyl are a spectacular bevy of misfires, and he takes such pain to name drop an array of bands (and, bizarrely, the colonial 1800s? Dude, really?) that the whole thing resembles a student article and smacks somewhat of aspiration above his station.

People, upon hearing my music might level a similar trite evaluation at me, but I think that this would be stupid. Stupid, because by doing so one ignores why these songs are great, and they are great, biases accepted. I never claimed to be a great singer, and it's my job, not the critics', to come to terms with that and accept that people will find my voice too abrasive, or simply bad (although I am in tune, I'll have you know), especially when everything else about the production exudes pop, love it or hate.

I think, also, that it's too easy to hate on it. When I receive someone else's view, informed or nay, on my stuff I go back and listen to it with their opinion fresh in my mind. I have to admit, I leave myself wide open with these tracks. They're total, inoffensive pop, without an ounce of venom (at least not explicitly, although the subject matter for me is real enough), and it's a fine line artists like myself walk.

If you do pop music, with choruses and hooks and all the staples, do you hold out for a bigger deal or do you settle for a small indie release? Labels are hesitant, and the fact that we radiate between mainstream potential and a cult fanbase make any of these acts, be they Cocknbullkid, the now defunct Primary 1, Sunday Girl etc. an unknown quantity. There's a Venn diagram somewhere that shows how a less popular act will become richer releasing their work themselves than a much more successful act pushing their record through the major label grinder. Suffice to say there is an awful temptation to publish all of my work and as the saying goes, be damned, rather than wait for a label with the promotional machinery in place to come to me.

I can't really conclude this post because as yet there is no conclusion. Over the next few days I'm going to await the inevitable press response. They will, I expect, be few, as I think everyone knows that if I'd released two years ago I would be a hotter topic now. I have to accept that this was perhaps a mistake, and that much of the blame rests with me. All I can hope, if only for my own peace of mind, as that the reviews that are written about my double a-side single, Vinyl, Skipping Ever Backward and Through The Ice, radiate as much as I do between one end of the spectrum and the other, and don't all sit too far down the bottom end...