Has it really been a year since my last major update?!

Sometimes I consider getting rid of this thing and focusing my attention on making more and better music!

Thankfully, Tangerine Mussolini has been kicked out of the White House. And while I am no fan of Joe Biden, the only viable alternative was way worse. Anyway, on to what you’re probably here for – more and better music!

Following the release of パラメータの特定のセット, or A Certain Set of Parameters for us Kanj-illiterate, I began work on what was intended to be a synthwave EP. Unfortunately, I caught a bad case of perfectionist syndrome and subsequently shelved it for later. Have no fears, it will see the light of day and I’m sure you’re going to love it when it’s done!

Faux Pleasure

In order to scratch the creative itch, I started working on some more retro ambient pieces. These eventually evolved into what I ended up releasing in the last 48 hours – Faux Pleasure! It’s, let’s face it – vaporwave – but at the same time I realize it doesn’t follow the formula for vw 100%… it’s a little darker.

As the album evolved, I began to construct a narrative around a person who experiences retail therapy, but because of their addictive personality, shopping just becomes another temporary fix. Until finally, they’ve fully embraced their loneliness and the fact that they combat their negative feelings by escaping into consumer utopia.

They attempt to reconnect with people by going out to public events where they can be part of the crowd without obligation to interact (“Expectant Nights at the Carnival”). But eventually they fall back into the pattern of buying things to help fill the emptiness (“Liquidation”, “All the Best Stuff”, “Payday”, etc).

It’s not exactly a happy album. Heh. That being said, I’m very proud of this record and I hope you will take the time to give it a listen. It’s also on YouTube (including music videos for “The Crane Game” and “We Tried Staying Happy“) if you prefer to listen to your music that way!

So what is next on the agenda, you ask? Well I don’t want to commit to anything I can’t confidently deliver in a timely manner. But I am presently working on remastering The X of Art EP and expanding it to include a bunch of tracks that were also released around that time, as well as some that were never released! At this point, it’s almost a double album. Stay tuned!

In the meantime, check out Faux Pleasure, and if you are looking for my stuff on Spotify, Pandora, etc you can find A Certain Set of Parameters and M.E.O.W. here!

Thanks again for all your support and enthusiasm!

Much Love and Respect,

Adam

New world, new music.

2020 has been a hell of a year.

A pandemic. A recession. An impeached president nearly starting a war with Iran. Over 200,000 Americans dead. Protests and riots. Rampant climate collapse. Allegations that doctors in ICE detention centers have been performing unnecessary hysterectomies on refugees. And that’s just to name a few things!

It feels like something out of a dystopian novel. It’s like 1984, Brave New World, the Hunger Games, and Elie Wiesel’s Night all rolled into one stress-inducing roller coaster. The state of the world outside my door has not been lost on me, even as I practice social distancing.

A Certain Set of ParametersAnd so in this dystopian spirit, I present to you パラメータの特定のセット. For those not fluent in kanji, that is “A Certain Set of Parameters” – A concept record intended to capture the ‘end of times’ vibe many of us are experiencing. Lots of different music styles influenced this record – ambient, industrial, synthwave, vaporwave, and a little bit of The Swans thrown in for good measure.

It’s available on Bandcamp at present, and should be available on other digital media outlets within the next few weeks.

I want to thank all my fans from the bottom of my heart, for your patience and support. Making this record was a cathartic experience. It’s been a while since I’ve felt excited about making music, and this feels like the kickstart I needed. So expect more music in the near future!

The World (or at least my inbox) Is Safe Once Again!

I finally got rid of the contact form because that A&R guy from Universal Music that I kept sending links to my Bandcamp page wasn’t picking up what I was putting down.

Also, I got tired of spammers seeing “programmer” in the key words for the sight and assuming that I am a computer programmer. I mean, I am… but that’s not the point!

You can still email me, if you’re old fashioned like that. Or you can get at me on one of the many social media platforms that I waste time on.

Hey, have you guys ever heard of vaporwave, synthwave, or [insert esoteric music genre here]? Because I am totally into [insert esoteric moosic genre here] right now! And I am experimenting with it!

That’s right, I am working on music again! This whole Covid-19 thing makes staying at home and working on music in my free time easier. Of course, I’m still my own worst critic, so that double-LP magnum opus is still a ways away.

But if you are here, I appreciate your interest and I promise to share some new music with you in the near future. Maybe an EP, maybe just a single, maybe a double-LP magnum opus! Wait, no. Scratch that last one.

I hope you and yours are staying safe, sane, and healthy. We will get through this. And hopefully unseat King KFC in November!

Much love,

Adam

A brief (and long overdue) update

Greetings and salutations to you, people of the internet!

It has been quite some time since I have updated this site, and I feel the need to inform my supporters of what I am cooking up. I have provided guitars to my friend Forest Rain for her performances at Ponyville Ciderfest ’17 and ’18. I helped out my buddy SteelChords with his parody of Bowling For Soup called “Sweet Apple Acres”. And finally, I have spent the last few months working on an MLP-themed album, with the working title How Ponies Play Guitar. A few months ago, I contributed a version of the track “Sticks & Stones” to the Ponyville Ciderfest 2018 charity album. Go check it out here!

Now where does this leave the followup to MEOW? Shelved for the time being. It’s been an ambition of mine to write an entire MLP album for a couple years now, and so I want to do this while the idea is still fresh.

Also, if it weren’t painfully obvious, this site is in serious need of a facelift. So in between my day job, writing songs about pastel horses, and re-watching the She-Ra reboot for the 38th time I will be putting a new coat of paint on this rusty old jalopy. It may take some time as I plan to abandon WordPress in favor of something a little more.. customized.

So that’s all for now. Stay tuned for new music, festival appearances, etc.

Stay weird!

Everybody’s a Critic! Yay!

Warm greetings, internet! It’s been a minute.

How would you like to earn a signed copy of M.E.O.W. at no cost to you? Of course you would!

For the first 20 people to post a review of The Mechanical Essence Of Whiskers on Amazon, iTunes, or CDBaby, I will send you a signed copy of M.E.O.W. that you can sell on eBay for lots of money (maybe not now, but when I die from a candy overdose in 20 years it will be worth a pretty penny)!

Head over to YouTube to preview the album! When you’re done, email me at fanmail@evbpmusic.com with your name & mailing address and BaBOOM! Signed Physical Disc Thingy!

The wait is over. MEOW is here!

meow_physical

It’s finally here! After years of planning, mixing, and fussing over details, The Mechanical Essence Of Whiskers is finally back from the pressing plant! $5.00 plus s&h will get you one of these beauties. Or, if you like to buy stuff from CDBaby, you can get it there too! It will also be available from iTunes, Rhapsody, etc. in the near future. Keep an eye on my Twitter feed – I’ll let you know when it’s available there. As well as Bandcamp. And… other sites, I’m sure.

Hurray…?

According to CDBaby, today is the official release date for The Mechanical Essence Of Whiskers. The physicial copies are on their way from Disc Makers, you will soon be able to purchase it on iTunes (and CDBaby, of course) and I still don’t have a live band!! I’m a total failure at live banding! Expect another post when the physical copies are in my grubby, little mitts!

Weren’t you supposed to be releasing an album, er something?

Long time no see, internet fanbase! I wanted to give a brief update here, because I did not want to appear to be a neglectful overlord. I care for all of my minions of weirdness!

First the good news. I got the mastered copy of the album back, and it sounds awesome!! I definitely think the time spent doing this right was well worth it (even if it did take three times longer than I would have liked). Rest assured you will be able to acquire the awesomeness for yourselves very soon!

Now the bad news. Western Digital is the devil. The completed artwork for the album (vectors, layered graphics, etc) is gone. I had saved it – along with a large number of personal files, lyrics, etc. – on an external WD drive. When I went to acquire these files yesterday to prep them for the duplication plant’s template, they were nowhere to be found. Which means I now have to start over with the album artwork. So the bad news is that the album release is going to be delayed once again.

The upside – because after getting on Twitter yesterday, venting and spewing vitriol at Western Digital I decided that there has to be a positive to this unfortunate event. I decided that the upside would be a revamp of my original design, including contributions from a guest artist. I am presently looking at designers and hope to have something soon!

So that’s it for now. Thank you for your enthusiasm and patience. Stay weird!

Update!

Hey all.

Just wanted to let you know that the album is being mastered at the moment. I expect to have it back within the week! Once I get it back it from mastering, it’s off for duplication. I will let you know as soon as I have it back, and who knows? Maybe I’ll do some kind of special streaming event!

Can’t wait to share the finished product. Stay tuned!

Completed tracks for M.E.O.W. part 11 – The end is near!!!!!!!!!

Hey internet!

DJ-STFU-PLZ!!!

This is it! The final track from The Mechanical Essence Of Whiskers. The one that took me three times longer to finish mixing than any other track on the album. I already gave you some background on the meaning of the track (lazy-ass DJs got me all like..). So I’m gonna use this post to give a shoutout to the people who helped make this track possible.

mompeteThe opening: Two people need to be recognized for this. Peter Bishop did an awesome job coming up with the backing tracks for the Madonna parody – as well as adding resonance filters and other plug-ins I don’t know the names of. Pretty spot-on. And my mom (yes, you read that correctly internet. Don’t even think about making any “your mom” jokes!) did some awesome on the singing. Represent!

jesse resized grayThe solo: My buddy Jesus “Jesse” Sanchez, lead singer and guitarist of the band Tri-Nebulous laid down the bass line (the bass line I had recorded was out of tune – *groan*), as well as all of the acoustic guitars, both lead & rhythm. And WOW! That breakdown just adds some magic – a pleasantly creative, and relaxing breather that was sorely needed – to the track that I couldn’t have imagined in my wildest dream units. Props!

jessi punching cropped grayThe voice overs: Regarding the previously mentioned Ke$ha samples, I got something wwaaaaaayyy better. I’m a brony in case you didn’t know (fan of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. Don’t hate). Ke$ha has a very self-confident and sassy tone of voice, so if I couldn’t have Ke$ha, I would get a self-confident and sassy voice over from someone else – namely Jessi Nowack. Brohoof!

If you’re not familiar with the brony fandom allow me to give you some background. Jessi Nowack is the de facto voice of the background character Vinyl Scratch (aka DJ PON3 – pictured below). What is so cool about this is that Vinyl Scratch has never had any speaking lines on the show – she is mute. The only times she has ever spoken are in fan-created content. So with the fan base being so dedicated to the characters, it stands to reason that if Hasbro Studios ever decided to give Vinyl speaking lines and Jessi didn’t voice her, the fan base would have a collective aneurysm!

vinyl graySo that’s it everybody. Every track for the record is done and heading out to be mastered. I can’t thank people enough for the support, encouragement, patience, and beer that has gone into making this happen! After nearly three years of working on this thing I’m feeling like Dre after he released Compton (but seriously, 16 years between albums dude?!).

You know what this means, right? Now I gotta get off my ass and play some shows! In front of an actual audience, instead of stuffed animals and house pets!! Anybody got a house party, garage sale, or birthday coming up?