The State of the Device 2007
Some good, some bad, some unusual.
After scrambles, delays, scrapped tracks, flashes of inspiration, writer's blocks, and all that goes along with those, we finally finished and released album #3, "Excursions." I'm exceptionally proud of it - I think it's our best and most polished work to date. There's very little on it that I would change, in retrospect (something I can't say about...uh, anything else I've ever written).
I think we've finally gelled on a style we can run with, too.
The album came out with slightly less of a bang and more of a whimper than I'd hoped. I guess it's going to be incumbent upon us to make a big marketing push after the holidays. Luckily we've got some plans in the works on that front.
With the focus on getting the album done and out, I didn't have a whole lot of time to put together live shows. I had to arrange a lot of new material to work with the live band, which took time I didn't exactly have, but we got it together in time for a very sweaty performance at Reverence.
Reverence was a blast, though. We had to shorten our set, which was bummertastic, and it was so hot and wet I could barely hold on to the fiddle - or a note - but it was truly fun. Dropping a cover of "She Blinded Me With Science" with Brian "DarkNES" Graupner had to be one of the highlights of the year for me. Sadly, it marked the last time I'd get to watch the guitar heroics of Mr. Dan Clark from the onstage vantage point. He departed our musical company for his other myriad projects this year, and shortly thereafter I began the mad scramble to figure out just how the hell we could replace him.
Well, we came up with something. Ms. Jill Sheridan, nee Goedken, is throwing down the keys and the ass-kicking vocals. We've played one show with her, and it went pretty damn well. Still a few bugs to work out, but we're getting there. Of course, this meant pretty much scrapping all our live-tracks and re-arranging them again. This meant we only had two shows this year, which was about 38 less than I'd hoped, but, eh, c'est la vie.
Technically, this was a big year. I finally got a step closer to the studio of my dreams by...well, actually building a studio. Didn't buy a huge amount of gear this year for various and sundry financial reasons (building a studio will do that). I did upgrade to Logic 8 WHICH IS AWESOME. I also took upon myself the risky business of instrument modification - I turned a tumbi into an electric instrument, I internally mic'ed a dholak, and I built a set of drum triggers out of some PVC pipe.
So what's up for next year? I'm not entirely sure, but we're trying to line up a few big shows and maybe a festival or two, I'm hoping to get a good start on album #4, we may release another EP of b-sides and remixes, and I hope to make a few not-so-minor upgrades around the studio. We'll take it as it comes!
Thanks for a great 2007 and happy 2008 from Null Device!
After scrambles, delays, scrapped tracks, flashes of inspiration, writer's blocks, and all that goes along with those, we finally finished and released album #3, "Excursions." I'm exceptionally proud of it - I think it's our best and most polished work to date. There's very little on it that I would change, in retrospect (something I can't say about...uh, anything else I've ever written).
I think we've finally gelled on a style we can run with, too.
The album came out with slightly less of a bang and more of a whimper than I'd hoped. I guess it's going to be incumbent upon us to make a big marketing push after the holidays. Luckily we've got some plans in the works on that front.
With the focus on getting the album done and out, I didn't have a whole lot of time to put together live shows. I had to arrange a lot of new material to work with the live band, which took time I didn't exactly have, but we got it together in time for a very sweaty performance at Reverence.
Reverence was a blast, though. We had to shorten our set, which was bummertastic, and it was so hot and wet I could barely hold on to the fiddle - or a note - but it was truly fun. Dropping a cover of "She Blinded Me With Science" with Brian "DarkNES" Graupner had to be one of the highlights of the year for me. Sadly, it marked the last time I'd get to watch the guitar heroics of Mr. Dan Clark from the onstage vantage point. He departed our musical company for his other myriad projects this year, and shortly thereafter I began the mad scramble to figure out just how the hell we could replace him.
Well, we came up with something. Ms. Jill Sheridan, nee Goedken, is throwing down the keys and the ass-kicking vocals. We've played one show with her, and it went pretty damn well. Still a few bugs to work out, but we're getting there. Of course, this meant pretty much scrapping all our live-tracks and re-arranging them again. This meant we only had two shows this year, which was about 38 less than I'd hoped, but, eh, c'est la vie.
Technically, this was a big year. I finally got a step closer to the studio of my dreams by...well, actually building a studio. Didn't buy a huge amount of gear this year for various and sundry financial reasons (building a studio will do that). I did upgrade to Logic 8 WHICH IS AWESOME. I also took upon myself the risky business of instrument modification - I turned a tumbi into an electric instrument, I internally mic'ed a dholak, and I built a set of drum triggers out of some PVC pipe.
So what's up for next year? I'm not entirely sure, but we're trying to line up a few big shows and maybe a festival or two, I'm hoping to get a good start on album #4, we may release another EP of b-sides and remixes, and I hope to make a few not-so-minor upgrades around the studio. We'll take it as it comes!
Thanks for a great 2007 and happy 2008 from Null Device!