Tonight I was just kind of sitting here, reading the news, and waiting for things to happen, when the thought occurred to me that when I don’t have a label, the whole notion of a release date is pretty stupid, sort of like wearing a white linen suit to a barbecue when you know you’re just going to get sauce all over it. So tonight I took off all of the “hidden” designations on New Vanguard Blues, and it is now available to stream and to buy over at my Bandcamp, in all of its spare, unembellished, modest glory. Enjoy it, even if you don’t buy it. And let me know what you think.
Now I am listening to the second movement of Henryk Gorecki’s Symphony No. 3, and it is so beautiful.
Now that a week has passed since I recorded it, I think I have enough clarity on things to talk about what I am doing. New Vanguard Blues took a little over 48 hours to record, mix, and (not) master. It will be out on Bandcamp on July 27th. It may be up on iTunes/Amazon/et cetera the same day, or a few days after. I have submitted it and it will be up soon enough, but I can’t say for sure when. Those are the facts–the rest is just my less objective take on things. First of all, I loved recording this album. It was so simple–I engineered the whole thing, and aside from a little percussion on the last track by my close friend Geoff, who you New Yorkers may be hearing from again when he resumes making his music public, I did everything else too. The cover art (above) was done by the incredibly talented Dave Bow, who writes and teaches in Portland, Oregon. It wasn’t made for the record by any means, but I think it fits the tone of the songs very well. He was nice enough to let me use it and put some words on it. There I go again, talking about facts! I want to ruminate on what this record means to me, but I keep on getting back to describing the process of its coming into existence, and I guess that’s my way of saying that this album’s creation contains as much of the message as the album’s content. These are songs largely written for me to play by myself, some of which were written in the last couple months, but all of which have been written over the last year. Because of the nature of the songs, and because I was so focused on the idea of recording a record quickly and simply, New Vanguard Blues is a spare record, and I think that it is an honest one.
I have decide to postpone the Kickstarter idea, which was originally to be the focal point of this whole thing. This is for a few reasons. First, now that I have made this record, I don’t want it to be a means to an end. I think it stands sufficiently on its own, and I would rather sell it as such. Second, I want to do more research on what is a realistic cost for the next record instead of sleepwalking my way through the process. There may not be a Kickstarter at all, although that isn’t particularly likely. But it will probably be a couple months at least if I do end up doing it. Finally, I want to send this record to at least a few labels and see if there is any interest in releasing it on vinyl, and this process interests me more right now than pursuing the next record, half-written as it may be. New York has taught me a bit of self-discipline, so far, but I’m still a little flighty!
Bluebells by Will Stratton
The album is finished (I recorded it this past weekend), and the Kickstarter will begin on July 27th. Here goes nothing! You can preview the first two tracks by clicking the play button above. Enjoy.
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