I shot a purple elephant! In my mind's eye, there I am, the wicked hunter in the African wilderness, it's 1912 and hunting is encouraged. I look up, and, lo and behold, I see a purple elephant! I take out my double-barrel elephant gun (with a double trigger of course) and Let him have it! Shock! It has no effect! Then, to my utter horror, the purple elephant stampedes my way and tramples me to death!
And that's how my daydream ends. Trampled to death by some sort of purple Barney elephant creature. Sigh.
It's really hard waiting. A reference of the master has come back from Tom Baker (he's the mastering engineer) in LA and it sounds amazing. Truly. It's odd though because there is a technical glitch that needs to be addressed, so the album is still in LA (as you recall it should have been manufactured by now). The Reference master is what the mastering engineer sends the artist for approval. To sign off on his work. A Mastering Engineer's job is to finalize the mix, meaning adjust volume and tweak the frequencies. Essentially, to make it playable on anything. So it should sound great and volume-equalized on every format.
It's interesting to work with a guy like Baker because he's mastered the fathers of my music. NIN, Marilyn Manson, etc. Part of me is in awe and part of me finds it funny. It's difficult to judge his work in this respect because in the back of your mind you're thinking "this guy Masters Reznor's shit man, of course it sounds great". But then the other side of me says "it doesn't matter who does it, you better just make sure it sounds the best it can possibly sound". I'm subscribing to the latter, but you know what? The fucking mix DOES sound good! He really cranked the volume and emphasized certain frequencies. Those magic ears of his...
Because so few people have listened to the album so far, I am curious what he thinks. But I don't want to ask. After all, he masters the best there is out there, day in and day out. Like 7 hours a day! His poor earsies must be really tired. Mine would be. And they are to a degree. I've been blasting this album for years. Must have lost 10 percent of my hearing to it. Sacrifices sacrifices. When you hear it, say a prayer for my poor earsies too. I guess you'd have to be religious for that to work don't you? Do I have to be religious for it to work too?
So here we are, and I'm left to deal with the back-end of things. You know, the not-so-fun behind-the-scenes stuff like register the works for publication, fill out forms, paperwork paperwork paperpkloidfnmisdf. Blah. I'd rather fuck it all up and just tour already. No I don't. I want to get it right don't I? =P
Ahh the indie route.
But anyway, it doesn't matter. Because all of this is really for you. It's you who must enjoy it and will be the final judge of almost four years of work. You've heard me talk about it for ages, and it's been post-poned for over a year now. Tantalizingly close aren't we?
Hey you know what? I found i can do something new that will really help TM. I discovered I can edit videos! So, very soon, you'll see a promo clip for TM. Let me toot my own horn a bit here and say it's a fucking exciting little video, and I had a blast making it =)
In a way i find making videos is easier than making music. See, with music, I have to imagine the visuals. And that takes work. But in videos, it's all there, right in front of me! It's like cheating! Does that make sense? Took me only a day and a half to finish the video. Then two days to figure out how to export it lol.
But I'm waiting to finalize the release date before I can release the video. And for me to finalize the release date I need the record in my hands. The circle never ends!
Today i published a short biography of Tribal Machine here on myspace. Come to think of it, we've never had one on here before have we? So stop by and give it a read when you have the time, let me know how it feels.
Coming schedule:
Completion of Mastering Process and return of Master - 2nd week of Feb
Manufacturing / Replication of CD - 3rd & fourth week of Feb
Pre-release promotion / publicity - March + April
So that puts the release date in early-mid April.
HOWEVER.
Those of you that pre-order WILL get the album sooner, and won't have to wait. Plus, you're going to get a little permanent memento from the album. A piece of it, if you will. Something I used to make the album with, whether it's scrap paper edits or pre-printed materials. All of which will be signed and numbered. A little souvenir for you, as a bonus for pre-ordering. A number of you are already going down this road. The weirdest/coolest stuff will be given away on a first come / first serve basis.
Again, that's ONLY for PRE-ORDERS, and only from www.tribalmachine.com
OK so you got this far. I have one last surprise for you. Sometime soon tonight, i am going to upload a track form the album, one that's been mastered by Baker (it's a preliminary Master, but it will work for this purpose). Might be in a few minutes, or might be in a few hours. Enjoy =)
With love,
Sever
TRIBAL MACHINE
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