It's that time again, to throw a fresh coat of paint on a rusty old CD. :) This time it's time for "Dirty Wings" to have a turn. I went back and gave it a remix job to fix the little buggies that drove me mad. Nothing new was recorded, added or taken away. You can album tracks, or you can download a ZIP file of all of the tracks. 

Download a .ZIP File

The instrumental mixes are also updated. Enjoy!

So, as usual, releasing a new album means one thing to me: that it's time to start working on the next one. 

I've traditionally posted demo versions of the songs I'm working on as I finish them. For "Ashes", I wrote and recorded the album in isolation, then released them all at once in their final form. That had one big advantage: I never felt overly attached to the rough mixes, because I took more time before I recorded them.

Another reason for not posting demos is that people download them (which is awesome), listen to them (also awesome), but might not know or choose to download the final versions when the CD comes out (not awesome). Every once in awhile, I'll see a YouTube video or something using a horrible rough demo of a song that's been out on CD for years, and I die a little inside. :) 

On the other hand, I just went a year without really posting any new material, and that makes me a sad panda. There are a couple of other options. I used to have a "preview club" where I'd post the stuff. I could set it up so that only people who have purchased CDs/FLACs could download stuff - this would keep the casual listeners away from the rough stuff, encourage sales, and also to give me peace of mind that they'll probably "upgrade" to the full versions when the come out. Another option is to just post live acoustic versions of the songs to YouTube, as I did this last time with "Already There". 

So what would you all like to see this time around?

Fairly often I need to choose one or two songs to promote from the album for websites, radio, etc. For those of you who have heard "Ashes", which song would you pick that best represents it? 

Admit it. You thought I was hibernating in a cave the past year, cranking out YouTube videos to maintain vague contact with the outside world, taking a break from the grueling process of releasing an album every year. You were only half right. I'm very happy to announce that my next CD, "Ashes" is now available!

So I've decided this time around that I'm going to do another professional pressing, as I did with "Only Whispering". I'd rather have spent those millions of hours making music, rather than hunched over a paper cutter. Plus, this new CD is going to be really, really good. :) I'm trying to decide which route to go, and I want to know what you guys like.

It's between the old faithful clear plastic jewel cases and the newfangled Digipaks (those eco-friendly hard paper ones). I used to be a Digipak hater, since they didn't look the same as the rest of my CDs, but now (a) they're much more common, and (b) I don't really buy many physical CDs anymore. The Digis have the advantage of being smaller and lighter for shipping. On the minus side, it's the cork vs. screwcap argument, and they're a little more expensive (but the gap has narrowed, and with the lower shipping costs, it's probably a wash). 

There are also those craaazy small wallet packages, where it's basically just a sleeve for the CD, but those seem like they'd be really unsatisfying. 

So what say you?

Wow, has it really been a year since I finished remixing Crawford Street? Well, I've been at it again, and I'm very happy to announce that by popular demand, I've remixed my Only Whispering CD as well! Here's a link to the album tracks, or you can download a ZIP file of all of the tracks. 

Download a .ZIP File

The instrumental mixes are also updated. Enjoy!