Week 5+6

Planning and Production 

• Finish lyric analysis and research, finish entirety of lyrics. (Completed)

• Finish my songs as demo tapes, focusing on mixing/mastering. (Completed)

• Finish my coursework and focus on things such as covers, accounts, subscriptions needed etc: (Completed)

• Covers Used ChatGPT - ai model, to create two individual cover art pieces for each song with guided prompts, before redesigning the artwork to my own vision with basic graphic design, using the original as the framework. (Completed)

• Accounts Finalised my SoundCloud account, DistroKid account. (Completed)

• DistroKid Researched, compared publishers, chose DistroKid and evaluated their subscription model before deciding on the Musicians+ model. (Completed)

• Keep doing vocal exercises. (Completed)

• Contact any local studios in Exeter, or professionals in mixing/mastering... (Incomplete)

• Decided the current names for each song based on my personal list, the chosen names being 'Zeroth' and 'Seraphic Ashes': Zeroth (immediately preceding what is regarded as first in a series), Seraphic Ashes (the ashes of angels (seraphaphic-seraphim). The others on my personal list being valued in their own regard to fit other songs, in other contexts (Luminous Decay, and finally Divine Error Code - which I want to reserve for another song in the future, that I have plans for, merging elements of 'Breakcore' + 'Shoegaze'/'Screamo'.) (Completed)

Research   

• Lyrics - researching other forms of media - using it for my own artistic inspiration. (Completed)

• Explore mastering, rather than just mixing and how that can contribute to a more professional final sound. (Completed)

• Marketing and Promotion is essential post-production - within the finals steps, as I do have aspirations to grow my identity as an artist outside of just a local scene, particularly with this genre of music (as it is gaining demand particularly through social media outlets in tiktok, instagram etc). I have done research in learning how to market a release, using social media as an artist, as well as promotional advice on how to receive streams successfully.

• Researching with knowledge from a professional (Jesse Cannon - a producer & marketing strategist from New York, working with bands such as: The Cure, Animal Collective, The Misfits, The Dillinger Escape Plan, Limp Bizkit, Man Overboard, Somos, Basement etc...)

• For publishing, I researched online for accessible, reliable publishers for independent artists on Spotify etc - finding articles and reviews that I reflected on to choose my decision in Distrokid - my first publisher, many issues that were in reviews don't really apply to me - getting the Musicians+ plan as it seemed most suitable for my circumstances. As all seen below: (Completed)

Practical Skills

• Any adjustments I made - had been to certain instrumentation in the mix, avoiding any significant changes and not experimenting with the drafted results - as they were sounding pretty nice; experimentation can be explored later over the summer as mentioned, particularly with what I mentioned in substantial research with fFXx such as stuttering in the vocals and more phaser/flanger/reverb/tremolo experimentation to create soaring, celestial sounds.

• My final step in practical skills is bouncing my songs both as wav files - to avoid any issues with file compression and audio adjustment, to then save and upload to SoundCloud - creating an account and customising the banner, name and song names - uploading their respective covers made.

The demo tapes, as seen here:

Evaluation and Reflection

• These two weeks I achieved a good standard of work with what I was aiming for - now completing the process for my second son, completing the entirety of my substantial research and bibliography etc..., and final piece - the entirety of my work taken with pride, I am also happy about the graphic art as it really encompasses the genre and aesthetic I was going for - and the touches I made reflect that too - finishing this entire process has given me the start to push my music career, particularly with the skills and knowledge i have gained - encompassed within the potential of my completed demo tapes. (reflecting on this, there are many aspects I could have changed, as for these past two weeks - I could have designed the entire conceptuality of my song covers by myself but chose to have support with ai to create a realistic vision that I could work with, as I do not have much experience in that regard)...

• I feel satisfied with the stability of the project, now completing the stages of the evaluation, tweaking any errors in any sections and exploring future steps towards developing my demo tapes.

• And whilst I have completed lyrics - and have not sung - this will most likely remain the same for when I record the full-release songs sometime over the summer.

Next Steps (aims and objectives the future)

• Finishing my evaluation  - completing it fully.

• The next step will be the development of these two demo tracks, over the following summer, into two full-fledged professional standard songs, released either as seperate singles, or together as an EP. This will be the first major step into publishing my music, developing as a musician, an artist and most importantly establishing my own name, and identity - carving a way into my own future. These songs will be released onto various platforms, such as Spotify, Youtube, Soundcloud, Apple Music and so on...as I have musicians+ with DistroKid, this will allow me to sync lyrics. And with the research that I have done these prior two weeks, undoubtedly - I am sure I will be able to promote these songs succesfully and again, myself as an artist, acknowledging this fully with pride, hopeful for what is yet to come.