Shadowjack - The Fall of Man

Dummy Lights

2012-02-05T15:22:00.002+01:00

One of the things that frustrates me in games is dummy machines. You know, things that are just decoration, like machines in a game like Fallout or Doom 3. I'd like to go up to them and push buttons, just to see what happens. But I can't! Of all the 1000s of machines in the virtual world, only one does anything and all it does is open a door. What a lost opportunity. Even if the machine just made a bunch of mechanical gibberish noises and flashed lights at me it would be something to engage in some way. I do have to give Bethesda credit though, their furniture actually does work. One of the great tragedies of the failure of Uru (the online Myst game) was a lost opportunity for engagement. And I'm not talking about the puzzles. In the central multiplayer hub space there was a rock/papper/scissors-like game and balls you could kick around. This could have been a whole new area of MMO interaction. But it was only an afterthought. I like the idea of toys and games inside the virtual world, it's a shame it hasn't been explored in any meaningful way.

Anyway, these are the things interesting to me, not finding the red card key to open the door marked "WARNING DO NOT ENTER!" People have been trained to look for the "bare metal" so to speak. The base mechanics and how to exploit them. The whole problem solving mindset has caused this. Mechanics are the enemy of immersion. The more they intrude the less the virtual world matters.

Further Clarification

2012-02-05T14:21:00.001+01:00

Alien Worlds Explorer is a weird combination of inspirations. 1.) Star Trek episode "City on the Edge of Forever". I like the idea of looking into a windows to other places and times. 2.) Colorforms. Those vinyl sticker toys. 3.) Mighty Men and Monster Maker.

I like creative toys. Unfortunately many old analogue creative toys (Lego-type toys aside) are rather limited and the enjoyment shallow. I'm hoping A.W.E. will provide a bit more depth and stimulation. I guess that's the best any toy or game designer can hope for.

Shadowcast 06

2012-02-01T13:52:00.003+01:00

Development updates on "Alien Worlds Explorer", "Zlythy" and "COMA".

Alien Worlds Explorer is a 2d scifi landscape creation toy for iPad. Users will be able to add, scale, and colour scenery. Animations will bring the landscape to life. Unlockable achievements will include weather effects and other natural phenomena. Coming soon from Ghostwheel Games.

Shadowcast 05

2011-12-29T21:45:00.004+01:00

My first game vlog in 18 months. Time lapse of asset creation for my iPad app Alien Worlds Explorer:

Mod DB

2011-10-24T18:40:00.001+02:00

Ghostwheel Games and A.W.E. are now on Mod/Indie DB: http://www.indiedb.com/games/awe-alien-worlds-explorer

A.W.E. Progress Report

2011-10-11T15:45:00.001+02:00

I got the first proper alpha code from Aquin for Alien Worlds Explorer! We have colour and landscape randomization as well as dragging and scaling. Look for video when the new website launches.

Alien Worlds Explorer Teaser

2011-09-22T19:53:00.001+02:00

Moving Soon

2011-09-21T04:09:00.001+02:00

Posterous has been a great platform but it's time for ghostwheelgames.com to move to a "traditional" web host. This will be happening very soon and I will reveal details on the iOS toy/game Aquin and I have been working on. I occasionally drop a link to an image now and then on my Twitter account so head on over there (http://twitter.com/#!/shanesemler) and follow me if you want to get sneak peeks before the big reveal.

GDC Europe

2011-08-14T12:04:00.001+02:00

Heading for GDC Europe Indie Summit today! I'll also be checking out the Notgames Fest at the Cologne Game Lab: bit.ly/qbCLlQ

Zlythy iOS Demo

2011-08-08T13:58:00.001+02:00

WIP asset screenshot for an iOS Zlythy demo:

Zlythy in Colour

2011-07-10T22:22:00.003+02:00

I've been working on some new Zlythy concepts. You know how art is, soooooo - it's not going to be black and white anymore. It's just to gloomy. I'm in a different place now and that look no longer reflects how I feel. Here they are:

See the full gallery on Posterous

Death and Games as Art

2011-07-06T16:44:00.003+02:00

I realized how poorly death is dealt with in games.

I've just had the most depressing gaming experience in my life. I've been playing Fallout New: Vegas. Early in the game you can talk townsfolk into fending off a gang of bandits. Because it's early in the game, you haven't built your character up very high and you are lacking money and equipment. Unless you have the perfect character build and even if you kill all the bandits and survive, a bunch of the villagers die. Including several main NPCs which I personally had became fond of. Normally this wouldn't be too big of a deal. It’s a game. It’s a bunch of digital puppets. It’s not real. But the AI doesn't deal with the aftermath, no one comes to mourn or bury the dead.

I didn’t want to leave the bodies all over the street, especially because I would likely be visiting the town again. So I moved all the bodies. Probably a dozen or so. I dragged them out of town and "buried" them with crates and barrels. I realized that this was similar to what it would actually be like to drag away your friends and family to be buried after a violence incident. You couldn’t just leave dead bodies all over the streets. No one would do that. In reality, you’d have to move them and arrange funerals. And if that wasn’t an option, if you were very poor, you’d likely be burying them yourself. Burying these digital puppets was starting to feel a little too real.

In fact, it was incredibly depressing.

I’m not saying every game should try to run players through an emotional wringer. But, no one has even tried, unless you count Modern Warfare 2’s notorious “No Russian” mission. But that’s a blip. In all the death an destruction wrought in games, that is the best (worst?) developers can do? This is a big missed opportunity and a massive hole in the argument for “games as art.” The developers of the Fallout series had an opportunity to make a statement about life and death. It wouldn’t have to be over the top and melodramatic, it could have simply been friends crying and behaviours built in to mourn and bury the dead. They blew it.

It’s all fine and good to be a hero. And hell, it’s even fun in games. But in reality, playing a hero, doing the right thing or even the necessary thing, when violence is a likely outcome, can have awful consequences. There is mourning, there are emotional breakdowns, there are people scarred for life and there are faces you will never see again. Except when you are carrying them away to be buried. And unlike a game, you don’t get to just shut it off and walk away.

Games have a lot of growing up to do.

Help Me, I Am Drowning v1.0

2011-06-13T23:47:00.001+02:00

Here it is, my first (not)game. There's not much to it. It was a learning exercise more than anything. Get it here: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2929782/Install-hmiad_v1.0.zip

Past Finding Out

2011-05-30T23:45:00.001+02:00

New music, new project, my name. It's Drone. I don't know what else to say about it.

Past_Finding_Out.mp3 Listen on Posterous

Storm

2011-05-14T19:28:00.002+02:00

Here's a non-Shadowjack instrumental piece I've been working off and on for a while now. I know it's an uninspired title but I can't think of a better one. I have no clue what to do with it. Anyway, here it is for your listening enjoyment! :)

Storm.mp3 Listen on Posterous

New Shadowjack Song - Alien Infection

2011-05-08T18:50:00.002+02:00

I've been working on this off and on for a number of weeks. Let me know what you think.

Alien_Infection.mp3 Listen on Posterous

Alien Infection by Shadowjack is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

Help Me, I Am Drowning

2011-05-02T14:42:00.001+02:00

I'm working on a very short, I can't even call it a game, "vignette" interactive piece. It's based on a dream/nightmare I had. There's not much to it. I mainly did it to figure out some aspects of game creation in UDK. It will be available for free in a week or so.

Mobthrow

2011-04-07T11:20:00.002+02:00

If you haven't bought this album, you should. Go listen to it now! GO!

COMA Paint-over with Colour

2011-04-07T02:42:00.001+02:00

I settled on a colour scheme and a general look. I'm going for a very flat, stylised art style. So basically, like the original teaser image.

Review: Thot - Obscured by the Wind

2011-03-22T19:20:00.002+01:00

Summary: Thot is a breath of fresh air in a tired and stale genre.

I haven’t been this excited about the future of Industrial since I first heard The Shizit’s “Gak Bitch” over 10 years ago. In the late 90’s and early 00’s, The Shizit, Atari Teenage Riot, The Mad Capsule Markets, Celldweller and Pitchshifter all were pushing Industrial in to new exciting places. At least, they should have. Unfortunately, all these great acts and JP Anderson’s (of The Shizit) subsequent project Rabbit Junk couldn’t dislodge Industrial out of it’s inbred EBM rut. In fact, Anderson did all he could to distance himself from Industrial, including trying to make up a new genre, “hard-clash.” ATR tried to call it “digital hardcore.” They only served to splinter and dilute their mindshare and push themselves into an even more obscure niche, losing a lot of traction with Industrial enthusiasts and a potential audience.

Maybe things are changing. It’s certainly well past time to end this insane post-modern genre-hairsplitting. Lately Cyanotic, Rabbit Junk and Celldweller have been playing shows together. Perhaps the pieces are all falling into place. A younger generation is paying attention. The old EBM crowd is at last hanging up the vinyl pants and moving on.

You can add Thot to the list of acts shuffling the EBM geezers off to the retirement home. Their new album Obscured by the Wind is a nonstop party, yes I said party, of sound that makes you want to jump up out of your chair and thrash about. If Cyanotic is heavy and angry, Thot is bursting with an almost cheerful and positive energy. This band is loud, noisy and just want to have a good time. I suspect the gloomy among you are like “oh no, I want to listen to dark dismal, angry music - I don’t want to lose my edge.” Well get over it or miss out on some fucking fantastic music. The layering of electronics and traditional rock instruments is smart, sophisticated and incredibly slick and yet it retains the looseness and energy of a live performance. They also avoid the repetitive nature of electronic infused Rock; the music constantly evolves and mutates throughout their compositions.

The heavy French accent of the vocalist only serves to add to their charm. And as with many non-native English speakers, their lyrics have a skewed take on the typical metaphoric conventions inherent to Rock music. The oddness just adds to the freshness of their sound.

Some of the highlights are “Take a bow and Run,” “Ortie” and “Solid Insecure Flower.” Even the slower tracks like “Blue and Green (are melting down in a seed)” and “The Hour Speller” have a compelling intensity and never wear out their welcome. The title track, “Obscured by the Wind” is just under 6 minutes long but seems at least twice that. This is not a criticism though, they just pack a lot of sound in a very short span of time. It’s easy to get lost in the instrumentation of these slower arrangements - but not for long as they are soon kicking your ass again with another get-up-off-your-ass rockin’ track.

Nothing is perfect though. “Moved Hills,” an otherwise spectacular track, suffers with some unnecessary and cheesy quasi-oriental flourishes and samples. The hard hitting “Spellbound Fields” is also saddled with some cliché background samples. Fortunately those come and go and do little to undermine the strength of the track. These are quibbles though.

This is a fantastic debut album and makes me very optimistic about the future of Industrial (and for lack of a better term, Industrial is what we have to work with, like it or not). Thot are awesome and among a vanguard of new Industrial music.

You can listen and download more of Thot’s on Bandcamp: http://thot.bandcamp.com/

Concept Art & Music

2011-03-21T09:59:00.001+01:00

Here's a bit of interior concept art:

And the COMA Theme:

coma_theme_master.mp3 Listen on Posterous

COMA

2011-02-19T15:49:00.003+01:00

I'm working on a new game - a hidden-object/escape-the-room one. Zlythy is taking a rather long time (I'm not abandoning it though) so I'm doing a much smaller, shorter game. At the moment, I'm in the design stage - sketches, puzzles and music (4 tracks so far). I'm shooting for a release at the beginning of April. Here's a little teaser image:

Concept Art and Digital Paintng

2011-01-30T18:32:00.001+01:00

My quicky thumbnails might be a tad too crappy. For one thing, they are only the most minimal planning for a design. One of the things I've learned is that a little bit of advanced planning goes a long way. I really should spend a bit more time on them as it would save me time in the long run when modelling and texturing. I ordered a book on digital painting techniques and today I spent a couple hours with it working on speed painting. Look for some much better concept paintings in the near future.

Concept Art

2011-01-29T04:50:00.001+01:00

Generally, I don't do really polished or complex concept art. As it's only for myself, I don't have to make it all that detailed. I'm not following the "next gen" asset pipeline (high res sculpt for normal maps, low-poly models for in game). The way I'm doing it is more old-school. This works fine because I'm going for a simplistic, clean style that is low on detail. I generate all of my normal maps in GIMP with a handy plugin,. Is this the best way to do it? I have no clue as I've never created a game before.

Anyway, here are some quick thumbnail sketches I did in MyPaint for one of the NPCs that appear in the game. I worked from the lower right to the upper left - looking for a style that fits in with the rest of the game. I settled on the spiky-haired one with the check next to it. I like that he has that fat, happy cat look but still a bit feral. Yeah, it's not the spectacular concept art you see for most games but it doesn't have to be.

I'll probably do one more sketch to get the body shape worked out better.

Early UDK Screens

2011-01-26T08:18:00.001+01:00

I remodelled a number of assets as the originals had an unneccesarily high number of polys. There have also been two big conceptual changes for the world of Zlythy. One is the addition of NPCs and the other is that all the different levels are now part of a single, unbroken island. To show that I'm actually doing stuff on the game, here are some early development screenshots from UDK:

See and download the full gallery on posterous

Goodbye Unity3d, Hello UDK!

2011-01-09T22:09:00.001+01:00

I dumped Unity, yay! Aquin (the coder guy) didn't mind at all because Unity was pissing him off anyway. Unity free version is ok, unless you want all the graphical bling and support for mobile platforms. You pay extra for each and every one of those things so the cost runs into the thousand of dollars if you want the good stuff. Unity3d ain't so free after all.

I've already created the terrain for the island and figured out how to import skeleton meshes and animations. I can import all my Blender created assets with no problems. Now I'm trying to wrap my head around materials. I suspect materials are going to be the most difficult thing about learning UDK. It's 180 degrees from Unity. Unity is three slots: color, specular and normal. That's it. UDK, it's all about the materials. You can even animate objects with the material editor. It's so insanly complex. UDl is pretty damn awesome.

I'm impressed with UDK's capabilities and the price is right - $99 USD for one of the best game engines available. It ain't free but it's pretty damn close.

Pulling Teeth

2011-01-03T10:34:00.001+01:00

Some time ago I realized I had to do a proper design document or at least some sort of written plan for Zlythy, especially after hooking up with a coder. It's difficult to communicate ideas to another person, especially if they aren't clear in your own mind. Easier said than done.

It has been extremely difficult for me to know where to begin. This led to all the usual culprits that sabotage productivity: procrastination, inertia and fear. However, it was a bit more than simple procrastination. I wasn't sure where I was headed with this concept. Plus the concept was only half formed. It was one of those catch 22 sort of situations - my concept was only half formed but I couldn't make it more concrete because there wasn't enough there to coalesce into a complete idea. It doesn't help that I'm not the most organized person to begin with. I finally had a breakthrough though. I made an outline. It seem obvious now and more than a little absurd but it was a giant leap for me.

I really should have known better. Once you reach a refined stage with your concept, organization and planning, the execution becomes almost mechanical. It's called workflow. But I can't be too hard on myself, creativity can be hard, especially if you're trying to do something new and unfamiliar.

Colour

2010-12-21T20:51:00.004+01:00

I've given some thought to the use of b&w versus colour. I realized that it doesn't have to be one or the other. I don't think that the high quality that images that modern monitors a can reproduce is being fully utilized. I've been struggling with the whole b&w thing from a "mechanical" point of view. By that, I mean in a strictly compositional basics sort of way. Not only is this very rigid but not terribly artistic. H.R. Giger once complained that people think of his work as very monochromatic but in fact, he puts a lot of colour in his paintings. Indeed, when you look at a good print of his stuff, there is a lot a lot of subtle hues and shading. It's not simply blue and black or whatever.

When you paint seriously, you learn about using black and with some artists, it's supposed to be a no-no. Instead you are encouraged to mix dark hues with colours. This gives you more depth because its not just black, its a very very dark blue or red or whatever. And even with blacks, you have warm and cold hues.

What does that mean for Zlythy? It means that with this realization, it frees me up to maintain the visual strength of purely b&w imagery but with a subtlety of colour that can really add a layer of depth and artistry it wouldn't have otherwise. Some areas or objects may have warmer or colder shades. Not only will this push the sophistication of the imagery, give it depth and subtle contrasts but it will also be useful for drawing the player's attention when necessary.

I consider this a real breakthrough for me with the look of Zlythy and gives me a more concrete and artistically satisfying direction.

New Computer & News

2010-12-12T03:25:00.002+01:00

I'm going to be ordering a new iMac this week! I'll be able to start work on the music and audio, finally. I'm going with Logic Studio, M-Audio Profire 610. I'm also picking up a new Wacom, I'm not saying goodbye to Windows, I need it for games! I'll probably be getting a graphics card and memory upgrade for it. I'll also be getting a Drobo (not this week but soon) so I can do proper backups. I wouldn't want to lose Zlythy to a harddrive failure.

In other news, I'm going to try my hand at Flixel. It seems as good a place to start as any. I've had the idea for sci-fi metroidvania for as longer than I've been working on Zlythy. It will have puzzles as well and a (hopefully) interesting story to go with it. The title is Escape from Cygnus X-1.

And last but not least, Aquin my coder sent me the first Unity build of the first AI test/prototype for Zlythy!

Damn, why didn't I just do an FPS!

2010-11-16T19:22:00.001+01:00

I'm still recovering from this flu. I've been slowly working out toys. It's really hard for me because I'm making this up as I go along. I've never done anything like this. I'm just hoping it all comes together at the end. I think it will. I'm fairly optimistic, which is also new for me. I just wish we could move a little faster but don't see how at this point. Coming up with something like this from scratch is way more difficult than say, another FPS.

Damn, why didn't I just do an FPS! /jk

Toys

2010-11-13T06:26:00.001+01:00

While there are no puzzles per se, there are (or will be) puzzling toys. In most games, puzzles are an obstacle to an extent. Something that must be overcome in order to progress in the game. In Zlythy, there are "puzzles" but they have no direct effect on the game or your progress. Zlythy is an open-world, you are free to roam where you want. They are more like toys than anything else. The satisfaction is in the playing, not accomplishing any specific goal.

Stuff is happening!

2010-11-11T01:23:00.001+01:00

Me and the coder are putting time into the game. It's moving forward. I've been sick for the last week and I've been spending most of my time in bed for the last few days. Nothing to look at yet but as soon as there is, I will be posting it.

Half-baked

2010-10-20T23:04:00.002+02:00

I'm going to rework my concept for Zlythy 0. It feels half-baked as a concept. I want there to be more to it. I don't want it to feel like a hollow level design demo. And I'm afraid that's all it is right now. I'm also considering dumping the black & white look. I don't want it to be compared to another, much higher profile, indie game that was recently released. I have some ideas but it needs a lot of work.

Return to Zlythy

2010-10-03T18:14:00.001+02:00

I've been working on my portfolio/self-promotion stuff for job hunting for 3 weeks now. I've put a ton of work into it and there's lots more to do. But I need a break and I need to do some work on Zlythy so this week, that's what I'm going to do. There's a fair amount texture work, animations, audio and well, everything that needs to be done yet. Aquin is working on his own stuff until I get some more assets to him. That's all for this update. Once I get some more stuff done, I'll do another video update.

Zlythy Zero

2010-07-19T23:23:00.001+02:00

I've got a coder now! I met him hanging out in #tigirc, the official (I guess) TIGSource IRC channel. He goes by the handle Aquin and you can check out his website here.

Zlythy Zero is a "test" level to help me and the coder get some sort of workflow and organization for the full game. I will likely release it if it doesn't suck. With it will be released two or three new music pieces. I won't call them songs because it's a soundtrack, not a conventional album.

Here are a few early screenshots for you:

More coming soon!

When a Cover Version Fails

2010-07-17T11:52:00.001+02:00

Unlike many people, I like listening to cover versions of songs. I like hearing a different take on a familiar tune. Sometimes even, a band feels more free with a cover and can produce music that is more interesting than their own stuff.

However, there are times that a cover version fails that otherwise, on the surface, there's nothing really wrong with it. The melody isn't butchered, the instrumentation is appropriate. But for all that, something is still missing. This is how I feel about The Midway State feat. Lady GaGa cover of "Don't Give Up" originally by Peter Gabriel and Kate Bush.

The song "Don't Give Up" by Peter Gabriel and Kate Bush is a strongly emotional and sincere song. And unlike so much pop music, the lyrics and their delivery drive home the meaning of the song. As Bruce Lee said, "We need emotional content." If it's not there, it's hollow, it means nothing. Nathan Ferraro, and to a greater extent Lady Gaga, put no emotion behind it. They are singing the words but they mean nothing to them.

Maybe it's their age. Maybe they haven't really felt failure. I don't know but I think it's unfortunate that two clearly talented artists delivered such a sterile and uninspired cover of a deeply moving song.

Here's Willy and O'Conner schooling The Midway State and Gaga:

Shadowcast 04: Guest Starring Mi

2010-05-29T00:07:00.000+02:00

The Industrial Years 1997-2005 Lyric Book Available!

2010-05-28T17:26:00.003+02:00

The PDF lyric book for The Industrial Years is available NOW! Includes notes and history for each song: http://shadowjack.bandcamp.com/album/the-industrial-years-1997-2005.

You can still download the individual files for free but why go through all that clicking and the potential for CTS when for a measly €5, you can dowload it all at once with an nice lyric book and help show your appreciation for my work?

Shadowcast 03: Unity Progress

2010-05-19T12:54:00.000+02:00

View older Zlythy development videos on my other account - I'm going to move them over to the shad0wjack one soon but until then: http://www.youtube.com/user/ghostwheelgames

Shadowcast 02: Episodic/Music/Blender

2010-05-12T20:34:00.000+02:00

View more Zlythy development videos on my other account - I'm going to move them over to the shad0wjack one soon but until then: http://www.youtube.com/user/ghostwheelgames

Shadowcast 01: Zlythy So Far

2010-05-06T01:39:00.006+02:00

First Shadowjack Zlythy vlog!

View more Zlythy development videos on my other account - I'm going to move them over to the shad0wjack one soon but until then: http://www.youtube.com/user/ghostwheelgames

It Stinks!

2010-04-29T06:50:00.001+02:00

Unfortunately, I recently found out (last night) that there is a good reason why no one uses the Blender Game Engine: it stinks. Get more than a few objects running even simple logic brick tracking setups and the framerate plummets.

I'm not a coder. Even the simple logic brick arrangements I had were incredibly difficult for me to make work. And now they aren't an option. Sure, I could completely change that particular level but how long before I hit another serious limitation with the BGE.

Unity is a possibility, sort of. Again, it requires at least some knowledge of javascript. I have none. I suppose I could attempt to find a coder to help me but that didn't work out the last time I did that.

I don't know what I'm going to do now.

First Track

2010-04-27T18:54:00.001+02:00

I have completed the first track for Zlythy. It's a bit odd for me. I'm not ready to make it available. The direction I'm going with this is not at all what you will hear in my first trailer. In fact, I think I'm going to remove the trailer from YouTube and Vimeo as I don't want people t latch onto something that simply isn't going to be in the final product. Anyway, I'm not sure this track will even make it to the final (not)game as it's a still a bit more busy than I want. Only time will tell.

Zlythy Soundtrack

2010-04-26T19:32:00.001+02:00

I've started work on the Zlythy soundtrack. It's alot harder to get the right pacing than I anticipated. I have to slow the tempo waaaaaay down, even more so than what I did on The Fall of Man/Groovfuct. I'm trying to work a little differently from what I usually do but it's so easy to fall back into old habits. And in this case, that won't work for this project.

I'm also considering merging my game and music blogs, I just haven't figure out the best way to do that. I don't know which name I want to put it under, Ghostwheel or Shadowjack or both. I've had my music and art as two separate things for so long, bringing the two together is... something I don't have a word for atm.

In any case, I feel I'm on the right path now. I just have to keep pushing forward with whatever it is I'm doing.

Dustmen - High Quality Vimeo

2010-04-26T14:55:00.001+02:00

To see in HD: http://www.vimeo.com/11226627

Boxed Sets

2010-04-21T21:36:00.002+02:00

I want to make a signed/numbered physical boxed set for The Fall of Man. It will include a CD, DVD, booklet, sticker & poster - and a really nice box of course. But I don't have the money to make them first and sell them after. So here is the deal, if you want one you will have to pre-order it. And I will only do it if I get at least 5 orders. There will be a total of 10 in this run. I'm shooting for €50 + €10 shipping per set. Payment will be through PayPal. If you are interested email me, shanesemler (at) gmail.com. Once I get at least 5 emails from serious interested parties, I'll let you all know and you can send your payments.

I'm On Metalcast Podcast This Week!

2010-04-17T23:17:00.001+02:00

http://www.metalcastshow.com/archives/1516

Thanks Marcus!

Insect Boy Music Video

2010-04-16T02:22:00.008+02:00

UPDATE: Here's the better quality Vimeo version of the video!

Shadowjack - Insect Boy from Ghostwheel on Vimeo.

To watch in higher quality, switch to full screen view and change from 360p to 480p. Despite the video being SD quality, it looks a fair bit better before YouTube mangles it. I will be uploading to Vimeo soon.

Insect Boy by Shadowjack is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

The Industrial Years Released

2010-04-10T17:01:00.001+02:00

Get is here for free: http://shadowjack.bandcamp.com/album/the-industrial-years-1997-2005

Stones Music Video Available

2010-04-09T13:39:00.008+02:00

The second Shadowjack video! For the song "Stones" from the Album "The Fall of Men/Groovfuct." View in HD 720p. Download the album for 5€ (comes with a PDF lyric book) or individual songs free from: http://shadowjack.bandcamp.com

Stones by Shadowjack is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

And for my next trick...

2010-04-09T02:06:00.001+02:00

I've made a decision about my Zlythy game project. Because of delays (with a potential coder), and my own inability to code anything, I've decided to make my project a full-blown notgame. It was barely a game to begin with. On reflection, to a certain extent, I believe I was attempting to candy coat it - to make it more "gamey" and less artsy.

As an artist and musician, I've always felt like the three were separate, which was always a frustration for me. Zlythy will allow me to combine all three. It will be my next project and will include my music and video work as well. My next Shadowjack album will be the soundtrack for Zlythy.

In more current news, the new video for Stones is complete! You should see it on YouTube within the next couple days.

Fairly Official Album Release

2010-03-26T01:15:00.002+01:00

The Fall of Man/Groovfuct now available with a super extra special PDF lyric book for a measly €5: http://shadowjack.bandcamp.com/

You can still download the individual files but why go through all that clicking and the potential for CTS when for a measly €5, you can dowload it all at once with an nice lyric book and help show your appreciation for my work?

MySpace Sucks

2010-03-20T02:18:00.003+01:00

I will no longer update my MySpace page from this day forward (not that I was updating it much anyway). I urge all other musicians to stop using that lame excuse for a website. Stop forwarding me to MySpace as your official site. Just stop. It's a cluttered, ugly mess and looks like a website from 1997. There are better alternatives, bandcamp.com for example.

Also, stop using shitty upload services like megaupload. That's what bandcamp is for. If youre really must use an upload service, use Dropbox.

Thanks.

Dustmen Music Video

2010-03-19T16:32:00.005+01:00

This is the first ever Shadowjack video! For the song "Dustmen" from the Album "The Fall of Men/Groovfuct." Be sure to watch it full screen.

Dustmen by Shadowjack is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

Shadowjack: The Industrial Years, 1997 - 2005

2010-03-08T14:05:00.013+01:00

UPDATE: As I was digging through all my CD backups (8 years worth) I noticed that the actual dates on the files didn't line up with my recollections of the dates. These songs were actually recorded over a period of 8 years. In fact, the last four songs were all recorded in 2005. There is some overlap with one of the songs on The Fall of Man, which was originally demoed in 2005 but that was around when the direction in my music started to turn back to Doom/Stoner/Metal.Those four songs represent the last spurt of Industrial that was left in me at the time. Plus, the new title is the first I came up with in the first place. :)

10 songs, ~~10 years~~ 8 years (I'm not so good with dates, what can I say) of Industrial. Coming soon.

Playlist
01. It's Called Easy
02. Angel
03. Lucky Number
04. Elation
05. Worth
06. Bleed
07. Keep It Together
08. Insect Boy
09. You Can't Hide From The Sky
10. Broken World

New Song!

2010-03-06T20:38:00.003+01:00

This was previously available as a not-so-great demo on MySpace. You may also notice the all new artwork! It's from a painting I did back in 2006. I tried several times to design artwork for the album and was unhappy with it every single time. I was going through my old art and landed on this piece I painted called Last Denizen of a Dying World. It was perfect - not to literal, not to abstract but still got the concepts and general feel of the music across.

Download I'm a Man (On the Moon): HERE!

Shadowjack News!

2010-02-24T12:57:00.002+01:00

Me and my wife are moving to the UK very soon. I'll also be picking up a new soundcard and software so I can get back to recording. The final track for The Fall of Man/Groovfuct album will be a 15-20 minute "song."

Also, I'm completely reworking the artwork for the album to better illustrate the concepts in the lyrics. Look out for that in the next couple of weeks or so.

NEW SHIZIT ALBUM!!!

2009-12-09T11:31:00.002+01:00

And it's FREE: GET IT HERE!!!

Trite But True

2009-12-02T16:33:00.001+01:00

People that seek genuine-ness in art can spot a fake. It sounds trite but you do have to be true to your interests, feelings and inner senses. That is the only satisfaction if you desire to be a "hard core" artist. Now I'm not saying there's anything wrong with making a buck off your work but you need to ask yourself, "is this enough for me?" If the answer is "no," then you probably won't be very happy pursuing that path in the long run. Now if you can make a living doing what you love, that is the ideal, isn't it? Hell, as an artist, you're lucky if anyone even considers your art, let alone PAYS for it.

So I guess what I'm saying is that you shouldn't be afraid to do what you love. Wear your influences and your heart on your sleeve. If people laugh, hey, at least they noticed.

And remember, irony is for cowards.

Remixes

2009-09-09T17:41:00.001+02:00

Industrial act Blind With Rain just released a new free maxi-single. I did two of the remixes, get it here: http://blindwithrain.bandcamp.com/

Blurb!

2009-08-25T15:16:00.003+02:00

"Right at the beginning of this album you already know this isn't your typical Doom/Stoner Metal band. The first song starts off with heavy amounts of Industrial influence, with some amazing electronic sounds mixed in with an amazing melody. Together they create a sound all their own. Even with the slow pace of the music, the riffs sound incredibly powerful." -- Unknown Metal Weekly Newsletter

Knowing - Too Stupid to Save

2009-06-22T14:27:00.011+02:00

I saw that Nicholas Cage movie Knowing last night. It was OK. Not fabulous but ok. It's not as good as Alex Proyas' other movies (The Crow, Dark City, I, Robot) but enjoyable enough I suppose. Anyway, it brought up a few things that bother me. The sad part of the message of the movie is that we need benevolent aliens to save our retarded asses from extinction. Why is this sad? BECAUSE WE'VE HAD THE FUCKING TECHNOLOGY TO SAVE OURSELVES FOR THE LAST 40 FUCKING YEARS!!! Yeah, we are a space-faring species. Or we would be if we weren't busy spending billions of dollars on stupid wars and squabbling over limited resources. In space there is literally, unlimited resources. If instead of these oil companies spending billions of dollars on increasingly complex and expensive ways to get a limited, polluting and inefficient resource on our planet, they could have spent billions on a space infrastructure and get ALL THE FUEL AND ENERGY WE WILL EVER NEED from the planets and moons in our solar system. We could have established colonies on the Moon back in the 1970's. However, the U.S. government thought the money would be put to better use fighting a pointless war in Vietnam and more nukes in the 80's. There were designs on the drawing boards to build self-sustaining massive space habitats. Instead we got Skylab and the International Space Station. Both utterly useless bits of junk floating around with no real purpose. We COULD have been on Mars by now. But instead, we sent a couple of RC cars. If we had colonies on Mars, in the Asteroid Belt and in orbit around Saturn, We could just be like "thanks for the offer weird aliens that like to stalk children but we can handle this ourselves, bye."

Speaking of the aliens, if I was them and took a look at our species I'd be like, "wait a second - why aren't these idiots doing anything to save themselves? They have the technology to do it. Sure, their spaceships aren't as awesome as ours but they work. Why should we save them if they make zero effort to save themselves? They are too stupid to bother with."

So yeah, that's the message of the movie, we are too stupid to save ourselves, despite having the ability to. I guess it's not too far off from the message of my song cycle The Fall of Man but, idk, I guess it's just a bit too depressing when seeing it from another viewpoint. Actually no, what really bothers me about the film's position is "we are fucked and only an outside force (God, angles, aliens) can save us. Which I think is bullshit. We CAN save ourselves, we are just too caught up in our petty bullshit to see the big picture. The Fall of Man is a WARNING. Knowing's position is one of acquiescence, which is just lame.

My Music is Real

2009-06-22T00:01:00.001+02:00

I can count the number of concerts I've been to on one hand. And you know what, it doesn't matter. To me, music is purely the audio experience. I don't even know what alot of the bands look like that I listen to. So why is it so important to so many people that music has to be connected to a band, image or record label? I'm not sure but it doesn't make the music any more real to me. Music is the sound. It's the emotion - how it make me feel when I hear it. The music is what is real.

I record music and unfortunately for me, most people don't view music the same way I do. I don't have a band, image or label to make my music more "real." My music is audio only. You don't need me prancing about in a music video or stumbling around on a stage in a crowded, smoky bar to prove it's validity. You don't need a shrink wrapped, over priced CD or a download from iTunes. The music is all there for you to hear. Why don't you have a listen: http://shadowjack.bandcamp.com/

Good News

2009-06-10T15:54:00.001+02:00

I got an older machine set up with Windows XP and an old version of Cakewalk. I'm going to try doing some recording on it , possibly today. If it goes well, I'll be able to finish up the album!

Final Update (For Now)

2009-05-16T09:49:00.004+02:00

Several years ago, the monitors I used to mix my music blew. I had a very difficult time mixing and mastering my audio after that. So much so, I messed with the same few tracks over and over for 2 years and never really finished them. My output slowed to a crawl. Last year I had a jolt of inspiration and finally decided to ignore my lack of adequate monitoring and take a more lo-fi approach and not worry about perfect audio fidelity. Then, my trusty old Darla 20 audio card, the heart of my recording studio, finally died. Despite that, I decided to push on with a crummy old mini-jack hobbled Ensoniq AudioPCI card. Then more problems cropped up - my hard drive became unstable AND my video card died.

And then yet more problems arose... to make a long story short, I had a string of hardware failures. Expensive hardware failures. Hardware I can't afford to buy. And I'm still dealing with them. We (my wife and I) managed to scrape together enough to replace my motherboard, CPU, RAM and video card so I could rebuild my PC. However, I'm still lacking a usable audio card (built in audio simply doesn't work with some of my software). To top it all off, because of a bad power cable when building the new PC, things have become unstable. USB isn't functioning properly now so I have to send all the parts back for replacement.

These hardware failures coupled with the inability to purchase critical hardware like an audio card and an external storage solution for backups gives me little choice but to put Shadowjack on hold indefinitely.

I'd like to thank the few of you who cared. Your encouragement kept me going. Unfortunately, encouragement and caring doesn't buy expensive hardware. I can't record music on good vibes.

Dreams are cheap, making them reality isn't.

Computer Update

2009-05-01T01:54:00.003+02:00

For those of you who don't follow me on Twitter, I have ordered the parts for my computer. We were able to scrape together €345,32 for an AMD Athlon X2 7750 CPU,mobo, 2GB RAM,GeForce 9600 GT,and 580w modular PSU. I'm reusing the case (which I like and is in good condition), HDDs and card reader from a fried Compaq. All I can do for now is wait until the parts arrive.

I only had 3 or 4 songs to go before I called the album complete. The computer broke down at a bad time. It actually stopped functioning at the exact moment I worked out the direction I was going to take on the final version of I'm a Man (On the Moon) and begin recording it. Which, as you can imagine, was beyond frustrating. As soon as I get the PC rebuilt, that is the first thing I plan on finishing.

Since I haven't been able to work on any music, I've been working on concepts for 2d racing game reminiscent of the original F-Zero for the SNES. It's been rough with this crummy laptop, the GIMP just runs. Trying to do multiple things at once often results in the laptop freezing up. Despite that, I've managed to get quite a bit of artwork done. I'll post some of the images on my art blog soon. I'm going to seek out programmers once I get a bit more of the concept work done. If anyone knows someone that might be interested, please have them contact me via email: shanesemler (at) gmail.com.

PC Out of Commision

2009-04-21T17:34:00.003+02:00

My PC (i.e. recording studio) is not usable ATM. Backup solutions are also a no go. An old college friend suggested I "get a Mac." That's a rather annoying suggestion. While it would be nice to be a shiny, happy Mac person, the cost is prohibitive. Actually, that's not quite correct - the cost is simply impossible. There is a difference between being cheap and being poor. Cheap is when you have the money but don't want to spend it. Poor is when the moolah simply isn't there. I fall into the poor camp. I may be able to get the parts for a new PC but I don't know how soon. Certainly not this week, perhaps not even next. We'll see. In the meantime, there will be no new music. Sorry. :(

Marginally Music Related Linux Nerd Post

2009-04-15T11:04:00.003+02:00

Turbo Linux was the very first but only lasted on my PC for a few hours. Then I picked up RedHat 6.1 or 6.2, I don't remember which but I have the disks around here somewhere. I bought it in a box! I didn't do much with it though. I complained about what a PITA Linux was to a CS major friend of mine. He told me I shouldn't bother with it. I didn't listen. The first distro I used somewhat regularly was SuSE (also boxed). Then I moved to Mandrake and I loved it. It was the first somewhat easy to use Linux I used and I used it regularly. I got especially easy to use once I switched to broadband and didn't have to screw with winmodems anymore. Mandrake stumbled though. They slowed their releases and that made it harder to get new software updates. Plus RPM was always a pain. Then Ubuntu hit the scene and I've been using it and it derivatives (like Mint) ever since. Now Linux is a pleasure to use and even easier to install and update than Windows. I use it for pretty much everything except audio recording and a few games.

Speaking of audio, one of the few things in Linux that has lagged behind Windows is audio tools. That has just recently started to change as a few of the best audio tools available for Linux have matured to the point of usability versus hair-pulling. Ardour, for example, always looked attractive but used JACK. And early versions of JACK, at least for me, were impossible to get working. Now it's alot more automated and stable and usable versions are (more or less) available in various repositories. Though for whatever reason, the official Ubuntu repositories seems to have alot of fubar'd software that I want to use. I had to get the current version of Ardour from getdeb.net because of an impossible to get around bug in the file open dialog in the official Ubuntu version. However, I used it to remix a few songs for Blind With Rain and it worked well. I still had to use software on Windows to master the remixes though. Anyway, audio on Linux is slowly getting there. It's usable but I seriously doubt it will ever have the polish and presentation and support that the proprietary audio software companies can provide. The demand for Linux enterprise solutions is there and so is the need for cheap servers. The same can't be said for high-end audio recording and editing software. It's a niche market.

There's no point to any of this really, I'm just babbling.

Doesn't Play Well With Others

2009-04-10T17:28:00.004+02:00

Asperger's Syndrome has become a big joke on the internet. This is unfortunate as I really do suffer from it. I have an official diagnoses and everything. It has caused me alot of problems in my life. It's made the simplest interactions with people incredibly stressful and has been a very large component in the severity of my problems with depression.

Basically, I can't work with others.

It's highly unlikely I'll ever be able to have a band to play my material live. I still want to play live though. When I played in SL all the parts except the guitar were prerecorded. However, this new material has alot more guitar parts and I think it would sound really weird to have guitars coming out of nowhere. Playback of electronic parts like drum machines and synths are one thing but I believe live instruments should be played live. What I will have to do is rework my material so I can play it all by myself. I'll have to strip the music down to it's basics. I have some ideas about how to get a really big, full guitar sound and I can probably emulate a bass with an octave pedal.

I don't know what else to do.

Music Now Hosted on Bandcamp

2009-04-08T21:24:00.004+02:00

Thanks goes to Dan from Life Toward Twilight for suggesting this site to me. There are several big advantages to bandcamp.com - first is that it's free. Second is that it automatically creates just about any audio format you could possibly want - mp3, FLAC, Ogg, AAC and more. The page is easy to set up, no fugly clutter like on MySpace, iMeem and other such sites. The only down side is the lack of options to set more details in the tags, like the genre for example. But they are still working on it, adding feature and such. Plus, I think it's much nicer than MediaFire and it saves me alot of hassle and lowers the chance that I screw up the tags again. You will have to give me your email though (I promise not to sell it or give it to any nasty spammers). And I'd appreciate your real email. I think that's a fair trade though, don't you? You can even get a nice, simple, clean-looking player to put on your website, MySpace page, blog, etc. Check it out: http://shadowjack.bandcamp.com/

Tags FUBAR'd

2009-04-03T22:52:00.002+02:00

I had to fix the tags on both "The Last Ballad" and "Cloud Keep" so you might want to re-download them if screwed up tags bug you as much as they do me.

Track 09 - Cloud Keep

2009-04-03T18:29:00.000+02:00

"Cloud Keep" is now available:

DOWNLOAD

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

Alternate Album Art

2009-03-29T00:11:00.002+01:00

New Player

2009-03-28T15:37:00.004+01:00

I found a great open source flash mp3 player. It looks better than the esnips player and pulls the audio from my hosting server which should be more reliable than esnips.com.

Esnips Player

2009-03-28T09:27:00.002+01:00

It appears esnips.com is down. Consequently, the player is not functional atm. I have hosting now so I'll be streaming the files from there soon instead.

Track 08 - Stones

2009-03-27T14:14:00.001+01:00

Here it is, "Stones":

DOWNLOAD

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

Thoughts?

2009-03-27T07:46:00.001+01:00

The first half of the album is done. "The Fall of Man" concept piece is finished. Any thoughts, criticisms, comments or complaints from the handful of visitors that come here?

Track 07 - The Last Ballad

2009-03-26T06:06:00.005+01:00

"The Last Ballad" is now available! This week, you get two tracks, I'll upload "Stones" tomorrow. Get the new song here:

DOWNLOAD

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

P.S., It's also been added to the esnips player ---------->

Studio Photos 2

2009-03-25T14:32:00.005+01:00

From Shadowjack Photos

The Fall of Man/Groovfuct Album Art

2009-03-21T21:23:00.004+01:00

Studio Photos

2009-03-21T09:10:00.004+01:00

Shadowjack Photos

Blind With Rain Shadowjack Remixes Available

2009-03-21T06:42:00.002+01:00

Blind With Rain has made remixes of Icy Skies Falling and Dustmen available:

DOWNLOAD

As always, they are Creative Commons licensed, DRM free 320 kbps mp3 files.

Track 06 - Dead Lights

2009-03-20T18:58:00.002+01:00

"Dead Lights," the last song in the Fall of Man song cycle is now available!

DOWNLOAD

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

Album Update

2009-03-18T20:28:00.001+01:00

I just finished up recording "Dead Lights." Not sure I'm all that happy with it. But I've already restarted recording the song once so I'm not going to start again, I want to move on.

In other news, Aaron from Blind With Rain informed me that the 3rd verse for "Dustmen" is missing from the remix audio! Oops. I'll have to fix that soon. In the meantime, I'm going to take the zip file down. Also, Aaron did a kick ass remix of Dustmen so look for that soon!

Dead Lights Update

2009-03-13T21:18:00.001+01:00

The new track isn't ready yet. It probably won't be ready until at least Tuesday as I'm going away for the weekend.

Magpie Remix Tracks

2009-03-10T08:22:00.003+01:00

I admit, I'm procrastinating again on getting the audio bits out. On the upside I've been making slow but steady progress on "Dead Lights." I felt terrible yesterday but despite that, I did a little bit of work on it. Though it was small, it wasn't insignificant. Look for it Friday as usual. If not, I will certainly shoot for a Saturday or Sunday release.

Track 04 - Magpie

2009-03-06T15:48:00.003+01:00

The fourth track, "Magpie" is now available! The remix audio will follow shortly.

DOWNLOAD

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

Blind With Rain Remixes

2009-03-05T09:23:00.011+01:00

I posted this in Twitter but completely forgot to mention it here - I remixed three tracks for Industrial act Blind With Rain. I don't know which, if any he's going to end up using but he seemed to like what I did. If you like your Industrial cerebral, complex and challenging (similar to Skinny Puppy's old stuff and Download) you should check it out.

Dustmen Remix Tracks Ready

2009-03-03T23:43:00.002+01:00

DOWNLOAD

Dustmen Remix Audio

2009-02-28T10:31:00.001+01:00

I'm procrastinating. :P

Track 05 - Dustmen

2009-02-27T10:45:00.003+01:00

Dustmen is the 5th song on the album but it's the forth song I'm making available. This is for a simple reason, I haven't recorded the 4th song yet. I'm going to shoot for recording it next week and hopefully releasing it next Friday. I'll make the remixing pieces and parts for Dustmen available later today.

DOWNLOAD

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

Track 03 - Ashes/Anorexic Exit

2009-02-20T11:23:00.003+01:00

The third track and remixing samples are now available. The tempo is in the README as well as the id3 tag. Enjoy!

DOWNLOAD

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

Delete Format Forget: The Industrial Years, 1997-2007

2009-02-15T17:35:00.008+01:00

I'm already thinking about the next album release I will do. It will be a final and complete release of the material I worked on from roughly 1997-2007. This will be all of my Industrial/Coldwave influenced stuff. Those were a very difficult 10 years for me. I worked on alot of material for others but my personal music output was extremely low. It works out to be about one song for each year. On a side note, I've already recorded half that many songs in the last couple months working off and on for The Fall of Man/Groovfuct.

Even though my output was low, I'm still proud of the material. I'll remaster songs that need it. Some of the material only exists now as 128kbps mp3 as the original wav files and recordings are lost so I will do what I can to make those sound as good as possible.

Of course, it will all be licensed under a CC BY-NC-SA license with the audio bits for the songs, where available.

Track 02 - Glow

2009-02-13T02:31:00.013+01:00

The next track is up and ready for your listening pleasure. The individual tracks for remixing will come later today or tomorrow. I'll be uploading a README file as well with the licensing and other important info. If you need to know the tempo of any of the songs, it's in the ID3v2 tag of the mp3.

DOWNLOAD

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

UPDATE: The zip containing the Glow remixing tracks are now available. I also updated the names of the files in the Icy Skies Falling zip. There is also now a README file, please read it as it has important information regarding the format and use of the files as well as contact info and licensing.

UPDATE 2: D'oh, I forgot to add the BPM in the zip file names. I think I'm going to have add a readme to the zips. in any case, I'll have to upload the zips again. The tempo is available in the mp3 tags in the meantime.

UPDATE3: Ok, the zip files are all updated and include a README with the tempo.

An Artists Intentions

2009-02-08T19:41:00.010+01:00

...are irrelevant to everyone except the artist.

There's a video on youtube.com of David Lynch ranting about how it's "bullshit" that people watch movies on iPods. Sorry Mr. Lynch but what is bullshit is that you think that you can control your art once it's out in the wild.

You can't force people to see things the way you want. The best you can hope for is that at least a small portion of your message gets across to the viewer. Each person that sees it has a mind of their own and will come away with their own impression. Not only that but how your art is delivered can change over time. Paintings are reproduced in books, posters, coffee mugs. Music that was on vinyl disc is now listened to on mp3 players, heard in commercials, video games, and poorly produced youtube slideshows. Films that were seen on a screen with 200 other people in surround sound, are seen on VHS on a mono TV, DVD in 2.1 stereo and yes, even iPods with some crummy earbuds. Even if, for example, an artistic work hangs in a gallery and is never reproduced in any way, time will alter how the piece looks. Colors will fade, varnish will yellow. Ultimately it's the VIEWER, not the artist that determines how a work is delivered.

Art is a form of communication. Like any communication that hangs around for a long while, how people view it changes over time. The importance of any art is relevance to the viewer or listener, not the intentions of the artist. As with folk music, folk tales and urban legends, variations are introduced with each successive teller or performer. No two live stage performances of plays are alike. No two productions of the same play are alike. THIS IS NOT A BAD THING. People have always built upon others ideas so there is no such thing as an original thought. There's no such thing as original art.

The artist's idea, concept, first thought doesn't matter at all. Even the final concrete form it first takes doesn't matter. What the viewer or listener gets out of it, what they come away with is what really matters. What you as an artist want doesn't matter. You can rant against iPods, ebooks, crappy speakers, remixes or whatever new form or presentation a work of art takes over time but it doesn't mean a thing. Relevance is all that ultimately matters. You can't control how another person sees, interprets, manipulates or otherwise changes any work of art, whether in their mind or in the material world.

Artistic intentions, ideas and concepts are not sacred. If you don't like that, too bad because that is the reality of any artistic endeavor.

Track 01 - Icy Skies Falling

2009-02-06T04:25:00.012+01:00

Here it is, the first track from the new album The Fall of Man/Groovfuct. You can download the finished track as well as the individual tracks for remixing. The files are hosted at MediaFire which looks like the least annoying free file hosting service out there. It will have to do until I get my own hosting again. I'll post another track next Friday.

DOWNLOAD

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

UPDATE: I chose the wrong license. I will update the tag in the mp3 to reflect the correct license later tonight. Please honor the new share-alike license, even if you downloaded the older version. Thank you.

UPDATE 2: I also just noticed I uploaded one of the loops in the wrong tempo. I'm fixing it now.

UPDATE 3: Ok, it's fixed. The correct loop is in the zip file and the tags on the mp3 have been changed to reflect the correct license.

Giving Away my Music

2009-02-04T17:07:00.004+01:00

I was inspired to do this based on this post on webcomics at my friend Cat's website. Comics are a bit different from music and my line of thinking may be a complete failure but it can't get any worse than it already is. So...

Despite the success of iTunes, I don't think selling digital downloads of music is sustainable. And as I'm essentially unknown, I'm not even going to try. From now on, I'm going to give all of my music away for free in high quality 320 kbps mp3 format (when available, some of my older stuff isn't any higher than 128 kbps). Every week I will post a new song for you to download and enjoy. Once I get enough songs, I'll call it an album and sell a hard copy (CD and maybe even vinyl if possible) of the collected songs - but the digital songs will remain free.

Trying to guilt people into buying music and putting up barriers between listeners and music is just plain stupid and crappy and I'm not going to be part of that nonsense anymore. All my work will be Creative Commons. I think I will make it available in a CC share-alike license so people can remix it if they desire. I'll see if I can find hosting somewhere so I can make it available for download on Friday. So stick around, the music is coming.

Hope

2009-02-01T04:42:00.001+01:00

I want hope.

Last Post

2009-02-01T00:14:00.001+01:00

Two followers on my Shadowjack site. Other than that, I might have 3 (maybe a half dozen if I include family members) people in the world are vaguely interested in what I do. There's no reason to keep these blogs up.

Depression and My Art

2009-01-29T19:59:00.002+01:00

I have serious problems with depression and have had them since at least HS. Every now and then, it creeps up on me and overwhelms me. The despair becomes incredibly intense and it's almost more than I can bear.

That said, I probably won't give up on my art and music. However, seeing as how few people seem to care about what I do, I don't know that I have much incentive to share it with anyone any longer.

The few of you that are interested, thanks. I hope you continue to visit these blogs and twitter. I can't make any promises about new news on my progress though. I doubt I'll be going back to deviantart so don't look for my art there. If there was more interest, I'd probably feel differently but this is the way things are.