2 April 2014
So far it’s been a trying week not helped by the weather, 2 Trojans on my office computer that shut me down Monday and a Volvo that flashed on board computer warnings declaring an “urgent service ” was required as I headed into town. Twice I had to shut down the engine after power failure and restart after a roadside wait. I dropped into my local garage and they can’t do anything till I get back from Mexico. I’ll therefore be piddling around very carefully in the next days if I do venture out. My daughter was a bit miffed because I couldn’t pick her up this afternoon but between a spluttering vehicle and the chance of a breakdown the city was a no go area. I had far too much on my hands.
I finally managed to get in contact with Kobalt, my digital distributors where my label manager Helen had been recovering from getting hit by a cyclist last week. That conversation set of a chain reaction and this afternoon I was quite pleased with myself as I managed with a little help from my friends to upload “Feast” and the 2 single bundles together with all the accompanying metadata that are scheduled for release on i tunes and a host of other digital platforms on the 28th April!
The single bundles for “Blind to the Beautiful” will have “Blind” radio edit, “Blind” live from Karlsruhe 2013 and the original vastly differently grooved demo version on the first bundle and the album version, “Feast of Consequences” and “Perfume River” also live from Karlsruhe on bundle 2. These downloads cover the tracks that are the “side 4″extras on the vinyl version.
The suggested pricing on these is £1.79 a bundle or 99p per track. The album is suggested to go out at £7.99 for the 16 bit WAV version. The pricing still has to be finalised.
I still haven’t received the vinyl test pressings from France yet and hope they will be here tomorrow so I can check them and ok the album for production. I’ve already lost a week on this but with previous experience I had built in leeway so the target delivery of end of April is still valid. I will announce the pre orders when I have a specific date for delivery to us here.
I’ve been watching the video edits that David Barras has been sending in and he’s been doing a tremendous piece of whittling in his studio in Edinburgh trying to make sense of it all and bringing the footage together into a cohesive and moving clip. We should be able to upload it onto the Fishheads Club You Tube site next week and then we can start spreading the word and maybe just maybe getting something moving with “Blind to the Beautiful” in the media and hopefully the radio and the charts in that order. Your help with this will be vastly appreciated and I’ll get more information to you as we get nearer the release dates. The UK tour immediately on the release should also help!
Having the single bundles and the album up on stores worldwide for download will hopefully make a big difference and I’ll be adding the catalogue as the months go by.
After discussion with Kobalt they have advised me to make it available on Spotify. After all I have said on this it’s a pretty big U turn but I am told that a presence there does benefit sales and profile so I’ve decided to sup with the devil and see if it does make a huge difference. I’ll be adding more songs and albums if I see it happening for me.
Between getting my head around the download issues and working out how to create WAV files, having the added brain ache of dealing with builder’s quotes for the extension wasn’t particularly welcome in recent days. I have to make a decision tomorrow afternoon and my heart skips a beat at the commitment both in time and money as it has to be done this summer. I don’t think Spotify will cover it ! 🙂
I’m looking forward to playing in Baja but I am cowering at the travel arrangements. Foss and I have a 90 min flight to London Heathrow at 8am on Thursday , a 3 hour wait to check in for an 8 hour to Toronto, a 2 hr stopover and a 5 hour flight to San Diego before US immigration and a 2-3 hour drive through Mexican immigration to reach a hotel at midnight on Thursday! Gig Saturday then do it all again in reverse on Sunday morning home for Monday mid afternoon ! There’s a midnight Mexican BBQ waiting for us when we arrive though! A perfect breakfast washed down with Patron tequila and cervezas! Ah! The endless glamour! 🙂