In the making: t.o.t.s. “TROTW”. Post 10:

In the making: t.o.t.s. “TROTW”. Post 10:

So it’s been a bit since the last update… I’m not even sure where to begin. We’ve made some great progress on the “The Return of the Wetlands” but as usual there is still more to go and again, as usual I’ve managed to occupy my time with way too much stuff. As the album currently stands, there are 4 completely wrapped tracks, another two that should be done as of this weekend and a group of others in various stages of development.

Time time time… working on bringing The Qualia to the stage has been long and challenging so far and has also occupied a great deal of time. Also.. to make matters even more dense, the other band I play in “Mr. 1234” has resumed practice again after a brief hiatus. Working in both bands in addition to t.o.t.s. is both a good and bad thing. Good in that I am always engaged differently… bad in that time is extremely critical now more than ever due to there being less of it available. I am also working on yet another soundtrack for another indie horror short… the good news is that these tracks will be rearranged into material for “The Return of the Wetlands”…. that’s pretty exciting for me because I’ve been wanting to do some material like this for a while and haven’t had the need to push myself to try it out. It works REALLY well in my opinion and the couple of tracks this soundtrack has inspired for t.o.t.s. are pretty fucking cool.

To make matters even more dense, I am now writing equipment reviews for a magazine in NYC, LA and SF called “The Deli”. ALSO… I have started to design a new product that will be useful for musicians of all kinds. I have had a couple of development meetings with a few engineers that are interested in helping me develop the item. I don’t know how realistic it is right now to assume it will actually be made but I’m trying. Aside from that, I agreed to build a new website for my friend and AMAZING horror comic artist Jeff Zornow. Id’ do it anyway because he’s a cool guy but we’re working this out in trade for some art for “The Return of the Wetlands”… I now know no matter how bad the CD will be, the art will be EPIC people. This guy is bad ass… here’s a sample of a recent shirt design he’s made:

About doing stuff aside of t.o.t.s. and how it affects (or how i BELIEVE it affects) t.o.t.s.: It’s always been my belief that being omni-present is the best way to deal with promotion. Even though my playing with other bands like The Qualia and Mr. 1234 doesn’t directly push t.o.t.s. anywhere or get the album done faster, it will ultimately place ME in more locations at once… eventually. The more places I am, the more places t.o.t.s. is.. in terms of exposure, contacts and overall “viewability”. The other bands successes by proxy become my own in an indirect fashion. Same with working on film projects, soundtracks, reviews, etc etc etc.. My writing an article for Martin got me an invite to write for another magazine that now gets me more exposure… so how does that NOT affect t.o.t.s.? Maybe having all of this going on alongside the album writing process isn’t the best timing but beggars can’t be choosers… being omni-present ain’t easy.

Anyway… aside from all this shit, this past week I’ve been noodling with a bizarre t-shirt idea inspired by a nightmare my girlfriend had last week that I am now going to use an excuse to test out a new company for manufacturing t-shirts. If they look cool I may use them for a new batch of reasonably priced t.o.t.s. merch. Similar to the Cafe Press business model of “made to order” products but with what I consider to be a potentially superior product and far superior prices. They are called www.spreadshirt.com and I’d recommend any other bands to check them out… this is the first shirt design:

It can be ordered HERE.

That’s it for now…

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