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Posted by clipon on 06-12-2008 at22:19:

  DigiAlbum?

Any chance we can convince terry and friend (or child...sibling...spouse...drinking buddy...) to plug in a 4 track and record some demos, songs, sketches and put them out as free download digital eps on myspace or something?

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Posted by Audiori J on 06-14-2008 at00:00:

 

Free?

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Posted by clipon on 06-14-2008 at02:09:

 

Well...you know the whole viral thing...something to pass around the internet and build awareness of the greatness that is...i love MySpace...i troll through it looking for great music i can download for free...im a poor seminary student...i need all the discounts i can get.

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Posted by Dr Rich on 06-14-2008 at04:31:

  "the whole viral thing"

Even something like what Glass Harp has on their website.
It's great advertising.

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Posted by Audiori J on 06-14-2008 at11:25:

 

The problem is it costs a lot to record, and Terry needs to pay rent and eat.

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Posted by larryl on 06-14-2008 at13:20:

 

that's probably why a 4 track... demos.... were mentioned. they are not expensive.

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Posted by audiori on 06-14-2008 at14:06:

 

One of the issues we face regularly though is that we need inexpensive things to sell to create cash for the expensive. Thats why things like Swirling Mellow get released again. It doesn't cost a lot to put out, but we need things like that selling in order to do anything else. So.. if Terry comes across some weird, cool demos laying around that he would want to put out.. it'd be better to sell them and make money to make a new record than it would be to just give them all away. One or two? maybe... all of them? No way.

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Posted by clipon on 06-14-2008 at16:50:

 

My bad! I forgot about rent and bills. Im so used to my 'coffee shop star' friends who make music in their basements on old four tracks or computers and just stick it on the net and wait to see how far the songs get!

If Terry could do some scetches, demos etc for a MySpace album id dig it. Let it get viral, build a new fan base. DA should be marketed to the Christian music scene as the 'greatful dead' of Christian music (but sober, no endless bootlegs and no endless touring).

Jason

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Posted by audiori on 06-14-2008 at17:08:

 

For the last couple of years, we've been trying to get Terry to do a series of inexpensive "basement tapes" style semi-bootleg releases... not regular albums, but something just recorded roughly, in his house on an 8-track digital recorder. Some tracks could be familiar songs with a new twist... others could be new songs in their roughest form... others could be covers or traditional/public domain songs. The idea would be that he could do these in between regular albums to help build the production budget for those larger releases.

He liked the idea and has talked about doing it, but I'd imagine finding the time is difficult. Theres probably also the issue of where he likes the songs enough that he doesn't want to put them out in that style but would rather save them for a regular album. But... I think, with just the right material, those kinds of releases could be very fun. We also had some ideas where the fans could be involved in some way.. more on that later.

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Posted by clipon on 06-14-2008 at17:12:

 

Awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I want those! That would rock!!!!

Fans invovled? Like...a poetry contest for lyrics?

Jason

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Posted by clipon on 06-15-2008 at00:50:

 

Allot of artists will put songs on myspace whatever and allow one song to be downloaded. Its like a single for the blog-o-sphere. Its a blingle.

Jason

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Posted by Ron E on 06-15-2008 at14:55:

 

quote:

Originally posted by audiori For the last couple of years, we've been trying to get Terry to do a series of inexpensive "basement tapes" style semi-bootleg releases... not regular albums, but something just recorded roughly, in his house on an 8-track digital recorder. Some tracks could be familiar songs with a new twist... others could be new songs in their roughest form... others could be covers or traditional/public domain songs. The idea would be that he could do these in between regular albums to help build the production budget for those larger releases. He liked the idea and has talked about doing it, but I'd imagine finding the time is difficult. Theres probably also the issue of where he likes the songs enough that he doesn't want to put them out in that style but would rather save them for a regular album. But... I think, with just the right material, those kinds of releases could be very fun. We also had some ideas where the fans could be involved in some way.. more on that later.

You've got to stop saying things like this... it starts us talking of release dates and whatnot!!!

Btw... as a curious fan, is Terry writing songs all the time, or does he just heat up the sausage factory and start cranking when needed. I guess in my head, if he is as prolific as other say, perhaps he's got a case of songs somewhere. THat, to me, would be just cool... maybe even a potential pretentious poetry coffee table book release...with fan drawings... okay now its getting silly.

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Posted by audiori on 06-15-2008 at15:23:

 

No release dates or anything definite... its all just an idea at this point. If folks are really into this idea, maybe it would be good to pass that info on to Terry. We'll certainly pass the comments on to him as well, if he doesn't stop by.

It seems like ideas are always flowing for Terry, but I think he generally only starts writing (on paper or on tape) when a project is starting to come together in the studio (or maybe, a little before that).

I remember when Swirling Midget was just a rough idea being thrown around (probably 2004 or 2005ish), he had told us about a bunch of ideas that he had for it - very few of which actually made it to the album... but he was already thinking about it back then. He also started working on some song ideas and sketches very early on.. but he said he didn't actually put anything on paper until much later. It seems like he just collects a bunch of ideas in his head and then, once a project is officially started, he mixes them all up and cranks out an album.

You're tapping into something with the coffee table book idea... it has come up quite a few times as well actually - complete with the illustrations. Books are expensive though.. very hard to do on a limited budget. In a way, these ideas for projects are very similar to Terry's song ideas... they just constantly flow and eventually, one or two will rise to the surface and start to take shape and hopefully the funding will fall into place at the right time.

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Posted by wakachiwaka on 06-15-2008 at16:39:

  And speaking of books...

...what about that fabled book of autobiographical essays Terry was working on at one point - the one that "Zorro" story was intended for?

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Posted by audiori on 06-15-2008 at19:22:

 

Thats always been there.. "in the works" as they say. The main holdup has always been trying to find a publisher. At one point, it looked as though CCM books would publish it, but I'm not sure what happened with that deal. They may not even publish books any longer.

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Posted by Dr Rich on 06-15-2008 at21:20:

 

I would love to read more of that.

Maybe that would work as an independently published type deal.

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Posted by clipon on 06-16-2008 at16:30:

 

I woke up my fiancee to 'when we all wore hats' today. See, this is why we need more of Terrys music in the world. She has a paper to write for her philosophy class (she is a philosophy minor) and a church council meeting tonight...so, see, if we had more of Terrys music floating around out their more people could wake their fiancees.

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Posted by Ron E on 06-17-2008 at07:09:

 

The problem is that fiancees turn into spouses, so its kind of a limited market...

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Posted by jiminy on 06-17-2008 at09:57:

 

well - just to say..
written works dont need to be "published" so much anymore- with our electronic world..all one needs is a nice pdf file (to buy even)- or a password to download.even if its only a chapter or taste of whats "in the works"


So if its been written in any form- it can go public..like a blog.