Report Card, March 2022

Instead of writing about what I say I think I'm going to do, I'm instead going to just write about what I did.

"Blackout 2" aka unnamed band with Steven and Jimmy:

- there are at least 5 songs done on guitar, drums, and bass. They are getting vocals soon from Steven.

- bass and guitar has been recorded for several more songs (there are about 15 more songs we are actively working on).

- we practice weekly and Steven twitch streams it.

Spinscythe (in general):

- I've been playing open mics.

- Been jamming with other musicians and letting some improvise over my songs.

- I've picked the songs I want to record for the first real Spinscythe release.

- I've been doing more music stuff and socializing in North Augusta. 

Agents of Agent:

- We have written 6-7 original songs and are in the early stages of recording.

Time Wizards:

- Due to life events and other things out of our control, we haven't been able to make many efforts in this project in a while. Me currently playing open mics is sort of a placeholder for now.

Warz & Battlez and the other comics:

- Dead. Probably will be for some time, until I finish a few music projects. 

Website Layout and Content Updated FINALLY!

Time to celebrate! I finally finished the new Spinscythe.com layout! Check it out if you haven't already.

Now, I'm going to present the rest of the news in bullet format:

• Top Priority: Working on a 7 track EP for Spinscythe right now. Nothing else will be worked on until this is finished. When it's finished, it'll be available online to stream for free and also sold for people who want the lossless, raw tracks (and to support the band 😃).
  
• Working on comic scripts for Warz & Battlez (refreshed), The Monochrome Series, magic grapes, and Failed Miserably. Since I'm taking on 4 different strips here, don't expect anything to kick off anytime soon this year. I want to do it right, so I'll be starting with the scripts, then the artwork, and lastly the editing. Each series will be 50-60* comics per volume and will release once per week, on different days.
  
  * = Warz & Battlez itself is only be refreshed at the moment, meaning about 100 comics (most of them already released, some not) will be redone with new textures, new scripts, and better editing.
  
• Working on a Spinscythe discord server. The fans will be able to join it and talk directly to me and Graye, as well as our close friends. There will be an update about it when it officially launches.
  
• Don't tell me I'm taking on too much, but LUTA is also being worked on, albeit slowly. LUTA is more of a fun and relaxed project, focusing on video game covers and video game footage between Graye and me. As of right now, we're planning on releasing short clips of us playing games. The cover songs will come after the Spinscythe EP.
  
• Expect more casual entries in the library. For now I have some old material up, and some stuff I wrote in college. If you know me closely and have some art you want to submit, contact me and show me what you got. Depending on what it is that you make, it may be better suited for my other blog.

That's about all I can think of for now. If anything new happens, you'll hear about it on this blog. Thanks for keeping up with and supporting Spinscythe!

Weird Bee

Snakes

Acid Hell

Cray Things

Serpent

Just an update on the recording process. Everything is coming along slowly, but progress has not been halted. So far, guitar tracks have been recorded for 6 out of the 12 songs we have chosen to put on our debut album: Album Zero.

Before this album, we were intending to release a much bigger album, called Cerulean Times, that we had been working on for over 2 years. That collection, however, is very epic and the workload to produce it is intense. To remedy this, we decided Album Zero would be a better fit for a debut album, while we still work on Cerulean Times in the background and prepare it for release.

Since then, Cerulean Times has expanded into a double album. It's hard to explain, but Album Zero and Cerulean Times both have their own unique sounds. On one hand, Album Zero has songs on it that are easier on us to record and produce, but not necessarily easy to perform. The songs on this album have a raw, "rock and roll"-type of sound.

On the other hand, Cerulean Times has its own genre or style. Every time we write new material, we end up adding more to Cerulean Times because certain songs just fit that collection really well. Because of this recurrence, Cerulean Times is much larger than originally planned. The songs also have many layers and years worth of work put into them. It's just really easy to get carried away when you're feeling creative.

In the meantime, I have been doing my best to gather all versions of old recordings by me (as well as collaborative recordings) and archive them. I'm saving everything, because it's all worth my time. Many songs I have recorded and published online are reserved for future albums. It's a shame though that I lost many project files (Audacity, Magix, M-Audio Sessions, and Reaper) which contained the original .WAV files and the effects I used. Many of those files are lost forever due to past computer crashes and hard drive death.

The Will

Lydia Locria

Today I used my energy wisely towards recording. Instead of attempting to do too much in one day, I started on a hybrid song. The song I chose to refurbish is Lydia Locria, and I have successfully recorded guitar and bass tracks, accompanied with .WAV drum samples and MIDI leads. The result is interesting and inspiring. I'm in the process of mixing, but I will upload the song to YouTube and SoundCloud soon!

I'm going to take everything one day at a time. Today was the day for Lydia Locria. Tomorrow, who knows what song I'll be working on. All of this is building up towards finishing the album. These stray songs train me for that task.

Learning and Growing

It's important to me that I continue to grow as an artist and musician. To ensure this keeps happening, I have to challenge myself, question my ways, and try new things often. I also believe it is important to write about my experiences and goals. In the short run, it consumes more time to do this. But in the long run, it may remind me of my passion when I am feeling low or confused, and also aid as a point of progress to fuel my next step in my life aspirations.

It's been too long since I've last recorded (not counting recent events in the album as well as live session recordings over the years). And it's been far too long since I've last put out new material, both music and comics. But times are changing, and I must get back to my old ways, but with new tools and a new spirit. A new way of approaching problems, so that depression and procrastination lose their grip on me and I lose my grip on them.

First of all, I am going to be taking down some content, both musical and visual, from Spinscythe.com and Spinscythe-related accounts (such as Youtube, SoundCloud, and DeviantArt). I've never been above this before, but I've always held back in taking down what little I have. This is because I felt I had nothing more to offer in the past, but today is the start of a new era.

Certain material on YouTube will be unlisted. This means the songs will still be up, but hidden from my channel. However, I will provide a link at the end of this post to the Spinscythe Unlisted playlist for those still interested in the material. The following songs will be unlisted:

• Sir Kibble + Dark Matter
• Legend of the Cray
• Bobcat Swordsman
• Bitch At The Bank
• George Live
• Boss Battle
• Getting by with Thievery
• A Man Lives and Throws His Life Away

Other material on SoundCloud will be outright deleted. My reasons for this is that several of the songs were exported with no processing and rushed to upload. Part of what I want to change about my uploads is that I want to spend much more time processing, mixing, and adjusting the sound of everything so that it sounds more pleasing to the ear. These songs will make it back onto SoundCloud and even YouTube, once I spend some time on them:

• Absolute Apex^
• Speakers Testing
• Lydia Locria*
• Sir Kibble Plus Dark Matter^
• Flying Tiger's Dream (both versions)*
• The Wind Crescent
• Mystic World
• Dinosaur Science

^ = Song will be re-uploaded later on as an organic (guitar-based) song.
* = Song will be re-uploaded later on as a hybrid song.

Another concept I am going to try is hybrid songs. On YouTube, I have separated my uploads as Guitar Work and Synth Work. The former is a compilation of guitar/bass/drum songs (organic instruments with .WAV drum samples), and the latter is a compilation of MIDI compositions (purely computer synth). However, this is somewhat limiting. What I would like to try is putting out material that is blended MIDI and organic, or hybrid songs. I will still make songs that are only guitar-oriented, along with other real life instruments, and I'll still make strict synth-based material, but fusing the two might be interesting and give me some comfort in that all of my music is connected and able to be performed or arranged in various ways. Songs that I haven't taken down or unlisted might be re-posted anyway as hybrid songs in the future.

Music aside, I am also working on Spinscythe.com. It is taking me some time to implement the new layout because I want to be absolutely sure that it is compatible with future additions. Another hold back is the new comic series. I'm working towards getting at least 1 volume per series (there are 3 new series) done before the new layout is even uploaded. There is no reason for this other than personal comfort and challenge; I like having things done in advance for the benefit of creating new content in the process of putting out pre-made content. No one is putting this on me but myself. Also, for these smaller, casual comic series, I'm considering a volume to be 20 comic strips (Warz & Battlez was 100 comic strips per volume). This will make the goal easier and faster to reach. I've already written some scripts for these new comics years ago, so all I have to do is get back into the groove of things, finish writing scripts, design the art, and produce. And in due time, there will be new comic series from Spinscythe Comics.

Speaking of comics, I have one last bit of news. This time pertaining to Warz & Battlez. Looking over the website itself, I want to overhaul it and simplify it as much as possible, taking the logo away completely and turning the focus to the comic strips as much as possible. Nothing else seems necessary to me. The layout of the site will stay mostly the same, with simplified links and better organized content. To me, the way the extra pages are currently is overkill and needs some cleanup ASAP. Also, the comic itself will be revised. Every single comic will be renamed, checked for art/dialogue improvement, and republished on the site itself. I'm not kidding; this needs to be done. The archive for Warz & Battlez is sloppy and unappealing to me now. The content itself was good, in retrospect, but not great. I feel that it can be improved. I don't want to cheat my fans though, so the original comics will be kept up (forever), and all new comics will be uploaded all at once, but published slowly via blog for people new to the series. The old comics at some point will have to be placed in a new archive, though.

Since this has been a long post, I will end it here. There's a lot more to be said, but it can be said in later blog posts. I just wanted to keep myself and my followers in check. There is new music coming, as well as new comics, and more blog posts (on here and my other blogs). Nothing about Spinscythe is going away. I am a bit stressed about my life situation and the pressure I put on myself to accomplish my goals, but playing games on Steam once in a while seems to help take the edge off. That's all for now. Thanks for your patience, everyone.

Spinscythe Unlisted: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uwI_wYS8Wnc&list=PLb3N2tDAxWTg2DR9q8alHwgnH-J_ECa0g