I’m on the train back home to Berlin. It’s still dark outside as I’m writing this on my iPad. I’m not a fan of new year’s resolutions because most of the time you end up giving up trying after a couple of weeks. Yet, this time I’ve got one. One I’m intending to stick with because it’s nothing to do with the new year, but with a necessity.
I’ve actually sat down and made a yearly plan. I want to release an EP and an album. Considering that I already work part time in tech support at Ableton and how many things an independent musician has to do these days… I dearly need a plan or I’ll forget stuff or don’t manage deadlines. And I want to do it right.
I’ve been looking into different project management softwares, but they all seem to lack one thing or another. I tried iProcrastinate, but it gets cluttered too fast and lacks an overview. Projector looked the most promising, but there’s no recurring tasks available. So Wunderlist will have to be my guide in keeping all the small pieces of the puzzle held firmly together.
I must admit that seeing all the work laid out in front of me was pretty daunting at first. Yet I know not planning ahead doesn’t work too well. The toughest part is keeping the rule of scheduling things in a way that you only plan out 50% of the time as there’s always unexpected extra things to take care of or things simply take longer. I always have so many ideas I want to get done as much as possible and end up overwhelmed or overworked.
So Janunary is the test month where I’ll see how good I’m planning things timewise. It will serve as the blueprint for the other months. The most important thing with it is to be honest. To admit that if I tried to achieve too much in too little time I need to make adjustments.
You might have read my tweets when I prepared for my gig at the watertower in Bernau and wondered why on earth I would spend so much time sorting out the live setup, troubleshooting and rehearsing for one single concert. No one can have sooo much stage fright! Nope, but it wasn’t just another performance. It was my longest one so far. 14 songs so over 90 minutes. My parents saw me perform solo for the first time. And last, but definitely not least, it was to be recorded and filmed with 4 cameras. I also set up everything so I could record the songs internally for better sound quality. Unfortunately I forgot to hit record on the last 3 songs so I’ve made a live recording of them in my living room/studio, dubbed The Ivory Tower Sessions (which I may continue in the future in some way or another).
I didn’t want to announce the plans beforehand because surprises are nice, I was afraid if I did I would jinx it and things would go wrong and the pressure was on enough. Now that things went well – very dramatic drum roll -:
The audio download of the gig will be released soon (mid July, TBC) including 4 videos (In Unison, Zero Tolerance, The Tide & A Little) and a booklet. 50% of the proceeds will go directly to the charity Father’s House that helps underprivileged children in Berlin.
When Ruben, a friend, who works for this charity heard about the upcoming concert in this unusual location (a watertower) he suggested the live recording in cooperation with Father’s House. The gig was on May 27 – exactly half a year after the release of Minutia. Everything seemed so neat and fell into place so easily… who could say no?!
I’m currently in the process of mixing and mastering the live concert. Just now I got back from going through the videos of the 4 songs with Tom who did not only do the shoot at the watertower he is the one who made the fantastic dumentary “Letztes Jahr im Sommer” (Last Year in Summer) of OMP, the band I’m part of as well. The videos are gonna look great. One camera angle is a slanted view from above showing an overview of my gadgets.
Photo by Oliver Köhler
The set list on May, 27 at the watertower Bernau:
In Unison
Unspoken
Zero Tolerance
Paperheart
Euphoria
The Tide
Stealthy
Hearts First
A Little
Breathing Underwater
Moody
Scaredy Cat’s Lullaby
Unknown Territory
Webs
Since a lot of you seem to have questions about the special edition etc. here’s all explained in detail. Also check out the Making of the Special Edition if you want to see pictures (will blog after sleep).
When ordering a CD from my webshop you’ll get a free download that includes the album and a 17 page digital booklet so you might have to wait a bit for the CD but not the music. If you only want to get the album as a download check out my webshop as well.
Standard Edition 10€
Digipak / free download of the album / 17 page digital booklet with lyrics / first 100 signed
Special Edition 25€
12 instrumental versions as a high quality download / custom cut carton digipak / three-colour handmade screen-print / printed and bound booklet with full lyrics / limited run of 100 handnumbered copies / signed with dedication as desired /free download of the album / 17 page digital booklet with lyrics
I’ve tried testing it, but I can’t buy my own album from the same account. If there are any glitches I apologise. Contact me at info (a) madeleinebloom (dot)com and we’ll sort things out. So far it seems you have to pay shipping twice if you wanted to buy both editions. This is not supposed to be this way and I’ve written to bandcamp about the issue. If that happens I’ll have to send you the money back somehow. In case there is a field for comments please state who you want the dedication to be for if you’ve ordered a special edition. Otherwise send me an email with it stating also your full name so I can match it up with the order.
The countdown is running. Just a couple more days. This Friday, November 27, my debut album will finally be out. It’s been quite a journey and in a way it’s just the beginning. You’d probably like to listen the album right now and not wait any longer. So here it is:
