12 EPs in 12 Months : A Toehider project

Salty's 12in12 Wrap Up!

Sat, 17 Apr 2010 12:43:12 -0700

OK so it's time for my 12in12 wrap up blog. It took me a little while to get to it, but i'm gettin' to it!

So let me start of by saying that this project wouldn't have been at all possible without a few things. One, obviously, was me. The second, less obviously, was the fact that there are 12 months in a year, which luckilly went hand in hand with the fact we were going to do 12 EPs. It also wouldn't have been possible without everyone who got on board and bought the releases each month and supported it so well. Oh yeah, and some dude wrote a bunch of music. I think his name is Mark Miles or something.

Of course, I'm just screwing around. Without Mike Mills this thing would never have gotten off the ground and I'm not ashamed to say that I've never ever in my creative life worked with anyone who is not only creative in his own right, but also constantly inspires creativity in me. There were so many times throughout the process that we'd basically just jam ideas off each other which would lead to an idea for either artwork or a song and we'd go from there. The very first Toehider track, the self-titled "Toe Hider" was actually writtin in short bursts. Mike would record a few bars or a section, send it to me, I'd do some sketches based on where the idea was going, send them to him, and he'd then write as the sketches took his ideas other places. It was an awesome way of working and sort of what sparked this whole thing off. I also found in Mike someone who like me was tired of how things are in the music industry right now, but is just as slack as me about doing anything to change it. So we come up with this idea of releasing all of this music completely digitally, on a "pay if you like it" basis and allowing everyone to listen to it in full online as much as they like. It was never REALLY about making huge wads of money (it so was) but about doing something different and trying to show that it can work!

So a super massive thanks has to go to Mike for being such an easy and inspiring dude to work with. Lets do more of it.

Anyway, so this is where I get to wrap up the project in 12 points.

1. I absolutely SUCK at time management. I think at least 9 of the 12 EPs I did the cover art for in the last 48 hours leading up to the release. Some with even less time. The extra artwork that they all include was done usually on the same sort of basis.

2. The funnest cover to create for me I think was 9. We set up a table covered in white paper and just went nuts with Froot Loops and milk. I set up all of my camera gear including two flashes, a softbox, remote flash triggers and remote shutter release and took photo after photo of a lightbulb dropping in the bowl of cereal. Or lightbulbs floating in cereal. Or lightbulbs laying on cereal and pouring milk over them. It was AWESOME.

3. The cover I don't really feel completely happy with would probably be In All Honesty. I wanted to do something that looked really generic and mass manufactured, and while it does look pretty bland and generic, I don't think it really come off as well as I hoped. If I could re-do that cover, I'd probably make it a photo cover and do a shoot with Mike and possibly the band and give it that real cheesy airbrushed pop supergroup angle.

4. Of all of the extra artwork, my favourites are probably the poster from one of the last ones…where Toehead is sitting on a floating chair looking at a fish and the TONAN comic. That Tonan one was a lot of fun. I'm also partial to the last comic too.

5. My least favourite extra artwork is probably the grow-a-toe thing from Old, Old, Old. I was really hard pushed to come up with something for that, so went with the old 70s comic ad type dealo. I probably should FEEL the worst about the comic from In All Honesty seeing as it was a complete cop out and just a stick figure thing I drew in literally 45 seconds, but that was the vibe we were on with that EP so I quite like it haha! I didn't do extra artwork for Do You Believe in Monsters…because…err…a monster ate it?

6. I think my favourite of the EPs is probably a four way tie between Children of the Sun, Toehider Too, In All Honesty and Not Much of a Man.

7. My least favourite, though not because I don't like it, but purely because it's a different listening experience, so I usually skip it if I'm just listening to music is How Counterquistle Lost His Pyjamas. It's a great EP, just always throws me out of my musical odyssey space when I'm listening on random.

8. I did a lot of the artwork for this project sitting at my desk at work. Woops, there goes my productivity!

9. Two EPs had their covers changed right at the last minute. These were Metaltarsus and Done and Dusted. I blogged about Metaltaarsus and how I did it and hated it and was then going to just use a black album cover as a joke, but then managed to fix what I didn't like about the digital painting. It ended up being a smash with the fans! The Done and Dusted cover existed as a sketch, and then when I started actually working on it I discovered that it SUCKED and I couldn't get it working the way I wanted it to. So the cover that I ended up going with, with the broom and mouse etc was a last minute thing done at 3am the night before release jamming ideas back and forth with Mike on Skype. Ah deadlines, how you rule.

10. I was lucky enough to play on one of the tracks from Under The Mistletoe! If you haven't heard it or didn't know, in the track Dear Santa there is a keyboard solo right before the song breaks down at the end. I recorded it on my Moog Little Phatty Stage II. It was great to be part of the other side of the project shortly.

Check it out here - http://www.reverbnation.com/play_now/song_3019372

11. I used the following techniques and tools for the artwork throughout the project - Pencil and pen on paper drawing (biro, felt tip, clutch pencil), full digital illustration (Intuos 4 and Photoshop), digital painting (same as previous), digital photography, digital collage and in some cases a mixture of all of those!

12. This is point 12. Give me a break alright! 12 is a lot of shit to come up with.

So there we have it. We did a project that took us a whole year. At some points we thought it'd kill us, at others we rode a wave of total exhilleration and enjoyment in what we were doing.

Would I do it again? Hell yeah! But probably not right away.

I hope you enjoyed it, it was a hell of a ride. Again massive thanks to Mike for being such a champion. Special thanks also need to go to Amy, Lachlan and Richie who are the Toehider live band. Those guys have done a great job at taking the craziness of Mike's music and making it happen on the stage.

12 things about the 12 EPs in 12 months.

Tue, 13 Apr 2010 12:32:07 -0700

It would be stupid and lame for me to claim that everything this past year is golden and awesome, but what I will say at least, is that everything felt right at the time. Have you ever said something you regretted? haha, nah me neither.

12 facts about 12 EPs in 12 months -

The "12 EPs in 12 months" occupies 67.4 GB of my hard drive. Which I guess is roughly 1 GB per song.
The website stats tell me that 'popularity' peaked around November/December, when Australian Idol host Andrew Gunsberg started tweeting about it. That dude is seriously the most badass guy on Australian television.
My favourite song is probably still "I Must Say Yes" or "Under the Mistletoe". My least favourite is "Give Myself to Science". That song is a load of rubbish, that's the only time when I didn't feel right about releasing a song.
I still have loads of song ideas laying around, but most of them probably aren't worth persuing.
Shortest song is 'Jem and the Holograms' at 0:42, the longest, obviously "Done and Dusted" at 18:59.
The honest truth is that I was going to give the Christmas album away for free anyway, but as it turned out I was sick as a dog, at one point losing my voice completely, and I didn't have it done by the 12th. This fact bums me out like you wouldn't believe, and acted like an arsehole on the night of the Espy gig (which was on the 12th of December). I'd like to apologise to Lachlan, Amy and Ricky, and all those that were in attendance for being such a diva that night.
Excluding the drums for "Old, Old, Old" and 'Done and Dusted", the guitars for "Not Much of a Man" and Lachlan's solos for "...But Mostly Metal" and "Done and Dusted", the whole thing was recorded in this mess -

the "studio".
I electronically tuned my voice to save time on a few occasions. Yeah, I know, I know. Specifically, those songs were - one note of "Now Fly Away", "So Goddamn Alive" (which I wanted that T-Pain effect anyway), the first verse of "I Kill Me", "I Don't Really Know You That Well Yet", and a small portion of "Malcolm, Dust 'em".
My favourite of Salty's artwork are "Metaltarsus" and "9". My least favourite is probably "In All Honesty". My favourite of the comic pieces are the "Toemaster 5000" and "Tonan the Barbarian", my least favourite is the comic from "Do You Believe in Monsters?"
The track "..." was used in a short film called "OMG!". The track "Cadenza" was used in a film called "Kerberos".
I haven't yet reached my "hundred vocal overdubs!" goal. I will. Someday.
I usually have to get Lachlan to re-teach me my songs for when we play them live, I have a terrible memory for this stuff.

Ok gold star if you could actually be bothered to read all that haha.

DONE AND DUSTED!

Mon, 12 Apr 2010 14:14:41 -0700

So that's it then.

The last EP is actually just one long song, and because I'm an annoying bastard, I decided not to break it up into little sections. So, at this time, it's not available for streaming on the site. Actually that was another reason, if I were to break it up, you'd have the tiny pauses when the next track would start buffering, and I HATE that.

So if you want to hear it, I guess you'll either have to buy it, or email me (toehider at toehider dot com) and sweet talk me into sending it to you.

Originally I wanted the last album to have as many musicians on it as possible, but the idea was simply undoable. I write the stuff as I'm recording it, it's extremely tough to write parts, record demos, send it to another musician, have them learn it, schedule a time for them to record their part, etc. I usually write and record in the night time, and everybody has different schedules.... and plus I have TERRIBLE organisational skills. To get it all done in a month was simply impossible.

But, I did manage to get a few amazingly talented people on here, in no particular order;

Amy Campbell (bass)
Lachlan Barclay (impossible guitar)
Talia Browne (percussion)
Pete Marin (drums)

So thanks to everyone for listening! I'd also like to give MAJOR thanks to Andrew Saltmarsh for his amazing art, motivation, and putting up with me changing my mind every 5 minutes!

Slack-a-rooni

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 00:18:58 -0800

So it's pretty obvious that I haven't blogged here in AGES! This isn't because I've had nothing to blog about, it's purely that I'm so horribly disorganised that I usually do most of the art for these EPs at the last minute.

I'd LOOOVE to be able to post works in progress of covers and all that, but generally that all happens within the final 48 hours of the release and there simply isn't time.

So perhaps I need something different to blog about here...or maybe I can use this space to post random other bits of Toehider art that I do.

That sounds like it could be a plan. From now on any odds and ends that I draw or create that is at all related to Toehider, be it for future things, random shit I do just for my own enjoyment or things with an immediate purpose, I'll post it here.

As long as Mike says it's ok.

#9

Tue, 12 Jan 2010 09:19:07 -0800

Thanks for listening.

Dear Santa....

Wed, 23 Dec 2009 20:47:59 -0800

(Concerning a child that starts to doubt that Santa Claus is real.)

Dear Santa,

All I want this year is to be sure once and for all, I really need for you to tell me what's your deal?
I've heard some of the older ones, they laugh about you, saying you're not real...
Now I'm much too old for fairy tales and magic lands and other nonsense that I used to read of in my youth
Dear Santa, All I want for Christmas is the truth!

They say you're imaginary
Have I no reason to believe.
The old ones at school?

How can I believe what I've been told?
I'm no longer 4 years old
And I'm not a fool
How can I believe in you?

Dear Santa,

You mean to tell me that these past 8 years are nothing but an elaborate fabricated lie?
How come when I was 6 I swear I saw you wave and blaze across the sky?
And then last Christmas Eve, I'm sure I saw your wooly sleeve and heard the ringing of your bells all down the hall
I'm scared that if I don't believe, then you won't come at all...

Some is for, and some against.
These books aren't making any sense
They just fill this shelf.

And this, my mother said to me
"Is He real or fantasy?
Decide for yourself.
He's true if you think that he's true"
Then I'll still believe in you.

(Keyboard solo by Andrew "Salty" Saltmarsh!!)

Two for the price of one. (Price of one=free)

Fri, 18 Dec 2009 21:33:58 -0800

Here is two interpretations of the same piece.

'Carol of the Bells' by Mykola Dmytrovych is easily the most supreme Christmas Carol known to man, I've heard so many times over the years, but I didn't realize its full potential until Salty suggested I cover it.

And I've got to say it's one of the more challenging things I've done vocally. First of all, the soprano part has virtually no room for breath, and second, it's really bloody hard to actually sing words up that high, as opposed to just going "Waahhhhh!!!" Third, I really went nuts trying to get a full "choir" sound, I think it's about 30 or 40 vocal overdubs.

I couldn't resist trying it out in a hard rock style. It's how I'm made. So I guess it made sense just to put both versions out.

I Tried to be Good.

Wed, 16 Dec 2009 20:55:19 -0800

(concerning a young lad who was certain he got away with being naughty, until his good mother reminded him that the big man sees all this time of year...)

I don't know what came over me, I can't explain
My baby brother sat there, and he took the blame.
I thought I got away with it, I thought I had I had it pinned
But mother said his helpers saw the whole thing

I tried to be good, I tried to behave
The devil on my shoulder, led me astray
Will he still come for me, will he still spread his cheer
If I make a promise to try harder next year?

So I've been sent to my room, with not much to say
Would it be easier if I just ran away?
I guess the writing's on the wall now, and it won't come clean.
And I guess that the big man knows everything....

I tried to be good, I tried to behave
The devil on my shoulder, led me astray
Will he still come for me, will he still spread his cheer
If I make a promise to try harder next year?

And I'm scared I've scarred my soul
And I'm scared of being told
And I'm scared of unwrapping coal.

Mon, 14 Dec 2009 19:41:48 -0800

(Concerning an old witch, of whom cannot wait to get her awful children to bed so she can lure a certain creature out of hiding to come spend some quality Christmastime with her.)

Ding Dong Merrily on high, such a loverly and funny fun time of year!
Santa's singing on his Sleigh, I can hear him come to spread his Christmas cheer!
But far beyond the clouds and forest trees there sits a creature shrugged and looking rather grim.
But I'll be waiting here under the mistletoe for him...

Off-key caroling, roll out the barrel and the boys begin to shout
Festive pestering, ingestive festering's what Christmas is all about!
But ahh! alas there's one particular person who is missing out on all of this excess!
But I'll be waiting here, under the mistletoe...unless...

Socks and slippers on, it's after 6 o'clock so hurry up my pets, inside, inside!
Time for medicine, no need to fuss, just single file! And open WIIIDDDEE
And way beyond the frosty mountaintops you mope and hope for something triple-fun to do...
But I'll be barefoot, waiting here under the mistletoe for you.

Now I'm growing old and wiser, and it's Christmas after all, you know.
So there'll be no more shying from the moonlight, love, or hiding from the Mistletoe...

Goodnight girls and boys, blow out your candles, sleep tight this Christmas Eve!
Stop your rot, to sleep! Can't wait to cop what old St. Nick has up his sleeve!
Ahh and when the sun is done and sets itself beyond the line where sky and mountaintop unite
I'll be wishing you under the mistletoe,
I'll missing you under the mistletoe
I'll be kissing you under your mistletoe tonight...

Under the Mistletoe!

Sat, 12 Dec 2009 11:32:36 -0800

You lucky boys and girls.

Over the next dozen or so days, the new Toehider EP "Under the Mistletoe" will be released for free, a track at a time. Up there in the Santa-hat-wearing-question-mark button, there's a link inside for the first tune - "Ding Dong Merrily on High". Every two days, the tracklisting will eventually turn to download links. Plus, links to awesome pieces of Salty artwork will magically appear as well! It's like an awesome advent-mp3-calendar!

In a time when your letterbox gets stuffed with lousy money-grabbing scrooges guilt tripping you into spending a fortune on all sorts of unnecessary crap, I thought it'd be cool to spread the good ol' fashioned Christmas cheer, one song at a time!!!

Happy Holidays people!