Of Live Shows, Covers, and Chip-Hop

Posted on June 3, 2012 by Tim

Today was another Sunday practice and this time we changed gears just a bit. We had our usual discussion about how to do live shows. The both of us are super excited about being able to start doing those! In fact, we decided we will probably work on songs for our next album really to the point that we can perform them and will likely work on the album recordings thereafter. We thought it would end up making a better album and also allow us to start doing live shows sooner.

On that note, we ended up actually working on some cover songs. We’re not a cover band, but we thought it would be fun to apply our new sound to a few choice songs. Would be fun for live-shows and gives us some good practice time while we work on our live sound. So far we have ideas for two, and will probably add one more. Our main focus, of course, is still our own songs but we are pretty excited about throwing these down from time to time if the moment strikes.

Finally, we did a bit of work on our latest single, which we have release on Soundcloud. We have finished the recording and while we still need to work a bit more on mastering, we opted to release is soon. We were worried it might not be done before our Kickstarter project winds down since we thought it would be fun to include it as an option fans could vote on for on our 7″ single. We will be releasing the finished version for download after Kickstarter completes (successful or otherwise), but for now you can give it a listen here:

[soundcloud url=”http://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/48538904″ iframe=”true” /]

New Single Soon and Kickstarter Updates

Posted on May 29, 2012 by Tim

It has been a while since we updates everyone, which was totally unintentional. The month of May was rather busy outside of Victim Cache for both John and myself. However things have still be progressing and, in fact, we should have a new single out hopefully in a few weeks! It was a song that didn’t quite make Chipsurf Pipeline. We could not really find a direction for it until recently. The direction we took is such that it will stand up pretty well on its own, so we’re rather excited about it!

We are making progress on the new album as well. It is slow but steady. Part of the reason for the speed is also so we can figure out what might work in a live scenario. We very much want to, and are planning for, doing a live shows for songs on the next album. To some degree, it is even driving our creative process a bit (for good or bad). We have had numerous requests for live shows and we have heard our fans loud and clear there. Plus they will be incredibly fun for us too!

Now onto Kickstarter. We have passed the 50% mark and did so about half-way through the project lifetime so that was cool. We reached a bit of a plateau since. Part of this was working with Kickstarter over how to best approach our dub-plate give-away. Turns out what we wanted to do doesn’t exactly match Kickstarter’s suggestions (oops). To keep things simple, we are going to keep things as-is for the current dub-plate (it has already been claimed) but will probably offer up the next one as we were planning. We are still working out those details, though.

Ultimately, the goal of the project is to make a 7″ single or 12″ LP. Based upon our current levels, if we are able to fund the project, it will likely be for a 7″. If you were wanting a 12″, tell you friends as we are going to need more help to get there! Actually, tell your friends anyway because we still could use some help to get the 7″ funded! There is about 19 days left to go and we need to come up with $300 more to make the thing happen.

As we have said, regardless of whether the project funds, we do want to thank our fans for sticking with us and enjoying our music! Your support, be it monetary or otherwise, means the world to us so from the bottom of our hearts, Thank You! Kickstarter aside, good things are coming down the pipeline we think our fans will really really dig and we can’t wait to share these with you!

Two More Incentives for Kickstarter Announced

Posted on May 7, 2012 by Tim

We have decided to add two new rewards for our Kickstarter project of putting Chipsurf Pipeline on vinyl. The first is a tad cheeky. We have posted a one-second clip on SoundCloud of one of the songs off the album as a silly teaser:

We will post the full song on SoundCloud, finished or otherwise, as soon as we reach our minimum goal as thanks for helping to fund this project. Once finished, we will also offer the song for free. Otherwise, folks will have to wait until we finish the songs, or possibly the entire album before getting a chance to hear it.

Second, anyone who pledges $75 or more, gets a copy of our original digital masters and project files for Chipsurf Pipeline in Ableton Live Pack format (in addition to all of the other previous rewards except for the dub-plate). We will also grant permission to use those for non-commercial remixing and derivative works (for commercial works, just talk to us about it) as long as you credit us appropriately. You can also see all the work that went into the masters, how we setup our projects, performed automation, etc. Plus there is content in these that never made it to the album which makes for plenty of Easter Eggs!

We have just passed 40% of our minimum goal (a 7″ single) but could still use more support! So if you know someone that likes vinyl, chip-tunes, or surf, be sure to let them know!

What have we been up to?

Posted on May 2, 2012 by Tim

It’s been a while since we have said too much recently since our first Hackerspace workshop, so I thought I might spend some time talking about that. Much of our time for the band has been spent trying to promote our Kickstarter project to get Chipsurf Pipeline on vinyl.

So far, we are above 25% of our initial goal (a 7″ single). Progress as of late has been a bit slowed so if you wanted pledged your support already and would like to, do so before you forget! If no one pledges, the project doesn’t fund, so if you want to participate, get it soon. Remember, you don’t have to pay anything until after the project funds!

Beyond Kickstarter, we have been working on a new single. This one won’t likely go on our next album but it’s really turning out to be fun! I don’t want to give away all the details just yet, but we are about 75% finished with it or so. We also have been looking at logistics for doing live shows (for the next album) and doing (albeit slow) work on our next album.

So things are progressing. We both wish they were faster, but they are at a reasonable pace and, either way, progress is progress!

Hackerspace Workshop #1 Complete

Posted on April 21, 2012 by Tim

Today we gave our first workshop at SA Hackerspace (10BitWorks) to a pretty good turnout. It was largely over making music using FamiTracker and the NES audio capabilities in general. Though a few things could have gone better (I think the hands on bits could have used more structure), I think it went well. We seem to have turned a couple of people into Chiptune monsters, which is awesome!

Slides (in PDF Format) are available here for those that could not make it. Video was taken as well but it’s a large amount of video that may take a while to edit (and I am not yet sure how it turned out) so that may take some time to post.

In any event, we had a blast and, if there is enough interest, we definitely look forward to doing more! I suspect the next workshops will be more hands-on with the hardware. That was something we wanted to do initially but thought it best to be a bit more conservative since cost was a concern without knowing what people might think of the material. There is plenty of ways to go though and we would be glad to share our knowledge with anyone that is interested!

A big thanks to 10BitWorks for the opportunity! Also thanks to Mike P. who approached us initially and helped drive this to fruition!

P.S. Don’t forget about our Kickstarter project!