So Much to Do and So Little Time.

Hello again. Hope you got out and enjoyed this beautiful East Coast Saturday. I stayed in doing what I love, working.

As stated in the previous blog, I am working on a scene from Mattson Tomlin's 'Early Retirement'. A clip of which can be seen on Mattson's YouTube channel.

While I did not get to add the muzzle flashes and debris, I was entrusted with the far more meatier task of creating elements and implementing them into scenes that have already been shot.

In the opening of this clip I added blood spewing out of a throat being slit and created a banner and added one of the many blood splatters that will adorn the room.

Here are the before and after shots.
NOTE: This is still a work in progress and the fine tuning has not been done just yet.

Before



After


So, the next few days will be spent extracting the actor from all the shots for this scene and making sure that my motion tracking is dead spot on to anchor my incorporated elements to.

Mat; if you read this...thanks. As tedious a task as it may seem, I am loving every minute of it.

Holler out to SpidVid for bringing us together to collaborate on this.

Meanwhile: I just finished the lyrics for 'Sick God' which is meeting with the usual mixed reaction as I try and get approval from the remaining band members. I really consider this to be a Group of Deviants song, but have no problem claiming it for my own if people feel like they don't want to be on it. The music production will commence again after I complete the task at hand for Mattson.

Everyone enjoy your Sunday and look for more news soon.

Cheers all!

Fabulous, Fabulous Fallout!!!

Hello again and I hope you are enjoying this Saturday afternoon.

I am dealing with some awesome fallout from the Yoko Ono video and just thought I would share, despite me giving this blog the premature nomenclature of 'music blog'.

I am gearing up to start working on some fx fine tuning for a short film by Mattson Tomlin called 'Early Retirement'.

Mattson has been the buzz on the Internet for a number of reasons including his creative use of the 'social media' to raise funds and talents to complete his projects. After reviewing some of his work, I have to say I am very excited about the prospect of being on board. The guy really knows what he's doing, wants, needs and how to go about making it happen. My role in this production is to add muzzle flashes, debris and other fun stuff.

We met through a site named SpidVid created by Jeremy Campbell.

You can see my profile there by clicking here. It is a site for the creative of all types of media to meet and offer up ideas and talents to help each others' projects come to life. It seems to be a much more pleasant and constructive site than others that claim to cater to the same ideals, but I am not going to name any specifically.

So, anyone reading this should go check out the site and give into your muse.

Create a profile and spread the word.

I will write more as the projects progress.

As far as 'Group of Deviants' things are up in the air. One guitarist has disappeared into the mist, despite my warnings the previous year that it was going to happen. One guitarist has no real interest in it and the third is recovering from a leg injury while attempting to be Tony Hawk. So it is looking like Pat [a.k.a. Tony Hawk, LOL] and myself may end up putting something together on our own with a bit more of a dedicated crew behind us. The music is still being recorded along with some AJ Evans solo material.

I need to get a manager who will prod me no matter what hurdles are being placed in my path. 25% of everything to any takers??? :)

Til next time....
Cheers!

'The Sun is Down!' The Video by AJ Evans

Well I have finally completed the video to accompany my track 'Yoko Ono Plastic Ono Band The Sun is Down! (The Darkland Sensual Garden Remix)' and I have to say I am truly surprised and excited at the final cut. This is my first time ever doing a real music video or an animated feature or being a director or even going into the video foray. 'My love is Forever' doesn't count. That was me trying to keep something current on the net while I worked out my next plan of action and taught myself After Effects.

There were times and events that almost led to it not being completed. Like two trips to the e.r., the non-use of my right hand for two weeks due to tendinitis and having been bed-ridden the last two weeks due to a bout of pancreatitis that I refuse to give in to. I wanted this project completed at all costs!

I intended to have it uploaded in time for Yoko's birthday, but the pancreatitis made it very difficult to work.

I have a whole new appreciation for the art of animation. I have always been a huge fan from Bugs Bunny to Beavis and Butthead to The Simpsons and South Park. I had no idea what I was about to attempt.

The final product did not stray very far at all from the vision I had when I sat down to start this project. Fortunately, I have years of graphic art behind me to at least aid in getting what I see in my head to the screen. But, editing and syncing and time-stretching and camera directing and lights and just WOW! To come up with 5:07 minutes of animation is time consuming and tedious even if it is a labor of love. Accentuated even more-so if you are a director with a short attention span. That means animate everything and keep the attention of a viewer like me!!!!!!

I have been quite surprised at the response the first minute and a half of the video has received. So, here I sit excited to be able to share my artistic vision with the world at large. Normally when I do any work it is only seen by whomever contracted me for the work and my inner circle as I pass it around for feedback. This is truly the first time I am releasing anything visually artistic to a world that only knows what I sound like, LOL.

I'm happy to bring this project to a successful completion and hope the response to the video as a whole is as good, if not better, than it has been for the New Year's Eve posting of the first minute and a half.

Not sure if anyone ever reads this but:
Shout out to Luke Kurtis! Thanks for the use of your video.
Visit his channel at http://www.youtube/com/user/lukekurtis.

Yoko: Thanks for the great project that helped me find my feet as a director, animator and remix artist and gave me back my music.

Cheers to all and hope you enjoy the video!
AJ

Yoko Ono 'The Sun is Down!' Remix Contest

Hello to all (or none);

December 8th, (yesterday), marked the 29th anniversary of the death of John Lennon and while I usually reserve that day to sit and quietly mourn or get lost in the thoughts of 'what if it never happened' while I listen to Beatles/John Lennon music, (like many others I suppose), this year was unwittingly different.

As it happens, two weeks ago I was cruising the net for some new inspiration to get me through the creative lapse I have been suffering as of late in finishing my own records and decided to see what Yoko Ono was up to, (I do that every so often, being a real fan of hers since I was 5 and being too young to get caught in the blame game drama the rest of the world had been going through with her in regard to John and the Beatles break-up), when I ran across her new track 'The Sun is Down!'. (Mind you, I had just spent the evening doing a South Park style tribute to the controversial 1969 album cover 'Two Virgins' by John Lennon & Yoko Ono).


A few clicks later (on a different site) I had run across a remix contest for that song. My first thought, of course, was "Oh My GOD!". Especially since I had totally missed out contributing my re-mix of 'Walking on Thin Ice' to her in 2003 when they finally respected her work enough to create a re-mix compilation disc.

So, I tried a few attempts, but was not happy with any of them and decided to go back to the task at hand which was finishing up the re-mastered 'Darkland' CD for re-release in 2010. A few days upon the completion of the 'Darkland' CD it was time to finally record 'Darkland', the single which is not on the album. It is a standard tune that was intended in 1995 to bridge the 'Darkland' CD to my more contemporary work. After about 5 attempts at a guitar track, I decided to call it quits for the evening (4am).

The following day I went back in the studio to do more work and remembered the remix contest and the thought occured..."The sun is down in Darkland!". So, I immediately went to work doing what is technically a mash-up, I incorporated two of the three versions of 'Darkland', ('Darkland' the single version and clips from 'Darkland (Seascape)' and started doing my arrangements and mixing. Two days later, (yesterday), after sending the final version, (along with cover art featuring the back cover of 'Darkland' artwork by Bill Brown III), off to the contest, I went to lie down and realised what day it was and that I had just spent December 8th doing exactly what John had been doing on December 8th before he was shot; remixing a Yoko song.

I feel a connection to him, like I have never felt before. I could almost feel him smiling down at me at the irony. I doubt December 8th will feel as dark and dismal to me any longer.

Win or lose, I have gained something no contest could ever give me. Peace.

Thanks John & Yoko!

P.S. I am currently putting a video together for the track for YouTube and it shall be posted here when completed.

Happy Holidays

Tim Curry Fearless/Simplicity

Tim Curry had a short-lived recording career lasting three albums: 'Read My Lips', 'Fearless' and 'Simplicity'. Although I wasn't very fond of 'Read My Lips' I was totally taken with both 'Fearless' & 'Simplicity'. A&M in their infinite wisdom has discontinued all 3 records leaving Tim Curry fans somewhat flat in the digital music age. I have taken vinyl rips from the latter two lp's and digitally remastered them as a favor for my stepfather, Joe Evans, over a year ago. Since then, I have had many requests for the files and am just now getting around to posting them on the web. I would be more than happy to pull them if A&M decides to re-issue his work on CD.


Download Fearless.rar from Uploading.com

Now with the 'Simplicity' album, there were just two spots that I am aware of that the pops couldn't be filtered out completely due to losing part of the track. The rest of the re-master came out beautifully.


Download Simplicity.rar from Uploading.com
Hope you enjoy both downloads as I imagine I cannot be the only one to have been searching for these album collection staples for the past 15 years!

I May Be a Stoner (But, I Ain't Fucking Stupid!) by AJ Evans

Here is the cheesy, trippy Flash video I mentioned in the last posting.

"I May Be a Stoner (But, I Ain't Fucking Stupid!)" 1 year anniversary

"Who'd have thunk it?"

Besides being my late brother Brian's birthday, August 25th marks the 1 year anniversary of the release of "I May Be a Stoner (But, I Ain't Fucking Stupid!)" on iTunes and various other .mp3 sites. To my surprise, it has done really well. What started out to be a test marketer to see if I should continue in my musical endeavors after kicking AIDS' ass, has turned into a beast of its own.

I truly did not expect to get much by way of recognition with this tune. In fact I really thought it'd be shit-canned by most of the Internet stations due to the title and content and would have to rely solely on word-of-mouth. Boy was I ever wrong. This track totally beat out 1998's "I Don't Need This in My Life" in spades.

The cheesy, trippy flash video I made for it to have a YouTube presence has gone totally viral and demographics show it is really popular in Japan and (my personal favorite) Australia.

As far as record sales, at a residual .01 cents per copy sold, if you want to go by dollar amounts it is not that impressive on the whole, but if you were to go by individual sales, I couldn't be more pleased. Hopefully the next record will generate some sincere interest from those closer to me since the success of this record has relied totally on the interest of strangers.

To those who have purchased the record I say Thank-you from the bottom of my icy little heart. To those who haven't, give it a listen. While the video production was cheese, the recording itself is not.

Brian: I miss you. Happy Birthday Bro.

Thanks for reading and cheers!
AJ Evans