Synoiz Music Blog

Posted 12th April 2010

Well it's finally here! The new single from my debut album "Ambients" is now out for the world to hear and download. 

"Ever Emptiness" is a dark brooding cello led piece that builds up slowly into an industrial Nine Inch Nails style peak and decline. It's one of my favourite tracks from the album and it's one where the sentiment strikes much stronger every time I listen. 

It also includes the 10-minute epic B-Side "Silhouettes" which is my attempt at a dark wave film soundtrack, both sinister, uplifting and thrilling over the course of its several movements. 

The single is available from loads of different online stores. The cheapest place to buy it is Amazon (£1.38 / $1.78) and iTunes (£1.18) which is not very much for nearly 14 minutes of music. It would really help me as an independent artist if you bought a copy of the single and left a positive review on any of the stores. 

To find out more and to see a list of other stores that stock the single, check the website by clicking here.

Watch the Ever Emptiness video

If you haven't seen it yet, please check out the official "Ever Emptiness" music video produced by local company 12 Ft Beast Productions. It continues on from the first two music videos and concludes the tale of "the man" against the masked chiaroscuro.

I hope you like what we've achieved here by managing to make something pretty dramatic and suitable for the track with almost no budget and a lot of help from dedicated fans and our friends.

Thank you to everyone who was involved, you can watch the video and see a full credits list on the YouTube by clicking here. 

A Special Message from Synoiz

Also available on the YouTube is a special message from myself mentioning the new single, ways to buy it and a little bit more background info on both the track itself and the exclusive b-side "Silhouettes". You can watch it by clicking here to visit YouTube.

Update on "Darkling EP" for remixers

Thank you to all of the artists who have sent in or are working on remixes for the upcoming Darkling EP. The stuff that I've heard so far is amazing and it's the biggest rush to hear how someone else has changed and reinterpreted a track of yours. I've decided to postpone the deadline. Initially the deadline for submissions was going to be mid-April (around a week from now) but I've realised now that I've gotten into the project deeper and heard the quality of the mixes that are coming through to me, I want to spend a lot more time with this. The EP will be released later on this year however I'd prefer not to rush the last release from my debut album.

At the moment I'm thinking about providing a 10-13 page PDF booklet with full artwork and including short biographies and details of each artist included on the digital release. This way I can allow these people who have been so amazing to me to get just a little bit more promotion and also get to be included alongside some pretty funky artwork.

Because of this there is still time for new artists to apply to appear on the EP, if you like to work on a remix of one of my tracks, please get in contact at remixes@synoiz.net

Posted 24th December 2009

Wow what a time it's been these last few weeks! I've never been so exhausted and rushed off my feet in a long while. A few major things to mention though in case you haven't already heard:

Getting Safer is out now!

That's right my new single "Getting Safer" was released as a 3-track digital download on Saturday the 12th of December. So far it's had a great reception, managing to peak at #16 on the Amazon UK Dance/Electronic chart and #49 on the Indie/Alternative chart. I got very excited to see that people were buying it and enjoying it and so it has kinda made all the hard work seem worth it.
As an independant artist it has been a real struggle getting any kind of attention in the media, whatever image alternative magazines and radio stations present I'm still getting turned away for being a little experimental simply because I don't have vocals or guitars (especially the guitars factor!) and cos I'm not soothing ambience like Enya or Sigor Ros, some alternative media that is.
I would however like to say thank you to both Solipsistic NATION for featuring "Getting Safer" on their latest Twittermix Podcast and the wonderful Olaf from Joint Venture Radio for playing one of the B-Sides "From You" on his show.

If you're wondering how you buy Getting Safer and get access to the single mix and two exclusive B-Sides, simply visit the website I set up here: Getting Safer - The New Single from Synoiz

Official Music Video for Getting Safer by 12 FT Beast Productions

Well it was a lot of hard work and required several days running around in hoodies and masks chasing Alex (then again that's the guys at 12 FT Beast's usual weekend line up) but the official music video for the single is now available to watch below. If you like it please rate it on the YouTube page and leave a comment, it's always nice to get feedback. I like how it has come together considering what little budget we had and the chaos that was the weather during the shoot!

Thank you to all of our wonderful extras and the amazing Alex who plays the lead. You can find a full cast and crew list on the minisite: Getting Safer - The New Single from Synoiz.

Merry Christmas! Have a free track on me

Well that's it from me, probably until the new year when there will be lots more Synoiz news. To say thank you for a wonderful year and to all the new fans who have come about since the release of my singles and album I've made an updated version of my Christmas track "Falling Snow" available. Enjoy it and have a very Merry Christmas from Synoiz!
Download "Falling Snow" a free Christmas track for fans

Synoiz

Posted 15th March 2009

Finally, another blog! And yeah I know I said I'd do one on Thursday night the day after the video shoot but I failed. I can't believe how hectic things have been this past week, I barely got any music done even though I was working on Synoiz stuff all week. Does that make sense? :D

Well basically Wednesday was the day from hell. I got up at 9am (not too bad) and had to go to town to pick up things like razor blades (to get a good shave for the video), to pay my rent and to get additional costumes from Primark for the extras. Sadly for whatever reason I have a £300 withdrawl limit on my account so had to go to the bank specifically and get them to give me money over the counter without my chequebook!

All that went quite well until I tried to drop it all off at Ian's where we were meeting later and he wouldn't get out of bed! So I had to carry 4 heavy bags literally across the city to go home get bathed and shaved and then dash through to Newcastle for hairdressing appointment.

This is where it got worst cos during the train journey all I got was txts or calls with bad news, being told that we had lost one of the cars and so I had to organise some other way to get the extras to the set on time, then being told that the lighting rig and second camera weren't actually working and that it was impossible to get new parts for them that day. I ended up getting quite angry about it all (I mean, there's been two months to just plug the stuff in and go "oh it doesn't work, I'll order some parts in before we have to do the shoot..." rather than checking it on the day of shooting).

Then I got off in Newcastle to find that my order of prop masks had not actually
come in on time and that we had to make do with the masks we had. Finally got to the hairdressers and after 40 minutes walked out with exactly the same haircut (and problems) as I walked in with albeit slightly shinier.

There's a lot more I could rant about as much more stuff went wrong but essentially I think that gives off just how stressful the day was for me.

However, when we finally got to the shoot and I met up with the extras and nattered on with them everything kinda fell away and I started enjoying myself again. Here's a video I took on the set:



Ian Lawlor (director) and Mark Liddle (co-directing) really took the reigns well and just fell into their roles and did a wonderful job (Also kudos to Mark Junkin and my mum for providing lifts at the last minute and for being wonderful).

Sadly we didn't manage to get all the extras scenes done in the one night as we'd hoped so we explained to the guy who owns the location and he has mercifully said he'll give us another few days with the location. All the extras had fun and are going to return back and hopefully we'll have it in the can.

The next bit of shooting is actually tonight, and ironically the electricity and gas have gone off in my house so I am unable to bathe or work on music or anything so am staying at a mate's house until I can get in touch with the landlord... Grrrr. In fact I'm typing this on Mr Macbook while lying on a mattress in their spare room. God it's a classy life lol. Let's hope it goes well again today and we get things sorted. Once again thank you to everyone involved, especially the extras for being so wonderful and patient!

(I have loads more to say but this blog has been long enough, I might try and d =o a VBlog in the future if these get any longer!)

See you all later! :D