Synoiz Music Blog
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.
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 7th June 2009
Hello there everyone,
I've been pretty rubbish with blogging lately, I used to bother everyone at least once a week but lately not so much. Things are stressful but wonderful for me at the moment, the other week myself and Kirsty (of forthcoming sideproject Siren) wrote the press release for the "Long Lost..." single, they're basically what you give to record labels/shops to describe your release. It was horrible having to think of ways to big myself up! Then again if it was up to self-defeatist old me I'd probably write like:
"Long Lost... is the debut single from pretty much unknown stumbling-in-the-dark strategist Synoiz. We're not expecting it to do very well but give it a listen and possibly buy it"
Apparently this is not what marketing is about.
You can read the final press release we wrote on the Last.fm page for Long Lost... (you can also listen to the full tracks off the release)
Long Lost... on Last FM
Long Lost... Video Shoot
At the moment I am sitting in the garden with my housemate Agata enjoying the first day off I've had in like 2 weeks. For the past three days myself and director Ian Lawlor, co-director Mark Liddle and wonderful extra Phil Heckles have been filming the video for "Long Lost..." (very small crew I know but the video is rather minimal and since it's all in daylight we thankfully don't need lighting rigs).
Tomorrow will be the last day of filming and we'll be down in Seaburn, we need to use the pier and it's been too stormy these past few days to film safely there. Thankfully I've managed to speak with the pier authorities and they're gonna open it up for us tomorrow morning and allow us to get our shots in, I think we'll be under supervision but who cares lol.
You can watch my latest VBlog (filmed on the way home from shooting on Saturday) on YouTube by clicking here.
Agata and the carrot cake
In other news I introduced Agata (natively from Poland if that makes a difference) to carrot cake. She thought I was joking to start with "A cake with carrot? Is it not sweet?" so I went off and bought some for her and before I could blink she'd decided they were the nicest thing in the world and munched like the packet!
Then she went on a big guilt trip and so we went down to the 24/7 garage to buy some more cakes (Although I think she had another agenda other than apology as the cakes are already disappearing fast...), so we're in the garden next to the fire with tea and cakes. This is how all days off should be :D
There will be more news soon about the Long Lost... single. It should appear in a few online shops on the 15th of June (next monday) however the OFFICIAL (ie it is when I say it is) release date from me may be the week after. This is due to a cock-up on my part not realising that iTunes takes forever to process new releases.
Posted 27th May 2009
Hello everyone, today we're re-shooting the video for my first single from "Ambients", "Long Lost...". We're doing this because a) we didn't like the original footage as it was a bit naff, and b) we had a much better idea for the video after filming for the third single.
I've woken up ill today which isn't a good start but hopefully I can grab a lemsip and hot bath and manage to hide it from the camera! We'll be doing the shooting at both Seaburn in Sunderland and Tynemouth in Newcastle although sadly we're not in need of any extras :( boo video concept!
Important change to single release
Now this is where you're going to kill me. I know in previous blogs, vblogs etc I've stated that "Long Lost..." will be free to download, however this is no longer the case.
Due to a worry I had regarding which distributor to use to get the album "Ambients" on iTunes and Amazon, I have decided to test-the-waters with the single and have submitted that to be digitally available. This means that to download the 3-track "Long Lost..." single will cost you like £1.50 or such which, while not free, is still a tasty deal.
Plus I'm trying to work out a way of offering a free bonus track to people who can prove their purchase just to show that I'm not focussed on the bling.
I just didn't want to throw the album at iTunes and then learn that they now own all the rights and profits to it because I missed some small print somewhere!
Anyway it's bath time now, wish me luck today,
Hope you're all doing great!!!
P.S Pray for rain and stormy skies for us today if you can, we need gloomy cloud shots and so I'm scared we'll have another perfect sunny day like yesterday!
Posted 15th May 2009
(This was written on Friday on the bus but I haven't had time to upload it until now!)
On the bus to London at the moment, I was kinda dreading it as usually coach trips are agony but thankfully I've got a bit of leg/laptop room and there's no screaming children apparent (seriously though, why would you take your newborn on a 7 hour coach journey? I always wonder about the logic there, maybe they're all masochists...)
Things have been weird for the past two or so weeks and I just haven't stopped. I've been so busy with my music, my job and helping people out that I have had no time for sleep, been scraping by on 4 hours sleep and then getting up for the 9-5 for 4 days of the week. Last night I was up till about 1am finalising a version of "Ambients" to give to the lovely Rob of Temposhark when I get to meet him this weekend. They're filming the music video for their new single "The World Does Not Revolve Around You" on Saturday and I'm lucky enough to be one of the many extras on it. I'll probably be tweeting all about it so if you don't already you can follow me on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/synoiz
I'm glad the Temposhark thing came up though as it means I get to catch up with all my London mates while I'm down there, I haven't seen Mark in yages and apparently he's finished his first novel finally. We'd always been bouncing stories off each other for years but he's the only one to actually knuckle down and complete a novel. I got like 200 pages into mine and then realised it was unfollowable dirge lol.
Also as people from Twitter will know I've become a bit of an eBay-aholic this past week, yesterday I bought a Sony digital camera for only £65 and the phone I've wanted for ages, the HTC G1 for just £108. It's hardly breaking the bank like but it's nice for me to stop being frugal for a bit, although I should be saving for getting the physical copies of "Ambients" printed!
Err... what else... oh yeah. A rather downbeat new VBlog is available on YouTube if you want to check it out: Synoiz on YouTube filmed after spending two days mastering the album in Edinburgh and realising I wasn't sure about any of it.
Oh yeah, watch this space too as I was helping a friend out with his final year uni art project for photography on Wednesday (how strange to think that this time last year I wrote the "Chernobyl" OST for another friend for exactly the same exhibition!) and we ended up taking some Synoiz promo shots. All I'm going to say is that they're both beautiful and horrible. We were on an old spot of wasteland if that gives you an idea what to expect. I doubt they're gonna sell any albums but I loved what I saw on his little camera screen thing.
Hope you're all doing well, thanks for reading this!
