Synoiz Music Blog

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 12th July 2009

Hey everyone,
I must warn you there may be more blogs coming atcha like an old woman with a shopping trolley, got a few of them stored up you see. Been amazingly busy lately that I've had no sleep or time to do anything except work for about 2 weeks. Thankfully we're almost finished the video for the 3rd (as yet unannounced) single from "Ambients", last day of shooting will be tomorrow; I'm pretty much done with the music for the Pebbledash game (huzzah) and now it's time to get our moo into gear for the 2nd single "Getting Safer".

Now "Getting Safer" is probably the most commercial song off "Ambients" and I'm sure everyone who has heard promos of the album (or listened to it on this mini-site here: http://ambients.synoiz.net ) knew it would be a single eventually. At the moment we're planning stuff for the music video (I've managed to get my way out of starring in it this time so you'll get someone infinitely better lol) however I need to get the artwork sorted and sent off before we start on the video.

Oh oh oh I'm quite excited about this, I'm not sure if the single will include a remix or not as currently I'm writing two b-sides for the single (both of them are sounding quite strong so far). So if you're interested in doing a remix of the song "Getting Safer" for the single, please send me an email at ambients@synoiz.net

Help me with the artwork for "Getting Safer"
Now the main point of the day, I really can't decide what to do for the artwork for the next single. I was really happy with how the "Long Lost..." art turned out and so I really want to have a each-single-a-different-primary-colour theme. However "Getting Safer" (you can listen to a sampler on the mini site) doesn't really fit any colour that I can think of.
Please click the following link to see a list of options I've created (you can suggest your own) and vote for what you think should be the "Getting Safer" artwork.

Click here to cast your vote for the artwork for "Getting Safer"

Posted 28th June 2009

What? What is theeees? A blog? A BLOG?

Yes, exactly. I've finally forced myself to sit down and update my blog. A lot has happened since last I updated this, I've been ill, I've had the most gluttonous comfort food imaginable, I've played more games of Risk than the mind can handle however (and I can only tell you this aptly with the use of an eyesore) the brilliant news is that

LONG LOST... IS OUT NOW!!!

Oh yes, it finally actually happened! My debut ambient single "Long Lost..." is finally released to the world in its 3-track nothing-really-happens glory. We're still in the process of promoting it at the moment so if this is the first you've heard of it being finished and released then I don't blame you. I've done a really terrible job of organising myself on this but the reason we held off "Getting Safer" as the first single was so we could try our hand at this music video/promotion lark on something smaller first.

That being said though, "Long Lost..." is one of my favourite tracks on the album and I'm so amazed at how well it's turned out. Such a sense of pride seeing it there on Amazon to buy!

You can check out more information on the single as well and the music video itself (as well as a special message from me talking about the song and other random stuff...) on the special "Long Lost..." mini-site that I set up:

What's next?
Well today I've had a rather lazy day, was up till 4am playing Dynasty Warriors with my housemates and bizarrely enough Ian Lawlor, who directed the music video for "Long Lost..." above, it was lots of fun but it makes me think I need to get back into playing computer games. The last one I really made time for was Resident Evil 4 and that was years ago now... wait, Silent Hill Origins too, that was good. Anyway if I ever intend to make a living doing game soundtracks I'm going to have to listen to what everyone else is up to in the industry so more games in the future I think.

At the moment I'm working frantically on the soundtrack for my friend Phil Lutas' puzzle game for the XBox Live Marketplace. It was (if you've heard me mention it before) going to be called "Pebbledash" but apparently they're having to change it now due to similarities between Pebbledash and Boulderdash (considering they're pretty much the same sort of game, fair cop really). Now this is the thing, I NEVER expected this to be so difficult! I've spent so much time on these 5 tracks that I'm beginning to get sick of them lol.

Basically the problem is that every time I tried to make proper music for it the tracks ended up way too dark/dramatic/focal, whereas the game is a very vintage style arcade game for kids so I've had to change my style significantly and dredge up loads of old fashioned vintage synth noises and catchy melodies in order to make music that fits. The hardest part is fitting it to the game (+ sound effects) and listening to it over to see if it gets annoying. I wish I had a playable demo of the game so that I could play it and listen to the music to see if it gets frustrating when the game gets tough...

I'm still not happy with any of it however when finished there will be 6 tracks in total. I've uploaded the three problem children above so you can have a listen to them, please tell me what you think, too vintage? Too boring? Too repetitive?

Hope you're all doing well, please help me out by checking out the single and buying it from Amazon.
Graeme x

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!