Synoiz Music Blog
Synoiz music blog.
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Posted 21st June 2010
Download the debut 3-track single for FREE one day only
Can you believe it's already been a year since the first Synoiz release? Long Lost... the debut single, came out officially on June 22nd 2009. To celebrate we're offering you the chance to download the 3-track single for absolutely free (regular direct price £1.30, original retail price £2.37) for one day only. Get your copy for free between 00:00 GMT and 23:59 GMT this Tuesday the 22nd.
Help celebrate the anniversary of Long Lost... by watching the official music video and downloading the single.
Synoiz on the front page of Stereofame
Also as a nice little touch, this Monday the 21st, Synoiz will be mentioned on the home page of major music website Stereofame. A nice little honour and hopefully it'll draw a little more interest to the music and get a few new fans onboard.
Getting Safer (Behind The Scenes)
We were clearing through some old files and videos the other day and found lots of random camera vids that were taken on both the music video sets of first single "Long Lost..." and second single "Getting Safer". For a bit of a laugh we've uploaded one of these which you can view by clicking here. There's a few more so subscribe to the Synoiz channel to be updated when there's a new one available.
There's a lot more Synoiz news to mention so expect a few more newsletters in the coming days containing information on the progress of the Darkling EP, the next Synoiz album as well as the Kirsty project.
Thanks for being onboard with Synoiz.
Posted 13th May 2010
Is it May already? Crikey, that means it's nearly a year since myself and the guys at 12 FT Beast Productions were rushing around getting things sorted for the Long Lost... music video. Feels like yesterday that I was standing on that pier holding onto my hat for dear life.
Things are going well for me at the moment and thank you to everyone who bought a copy of my latest single Ever Emptiness it did so much better than I expected!
Thanks especially to Ragnarok Radio for inviting me on their show for a chat and for playing the single. Also thanks to Olaf at Joint Venture Radio for premiering the 10-minute B-Side Silhouettes on his excellent Waverider show.
Ambients Re-Release - 21st May
Big news however is that next Friday (the 21st of May) will see a re-release of my debut album Ambients with the price tag I always wanted.
The album will be available from the official Synoiz store on BandCamp along with each of the three singles for much cheaper than on Amazon and iTunes. Depending on where you are in the world, the full 14-track MP3 album will be available with a free PDF artwork booklet for the following prices:
United Kingdom | £3.00 |
---|---|
Rest Of Europe | €3.50 |
USA & Canada | $4.50 |
Got a site/blog? Want to help me out with promotion?
I'm rushing around trying to get a website and digital press copies sorted out. It would really be a help if anyone who has a blog or a website could mention the album when it comes out, I'll be posting a few banners to put on your site sometime over the next week. There -may- be an exclusive track in it for you but then again that would be bribery wouldn't it?
Thoughts on the British General Election
It's been a rather exciting two weeks here in England as the general election has ended crazily. I am a die-hard supporter of the Liberal Democrats and while I was very disappointed at the very few seats they managed to win, I'm choosing to be optimistic about the Tory-Liberal coalition that we've ended up with. This sounds bizarre but what I wanted from the election was a change, something new rather than the same old blue or red toss up and landslide Tory victory that I was dreading, this coalition is something we have never seen before in England and with both Nick Clegg as deputy PM and Vince Cable in the cabinet this looks like the finest moment the Liberal Democrats will be having for a while. None of us liberals wanted to see a Tory as PM but perhaps this could work.
Hope you're all well, roll on summer!
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!
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