The Next Step

(artwork by Lisa Freeze)

As the project was drawing to a close and I had more and more songs to work with, I toyed with the idea of producing a cd and playing in a show to promote it. Then I chickened out. Then I thought about giving all proceeds (not just net profit) to a local charity. Then I chickened out again. Then I told the fine folks at the middle audio forums my plans; a little bit of encouragement goes a long way, and here we are!

Above, you can see that I'm showing off some preliminary album artwork by Lisa Freeze. Because I think it's awesome. Saturday, February 20th - 52 days from this, New Year's Eve 2009 - will mark the release of a cd with all 52 tracks on it. Here are some reasons to buy it, even if you've already heard every song on the site here:

- It will only cost you $5.20 - that's only 10 cents a song! (In today's downloady age, if you're willing to pay $1 for a song that you like, and there's 52 songs on this cd, the odds are in your favour of getting yourself a bargain!)

- the entire $5.20 of your money will be donated to the Saint John Animal Rescue League. Any supplies and materials to make the cd, come out of my own pocket.

- There will be a new track order, to capitalize on the strengths and weaknesses of certain songs (they'll still be named so that you can rearrange and play them in chronological order, if you're into that).

- a few tracks will be cleaned up (as much as I want to leave all my mistakes in, there are a few tracks that have static going through them that shouldn't; the only reason it's in there at all was because I didn't find the master faders in my software until late in the project...if it's such a quick and simple fix, I feel like I can get away with it).

- in addition to the hand-made packaging, your cd will be one in a limited run of only 52; I'll be displaying a checklist of numbers that have already been claimed by people. Email me in advance (chrisleblanc79 at gmail) if you'd like to claim one for February 20th!

To help promote the cd and get the word out there (because I seriously don't want to be left with a pile of 40 or 50 cds burning a hole in my self-esteem!), Dan Chamberlain is helping me to set up a show at Sunstar Lounge, Saturday night, February 20th. I'll be providing more details as they become finalized, but it's shaping up to look like a solo electronic showcase, if that's something that interests you! And if it doesn't: c'mon out anyway. C'mon, it'll be fun!

Anyway: keep watching this space for more details as they become available. I also still plan on posting a few articles here about what I thought of the project, some thanks, and some spotlights on other people out there that have done the '52' thing before.