Brandon Strader Posted May 9, 2011 Share Posted May 9, 2011 Hi! Always Remember is my second acoustic album. It took quite a long time to finish. I'm not exactly sure of the total time it took, but I know we missed at least two potential Christmas releases. Anyway, the album took a super long time to finish and was an emotional rollercoaster. It means a lot to me to be releasing this album. It is dedicated to the memory of lost loved ones, and you may find that some of the album sounds pretty sad. Two Versions! The digital version has a Dan Swano cover (Add Reality) and something hidden. The physical CD has In Perpetual Thought, a strangely unique, somewhat orchestrated instrumental piece. All funds will go to covering the cost of printing the physical CD Trailer: Stream / Download / Buy here! Guests Daniel Lippert (Usa) -- Drums and drum engineering Michelle Kwan (rhapsodos) -- Vocals (I See), Lyrics (Love, Away) Beth Carter (wildfire) -- Vocals (Love, Away) Deia Vengen (DragonAvenger) -- Vocals (Thankful) Ben Kimble (bjkmenu) -- Vocals (Out of Control) Everything else is by me. :3 Thank you sooo much... your support is very much appreciated, and will help with releasing future CDs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DjjD Posted May 9, 2011 Share Posted May 9, 2011 Why hasn't this gotten more responses? That's my question at this point. Excellent stuff here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nabeel Ansari Posted May 9, 2011 Share Posted May 9, 2011 I forgot already. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Native Jovian Posted May 9, 2011 Share Posted May 9, 2011 Fuck, I saw the thread title and thought someone was using your account to post that you'd died. Albums > being dead! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JH Sounds Posted May 9, 2011 Share Posted May 9, 2011 Listening now. Great stuff. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brandon Strader Posted May 9, 2011 Author Share Posted May 9, 2011 Fuck, I saw the thread title and thought someone was using your account to post that you'd died.Albums > being dead! Not quite yet but the option is still on the table. I hope you all enjoy the album. XD (thanks for caring btw, it means a lot) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harmonious Dissonance Posted May 11, 2011 Share Posted May 11, 2011 Fuck, I saw the thread title and thought someone was using your account to post that you'd died.Albums > being dead! If he were dead, he wouldn't have dragged me back here to give an opinion of his album. I quite enjoyed it as a whole, although I will admit that "I See" is, in my opinion, the best song on the album. Michelle Kwan has an AMAZING voice that fits in extremely well with the melody of the song. This song serves as the perfect hook to get listeners to take a swing at the rest of the songs, while not COMPLETELY overshadowing them. I was completely prepared for it to be only accoustic guitar, having opened the song and not paying any attention to the name. Hearing Brandon's voice at 1:17 was a complete surprise to me, as I wasn't expecting him to be singing in this album for some odd reason. Another surprise was the Recorder starting at 1:38, which then moved into Michelle Kwan's vocalizations, and then into her singing. Which is amazing, as i've already stated. At first I was disappointed that her part had ended so soon, only for a duet between the pair to come up! While it doesn't really seem like the two would mix well, their voices actually combine quite well. I applaud this song, and felt a tear in my eye when it ended, but I knew I had to listen to the rest of the album before I came back to put this song on repeat. Oh yeah, other songs. "Comfort" almost put me to sleep, in a good way though. This song is so incredibly relaxing that even listening to it now while Brandonn is making me stay up to review these i'm beginning to fall asleep. I was beginning to get afraid that the song would stagnate until about 1:33, when Brandon switched it up to give us a slight moment moment to wake back up enough to hear be able to register the rest of the song before we were swept back into the land of sheep and green pastures. And repeats the wake up call at 3:37 so that we may make it to the lighthearted ending that begins at 3:19. All in all an extremely relaxing song, Brandon did this one quite well. "Always Remember", the namesake song of this album, begins with the wailing of Brandon's ibanez s7320, which he felt the need to state was the brand and model of his electric guitar. With a fairly short opening (for him) his vocals come in around 0:34.. I'm quite a fan of the lyrics of this song, but it seems that this song would be better suited as a duet. My ear was waiting for another voice to come in that never did. But other than that, it was quite the enjoyable song. "Maxine", song number five in the album, and the second instrumental. As with "Comfort" Brandon manages to convey his emotions without the use of words. When I first listened to it, I thought it was a pretty sad song but nothing jumped out at me to make me feel anything more than a slight sadness. But when I was listening to it the second time while inquiring into the song's story Brandon informed me that he had recorded this song the same night his grandmother passed on. This managed to trigger my "Bawwwwwww" switch and this song suddenly brought tears to my eyes.. As it should for you. When I heard "Time" my first reaction was "GODDAMN IT BRANDON DON'T MAKE ME SAD THEN THROW ME INTO A HAPPY UPBEAT SONG!" and then the lyrics came in. Brandon, why did you bring this happy melody to the table, then have depressing lyrics with it. My mind was too confused as to what it should be feeling to fully appreciate the song. I'll leave this song to your opinions. "Renaissance Man" from the beginning feels like something that you'd listen to while traveling through the desert, but in some spots the song breaks form and leaves you feeling like you just woke up from a daydream only to throw you back in, other than those small flaws, I quite enjoyed this song. On a side note, a selfish artist is sometimes the best artist, so doing songs for yourself rather than to cater to what you think other people want is generally the best path. "A Beautiful Dawn".. The name fits the song perfectly. Were life a movie, this would be the song I would want to wake up to each and every morning. It's the kind of song that would rouse you from sleep without being rude, annoying, and making you want to reach for the snooze button. Unfortunately, this song won't be able to wake me up when i've passed out on my keyboard from writing these reviews for brandon. However, I do believe that this song shall be my alarm clock's ring for the next few weeks. "For My Parents" didn't completely meet my expectations. I would expect a tribute to your own parents to be more than a minute and a half long, and slightly more grandiose song than was provided. To me, this song should've been somewhere between a chase scene's music and a battle scene's music. It was more a mix of Battle and.. I don't even know what. It's a good song, just not as good as it could've been. "Love, Away (8-Bit)" is the final track on the album, and it would seem Brandon wanted to save the (second) best for last. Because I was speaking to him and not looking at track names again, it was completely unexpected for me to hear full blown "8-Bit" style on an accoustic album. At first I was like, "Wait, what?" but then I just sat back and enjoyed the full glory of this song. Leaps and bounds ahead of the vocal version, this version improves on it completely, and is a perfect way to wrap up this album. All in all, I would give this album an 8.5/10 Now go download it, maybe donate some money to him, and let me sleep. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brandon Strader Posted May 22, 2011 Author Share Posted May 22, 2011 Please buy one, they're only $5! Please hit like on the bandcamp page to help spread the word. CDs can be signed on request, but I'd have to take the shrinkwrap off.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frederic Petitpas Posted May 23, 2011 Share Posted May 23, 2011 [........] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brandon Strader Posted July 25, 2011 Author Share Posted July 25, 2011 My cat destroyed my MIDI keyboard last night. It doesn't work anymore and would be $170 to replace. I haven't sold enough physical albums to purchase a new keyboard so I either need to find a way to buy a new one or just quit. I'll let you guys know what happens and I know it's shameless to ask, but please buy a CD if you haven't already. They're only $5 plus maybe 1 or 2 bucks for shipping. I've probably got around 75 left. I will definitely post again if I manage to buy it myself somehow, and I don't want anyone to buy a CD just for the sake of buying one especially if you don't like the songs. Please preview them first if you can. Picture added as proof. 6:19AM Opened it, cleaned it out, now trying to close it back up Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shake Posted July 25, 2011 Share Posted July 25, 2011 Obvious Publicity Stunt Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brandon Strader Posted July 25, 2011 Author Share Posted July 25, 2011 Obvious Publicity Stunt Mmm yes quite.. x_x Breaking the one thing that helps make me happy was a publicity stunt. Naturally, my cat was in on it the whole time. At 7:51AM after pulling an all-nighter, I have it back together and it's working So here's the turn of events: Cat barfs on midi keyboard. Moisture from barf seeps into keyboard. Later barf is discovered, when lifted keyboard drains water After being drained and drying out, keyboard is turned on. It lights up but doesn't register any notes. I give up, as I'm no electrician, and decide to open it and see what the inside looks like. I open it, and see a chaos of cat hairball, moisture, and general cat gunk all over the circuit board (pictured in this thread) I carefully remove all gunk with a rag / Q-Tip and begin closing it back up, expecting no change. With the help of my dad, we re-connect the wires. It takes about 2 hours to screw it back closed, as the keys, top, and bottom are all seperate pieces and lining the holes up together on all 3 of them without ripping out cables is a PAIN. I accidentally left about 5 or more screws inside the actual body of the keyboard and had to find a few replacements. Not all holes need one, in the end. I plugged it in, opened FL Studio, and it works... bullet dodged, for now. Night and morning well spent. I honestly thought I would have to buy a new one and I'm not convinced this will stay working for long. Having said that, I also have an 88 key keystation I got as a gift about 4 years ago that mysteriously stopped working in a similar manner. I think I will do this to it and see if it works again. IN CONCLUSION, I don't believe I over-reacted, as music is my livelihood, the only thing that makes me happy. I was devastated and thought I would have to buy a new one. I'm a graphic designer and a musician, and my wacom pen is missing. If my midi keyboard broke then I'd be completely destroyed and useless. I'd like to thank you all for your understanding and your concern. tl;dr obvious publicity stunt Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nabeel Ansari Posted July 25, 2011 Share Posted July 25, 2011 I don't understand how MIDI keyboard = broken is the same thing as no more music. You have FL Studio, put that mouse to good use. Much faster, you don't have to wait 8 measures to write 8 measures. And you have a guitar. 3 if I remember correctly. So yeah, overreacting. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Meteo Xavier Posted July 25, 2011 Share Posted July 25, 2011 Kill that useless piece of careless fur and get a dog. I'd like to forward this to PETA - just to see what happens. Also, Brandon, certainly you haven't just been banking on OCR, Thasauce and whatever similar avenues for CD sales, have you? You've actively and hopefully intelligently been trying to increase its reach across the internet, correct? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Meteo Xavier Posted July 25, 2011 Share Posted July 25, 2011 That does not connect with what I said at all. Bottom line: Don't commit Animal Cruelty, no matter how much they vomit all over you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brandon Strader Posted July 25, 2011 Author Share Posted July 25, 2011 Also, Brandon, certainly you haven't just been banking on OCR, Thasauce and whatever similar avenues for CD sales, have you? You've actively and hopefully intelligently been trying to increase its reach across the internet, correct? There's an internet outside of those sites??? If you have any suggestions I'd love to hear them, but I'm no skilled promoter sadly when it comes to manually pimping this in peoples' theoretical faces across the internets. And yeah I'd never hurt my cat, I still lurvers her even though she destroys my expensive things <3 I'll never leave the midi keyboard uncovered again Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nabeel Ansari Posted July 25, 2011 Share Posted July 25, 2011 There's an internet outside of those sites??? If you have any suggestions I'd love to hear them, but I'm no skilled promoter sadly when it comes to manually pimping this in peoples' theoretical faces across the internets. And yeah I'd never hurt my cat, I still lurvers her even though she destroys my expensive things <3 I'll never leave the midi keyboard uncovered again Post your tracks on YouTube. Instant exposure to a wider audience. You might say "well I don't want all those people getting my songs for free". Think of it this way: some of them might buy your music after hearing it on YouTube. And the people that won't? They were never gonna buy your music anyway. You win some, you lose none. If you really don't wanna post all the tracks on there, make a big YouTube teaser with like 15 seconds of each track with artwork that has subliminal messages telling them to go buy the CD. Tell your friends to tell their friends. etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brandon Strader Posted July 25, 2011 Author Share Posted July 25, 2011 I did put 2 videos on, and also the . The first has 28 views and the second has 115 views. Not good. D: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Meteo Xavier Posted July 25, 2011 Share Posted July 25, 2011 I did put 2 videos on, and also the . The first has 28 views and the second has 115 views. Not good. D: Well what did you think? If you post it, they will come? You have to do some work. This means posting around in a way that doesn't make you look desperate (not saying you have been, but so many musicians do this today its utterly depressing) and submitting music to podcasts, local record stores if you have any that take local talent, or abroad. There's lots of things you could do. I haven't actually heard your album, but I learned the other day as I'm looking for places to spread my album, ESPERS, that Music Choice on Charter and IIRC Comcast has a seemingly simple way to submit your music to their music channels. I guess all you have to do is send a CD with some artist info. I haven't done this yet so I have no real idea how it works, but thats a start. The hard part isn't the effort or the creativity, so get on it if you want your music to spread. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shake Posted July 25, 2011 Share Posted July 25, 2011 Think of it this way: some of them might buy your music after hearing it on YouTube. And the people that won't? They were never gonna buy your music anyway. You win some, you lose none.So fucking trueSorry wu tang, I love you, but I would never fork over the money for 38 chambers. Also, low view count is normal. Join other forums, go to indie sites, etc. Go to any and every music forum you can although, don't be surprised if you get a ''new guy joining a forum to promote his music? SPAM'' comments Also, I dont mean to demean you or anything. But I would have looked into venues of advertising and spreading musical talent BEFORE releasing it. You have to get your name out first, and an easy way would be to enter competitions and the like before investing in a solo venture. It's kinda like interning before the ''big time''. Dwelling of the duels-like contests are an excellent way. I mean, I know willrock and Sixto. But only because they have released so much for free and been involved in the ''community' for so long. That's what it boils down to. Doing stuff for free may not pay you, but it pays in exposure Aww shiiiiet economics major here I come Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JH Sounds Posted July 26, 2011 Share Posted July 26, 2011 Oh, that reminds me: I did an article discussing various aspects of the album. http://thasauce.net/2011/06/25/brandon-strader-discusses-always-remember/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brandon Strader Posted April 6, 2012 Author Share Posted April 6, 2012 So I gave out like 25 copies of this at MAG X mostly because I was too lazy to give out 50 copies.. actually I think the other 25 are still in the trunk of my car, ha.. ha.. So to anyone who snatched one up, what did you think? Also I want to try to finish my project obligations and stuff so I can work on a follow-up, a real follow-up not an EP like the Wettening I guess I should gauge people's interest in that kind of thing, I appreciated all the kind words and everything so far but I dunno, they don't seem too interested.. someone said to make a Skyrim EP.. meh Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brandon Strader Posted September 6, 2012 Author Share Posted September 6, 2012 I didn't want to make a new thread so I am just bumping this up. All of the CDs are gone, but I can print new ones if there's enough demand. Maybe even for stuff that hasn't had a print yet (If you're familiar with any of my bands). So let me know if anyone wants something. Secondly, mah sister has asserted herself as my new manager. All music requests should go through her. She is a manager of my facebook page so if you send it a message or post a comment there, I'mma let her handle it. She started a new campaign, here are the words: "Exciting news! Every time this page gets to a new hundred mark in likes I will post an update asking for the next remix requests. The song will be selected at random from the comments. What are you all waiting for? You are only 18 likes away from 200!" So do that, I guess! Suggest something good and I may choose your request. I still say my internet presence is better than hers but here we go. Bands: Brandon Strader, Rainwound, In Staid Grace Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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