Hello, my name is Jonathan.
You may know me as the person who writes stuff here and makes the music I'm now trying to flog.
Blog and Flog. That's me on my fortnight of annual leave...
You may know me as the friend you used to have. (I assure you, I will try harder in the future. I have been rubbish, I know. I'm sorry.)
You may know me as the bloke who talks about tennis on the radio. That's my job, I love it. But music is my hobby, my release, my sanity, my soul...
I have spent best part of five years working on this album. Writing, recording, mixing, editing, tinkering, remixing, rerecording and going slowly out of my mind.
Thank God it's over.
I'm writing this as the final bonus tracks for the digital download of the album upload to the server. Bye Bye. You have taken over and now it's time to get my life back.
Don't get me wrong, I'm proud. I couldn't be more proud. My Mum hates it, my kids love it. Job done. I have listened to it hundreds of times and still want more, so that's a satisfaction. But of course it's all meaningless unless someone somewhere finds some enjoyment from it too. I hope that person is you.
It's been an incredible emotional struggle getting this far. The computer has almost blown on more than one occasions and the late-night frustrations of working on a decade-old Mac have been hard to take. I'm now going to throw it off a cliff. Only when it's smashed to smithereens will I be released from its beach-ball spiral-chains.
I don't know if this is a normal reaction from someone who has completed something so overwhelming, so all-consuming, but I guess it may be.
Assembling an album like this, with all the intricate jazziness and electronic involvement, takes super-silly attention and time. I'm a perfectionist. Always have been. That doesn't help with these things. It has meant late nights, frustrating days, periods of inactivity then intense struggles with the technology to get it done. Hmm, it really hasn't been that healthy...
Would have been so much easier to go to a flash studio, hire engineers and producers and let them turn my ideas into a product.... if only....
I've also only allowed myself a couple of hundred quid to throw at the project. These records often cost five, six figures to make. I've slipped the drummers a bit of cash and bought Dan a burger. Andy may have got the fish and chips. Then I bought the CDs. That's kind of it.
Like we say on the Facebook site, no cash, no flash gear no label. This is a 100 percent independent release and it couldn't have been done without the help of everyone who has played on it and worked on it.
There aren't too many so I'll thank them all here: Dan, Andy, Dave, Tim, Matt and Lori for playing and singing. Lee and Dave for helping with the recording and generally being around. Bob for Mastering and especially Ian for all the artwork, promotion, good vibes and general positivity about the project. Cheers mate, I appreciate it.
Anyway, in the time it's taken for me to ramble this far, the upload is complete and The Man Who Knew Too Much is officially available...
http://naturacinematica.bandcamp.com/album/the-man-who-knew-too-much-album
That's the link you need. You can buy the CD from the site for £5 and I'll deliver it for a £1 delivery charge. You can buy a CD from a band member for cash. You can also buy the download for £3 which includes three special remixes as bonus tracks. No harm buying both!
We're hoping to go live with this at festivals next summer and if you're lucky there may be a London launch party in October. Get on the mailing list by "liking" us on Facebook.
www.facebook.com/naturacinematica
And we'll keep you posted. In the meantime, enjoy the album if you'd care to purchase it. The next blog explains the distribution idea and why we're not on iTunes etc. Thanks for reading and watch out for any jumping computers.
Jonathan Overend.
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Natura Cinematica / Blog
How to Buy Stuff
So the album is out and thanks to everyone who has parted with hard-earned cash so far... Don't forget for less than the cost of most CDs in the shops, you can get both the limited edition CD (10 tracks plus exclusive hidden track and 8-page booklet) plus the digital download (10 tracks plus three bonus mixes).
Top question so far is... "are you on iTunes?" closely followed by "why aren't you on iTunes?"
I thought I'd bash out a few words explaining the answer and what Bandcamp is all about if you're unfamiliar.
Basically ITunes - a bit like everything Apple related - is a bit of a dictatorship. You pay for the privilege of being on there (through distribution agencies such as CD Baby), you charge what they tell you to, you don't have any control over your page or practically anything about your work.
The beauty of being a 100 percent independent release is that you can do what you like. That's why you're independent. And that's where Bandcamp comes in.
Bandcamp is a cross between sites like myspace/soundcloud and iTunes. You make your own page, supply your own content, upload your designs and your music. And then you sell it. And you sell it at a fair price. Fair to the consumers, fair to the artists. And that's to say it can be low low low. Yes Bandcamp take a cut, but nowhere near as much as Apple do. And if you're working on small numbers and small margins, as most independents are, then it makes practical, sustainable sense.
The beauty of Bandcamp is that you can set the price low and consumers can pay more if they think it's worth it. After all, most people are selling downloads which don't have any production costs to recoup (barring the recording process). So anything is a bonus.
So what happens?
If you want to buy the album as a download, as you would an iTunes download, you visit the site... www.naturacinematica.bandcamp.com and click on the "buy album" link. You pay by paypal or credit card and you get an email with a link. When you click the link, the album downloads to your computer as MP3 or whatever format you want and it's then a simple process to just drag the MP3s into iTunes or whatever music library app you use.
We then get an automatic email saying you've bought it and, hopefully, everyone is happy apart from the big corporate middle man who, in this model, happily misses out.
So there we go. All very simple. Hope you like it!
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STUFF OF DREAMS / HEARTFELT STUFF...
Hello, my name is Jonathan.
You may know me as the person who writes stuff here and makes the music I'm now trying to flog.
Blog and Flog. That's me on my fortnight of annual leave...
You may know me as the friend you used to have. (I assure you, I will try harder in the future. I have been rubbish, I know. I'm sorry.)
You may know me as the bloke who talks about tennis on the radio. That's my job, I love it. But music is my hobby, my release, my sanity, my soul...
I have spent best part of five years working on this album. Writing, recording, mixing, editing, tinkering, remixing, rerecording and going slowly out of my mind.
Thank God it's over.
I'm writing this as the final bonus tracks for the digital download of the album upload to the server. Bye Bye. You have taken over and now it's time to get my life back.
Don't get me wrong, I'm proud. I couldn't be more proud. My Mum hates it, my kids love it. Job done. I have listened to it hundreds of times and still want more, so that's a satisfaction. But of course it's all meaningless unless someone somewhere finds some enjoyment from it too. I hope that person is you.
It's been an incredible emotional struggle getting this far. The computer has almost blown on more than one occasions and the late-night frustrations of working on a decade-old Mac have been hard to take. I'm now going to throw it off a cliff. Only when it's smashed to smithereens will I be released from its beach-ball spiral-chains.
I don't know if this is a normal reaction from someone who has completed something so overwhelming, so all-consuming, but I guess it may be.
Assembling an album like this, with all the intricate jazziness and electronic involvement, takes super-silly attention and time. I'm a perfectionist. Always have been. That doesn't help with these things. It has meant late nights, frustrating days, periods of inactivity then intense struggles with the technology to get it done. Hmm, it really hasn't been that healthy...
Would have been so much easier to go to a flash studio, hire engineers and producers and let them turn my ideas into a product.... if only....
I've also only allowed myself a couple of hundred quid to throw at the project. These records often cost five, six figures to make. I've slipped the drummers a bit of cash and bought Dan a burger. Andy may have got the fish and chips. Then I bought the CDs. That's kind of it.
Like we say on the Facebook site, no cash, no flash gear no label. This is a 100 percent independent release and it couldn't have been done without the help of everyone who has played on it and worked on it.
There aren't too many so I'll thank them all here: Dan, Andy, Dave, Tim, Matt and Lori for playing and singing. Lee and Dave for helping with the recording and generally being around. Bob for Mastering and especially Ian for all the artwork, promotion, good vibes and general positivity about the project. Cheers mate, I appreciate it.
Anyway, in the time it's taken for me to ramble this far, the upload is complete and The Man Who Knew Too Much is officially available...
http://naturacinematica.bandcamp.com/album/the-man-who-knew-too-much-album
That's the link you need. You can buy the CD from the site for £5 and I'll deliver it for a £1 delivery charge. You can buy a CD from a band member for cash. You can also buy the download for £3 which includes three special remixes as bonus tracks. No harm buying both!
We're hoping to go live with this at festivals next summer and if you're lucky there may be a London launch party in October. Get on the mailing list by "liking" us on Facebook.
www.facebook.com/naturacinematica
And we'll keep you posted. In the meantime, enjoy the album if you'd care to purchase it. The next blog explains the distribution idea and why we're not on iTunes etc. Thanks for reading and watch out for any jumping computers.
Jonathan Overend.
Reply
Quick and Easy Stuff
Ok single is out in under a week from www.naturacinematica.bandcamp.com It's mixes of the track "No Direction" featuring Lorien Secanska.
We can confirm the track listing: 1. Original album mix 2. Electronica Robotica mix (Grooveyard) 3. M1-J35 mix (Uncles of Wise) 4. Stix Mix (NCHQ) 5. Man Who Knew Too Much (Funk Mix)
The track is this slow burning, downbeat, string laden orchestral experience but we've sent it into new places with the help of Lee from Grooveyard and Tim from Uncles of Wise. It may sound incongruous but the mixes mash it into a thumping anthem with some serious bass going on!!
We're still a jazz band folks, don't panic. But the beauty of being independent is we can do what we like and we like jazz, we like electronica, we like funk, we like house and on this single we mix it all together!
we've thrown in a mix of The Man Who Knew Too Much for good measure and the best news of all is that the whole package is yours for £1.50. Bargain!!
www.naturacinematica.bandcamp.com
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More Stuff. Another Week. New Happenings.
Was it really May when I signed off the album? Amazing. September seemed so distant. Now it's just an Olympic Games away...
24th September is when the Natura Cinematica album is being released - physical and digital - and the countdown is well and truly underway.
We'll have some big news for you next week ahead of the release...
In the meantime we're on the promo-offensive. Building a database of bloggers, journalists, DJs, tastemakers, wine merchants, head chefs and landscape gardeners. In fact we'll take anyone.
Latest arrival is some lovely NC stationary so I can pen some letters and hope they look sweet. Reckon everyone likes a handwritten note so no emails from us on the promo-push. Just a personal note, a CD and a plea.
Gonna put a couple of other tracks up on the Reverb Nation player so you can hear some more stuff. It's jazz, but not as we (always) know it. We like it, we're sure you will too.
STUFF WE'RE LISTENING TO: D'Angelo. Rude Mofo perhaps but one groove-laden rude mofo.
STUFF WE'RE EXCITED ABOUT: Manchester Jazz Festival and a brilliant young trumpeter named Tom Walsh.
STUFF OVERHEARD: "Why's that man got such big feet", little boy. Answer: Coz he produces massive jazz freakout tracks on a forthcoming album. Alright?
STUFF GOING ON: Pete Biggin plays Drums fast and loud and to an insane standard. He plays on Thursday at 606 in Chelsea.
STUFF IN THE AIR: Jazz in 7/8.
STUFF: It.
STFU: Group 4 Security. UR making me sick already.
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Stuff which happened last week...
Quick bulletin from NC_HQ as we await the delivery of a limited edition first pressing of the debut album...
Yes excitement is at Xmas Eve proportions as our codes, uploads, PDFs etc make their way from our computer to The Wizard's computer to someone in a factory's computer... Then postie should slip one of those cards through the door (inevitably when we're out) saying it's album a go-go...
Also this week - been remixing... got a techy house thing going on with "No Direction" and a serious funk-out workout of "Nothing is Permanent"... these will be available as part of the digital download bonus package!
Relaunched Facebook page... www.facebook.com/naturacinematica And we promise to tweet through the summer www.twitter.com/naturacinematic
Other news...
Submotion Orchestra have announced tour dates in the autumn... go and see this beast of a band from Leeds..
Been watching: ridiculously close football matches at the end of a ridiculously close season...
Been listening to: 6music espesh Gilles P on Saturday afternoons...
Been reading: Blogs. It's a truly undiscovered world out there and so many people to reach...
Been: Spain and next France. It's all about spreading the word people and we love you for it...
Til next time.
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Pushing Things Forward...
Things are moving along nicely at NC HQ as we prepare for the album launch later in the year. We've nervously set a release date - 24th September 2012 - but we're going to stick with it! After about five years of working on this monster record, it's time to set it free and run wild!
The plan at the moment is to release the record in both digital and physical form. It'll be available as a download from BANDCAMP using their unique purchase scheme. This basically allows you to "name your price" and pay what you're able to. We think this is comfortably the best and most sustainable source of music trading on the web and we hope you can support it! The other great benefit of Bandcamp is that we can offer free "stuff" which will be yours when you make the download. At the moment, we're planning on offering TWO free bonus tracks and a magnificent PDF Digitial Booklet. There may also be a video offering as part of the package, but watch this space...
Then the really exciting news is that the album will also be available in physical form - yes, people, we mean one of those old shiny compact disc thingys! = Don't know about you, but we reckon you can't beat the feeling of a well-produced, good-looking CD in your little paws as you play the thing through a decent system. And this really is a good-looking fella!
It's a brilliant digipack with an 8-page full-colour booklet featuring the very best of the photography and design we've been showing off on our Facebook and ReverbNation sites over the past year or so. This CD will be available to purchase direct from band members or from gigs or through the Facebook or ReverbNation sites, and we're currently working out the price, probably around the £7 mark. The incentive here is to own something you may actually treasure as a possession, and a little piece of musical magic! There's a hidden bonus track on the CD, unavailable as a download, just to keep the incentives coming...
We're hoping to do a couple of launch gigs around September time and we've had a couple of early rehearsals with the core of the live band, welcoming a fantastic double bass player into the NC fold! Ian, our designer, has also been making progress on a series of graphic animations to form part of the live show - hopefully is going to look amazing...
So things are being pushed forward all the time and we can't wait to get this thing out to you... more updates soon...
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On the move...
Welcome to the Natura Cinematica page on Reverb Nation. We're here, we're there (Facebook, Twitter, Bandcamp...) we're everywhere.
The build-up is underway to the debut album release by the Natura Cinematica project, a five-year epic experience of catching notes as they fly across various UK front rooms, with zero funding.
Check back regularly for updates ahead of the big launch in September 2012 !
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