Tag: music

Derivations Album Now In Pre-Production!

Posted on 2020-04-14 Written by D. Lee Jackson Leave a Comment

Derivations Cover At last, Derivations is in pre-production! I uploaded the songs and the artwork to CD Baby today, and I’ve placed the order for the CDs and the physical/digital distribution. Everything is in the inspection phase at the moment, but the gears are in motion for a release!

Now, I can finally show you a sneak peek of the cover art for the CD! It’s the image that’s been uploaded with this post. I’ll be uploading a larger version on Facebook, so head over to my Facebook account if you want to see it. The design is a derivation (get it? eh?) of the Calibrations CD cover design. (It may not be mathematically correct, but that’s beside the point.) I want to thank Rob Curulli for bringing the design to life.

The way things look right now, it appears the digital release may take place before the physical release, although I’m trying to time the two so that they’ll come out together. The digital files are on a course for a June 5th release, however iTunes users can pre-order the album beginning May 22nd (if it passes inspection!). Those who pre-order on iTunes will receive track one, “CyberFlight,” as an “instant gratification” track, and will automatically receive the remainder of the album upon release.

Watch for more details as they become available. Time to start getting excited!

Single From “Derivations” Postponed Indefinitely

Posted on 2020-03-28 Written by D. Lee Jackson Leave a Comment

Masked Earth Thanks to the current world situation involving the COVID-19 pandemic and the poorly named Coronavirus, I’m going to be forced to postpone indefinitely the release of the single from my upcoming album, Derivations.

If you’re just now tuning in on the subject, I had been planning on releasing a single of Interstate 30 through the CD Baby distribution service. That way, it could get up on Amazon, Spotify, Pandora, and all of the major (and most of the minor) streaming platforms throughout the world. Unfortunately, CD Baby seems to have experienced a slight service disruption due to the same COVID-19/Coronavirus world situation, so I won’t be able to take advantage of their service as planned. I can’t use another service, since the single would have been linked to the physical CD album release, and only CD Baby does physical releases. So, I’m stuck without a distributor for now.

In the meanwhile, the album cover for Derivations is back on track. In fact, it may be ready before the single is ready. As a result, I may wind up releasing the album as a whole instead of a single followed by an album. Watch this space for news updates.

Single From Upcoming “Derivations” Album To Be Released

Posted on 2020-03-11 Written by D. Lee Jackson 1 Comment

close Derivations is so, so close to being released. The beta listeners are through with it, and I’ve finished mastering it. However, there are some things standing in the way, preventing it from being released right this moment. We’re having major repair and renovation work done on our house next week, so we’ve got to move everything out of the house and into one of those PODS containers for a while. I’m also going to have surgery to partially amputate another toe due to osteomyelitis (bone infection), this time the second toe on my right foot. And that’s just for starters. The album cover isn’t even finished yet, although what is finished looks pretty cool.

What I’m going to do, then, since I can’t yet release the whole album, is release another single. I’ve already released the jazz fusion track, “What It Shall Be,” last year. This time I’ll be releasing an electronica track called “Interstate 30.” It’s an upbeat track which really does conjure up images of traveling along the freeway near my home, complete with the ubiquitous traffic jam in the middle. I’ve had great feedback from my beta listeners on it: in fact, a couple of them are the ones suggesting I should release it as a single.

I’m still going to have to wait for the home repairs/renovation and my toe surgery before I can do the single release, but that’s just a couple of weeks. I’ll announce the release date right here as soon as I have it. Please stay tuned!

“Derivations” Album Shows First Benefits From Beta Testing

Posted on 2020-02-15 Written by D. Lee Jackson Leave a Comment

checklist Beta testing has begun on my upcoming Derivations album, and it has already borne its first fruit. To begin with, most of the comments have been very positive (phew!). The biggest and best piece of advice I’ve received has been a suggestion to change the track order. I did have a rather dark piece opening up the album, but now a much more energetic piece will be track one. That track used to be track nine, and the new transition between track eight and track ten works wonderfully. Seriously, you’re going to have to hear it to believe it.

I wish I could be more specific with the details of the tracks, but that would be telling. The day when I can open up about the tracks is rapidly approaching, I believe. Once I get final beta feedback on the new track order, I’ll still need to master the tracks for streaming services. (That might be delayed due to some serious home repairs, however.)

Some progress has been made in the album cover arena. I can’t say more than that yet. Watch this space.

Finally, Jake “The Voice” Parr, the interviewer from my Calibrations album, has been trying to talk me into doing a commentary track for Derivations. If you would like to hear a track with commentary about the individual pieces of music on the new album, please leave me a message in the comments, or respond via a Twitter or Facebook comment if you came from one of those services. I look forward to hearing from you!