He lives!

Yes folks, DFZ is alive and well.... Well....surviving.

Last few months have been what I call a returning experience. It seems history is always intent on repeating itself and more importantly, try as one might, your destiny will always be there waiting for you, regardless of the path you choose..

I've been pretty down and depressed (nothing new there), and spending allot of time in solitude and contemplation. Looking back on things, I've returned to the same old realizations and thoughts that I had many years ago... Nothing changed, I simply tried to ignore them and try to act as if they could be overcome.

I turned 29 last month, and it was a fairly eye opening birthday to say the least (one spent alone surprisingly enough). Looking back over the years I see the same old thing, the same straying of the path, denial, and irresponsibility to do what must be done...

I've wasted allot of time and energy amongst failures during those years, but by doing so, I've found myself in a wiser frame of mind. One can only know what must be done, after they have spent time understanding what is they should be doing.

What does this all mean? Well, I'm not vat liberty to say.. Only foolish people go around talking of things that might not occur or might not transcend, and I've spent enough time over the years acting foolishly...

On the topic of 2035, I'm happy to say that within the next few days all recording will be done, and a few more days the mixing for this tracks shall be done. After 10 days to two weeks, I'll have finished the mastering for it hopefully (rushing the mastering process is a great way to ruin all the hard work done during mixing..), and basically after years and years of studying, working, writing, blah blah, it shall be completed.

It's been a strange feeling knowing that weight will be lifted off my shoulders... And that after all that time of dreaming and thinking, it will actually come to be...

Now don't get too excited.. The music is now more or less done, but there still remains a fair amount of work still be to be done. For one thing the graphic novel.. Which I think I will release In parts as a comic. This gives me the chance to make use of the online comic stores that are commonly used on iPads n such.

So.. When is this crazed fool going to release this fabled work for us to absorb? In short, not this year.

Yes you read that right, not this year.

2011 has been a fucking horrible year. The amount of horrible, nasty, unfortunate, and shitty things that could happen has been overwhelming.... And not just for me, but for many. So I don't think I should jinx my years of hard work by releasing my works in the year that so much god awfulness has occurred....

I'm thinking early 2012. That why I still have plenty of time to put together the novel, the promotions, pr, press releases, photos, merchandise, cups of tea (kidding), and so forth.

I mean it's September now, before you know it it'll be christmas, and then before you know, January.

I do intend to release snippets of things here and there though, to keep your appetites wet. So hang I'm there, and keep listening.

Peace n much love,

DFZ

Insomnia & The interesting yet somber deterioration of ones sanity

Ahhhh... Where did it all go wrong?

It's summer time, and usually around the time I get my yearly bout of Insomnia. Admittedly it's usually bearable, and ironically I get allot of work done & despite the disorientation, is usually enjoyable.

I haven't blogged in a long time, but in all honesty, who bloody reads these things anyways?

Anyways, I've been working on and off, mostly off, since I cannot seem to find the energy or motivation to finish what I've started. It's a very unusual feeling, to be completely unexcited half the time about ones own musical endeavors. I guess it's the sign of the times, and more importantly, the inevitable wake up call of the reality of the situation.

I've been doing the "DFZ" thing since late 2007, and it's nearly hit the 4 year mark. One would think in that space of time, things would evolve, move forward, expand, etc etc, but they really haven't much, or I should say not in the way that I've intended. I find myself for probably the 5th or 6th time in my life at a Crossroads, and as per usual, am standing there, waiting for the right path to illuminate itself.

A foolish person might misconstrue my mental commentary as bitterness, but alas, I am a realist, and as such, have no negative feelings towards the outcome of the situation, or my chosen profession. This is a business, and as a business person, I've neglected all the points of smart business approaches, in favor of a "lets just avoid the marketing B.S and just throw it out there and see what happens" approach. I chose not to sell myself and just let the music do it's own thing...

Naturally, in this day and age where everyone and their cat is a recording "artist", with a Youtube page & Myspace with their own songs available for $.99, so it's no wonder really that there's a need to grab peoples attention from the overly saturated online music store shelves. "2035" will be the first time I take "smarter" approaches to actually marketing a product & making a big deal out of it. "Silent Echoes" was more of a collection of "good" demos, hence my releasing it for free, and "Failure To Adjust" was a completely different sound to my previous works, hence my own confusion in how to market a guitar instrumental album which hardly had any guitar hero moments on it... but with 2035, things are different, it's not your run of the mil DFZ album by any means... Anyone looking for ambient or spiritual sounds would be better off checking out my earlier works, anyone who wants to have their ass handed to them... 2035 is going to do that & much more..

So that brings us to the burning question, when the bloody hell are you going to finish & release it??!

Well, believe it or not, I have been working very hard on it, and I think it was the insomnia, because I hadn't realized until recently that it's mostly finished... I thought it was at the 50% mark.. whereas it's closed to 75 / 80%, and with my recent works on a new song (the title track "2035" for the album), it's actually closer to the 90% mark. Not much guitar left to track, just afew things here and there, some re-doing of some minor things, and mixing, but otherwise, it's more or less there...

BUT! Like I said, I have no intention of finishing it and just hastily throwing it out on iTunes in the hopes of getting listeners, oh no.. we've tried that... it just doesn't BLOODY work now does it... We're going to play hard ball... Marketing! Promotion! Caffeine! Unicorn Stickers!....umm....wait...

Tacky humor (admit it...you love it) aside, there's the other aspect of 2035 which I've been lax on. The prologue is done, but I intend to get more work done on that side to promote the album more. I don't want to spoil anything, but lets just say in a month or two, things should start to get interesting.

For the whopping 2 of you whom have nothing better to do then read the ramblings of a crazed individual, I salute you, and recommend A coffee and a plate of Bourbon creams next time you decide to waste 10 minutes of your life reading my insanity.

Yep... I'm Done. Now bugger off....

The plot thickens...

Greetings & Salutations... Or whatever..

Work continues on the 2035 project, although I can see the coming heat is definitely going to have an impact on my workflow.. Last few days have been nightmarishly hot & I'm guessing this kind of heat this early means it's going to be a rough summer....

For those of you who are in the dark (to avoid that, sign up to my Facebook fan page, the link is in the become a fan box), I'm doing a Graphic Novel, to accompany the music of 2035. I had the Idea years ago for a movie, then I thought an animation, but either way that's too much work for a single person, so a glorified full length comic (a.k.a Graphic Novel) is the best way to go.

I've posted some concept art on my facebook page, and I guess I'll post more of it here as time progresses. In the meantime enjoy a rough sample page from the book.

The download cards arrived and are looking good. I have absolutely no idea about how to distribute them, perhaps I might put together some live shows at the end of the year.. Time will tell.....

More to come, so stay tuned.

DFZ

Post – Revolution Blues

Hey All.

Sorry for not keeping this blog that up to date, but I find it hard to find something worthy to write that would grab a persons interest, and be worth taking 5-10 minutes out of their lives for…

 

Things are kinda “Funky” at the moment, and I find myself (for probably the 3rd or 4th time in my life) at a crossroads… We all know the paths that lead the way are many, but after years of walking said path, I am finding that it leads to nowhere, to nothing, and alas, find that I cannot walk to nothing anymore…

2035 is coming along very well, much better then I was thinking, in terms of “consistency” and coherence, since I’ve not done a whole project of this stature before.. Very heavy, very middle eastern, very raw, and very cool….

For those of you who aren’t aware of the idea, 2035 is a concept album based around a story / idea I had years ago (2004-2005) and left aside. I wrote the first chapter into a movie script, and left it at that, and said eventually I’d come and write the second part. So instead of writing another movie script, I decided to make a graphic novel. And as such 2035 will be a graphic novel + album kind of thing. I had this idea quite awhile back, but Llexi of “Eternal Descent” beat me to the punch.

After knowing about E.D I was contemplating just forgetting the idea, but after speaking to Llexi briefly on youtube, He was quite supportive of the idea, and I didn’t feel like my project was similar enough to his to not want to move forward with it. Just goes to show: if you have a good idea, go with it now… never know who is going to have, or has already had, the same good idea…

Ultimately I have realistic hopes for 2035, seeing as the music industry is now officially dead & buried (or I should say a zombie), albums do not sell beyond their current fanbase, and my fanbase is not entirely large, and is based in countries where buying a record and not downloading it is a bizarre concept…

My hopes lie in the that the graphic novel will catch a larger audience, mixed with the more “raw" sound of this project, compared to my more somber and atmospheric efforts.

My job at AUC has been heavily affected by many changes, some created by individuals, and more obviously, the revolution. Whatever future I thought I had there, seems to be made redundant, and I feel that my time there has more or less run it’s course. As much as I’ve enjoyed my time there, I don’t think I can continue onwards with the things that are going on, in front, and of course, behind the scenes….

Fortunately, there is other work for individuals like myself, in our respective careers, and I can step away from the ugly world of academia (trust me, I’ve seen some things I would not expect from “learned” people…) and back into the world of music production. I’ll be announcing things more formerly when they’re all taken care of.

So that’s it for now, stay tuned, as you can probably tell from this blog post, alot has changed, and there are more changes to come, I’ll be keeping you all up to date, as soon as I find some clarity…

peace n much love,

 

DFZ

Tis The Season - Semester over, Hello Winter Break

Hey-Lo,

Yep, The Fall semester is officially done and dusted, grades given, and that's all she wrote...

No official ties till January... Which is a welcomed thing. I'll using this time to tie up allot of knots!

Expect from me early next year the following:
- The 2035 project.. Including Graphic Novel! (fingers crossed!)
- A Release of Kora Music performed by Dr. Ryan Skinner
- Another release, rearrangement of said Kora Music fused with other things

As far as 2035 goes, I haven't done much work on it, since I haven't had the energy, drive, or musical "light" to do anything coherent or worth listening to... BUT! I'm going to be sitting down after Xmas is over and working on all the tracks that aren't yet loaded into my DAW... like the old fruity loops based "Rebellion" and "Defiance (Just East Of Nowhere)"... Looking forward to reworking these songs actually.. One of the reasons why I didn't just throw myself into them, since I want it to be an enjoyable and productive experience.. Not just going through the motions...

As for the Graphic Novel part, well.. many moons ago I wrote a god awful movie script (yes, it's bad, cliched, and not worthy of any merit), and had the idea for it being a 3 parter. And in true George Lucas style.. I wanted to make a graphic novel of the second part. The 2nd and 3rd parts aren't really written, but would make for a much more interesting graphic novel then the first.. So alongside the albums music, there should be a graphic novel, and maybe one or two music videos too!! I'm pretty excited about the whole thing.. But We'll have to see.. Generally I think I can pull it off... But we'll have to wait and see... I'll keep you updated on how that progresses...

The Kora music I mentioned before, myself and Dr.Skinner walked into the A.U.C PVA Music Studio, and he layed down a whole bunch of music.. which I roughly mixed during the summer, and have been remixing this month and mastering it properly. Alongside the solo pieces, I'll be taking the recordings and twisting and mangling them with electronic elements and other instrumentation.

Hopefully 2011 will be a very good year. So, Keep an eye out for some cool stuff coming your way.

If I don't post before it, Have a very Merry Christmas (and a happy new year!)

DFZ

2010 - $58.37

Hey All.

If you're wondering what $58.37 is.. That's the amount of money made this year from my music sales.....

3 albums, 27 songs, 883 streams.... in 12 months... Pretty weak to say the least.

Is this the sign o' the times? Are people no longer buying music? Or is there simply no room for little fish in this over saturated market....

As I sit here sipping a cup of Peach tea in this cold & dirty apartment... I can't help but wonder... Why invest into this further? I haven't worked on 2035 for a few weeks due to health problems, and am wondering why I would even bother.....

Simple really... It's not about the money, never was...

Actually, I've mostly being taking 2035 slowly, since I really don't want to rush the process of making good music. My guitar chops are in good form, My guitars & tones are happenin', and it's all where it should be. Sadly though, musically, I'm not feeling that creative, and some of the tunes require allot more then fretboard prowess... Especially the more Middle Eastern pieces.

Also I've been working on getting my Duduk playing up to code, since I'd like to have 2035 be as flawless as possible. When I listen to Silent Echoes... I cringe... All the things I could have done better. With Failure To Adjust, the outcome was far closer to what I wanted, and there were very few things I felt unhappy with... so 2035 (which is not really a Dreamfullofzen album but more of a project), has to be a cut above all that.

I'm gunning to have it all wrapped up within the early part of 2011, as for the release though, well, I'm going to hold off, since I really want to make sure the albums probably promoted, something which I've neglected in the past.

Till then, Happy Holidays, Be good...

DFZ

October Update

Hey all,
It's October, and for some reason, it's insanely hot here..... So much for winter...

Work is proceeding on 2035, and I'm happy with the changes in some of the tracks. Equilibrium was given a major overhaul, in that it was way too busy, too many parts fighting for the spotlight, and too many textures creating total chaos. Allot of that stuff was removed, and I added real drums, since with the addition of heavier guitars, the electronic ones lacked the impact that a drum groove with big fills adds to a track.

I'm taking it very slowly though, since I generally have a tendency to rush things, and that's when mistakes and bad judgement calls happen, and after having this project floating around for some 6 odd years, well, I don't want to ruin it.

Soon when the tracks are closer to what they should sound like, I'll be putting up preview snippets & some youtube videos hopefully. I'm planning to spend the next few weeks (assuming the freak heatwave weather disappears) spending more time working on it though, since I would like to have it wrapped up by December.

I'll also be going back to that Kora project which I was working on during the summer. I shelfed it because I wasn't happy with the overall output & felt like the mixing process was not going the way it should, and that it be best I leave it for awhile and come back to it with a fresh perspective. Audio Engineering work can be a very unforgiving process, especially when you're working on materials on your own. It's easier when the artist and producers are there, and they give you a solid picture of what needs to be done... Whereas when you're acting as producer, arranger, engineer, and a contributing musician, it becomes very hard to do solid work, since you play the role of all those people, and all those people usually have conflicting ideas, and somewhere, balance and harmony is brought by compromise, which happens by working with others... whereas on your own, that doesn't always necessarily happen....

The pic posted is a snapshot from my Log notes for the FTA sessions, some of you may find it interesting... Others will just see a bunch of scribbles on a piece of paper. For those of you whom have not listened to my second album "Failure To Adjust", I suggest you hop on over to Reverbnation.com and give it a good listen to.

Till the next time,

DFZ