Woah.
Out of town gigs, book/album design, and podcast developments! It’s been a busy week or so, and it’s not slowing down any time soon!
PERFORMANCE
Last weekend I drove up to Rochester to perform The Animal Show at the grand opening of the Rochester Vegan Community Center. it was a brilliant weekend, and I was so proud to be there. The space is really gorgeous and can you believe THEY HAVE A VEGAN COMMUNITY CENTER?
It was a treat to do a stripped down, cozy version of the show, and the sound system they had, though small, sounded great. It made me start to think more fluidly about how I might continue doing the show. I want to keep doing the show, but it has to be more sustainable — I’m just not at a place yet where I can afford theater rentals and additional musicians like I attempted over the summer. I could do more of these stripped down versions in homes, sanctuaries, or community centers, though, and I think the show worked just fine in this setting — great, even.
BOOK AND ALBUM
I am deep, deep, DEEP in my work for The Animal Book and The Animal Album with designer and publisher luke kurtis. We are aiming for a mid-May release date for the book and CD, and this is quite an astounding project! We are creating a physical book with stories, photos, and lyrics from the show and my related travels, AND there will an iBook edition as well which will have a massive multi-media component. I am so excited about this process, and luke is, as always, a fantastic collaborator. The album will be 7 or so tracks, and will be preceeded by the release of two singles, each with b-sides. I’ll be printing CDs of the album, and it will be released in all the usual places: iTunes, Spotify, Google Play, etc etc etc… The EXTREMELY tentative release schedule looks like this:
SINGLE: Home Again b/w Here
SINGLE: Their Eyes b/w New Life
ALBUM: The Animal Album
Casey
They Have Names
Home Again
Milk
Their Eyes
Glue Trap
Kaporos
Blood on the Streets
Oh my God, I think I need a new song for the end. Maybe? We’ll see. I start recording in February at Benny’s Wash and Dry (where I recorded strings, piano and vocal for Tentative Armor) and the absolutly stunning human, Christopher WIllits, will put his anologue magic on the final master recordings.
Podcast
The podcast has been going strong this month. I am focusing, as you may know, on activist artists. Not a massive change, but it feels nice to focus in a bit as far as subject matter and guests. I got a bit behind on releases last week, so it looks like I will be skipping this week’s episode and geting back on track with Monday’s episode featuring Vegan Thanksgiving rapper, Grey. Podcasts are always posted here on Patreon, but check out mikeypod.com for subscription links, or just search “mikeypod” in your favorite podcast directory.
I always work to release the podcast early here for Patrons, but I want to add a next level of value you for y’all. Starting with next week’s episode, I’ll be releasing weekly bonus content only here on Patreon. It will most often be exclusive interview audio with guests, but I want to get creative with this so who knows what I’ll come up with. Stay tuned. Patrons, don’t forget that you each have your own podcast RSS feed generated here on Patreon. Let me know if you need help setting that up.
* * *
So much for a short update! Patrons, thank you so much for being here! Your funds for February will be going directly to the string players who will be playing on the album. My patreon funds will only amount to about half of the cost of hiring them, but it’s really really huge to think that part of that expense is covered.
If you are not yet a Patron, now is a perfect time to sign on. I have lots of work on the horizon and it’s ALL costing dollars to create. Check it out by clicking the big orange button on the sidebar of this blog!
Love,
Michael
(Thanks to my friend Robin Helfritch Maratos for the photo!)
(Originally posted on my Patreon page.)
Aftershock