Wowsa, what a busy year this has become. It seems like at this same time last year, I was lounging about with hardly any homework, hours upon hours of writing fun, and bits and pieces of even more spare time between to eat lasagna and explore. Now, I’m lucky if I can snatch enough time to write a simple blog post. What changed? How did this travesty of a schedule become imposed upon myself? It makes me recall the reaction of my professor from this time last year, after a group of students (myself included) confessed that we had gobs of free time on our hands:

It was just as encouraging back then as it sounds now. The most dreadful part of it is that her words came true, as evidenced by my lack of posting this semester.

Anyhows, I have some bits and pieces of news and stuff people might enjoy, whilst we wait for that cover art and release date on my book (I’ll know mid-March, I’m hoping?). First off, I just added another one of my songs to Youtube, with the corresponding link to download the song for free:

[click here if you can't see the video]

Also, I’ve finally decided to open up the gates and just let people download preview chapters for The Farfield Curse from my website! Before, I wanted everyone to email  me and request them, so that I knew who had the chapters and when they got them (I don’t know, I just like knowing I suppose). But with the number of emails I’m getting per day now, it’s just impossible to reply in a timely manner, and people are waiting for months just to get the chapters, which I have been informed is like getting one of these and then being banned from feeding it raisins for months.

So, from now on, if you want the preview chapters, you can head on over to this page and download them for free! I’m not advertising these preview chapters too much (it’s not being linked on the Bran Hambric site yet) since they’re not edited, but for the people who read my site I’m putting them up a bit early.

Back to music again, here’s a clip of an entirely new song that I am working on for the Bran Hambric soundtrack. I get the feeling that this will be the final one I create for The Farfield Curse, since I have 8 or 9 songs already, and I have an urge to start making new ones for Book Two . Here’s the clip (or check out the song’s page):

Tell me what you think the comments!

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Posted in Bran Hambric, College, My Music, Videos
Tags: Bran Hambric, College, medusa, music, My Music, Videos

  Augustana and their new song Sweet And Low could pass off as Stellar Kart under a different name. Go ahead and compare the voices. Or just listen to Sweet And Low first:

I really liked their first track Boston, and if you haven’t heard it or it’s signature piano phrase, I must ask when was the last time you turned on your radio. Despite this one being named after a coffee sweetening product, it’s still a worthy effort.

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Posted in Reviews
Tags: augustana, My Music, Stellar Kart

I have a very unusual habit of taking up new endeavors on sudden whim. Most commonly, this is brought about by searching and finding that nobody has made something that fits my tastes perfectly. I wanted a cool website, and that wasn’t for free , so I learned how to do sites and designs. I wanted to do commercials so I just started making commercials. I simply cannot rest until I know how to do what I want.

My latest thing is making orchestral soundtracks. You probably remember my last track- but I’ve learned so much since then. Sitting in the Pub again late last night, headphones in my ears, I set out to create a perfect orchestration of music I wanted to write by. And thus, I created this:

Since I don’t ever want the trouble of getting a conductor, I had to learn how to do it myself. To do this, I got a program that is a perfectly recorded digital instrument of the Miroslav Orchestra, such that if I was to select ‘Violin 1′ and tell it to play notes a, a#,d it would crank out those awful notes in the succession and timing I demanded. It’s a miracle of modern technology: every single note, down to the choir and the piano, was done without a studio, conductor, or ever touching a real instrument. It was also done without me knowing how to read music (I punched in the keys on a digital, on-screen piano, and luckily can play by ear).

This is my first draft since I didn’t work very long on it so I will certainly lengthen it a bit. I’ll leave those who know me to guess what this was for (hint: same as last time). Please tell me what you think of this one!

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Posted in About Me, My Music, Writing
Tags: modern technology, My Music, violin, Writing

[singlepic=68,150,100,,left] As usual, my new music track is quite different from all the other’s I’ve made so far, since I like experimenting. I made the theme for this track in 2007 but I never got around to working on it any more than a few days. Anyone who knows me probably know what this was made for, though even if you don’t you can either guess or ask me.

If you’ve already heard this at the other site, this version is different, longer, mixed better and doesn’t have all the thunder and lightning sounds. I also added in a type of bridge to a different but similar theme about 3 minutes in. I really liked the arpeggios (and I can honestly say that is the first time that word has been used on this site). Enjoy and please give opinions.

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Posted in My Music, Writing
Tags: Bran Hambric, My Music

Taylor Swift certainly has what it takes to stay in the music spotlight. Just barely off of her success with her first song Tim Mcgraw, she put out Teardrops On My Guitar, and while still riding off that one on country radio she sent it to Top 40 with this new mix.

Change the drums, add some instruments and she has another hit. Turns out her management is smart as well, because just as she put out this track, she already has another song to country radio. They have found the key to radio success: keep the good tracks coming. Taylor’s people have resurrected my hope that some people in the music business still have brains when it comes to managing artists well.

For the comment box: Which mix do you like better- this new one or the album version?

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Posted in Reviews
Tags: My Music, Taylor Swift