My main interest with the album "If It's Too Loud, You're Too Old" is to offer parents and kids the opportunity to enjoy music together. The songs were written by me and my kids together, and it seems like families are having fun listening to the songs together too - which is fantastic - when that happens, that's my definition of "success". I'm a bit surprised to hear that many people found the song "Garbage Truck" through the cheesy little "video" I put together for it, so what the heck - let's do more of those, shall we? I put this clip together for "Choo Choo Train", a song that was primarily written by a six-year-old. It's the first track on the album. I have found that the only thing kids like to see more than trains, are trains smashing together - so here ye go kids! The video content may not be terribly original, but it makes me giggle - and that's basically my other bellwether of success.
We are absolutely ecstatic to share the news that the new Jon D'Eaux and the Sibling Rivals album "If It's Too Loud, You're Too Old" is now available for sale at The Bookshelf in downtown Guelph. Rumour has it that Jon used to work at The Bookshelf almost 25 years ago, so it is extremely cool to be involved once again with this iconic Guelph retailer.
Where to start?? What a few weeks... it's quite the whirlwind to get an album launched alongside school dropoffs, meal preparation, bedtimes, not to mention the nuisance of a day job. But, it's done! The songs are professionally mastered, the artwork is approved, and the album is off to manufacturing. Not only will it be ready prior to the March 14th date (there, I just totally stirred up Murphy's Law), but the songs are available RIGHT NOW for purchase as digital downloads - that can be done right here. The Indiegogo campaign is still running until Friday too, so if you're still interested, don't delay in being one of the first to receive a physical copy of the album!
When the dust settles, I'm definitely going to be writing more about the ups-and-downs of setting up what basically amounts to a small business, in parallel with trying to just record and produce an album that you're happy with from a musical perspective. It's a left-brain / right-brain tennis match that never lets up - I knew it wouldn't be easy, but it has been a real eye-opener. I'm kind of glad it's finally done... and more importantly, I'm pleased with the album. I think it's a good collection of tunes - and every kid that has heard it so far goes bananas, so that's even better news. That's the point, after all!
I generally believe that the primary purpose of music videos these days is to allow people to check out a new song, streaming in the background, while they do their daily internetting on other tabs. With that in mind, the new video for the first single "Garbage Truck" from Jon D'Eaux and the Sibling Rivals' new forthcoming album "If It's Too Loud, You're Too Old" wasn't designed to be an epic worthy of the Hollywood masters. Still, it's a video about garbage trucks and the dump, so there's that. Here it is!
Our two girls are school-aged now, and it’s always an exciting weekend when they have a birthday party to go to. One day while they kept asking "how much longer 'til we can go," we started making up a song about birthday parties to pass the time. The 5y/o added the best line ever: “It's your birthday party - here’s your present, where’s the cake?” No grown-up could capture the party sentiment like that - it's almost haiku. "Birthday Party" is one of the eleven songs on the forthcoming album. They thought we should cover "Happy Birthday" on the album, but I explained how the song "Happy Birthday" is owned by a person who collects royalties every time it's played - that's why you never hear it sung in movies (try explaining royalties to a five y/o...). Anyway, they thought is was wrong that someone should make money from "Happy Birthday", and I agree - so that made it into the bridge of the song. "Birthday Party" is definitely going to be on the forthcoming album "If It's Too Loud, You're Too Old," releasing on March 14th 2014!
I finished the final mix of the song “Breakfast” today - which means over half the album is now mixed. That song began at too-early-o’clock on a weekend morning when just two people were awake and only one of us was excited about it. Even during the wee hours, the kid managed to share how great breakfast is... by the time his sisters were awake for 30 minutes (and fed), the song was written. This song illustrates how many of the songs on the upcoming album came to life - the kids sing about something normal, the way kids tend to do, then the other kids build on the idea, and finally I build it up a bit and we hone it together. If we do a CD launch party, I think it'll definitely be at breakfast time (or maybe brunch - a little bit later to make it easier on parents). As long as I have worked around music stuff, I don't think I have ever heard of a CD launch party in the morning.... one more way we're doing things a little differently! More soon! "Jon."
Well, it'll be another 24 hours or so before the Indiegogo pre-sale launch goes out the door, but the project is starting to feel alarmingly real. It's ridiculous to feel this way when the recordings are all basically done, but still... it's a trip to watch all the pieces fall into place. And, it has been a long, long time since I last put an album together. I'll write another post shortly about the Indiegogo presale campaign itself, which will be available at http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/dad-kids-write-family-album-cd-presale, but for now, here's the video that accompanies the launch.
