There's been so much going on behind the scenes at Lights And Lines over the last few months we've barely had a chance to update you all. Here's a quick roundup of stuff we're working on...
New Lyric Video
We've just released a brilliant new lyric video to support the Gozer Goodspeed album coming out at the end of the month. Part of the remit of the label has always been to amplify the voice of creators everywhere. So it felt right for us to spend hours trawling through creative commons libraries to find a piece of art that was largely unknown, and give it a new life in this video. Check out the original short A Step Into The Real, a university project by Martine Bou Younesis.
Speaking of Mr Goodspeed... The inimitable FATEA magazine recently reviewed Ghosts of the Future & Past and lots of cool things to say about us and the release. Check it out in full here.
The beautiful 4 panel Digipak CDs will be with us later this week and we'll start shipping these out to subscribers and those who have pre-ordered the following week so you get them before the official release... has there ever been a better incentive to get your pre-order in? We think not.
"...a mammoth work... most impressive ...a fine way to provide an introduction to a talented artist you might not have heard before"
Who is Nathan Dufour?
While putting the finishing touches together on his album (soon to be released on Lights And Lines - you will find out more soon!) Nate took the time to sit down and chat to our good friend Gemma from Music Of The Future to tell us more about himself, his music, and much much more.
For those less familiar with Nate this is a great insight into this wonderful artist and a little glimpse into his unique and enchanting view on the world.
Check out the full interview here.
"I love that the label seems to be organized not so much around a genre, as around a philosophy..."
Working with Young Epilepsy
We announced yesterday that we'll be putting together a compilation album later this year (likely released in December) in support of Young Epilepsy. As the father of a 1 year old epileptic this is a charity that's very close to my heart.
The idea here is to ask bands / musicians / songwriters to donate unheard original tracks to the compilation making it a completely unique release. As a charity release this goes beyond the immediate collective to everyone who can be / wants to be involved.
We're hoping to be able to get hold of some tracks people would never normally have released, maybe demos or songs that never made it onto albums, and find some real hidden gems.
Something rare is inherent in the theme for this. Since my son was diagnosed I have become acutely aware that Epilepsy isn't at all as rare as you might think it is - loads of people I know have told me about their own epilepsy or other relatives etc. So with that in mind the plan here is to reflect that experience and bring out the rarities so we can get people talking about them. It should be a fun project!
Podcast recommendation
Finally in this update I'd like to share a podcast recommendation with you - I highly recommend checking out Shaun Panda Nicholson's 4 Songs And A Dream podcast wherever you usually check these things out!
Shaun talks to artists on the podcast and asks them to pick 4 songs that are personal to them to talk about. That's it! Really simple, but in doing that it's amazing how much you can learn about artists on a personal level. The songs are uploaded as a playlist for people to check out alongside the podcast.
Lights And Lines has been lucky enough to grab 3 interviews so far with Shaun - check them out below:
GRIM17 talks about tracks by Gustav Holt, The Beatles, Battles, and Tom Waites here
Mike Five (me) talks about tracks by Neil Young, Levellers, Tokyo Dragons, and Motörhead here
and Gozer Goodspeed talks to Shaun about Bob Dylan, Carlos Santana and Buddy Miles, The Rolling Stones, and Jimi Hendrix here
What's next?
There's lots more stuff happening behind the scenes at Lights And Lines including new artist signings (to be announced soon!), plenty of secret and not so secret projects, and various other exciting things we're looking forward to talking to you about soon...
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