I haven't logged into LJ since 2017, and… people are still posting here? Wow…
It’s been a long 30 days, but we did it. Cognitive Dissonance is now in production with real drums, guitar, bass, and even a real piano this time. We’re just shy of netting 200% of our original goal, but… we’ve still got room to grow.
It’s Slacker-Backer Time
I’ve already heard from a few people who, despite the month-long campaign, missed out on their chance to support the album. It’s okay, I procrastinate all the time too. One of these days that recycling bin will actually empty itself.
But for those of you who still want to get in on the exclusive goodies, there is hope! Head over to matthewebel.com/cogdis and you can grab one of the same packages I offered on Kickstarter. You’ll be charged immediately, of course, but otherwise it’s really no different from the original campaign.
What Now?
The mixing is mostly done already. Now the album must be mastered, a process whereby witch doctors and druids chant and sprinkle bizarre powders all over the album to make it better. No, seriously, it’s pretty much audio voodoo… but it does actually make the album sound much better. This is also why we’re still taking new funding from slacker-backers: I’d still like to send the album to Andrew Mendelson who did my last three albums. He’s a Grammy-winner, he’s damn good, and he’s priced accordingly.
There’s also a slim glimmer of hope that we’ll still make it to vinyl. The album’s the perfect length for a vinyl LP and I set the track order for a perfect Side A/Side B arrangement. But vinyl’s expensive! It’d be great if we could make it happen, but that’s entirely up to you.
No matter what, though, we’ve got a great-sounding album on our hands. You’ll be getting updates about it as we get nearer to its official release in May, but for now… Thank you.
I recently announced on Kickstarter that I would trade my art budget for the chance to record real (not digital) piano tracks. Most people will never notice the difference, but I believe the money was absolutely well spent. The difference is subtle, but an important part of album creation. Take a listen:
The first half is my original MIDI piano… which is pretty damn good, honestly. Apple put a lot of energy and engineering into their samples for Logic, but there’s just something richer about the second half. Something more authentic that most people can’t put their finger on. Something that gives me a chance to explain how Pareto’s Law applies to making an album.
What Is Pareto’s Law?
If you’re not familiar with Pareto’s Law, it’s also called the 80/20 principle and its applications vary greatly:
- 80% of your music income comes from 20% of your fans
- 80% of your problems come from 20% of your fans
- 80% of your income and impressions come from 20% of the time you spent working
When I make an album, it means two specific things:
- 80% of the album’s quality comes from 20% of the effort I put into it
- The remaining 20% of the album’s quality takes 80% of my effort
Getting a B grade isn’t much harder than getting a C, but that A+ takes four times the effort. Make sense?
It’s the Little Things
Photo by Chris Penn
When you hear a great album, you don’t consciously perceive all the little things that make you love it so much. Sure, that guitar solo or soulful vocal is easy to pick out, but that’s actually the easy part. That’s the 80%.
Chris Penn once shared a photo from the France pavilion at Epcot. He had found an antique bicycle leaning against the wall next to an easel and painter’s supplies. It was a prop, of course, but a prop that you’d only ever pass by if you went to the restroom in that particular section of the park. 90% of Epcot’s visitors would never know it’s there, but Disney believes in Pareto’s Law. That little extra bit of atmosphere helps cement the experience in a way that canned accordion music and crepe stands never could.
It’s so easy to cut corners when producing an album; That amp modeler sounds good enough. That MIDI piano sounds good enough. And for at least nine of my own albums, my engineering ability sounds good enough.
We don’t go into this business to make B-grade art, we aim for greatness. Every time you decide not to go for that extra 20%— to get that A+ instead of a B —you’re taking away a tiny piece of your album’s greatness. Take away enough little pieces and… Well look at that, you’ve lost 20% of your album’s quality already. Pareto’s Law at work.
We just spent two full days replacing the drums and re-amping guitar/bass parts at Mad Oak Studios. Many, many thanks to Shelly, Greg, Karasu, Richard, and Earl for coming to the recording session, I hope you had a great time!
As I said on the Kickstarter page, the drums sound ENORMOUS compared to the basement recordings we captured throughout 2016. This has truly transformed the sound of this album, just from hearing the early mixes.
Day 2 was spent re-amping the guitar and bass parts. Re-amping is where you take a clean guitar or bass recording (no effects, no distortion, just the pure guitar sound recorded at home) and run it through an amp/effects in the studio. This allows Matt Pompei and Koro to focus on getting the right performance in the comfort of their own home. The expensive studio time is spent just getting the right tone for their performance.
The difference, much like the drums, is enormous. Benny Grotto is a re-amping wizard, and the spells he cast on Matt and Koro’s performances will blow your mind. Seriously. You may need paper towels and some de-greaser.
Taking A Gamble
Wait… didn’t you say real guitar and bass parts are Goal #2?
Yes, I’m taking a bit of a gamble here. We’re still $660 shy of officially meeting that goal, but we’ve still got 18 days left to do it. I’m counting on you to help me bust through the next goal or three in a few weeks’ time. So please keep spreading the word about Cognitive Dissonance!
I promise, your friends and family will forgive you for harassing them once they hear it.
(And I’ve also got more studio photos on Instagram)
Cognitive dissonance is more than just inconsistency in your stated beliefs (i.e. “but her emails” vs. “Pence’s personal AOL account”). It’s a breakdown of critical thinking that allows you to believe in contradictory concepts without resolving them.
Or, to put it simply, it’s a lack of questions. Or maybe just a lack of answers you’re willing to accept.
If you’re afraid to accept facts that make you uncomfortable, though, it never makes you stronger. In fact, it makes you easier to manipulate. Once you stop questioning yourself (and, more importantly, questioning your leaders), you’ve outsourced your brain to someone else’s agenda. Who are you allowing to do your thinking for you? A pundit? A pastor? A lover? A chemical?
If there’s a war on critical thinking, who’s your enemy? (It might actually be yourself.)
Alternative Facts
President #45’s attacks on the media are just machine gun fire across the trenches in this war. But I cling to hope that it will eventually backfire. After all, he’s effectively encouraging more questions. True, it’s likely that his drones will simply flock to sources that confirm their biases. They’ll keep buying the spin even as his alternative facts contradict themselves.
But it is my hope that some of them, even just one, will actually take his advice: Question the media. Question the sources. Do some fact-checking and educate yourself. With any luck, they may even accept “classic” facts when they find them.
An Album of Questions
The new album I’m working on, Cognitive Dissonance, is mostly about bringing up the questions that will free us. Questions that have helped free me, at least. Some of them are painful, sure, but we can never let our critical thinking atrophy. Once we stop asking questions, we’ve lost.
And then we’re at the mercy of those who want to do the thinking for us.
It’s time to bring Cognitive Dissonance to life.
For the next 30 days, I’ll be asking you to help make the next album happen. We don’t need much— just $3,000. The last time you helped me release an album, it broke $9,000 in less than a month, so hopefully we can at least get over the first hurdle. Of course, the ultimate goal is VINYL, but I’ll be happy just to put proper drum, guitar, and bass tracks on the album.
This isn’t an adventure album, it’s not based on a new novel, and it’s not for kids. This is pure, unadulterated piano rock that I’ve been brewing for the last year and a half. At a time when critical thinking itself seems to be under fire, I needed to create something that exposed the kinds of questions we ask ourselves every day.
Yeah, it can get serious. On a few tracks it even gets political. Fortunately, though, Prodo-1 still gets to sing an entire song. Also, there are coyotes.
Back this project now at matthewebel.com/cogdis
I’ll be kicking off the month with a Telethoncert… a streaming concert tomorrow at 6pm EST. You’ll be able to catch it at matthewebel.com/live OR at matthewebel.com/cogdis
If you’re not familiar with NPR’s Tiny Desk concert series, it’s a little thing where they stick a band behind Bob Boilen’s diminutive credenza and music happens. That’s it, really! But the contest itself involves more than just an appearance on NPR, there’s a full-on tour involved. So I entered with THIS video (that you can watch and share at NPR’s website).
Apparently my robot buddy, Prodo-1, has been asking some questions of my email list (the Robot Army). I think he might be trying to replace me with some kind of artificial intelligence (or artificial stupidity like Prodo-2). Either way, I support the experiment. At least he’s got a hobby, right?
The best part, though, has been reading some of the responses. Normally I’d cover one or two during my weekly live streams, but there are so many good answers pouring in I wanted to share some with you…
What’s the crazy plot-twist at the end of Matthew Ebel: The Movie?
We find out that Prodo-2 is actually a malfunctioning coffee maker.-Geargutz
Matthew is actually a synthetic organism made up of panda and avian DNA. It turns out his overarching goal was not, in fact, global domination of the music industry. But was instead to open a collection of bamboo emporiums.-Inusan
After a long, exhausting battle, Matthew finds himself besieged by the Roosterman Menace, trapped in an ancient underground temple somewhere in the Chihuahuan Desert with nothing more than the clothes on his back. Using his knowledge of thaumic resonant energies, Matthew infuses a nearby hawk with superpowers and a massive size. The hawk uses his newfound eye lasers and fire breath to repel the enemy forces, and then offers his help to end the attacks of the evil chicken-people upon our Planet Earth by serving as Matthew’s steed. And so, they ride, Matthew and the hawk winning every battle as they push towards their enemies’ base: The Egg of Pernicious Poultry. In the end, Matthew and the hawk dive-bomb into the enemy chambers, setting off a mighty blaze of fireworks and glory, which destroys The Egg and all within. The world writes him off as dead, honoring the sacrifice made that day… but the hero Matthew lives yet!-Grayson
I have to admit, if that last one is just the twist at the end, it’s gonna be a LONG movie. Also, an alarming number of you assumed that I’d tear off my mask and reveal myself to be either a robot or a bird. Or a robot bird. Anyhoo, Prodo has apparently been gathering data on all of you as well. Like this gem:
When the lab finished experimenting on YOU, what was your new superpower?
The ability to fully understand all British humour.-Shadis
The ability to lightly chill things on command.-Anonymous
The ability to bullshit papers for college.-Chris Laurence
Crippling anxiety.-Very Anonymous
Oh well, whatever Prodo-1 is up to, I hope he doesn’t actually give anyone magical powers of… um… crippling anxiety. But if you’d like to be a part of the experiment, don’t forget to join the Robot Army. I’m sure he’s got more questions for us meat-based beings.
I’m never sure what I’m trying to say.
I’m never sure what I’m thinking, usually. My head is always full of questions.
Yours is too, I’m guessing. But that is okay. Our determined stares hold back the flood of questions, but we must let them flow.
The time to question is always right now.
Question what you’ve been told. Question what you’ve told others. Question your God, your leaders, and your bosses. Above all, question yourself.
You will always find cognitive dissonance. You will always find conflict.
You will only resolve them though questions.
Anyone who tells you not to question is trying to enslave you.
Questions are what empower you, even as they make you feel uncertain.
Questions can bring down walls.
The time to question is now.
The message of many, many parent/teacher conferences was abundantly clear: Matthew Ebel talks too much.
He acts out in class.
He employs “attention-getting devices.”
And now even Patreon is jumping on me for this… except they’re actually praising me.
Go figure.
But what strikes me is… wow… 95%? I’m more active than ninety-five percent of everyone else on Patreon? Seriously, I’m kicking myself for not being more active with my hardest-core-of-hardcore fans, yet I’m apparently one of the most interactive creators on the site.
Would I be better off if I were more stoic? Is that what serious artists are like? ‘Cause I think the Officers prefer me as a “chatterbox.”
In fact, I’m about to go thank my Officer’s Club for making 2016 my best year yet (financially speaking, anyway), even though I only played a handful of shows. And despite the impending inauguration of President ManChild McTwitterTantrum, I think 2017 may be even better than the last.
I guess it’s up to us to decide how the next year will unfold, and I sure as hell ain’t going to do that quietly.
Or alone.
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