Erised and What Came After - UPDATED 12/20

So, y'all should know by now that I'm pretty impatient when it comes to sharing my music, though I've gotten a lot better! Still, holding off on releasing Jaded is fucking killing me, yo! However, I do have an outlet for my impatience in the form of Patreon and The League of Extraordinary Snails, masked as a way for me to reward my financial supporters, when in actuality they are my guinea pigs that I unleash songs on when I just can't hold out anymore. Cue sinister laughter.

And so it is that I've created Erised, shamelessly named after the mirror in Harry Potter to proudly display just how much of a geek I am. If there were a shorter name for the Mirror of Galadriel, that would have been the title, just so you know. I would've gone for a Lord of the Rings reference first. Why I've named this three-track mini-EP after a mirror - why a mirror reference in general seemed of import - escapes me, so feel free to psychoanalyze it and get back to me with whatever you come up with. But the title goes wonderfully with the cover, and the cover is a beautiful manipulation of the base image for much of my poster art and for the cover of Jaded (which I call "Nym, the Great and Powerful") and the photograph by Robert Zuchowski (titled "Up in the Air") that was used for the cover of Wisps of Reason.

Little trade secret: I'm showing the cover image with this background and this size because it will conveniently appear perfectly-sized for links posted on social media. Just sharing in case you ever noticed a pattern and wondered about it.

Anyway, as far as Patreon goes, Erised joins Jade & Co. in the tier of rewards for pledges of $5 or more. If you're thinking that these two combined will give away all the new material to be found on Jaded, you'd be wrong. I've been working so much on new material while fine-tuning Jaded and waiting to see what Alejandro and Matt might come up with that I actually already have a title, cover, and track listing for the first seven-track Snail Tunes EP to be released in 2016! So there is one song from Jaded included on this new teaser, but the other two songs (titled "Passage Through The Veil" and "Overdrive") are from the next Snail Tunes release. I've decided to share "Overdrive" here for you, my dear readers.

This bit of orchestral dance rock with darkwave, industrial-metal undertones is actually a sequel of sorts to the other song, "Passage Through The Veil," which is an orchestral post-metal epic that threatens to replace "The Cloud Walkers" as my magnum opus... Well, maybe not. There are similarities, but is there really any replacing "The Cloud Walkers?" Only my audience will be able to tell me when "Passage Through The Veil" is released in 2016.

The song from Jaded joining these two on Erised is very, very dear to me and I'm very proud of it, but also very nervous to release it. It's a haunting, bluesy, mellow little piece of trip-hop in the acid jazz sort of vein of that sub-genre, called "Cold Sunlight," and I sing on it. This isn't me screaming, or trying to imitate Maynard, nor is it chanting or wordless wailing. This is the gentle crooning of genuine lyrics. Okay, I go a little loud and grungy for one verse, but the rest is me just letting these verses be pulled out of me by the music. I'm not going to try and get anyone else to sing this one for me, so this is what you get, and I really hope you like it. I love this song, and I hope I'm doing it justice. Even today I've been working hard at fine-tuning it. Luckily, I still have a few weeks to continue to do so if the need should come upon me before I release it to the public at large.

Well, that's all about Erised. And so y'all know, "Overdrive" is also available as a single-song download for all Patrons, and Erised is available to Leaguers as well. Now, I've been working all day just to get these rewards ready and posted, and I'm cracked out on coffee and my stomach is rumbling and it's three in the morning. I'd say it's about time to have some desert and watch The Vampire Diaries, wouldn't you?

UPDATE: A newly remastered edit of "Sublime Like Swine," featuring myself for vocals, is now available in tier of rewards for pledges of $1 or more at Patreon.