During my little tour in north America, I kept questioning myself whether I am honest with my music. It seemed that all the great artists I played with, had much more soul, freedom and external support, much that I could never achieve of. I wondered why I can’t be as relaxed as they are. Why can’t I play as fluid, improvised and beautiful as them? Why it all seems easy on their side? On which side am I?

Further and further I drifted away from the confidence that I recently used proud. I decided to stop doing live shows, rest from music in general and to start learning fresh new things. For the next six months I lived in my own created dream where I was this ambitious video game designer. Well, as you see, that dream didn’t materialized even though I tried as hard as possible. I attempted to recruit other people into my new fantasy however, I am not sure if it’s due to the fact that I can’t pay people money or my own person and naivity, it didn’t really work out. My new, groundbreaking, musical game is only a few hundred lines of code as of now. Yes, I am impatient but this doesn’t mean that everything that I touch should have this weird “fail” aura around. I love to work on things long and hard. But I am starting to hate that feeling that I am alone, trying to push push but nothing significant ever happens. Same realizaton applies to my music.

Well, good part of my dreaming was that I learned quite a lot of Javascript and general programming paradigms. I am not afraid of C anymore. I implement creative algorithms into my music. I can design & develop simple websites. I fell in love with databases. I built an arduino & raspberry pi powered indoors garden.

“So what”, I hear Miles Davis trumpeting away. Yes, exactly, so what, that’s what I am thinking. All of this hacking and playing around has led me into a brick wall. I am looking at this wall and have no clue if I can climb it. Probably not. Can I break a hole in it by trying very very hard? People say yes, keep on doing it while I have no more energy left…

It’s a beautiful summer here, people are having good time with their friends, drinking beer at park. I just went through a couple of intensive weeks of making new music because I found a gram of inspiration and sort feel good about making another album. However this heavy feeling of having no place hits me hard again and here I am, writing all of this crap. I keep repeating to myself “who cares?” despite secretely hoping that there is someone who can help me, guide me, work with me. Someone who believes in my creativity.

Drunk, homeless guy comes and sits  next to me on a bench I am sitting on right now. I hear the irony.

Anybody out there?

Do you remember how did it start? That was quite a while ago…

On 21st of November, 2010 I embarked on a journey to create a new album in 111 days. Little did I know that the path will be so rocky. My closest friends know that I nearly went mental going through the whole experience, however I am all fine now, happier than ever. As 111 was my first crowdfunding experiment, I am definitely going to write more about the process later, I think I have some helpful tips for you, fellow artist ;>

Anyway, the most important thing is that 111 is complete and those who supported the project financially may have already received their rewards – I shipped all of them last week ;> Now, finally, I want to shout “YEAAAAAAAAAH!!!” as loud as possible releasing 111 to everyone in the world! It’s licensed under Creative Commons so feel free to share, that will make me extremely happy. If you want to support my work you can pay whatever you feel the album is worth. Also, I got few USB token packages left for the most eager eleven tigers fans ;>

Grab your copy here, then share share share!

The best part is that the whole 111 video is up on Youtube for everyone to watch, yay!

Thanks everyone who made this possible, love you!!!

Naturally, I don’t want 111 to fail so I sat and thought of what could be done. Although I would love to see the release of 12” vinyl LP that was set to feature selected tracks from 111 final event, I will have to, unfortunately, leave it out in order to proceed with the project. Basically, this is due to the fact that the vinyl is quite costly to produce and, therefore, it would be undoable with the resources I would have by the deadline of 111.

All of the people who donated have received a detailed explanation of what happens with their donations. The generous patrons who donated £35 or more will receive full or partial refunds depending on their choice (please, check your email ;> .)

There are millions of lessons that I learned from 111 and once 111 ends I will write a long post about  the whole crowdfunding experience. After all, I am very happy with the current state of the project and I will continue working hard in order to make it awesome… Thanks a lot for your support!

x

Also, I am a bit busy with my live performances around Europe. My live set is where my music is at the moment and I will continue pushing it more and more. Thanks to your support and word of mouth I got some really cool bookings and I hope my live schedule will continue to thicken ;>

My next stop is Langweiligkeit Festival in Den Haag, Netherlands. I know that the venue is quite an extraordinary location, I am really looking forward to play there:

I’ll see you very soon!

I’ve just summarized my experiences since ‘Clouds are Mountains’ got released. My album’s been out for two months already and it’s been amazing to watch it spread across the web and into people’s hands. I haven’t expected such a positive response and so many new listeners. To visualize this surge, here’s a last.fm chart displaying total plays scrobbled:

I am quite obsessed with statistics so it is worth mentioning that eleven tigers bandcamp registered more than 18,000 plays during those two months…

Well, all I can say is big big THANK YOU! For the first time in my life, I feel like a rabbit in YOUR headlights and I must say that I am enjoying the run! You sent me some incredibly inspiring and encouraging emails, tweets, comments and reviews, I just want to say that you guys are amazing, your support is overwhelming. I am feeling extremely creative and ready to step into a new stage of my life which, I feel, will be quite special. I will update you through my newsletter as I go along (sorry, it’s been a while – I just don’t want to bombard you with pointless news and PR) ;>

Essentially, I am coming to Satta festival in Sventoji, Lithuania and Unsound (!!!) festival in Krakow, Poland where I will be playing along many great artists (Ben Frost, Shackleton, Joy Orbison, Mount Kimbie, Clouds etc.). I can’t wait and I want to meet YOU!

Once again, thanks for your support, people! Will be back very soon ;]

11t

(Video: Watch this video on the post page)

go and get your early bird CD from here.

biggest thanks to everyone who supported me and waited for so long, warmest feelings ever!

xxx

I am trying  to play music more impulsively, I love to take an instrument (even if I don’t know how to play it) and explore it’s sonic beauty. sometimes it is very pleasing, sometimes is just plain bullshit. Yet, when I record my explorations I end up with plenty of material to be reused, reorganized and remixed. Last Thursday, after probably 6 hours of improv with Ben Duff, some Mazzy Star like atmosphere blew in and we ended up playing this:

here’s a hi-res mp3 of the recording: http://tinyurl.com/y7agu4j

hey, this Friday is going to be really intense… come down to The Croft and hear some amazing music from bass veterans and me!

together with (Cosmin) TRG/Geiom/Julio Bashmore/Forsaken/EFA and more…

here’s a video of me rehearsing:

check in: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=325098376137

go to the social sampler page and become a collaborator by submitting your username (those who selected to become collaborators through registering can happily go editing now)…