February Artist of the Month: Espy Unleashed!!

[Dave]

A few years back, when his wife went on her second deployment with the National Guard, Espy was busy doing comic book art as his main hobby. It was fun, but he soon realized it wasn't going to be anything more than a hobby. He thought he just wasn't good enough to go get a job doing it. Around the same time he realized this he hooked my keyboard up to his Mac and did a kind of postal service-ish version of Johnny Cash's "I Walk the Line".

It was a ton of fun and suddenly he got really interested in how easy it was to record in Garageband. So he started buying gear and moved up to recording in Logic. Constantly writing songs and then refining them, a buddy suggested that he get together with another friend, a guitar player whose band had broken up recently. The collaboration started small, recording guitars for me and I started writing new stuff tailored to our sound together. We picked 5 songs and put together an EP.

If all goes well, as of Feb. 2nd, 2010, it should be released on Amazon.com, iTunes, Cdbaby.com (thats gonna be the cheapest, probably about .99 cents for the entire EP) and a ton of other online retailers thanks to the distribution by CDBaby. Assuming this works, as of today you should be able to go search for it on any of the above places and find it. If you do want to support the band the most expensive place to buy it is iTunes. It has been priced at the cheapest possible on there and that's .69 per track which rounds to $4.14 for the whole thing. If you buy it and give them a positive review Espy will personally play you in a game of scrabble on Facebook and promises you will win. Because he sucks at it.

As to the music, the EP is called "The World Glow". They are assembling the full band, so in the end these probably won't be the final recordings of these songs, but the EP is designed to get their stuff out there in reasonably high quality.

Here's the music:

01. The World Glow


02. It Takes Away


03. A Fly to Honey (an instrumental track)


04. Desperate Horses - One of the harder tracks on the EP


05. The Devil in You


06. It Takes Away (Strings Mix)


As for tracks not on the EP, here are a few tracks that we are still working on, so they aren't mastered.
The Echo


I'm a Believer (Yes, a cover of the Monkee's song, but trust me, it's... a little different)


Song credits are:
Songwriter, keyboards, programming and vocals - Stephen Miller
Guitars, Bass - Joshua James Ans

Live Band:
Songwriter, keyboards, programming and vocals - Stephen Miller
Guitars, Bass - Joshua James Ans
Bass - Dr. X aka Lex
Drums - Joshua James Dingle

Here is the art for the EP and some of the individual song art I've worked up for promotion:






If you have any questions about any of the processes, software, hardware, Espy would love to answer them.

To find Fallen Empire on the web:
Our Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Fallen...6821784?ref=ts
Our Soundcloud page: http://soundcloud.com/fallenempire
Our obligatory Myspace page: http://www.myspace.com/inafallenempire

EDIT:
Just wanted to let everyone know that the EP is now LIVE!

You can buy it here at iTunes: http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/the...ep/id353730689
Or here at CDBaby: http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/FallenEmpire

Now here is the deal. It's dirt cheap at CDBaby, .99 cents for the whole thing (how awesomely cheap is that?), however, they aren't as sophisticated as iTunes so you have to add the artwork that comes in the zip file yourself once you have added it to your music player.

So, as a little bonus for those who choose to use iTunes, since they priced it higher than I had intended (.99 per song instead of 69 per song, the cheapest it will allow), Fallen Empire is putting together a thank you gift of digital art and a bonus track! Which track? Well, I ain't saying but theres a good chance by giving it away I'm gonna make a Monkee out of myself...
Just send us a message here or on Facebook or Myspace so we can send you a link to download the gift!

[Espy]

Thanks for setting this up Dave! Just wanted to say that as soon as I get confirmation of the EP available for download I will let everyone here know.

[Dave]

I like your version of "I'm a Believer"!

[Wasabi Poptart]

I agree, Dave. That version of "I'm a Believer" is great! I like "It Takes Away", too.

[Espy]

Thanks guys, thats one of my favorites, if we get the rights it will be on our full album later. I'll post an update when I get it about the EP, I'm probably gone until after 5 or 6 tonight. My day just got insane here at work. Thanks again!

[LittleSin]

Oky. This is wesome.

Got to ask...re you Tool or Perfect Circle fan? You sound a lot like the latter.

also, you have my husbands name. Rock on!

[Gusto]

And my brother's name.

[Dave]

And my axe!

[Espy]

also, you have my husbands name. Rock on!

And my brother's name.

QUOTE=Dave;336763]And my axe![/QUOTE]

Dave has now won one giant internet! Seriosly man, that was hilarious, I literally laughed out loud. OUT. LOUD.

Yeah little sin, I'm a big tool/perfect circle fan, interesting you think we sound like them... I know they influenced my writing ( of course, so do the Monkees ) but no one has mentioned them when they hear my stuff! I consider that a big compliment! Thanks
Looks like the EP is kind of live. I'm gonna go do some research and get back to ya'll

[Dave]

Yeah little sin, I'm a big tool

FINALLY! He gets it!

[Cajungal]

Y'all are really talented.

[Espy]

Yeah little sin, I'm a big tool

FINALLY! He gets it!

BADA-TUM!

[Espy]

BUMP! Just wanted to let everyone know that the EP is now LIVE!

You can buy it here at iTunes: http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/the...ep/id353730689
Or here at CDBaby: http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/FallenEmpire

Now here is the deal. It's dirt cheap at CDBaby, .99 cents for the whole thing (how awesomely cheap is that?), however, they aren't as sophisticated as iTunes so you have to add the artwork that comes in the zip file yourself once you have added it to your music player.

So, as a little bonus for those who choose to use iTunes, since they priced it higher than I had intended (.99 per song instead of 69 per song, the cheapest it will allow), Fallen Empire is putting together a thank you gift of digital art and a bonus track! Which track? Well, I ain't saying but theres a good chance by giving it away I'm gonna make a Monkee out of myself...
Just send us a message here or on Facebook or Myspace so we can send you a link to download the gift!

[LittleSin]

Upon further consideration you lso sound lot like Deadsy did on their first lbum Commencment. Have you ever herd of them?

[Espy]

I haven't but I assume thats a good thing so thank you

[LordRavage]

*Thumbs up!

[Espy]

Thanks LR! I'm trying to finish the digital gift, looks like I have a decent amount of folks who are getting it and so I'm wrapping up all the art thats going to be with the bonus track, here's the 4th, a Fly to Honey:
aflytohoney_web.jpg

[Espy]

Just wanted to let everyone know we got a new AOTM coming up soon so I thought I'd close this thread out. We are starting our first live practice in our new space tonight and hopefully we will be playing live soon, then we can work on getting a full CD out.

Thanks to everyone who bought the EP, I'm almost done with the mastering of Believer and the art for the digital gift, so expect a download link sent via email soon. This is the art for it:

Believer_lores.jpg

Thanks for all the support guy, it's really appreciated, I'll keep everyone updated on my thread in the artists section.