Posted by KVS on February 5th, 2012 |
0 commentsThis weekend I have been going through the last 6months of song ideas because I am dropping off some tracks to The Bridge Sound and Stage for mixing. I came across this song- that I kind like but had forgot about. There are some things that I would change if it ever made it to the next album, but here it is. It is about a bunch of boys who don’t have fathers and are trying to come up with mottoes to live by.
Stills from new animation for the video “pussy”
Posted by KVS on January 23rd, 2012 |
0 commentsA bad childhood can mean a lifetime of anger. It certainly doesn’t help if you were given away by your parents at age 11 to go work for rich folks, live in a cellar, and never have enough to eat…
(please excuse the final cut pro shenanigans- still learning)
Posted by KVS on December 19th, 2011 |
0 commentsLast week was very busy! CYCLOPS was released and many fine folks had a lot of good things to say about it (see blog postings below). I am very thankful to those of you who bought the record! I also debuted my video for Code of Fishermen- please check it out if you haven’t already. Below is also a song that did not make the cut for CYCLOPS, but may be on the next album. I have to tell you I am not exactly sure what the lyrics mean, but I know it was about a guy waiting for a girl to break up with a boyfriend so that he could move in.
Kudos for CYCLOPS:
DYSON SOUND
MUSIC SAVAGE
EARMILK
MY CAR IS FULL OF PLUMS
IMPOSE
EKAYA
INTERVIEW ON WMBR
Here is also a page of song notes that I found today with Angie as we were cleaning- I laughed for a while when I read this- who will ever take me seriously?
“break his heart, don’t hold his hand!
Posted by KVS on November 30th, 2011 |
0 comments
My new album Cyclops is almost ready for release! The release date is DEC 13th! So to take a break from things I still have to do for the 10″ record and animated video I thought I would take a second and reflect on this last year. For some reason this group of songs on Cyclops, at least in my head, seemed to coalesce around fantasy and people that get caught up in ideas. Many of these songs describe people who are overwhelmed or captivated by a fantastic narrative. A Cyclops makes an appearance in one song (more on that in a later post)- and it seemed to make sense to me to have these songs wrapped up in this mythical figure-the cyclops- so that is what I titled the album.
Here are a couple of stills from the video I am working on for Code of Fishermen
A falling Cyala (group of male cyclops-es)
2011 presented a fair amount of challenges. It was a year fraught with peril and peppered with scurrilous characters bent on destroying all that is good. Here is a song about a man on the verge of making some really bad life choices, just because he was bored and scared of growing old. This song did not make the cut this year (it was not finished by the time I was editing for Cyclops- and is now different from this version).
Posted by KVS on August 22nd, 2011 |
0 commentsThis is probably when people start to wonder aloud if I have lost it- because I am drawing human faced deer all day long (no one seemed to give a crap about the owls, but the deer- people aint tryin to hear that). I don’t know how I came into this story- I have been looking at old German children’s stories about the Black Forest, but none of them involve a deer. I just figured it was cool to draw- and for all of the indie rock bands with “deer” in their name none of them have any deer art on their records. So here we are- this first song that was a result of animation being made first!
Untitled from kurt Leif on Vimeo.
Posted by KVS on July 25th, 2011 |
0 commentsAnother song demo over some completely unrelated animation stuff I have been working on. This song has been kicking around for a while, but I never really put the finishing touches on it. I have been really into finger picking my ukulele lately (I play it more like a banjo) and I thought that it sounded right for this song.
Editors Note: The deer does have a “deer mask” that I am going to put on him to finish the animation- I mean it would just be silly the way it is now….
Posted by KVS on July 14th, 2011 |
0 commentsHoly crap I suck at final cut pro. This song was kind of a reaction to an overheard conversation. A young man was apologizing to a friend for his recent attitude and actions. Apparently he was blowing his good friends off and putting on airs (of all things). He was trying to come up with an excuse for his behavior- the weed of course. I made the judgement call that this young man was not in fact a pot head (maybe I am wrong but it seemed like even he did not believe it himself). His friend did not buy it either and called him out on it.
Friend: Oh it’s cuz of the drugs? Shit man that is one of the side effects – acting like you are too good for me?
Young Man: No, I mean its just that with school…
Friend: Ok- I am gonna have to warn your girlfriend though- I mean with you having a big weed problem and all!
Young Man: No! Just keep it on the DL.
Friend: On the DL? Are you kidding me? What kind of weed do you smoke?
Young Man: Weed man, weed…
Friend: That is what I thought….
I will be re-editing this video!
Untitled from Kurt von Stetten on Vimeo.
Posted by KVS on June 13th, 2011 |
0 commentsThis song has been kicking around half finished for about 3 years now (maybe less). I tried to re-write it many times, but always come back to this original version- I re-recorded some things and finished up the loose ends today.
Also, I was working on some animation tests this weekend so I put them all together and made a little video.
Collect Turtles and living things from Kurt von Stetten on Vimeo.
