LITR Music Video Update: Sun to Moon

Image: A still taken from some 120fps video footage from my recent "Long is the Road" guitar shoot on white mountain.

Good morning, a short update today. I’ve returned from white mountain with all the guitar footage needed to finish off the “Long is the Road” music video. I’ve also returned with all my fingers and toes. No Milligoth encounters and the Witch was happy to see me so early in the year. She was busy catching northern sierra tree frogs when I came upon her. I asked her for some wind and she brought a little stormy sky for the first sunset shoot. I think it was about 50mph winds as you’ll see in the video when it’s done. All in all it was 3 days of shooting, sun to moon… literally. One wind storm and a few late evening bats encounters and here I am back in BOK. So what does it take you ask. 2 Guitars, one RS3 tracking Gimble, tripods, gopro and guitar mounts, Canon R5, Ipad pro with raveneye Wifi monitoring system, amp, costumes, props, scripts and iphone playpack with 75% and 85% timestreched guitar and drum tracks.. I know I’m missing a few things but, point being, with so many little details to remember in such a remote location the shoots went off without a hitch. Other than me only bringing one guitar strap and forgetting I didn’t have the same quick lock mounts of each guitar. One full day was dedicated to a little intro feature I’m putting together for the video. Something special that will connect the 2 videos when hey are both completed. Something that has to do with me growing up in range of the great 94 WHJY heavy metal radio tower in New England. I hope to release the first video for “Long is the Road” in a few weeks. Now that all the first video footage is recorded and shoots wrapped up, I really am just finishing post on guitars and starting the final edits. The front feature will need a little scoring and dialog tracking that I hope to complete this weekend or the next. During these next weeks I be editing and packing for my first real pilgrimage with Ezra, where this year I plan I filming all the sequences needed for “the balled of the dead rabbit” during my travels through the canyons of white mountain, on route to the great tree. It should be a wonderful year of bringing my breakers record to life. Closing all this work out should allow me to focus on touring and writing a new record next year. That seems to be the plan as I see it. Throw in a vinyl release, some new merch and maybe a few cargo vans or a used touring bus and I suppose you can start to paint the picture of where the mad captain of this fateful Hadder ship is heading. Well that’s it for today, just wanted to give a little update. Ezra says hello. A little side note, I hear the interview I did with Yiannis Dolas for www.rockpages .com will be dropping soon. I’ll let you know when it’s out. Stay the course friends.

Farewell

-j

Season of the Witch

Image: Some video from some of the "Long is the Road" post production footage.

Good morning, it’s the start of my first moon. The lunar anniversary of my time on earth. Let me catch you up on Hadder things.

Last we left off I was tending to my computers as they were crunching Data for the new “Long is the Road” music video. Not much has changed but I’m close now to starting the final editing for the video. Here is an update:

Merch: I added a new shirt this week. It’s a variation of the Black Sleeve jersey. I think that’s it for that 1st design. I have my mind on some new designs that will slowly leak out over the coming months, including a rendition of the actual album cover. Just need some time to sit with it. If you happen to buy something, please email me an image of you wearing it if you want, I would love to use those images for a video in the future.

Music Video: So far so good. Just about done with all the post processing. I’ll soon begin working on the real edits and video timeline, however, I do have one shoot left. I’ll be leaving the safety of the city this weekend off to white mountain to film the final guitar sequences. It s a bit of a trek. I’ve been packing a few days for what I have planned. I don’t want to give it away as I think it will be a nice surprise for the video. The way I see it, this video will be forever or at least until the web is deactivated by robots, and so one final shoot to cross the T’s and dot the I’s so to say, shouldn’t hurt. I made the mistake of telling Ezra earlier in the week that I was thinking about going to white mountain this weekend to film and she’s been huffing and puffing and drooling ever since… “grumble grumble” She knows what time of year it is… she can smell autumn too. For those who don’t know, me and Ezra generally make some end of the year trips each year… I call them pilgrimages.. to see the witch on white mountain and to leave some things as an offering. We reflect on the year and reconnect with the spirits up there… the guardians of the doolimytes. Later in the year I do plan on filming the ballad of the dead rabbit music video out there if I can get ahead of the snowfall, but for now… a little early trip to film guitars for the LITR video seems logical. I’ve been planning it all week. I tried to assemble a band last minute for a video shoot as option 2, but LA schedules are hard to plan on short notice and so once again… I’ll do what I can with what I have in my control. From what I’ve seen so far from some quick edits of the LITR video, this footage should be just enough to give the video that last bit of contrast it needs as a whole. I’ve also been dreaming up this little beginning scripted sequence for the video and I needed some mountains to complete the vision of it and bring it to life. Considering my past trips to this place during the making of the record, I felt it was important that it now find a little spot in the video forever. I should also mention that Ezra thinks the milligoths are running… she’s been eating tower food for months and I know she’s hungry for some real food… little does she know the milligoths don’t come down from the highlands until the first snowfall. I don’t have the heart to tell her… so I just keep egging her on… “milligoths… mmmmm” ha, It’s the simple things bring a smile to my face. Her time will come soon enough, after we close out this first video.

Physical release: For those who have asked. Yes, there will be a physical release of “Beyond the Breakers” hopefully by the end of the year. I can only do so much and right now all energy is on the 1st music video as it’s needed for the first round of press. There are a few new ways this could happen, and I’ll be sorting out the details of those in the coming weeks as I start final edits for the LITR music video. I will say that when I first dropped the record I wasn’t planning on much, a soft and quiet digital release as I huddle down in LA and shot the 1st music video, a press campaign, a radio campaign… I was prepared for the long haul. It’s all I’ve ever known. I’ve become quite accustomed to the slow pace of life on the music road. I don’t mind the grind; I actually plan for it. However, some new opportunities have come about that could speed up the process and help get the record into new territories where hopefully it can find new listeners. It’s just a matter of time now.

“Time is a ladder

up to the shine

every step we take

leads to another why,

and hope is the only thing

that keeps us alive

while we reach for the gold

Long is the Road”

I suppose those words were written for a reason. Because the meaning of them is like the blood in my veins. Much like most of the other lyrics on the “Beyond the Breakers” record, there’s no secrets here… I tend to wear my heart on my sleeve.

“A real truth is hard to hide, hard to un-tell our youthful lies,

but come the very bell beyond her silver line… the fairy tale she never dies.” -j

Last thing. If for some reason I get eaten by rouge Milligoths this weekend, please enjoy my record for years to come. It was an honest attempt and made with good intentions. I wish you the best on your own journeys. I’ll tell the witch you said hello. Farewell

-j

“Come girl… grumble grumble”

The Eye of the Hurricane

Image: Some new artwork for the NEW classic black sleeve jersey which is now available in the shop now.

Good morning, It’s Friday in Augustus.

On the heels of a little hurricane coming up the pacific coastline. Just a little update as things are moving along for my little “breakers” record.

Video Update: It’s been another week of post-production on the “Long is the Road” music video. I wish it moved faster but it doesn’t. Computers can only crunch data so fast even on SSD drives and IMAC computers I’m limited by computer chip power. Video is looking great so far from what I can tell by the post footage and some quick edits I’ve done. Occasionally I drop a little story on my @diamondshadder408 instagram page or the Diamonds Hadder youtube shorts page if you’re interested in seeing some of the background stuff. It’s a little race to get it done before the snow starts falling in the sierras. I tend to be distracted by winter storms in California and me and Ezra generally make a pilgrimage up to white mountain to reflect on the years work and to hunt miligoths. I can’t promise I will be done with the video before I leave, but I’m trying very hard to complete it before I get swept up in all that wandering.

Beyond the Breakers Release: For the most part, considering I didn’t really do any paid promotion on the release yet. Response has been pretty good and I’ve done two interviews in Europe so far. Both should be released in September or so. One with a magazine in Germany called Deaf Forever and another in Greece called Rock Pages. I’m so grateful. I can’t thank Michael Kohsiek and Yiannis Dolas enough for reaching out and for sharing and wanting to help promote Diamonds Hadder overseas. True warriors of the cause are these two lords. I won’t forget it. God Bless. Aside from that, the video really is the key I need to open the door I’ve been walking towards. So all energy is on that key. Quick shout out to all my new metal friends around the world that have been listening to and supporting the record. I read and appreciate every email.

Merch: A quick thanks for those people who purchased Dimonds Hadder shirts. Feel free to send me pics of you in them around town, I might use them for a music video at some point. I added a new classic black sleeve jersey style this week and some posters. I have to say I’m fairly impressed with the 24 by 36 inch poster. I have one in my studio as I get samples of anything I design before I post them. It’s a pretty formidable poster. It’s nice to see now and then at a glance. Such a long road this record, its great to have a totem to some degree.

Website: You might notice the "News" page had some glitches the last few weeks. Some of the graphics were bogging the site down. I admit it, I was getting a little lazy with the maintenance of the news page. This week I did some summer cleaning. It should be loading fine now. You can still access all the years of news through the "see it all" link at the bottom of the news feed which basically documents the making of the Beyond the Breakers record. Its down their somewhere. But the large graphic pages I designed each week, well, I have to keep them to a minimum on the NEWS page for loading reasons. Soon as I have a second or two, I'll add links to all the past news graphic strips as they are kind of fun to see.

Other things: Well that’s it for now. Under the hurricane I’ll be waiting for the interviews to go live while keeping my head down grinding away at the new music video. Lord Jules should be giving me the latest Illustration for the field note called “Klipso”. Perhaps I’ll be sharing that and the video for it soon enough as well. Lots of reflection this week as some of the interviews had me reliving my life and thinking about who I am and where I came from. It’s a sobering and humbling process looking back at life experiences. We really are a sum of all parts, measured by years and decades more so than months and weeks. The big strides, well, they happen so gradually that it’s hard to plan or anticipate them really. You just kind of notice it after the fact… that you were here and now suddenly your there. The middle is a bit messy. Anyway, try to remember that as your practicing or honing your own craft and running your own marathon. Eventually you’ll be there. Enjoy the view for now the best you can and stay the course. You are moving, even when it seems like things are still. Good luck to you.

One last thing, My girl Bella has now had her 3rd chemotherapy session. She handled this one better than the 2nd which was a nice blessing this week. Please send her your prayers.

Farewell

-j