Kickstarter - India, Seattle 12" Vinyl

Help me press India, Seattle on 12" Vinyl!

http://ow.ly/PEDcZ

I've launched a kickstarter campaign with some fun and crafty rewards, a phone call from Larry (my dad) even Larry's old record player.

We listen to music so quickly today and I think having physical things and a physical record reminds us that we still live in a concrete and tactile world.  I think we need to be reminded of this by listening to music, holding artisan and crafted goods in our hands, and by going outside.

The link is in my profile and Thank you all so much!

India, Seattle Design

I have always loved thinking about the design and the cover of an album I have released. It's very important to me.  It's generally the first thing people see and I just like it to say something I guess.  My friend Jorge agreed to design it.  He also directed and produced the video for The Closer.  I feel like it took a little while to get on the right page, but I feel like the end design is amazing.

The Final Album Cover of India, Seattle

The Final Album Cover of India, Seattle

We started somewhere here.

We started to get on a good track.  Kind of a reference to my past album cover - The Last Of Our Mountains.

We landed on this design, and I loved the design but we searched around until we settled on the 'Butterscotch Feathers'.

Check out Jorge's notes about the design here

Julia - Live Video from Southern Souls

There is something magnetic between cats and camera's and though I have a love/hate relationship with cats, this one made it into our video we shot of‪#‎julia‬ with ‪#‎southernsouls‬

It features Dave Zellinsky on cool moves and Jesse Boland on immaculate hair alongside a guest appearance of Jordan Clarke's rooftop and cat.


I talk about Larry having his birthday and make a good joke about the Edmonton Oilers.

Our show in Fort Saskatchewan was broadcast across Alberta on CKUA Radio Network last Friday, and now it's up on Soundcloud so take a listen!

This week on the TransCanada Music West podcast, we feature Victoria-based singer-songwriter Mike Edel live from the First United Church in Fort Saskatchewan. Mike’s brand new album India Seattle is an indie folk gem that’s received regular airplay on CKUA. The record was produced by Colin Stewart, who has previously produced albums for The New Pornographers, A.C. Newman, Kathryn Calder, Dan Mangan, and Ladyhawk.

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Blue Above The Green Video - 1 Feathers

FEATHERS

 I had someone ask on instagram the other day ‘the feathers are cool, but do they mean anything?’

It has always been interesting to me when people ask about meaning and generally the questions is ‘what does it mean’ or ‘how did you do that’ or ‘where did you shoot that’ or ‘when did you do that’ all asked more than WHY?

 

At first I had a quaff at the question in the van with my buds from Towers and Trees, as we were driving from London, ON to Eau Claire, WI. 

 

‘It’s metaphor!’ I said

‘Why ask the question!’

‘That’s such a silly question’

‘Figure it out,’ were all my answers at first.

 

I used to play another video I made for the song ‘The Country Where I Came From’ while I sang it at Younglife Camps and I would always get asked ‘What does it mean?’

 

I think there is a thing about art, and maybe a thing about video’s that I like when things are a bit abstract.  It’s kind of like a fantasy where you can take things out of reality, and you are allowed to, and it’s almost encouraged.  There is a part of making a video where you want it to be weird, to be visually appealing, and have a ‘wow’ moment or an ‘ah ha’ moment.  And in music video’s you have way less time to build a reality that is very similar to real life, so most of the time you end up using a few visuals that are more metaphorical or representative, because it’s hard to wow the internet these days, and it’s pretty hard to build character and setting in less that 4 minutes with no dialogue or anything.

 

I think the goal of Blue Above The Green was to present a reality that is pretty universal – (hiking through the woods in the spring with a tinge of love in the air) but represent that in a metaphorical way. 

 

Firstly - The feathers hold an idea of chance, and I think infatuation and love and relationship are represented well by them.  They fall, and they rise and they swirl around.  The wind affects them, and their own properties and shapes and size even without the winds affect their path from point A to point B.

 

Secondly – In this song and video, there is theme of ascension.  The lyrics (‘looked down onto our toes’ the ‘up in the sky we saw the trestle overhead’ ‘up above the canopy of trees’) and certainly the title (Blue ABOVE The Green) combined with the images, present this idea of ascension.  I think falling in love supports this, but I often think of it more as an ascension of love, and certainly this song presents it that way. 

 

The images of the water falling, the feathers falling off the bridge, the scattered feathers, the shots upward as well as the 4:3 aspect ratio, were all intentional in presenting this idea that love is this acension, and a potential rise and fall, the way a mountain’s tree line rises and meets the blue of the sky. (below is my text conversation with Robin a couple days before about the treatment)

 

And I think in reality, this ascension of love and relationship is no straight line; it’s a path.  The path loops and swirls, it rests and it get’s beaten by the wind; there are so many factors that affect it’s getting from point A to point B.  It’s the reason why the opening title sequence in the movie Forest Gump is amazing, and it’s more amazing when you go back and watch it after you’ve watched the entire film.

 

My answer to the question ‘do the feathers mean anything’ was – Have you ever watched Forest Gump?