NPCA

[Niveous]

The Niveous Penned Concept Album:

First, a little history.

Every year, I get together with Zipline and Ken Mahru (as the band Zinkline) and write lyrics for them for their February Album Writing Month entry. The results have been exceptional and always a highlight of my musical year. Last year, I wrote 10 of the 16 songs for their album, "Grace of a Car Crash". When I wrote them, I wrote them to be a concept album. It didn't exactly work out that way but if you were to look at the songs I wrote, you can find various repeating themes. And if you put them together in the right order, you get a story.

"Stop Breathing"- a country is torn apart because of a war.
"One Shot"- the country's president is assassinated.
"As The World Turns" - the leaderless country begins to riot.
"Revenge of the Nerd"- the riots continue as technology fails.
"Poison Apples"- a new leader must be chosen.
"Holy Commander"- one of the candidates is driven by religion.
"Man of Substance"- one of the candidates is a pedophile.
"Lullabies"- all of the candidates are corrupt.
"Swamp Thing"- the elections take place, with Florida being the swing vote.
"Ark of Philadelphia"- the new leader takes power, the people chose to flee.

It's a good story but I don't feel like it was complete. Glennny and Ken's songs do stay within the themes but I still don't feel like I have written a complete concept album.

At the same time, I have been writing a novel called Septemberian. I wrote about 25 chapters or so of it before I began to struggle with some of the story logistics. I hit a bad roadblock that I couldn't write my way around and since then, I've been re-writing from the beginning. And the re-write has had its share of stumbles as I have struggled to avoid run into the same logistic errors I ran into the first time.

So, the other day, Glennny comes on to the Songfight boards and mentions that I should write a concept album. And much to my shock, it recieved a lot of replies from bands saying that they would love to be a part of a Niveous penned concept album (NPCA, hereforth). Over the last two years, I have written songs for bands such as Billy's Little Trip, Cow Exchange, Merisian, Loiano (AWHAM), Glenn Case, and others. And I adore the experience. So when all these great bands said that they would wanna be a part of a NPCA, I couldn't resist. But what should I write about? I didn't want to a rehash of "Grace of a Car Crash". And then there was the question of what to do with Septemberian.

I went away on a business trip and being stuck in a hotel room does a lot to the mind. It also gives you a lot of time to think. I began to think about how I could merge the two ideas into one. I have always wanted to try my hand at doing a concept album that runs the whole narrative gamut. I looked at Coheed and Cambria as a contemporary example and I didn't like the execution, partially because the "Amory Wars" stories that they base all their songs on are so hard to get a hold of. At the same time, I didn't want songs that run like a ministrel's tale. Then it all came together...

The concept is that I will write a song and an accompanying short chapter of prose to go along with it. The song will mirror themes found in the narrative. For example, I have written a chapter about a demon girl named Hayleigh on her first day leading a protected paranormal community and joining the "real world". And I wrote an accompanying song called "Seeing Things" which is about the "real world" and how they don't know that supernatural creatures live among them. After that, I will pass the song to community and someone will hopefully choose to do it. When I've got a song, I release it on a website as a whole package- song, story and hopefully some art as well. I don't do the art thing very well but perhaps, the art can be a community aspect as well. And once that chapter is done, the cycle starts again with the next chapter.

It would be a NPCA but it would be a very collaborative work. It would be an on-going narrative which I like (I like watching a character evolve over a long amount of time). It could be very multimedia which is something I have been looking for in a project for a long time. There is a lot of potential here.

How does the concept sound to everyone?

[Aardwolves]

Wow! I'm super excited to see what will happen with this. The concept sounds awesome! Though I probably won't be able to contribute much musically, I'd love to help out with the art aspect, if you'll have me.

[Lunkhead]

Yeah, I was going to express interest in the other thread, but I'll just say "count me in" here instead.

[bz£]

Sounds... different! But in a good way, and I'd be happy to put a song together if the right chapter came along.

[Billy's Little Trip]

I'm not "exactly" sure I understand everything you just said, but I wouldn't miss being part of it for the world. I'm sure I'll understand everything when it's done, so until then, just tell me where to stand.
...Yep, I'm in.

[Rabid Garfunkel]

In (though I'd like to read the source material for "my" section before abusing the instruments, yes?).

[glennny]

In case you were wondering Niveous I'm totally in to this idea.

I think you should give your set of lyrics to the particular bands you want to do each movement.

Near the end of it all, I would really love to do an Overture type instrumental drawing from melodic ideas from all of the songs. I don't want to do it my self, but I really want to be a part of writing the Overture.

I'm not sure which collab I'll have for this, maybe a few, we'll see what cast emerges.

I'm very excited for this project.

PS every time I see Martyr we talk about finishing the editing on those straggling songs from Grace of a Car Crash.

[Niveous]

Good ideas, Glennny.

Currently, I'm writing stories and songs. Once I'm a few more chapters/songs in, I'll start up the process. That could happen as soon as this weekend.

[Eric Y.]

sign me up.

[Spud]

We would be honored to participate, in the unlikely case that you have any Octothorpe-appropriate material...

SPUD

[Niveous]

Wow. Writing a song for Octothorpe would be awesome. In fact, thanks to everyone who has offered to do a song.

The writing is going very well. I had a few spare hours today and did some more of the fiction part. I'm gonna do some more work on the lyric part later tonight.

[Billy's Little Trip]

How cool would it be to have the final album acted out like The Rocky Horror Picture Show?
...Fluffy can play Eddie Ex.
hmmm, who'd I be?

[Paco Del Stinko]

I'm still interested in this, if'n it's OK.

[Niveous]

Hey everyone,

I'm back with a progress report full of all sorts of good things.

Writing has been going well on the project. I have written 3 small chapters and a prologue for the prose part and 4 sets of lyrics to go along with them. It's been interesting how the writing has evolved. The first thing I wrote was a song called "Seeing Things" and then I wrote the prologue and I think the prologue fleshes out the song. Then I wrote the first chapter and the song "Made of Glass". Then I wrote the second chapter and in reading it over, "Made of Glass" really became a bridge betwen chapters 1 & 2. Then I wrote chapter 3. Writing the song that goes with Chapter 2 was a struggle. I didn't want something simply transitional. So the song "Unusual" became an expositional piece, filling in a little backstory. Then I wrote the song "The Pass of Time" and that's been the oddest one of them all. Because at the end of Chapter 3, the main character Janine at the edge of big change in her life but she has to wait. "Pass of Time" is a ballad about the pass of time.

So what's are the next steps?

I'm going to continue writing but I would love to bounce the work off someone for opinions, especially someone who digs sci-fi. This is an unusual step for me but this is a very different project.

I also need to figure out how to choose who does what song? Any suggestions.

And I need to start figuring out how to build the website. If any of you have ever gone to my website (linked below), it's not the best made website (done with HTML-kit, open source templates and a lot of luck). I think I need something better made for this. I also need art. But I'll wait on that aspect a little, after I have survived the read-through.

[HeuristicsInc]

I might be able to help with the reading...
-bill

[bz£]

I can do some critical reading for you, too, if you'd like.

As for assigning songs to people, well, I think you probably have an idea of what sort of song you'd get out of the various people who've volunteered to help, and you could probably pick and choose with an eye towards giving people lyrics that'll work well for them.

I suppose you can just post all your lyrics and let us fight over them, too, which, in the end, will probably work out much the same.

[Niveous]

Okay, today I'll type up the chapters (Yes, I'm working on paper) and forward them to the both of you.

As for the songs, I'm going to take another look at them and then do some assigning.

Just so that I have the list in one place.

People who expressed interest in helping (thanks!!!):
Glennny
Paco del Stinko
Billy's Little Trip
Melvin
Lord of Oats
Noah McLaughlin
Caravan Ray
Reist
Heuristics Inc
Aardwolves
Lunkhead
Bzl
BLT
Rabid Garfunkel
Eric Y.
#
Albatross

[Albatross]

Niv - you can add me to the list if it's not too late.

[Niveous]

Never too late.

Oh for those who may wonder,
The story, which is tentatively still known as "Septemberian", is about a girl named Janine who finds out she isn't human and that there is a network of supernatural beings living amidst the human race.

Wow. I was actually able to sum that up very quickly. That's a good thing.

[Billy's Little Trip]

Like, mutant or vampire? Or more like a spirit or demigod? Or even a cyborg or alien? Maybe it's best to just keep it at non human as you explained to keep the inspiration more generalized.

[bz£]

The industry term is "urban fantasy." Is very hot right now and if you turn out something exceptional you might consider not putting it on the web for free-- might be able to sell it instead. It's not a genre I have much experience with so I can't really point you to the best agents or whatnot, but, as a hint, if Janinie has a steamy relationship with a vampire it is like a license to print money.

At any rate, get the thing wrote before you worry too much about that, because nobody wants to hear about your incomplete novel anyway. It's a decision you can put off.

[jimtyrrell]

I've withheld my offer to contribute so far, because my studio has been in flux. But I now think I can get some quality recording done, so add me to the list. The project sounds great!