Ian C. Anderson

Sneak peek – new song in the works!

Ian C. Anderson — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 03:16:09 +0000

I’m excited to say that I’ve been working on a song idea these past two days with some success. Right now there’s just an A section, so it could definitely use another section or two for variety. So far it’s reminding me of Ben Folds Five if they were produced by Burt Bacharach.

I’m not sure what the lyrics will be yet, but for some reason “I can’t fight it off” came to me with a melody, so that’s in there for now.

Instruments include a sampled grand piano, distorted fuzz bass a la Robert Sledge (using the Big Muff Pi emulation in Line 6’s Pod Farm plugin), British Vintage drum kit from Ableton, fun old school synth brass patch from Ableton’s “Analog” instrument.

What do you think? I’m curious to see where this neo-70’s kind of vibe will take me..

Who cares about Myspace – a visual guide

Ian C. Anderson — Wed, 19 May 2010 22:30:31 +0000

Perennials featured in Oasis CD newsletter and blog

Ian C. Anderson — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 23:30:23 +0000

Micah Solomon, the CEO of Oasis CD Manufacturing (the company that pressed and printed my CD) came across my Kickstarter project to fund my recent album, “Perennials.” He emailed me to thank me for spreading the word about their environmentally-friendly Potato Tray packaging. He was also interested in how I fan-funded my album through Kickstarter, and ended up writing an email newsletter/blog post about alternative funding sources, using Perennials as an example.

Micah went so far as to take professional shots of my disc and packaging in order to put on my music site. It’s no wonder he’s an expert in customer service! As long as Oasis CD’s prices are somewhat in the range of other companies, I don’t see why I won’t have all of my CD releases manufactured through Oasis CD. Excellent service, excellent products, and fair prices. Doesn’t get much better than that!

Anywho, go check out Micah’s article (featuring yours truly!): Funding your next CD project at Oasis

Perennials release updates, YouTube, and gigs!

Vote for my Glee audition video!

Ian C. Anderson — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 04:28:52 +0000

If you like my cover, please head to the MySpace audition page and give me a gold star! They’re using the number of gold stars as part of the final voting score.

Glee song

Glee | MySpace Video

In other news, I uploaded the 3rd out of 4 of my Kickstarter reward videos. This one was “Over the Rainbow/What a Wonderful World” mashed up with a bit of Postal Service’s “Such Great Heights” at the end. Turned out kind of slow and rather long, but Hawaiians are never in a hurry anyway, right? =)

Perennials release updates, YouTube, and gigs!

Ian C. Anderson — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 00:57:22 +0000

I’m happy to announce that my debut album “Perennials” is now available via multiple online outlets, including iTunes and Amazon MP3. I can’t thank my Kickstarter backers enough for making all of this possible! Here’s a current rundown of places to acquire the album:

Physical (CD) sales:

$5 at my music site
$9 at CD Baby (they take a flat $4 per sale – hence the price difference)

Digital download sales:

$4 at my music site
$5.94 at iTunes
$5.94 at Amazon MP3
$5.34 at Lala (or only $.54 for the streaming-only “web album”!)

Apparently MediaNet (?) and Nokia also have Perennials available in their libraries.

Help me out!

A (somewhat) painless way to do me a huge favor would be to head to any of the above links and give a simple review of the album. Just a few minutes of your time would mean a lot to me. Thanks!

New YouTube videos

I’ve been working on finishing up my rewards for the Perennials Kickstarter Project. I have three out of four videos recorded, with two up on YouTube.

The first one was a request of my dad – “Lady in Red” by Chris DeBurg:

The second video goes out to Chris Wingard – the acoustic piano version of “3 AM” by Matchbox Twenty:

Upcoming Gigs!

In other news, I have two gigs coming up at the Keynote Cafe in Jeannette, PA:

April 24th, 7:00PM – Playing a smaller set for Keynote’s annual art opening. RSVP via Facebook
May 1st, 7:00PM – Perennials CD release show! CDs for $4 for all who come out! RSVP via Facebook

Late Night Ableton Jam – Chilled Bass

Ian C. Anderson — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 05:28:54 +0000

Just had the urge to jam out with a few loops. Here’s what came out:

Mixing “Monday Night Mistake” pt. 1 – Drum Sounds

Ian C. Anderson — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 01:42:56 +0000

I agreed to mix a rock song for my buddy Frank Tierney. Tonight is the first night I’ve worked on it. Right now I’m plugging the drum part into my Steven Slate Drums sample library to find the right drum kit for the feel of the song.

impossible_absolute_rock

impossible_all_american

impossible_big_fatty

impossible_chunky_rock

impossible_cla_hybrid

impossible_crisp_rock

impossible_deep_rock

impossible_fat_radio_rock

impossible_modern_rock

impossible_slates_hybrid

I really like the Absolute Rock, Big Fatty, Chunky Rock, and Deep Rock kits for their big, boomy toms. The All American kit didn’t quite have enough of that low end for my taste. Something like the Crisp Rock kit might be a good compromise, though. Still has those ballsy toms without being overbearing in the the low-mid range.

Give them a listen and leave your opinion in the comments!

Day 0 of #ica2010album : Drum Sounds

Looping session turned remix?

Ian C. Anderson — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 05:57:20 +0000

Sooo I was in the process of figuring out how to live-loop the bits and pieces of Lunar Sunrise within Ableton Live tonight. I was too lazy to plug my bass and guitar in, so I pulled up some virtual instruments in Ableton and jammed out with them. Next thing I knew, I had turned the organic, expansive sounding Lunar Sunrise track into an electronic re-imagination.
What does this mean for Ian C. Anderson music? Am I going to follow-up Perennials with an electronic remix album? Am I going to play my original songs live with an electronic twist? Or will I dismiss this idea tomorrow when I’m not tired and my ears are fresh? Only time will tell…

Email Marketing with Mail Chimp

Ian C. Anderson — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 00:00:22 +0000

Mail Chimp is an online tool for email marketing and email list management. I recently created an account in order to manage email list for my “fans.”

Why? Because many of my fans won’t actively read my blog or visit my website without a little nudge. But they all check their email. Sending an email is really the only guaranteed way to get their attention, even if you only hold their attention long enough to delete your message. Hopefully they get to the subject line before deleting it!

I have to be very careful in how I go about doing this email marketing. If not executed correctly, an email newsletter can be viewed as useless spam, in which case it’s doing more harm than good to your personal or corporate brand.

I listened to a podcast interview on CD Baby with the lead guy from “I Fight Dragons.” They have a fairly successful email campaign to promote their new music, videos, and shows. One of his main points was that, in order for people to actually read (and maybe even appreciate!) your emails, you have to much sure you give them a gift in EACH AND EVERY email.

What kind of gift, you may ask? The “gift” can range from a free song/album download to a discount code, or even just a cool new YouTube video. The point is, you’re delivering them valuable content, not just saying “I’m still alive and here’s what I’ve been doing.” Everyone is fighting the same fight to keep their inboxes clean, and if you don’t show them that your emails provide them with valuable content, then their cursors will be pointing closer and closer to that “Unsubscribe” button after every mediocre newsletter.

Some gifts I’m considering for people who decide to receive my emails:
YouTube videos
Free song downloads
Download codes and coupons

“Permission marketing” is a term coined by Seth Godin, an extremely smart man who’s been writing business books for the past decade or so. It’s pretty self-explanatory – only market to those who have given you permission. He describes it as a two-step process – make friends out of strangers, then make customers out of friends. The opposite of permission marketing is called interruption marketing, in which case content is thrown at you against your will (such as when you’re automatically signed up for an email newsletter).

Just because someone opts in to your email list doesn’t mean that they will let you abuse that power, however. That’s why I plan to keep the email campaigns relatively sparse (I’m thinking monthly, with twice a month being the maximum).

What do you think about email campaigns? At what point do you allow a musician (or company, artist, celebrity, etc.) access to your email inbox via a subscription? What kind of gifts would you want in an email newsletter? Leave it in the comments!

Fun times with Newegg Chat Support

Pledge to me, I’ll pledge to Haiti

Ian C. Anderson — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 16:30:56 +0000

I’ve decided to pledge to the Haiti cause, specifically to the Doctors Without Borders cause.

As many of you know, I’m currently accepting pledges, via kickstarter.com, to help with the costs of producing my first album.

The amount that I’ll pledge to Doctors Without Borders will be 75% of the kickstarter pledges that I get over the course of the next week, (starting right now and ending next Thursday at 11:59PM). For example, if I receive $100 worth of pledges between right NOW and January 21st, 11:59PM, I will pledge $75 to the cause on Friday, January 22nd.

Make your pledges here:

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/IanCAnderson/ians-debut-album-ep