February 9, 2010

The Store has now been updated.  The self-titled debut album can now be purchased and downloaded directly from this site.

We have also added a link to our Forum.  Check it out!

June 9, 2009

The new album is now digitally available.  Select songs from the album are available for streaming from the official Tribes of Revolt MySpace page.  More details are posted on the Music page.

April 22, 2009

The debut single from the album was mastered today, and will be posted online within a week!

April 14, 2009

The album is 95 percent mixed. The band still has a few minor decisions to make regarding the last two or three songs. Tomorrow, a majority of the songs will be showcased to some individuals who are interested in promoting the project. This week, mixing should be completed and the band will shift into the mastering phase.

In behind-the-scenes business news, the band has made a tentative decision regarding management and record label representation. Tribes of Revolt is, and is represented by, Tribes of Revolt. As of today, the band will represent itself and self-release its music. With the decline of the major label music industry and the availability of recording and distribution technology, many bands have gone the independent route. This is not a trend that we are following, or a decision reached out of necessity or a lack of options. We entertained offers from numerous regional management teams. The band was impressed by aspects of several companies. However, none of these companies seemed to contain all of the elements to match this project. In a few cases the management teams had experience dealing with eclectic music and artists, but their approach was not really in a direction we wanted to go. In other cases we really liked the options and services offered, but the other bands on the roster were just too different stylistically. The band did not want to be categorized into the wrong niche. This was a similar scenario when we were researching record labels. The pros and cons were weighed. We could have allowed the band to be on a roster with artists who were more mainstream and commercial, and possibly achieved some success through association. The risk was that we could be the single band that would be overlooked on the roster if the team didn’t have the experience or ability to promote it to the right audience. Our main goal is not to strictly make money from sales, but sales are an indication of how successful we are in reaching an audience (and with this project being self-financed, we would prefer to make back at least most of our capital investment). The music and its context had to be the top priority. In the case of record labels, we really didn’t pursue the process in depth. Our basic research showed a similar situation that we encountered with management companies. We did have some leverage that may have been appealing amidst the lacking music industry – the band already had a business plan in place to produce and manufacture our own albums without any financial assistance from a record label. We would have been a cheap band to acquire, but more difficult to market in today’s short-attention span musical landscape. Several labels had a distribution plan that seemed ideal, but the marketing and experience aspects seemed a little less certain.

Therefore, Tribes of Revolt is primarily acting as its own entity – including a record label and management team. We will outsource some day-to-day operations and specific tasks through third-party companies. Some of the people in our core team are already involved with these companies, and can hopefully ensure that this project will be handled with integrity even though the overall company may not have been the perfect fit for the band on an exclusive basis. We are looking into distribution, licensing, and other non-exclusive opportunities. Even though our ability to be self-financed was ultimately a business advantage, we were also limited slightly because we chose not to offer a promo disc of material from the album. Now that most of the album has been mixed, we will probably put together a promo disc for industry people. It may have been a better business move to have tracks available already, but we chose to dive into the mixing process for the album as a whole. The first three or four songs we mixed are the ones that we will send out, but we decided to keep working on the rest of the album instead of rushing to master those songs. When we begin to seriously pursue opportunities with companies, we will have those songs available.

We are also planning artwork and other visual elements of the project. Again, this has taken a back seat to the actual music – but quality artwork is important.

This has been a slow process. The album has been two and a half years in the making. Most of the songs go back much further than that. This project has been the best representation of Tribes of Revolt that we could achieve (so far). We have had to constantly keep up with changes in the major label and independent music industry. Our research and development efforts have led us to model and combine existing approaches, but certain approaches have had to be reconsidered and dropped along the way. The best way to describe the process would be trial and error, with our goal being that the finished product will contain neither.

So there it is; subject to change as always but becoming clearer as we go.

February 20, 2009

There is new material that has been nearly completed. All tracks have been recorded and are being mixed. This represents a very new and profound step forward.

I have to mention that a few of the songs are heavy. This is some of the heaviest material I have ever been involved in - but all acoustic. I would compare some of the music to an acoustic version of Metallica's Master of Puppets or ...And Justice For All, mixed with elements of Sepultura's Beneath the Remains and Arise. Some of these tracks have sections that remind me of Tool. Either way - they are harder with epic interludes like most of the above bands did during their prime.

There are also many other songs that are sonically less heavy, but inspired in many ways by albums like the Beach Boys' Pet Sounds, Led Zeppelin III, and Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon. The sound is focused almost entirely around acoustic guitars. However, some of the tracks include jazz-like electric guitar improvisations inspired by artists like the Grateful Dead and Joe Nichols. I have also included Eastern European, Middle Eastern, and Oriental folk instruments throughout the album. The Eastern European influences lend a dark classical element to the music - bells and classical stringed instruments from a region of the world that stands between the West and East (and between folk and classical).

In the meantime, I have been traveling around the East Coast.

There will also be upcoming news regarding the project's line-up...

December 24, 2007

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!  This long overdue update is intended to let everyone know about the status of the new music.  We have worked throughout 2007 to record tracks for the new album.  There are two more songs to be recorded.  After that, there will be additional percussion and vocal sessions for the entire project.  We will probably resume work after Christmas.  The new material has really been fun to play and record.  As the songs continue to take shape, new layers of melodies and instruments have found their way into the arrangements.  We look forward to taking this process as far as we can, and presenting it to everyone.  Thanks and have a great Christmas!

November 9, 2007

Street Survivor Promotions has issued the following statement regarding the work-in-progress recording sessions for the forthcoming Tribes of Revolt album:

The music recorded thus far takes the introductory Tribes of Revolt sound into a new sonic and artistic realm. At times, the new songs evoke the unconventional sensibilities of the Beach Boys' Pet Sounds album combined with the elegance of Dead Can Dance’s Within the Realm of a Dying Sun. Orchestration, bells, and hammered dulcimers wind around the steady drive of richly-layered acoustic guitars. Contrapuntal guitar melodies recall the near-eastern jazz of the Grateful Dead circa 1974.

June 2007

Studio update

Basic tracks have been recorded for about 40% of the album. As of right now, the album is divided into three song cycles. The band has recorded about half the songs for the first cycle, and almost all of the songs for the second cycle. Still writing songs for the first song cycle.

March 26, 2007

Just a quick update... the band has been in pre-production mode, working on new material in various stages of completion. The band has been recording demos and working on arrangements for some of the new material. Some of the songs are still in the writing phase. The new material so far goes way beyond previous efforts in both writing and arrangement.

December 19, 2006

Work has begun for the album.