Hello folks. Weighing in again on a few things.
First, very glad to hear most of you really enjoy Indulge in Color. I'm pretty fired up about how it turned out.
For those commenting that it seems similar to Black & White World...well, it is a companion piece to it.
We are very happy to have Vikram as our keyboardist. He can play the lines much better than I can, and he's going to be involved in composition moving forward and I think that is really going to elevate what we can do! But on this song, it's me on the record, for better or worse.
Tom and I discussed his guitar playing which is of course phenomenal. It was very important to him, and I respect it, that he doesn't want to play guitar in Redemption. We have to take as many steps as possible to ensure that Evergrey remains distinct from us and as a long time fan of Evergrey as well as a friend of Tom who respects his passion, commitment and energy as well as his many talents, I am fully supportive of this decision. So sorry to say, you will all have to make do with me plus Simone and Chris.
Regarding the pricing of the rewards on Kickstarter, yes, it's a bit more expensive than last time. Blu Rays cost more to manufacture and the cost of getting European musicians over here is a lot more than you would think...well over $5K just to have them join us. Plus you can expect the production value of our show to be pretty remarkable...and that also costs money. We're also hiring special light and sound people for the show; that also costs more money. We hope to provide tremendous value to our fans, but yes, some of those costs are being passed on in the form of the rewards. For those who enjoy the music and don't have as much disposable income to invest in helping the band put out the new product, believe me, no offense is taken. We are grateful for every expression of support, including simply the enjoyment of our music.
Someone was kind enough to point out what I wrote elsewhere...that obviously we could have had Simone play Chris' solo instead of having a still photograph of Chris...but Chris' solo is SO GOOD that he deserves credit for it. I agree with the poster who commented that it is one of Chris' absolute bests. The combination of his unique style and total shredding with the feel that emotion that he delivers is really remarkable. So that's why that is there.
And re: Tom's vocal performance, all I can say is: I told you so.
It's difficult to release an 8 minute track as the first "single" from a record, and I wanted something that had a ton of energy to answer doubters in that way, hence Little Men. But this one answers whether or not Tom can really elevate a traditional "Prog Metal" song from Redemption. I think he sounds amazing and I'm glad the majority of you agree. Ray is a phenomenal vocalist; I went after Tom because I know Tom is also a phenomenal vocalist.
And lastly, yes...this one is going to be a lot of work to play! We're fired up, though!
Thank you, as always, for your interest and support!
Topic: The official Redemption thread v. I Am the Storm - March 17th 2023 (Read 142827 times)