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brain-explosion

What’s the Best Way Forward?

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen and low-hanging intelligent cloud-beings…

In case you missed it (or for some reason you’re here but not on my mailing list), I just announced the theme for my next album: Cognitive Dissonance.  It’s defined as:

Mental stress experienced by an individual with conflicting or contradictory beliefs.

You may have noticed themes of internal conflict in the songs I’ve released over the past year. It’s the space I’ve been in… questioning my direction, my life choices, my purpose… my sense of worth. But you’ve helped me turn this brain-churning into some kickass rock music that’s now ready to share with the world.

Serious Themes… In Space?

The challenge now is finding a way to tell these stories when I’ve spent the last few years cultivating a sci-fi/fantasy vibe. You know, the “Captain Ebel” persona that brought many of you here in the first place. This isn’t an adventure album, it’s just straight-up piano rock. But how do I do this without losing that other-worldly charm?

Lord knows there are plenty of good sci-fi works that deal with cerebral issues like these… I can name at least four TNG episodes dealing with the very nature of life itself.

The good news is that you already own the “Officer’s Club” edition of all the songs on the album. So you can scan back and listen to the material in its pre-production state. Here’s the tentative track listing:

(Mister Speaker wasn’t released on Patreon, it went out when the Officer’s Club was hosted on the now-defunct Ziibra.)

Marketing Sucks

The album itself won’t really have any sci-fi, fantasy, or furry vibe to it, other than Prodo-1’s appearance in This Band Does Not Suck or the mostly-instrumental Coyote All Night. Those two are mostly a reprieve from the more serious tracks, but also represent parts of my mindset over the past year.

So how can I tell the stories of these songs while still maintaining that Captain Ebel persona? I suppose I could drop it entirely for this next release, but it’s part of what makes me unique among all the other male singer-songwriters.

It’s a challenge, for sure… but with your help I’ll find a way to make it all work together.