The Handshake: the details

Musicians, illustrators, painters and poets create a digital compilation album together, by collaborating with other musicians, illustrators, painters and poets. The result will be a free download. If you want to collaborate with us making this, contact us now! Read on for details.

UPDATED 10. November-2009: We have done some changes with the deadline, and the deadline for text/biographies/info is now on December 31, like before, while the deadline for  the songs is on January 31-2010.

Here are some details on what the next Eardrums compilation will be like, and what the “rules” for participation are. Click on the navigation links below this text to jump directly to what you want to read. Please contact us if you are interested in any way.

THE IDEA | RELEASEPLANS/DEADLINE | FOR MUSICIANS | FOR ILLUSTRATORS | FOR POETS/WRITERS/PHOTOGRAPHERS/VIDEOMAKERS/CREATIVE PEOPLE | HELP NEEDED | THE TITLE?? | CONTACT US!

THE IDEA

The next Eardrums compilation will be a collaboration compilation, with music and art, but hopefully also with poetry and other artforms too.
The songs on the compilation will be made by two and two artists working together to make something new. The artworks will also be made by collaboration, and I hope that the whole process of making this/these album/s will be done with a lot of help from the listeners of Eardrums Pop, the readers of Eardrums and the artists themselves. Like all our releases, this will also be released for free and digital only. There will as usual be an info pdf that follows the compilation, and all artists will get a presentation here, – both of the original bands + the collaboration projects. No money will be involved, either for us, the artists, the illustrators, anyone, – no one will get paid in money for this (but hopefully someone will discover your work), – this is just for the love of music, the art and creating something new.

RELEASEPLANS/DEADLINE

The deadline for sending us songs in now on JANUARY 31-2010, BUT, all the text and images for the pdf document (biographies, song-info++) must be in our hands by DECEMBER 31-2009.

RELEASE: mid/late FEBRUARY or early MARCH 2010
We need a lot of time to make this one, for several reasons. The work has started, and it is important that you contact me if you are interested or if you are considering this (-”We’re not sure, but maybe, maybe not”=contact me!).

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FOR MUSICIANS

HERE ARE THE “RULES” FOR THE BANDS/ARTISTS THAT WANT TO BE A PART OF THIS PROJECT:

Please contact me if you are interested! Contact details at the bottom of this article.

1. Make a song together with another band/artist.

2. Find a new name for your project, – not any of the old bandnames.

3. The song should be a new composition, not a cover song. If you want to do a cover song, it should be approved by us.

4. You can choose your collaboration-partner yourself. If you want to be a part of this, and don’t have a partner to work with, please contact me and I can try to find someone for you. I need to know which area you want your partner to be in, and how you prefer to work (face to face or via the internet).

5. Keep me informed during the process. There is no deadline yet, but I prefer to have some idea of what I can expect to get for the project.

The style should be warm and melodic. There are no defined limits in genre, but I personally prefer indie pop (and most of the styles you can put into that), folk-inspired songs, acoustic songs, melodic electronica or melodic experimental music. I like a lot, -also more than the ones mentioned -, so just test me and see if it is something I’d like to use. It’s GOT to be melodic…

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FOR ILLUSTRATORS/PAINTERS

HERE ARE THE “RULES” FOR THE ILLUSTRATORS/PAINTERS THAT WANT TO BE A PART OF THIS PROJECT:

Please contact me if you are interested! Contact details at the bottom of this article.

2. If you get an “OK, Go for it!”, you have two choices. #A is our preference:

A: Find someone to work together with, and make one artwork together as a collaboration. How you prefer to work is up to you. It could be that you meet and make something together, or it could be a digital work layer by layer, sent via email, – or something totally different. We like to be surprised, – or more correctly, we PREFER to be surprised!

B: Make an artwork on your own, with inspiration from themes like working together, friendship, collaboration, hugs, handshakes… you know….

3. The artwork should be in 300dpi and the print size must be 12×12 cm/1417×1417pixels (we need it as a digital file, jpg prefered). I am also considering the possibility for the illustrator/painter to sell a printed version of the artwork through the site, but I need to think about that. Please tell me what you think.

4. I am still a bit unsure about the title of the album, so the words on the cover-art is still not 100% ready. It will probably be “The Handshake – A Compilation of Collaborations – Eardrums Pop 2009” or “Hugs & Handshakes – A Compilation of Collaborations – Eardrums Pop 2009” … or something else… I will update you as soon as I get this ready.

I’ve had several ideas on how to do the art-part, and I am still not 100% sure of what will be best. The liveblog-session gave me a few more ideas. Please tell me what you prefer:
A) I contact just the number of illustrators I need for each volume, – one cover for each volume. OR B)– A lot of illustrators are contacted, and one artwork is picked for the cover, the rest will be shown with biographies and presentations in the pdf-booklet. – or C) A lot of illustrators are contacted, and none of them are picked officially as the cover artwork, but all are presented on the site as equal candidates. The user/listener can pick the cover-art he likes the best for his copy of the compilation.

So, if you are interested in doing any of this, please contact me as soon as possible!

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FOR POETS/WRITERS/PHOTOGRAPHERS/VIDEOMAKERS/CREATIVE PEOPLE

I want to include other artforms in this project as well. If you write poetry or short stories (professionally or as a hobby), like to take photographs (pro/hobby), like to draw, or want to participate in any other creative way, please contact us. We would like to show your artwork in the pdf-document of this album, with a short presentation of you.

All the creative works should either be done as a collaboration, or inspired by the theme of this compilation (“hugs and handshakes”, working together, friendship, +++).

The written work should not be more than one A4 page (contact us if it is more than that). The photo should be big enough to fit on one A4 page. The drawing must be scanned and sent to us as a jpg file. Contact us if you have other ideas.

All written words must be in English.

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HELP NEEDED!

This time, I need a lot of help! I need help especially with promotion and getting the word out to the world about this project. Please spread the word to friends and family. If you run a blog, a website, a radio programme and would like to help me, please contact me asap. If you have ideas and would like to help in any other way, — contact me!

I also need help making the pdf-document, finding artists, +++. Contact me!

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THE TITLE??

The working title for this project is “The Handshake”. I’m also thinking of “Hugs and Handshakes” and several other things may come into my mind as the work progresses. What do you think? Do you have any ideas that may fit a compilation like this? Contact me or add a comment below.

CONTACT ME!

You can contact me on info@eardrumspop.com , on twitter (@eardrums) on myspace (www.myspace.com/eardrumsmusicblog) on last.fm (http://last.fm/user/eardrums ). You can also just add a comment below if it doesn’t matter that it will be visible to other people.

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(The illustrations on this article is made by me, but the photos I have re-worked, of the hands, the “dolls”, the instrument and the pencils are from www.sxc.hu, users lusi, cobrasoft, Henkster and jana_koll).