Experimenting with Physical Products
I keep preaching about how sharing our process is a great way to connect, yet i still have that typical artist in me willing me to hold ideas back and to keep them close to my chest
I keep preaching about how sharing our process is a great way to connect, yet I still have that typical artist in me willing me to hold ideas back, to keep them close to my chest and this internal fear of people executing them before me.. which yes i know is never as much a thing as we think it is. In part I think it comes from the way the music industry often is; that people use ‘knowing’ or ‘knowledge’ not just as capital but to gain status by means of dismissing others by showing how ‘on it’ they are. It’s too common that people are excited to say, ‘oh I know about that’ or ‘i heard about that ages ago’ etc, and this is accentuated by the creative industries obsession with the ‘new’.
It’s a harder mind set change that people realise moving away from the surprise element of how we have understood releasing to be for so long; that the impact is lost without the surprise. There’s always room for a good build up and reveal in my book, but given the over saturated nature of all media I’m curious about experimenting what a continuous flow of experimentation looks like for me. It’s not as you may have guessed me dancing in my own room every day to my own songs and filming it, the reality is its mostly me on my computer trying to develop concepts and ideas and then communicate them to the world in order to make them happen. So, it’s been exciting for me to discover some of the fearless creators I have found on Tiktok recently that share every step of their physical work such as fashion, and in doing so sell it out to people that already feel attached to the product.
What I’m working on 002:
SCENES: Prompts to Reflect - The Post Card Book
Something I’m keen to explore is physical products, there’s something that for me has always been special about the things I’ve collected in and around the music I love. So, the next stop for SCENES will be a book! I thought long and hard about this, as I wish I could do vinyl for the album too, but all these things cost so much and I decided to go with something that is not just unique to the project but also that has a use and value to everyone. The book is a way to pass on the emotional prompts that started SCENES, the book is a collection of post cards that can act as a prompt to think back on a memory or a even be message to leave or send to another. As with the initial process I hope these are used in all different ways, and the idea that they have a ‘use’ is really interesting to me. The fact it’s not just for viewing, it’s for a process, and one that stays true to the original concept of SCENES; emotional connection and collaboration.
We are currently in the last throws of the design and working on the final cover… we are so close!!
The book will be a limited first run of 100 as its a huge outlay for an independant artist like me, but the hope is people collect them for themselves, their loved ones and as a show of support for the project. I would love to also explore the process of getting them into independent book shops or records shops.. not that i know how to, but it will be a great opportunity to learn! If you would like to consider helping bring this and other experiments to life consider pledging support as a subscriber x