#InterfaceCollection Pre-Order Store

"specters" GET @ Six Hours Remaining
almost 7 years ago – Fri, Apr 12, 2019 at 12:57:31 AM

Hey everyone! Lupin here. I'm up at the irresponsible hours of the night here on the East Coast of the United States, and I've been tracking the numbers while I'm working on other stuff. 

I tweeted about approaching our "specters" goal at $7000, let it sit for a bit, and suddenly- $7000+! "Oh my goodness!" I said, almost spilling my Coca-Cola on my keyboard. (No keyboards damaged in the running of this Kickstarter.) 

With this stretch goal met, not only will we be pressing specters to disc, we'll also be getting a specters-themed merch set designed and manufactured, as well as a specters t-shirt for you guys available to grab as an add-on while filling out your backer surveys. Speaking of, when you receive your Backerkit surveys (shortly after the campaign closes), you'll be able to add additional CDs to your pledge. ($20 per additional disc of your choice- including specters!) Just note, specters is expected to release early 2020, which may change the way we handle shipping for the project. We'll keep you guys in the loop!

All that said, thank you, thank you, THANK YOU so much everyone. Your support of the #InterfaceCollection is absolutely flooring me. With less than six hours remaining on the clock, it's such a pleasure to be able to catch the line being crossed live. You guys are amazing. I love you so much.

That said, it's not over JUST YET. If we can make the push to $9000, we'll be able to throw a new EmpathP album into the presses; and if by a miracle we can bring it to $11000, we'll also be able to get more of Circus-P's tunes to your doorsteps! It's quite a sprint to make, but can it happen?

Regardless of ALL of that, I'm in tears over here. Seriously, thank you guys so much. After work is finished on SYNTECH 0 and the minimalist stickers, I'm going to make "specters" the best album I can for all of you. Thank you so much.

Have a good [time period of relevance], everyone. For me, that's a very, very good night.

-Lupin (nostraightanswer)

Special Artwork Livestream for 4/13!
almost 7 years ago – Mon, Apr 08, 2019 at 12:35:40 PM

Hello my dears, EmpathP here.

With the conclusion of our kickstarter just around the corner, it's time for us album artists to go headlong into production. As such, I would like to host a celebratory artwork livestream on Saturday the 13th at 3PM EST on my twitch channel. I'll post the link for it here on this update. During the stream I will be working on the album artwork for the new version of "Ghosts of Artificial Trees" of which you may see the sketch below. 

I look forward to seeing you all there! And please expect more artwork production streams from me/us as we finish these albums up! We've got three days to go until the end so let's continue to share the campaign! Love you all!

My twitch link: https://www.twitch.tv/akiglancy

Stretch Goal #1 GET! + A Look At Stretch Goal #2: "specters"
almost 7 years ago – Sat, Apr 06, 2019 at 08:09:27 PM

Hey guys! This is Lupin, aka nostraightanswer.

I'm excited to announce that the Interface Collection just passed its first stretch goal, and all of the albums we press will be bundled with a set of themed merchandise, and we're designing t-shirts! With five days left to go, we're already ecstatic and so so grateful for your support.

Today, however, I'd like to take a deeper look into the next stretch goal: at $7000, we will be pressing one more album as part of the collection. 

"specters" is a concept album about my fears- some big, some small- featuring the voices of Dex, Daina, and myself. The topics range from thanatophobia, also known as death anxiety, to simply becoming so apathetic it's... well, pathetic. However, I tried to approach them in a more contemplative or sometimes playful way. In this update, I'd like to explore a few with you guys to give you a taste what's in store.

First off, I have two finished songs, "bokeh" and "last words".

"bokeh" is about my fear of going totally blind. Presently, I am legally blind, a state where, despite having correction, and otherwise being high-functioning, I am unable to be completely independent. The big hurdle is, legally, that I can't drive. While that's kind of okay on it's own, the thought of becoming totally blind is probably my worst fear- there's too much of the world that I love to see and have loved seeing, that I don't want to let go. This song sort of romanticizes that, comparing the qualities of low vision to photographic bokeh.

I am singing the song myself.

"last words" is one of a few songs that address my thanatophobia. In this case, it's my fear of other people dying around me. Part of this is regret, regret that I never got to see certain people in my life again. Another part is wonder, the emotion I'm focusing on in this song. What would people say if they knew they wouldn't get another chance to say it? What would they tell you? Or perhaps, what would they regret not telling you?

Originally, this song was about myself, on my future deathbed. (There's a different song for that now.) specters as a whole was going to be sung solely by myself when the idea first came to fruition, but now Dex and Daina are in the mix. Gotta say, I'm super proud of how Dex sounds singing this song.

Now, I have two demos to present. Forgive the vocals if they're wonky; the idea is that you get the idea, and they'll be far cleaner in the final mixes.

"pollution" is about a fear of violent discrimination towards the LGBTQ+ community- as a bisexual person myself, it stands out as artistic activism, something I've never really done. I began writing it in the aftermath of the Pulse Nightclub shooting, an event that occurred extremely close to home, as a method of expressing my grief. As such, the lyrics are due for a clean-up: I believe one of the melodies in the chorus sounds EXTREMELY similar to a leitmotif from Hamilton: The Musical, and that would not be good to maintain now that I'm aware. However, some parts of the idea are gonna stick: I love the idea of comparing society's often-inhumane treatment of the LGBTQ+ community to the pollution of the earth. It lands a little bit too well for me.

"pollution" also serves to illustrate my fear of mass shootings, due to its topical origin.

"we'll all be dead" is about my fear of the apocalypse. Simple, right? I reference the doomsday clock and everything. I'm presenting it in a fictional light, sort of like an action, or superhero movie. Everything's falling apart and it's up to somebody to prevent the end of it all. I even have a sketch lying around by Sleppu (the illustrator for 715) that I kind of imagined would look good as a movie poster for it. Maybe a music video concept idea?

I also have a crossfade preview that includes some songs I haven't showcased at all here, instrumental-only. I'll leave it at the bottom of the post. Some other themes I'm exploring include critical depression, being replaced, and running out of time. 

...On that kind of depressing note, I hope you're looking forward to hearing it all! That said, it would be awesome if I could get "specters" into your hands. We have five days left of our Kickstarter... with "specters" at $7000 and two more albums after that, the clock is certainly ticking!

...ahem. 

Sorry.

Seriously though, thank you all so so much once again, from the bottom of my heart, for your support so far. Let me know what you think of "specters" in the comments or on Twitter, and I'll catch ya next update!

-Lupin (nostraightanswer)

 #InterfaceCollection

Merchandise Stretch Goal Explanation!
almost 7 years ago – Fri, Apr 05, 2019 at 06:52:11 PM

Hello everyone, Circus here!! 

We only have 7 days left of this campaign, and we're really close to reaching our first stretch goal! So with that in mind, I'm writing you all this update to go over what the merchandise upgrade entails if we are able to reach that goal.

First off, what exactly are we getting made? Well, for each album we will be creating 3 stickers, 2 buttons, 1 key-chain, and 1 T-shirt for a total of 9 Stickers, 6 buttons, 3 key-chains and 3 T-shirts!! It's a lot! I'll be posting some previews of the merch itself that is being designed by each album's respective artist between the continuing paragraphs of this update!

Alright, now how will this merchandise be included with each album you may ask? Simply put, everything except for the T-shirts will be added on at no extra cost to each album order! All of them!! It's a permanent upgrade, that you will not be charged extra for. If you have pledged to receive an album, that current price you pledged will need no change and no update to receive those pieces of merch.

But you may have noticed I said that the T-shirts aren't included in this... so what about the T-shirts themselves? They will be available as an add-on purchase after the kickstarter is over. You will receive an email from us (make sure your kickstarter email is the one you check regularly!) and within that email there will be a link to a backer survey! This survey will let you add a T-shirt to your pledge, even if you didn't purchase an album! Each T-shirt will cost $15 (without shipping) and both mine and EmpathP's T-shirts will be exclusive to this campaign. (nostraightanswer may make his available in the future though, if we are able to reach the merch goal!)

I think that just about covers all of the merchandise rewards... I'm super excited about it, so I'd love it if we made that goal! But even if we don't, I'm incredibly honored that we were able to make our initial goal. That's something that I had feared we would not reach at all, and I'm so happy that my fears were proven wrong! 

Thank you all so much for your support of this project, and we'll keep doing our best to make it as awesome as possible!! 

Update #3: Interface Q&A Livestream Link
almost 7 years ago – Thu, Apr 04, 2019 at 04:10:05 PM

Hey everyone! Lupin here.

I meant to post this WAY EARLIER THIS MORNING, but I had to go to the doctor. Nothing serious, fortunately, and I will be joining you all at the Interface Q&A Livestream on Circus-P's YouTube channel in about... woah. Thirty minutes?

Huh. Time flies.

....Uh, anyways, here's the direct link to the stream. Bring your questions and your listening skills, cause we're gonna try to break down the goals of our project live from 6 PM - 7 PM EDT. Hope to see you guys there!

-nostraightanswer