October Retrospective + What's Next

Crickets

Surprisingly, this one was almost a part of last year's October Project. I wrote the first verse and chorus in between 'Fall Time In Tennessee' and 'Familiar Song.' Here are two voice memos spliced together - guitar written on 9/30 and lyrics written on 10/1.

This image of Phil Braun wearing a toupee was the visual reference I had for the song's narrator. One of the reasons I abandoned ship last year was because I knew it would be too difficult shooting anything with Phil on such a short notice as he lives in another city and has a full time job. Another reason I decided to move on was I couldn't really figure out the horror angle.

Starring in this video myself never really made sense as I am not (yet) follically challenged, and to me, that was always the main joke. I never even considered Eric until a few months ago. I had developed a full demo of the song, and I shared it with Phil. He was a fan and wanted to make it work, but made it clear that scheduling would be tricky this time of year. I asked Eric if he was interested in being the backup cricket man in case Phil fell through. I emphasized that this role was weirder than usual, and I would not blame him for passing. At the end of SNL #3, Eric was the last one to leave and paused on his way out to tell me "I'm ready for Cricket Man." He was almost campaigning for the role, which was a bit awkward as Phil was still on board at that point. We ended up moving on from Phil because he wasn't able to travel for the shoot, and it was going to be tricky securing locations in Atlanta.

Truthfully, no one could have done better than Eric. He grounded an absurd performance with real emotion and elevated it beyond measure. He's done a lot of tremendous work that he should be proud of, but I believe this is his chef-d'oeuvre.

The shoot itself was a blast. It was just Jakey, Eric and me for most of the day. Jakey brought on  Courtenay Cholovich and Gordon Inman as the mayor and her aide and they killed it. Jakey has done a lot of work for us this year and it's been really cool seeing him continually raise the bar.

When I reached out to Brielle about doing the CGI for this one, I thought I had finally come up with a request too asinine to be taken seriously. In classic Brielle fashion, she responded with "I love ridiculously ambitious."

Let the record show that she didn't need to scale it back. Here is the doc that we were all working from (at some point, we replaced the shot of cricket man slamming down a sledge hammer with his pants dropping because we thought it was funnier).

Brielle, of course, knocked it out of the park. I am generally in awe of her work, but this one is truly on another level. How many levels are there?!?

Jon's horns were a last minute addition that transformed the song in a pretty significant way. They added a 70s Chicago (band) vibe that wasn't there previously. My manager Brandon described them as a missing piece that he didn't know the song needed.

The initial plan was to release this as song #2 after Living Dead, but VFX took longer than anticipated. In retrospect, I can't imagine things going another way because it was the perfect finale. 

Living Dead in Washington D.C.

I've said a decent amount about this one already in a previous post. I have some mixed feelings about it simply because it doesn't follow the traditional "October Project" formula. The other 7 songs are all strange short stories that don't have any relation to current events. It was an intentional choice last year to make a series of songs that have no connective tissue to each other or whatever is going on in the world. That said, it was a fun exercise to take a politically charged song and dress it up as an October Song. I think it helped keep things fresh and interesting.

Rachel was such a joy to work with on this one and I can't celebrate her enough.. I think using AI generated images in art is a morally complex issue and I'm not in a rush to do it again anytime soon. I believe that it is very easy to abuse. Millions of people will use it to make work that is lazy and derivative at best and blatantly fraudulent at worst. But I don't think that means that its creative merits should be written off entirely.

In the ALF video, I "stole" copyrighted material from both 'Fire in the Sky' and 'ALF.'  By cutting them together, I created a "transformative work" that is protected by fair use copyright law. I think generative AI can be used in similar ways. If you could show me a side by side comparison of someone's art that 'Living Dead in Washington D.C.' had ripped off, I would feel very differently.

Despite the stigma associated, I'm proud of how this one came together. And I can't move on without mentioning Jon's top notch horn work.

PUMPKIN MAN

The amount of Pumpkin Man fan art was a major highlight from this year's project. It's hard to believe there are so many unbelievably talented artists in this community. I've already talked a lot about PUMPKIN MAN so I'm going to highlight all of that great art. Can't move along without singing Dan Cupps' praises. He's a legend!

And I'll leave you with this photo of me and Jon's baby, Reid.

Alien Life Form

This one was created in a panicked flurry when we realized that we were going to have to postpone 'Crickets' to the final week. I've known for a while that I wanted to do something with aliens. I started writing and recording before I really knew what the twist was. I got to the line "Revealing such a sight that I could hardly swallow" and I stopped to figure out what happens next. I opened Instagram and one of the first things I saw was an ALF meme that Will Sasso posted. It was such an "Oh duh, the song is about ALF" moment. I put my phone down and immediately got back to it.

All of the other songs this year had some time to marinate, so I was a little nervous reverting back to making something so hurriedly.  I was relieved to hear it was many peoples' favorites from this batch, including Jakey, Mikey and my manager Brandon.

Eric and I shot this video in a few hours one evening on my iPhone. Jakey leant me some lights that helped a ton. It was nice to have a song in the batch that has that classic, janky 'Songs on the Computer' production value.

I was very sad to learn that Molly's cat Alfie had passed after finishing this one. If you've come to any of the zooms or live shows, odds are pretty high that you know Molly. She's a moderator on discord and beloved by all. I reached out to apologize and give a heads up that I was about to release a song that repeats ALF's name over and over. She informed me that she named Alfie after ALF, so the song is dedicated to Alfie as a tribute.

This was almost the single art, but I thought the vibes were a little too similar to the bear scene in The Shining.

Dracula Can Get Wet (Extended)

I started working on the second half of 'Dracula Can Get Wet' in between these other songs and I'm really pleased with how it turned out. I think I like the second half better than the first half. We started rehearsing it a few weeks back and right away felt that it would be a new live staple. I'm not sure it met its full potential at The Signal, but it was still a ton of fun.

Clair was out of town last weekend, and I had Sage in the studio with me while I tracked the last solo. She sat with me and sang into the mic for a little while which made it in some toward the end. I added the "Good job, Daddy. Woo hoo!" as some much needed affirmation at the end of a long (couple) month(s).

Spirit + The Signal

The Spirit Halloween performance was a great excuse to do something John Boulware and Randy Steele again. Love playing with those guys so much. It was very cool getting to do that with so many familiar faces and hearing everyone sing along.

Here is the board recording for our Signal set. 

We had a bit of a rough start during soundcheck with monitor issues that hurled everything into chaos. Our check went long which meant Puddles went long which meant VIP started late which means doors opened late. But things appeared to get back on track at that point.

The VIP meet & meet was a chaotic whirlwind with no organization whatsoever (per usual), but I think it went well! It was lovely seeing so many new and familiar faces. We played Stairwell which I think was a great track for the full band to loosen up on.

Puddles was an absolute joy and we had a great time chatting backstage. 

The whole Elvis thing was born out of me singing 'Where Did The Gremlins Go?' like Elvis at rehearsal a few weeks back and making the band laugh. Not much more logic to it than that!

I couldn't hear Desmond at all on stage, which was a bummer. And I forgot how to work my fingers a few times. But other than that, the show was a blast! 'Jump In The Line' by Harry Belafonte was a highlight. We did 'This Is Halloween' at The Roxy last year, but it was great to have Jakey on stage with us for that one this time. We had to cut 'Doctor (Don't Scare Me' and 'Spineless' last minute as I could feel the set going long. WE HAVE TOO MANY DANG SONGS.

It was nice working 'Dracula' and 'Pumpkin Man' into the mix. I can see all of the new songs sneaking their way into a set at some point in the future.

Jon said something earlier that I couldn't agree more with. He told me he was talking with a fan beforehand about how they couldn't wait to experience the show with the hometown crowd. The truth is, YOU all are the hometown crowd. No one brings the love and enthusiasm like you guys that are willing to travel from all over the country and world. I'm not sure Chattanooga is paying much attention to what I'm doing. You guys are the ones that made this show so dang special. 

What's Next?

On November 1st, I'm deleting all of my social media apps and going underground for the foreseeable future while I focus on finishing a follow up to SWORDS. I've spent the better part of the past 7 years chasing the dragon creating content online, and I'm feeling some pretty substantial burnout. I don't think Elon obliterating Twitter has helped. Seeing kids pulled from rubble every time I get online definitely hasn't helped.

I'm going to try my best to post regular updates on here. This is definitely the place to reach me if you need to get ahold of me. I intend to host the annual Halloween #7 zoom party and SNL will undoubtedly return early 2024.

A very spooky "Feliz!" to you and yours,

Big Nick