It’s been two years since The Great Deep was released. It’s worth pressing the pause button to take stock and revisit what the vision was at the outset.
My friend Billy Suter called it an “ambitious arts project” – which it has been. The idea was an album, plus all the add-ons: weekly blogs, podcasts, videos and a range of whatever else. So far, I’ve managed to achieve that.
Ultimately I still want Doodle to make his live show debut – he’s the character I would love to see animated and interacting with me during a performance. But for now, there’s a steady flow of content (more about the content later).
I’ve written about my failed album launch in a previous post, so I don’t want to cover that again. Suffice to say that winning people over to a vision of something that doesn’t exist yet is difficult, but we’re slowly getting there.
One of the greatest challenges in the arts is money. So I have looked to Patreon to try and solve the challenge. I am thrilled to have five dedicated patrons who support me and this work of The Great Deep with their contributions. While it doesn’t allow me to pursue a full-time career as a musician, artist and animating Doodle, it does keep me accountable in producing weekly content. So to Pam, Jon, Rob, Graeme and Gavin – my deepest thanks!
People always ask me where the inspiration for my songs comes from. Most artists I’ve heard interviewed will say things like “my daily life” and “the world around me”. But I’m interested in the details as well as the thought processes. I’m interested in the relationships that artists have with those around them and what the lyrics mean to them. So the content that I have produced it is both journal-type of entry as well as a window into where past (and future) songs come from.
The schedule of content looks like this:
- Thursday Blog.
- Friday Podcast.
- Saturday Vlog.
- Monday Musings.
- Wednesday Vlogcast (based on Friday).
Patreon releases the content first (subscribers get first access).
A week later the content goes public (on Patreon and ryancalder.co.za)
Two weeks after that it’s promoted on social channels.
You’ll notice on the vlogs that at the end of every episode, there’s a special thanks rolling credit to the patrons who subscribe.
So far, so good. But I’m interested to hear your thoughts on this:
Does it work? Is it interesting? What have you seen on social media channels that you remember?
How would you improve if you were me?
