Uncategorized – Page 4 – Quicksilver Night

Streaming & Promotions

Posted on May 17, 2019May 17, 2019 by Warren Russell

Some Ruminations and a Recommendation…

“It seems to me that older musicians can’t legitimately complain about the musical tastes of younger generations while simultaneously refusing to engage those younger generations on their preferred platforms.”
– Warren Russell (That’s right, I said it. I’m quoting myself. LOL)

I have a lot of musician friends and acquaintances that have significant fan bases but minimal Spotify presence that will heartily complain about the younger generation’s musical preferences – and rightly so IMO – but in effect do next to nothing as far as trying to offer that younger generation a viable alternative. In fact I know quite a few that seem to passive-aggressively sabotage their digital presence on these streaming platforms or even actively discourage streaming of their catalogs on those platforms. I am not here to discuss the relative merits of streaming, however; I’m here to talk about promotional things.

Let’s be frank here, there’s no “Quicksilver Night” as a live performance band – although some modicum of success might develop an ad hoc touring ensemble it most likely won’t – and Quicksilver Night as such is a really just a recording project, a creative outlet for me. There are no live performances; there’s no merchandise table; there aren’t any meet-and-greets. I am also essentially my own label so while it’s true that I don’t have to answer to anyone at a label I am also handicapped when it comes to support for logistics, marketing and promotions. Where to turn?

I had some minor success getting a couple of songs onto some Spotify playlists late 2018 and early 2019 but it wasn’t until February when I decided to try out another promotional service, Parkbench 13, whose introductory package netted me a few thousand spins of “Symmetry”. While this increase in streams is financially negligible the concomitant increase in followers from 45 to 354 was a welcome change for the better because that meant that those followers would now be informed whenever Quicksilver Night releases new music and, more importantly, I raised my digital profile at Spotify and made the algorithm take notice, so to speak. I peaked at 4,093 monthly listeners on March 1st and slowly subsided back to 30 to 40 monthly listeners after that.

As the impending release date for the “Presque Vu” mini EP approached I decided to employ Parkbench 13 again and after exchanging emails and phone calls with a dedicated representative – a very knowledgeable, articulate, and straightforward representative – I went ahead and pulled the metaphorical trigger on a promotions package from them that offered to send my music “to over 300 Spotify curators” with their stated goals “to get placements in 5-10 active playlists with a total following of over 50,000 users” and also claiming they’d also promote my song “to a network of approximately 200,000 Spotify and Apple Music users.” The email concluded with “Our goal is to hit over 20,000 streams, 15,000 new monthly listeners and a minimum 1000 new followers.” (I am well-aware that 20K streams at $.005/stream is only $100; I was looking at this as an investment in gaining audience. Hopefully some of those will decide to stream other songs of mine and more than once, right? But I digress…) Friday March 3rd was the official release date of the “Presque Vu” mini EP. I began with 34 monthly listeners and 357 followers and by May 10th, a week after release, I was at 9,113 monthly listeners and 2,893 followers with over 13K total streams of the “Presque Vu” mini EP.

I broke 10K monthly listeners on May 12 and 20k streams of the “Presque Vu” mini EP the next day (with 12.5K streams of the song “October Skies” alone), ten days into what the representative at Parkbench 13 told me would be a “four to six week” campaign. It’s May 17 as I type this sentence, two weeks after its release; I woke to 23,103 monthly listeners, 3,517 followers, and nearly 58K cumulative streams of the “Presque Vu” trio of songs this morning. I’ve every expectation of a continuing rise over the next few weeks and although I’m sure the curve will further flatten – I know the current level isn’t sustainable – I am immensely pleased.

Interestingly, I’ve seen nearly nothing in terms of traction at Apple Music or iTunes and when I asked about this I got a straightforward reply, a rare thing: “Because of the blended and somewhat unique genre of the music our initial response from Apple Music has been unenthusiastic. We believe that it is best to focus on Spotify promotion because the Playlists seem to be more receptive.” There you have it, unequivocal and helpful to boot; I can easily live with a statement that basically validates some level of originality in my music while telling me in no uncertain terms that I should invest my promotional energies elsewhere than Apple. I should probably make a point of adding here that earlier in the campaign Parkbench 13 provided me with spreadsheets that contained contact information for numerous music blogs and playlisters that only accept submissions directly from the artist. I just sent out emails to some of those to those yesterday and I have just begun fielding responses, too early in the process for me to be able to comment intelligently but I am encouraged by the initial reception.

In summary then I suppose I’ll say that as far as I’m concerned the folks at Parkbench 13 have been extremely useful to me in increasing my digital profile and if this is something that is of interest to you as an independent musician then I suggest you check them out as well. Start at https://www.parkbench13.com.

“What’s Next for Quicksilver Night?”

Posted on May 10, 2019May 14, 2019 by Warren Russell

Well, since you asked…

Check out this excerpt of an amazing photograph “Into the Valley” by my friend Bob Hembree. An impressive vista, isn’t it? It was taken December 4, 2018 at Monument Valley, Utah. I’ve licensed this photo for use as the album cover of Quicksilver Night’s forthcoming all-instrumental “Asymptote” album, a hugely eclectic offering that I hope to release both digitally and on CD later this year (but to be honest I’m probably overly optimistic about the time frame).

An all-instrumental album might seem a little bit like an odd choice but I’ll tell you how it came about. I posted this earlier in the year and it still applies for the most part so rather than reinvent the wheel:

“My musical output in terms of instrumental parts far exceeds my ability to write meaningful lyrics and as a result I have a huge backlog of instrumental pieces, most them guitar-driven, just waiting for the right axe slinger to come along and make those songs his or her own. To this end I’d like to announce a forthcoming full-length instrumental album by Quicksilver Night . . . covering a range of rock subgenres. We will begin recording this album in early 2019 upon completion of the “Presque Vu” EP and intend to release it – in digital and on CD – before the year is over.” But wait, there’s more…

You might notice that little gap in the quote above; taken from my old website, it used to say “…featuring the incredible Jason Cale on guitar…” but that’s no longer entirely true. I realized that it was unrealistic of me to expect Jason to give me an entire album’s worth of melodic and solo material in such a relatively brief time and thusly simultaneously bottleneck both my workflow and his. He’s got numerous other musical projects going on; I’m thrilled to be a small part of it but I don’t intend to monopolize his time. At the moment the “Asymptote” album is set to include the following songs, all of which are well-into the tracking phase and in some cases already nearly finished (in alphabetical order):

1. “Dream Sequence Gunmen” – featuring Nazim Chambi, a fun but driving instrumental rock song that reminds me of a hybrid of “Tomorrow Never Knows” and “Highway Star”

2. “Hephaestus the Cuckold” – featuring Farzad Golpayegani, a powerful prog metal number replete with ringing anvil strikes

3. “Mister Wizard” – featuring Jason Cale, is odd-meter funk with elements of prog, blues, and a whiff of jazz

4. “Power Curve” – featuring Jason Cale, as the title suggests, is powerful and melodic, sort of Van Halen meets Argent in Ozzy’s living room

5. “Trompe L’Coeur” – featuring Nazim Chambi & Anne Epperly, piano-driven and classically-inspired with melodic electric guitar passages and sweet flute interludes

In addition, by way of a heads-up: I can guarantee you some neoclassical flash from my good friend Milt Gore but we haven’t titled the track yet. I also have a tentative agreement with Gordo Bennett regarding the song “Continuity” but scheduling remains problematic; we’ll see. I’ve gotten positive responses from Jeremy Barnes, Andrew Negoustorov, and Jay Rakes regarding their involvement but we haven’t yet hammered out specific details; I will do my best to keep you informed as meaningful updates become available.

As to any questions about the chosen title, you can easily look up the definition of “asymptote” but you might be wondering why I chose it as a title. It’s not arbitrary; I’ve actually long been fascinated by the idea of a line getting ever closer but never quite reaching something, always approaching but never quite getting there. It’s a mathematical term that has useful philosophical implications in my book. The story of why I actually chose “Asymptote” as the title has to do with two things: 1) My working title of the album was “Mister Wizard” after the track of the same name but once I expanded the album to include other featured artists I didn’t want to name the album after one of the tracks and perhaps thusly create the impression that I value the musical contributions of any one of my collaborators over that of another and 2) I was looking at Bob Hembree’s “Into the Valley” and thinking in terms of vast distances and the idea that the horizon might appear close or distant but we can never quite reach it because we perceptually create it ourselves. While the road might be suggestive of a line toward the horizon I was thinking of it as might allegorically pertain to our lives and our ambitions.

New Music! “Presque Vu”

Posted on May 3, 2019May 7, 2019 by Warren Russell

Presque Vu, October Skies, & Homecoming

Available at digital outlets everywhere, Quicksilver Night’s “Presque Vu” mini EP is a trio of drivingly melodic songs, progressive but rooted in classic rock with Celtic overtones and Gothic undercurrents. Go to https://quicksilvernight.hearnow.com/presque-vu

All three songs feature Meagan Finning on vocals and Jason Cale on lead guitar, details below.

The title track “Presque Vu” describes the sense of impending change, the feeling that some almost seen truth is about to make itself known, that some life-altering event is about to occur. “Still I can’t help but feel there’s more intended for me by this life.”

Celtic-tinged with classic rock roots, “October Skies” is about the sense of home as a place where one’s very bones seem to resonate with the landscape. I wrote it to describe my distant childhood home in the Allegheny foothills, the overwhelming feeling of belonging there when I visit and the absolute surety that I will return someday for good.

“Homecoming” speaks to mortality and nostalgia when a return to a childhood home is necessitated by the death of a close family member. “Stand in the open doorway. Breathe of the dust and shadows and then say goodbye to the ghosts that fill this room, turn and walk away…”

The ringing crystalline timbre of Meagan Finning’s voice can be found throughout much the Quicksilver Night catalog going back to the beginning and was last heard on Quicksilver Night’s 2016 single “Exeunt” as she had moved away during post-production. Happily for us here at Quicksilver Night she’s back in her hometown of Newport News, VA now and singing once again.

Jason Cale is a singer/songwriter and guitarist from South Mississippi. After traveling the world performing all styles of music he now makes his home in the Hampton Roads area of Virginia. Eclectic beyond measure and a consummate professional, he regularly performs throughout the region with different groups in various configurations in a dizzying array of musical styles.

Meagan Finning performed lead and harmony vocals throughout the album

Jason Cale performed lead solo guitars throughout the album along with acoustic guitar on “October Skies” and backing vocals on “Presque Vu”

Warren Russell performed rhythm guitars and everything else throughout the album, real or virtual, including harmony fill guitars on “Presque Vu”

Music & Lyrics by Warren Russell (ASCAP)

Recorded by Alex O’Loughlin at Sandcastle Records in Nashville, TN and Jason Cale at Crabhouse studio in Hampton, VA

Mastered by Borislav Dimitrov (aka Boro) at HiZ Productions, Los Angeles, CA

Produced by Warren Russell and Alex O’Loughlin

BONUS! Direct download of the “Presque Vu” mini EP at bandcamp via https://quicksilvernightproductions.bandcamp.com/album/quicksilver-night-presque-vu-mini-ep comes with a lyric booklet and a free bonus track of Quicksilver Night’s 2016 single “Exeunt” featuring Meagan Finning on vocals and Milt Gore on lead guitar.

Nascent Echo

Posted on April 26, 2019April 26, 2019 by Warren Russell

…An Oral History

This is a picture of my good friend Al “Lavaman” Murdoch wearing a Quicksilver Night T-shirt as he wields his guitar in service to the Quicksilver Night catalog. Sadly he has largely retired from recording projects for personal reasons that are not mine to divulge.

Lavaman’s ample contributions to Quicksilver Night include the songs Precipice, Navigation, Sojourner, Nihil Tactum, Legerdemain, and Chrysalis. You can also his amazing fretwork on our short-lived side-project MurdRuss Intentions with As Proteus Falls, Better Than Life, Salient, and Singularity.

You can listen to all of these at digital retailers everywhere (and four of them are also on the “Reliquary” CD) BUT one song we never officially released – and one of the best, really – is the instrumental “Nascent Echo”. It’s not officially available anywhere (although it’s likely been pirated somewhere) but you can ONLY listen to it here. Check it out!

We recorded this in Arlington, VA. My friend Brian Archer helped me convert the MIDI tracks to audio and then recorded me playing several live guitar tracks over it – a relatively new process to me at the time – before we sent it off the Al in Scotland for him to add his guitar to it and mixing it all together. I wish I could remember in greater detail although I can’t imagine those details would be of much interest to you folks.

“Mists of dreams drip along the nascent echo and love no more [end of line]”

“With moments of quiet beauty that cascade into insistently galloping lines of harmonized and contrapuntal guitars, ‘Nascent Echo’ features the stunning fretwork of Scotland’s Al ‘Lavaman’ Murdoch”… so why didn’t we release it? It’s my fault in the final analysis but you can also thank an unnamed executive at NBC Universal. I was/am a big fan of the re-imagined Battlestar Galactica series and I wanted to use an audio clip from the show within the song. I could’ve made a really strong case for fair use and at any rate I highly doubted they would’ve pursued litigation over such a small thing but I figured I should do the right thing and offer to properly license the clip from NBC Universal. I couldn’t find any sort of licensing link at the time on their site so I sent a general correspondence explaining what I wanted to do and asking for the right person/office to contact. With said information at my disposal I contacted the person in question and the exchange went something very much like this:

Exec: “It will cost you $10,000.”
Me: “What? Why? Audio clips of the length I want seldom go for more than $25 or so at this level of licensing.”

Exec: “It’s for technical assistance.”
Me: “What technical assistance? I don’t need any help with it. I’ve already got the audio clip that I needed and it’s already emplaced in the song. All I want is proper licensing and I’m willing to pay a small fee.”

Exec, again: “The fee is $10,000.”
Me: “That’s ridiculous. I refuse to pay $10,000 for what is essentially zero work on the part of your company for brief audio clip from a show that isn’t even on the air anymore or currently in syndication. Either you guys can profit from this by $200 – my offer although I think even that is far more than it’s worth – or you get nothing, your choice.”

Said executive then engaged me in debate, a lengthy attempt at justification based on investment by NBC Universal, my response to which was essentially all of the reasoning was spurious; they’d already made their money back several times over and it was a matter of public record. The end result of this debate was the executive’s flat reiteration that the fee was $10,000 and my response to the effect that they were insane and that I would give the song away first. We had easily exchanged a dozen or more emails in the process but it all went less than nowhere.

“Nascent Echo” has largely languished since then, hidden in dusty corners of the Internet. I tried offering it in exchange for donations to Friday Night Progressive but it didn’t get a lot of traction; I think it garnered something like $22 at the time. “Nascent Echo” is here now here at this site and available for streaming, gratis, solely via the link above. Enjoy!

Honestly I’m debating whether or not to put “Nascent Echo” on my next all-instrumental CD as a bonus track. We’ll see.

The Faces of Presque Vu

Posted on April 14, 2019April 19, 2019 by Warren Russell

Set to be released on Friday May 3rd, Quicksilver Night’s “Presque Vu” mini EP is a three-song digital-only EP featuring the incredible guitar work of Jason Cale and the gorgeous vocals of Meagan Finning. The driving but melodic trio of songs that comprise the “Presque Vu” mini EP are rooted in classic rock with Celtic overtones and Gothic undercurrents. Watch for it!

The title track “Presque Vu” describes the sense of impending change, the feeling that some almost seen truth is about to make itself known. “October Skies” is about the sense of home as a place where one’s very bones seem to resonate with the landscape. “Homecoming” speaks to mortality and nostalgia when a return to a childhood home is necessitated by the death of a close family member.

The music will come to you very soon but I thought perhaps I’d share some pictures and biographical information here and now so you can put faces to the names.