You are the rainbow! You are the sun to my chameleon!

#113450 by danceswithchickens
Fri Feb 24, 2006 5:47 am
funny_little_guy wrote:I think everything but Vampira and Notes From Africa is too long, or has no lyrics. An instrumental single is probally the worst idea ever if your trying to sell a non-instrumental album, heaps of people won't even care/remember it a second after it played. Video cuts suck, and I don't know how you would cut anything like Gaia without ruining it. Notes From Africa strikes me as being too weird to make people want to buy the album, unless it was the 80s, but its not so.... So yeah my point is I think Vampira is probally the best choice really.


Very true, and this is probably why they chose it. Oh well, some albums are just too damn cool for MTV...

#113489 by Morphine
Fri Feb 24, 2006 12:21 pm
Singles rarely represent the album.

It's incredibly difficult to have a single for a concept album such as Synchestra or Terria due to the fact that the work is intended to be viewed as a whole.

Vampira IS the best choice for a single as it's the only one on the album that fits the format. It's short, simple, and catchy.

Personally, I don't see why any artist would want to take a piece of work they have done that is 8 minutes long and chop the shit out of it to make it into a 3 minute video/radio single. It completely compromises the integrity of the art.

#113591 by 21st Century Jesus
Sat Feb 25, 2006 11:53 am
I think a shortened version of Gaia would be the only track that would really work as single - besides Vampira.

Vampira is just perfect, so what? Hypergeek is 2 times too freaky for being a single. And instrumental.

#113643 by Chris
Sun Feb 26, 2006 3:14 am
21st Century Jesus wrote:I think a shortened version of Gaia would be the only track that would really work as single - besides Vampira.


But how would you edit it?

Gaia isn't almost six minutes long because it, well, let's say features a chorus that is repeated over and over again. To me it's a very atmospheric song, and by taking something away or shortening some parts, this atmosphere could be... not necessarily destroyed, but I seriously doubt that it would still have the same impact on the listener. It just isn't the type of song that screams "EDIT ME!", you know. As far as I'm concerned, I even wish it was longer. And I love hearing it together with Mental Tan. The flow between those two songs is just amazing.

Ok. Next suggestion :lol:

#113663 by danceswithchickens
Sun Feb 26, 2006 7:57 am
My solution is to make a video out of "Gaia" without editing it at all.

#113747 by Cav
Mon Feb 27, 2006 4:21 am
danceswithchickens wrote:My solution is to make a video out of "Gaia" without editing it at all.


Problem is, it wouldn't get played anywhere due to length. Ten years ago you could get away with a nearly six-minute single, but not now. Similarly, Triumph (Which to me would be the ideal single) is way too long. Notes From Africa is an interesting possibility, but I agree that it may be a wee bit too esoteric - it's really more of an 'album closer' track.

All in all, Vampira is probably the only song that fits the single checklist, even if it doesn't really represent the rest of the album (Although paired with Vampolka it fits very well). Pity they couldn't have bundled it with Triumph as a double A-side: then you could make a video for Vampira, but people also get to hear a wider representation of the album when they buy the single.

#113750 by funny_little_guy
Mon Feb 27, 2006 4:51 am
Cav wrote:
danceswithchickens wrote:My solution is to make a video out of "Gaia" without editing it at all.


Problem is, it wouldn't get played anywhere due to length. Ten years ago you could get away with a nearly six-minute single, but not now. Similarly, Triumph (Which to me would be the ideal single) is way too long. Notes From Africa is an interesting possibility, but I agree that it may be a wee bit too esoteric - it's really more of an 'album closer' track.

All in all, Vampira is probably the only song that fits the single checklist, even if it doesn't really represent the rest of the album (Although paired with Vampolka it fits very well). Pity they couldn't have bundled it with Triumph as a double A-side: then you could make a video for Vampira, but people also get to hear a wider representation of the album when they buy the single.
I likeith that ideaith
#113831 by Mr. Hell
Mon Feb 27, 2006 8:14 pm
I had an experience with a friend who I like to introduce new music to. I sent him Vampira and he did not like it one bit. Then I sent him Pixillate and he was completely turned and now he has discovered the whole album and has embraced Vampira.
The problem is that you can't please everyone all the time. All you can do is try and go for the common denominator {not necessarily the lowest, of course!} and hope that people have the clarity to hear positive things in the single and take a chance on the rest of the album. Either that or have a pushy music nazi ram the album down their throat, like I did.
In the end, they all end up digging it, I find.
Last edited by Mr. Hell on Fri Mar 03, 2006 10:10 pm, edited 1 time in total.

#114271 by into the voigtex
Thu Mar 02, 2006 7:09 pm
Personally I don't like the idea of editing a song for the sake of a single. Losing a bit of ambient noise at the start or end of a song I can deal with, but chopping out or rearranging entire sections just rubs me the wrong way, from an artistic point of view.

I disagree with the concept of trying to appeal to a "lowest common denominator" - that's just all the people with marketing degrees trying to justify their jobs and as a result compromising the artistic integrity of the music they are attempting to "sell" to the public. In general "dumbing it down" is, for me, nothing less than insulting.

Fuck radio. Fuck the system which dictates what you should listen to. I find my music the hard way - I go out and look for it. And that makes every album I purchase all the more rewarding. People should wean themselves off their couch-potato mentalities and relying on mass media to force-feed them their musical entertainment. People need to put some fucking effort in.

And while I'm at it, fuck the fucking baby boomers.

Good god, now I'm pissed off. :evil:

Apart from that I'm having a lovely day. :D
#114418 by Mr. Hell
Fri Mar 03, 2006 10:17 pm
While the idea of saying fuck the system and those who don't get it is an honourable way to look at it {and I couldn't agree more from a belief standpoint}, the reality is that getting more people to buy cds and merch is necessary for survival and expansion. Do you realize what it takes to break even sales wise? A heck of a lot if you have big money invested in your stuff.
I didn't mean the lowest denominator really, as the R&B hip hoppers and average trendy Top 40'ers most likely won't be checking it out regardless. Appealing to more people is not always a bad thing. Vampira is a great tune, so it shouldn't be looked at negatively, really.
Also, with the recent resurgence of 80's type heavy metal, Vampira is a perfect way to catch some ears.
I am hoping to see a video for Pixillate next, but I won't hold my breath.

#114573 by 21st Century Jesus
Sun Mar 05, 2006 2:41 pm
There wont be a CD-Single of it anyway, so basically it's just a so-called-single (means that radio stations get a promo of the whole SYN album with a note 'hey by the way the first single is Vampira') and later the video will be sent out to TV stations and get played a few times...

...and yeah, will the Vamp video get any airplay? or end up like Storm? ok the Storm video came out way too late, too much time passed since album release, thats where V gets a bit more chanches to be played... but generally its gonna be very hard to find.

GAIA EDIT - well I didnt really think about if editing the song might work, but hey, as mentioned above, its hardly gonna be played anyway, so why bother making a 6 minute video, its mainly the fans who will see it.

and by the way, Zen worked quite well in edited form...

#114661 by funny_little_guy
Mon Mar 06, 2006 4:26 am
I really wish there was a Cd single for Vampira, they could put the cut re-recorded track from Synchestra on it and then I could smile... :)

#114682 by Zombielord1985
Mon Mar 06, 2006 7:33 am
yeah vampira is a great single for the album. its short and catchy tune...i really wish they had filmed a video for it, but didnt they? i heard they did. i hope to see it one day.

#114698 by Biert
Mon Mar 06, 2006 9:57 am
They did shoot a vid

It rhymes 8)
#114743 by into the voigtex
Mon Mar 06, 2006 9:26 pm
Mr. Hell wrote:While the idea of saying fuck the system and those who don't get it is an honourable way to look at it {and I couldn't agree more from a belief standpoint}, the reality is that getting more people to buy cds and merch is necessary for survival and expansion. Do you realize what it takes to break even sales wise? A heck of a lot if you have big money invested in your stuff. I didn't mean the lowest denominator really, as the R&B hip hoppers and average trendy Top 40'ers most likely won't be checking it out regardless. Appealing to more people is not always a bad thing.


I know where you're coming from, and I understand the pragmatics involved. Musicians need to sell CDs to earn a living. To do that, they need to have people hear their music. To do that, they need to tour and play in front of crowds of people. (Plus, at gigs you can sell merchandise like t-shirts which is extra money for the artist.) Then there's radio.

The excellent thing about radio is its potential to reach many more people in one hit than you could hope to reach at one gig. I guess in the old days, when DJs had some vague semblance of authority and actually decided what music they would play on the air, it was about a pure love of music and a real desire to share something exciting with other people. These days, however, it's more up to the corporate record company executives dictating to radio what songs should be played based on how much money they might have invested in a particular artist.

I'm not at all opposed to an artist trying to reach as many people as possible. If trying to get their songs played on the radio is the way to do that, then great. I am opposed to record companies spending mega-dollars paying radio stations and TV stations, giving their product an unfair edge over the competition, which is invariably an independent artist or young band trying to break into the scene. More often than not, the independent artist has no chance over some record company product puppet plaything. The gargantuan sums of money being spent on this facet of the music industry alone is obscene in the extreme.

And that shits me.

Even the vast amounts of money a record company is willing to spend on (or rather, put their artist in debt for) recording an album or making a music video is crazy these days.

When I think of that, I like remembering that The Beatles recorded Sergeant Pepper's on a 4-track.

Mr. Hell wrote:Vampira is a great tune, so it shouldn't be looked at negatively, really. Also, with the recent resurgence of 80's type heavy metal, Vampira is a perfect way to catch some ears. I am hoping to see a video for Pixillate next, but I won't hold my breath.


I agree; Vampira is an excellent tune, and one of my favourites from Synchestra. I sincerely hope it does receive some radio airplay, and that more people purchase the CD because of it.

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