The Sounds of Static EP

Over the past few days, I have been working on a new EP. It started out as something to do when I was bored, "remixing" songs from my newest LP The Sounds of Self Destruction. I put quotations around remixing for a reason, these "remixes" had absolutely no effort involved, all I would do is reduce the BPM to the lowest it would go to make a 2 minute song into a 13 minute song. But after a few songs, I decided to actually remix some songs. The first song I did was The Floor is Made of Pills. I had already reduced the BPM, but then I started toying with different effects to certain sound clips, then I moved some parts around and constructed brand new segments. I don't usually remix my songs, but I found that it allows me to breathe new life into them and see them from a different angle.

Among the 5 remixes are 4 brand new tracks. They are:
Schizophrenia - the first song made exclusively for Static, I made this right after remixing Shadow Takes All. At first it was going to be a part of that remix, but once I started writing it I found myself unable to find a good stopping point and decided to let it be it's own song. If you listen, the Shadow remix actually bleeds into this song.
Heads or Tails? - This song was originally written for Self Destruction 2, and technically is a demo. I had written the entire song without drums and exported it as an MP3. I had already wrote and exported the drum track for this song, but by the time I decided to fully mix it, I realized that I had forgot to save both of them. Luckily I still had MP3 versions of both tracks, so I was able to keep them. (In case you were wondering, all songs that I upload to my Bandcamp account have to be in .WAV format, so MP3s are useless). The title of song is a refrence to The Lutece Twins from Bioshock Infinite.
Blackouts - this is the drum track for Heads or Tails?. I think it stands very well as it's own song though. It took me two hours to write this, and I'm very proud of it.
66.6 FM [III] - This song was originally written for "Self Destruction 2" as the intro, but I thought it fit in better with this EP. The "[III]" is an indicator that this is the third part to the hidden song from the first part of Self Destruction, there will be a total of 5 parts all together that form one giant song when played in order.

Currently the EP is unfinished, I have about 2 or 3 more remixes left to do before I call this one finished. I plan releasing a series of remix EPs called The Lost Tapes Saga and will feature songs from Skin, Decomposed, The Manipulated Living, and the Sanctuary Saga. I'll post more updates as those unfold. In the mean time, enjoy the 90% completed SOUNDS OF STATIC EP



This Has Been: ASTROID ANDY:

The Sounds of Self Destruction is Complete, Explained. Updates about Upcoming Releases.

Something unexpected happened in the past week and a half. I began working on "The Sounds of Self Destruction", all was going as planned, the songs I was churning out sounded fantastic. I sat down to clock in the length of my progress, and realized I had made 79 minutes, 58 seconds, just two seconds shy of not being able to fit it on a disc. But I was nowhere near done writing. Writing this new album, I rediscovered how much I love to make music, and these songs were blowing my mind. They all had a totally different style than my previous works with a few sprinkles of my signature sound, some of the longer tracks ("Alchemilla" and "I'm Remembering Things That Haven't Happened Yet") have "break downs" of just soothing ambiance with some psychedelic pads and sequences that, previously, would almost comprise of an entire song. Most of the longer songs, and I use this term lightly this time around seeing as the longest song is 12:57, the second 9:50, and the remaining songs range from 1 - 6 minutes. It's a little weird for me to write short songs seeing as I have so many emotions and stories to convey through sound that when I write a song I feel that time is irrelevant. Part of the reasoning behind the shorter songs is to reach a wider audience. Not everyone wants to sit down and listen to a 16 minute song. But rest assured, the shorter songs pack just as much a punch as the longer one's would through out it's duration. This album is very heavy on sound effects, heavy bass, synth, sequences, pads, and aggressive drums. There would be times while I was writing a song that it almost felt like I was making something that'd be played in a club. There are dubstep elements virtually everywhere. There are two one minute tracks, which I planned on making more of these bizarre little snippets of sound.

So suffice it to say, you can NOW DOWNLOAD "The Sounds of Self Destruction".

THE STORY OF "SOUNDS" [Summarized]

A man wakes up in a dilapidated motel room, the windows are bored up except for a few places where the wood overlaps. The door has been heavily chained from the inside. The walls are stained with blood, water stains, dirt, mold, and decay. There were old newspapers, magazine articles, and notebook pages stapled all over the wall in front of the bed. The man has no recollection of how he wound up in this room. The bed is a filthy full sized mattress laying on the carpet, bits of human flesh have been sewn into it, sides of faces, pieces of chests and abdomens. There is a TV with a busted out screen and burned plastic casing laying a foot in front of the bed. On top of the TV sits an old, dusty radio. As the man searches the bathroom, he finds a brand new metal briefcase. When he opens it, the radio in the other room begins to emit deafening static before bits and pieces of voices can be heard between all the electrical noises. The man leaves the briefcase, having not checked it contents, and attempts to turn the radio off. As he does so, the room begins to slowly change every 5 seconds, at first into a luxury suite, then a bedroom of a child, a morgue, and finally back to the musty motel room that it originally was. The radio's volume grows softer, but no matter what he tries, he can't shut it off. Disregarding the radio, the man reenters the bathroom to see what was inside the briefcase. Inside it he finds a large ziplock bag bloated with an assortment of pills. After picking it up, he sees a picture of his ex-lover. The top inside of the case was covered in razorblades, as if they had been glued on there. There was a notebook, every page filled from top to bottom in micro print, almost impossible to read. A box cutter lied on the side of the bottom of the case, along with several needles, and syringe filled with a clear, diluted liquid. In the bathtub sat eight gallon jugs of purified water and a large glass bottle of dark red liquid sealed with a cork. Under the sink he found a can opener and nearly fifty cans of assorted foods, mixed fruit, beans, soup, and tuna.
After days of trying every possible means of escape and to shut off the radio, the man gave up and surround the bed with the gallons of water and cans of food. He lied on the mattress with the box cutter on his right side and the giant bag of pills on his left. He began blindly taking small handfuls of assorted narcotics and reading the notebook from the briefcase. It spoke about subliminal messages, radio waves, mind control, and suicide.
The notebook explained that the author had crafted a radio that would continuously play, and he had programmed in a bunch of what seemed like useless noises, but in reality they were subliminal messages instructing the listener to slowly destroy themselves, when the radio would finally shut off, the listener would then proceed to kill themselves.



The songs on this album are the transmissions from the radio.




Let's switch stations for a second so I can tell you about what to expect next. Not feeling finished with the album I started, I've decided to make this a mini-series of full length albums, with an EP to finish the saga. The story behind these albums plays into the Sanctuary Saga, a side plot to the ultimate story of Sloth. I will continue to write music for the next installment to this saga. I haven't decided if it'll be a total of 3 or 2 albums with an EP. I can tell you that Part 1 of "Sounds" will contain a bonus disc with some demos. I'm debating whether to include the next installment in the Temple of Sloth Series, "Rise of the Temple" or to use it for the grand finale. Either way, you'll find out. Also, I have to tell you seeing as the album was completed way before scheduled, I haven't had time to finish the story to go along with it, nor have I been able to include any of the bonus material you'll receive when you download the album. But by the end of this saga, all bonus material will be released.



This Message Was Brought to You By Astral Productions.

"Astroid" Andy

Production Notes: Week One: The Sounds of Self Destruction

Above is the new cover for The Sounds of Self Destruction. The album, still in it's fetal stage, is coming along way better than expected. So far, I have three completed songs, and that was from just one night of work. This is another concept album, about a lost radio station that transmits subliminal messages about suicide to it's listeners. The opening of the album "Lost Frequencies" serves as an interlude to Radio Waves [Transmissions 1 - 4] (The song was originally broke into four segments and would be scattered about the album). "Lost Frequencies" is the beginning of the story, when the listener accidentally tunes into the radio station from Sanctuary. By this point in the story, our hero, Andrew, is strapped to a bed in a decaying hospital called "Alchemilla", where the head of the staff wants to extract his blood and infuse it with the Blood Goddess, who at this point is still the unawakened Flesh Goddess, his ex-loved Raychael who got pulled into Sloth after a fatal car accident in the real world. It's in this hospital that the radio station, 66.6 ATTCS begins to play over the PA system. The sounds unlock repressed memories inside Andrew's mind, as well as awakening the inhuman monsters chained in the 3rd floor basement, eagerly pulling at their chains, breaking free to take the lives of those who created them, the sadistic staff of Achemilla, and eventually the remaining residents of Sanctuary.

Along with this album, I will be releasing the story (or at least the part in which takes place during this album) with the album. I can already tell there will be a bonus disc, including a few exclusive songs, some b-sides, and the long awaited "Rise of the Temple", the start of the new TOS saga. As I've stated in past posts, Sloth will be a full length story. I have thousands of ideas for how the story will go. I'm very excited about the story because it will have soundtracks. I will post the story behind "The Sounds of Self Destruction" once the album is complete on this site.

In addition to the bonus disc, the slew of photographs, and the stories, I plan on releasing a "Making Of" documentary and two new music videos that will eventally wind up on the long awaited "Astral Visual Journey: An Astroid Andy Experience" DVD.

So without further ado, I present the first three songs in the Sloth/Sanctuary saga.





Until next time, keep Astral Projecting:

"Astroid" Andy Day

Astral Productions Updates: News, New Astroid Andy Album

As 2013 begins to open it's eyes, Astral Productions is doing the same. I (Andy Day) have taken a break from making music for the past eight months for several reasons. In my musical absence I have spent a lot of time discovering new literature, films, and expanded my taste in music. Those three things will shine brightly in the upcoming Astroid Andy album "The Sound of Self Destruction. As well as expanding my mind by discovering vast sources of inspiration, I've also gotten eight new tattoos. I bring this up because of the significance it has my life. I am depressed person, and in my darker moments, I practice forms of masochism and self destruction such as cutting myself and abusing drugs. I am proud to say that I haven't put a blade to my skin with the intent of exposing blood in over six months, instead I have found that I get the same euphoric sensation of cutting by getting tattoos. Also, another big change that will be apparent in the upcoming Astroid Andy album will be the fact that Astral Productions has moved. The albums "Sanctuary: City of Flames, Sanctuary 2: The Lost Reality, Astral Plane, and Return to the Temple of Sloth [Director's Cut] EP by Astroid Andy, There Was a HOLE Here. It's Gone Now by The Andy Day Project, Masochism and The Process of Decay by Temple of Sloth [2011 - 2012] were all produced out of Astral Production II (the name I gave when AP was operating out of Brownsburg). Now Astral Productions III will be operating out of Indianapolis, where all albums were produced before 2011. Location may not seem like a big deal to most, but where ever I set up base, a whole different process goes into my production of music. As the environment changes, so do my influences and outlook. I'm very excited to be back in my home town, although I will miss Brownsburg if only for two great friends I made out there, one of which is my tattoo artist.

Now onto the details of the new album.

The Sound of Self Destruction
Recently, I was lucky to get a brand new computer. The other computer which I had recorded all my previous albums was almost 11 years old, this new one is only a few months old. In addition to the new computer, I've got my hands on the newest music making software I've been using since I was 16. In addition to the new software, I've acquired over 15,000 new sound clips and new genres to play around with, including dubstep. This album will be very dramatic, including lots of sting ensembles, heavy hitting brass, epic drum arrangements, along with a heavier dose of electronic elements. I want to make a mash-up of Decomposed and Sanctuary 2. I haven't been this excited about making a new album in over a year. I've been listening to a wide range of metal lately which I'd really like to add into the mix of my new sound. I will be posting demos on my Bandcamp page within the next two weeks. I have two songs that I've started working on, but nothing is near completion. I'd like to have the album completed by the end of May, the earliest being the end of March depending on my free time. Before the album drops, I will release another chapter in my Director's Cut series, this time releasing Journey to the Temple of Sloth



OTHER NEWS:

By the end of February, I will be posting my short story "Vicarious Destruction" to this page. Also I will post the first part in the sequel, "Masochism". I'm still working on my book "Manuscript of a Broken Mind" that will contain 4 short stories (Vicarious Destruction, Vicarious (Re)Construction: The Lost Pages, Masochism, and Temple of Sloth, the story behind the musical world I created) along with memoirs, poetry, found notes, drawings and sketches, lyrics, and other material from over the years including brain-storming pages for different stories, idea banks, unfinished poems, and much, much more. So keep your eyes peeled for more details about Astral Publishing's very first product.





Andy Day - 2/17/2013

The Astroid Andy Cerbral Enlightenment DVD Experience [+ AP News]

Astroid Andy DVD Details

Did you read the title carefully? Are the letters DVD there? OF COURSE THEY ARE! "Astroid" Andy here, letting all my Astral Projectors in on some really awesome stuff flowing out of Astral Productions. Since I have been absent from Astral Productions for some time, I thought the best way to jump back into gear was by finally releasing the long talked-about, rumored, and promised Astroid Andy DVD. There will be a few music videos, outtakes, "Astroid Andy Talks:" a brief video discussing the meaning and background of every Astroid Andy album. Also, the DVD will feature one unreleased Andy Day Project song. The DVD should be ready by early November, which brings us to...

November & December Releases
Music
1. (November 12) Rise of the Temple - Astroid Andy/Temple Sloth split EP
2. (November 30) Blasphemy Noise - Astroid Andy
3. (December 5) Recordings of Flesh - Temple of Sloth


So now you got something to be stoked about. I'm working on the forth music video at the moment, I plan on recording the "Astroid Andy Talks:" series within a week. The DVD will also include a short, silent film titled "Scratch", written, produced, and directed by myself.

I would like to apologize to all my fans for the long break from new material, but your patience will be greatly rewarded. I will upload the full version of "The Astroid Andy Cerebral Enlightenment DVD Experience" onto YouTube and will send physical copies (hand decorated by me on DVDr's, signed, with one of seven custom covers) to the first 50 people to email me asking for one. After that, they will cost $2.99 and I will cover any shipping costs.


I WILL BE POSTING A NEW SONG BY FRIDAY.


Keep Projecting,

Andy

Devolpments Down in the Lab

It's been a crazy week for me. For the latter part of the week, I was away from Astral Productions, taking care of family business. My 22nd birthday was on the 17th, I celebrated it days before and days after by visiting head shops, strip clubs, and surrounding myself with family and friends I hadn't seen in some time. But my absence from the studio didn't stop me from working on different projects that are in motion currently here at Astral Productions. Currently I am compiling photographs for the novella version of Vicarious Destruction & Masochists. These pictures will also be featured in my book, A Story of Scars: The Mind of Andy Day. The finished book will have over 90 photographs, all of which will be available to view online. And for those of you wondering how the new album is coming along, I must say it quiet awesome. Everything is in "demo mode" currently, but it's shaping up great, showing promise for pure audio euphoria. As for Masochists, the progression is going a bit slower than the photography project and the new album, but I have had several brain storming sessions (something that is extremely new to my writing style) which have spawned several great advancements into the story as well as character development, writing techniques, plot twists, themes, metaphors, and more structure. I am going to focus most of my energy into the story, but I will take breaks to venture into other creative outlets, if only to strengthen my integrity and passion for the story. Also a break helps utilize any new skills acquired and apply newer ideas in a more experienced form. Once Masochists is finished, then I will begin work on Project: Vicarious (Re)Construction, where I will dissect the story, re-edit certain parts and add a substantial amount of new material so that when both stories are put together as one it will create the picture I've wanted to paint since the beginning. The updated Vicarious Destruction & Masochists will make up the first part of my book. It will also be released separately with the original rough draft versions of both stories.

This Concludes Our Daily Broadcast:
This is Andy Day for Astral Productions:
Signing Off



The photos for Vicarious Destruction & Masochists are now online. Check Out Here!

The Year of the Andmiester: What to Expect in 2012.

INTRODUCTION

Let me state for the record, I do have split personalities. If you haven't gathered that yet, you obviously haven't been paying attention. I'm Astroid Andy, Temple of Sloth, The Andy Day Project, the writer Andy Day, and the admin of the blog I'm passing off as an official website for a company based in my bedroom. Sure, they all share the name Andy, but rest assured, they each are totally separate individuals. It's been a while since any of these personalities have been given a space to roam free, and the time has finally come to unleash a select few: Andy Day [the writer], and The Andy Day Project. Let me put the personality topic into context. We, meaning all of us, have several sides to ourselves, fragments if you will. It can easily be broken down into three: the person you think you are, the person you want to be, and the person others see you as. Each one of those differ drastically, making it virtually impossible for you to ever gather all the pieces to put together the mirror that reveals the real you. We never truly know each ourselves, not completely. The simple fact that the person you think you are is totally different than the person everyone you come into contact with makes you hundreds, if not thousands of people, prospectively speaking. But when can isolate different aspects of our personalities, we can give them their own identities, maybe as a way of controlling the chaos of all these different ideas and thoughts making you question your sanity. As a writer, you have to create characters to convey a story. To create a character, you have create a person, with a physical body, emotions, personality, a past and memories, to put it shortly, you create life. You get to play god on a select group of people. You control their fate, you create them in your image, or base them off a person who's entered your world. Having begun production of "Masochists: Vicarious Destruction 2" recently, I have been reflecting on personal knowledge of self. Getting into psychology, human behavioral studies, ancient history, religion (the creation and use against mass consciousness), and world mythology (to see how people interpreted events, and the gods they created to explain them with all the stories interwoven in). The reason I'm telling you all this is because it explains my absence from making music or writing, the two things that I hope will ensure my immortality. My mind is in constant motion, always processing and over analyzing. I've been in a bit of a depression, and part of that stems from not really knowing who I am. Well, I've thought about it through several different aspects and decided to use it to my advantage instead of drag me down. I can use this new mental obsession and apply it to what I'm good at: Music & Writing. So without further ado, here are the things to look forward to in 2012.

(Also, there will be weekly updates posted on the current projects of Astral Productions)


There Is Going To Be A New Album:
That's right. I plan on doing a soundtrack to my story I'm working on (details in next section), the current working title is "Artificial Dopamine: Masochists (Vicarious Destruction 2) Original Soundtrack . It will be released under The Andy Day Project, as that will give me more tools to capture atmosphere, while having a broader range of sounds to work with to capture the feel of the story. Unlike the previous release from TADP, there will not be vocals. This will be more of Astroid Andy meets Temple of Sloth affair, the instrumentals on "HOLE" just scratched the surface of the true sound that can be obtained, a way of taking the listener into the mind of the musician. I'm going to say this album will be done by mid-June, but it may be earlier of later than that. Production starts today, so I will make sure that details will flesh out within the next few weeks. So just keep your eyes peeled on that one. I will post the first song after it's been mastered, but it may only be a demo by the end of tonight. You're welcome.

There Is Going to Be a Book
Okay, while the amount of content could easily be called a book, it will not be a professionally published book. I'm still working on the logistics of how it will in it's physical form. I'm thinking of getting a three-hole paper punch, and put six holes in the pages and bind them with black, grey, and red dyed hemp string. The first copy's cover will be a piece of notebook paper laminated onto a severed spiral notebook back cover. That's where I run into a problem. I need to find a paper thick enough to use as covers, I don't want this thing looking like a fucking screen play, this will be my starter legacy. If anybody knows a type of paper thick enough that can be mass copied in a copier or printer, please let me know. Now you're probably wondering what the hell I am rambling on about. I am in the process of constructing a 60+ page story, cut into two parts. The first was written in 2008, Vicarious Destruction. After I complete the second part to this saga, "Masochists: Vicarious Destruction 2", I will go back, edit and add in an upwards of 10 additional pages to the original. Once the two are done, I am going to start working on formatting my poetry. I'm going to gather writing from as far back as 2007 until now, all my half assed short stories that only made it a chapter or two. All my failed memories, my deleted scenes, pretty much everything. That will be an easy hundred-fifty pages. And what's cooler about it, is it will be hand made by me. I'm going to make copies for all my family and friends. Maybe if I get enough positive feedback, I'll spring and get it actually published, professionally pressed, a plot summery on the back. Then I'd open an online-store, get about 300 of each one my albums professionally pressed and sell them for the price it would take me just to make my money back. Nobody would buy a thing. Not even the T-Shirts and Hot Pants.
So back to the book. The title is currently "The Story of Scars: The Mind of Andy Day". I'm hoping to be sowing my first one by August. Seeing as about 69% of this thing is already wrote, it shouldn't take too long if keep at it, constantly work. Once I get into writing, I get into writing. I'm pretty sure you have noticed that at this point in the news feed. If I get this done, I'll sell hand made copies for $10. Check Andy Day's Notes on Facebook for a taste of what'll you'll find in this thing. There's so much stuff I have written on this computer, it's begging to become an illogical book.


There's A New Story in the Works
So this has been mentioned previously, but I'll elaborate on it just a tad bit further, because I am really fucking excited about this one. Even as a sequel, this story can be read without having prior knowledge to the previous story to make sense. That's not to say if you read the first one, the story will become clearer this time around, a lot of questions are answered, a plot twists, and the behind the scenes to the first's plot. Also, dead characters speak in this one. I know, the idea sounds weird, but it's used as another way to get to understand the characters as human beings, it breaks the fourth wall constantly, it explores extensional ideas, explores metaphysics, questions mortality and reality, is a really fun way to help tell a story. I'm really going places with this story, exploring places in my mind. Remember that little introduction to this entire blog post? That is a fountain of inspiration for me. It's been a little over a week and I have twelve pages using size 10 font wrote, opening future plot points. When I finish this story I am going to make it into it's own kind of odd book. I'm going to get folders with three prongs on the inside, punch the paper, and cut apart the folders and sew them back together with grey hemp string. They will be glossy black folders with the cut out of a drawing on lined notebook paper will be the cover. I'll give these to friends and family, and sell them for $2.00. As I was saying about the plot of the story, like I said, even if you didn't get to read the first one, you could follow this one with ease. You'll pick up things from the first one right off the bat. So keep that in mind when considering reading this story. In the weekly updates I'll post bits and pieces of the story for you to preview, to hype it up.




Key Points 1. New album from The Andy Day Project entitled "Artificial Dopamine: Masochists [Vicarious Destruction 2] Soundtrack". Due out by mid June.
2. New book due out by December, they'll be handmade and published. Titled "The Story of Scars: The Mind of Andy Day. They'll be limited in print, selling for $10.00.
3. New story due out by August, released as novella, handmade, self published, digitally released, physical copy will be crafted by me, sold for $2.00. Titled "Masochists: Vicarious Destruction 2".
3.5. Original story, titled "Vicarious Destruction", going to be expanded, turned into a novella, self published, complete with hand drawn illustrations. Rough draft will be included as just stapled. Rough draft will not be available online, they only come with physical copies. Handmade copies will be sold for $2.00.





This concludes our broadcast day,
This has been Andy Day for Astral Productions;
Signing Off.

Story Within "There Was a HOLE Here. It's Gone Now" - An article by Andy Day

It's hard to say an instrumental album is a concept album. But I'll be damned if I don't claim them to be, in the sense a person can hear the story within the sounds, without it being drawn out for them. Well, now I'm giving my take on a concept album to a new level with The Andy Day Project's "There Was a HOLE Here. It's Gone Now." with the addition of vocals on almost every track. They're spoken, they're acted out, they have heavy distortion on them, echos, and tons of editing. But there is always a moment of clarity within the chaos of my new vocal structure. While some songs are scripted, others are improved with a massive amount of recording time, then all the usable parts get kept and rest is scrapped of saved for the "Making Of..." feature or the "Blooper Reel".
So what's the concept of this album? Being lost in a world of darkness, despair, and fear. Walking through an abandoned city in ruins, in another plane of existence, accessed through the act of masochism. The past is very much alive, as memories act as apparitions, manifesting themselves into the modern spectrum of reality in real time. This city's inhabitants are genetic byproducts, scientific antichrists, and a few stragglers struggling to survive this nightmare.
This is a totally new project for me, hence the name credited on the album.
Musically, this has been a blast to create, while overly stressful in other instances where technical malfunctions were present. The original idea behind "The Andy Day Project" was to take both existing styles and methods of music making I had taught myself, and combine them to make an entirely new sound. The idea of having lyrics wasn't even considered in the fetal stages.
It happened by accident. I was wandering the electronics of Walmart, looking at 5.1 surround sound systems, wireless keyboards, and a wireless mouse. I happened to notice a microphone, by Logitech (a brand I love to buy), for $8.00. I thought to myself, I can edit really well at this point in the game, and I can do custom effects in my sleep. Let's give it a shot. So I bought the microphone and quickly took to recording bits and pieces of my voice, playing around with the samples until I started seeing results that would actually enhance the music I was writing. I quickly recorded an improv song, "The Smell of Blood", which is the basis of the album's storyline. Soon came the task of writing lyrics, something I'm completely new to. But they came, and I found a new way to express myself through my music. I wrote the song "This is Forever" about broken promises, and the pain of dying love. The song "Echoing" is about being lost in the city, with a brief comment on the existence of time. Other songs like "Tape One: Recordings" and "Tape Two: Words of Warning" are merely readings of papers found next to a corpse in the game Silent Hill 2.

TO BE CONTINUED.