Pacific Radio Fire - PRESS RELEASE

After seven long years, the third CD release of the group now that they're here is finally available!

Pacific Radio Fire is a collection of twelve songs that range in style from techno to alt rock to classically-inspired music, and cover themes such as the writings of Richard Brautigan and Ray Bradbury, Buddhism, war, death...you know, simple subjects.

This release involves the talents of three guitarists - Fred Nowicki (who was with the group for the sophomore release Auschwitz Bound and appears on the song Far Away, Gone), Glenn Banish (lead guitar on Pacific Radio Fire), and Nate Russell (rhythm guitar and cowriter on So It Goes). Also, bassist Pax Helgesen cowrote and played on So It Goes.

The cover of the CD was designed by Chelsea Dorato, a high school senior at North Port High in North Port, FL. Chelsea won a design competition with her cover submission. This will be her first commercial work.

Pacific Radio Fire is available at cdbaby.com, iTunes, Rhapsody, walmart.com, and 30 other online sites. Just search for "now that they're here".

Endings and Beginnings

I'm abandoning the more formal "press release" style of this blog since it just doesn't suit me or this site. Since all things "deep kimchee" are also all things "Kevin Brislin", there really is no point in trying to separate the two. So much for formality.

In no particular order, here's what's been up since last June.

1. Pacific Radio Fire: The next now that they're here CD is in it's final stages of mastering. This process has been particularly grueling, for some odd reason. I seem to be second-guessing myself on the mixes constantly. One day, they sound fine, the next I'm dissatisfied with some aspect of what I've mixed. However, the twelve songs are almost all at a point where I'm changing things just to change them....and that's when I know I'm done.

The cover for the CD has an interesting story. I decided to have a competition at North Port High School with two graphic arts classes to design the cover. Altogether, there was about 20 to 25 entrants. The winning design was made by Chelsea Dorato and was done in a very cool way. Each letter for the title was "drawn" in a darkened room by a Cyalume light stick, then put together in Photoshop. I thought the process was fascinating and choose her design as the winner.

So, the CD is almost done, the cover is almost done...all that's left is for me to hurry the hell up.

2. Alternative Music Education video: At long last, after almost three years of work, my Masters of Fine Arts degree is completed. It took a year's worth of work to have my thesis video accepted; it took four submissions to have it finally approved by my thesis committee at National University in Los Angeles, CA. The video is 15 minutes long and is an educational look at what constitutes alternative music education and how it can be achieved. Due to the constraints of size for video on blogspot, I will have to put it on vimeo.com. You can see it at vimeo.com/7132012.

3. Hypnosis for Education: An odd project that came up this year from Dr. George Kenney, who is creating a series of self-hypnosis CD's for students to help them with such problems as test anxiety, sports performance issues, etc. There are five CD's to be released. I was hired to do the background music and produce the project. This has been fun to work on. It will be released on amazon.com, so look for this there soon.

4. Kaleidoscope 2010: For the next Kaleidoscope performance at North Port High School. we are doing a Beatles-themed show. In my TV Production III-IV classes, we are re-enacting three music videos from the films A Hard Day's Night, Help, and Let It Be. We are in pre-production at this point, but we have our cast and the shoot dates for at least two of the videos. We will also be using our own renditions of the music, so recording dates for that will be coming soon and will involve students from three of my classes. More news on this as it progresses.

The Next Big Thing(s)

The Pacific Radio Fire CD by the group now that they're here has finally been upped in the queue to be finished. Kevin Brislin is finishing the final mixes for test listening sessions over the next few weeks, then wants to have the CD released in three tiers:

1 - an electronic download in all the usual places (iTunes, amazon.com, etc.)

2 - the physical CD available from CDBaby

3 - a deluxe CD that will include all three CD's from the group, a book of lyrics for all the songs, and a handmade necklace specifically commissioned for this release. This deluxe set will only be available from deep kimchee's website.

The CD insert design is still ongoing, as are plans for an invitation-only release party. There are twelve songs at this time, but that may change depending on what happens during the final mixes. The target release time is August 2009, but that may be delayed depending on the cover design and the usual mastering problems.

The next big project involving deep kimchee isn't ready to be fully announced yet, but it is going to involve an online blog, a DVD, and a book. This project has been in the works now for almost a year and won't be ready for any form of unveiling for another six months at least. Suffice it to say that this is the largest project we've attempted and involves a lot more people than ever before. All you can do is hold on for more info when it's released.

Last Thoughts on Final Projects

From Kevin Brislin:

Since the school year is over at North Port High, I thought I'd wrap up what happened with all of the projects we worked on in the classes and where they will go from here.

1. The horror movie "Dr. S": the movie was extremely well received at Kaleidoscope on May 20. The crowd was actually one of the largest we have had since we started the performance series 6 years ago. While we are still having issues with the correct export settings for the Final Cut Pro file and having video hardware issues as well, I can't complain about the final results. A fine job by all, especially student Joey Rieszer (co-writer, co-director, director of photography, editor, sound designer...the guy was a bit busy and took this as his project when others dropped the ball.) When the issues with the aspect ratio and quality of the transfer are worked out, the video will be posted on YouTube.

2. The four-song EP from Sound Engineering never made it to plastic. While all four songs were completed, the class did not meet the deadline to have it mastered or duplicated. There are still some issues with the mixes, so it was decided that the release would be premature. This is a project that may be revisited by next year's SE class. However, the performance of the four songs went over well at Kaleidoscope (even though the first song was prematurely ended by a fire alarm!)

3. The Education Channel 20 in Sarasota (Comcast) will be featuring the horror movie "Dr. S" and projects from my TV II class over the summer. Tune in to see what all the fuss is about.

End of School Year Madness

Kevin Brislin and his TV Production III and IV students are to be featured in a program on Educational Channel 20 in Sarasota, Florida, concerning their efforts in producing "The Horror Movie!". The movie is an original video that they have worked on since last August as a large-form school project. The video is in post-production now as they work on audio, foley, sound effects, and the score. It will premier on May 20.

The Recording Engineering class is finishing tracking the four songs for their EP and the live performance on May 20. The photo is a shot of one of the vocal sessions completed at North Port High. Mixing and mastering will occur within the next two weeks.

Paradox Recording Studio

From Kevin Brislin:

I had the opportunity to visit Paradox Recording Studio in North Port, FL, a fantastic space owned by Rick Duncan. Rick is the producer/songwriter/drummer for the group Cryptic Vision, a progressive rock ensemble based here in Florida. I've been aware of Cryptic Vision for a few years now due to a mutual friend and was even invited to attend their last CD release party in 2006 when "In A World" was released.

Rick's studio is a stunning space and I would highly recommend it to any artist or group that is looking for a larger studio in which to work. I was at his studio to interview him for a possible article in TapeOp magazine (another "must have" in the world of audio, in my opinion.) Who knows if that will pan out, but I did want to let people know that there is a(nother) great studio in the country.

NPHS Musical

The NPHS Musical for 2009 has just finished its run. This year, the Drama Dept. chose "Little Shop of Horrors" as the musical and, as usual, the Drama students delivered a great set of fine performances.

For the past five years or so, Kevin Brislin has been the audio supervisor for the musicals, a fact of which few people have been aware. The job usually consists of training his audio production students to run sound for a live performance, which may mean that up to 12 mics are running at a time, along with sound effects. It is a stressful job for the students, but one that is vastly different than the experiences they have in a recording situation. Since musicals are so script-oriented, the students learn to follow along closely to know what mics have to be open at any particular time, when sound cues are to be played, and how to balance the sound in a live hall between a non-mic'ed orchestra and the actors.

Brislin considers this experience a make-or-break for anyone who is considering doing this for a living. Many of his students believe that running sound for the musicial is one of the highlights of their audio production education.

NOW what's he working on?

Right to the point...

1. Kevin Brislin's thesis video, "Alternative Music Education", is on its third (and hopefully final) edit, and the entire project is being submitted for formal review this week. This is a 15-minute video detailing how music education is taught, and how to expand music programs by integrating the non-traditional music student. This video will be hosted here at a later time. Contact Brislin for more information at dkimchee@earthlink.net.

2.  TV Production II, III, and IV classes at North Port High School, North Port, FL, are in the production phase of the horror movie they are producing for the annual Kaleidoscope performance this year. The movie is based on an original screenplay written by the TV III and IV students. The premier for this will be at the NPHS Performing Arts Center on May 20. Brislin is directing and will write the score for the movie.

3. The Recording Engineering class at NPHS is just finishing rehearsals for a 4-song EP that is being produced by the class. Instructor Kevin Brislin chose four songs that the musicians of the class had to learn, then adapt to be played in another style. For example, the song "Everybody Hurts" by REM has to be done in the style of The Cars, and the song "Lay Down (Candles in the Rain)" by Melanie is to be done in the style of Pink Floyd. The class plans to record the results of the project and have CD's available for sale by May 20. The class also intends to perform all four songs live the same day before the Kaleidoscope premier of the horror movie. Brislin is producing the CD, and will play keyboards or sing on all four songs.

By the way, the picture you see in this post is the new corporate logo/photo for deep kimchee. It just looked so relaxing and, when people see it, they always ask where it is. 

2009 FMEA Conference

On Jan. 8 and 9, Kevin Brislin and Owen Bradley made two presentations at the annual Florida Music Educators Association conference. They dealt with the Kaleidoscope project at North Port High School in FL as a model for alternative music education. Both have been spearheading the use of non-traditional classes (such as electronic music, recording engineering, and "guitar" classes) to engage the non-music student at NPHS. The presentations also were the first time that Brislin's thesis video on the subject was presented to the public. Owen Bradley is the music director and Music Department chair at NPHS. Brislin teaches TV Production, Electronic Music, and Recording Engineering...but not at the same time.