Well, it’s the end of another December, so it’s time for the annual sheepish apology post.
This time last year, we really did think you’d be listening to the project right now. What happened? Not enough and too much, to be honest. We got three songs fully recorded and had a good head of steam in late spring, and we were still looking at a November 2015 release. Then we both hit real-life delays — I bought a house, Jude had another child, and we were both swamped with our real-world jobs. (As a reminder, Jude is a research scientist who often has to travel to do science, and I work at a videogame company on a title that puts out new DLC every single week.) So “I’m going to work on some music this weekend” is a great thing to say but not easy to actually do. And this is taking priority for what little time is available; for instance, Dan’s podcast with his wife is on hiatus until this project is finished.
We realize that while we are musicians and we really only care about making the songs sound good, that’s not how people consume comedy online. If you don’t have a video for your song that people can pass around, you don’t get exposure — weirdly, if you don’t give people video, they don’t listen to your audio. So we realize that video of some sort simply has to be part of the process; we need these songs to debut as videos. One of the things we did this year was reach out to friends who know more than we do, and they helped us reach out to potential partners to help us create those videos. We do have some interest, but it’s all still vague because we haven’t finished the music. Justifiably, when you’re asking someone to put their time, money, and resources into your idea, it’s riskier for them to commit if your idea is not complete and tangible. So, it still comes back to what we already knew: We need to get the music done first, even if that means not releasing it immediately, while our partners build on it and make it something far more attractive. We want the total package.
We know we’ve been inactive for too long. We love hearing from people who say the songs we’ve done still bring them joy and they sing our lyrics when the originals come on the radio. We know all seven of our fans are out there, and we really are grateful for your patience. But doing this right is far more important to us than doing this fast. Just yesterday we talked on the phone and agreed to push the schedule back as long as it needs to be pushed, and realistically, that might mean it doesn’t even come out in 2016. Our musical deadlines are all still next year, and we’re trying to find both the right partner and the right opportunity to release what we really think is going to be the best thing we’ve ever done.
It shouldn’t take this long…but it is. This project is ambitious, scary, and time-consumning — but it’s not impossible, and we really do think it’s going to be worth the wait.
Has it really been more than a year since we posted anything here? It can’t be true. And yet there it is — nothing since “Major Rip-Off.” Oh man.
Well, here’s the good news: In the interim, we have been writing and recording, even taking some classes and upgrading a little gear here and there, and things are starting to take shape on The Big Project. We have the lyrics complete, at last, and reviewing them, we think they really work. Jude has been tracking drums and key parts along with other miscellaneous instruments (real and simulated) involved in this one. Dan’s starting to add in temp vocals and some final guitar/bass parts. It feels good to be this far — it actually has reached the point where we’re tired of dreaming about it and need to see it actually exist!
Unfortunately, we’re still a ways off, and we’ve got to keep it all under wraps until it’s done. We will explain why when it’s finally unveiled, but we do think this will be something you will finally get to download in 2015.
Remember that big project we said we were working on that would be worth the wait? This isn’t it. This is just a little thank-you for being so patient because it’s taking so darn long.
This song — based on Peter Schilling’s 1983 hit “Major Tom (Coming Home)” — was something we concocted a few years ago; probably 2010, because I remember working on lyrics during PAX East in Boston at the Hynes. We finished the lyrics and Jude got most of the synths worked out, but it just didn’t feel like the time was right, for a few different factors. So we shelved it and moved on to other projects that seemed more exciting and timely (or in the case of our current secret project, timeless). (more…)
Jude and I do this because it’s fun. But I won’t lie — the recognition we’ve gotten from fans is huge to us, and we have shared a secret dream since we started. We never planned to be rich or famous (and to date, we’re operating according to plan), but we did want one thing. And on June 29, 2013, we got it.
A few weeks ago, I sent in four of our tracks — “Arcade Gaming Shrine,” “Rage Quitter,” “Halo ((All I Play-Oh))” and “Learn to Spell” — for consideration. You submit songs the old-fashioned way: You burn a CD and mail it to them, and they ask that you just send a few songs. The good Doctor and his team listen to everything personally and screen every song, so I didn’t have any expectations of hearing things soon. But the encouraging words from our fans made me feel it was the worth the effort and we could let ourselves dream just a little bit.
And there it is, “Arcade Gaming Shrine,” right between Rick Moranis and Jimmy Fallon — real, honest-to-goodness professional funny people.
I mean, seriously? It’s all we’ve ever wanted. If you are a band that wants to “make it,” maybe you dream of touring or having a video or doing groupies — but if you are a couple of dorky guys who copy Weird Al’s formula and replace all the relevant pop-culture parts with highly specialized references to videogames, then there is no better form of “making it” than being on Dr. Demento.
This gives us a great morale boost as we move forward. And yes, we are moving forward. You have not heard the last of Palette-Swap Ninja — we promise.
And again, thank you for the support, fans. You are both great people.
Yeah, pretty much the same as the plans for 2012. This past year really caught us at a bad time — Jude has a family to raise, and I just slacked. The size and scope of what we are planning is pretty daunting and it actually demotivated me — I was just plain scared, so I put it off and did other things. If you’ve ever seen the old stage musical The Music Man, it was a little like that for me — the kids in the school band are taught to “think” about the music rather than actually take lessons. That’s what I did — I considered this thing, a lot. But we are making progress, slowly, and it’s just going to have to be one of those when-it’s-done-it’s-done things. We have talked about that aspect of it and we both think it’s worth doing right rather than rushing it, and that it has the potential to be very awesome no matter when it comes out. But that said, I’m more serious about making progress than I have been in a while, so here’s hoping. Kat is actually helping me out with idea generation, lyric writing, and just plain organization and scheduling. So that can’t hurt.
Thanks for your patience. We’re simply not rock stars.
First off, thanks for all the support in 2011. It was a good year for us: We finally finished our WoW song. Kat made us another great video (though we really thought someone would do a full machinima video for it — that’s kind of what we had in mind when we wrote it). We also snuck in a Beatles track. We started posting our work on the Funny Music Project Sideshow. We closed the chapter on our first ten songs by grouping them as an album. And maybe most importantly, we committed to our next project.
That’s what I want to talk about here, but not too much. I’m a big fan of setting realistic expectations, and I think it’s only fair to give you a heads-up that we won’t have this next thing ready for some time. The next project is a little more ambitious than our usual stuff, and it will take more time as a result. There’s an old saying: “Cheap, fast, and good — pick two.” Well, we’re going for cheap and good.
Jude and I have been kicking around a few ideas for a while and one of them really took shape early last year. We didn’t really do anything with the idea at the time, because we were focused on Rage Quitter and Alliance, but we put this idea on deck for the next thing after they were finished and out the door. Since that point, we’ve been spending all our PSwap time on it; some research is involved. I can’t give you a hint because a hint would give it all away; it will be better when it’s done and we can just say “It’s this” and you will hopefully go “Holy cow, you’re kidding, really?” and we’ll go “Yeah, for real, you can download it here.” And then you will tell all your friends and say “You’ve gotta hear this” and then we will be famous on the internet. This is the loose plan. Please note your part in it.
Really, that’s all I wanted to say. We’re heading into a public drought but a private wellspring. We didn’t break up and we didn’t get bored. We’re just working in secret in the dojo.
Happy 2012 to you and yours. We hope to see some of you at PAX East again this year. And if you bought a t-shirt that wouldn’t suck.
This one’s been a long time coming! We’ve been working on our parody of Thomas Dolby’s “She Blinded Me With Science” around for almost a year — and it did not come easy. In fact, we made “Rage Quitter” in the middle of it because it was driving us crazy and we needed a break! But hopefully you like what you hear:
A light at the end of the tunnel! Jude and I have been working on our next song for a long time — before “Rage Quitter,” actually. I found a file that said “feb mix” which means we’ve been talking about it and recording bits since even before that. And we had thought that debuting this song with a video would be the way to go, but on second thought…no it’s not. We certainly hope this is the kind of song that the community might decide is worthy of a video. If so, we will be flattered and welcome it. If not, there’s no real reason to hold this song just for that hope. You’ll get the joke without the visual.
We have also come to an important decision. This will be the LAST Palette-Swap Ninja song…in our debut collection, “Still in Beta.” Heh. We both feel like 10 is a good round number, and after four years of doing this, it’s nice to pause and say “achievement unlocked.” All it really means is that the MP3s will be tagged with the album title and you can download everything in one chunk. We’re working on album art now so it will look all nice on your iPod. We’re also going to add the lyrics to this site — what were we thinking by not posting them with the songs themselves? Silly.
Our next project is already decided and that will be a fresh start of sorts, but we won’t be ready to talk about that for a while, due to personal schedules and being busy in real life. But we’re not taking a break, we’re working on it — just can’t pin down a release date or anything yet, and it’s too early to discuss (not like we ever do that anyway). Still working on lyrics and Jude is currently tracking drums. And, if we’re lucky, we might play our first live show next year, if the stars align. Ever onward!
