New Maqlu EP Haze comes out tomorrow, actually it's already up on iTunes.

Secretly I'm dreading the bullshit cheerful robot email from CDBaby congratulating me on the release. I remember a year ago today when Blood came out thinking "oh shit, that was today?!" when I got that email.

I was in the studio out at Vogville running for Dave Ogilvie while he mixed Raggedy Angry's new album. We had just picked them up onto our management roster at Synthetic and I was busy as Hell with that session and the usual work stuff. Also April 30, 2010 was the start of the MIDI Ghetto tour with 16volt, Chemlab, and Left Spine Down and I was going to the show at the Rickshaw Theatre. And various other shit was going on that meant that while I was glad the release was out, I really couldn't deal with it appropriately and in fact I didn't until damn near July. I think the only people I told on the actual day of the release of Blood were Isaac, Josh and Clayton, because I ran into them at the Rickshaw and somehow the conversation got around to what I was up to musically.

I was a little thrilled, though, that I'd managed to actually do the release and get it out there. Even though the reality is it's not really that hard to do, you'd be surprised how many artists never even get to that stage. And I of course came of age in the days of "Big Daddy Record Company" as I seem to recall Mona Mur putting it, so actually just going ahead and putting it out there all by my lonesome was a big deal, at least perception-wise if not in terms of the actual reality of recording, mixing, getting it mastered, doing the art and getting it released. As with so much these days in the current state of the business, it's getting your head wrapped around the process more so than the actual process.

The year's been hectic and weird and crazy and good and bad etc. Blood charted, its follow-up Black charted, which was a nice feather in my cap though ultimately it doesn't mean much. Haze closes the circuit on these three EPs, originally to be called Tales From the Black Heart but actually when the CD comes out in a month or so with all 3 EPs on it, I'll call it blood.black.haze.

I'll leave the EPs on iTunes etc. as their own discrete entities, the CD album is just for those who want a physical copy, doesn't make much sense to do a digital release for it when the songs are all already available digitally.

I'm working on new material which has evolved from where I was with the first cycle, though lyrically I suppose it's pretty similar.

Well, maybe not, since a lot of blood.black.haze seems like a lifetime ago, even though it's sort of a "same shit, different day" feeling for me.

Wonder how long til the Russian pirates find it. Took them a couple weeks to discover Black, then they went back and found Blood a few days later. I guess at least they're interested enough to rip it off.

Lots of stuff on the go, most of which is too early in its development stages to mention lest I jinx it, and while I'm not in the studio running for Rave on a session with one of our bands, that's only because we just finished the mix for The Rabid Whole's new album a couple weeks ago now. End result is the same - when the robot emails me today, I'll be glad to have a new release out but at the same time I'm busy dealing with other shit.

Catch ya later, though not as late as last year [should have CDs by mid-May and will be servicing college radio by early June].