Joshua Van Tassel

(on facebook? go to www.joshuavt.com for the full post)

Last week I released my first cd, and it ended up being a whole lot of work and a whole lot of fun. A huge thanks to Valery Gore who delivered what turned out to be a really emotional performance while trying out a whole new batch of tunes and a different set up. Also thank you to the Tranzac where a lot of people there had never been. I’m glad they all came and saw the venue, and myself and my band of course.

The interesting thing about this album for me is that I only now feel like it’s done, even though I’ve had the physical copies for over a month. Part of the goal of this project was to put together a proper show with a band of people I love and respect, and push myself and hopefully them to do something musically that we don’t always get to do in our sideman worlds. I feel like I definitely got pushed, and hopefully they did too. I also got extremely stressed at times, nervous, excited, depressed, and even complacent once. I realize now that having a cd release takes a huge amount of organizational know how (which isn’t a strength of mine), finance (definitely lacking a bit there), talent (we had that one thanks to an insane band with Christine Bougie, Dean Drouillard, Daffyd Hughs, Adam Warner, and Bret Higgins), and a ton of good friends who will show love and support and spread the word. Which leads me to the point of this post. Thank you so much to all who came out, or who sent kind words and couldn’t make it due to various circumstances. I really very much appreciate it. 

Now. What next? I feel like I forgot how to make music over the past 2 months, but I’m thinking it’ll come back fast. I’m moving tomorrow into my little studio laboratory and it couldn’t come at a more perfect time. I’ll be here on the blog more regularly as well, and thinking of implementing a little more structure to keep it interesting for everyone. Suggestions are always welcome!!

(on facebook? go to www.joshuavt.com for the full post)

I’m excited. The band is excited. Lots of excitement. This is exciting. Valery Gore is going to be amazing, and we’re going to do our best to follow it up with something equally amazing. See you there? September 15th 830 sharp? Cover is $10, or $20 with a cd.

Playlist –
Elbow – the seldom seen kid
Fleet Foxes – helplessness blues
Traveling wilburies – 1
David Myles – Into the Sun

(on Facebook? Go to www.joshuavt.com for the full post)
I got woken up by a sheep this morning, that was nice. At the start of vacation, had a great drive yesterday except for the fact that I left my only sweater and jacket in Ottawa, and I’m heading to the maritimes for about a week and a half. On the north shore of the St. Lawrence river in Quebec for the day today, and loving the coffee and the view. Driving playlist for yesterday
Taylor Swift – Speak Now
Gillian Welch – Harrow and the Harvest
LCD Soundsystem
Chad Van Gaalen – infiniheart

(on facebook? go to www.joshuavt.com for the full post)

(on facebook? go to www.joshuavt.com for the full post)

Last week when I released my album, there were a number of questions in my mind, some answerable and some a little trickier to pin down. Is this any good? Will people like it? Is there a point to making a physical cd? Do people only buy downloads? Should I have done vinyl? Is the cover too weird? One very large question that I somehow naively overlooked is ” do people buy music at all in any format?” Due to bandcamp’s pretty handy Stats feature I got a pretty interesting answer to that question.

Last Saturday, John Sakamoto and the Toronto Star listed one of the tunes from my album on their weekly Anti Hit list. I’ve always had a lot of respect for the list, so it was a real treat to have the first review of something from the album come in that form. On their website and in print, they list a web address to my bandcamp site where one  can very quickly have a listen to the tunes, and then buy them using a credit card or paypal. Bandcamp keeps pretty comprehensive statistics for you, and the most important ones in this case being

How many people came here to check out your music?

Which songs did they listen to?

and most importantly How much did they listen to?

The busiest traffic day happened for me last Friday; I had sent around an email/facebook/twitter blast, and the Star article came out online. All together, about 300 people came to the bandcamp site that day. Out of those people 139 of them listened to the album in it’s entirety, 105 listened to half of it or more, and 66 skipped through a bunch of the tunes. That’s a fair number of people sitting down and listening to a large part of the album. How did that translate into people purchasing the record? One cd and one download.

Please don’t think the point of this post is to whine and complain and try to shame people into buying my record, it’s not that at all. I’m just presenting you with pretty concrete proof that the way we view music that’s available online is that it’s free. This not a new concept but my first experience with it in a direct way. People spend so much time in front of their computers at work or home with a wifi connection, that there’s no need to purchase something because you can just stream the whole thing at anytime. I’ve actually had emails from people now that took the time to write me to tell me how much they love the album and have listened to it multiple times, and how bandcamp is awesome because it lets you stream music to their iphones.

I had a great chat with a friend about this yesterday who brought up some valid points, like a lot of people will stream it in bandcamp, but maybe buy the record on itunes because they trust the security of it, or they’re waiting to buy the album at a cd release in physical form. If that’s the case that would be lovely, but to be honest I’m not holding out for a big apple pay check 2 months from now. I think there are fewer and fewer music buyers out there in the world, but probably more listeners then ever before. Still working out what that means in terms of good or bad, but let me know what you think, by all means….

(on facebook? go to www.joshuavt.com for the full post)

It’s here right now, maybe even playing on the sidebar on this post, my new record. It’s a self titled album, and I’m really excited to share it with all of you. It features beautiful contributions from some of my best friends and Toronto’s best talents, and I think you’ll really enjoy it. There are three different ways to buy it, trying to make it easy for you if at all possible. Here they are  -

1. I want my mp3′s ( or WAVs)

Bandcamp - click buy on the player to the right of the screen and be magically transported to bandcamp’s very secure and artist friendly site

itunes - click the link, or just search Joshua Van Tassel.If you see an album cover that has a freaky fox on it, you’re in the right place

2. Let’s Get Physical

Bandcamp - again, this is a great site that offers easy physical or digital orders. The shipping comes directly from me, so in Canada it should only take a couple days

Soundscapes - my favorite record store in Toronto has stocked the album, so if you’re in TO, drop by there and ask for it

Cd Baby - another great site that does a lot to support independent musicians, great fast service

3. Come to the cd release party September 15th at the Tranzac Main Hall!

We’ll have plenty of cd’s, download cards, and plenty of other surprises in store. Thanks for your continued support, and hopefully we’ll talk soon, maybe even at the release! Wouldn’t that be nice?

(on facebook? go to www.joshuavt.com for the full post)

I’ve had the wonderful fortune of being on this week’s BlogTO edition of the neighborhood playlist with some other great local artists like Shad and Austra. Check it out here .

Also, the tune Double Tooth from the album that comes out this week, Tuesday to be specific, made it on to CBC’s the Signal podcast for August 4th. Have a listen to that here.

Lots of great things happening. CD release is booked, just a couple small details to figure out and I’ll tell you all about it this week, don’t you worry. Until then, please come by tomorrow and celebrate the release with me, cybernetically.

One of the best parts of living in my neighbourhood in Toronto is it’s super easy access to Soundscapes, my favorite record store. It’s a rare day that I leave there without buying not only what I went in for but usually one or two other things I’ve never heard of as well.
My latest previously unheard obsession came from a tip from David Myles, who I seem to be telepathically linked to musically. If he says buy it, I do, that day, and generally get my mind blown. It’s a compilation called “Brazil Bossa Beat : The Story of Elenco Records, Brazil“. Just to be clear, this isn’t your played out Girl From Ipanema ( no offence to Stan Getz, his tone is amazing). It’s 23 songs that are super exciting, challenging, and recorded with pretty astounding quality of sound. The cd version comes with a beautiful full color booklet explaining the fascinating history of the label and more about it’s aesthetic and artists, and is actually really inspiring. Anyway, that’s the musical public service announcement for the week. Go buy a record yes?