Towards the end of June I was given a very challenging and exciting project.

My first attempt to build an iTunes LP would be for the incredible Biffy Clyro. iTunes LPs are interactive rich media digital albums. Essentially it’s the digital version of special edition packaging with extra content. LPs can include a range of content including lyrics, photos, videos and bonus features.

We initially had a 4 week deadline to deliver the project, but due to Apple’s lengthily approval process, this was reduced to only 4 days for the entire project. After much frustration with Apple’s bizarre code structure and many late nights at the office we managed to pull it off.

Warner’s in-house designer Kate Brighouse did another brilliant job on the design elements. I had to piece all the javascript and css together to make everything run smoothly. Alex Marshall at Warner International was a brilliant resource who helped me make sense of the code with numerous examples of LPs he’s worked on in the past.

As a Biffy Clyro fan, I’m really proud of the Only Revolutions iTunes LP. It is a quality package including lyrics and commentary for all the songs, 6 music videos, 3 behind the scenes videos, a video of the band discussing the album in detail, a 45 min film made during the recording of the album, 31 photographs and the band’s detailed biography.

Because awareness of the iTunes LP format is fairly low, I proposed that we should create a YouTube video highlighting the contents of the package. Dan Massie and the team at Warner Music Entertainment did an excellent job making a trailer to promote the release. You can watch the embedded video on the left.

Despite the stress around the incredibly tight deadline, this project was hugely rewarding. It’s amazing to think that so many people will buy something I created for a band I’m a massive fan of, what an honour!

The Only Revolutions iTunes LP is currently on special for only £4.99 – only available from iTunes.

Coinciding with the Metal Hammer takeover promotion for Disturbed’s new album metalhammer.co.uk were given an exclusive pre-release stream of Asylum. I built a simple Flash player to do the job.

Listen to the stream and view the player here:
http://www.metalhammer.co.uk/news/exclusive-hear-the-disturbed-album-here/

http://www.myspace.com/thewombatsuk

The Wombats were the first band that needed a myspace overhaul since the new modular layout system was introduced. The page is fairly basic and based on designs by Doug Mercy.

Myspace layouts were always a huge challenge but did allow for a lot of creativity. The new system is much more banner/module based and pretty much dependent on design work so I can’t take much credit. That said, I look forward to finding creative ways to do things within these limitations.

http://www.breakfromtheasylum.com

Disturbed’s UK Marketing Manager, Katherine Parrott, chose to do something more interesting than regular print ads to promote the band’s new album.

Through a partnership with Metal Hammer, she ran a highly engaging competition/puzzle throughout the pages of the magazine. The puzzles pointed readers to breakfromtheasylum.com where they would need to enter the answers to access a free download.

As an in-house project, Kate Brighouse designed the holding page and I built the microsite. The site’s functionality is fairly simple so I used Javascript for validation along with the jquery framework for some basic animation.

http://www.thewombats.co.uk/

The timeline for the new Wombats album is much like the band: fast, crazy and filled with surprises.

The first single was suddenly given a release date and radio play while the new website was only in very early development stages. It was important that information and branding for the new single went public instantly. I had to build a simple holding page to focus on the new single as well as encouraging pre-orders and mailing list sign-ups. This was based on the single artwork, designed by Doug Mercy. I added in a twitter feed and tour dates to complete the picture.

The full collection of photographs taken on a boat trip along the Thames with live performances by Joe Robbins and Plush. Featured song is ‘Lucky Fish’ by Plush.

Really intimate performances from Plush and Joe Robbins on a boat cruising along the Thames River. 24 July 2010. London, United Kingdom.

We wanted a huge online impact for Pendulum’s second single from ‘Immersion’ so Facebook was the obvious platform of choice.

The very talented Ste Thompson from Powster was called in to pitch ideas for this project.

The result is The Witchcraft Experiment. An impressively creepy Facebook application that will be fascinating to any Facebook user, hopefully converting them into Pendulum fans if they aren’t already.

The less I say about the application the better, so check it out for yourself:
http://bit.ly/cnnZgt

The project is further complimented by a YouTube teaser video (embeded to the left) and a promo image that fans can set as their profile picture on social networks.

The app has had an amazing response from Pendulum fans and is rapidly gaining buzz online. See the comments from fans here:
http://www.facebook.com/pendulum?v=wall&story_fbid=137947759565840

It has also gained a lot of attention from other branches of the Warner Music Group. My favourite quote is: “This has to be one of THE BEST viral tools to come out of any label, anywhere, anytime!”

Cee Lo Green is a high priority act for Warner Bros. Records. As the voice of Gnarls Barkley he is already a huge star, his solo album will further elevate his status.

His online presence needed a complete re-branding. Using no more than one photo and a logo, Kate Brighouse got to work on the designs.

The Myspace page is a fairly standard layout, with a video and share links in the header. Individual content boxes are always a challenge for cross-browser myspace hacks, but a combination of tricks got the job done.

The Facebook ‘like to watch’ tab is becoming standard practice for the Warner Bros projects I work on.

The launch of Pendulum’s new video for Watercolour was another opportunity for this technique.

As usual Kate Brighouse designed the page based on the single artwork. It was then my job to write the FBML and make it functional. I embedded the YouTube video to stimulate plays and included sharing options for facebook and twitter.

http://www.facebook.com/pendulum?v=app_11007063052

Having been provided with only a header image and a banner, I needed to do quite a bit of work to re-skin Marina’s Myspace page to promote her new single, ‘Oh No!’

The header image was cropped, so I had to extend the images for a decent view on larger monitors. The header image also needed to integrate with the Myspace content, so I created a new background image and made the two fit together. The menu needed transparent overlays and the banner was placed in an easily editable div.

To increase views of the new music video for ‘Oh No!’ I decided to embed it in the header and include sharing options for Facebook and Twitter.

I got a very last-minute request for a widget to stream a Muse song on The Times website. I didn’t have time to build anything too advanced so I quickly created a simple widget using JW Player to stream ‘United States of Eurasia’ from Warner’s StreamOS server.

The player is up here:
http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/arts/music/article2554663.ece

I built a custom streaming Flash player based on designs by Warner’s in-house designer, Kate Brighouse.

The player is currently hosted on The Times website, go and listen here:
http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/arts/music/albumreviews/article2549829.ece

On the back of massive TV placements like House, The Sarah Connor Chronicles and One Tree Hill, Civil Twilight has been exploding in the US. Now London-based fans have a chance to catch their first UK performances. They’ll be playing the very intimate Barfly and Monto Water Rats. The band was amazing live when I last saw them six years ago. Trust me, seeing them in these small venues will be an opportunity you don’t want to miss out on.

They’ll be joined by Company of Thieves. I only got the album recently and I’m really impressed. Looking forward to seeing them live.

Get your tickets here:
Tuesday 8th June – Camden Barfly
Wednesday 9th June – Monto Water Rats

Find out more about both bands:
http://civiltwilightband.com
http://www.companyofthieves.net

To promote the launch of Joshua Radin’s new single, we created a facebook tab that would showcase the new music video, exclusively to facebook fans.

The Warner Bros. in-house designer, Kate Brighouse, designed the page before I put all the FBML (Facebook’s version of HTML) together to make it work. In order to increase the fanbase I set the page to only display the video if you ‘like’ Joshua Radin on Facebook.

FBML limits a lot of functionality like displaying full-screen video from a flash player. I had to work around these issues as well as styling the default facebook share button and implementing FBJS (Facebook’s version of Javascript), to perform certain functions.

The video has already had a great response from the facebook community. The tab will later be edited to use the YouTube version of the video to drive further plays.

View the page here:
http://www.facebook.com/joshuaradin?v=app_10442206389

The application replicates a relationship status change on Facebook. Instead of users changing their status to single, they can “Ride Solo” instead. The app was launched to promote Jason Derulo’s latest single, Ridin’ Solo. The Warner Bros. UK and US teams had similar plans so we worked together on this project with design by Aardvark Brigade in the US and I enrolled The New Black to handle development in the UK. It’s great to have a bigger project running and I’m sure it will really appeal to Jason Derulo’s fanbase, as well as those who just like the idea of Ridin’ Solo rather than being single.

Go directly to the Facebook App:
http://apps.facebook.com/ridinsolo/

Official teaser videos of all 15 tracks on the new Pendulum album, ‘Immersion’, are up now on YouTube.
‘Immersion’ is out on the 25th May.

I put the screensavers and settings panel together in Flash and used Instantstorm to create the PC version and SWF Screensaver for Mac to make the mac version. These two pieces of free software are top class, I used them to make my Native Noise Seether Screensavers last year.

You can download the Foals screensavers here:
Foals Screensavers (PC Version)
Foals Screensavers (Mac Version)

Mac users running Snow Leopard need to download this version (although it might be a bit buggy):
Foals Screensavers (Mac Snow Leopard Version)

They both come with a configuration panel that can be used to disable the sound and select which screensaver to show. This is accessed by clicking the settings button from the screensaver set-up window.

5FM’s Saturday afternoon show, (Live)⁵ with Catherine between 5pm and 7pm, is taking a love of live local and international music to a new level. In April 2010 5FM, in association with Jose Cuervo, are launching the first (Live)⁵ album that will feature over 40 live recorded tracks from over two years of live broadcasts from both local and international bands that have been featured on the show.

For 5FM’s Catherine Grenfell, producer and host of the station’s (Live)⁵ show, the CD is a culmination of many years of hard work and unabridged passion. “If you’re a fan of live music and South African music – who could ask for a better job, than hosting and producing a show like (Live)⁵? We have had the most unbelievable bands and experiences on the show. The intimacy of the show for the studio audience and the platform from 5fm for the bands to play to a national audience has made this show such an amazing experience for me. This CD is for the bands, the studio audience and you, the people that buy CD’s and support South African Music.”

Some of the local artists to be included on the new CD include Seether, the Parlotones, HHP, Prime Circle, Goldfish, Gang of Instrumentals, JR and Locnville. International performances who have appeared on (Live)⁵ and who will also be featured in the CD include Joss Stone, Staind, OK Go and The Ataris.

The (Live)⁵ double CD will be on shelf and available to purchase from the first week of May 2010. Watch out for (Live)⁵ album launch events in your city where you can see Catherine and other 5FM DJ’s in action as well as your favourite local music acts. You can buy copies of the very first (Live)⁵ album at the launch events as well as win free merchandise with 5FM and Jose Cuervo.

TRACK LISTING:

CD1:
1. Prime Circle – Consider Me
2. Seether – Fine Again
3. Locnville – Sun in My Pocket
4. Zebra & Giraffe – Arm Yourself
5. OK Go – Here it Goes Again
6. Joss Stone – Super Duper Love (Are You Diggin’ On Me?)
7. Loyiso ft Obita – I Want You
8. Harris Tweed – The Taxi Song
9. Evolver – Go All The Way
10. HHP – Let Me Be (Walk on By)
11. JR – Show Dem
12. Flash Republic – Emergency
13. Farryl Purkiss – A Million Grains of Sand
14. City Bowl Misers – Uh Huh
15. Taxi Violence – Untie Yourself
16. Stealing Love Jones – Out There
17. Sugardrive – Ten Feet High
18. Fire Through The Window – Just Like You Are

CD2:
1. The Parlotones – Giant Mistake
2. Staind – Everything Changes
3. Goldfish – This is How it Goes
4. Louise Carver – Home
5. The Ataris – Boys of Summer
6. Crash Car Burn – Heroes
7. Heroes Wear Red – Beautiful Way
8. Springbok Nude Girls – Wolfmen (Live at the Astoria)
9. Jozi – What’s With The Attitude
10. Gang of Instrumentals – Woza December
11. Koldproduk – You You & You
12. Bang Bang – Two Way
13. Jamali – Knowing Me Knowing You
14. Tasha Baxter – Fade to Black
15. The One Night Stands – Seconds
16. Josie Field – Every Now & Then
17. Voodoo Child – Megalomanic Attack
18. Flat Stanley – Sunset Ribbon Red
19. Jacques – Get Right

When I still worked at Beatroute Records and Communion we shared an office with Autonomy Music Group. It certainly was a strange coincidence that they are the company responsible for marketing The Parlotones in the UK. I used to tell them about watching The Parlotones perform to a less than 10 people back in 2003. They invited me to watch the band at The Electric Ballroom in Camden.

Since moving to London I’ve been to a lot of big shows, but I have really missed the kind of photography access I had back in SA. It was brilliant to get back into the pit for a big show with decent lighting. The support band, The Little Million, were top class and really entertaining.

I haven’t seen The Parlotones live for ages (aside from a packed Flowerpot gig where I couldn’t actually see them). By the time they exploded in SA I had watched them so many times that I refused to join the masses at shows… I was always better at supporting the underdog. It was great to see how polished and professional they are these days, yet they still manage to keep a humble and approachable presence, even from the stage. They’ve worked really hard to get to this point and I’m really impressed that they haven’t let it change them. It was a quality show and made me proud to see a South African band pull such a crowd in London (even if it was the entire population of South London). That said, they are steadily growing a decent UK fanbase. Radio play and a tour supporting Ash are bound to take them to a new level.

Joe had a great press picture that would be perfect to use as a header image so I extended the wall in Photoshop and developed a fairly basic layout around that.

The website integrates seamlessly with other sites in his online profile. All photographs are directly imported from Flickr thanks to FAlbum. All videos are automatically imported from a YouTube playlist, thanks to the TubePress plugin. Tour dates are added to artistdata.com which pushes them to numerous sites including the official website. The header includes the official twitter feed and the sidebar also includes a customized facebook fan bagde.

The “listen” page uses an adapted version of the Tierra Audio Playlist Manager plugin, making it easy to add songs and edit the playlist. This was customised to include album artwork and links to purchase songs.

The site also uses phplist to manage mailing list subscriptions.

Handshake
‘Dance Before You Die’ EP launch.
The Flowerpot (Kentish Town, London).
19 March 2010.