Russian Spy Camera Blog » Russian Spy Camera

Gallery updated!

Ryan — Sat, 25 Sep 2010 13:00:29 +0000

Check it out! There are new photos and concert posters in the gallery! Earlier this year I had finished getting this website up to speed in terms of design and functionality (with exception to the turkish section). However, I found myself unable to find time to take things to the next step: actually fill the site with content. The gallery was easily the most lacking part of the site and now I bit the bullet and finally put stuff in there to look at. I plan to take new press photos soon for the upcoming release and post those as well.

Check out the whole Gallery!

And… 8 months later…

Ryan — Fri, 24 Sep 2010 14:53:48 +0000

Woah, you go to bed one night and suddenly 8 months go by. I haven’t exactly been doing nothing though: Russian Spy Camera’s third album was finished tracking in May but since then it’s been a slow and steady climb through the mixing process. After the album was finished being tracked in May, I moved myself out of Athens Georgia and over to Barcelona, Spain. The plan is/was to live as an immigrant for a year in another country. Fortunately it’s allowing me to focus on many things like this website, my portfolio, the record, and other work while traveling. In 5 days I will relocate to Vienna, Austria, which is one of my favorite cities on earth.

The album still has a little ways to go, but I’m really excited about it and want to get everything right before I release it. It shouldn’t be too long until a release: maybe end of this year or early next year at the latest. I want to design merchandise, posters, make a music video or two, and finish this website before I totally release the music.

The other project I’ve been focusing on is Slow Records. Slow Records is a label/recording studio in Athens Georgia that is starting up. My job is to make a website for the label that will house everything from videos to interviews to a store, etc. Anyway, lots of work, lots of possible potential. In any case, there should be new things coming soon from me both in terms of Russian Spy Camera and Slow Records.

But we’re all still alive! Let’s have a coke.

Recording for 3rd album has begun

Ryan — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 07:08:26 +0000

Today marks the first day of tracking for Russian Spy Camera’s third album. There is currently no title or release date for the upcoming record yet but there are 9 confirmed tracks, 2 potential tracks, a dozen possiblities, and a working title for the album, M. You can read more about M in the music page.

Today we put down drums and bass for three songs: “Let’s Draw Straws”, “M Withdrawals”, and “Cliche Pop Song”. Donovan Babb plays drums and Alec Wooden plays bass. CK Koch is recording and helping me produce the record as we start the steady climb to completion.

It’s pretty exciting to be starting a brand new album since the past two years have been littered with change, travel, and writer’s block. Fortunately things are starting to clear up and this project is finally getting off the ground.

Writing for the album has been pretty interesting. One year ago during the week of Christmas, I hid myself in my house and started making notes on all the song ideas I had lying around: some new, some old. I didn’t have enough inspiration to complete any of the songs then so I just gathered notes and ideas. All throughout 2009 I would refine some of these ideas and eventually they would mold into actual songs. Now 12 months later things are starting to take shape.

Again, there is no date set for completion or release. As of now, it’s projected to be finished tracking in March of this year. However, the true status of the record will have to be posted as things progress. Soon, I’d like to post some rough versions of a few of the songs to show a taste of what I’m working on. Keep a look out!

Moving Patterns (working title)

Ryan — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 22:35:44 +0000

Today’s the greatest day I ever lived
and I spend it all alone with Solitude
in Beyoğlu.

People here speak in coded embers
that hypnotize me with their pretty patterns.
I moved you like a crossing ship and you moved me too.

Today’s the greatest day I’ve ever lived
and I spent it all alone with tea for two
in Beyoğlu.

Somehow somewhere I know this circle
will complete itself (even in a spiral)
and together complete us too.

New album in the works

Ryan — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 22:32:19 +0000

So as it’s been posted in the past, Russian Spy Camera’s third album is in the works. I’ve been trying to write songs for the past 2 years but I’ve been in a severe case of writer’s block. And when I say writer’s block, I mean don’t-even-want-to-look-at-a-guitar-writer’s-block. Fortunately, this is all kind of going away and I’ve been writing some new stuff lately. Though I credit my recent Queen and David Bowie binges (I listened to all 14 of Queen’s studio albums in a row over the course of 3 days!) as being events that started turning the hamster wheels of inspiration, I think it was the sudden creation of a song I wrote last week that really lit a fire under me. More of that will come later though.

Last night marked the first practice with friends Donovan Babb and Alec Wooden, who will help me on the new record, on 3 new songs to prepare them for tracking. There’s no confirmed date of when the first day of tracking will begin but I’m planning on the middle of January. This will mean a hopeful completion by April and release shortly after. Sweet Jesus! Lots of work to be done!

RSC Store is now open!

Ryan — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 22:30:38 +0000

I’ve been doing a bit of work on the store section lately, mainly getting it all organized to sell tracks and album downloads. I’ve decided to do the music sales through Bandcamp because it’s free to set up, it’s customizable enough to look like its apart of russianspycamera.com and it seems to be about helping artists. Not a bad deal!

The in-site store needs a bit more work such as a jQuery pretty photo viewer so that you can look over some pics of the product by clicking on its respective icon. I also need to actually take those pictures to put on the site. All in due time… all in due time.

Anyway, check out the store as both albums are up for digital download and You Are A Vulture is also there for a physical purchase. Hopefully in the new year I’d like to make some t-shirts and posters and get those going. There will be updates!

New Russian Spy Camera site!

Ryan — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 22:16:43 +0000

So here we are… like two young lovers feeling each other’s skin in the dark. I’m not exactly sure as to how you start off blogs as this is something new to me. Perhaps I should start by explaining why this is here. Actually, perhaps I should say why this entire site is here. I mean, there’s an enormous amount of blogs on the interwebs and I suppose the need for another one is kind of pointless, right?

Basically, Russian Spy Camera is my life-long musical project, but it’s also my platform for doing whatever I want. This is actually the 4th incarnation of Russian Spy Camera dot com (and the closest to an actual real website), and since the very beginning I’ve put everything from photography to music to graphic design on my sites. So, that’s why this site is here: to serve as a multilevel platform for my artistic interests and musical endeavors.

Ok, so that’s great. But why a blog?? Well, it’s kind of a blog and kind of not. When I started mapping out the plans for the site, I wasn’t originally planning on having a blog. This was supposed to be simply a news feed of updates for my next recording I want to make. And then when I decided to have a blog, I wasn’t planning on keeping all the bloggy stuff that comes with having a blog like Categories and Tags and Blog Rolls and all that crap. Eventually in the construction process I just decided to make it be a lot of things.

So basically this “blog” serves the purpose of documenting my recording process for future recordings, new design projects I’m working on, interesting and inspiring things I find on the internet, and most importantly, updating those who are interested in the music and design I create, distribute, and sell.

What this blog is not for is putting my viewpoints and opinions on the internet. I personally don’t want to read boring thoughts by other people and I’m sure you don’t want to read my boring thoughts. Instead, you’d rather look at pictures, right? That’s how I am too. So I’ll probably be posting more visual stuff than non-visual stuff because frankly it’s more fun.

With that being said, I think I’m going to start a thing called Queen Monday. I just made this up so yeah, let’s make this happen! Here’s the first awesome thing to rock your face off this week. Oh my gawd…