Here’s a part II to Monday’s post. While this interview has been around for a few months now, I thought I would still promote it, so you can hear it. Canadian radio station The Antidote interviewed Dave Emmerson from ZAP Records as he talks about music, why he closed down ZAP, and his new plans. It was another great interview and not just because I know both Daves talking to each other. Yes, I’m namedropped briefly, but don’t listen to this interview because of that. It really gives insight into Dave’s ideology in music and creative projects.
Tag Archives: ZAP Records
A Belated Post About ZAP Records: RIP ZAP 2015-2020
This post has been a long time coming and I feel bad about delaying it this long.
Some of you may or many not remember when I debuted Dystopian Futures’s latest music video for “Space Junk”, but I mentioned that ZAP Records closed down. This bummed me out since the founder Dave Emmerson was one of the few people left in the DIY music scene that I still respect as well as him being a great friend. I thought it was amazing with how he managed to get bands and singers from multiple countries involved with his record label. I was exposed to great music that no one else was making and I managed to get involved with the label even before “Ospreyshire” (the spoken word project AND the blogger you see today) was a thing. Not sure if I mentioned this, but I was able to help out with press releases, bios, and I even made music videos for some of the bands. Dave himself has a record in my filmography portfolio since I’ve directed three music videos for him between two of his bands. The first music video I ever made in my life was for his old band The Old-Timers (no pun intended) and it was a major international collaboration since Dave at the time was living in South Africa while I was still here in America, yet we were able to make it work. That really gave me confidence and he encouraged me to do some recording of my own.
While Ospreyshire (the spoken word project) was all me with my poems, acousmatics, and instrumentation, I will say that if there was no ZAP Records, there might not have been an Ospreyshire let alone the current blogs I run. It’s strange how life works, but I do have to credit Dave for being a good friend to be encouraging to me even if he was thousands of miles away in South Africa or when he was back in his home country of Scotland. Who ever thought that some random guy like me and someone like him would meet at a music festival in Central Illinois and were able to collaborate with multiple projects for years now.
It is sad to see ZAP Records go. I’m thankful to have been a contributor in multiple ways to the label. I was so disillusioned with the music scene at large, so this was a last bastion of sorts.
RIP, ZAP Records.
In good news, Dave came up with Visions Press where he’s releasing new music and even zines. Definitely check it out!
https://visionspress.bandcamp.com/
Dystopian Futures: Space Junk Music Video
I have some bad news and good news for you. Bad news is that Dave Emmerson decided to close down his DIY label ZAP Records. It’s quite sad since there were so many good bands associated with that indie label. I’ll be talking about my thoughts on the matter in a separate post. Good news is that his band Dystopian Futures is still going to make music and they just came out with a new song called “Space Junk”! Oh, yeah. I even got to make the music video, too.
Dystopian Futures certainly continue to use their quirky experimental punk rock for this song. It’s a story involving a cosmonaut who has been in stasis in a spaceship for a century while trying to flee from his vice-ridden past. Things don’t go to plan as he’s in the cosmic ocean.
Feel free to buy the song on Visions Press’s Bandcamp!
Ospreyshire Origins: Art in the Midst of Pandemonium and Pandemics
Here’s the other new song that’s on the DFxO split album. I multitracked some bass tracks while playing it unplugged. I played some riffs as well as using that instrument in unconventional ways for extra sound effects when layering them. I used a hand drum to provide percussion for it. Despite these anxious times, I wanted to have a message where people can still be creative. I’m not sure if anyone else noticed this, but I reference a certain emo band in one of the lyrics.
This song was also an Ospreyshire first. It was the first time I had a guest vocalist in a song and it was Dave from Dystopian Futures himself who wrote and performed his own verse. He did a great job and I liked how he tied in references to all the songs as well as making an extension of some of the lyrics I say in this track.
New split EP! DFxO! That’s Dystopian Futures X Ospreyshire, for those scoring at home.
This is what I referred to last week!
I, Ospreyshire got to be involved with a split EP and it’s the first time I’ve ever done a collaborative album with anyone. The other part of the split involves the Scottish experimental punk band Dystopian Futures whom I’ve mentioned on this blog before and I’ve even made a music video for them on their first EP. Dave Emmerson (lead singer/bassist) and I are good friends. We had an email conversation a while ago about potentially collaborating and once the Coronavirus was unfortunately spreading worldwide, he came up with an idea of coming up with a “lockdown” project. Despite him being in the UK and me here in America, we sent each other songs.
I got to remix Dystopian Futures’ song “Apocalyptic Romance” which was really fun. I added some digital synths, random sound effects, a lo-fi recording of me playing a keyboard and I do back up vocals in the middle of the song. Dystopian Futures also got to cover the song “Corona” by the Minutemen. Some of you might recognize that song as the theme to Jackass.
For me, I got to bust out with two new Ospreyshire tracks. The first one is “Is This a New Normal?”. I used an organ setting on my keyboard while adding my trademark acousmatics in it. I also freestyled all of the lyrics which was a first for anything I’ve ever done as a way to reflect about how I felt about the pandemic. The second one is “Art In the Midst of Pandemonium and Pandemics”. I wrote down the lyrics to this one as well as doing some avant-garde soundscapes by multitracking live sounds of me playing bass in traditional and unconventional ways. This was also an Ospreyshire first since it involves a guest vocalist with the aforementioned Dave. He got to write and record his vocals in the song and it really tied in well. I liked how he referenced all the other songs in the split EP with his verse.
Just so you know, this split EP is either FREE or pay-what-you-want. Whether you want to chip in some money or not is totally up to you to get some new music.
Have a great day, everyone!
Dear Innovare is released TOMORROW!
https://ospreyshire.bandcamp.com/album/dear-innovare-the-souls-of-ignored-pioneers-shall-be-renowned
Happy Boxing Day, everybody! I hope you all had a great holiday season so far.
This is a friendly reminder that my first full-length album Dear Innovare…The Souls of Ignored Pioneers Shall Be Renowned is released tomorrow! It’s only $7 for 41 tracks, so that’s a better offer than many other musicians will give you. The concept is useful since it involves all these forgotten creators and artists (some of them had their works stolen), so it’s both educational as well as innovative in a musical approach!
Don’t forget that I was also part of a Descendents tribute album!
1 more week until Dear Innovare is released AND I’m part of a Descendents cover album!
One more week until my full-length album comes out! I hope you all preorder it. You also get the first song automatically if you do. Feel free to check it out here: https://ospreyshire.bandcamp.com/album/dear-innovare-the-souls-of-ignored-pioneers-shall-be-renowned
In other news, I have the first ever Ospreyshire cover song out on ZAP Records’ Coverage compilation! This is a FREE album that features various artists covering songs from Descendents. For those of you who don’t know, I’m talking about the punk band and not some crappy Disney Channel movie series about the teenage sons and daughters of random villains in that franchise! Anyway, this was so awesome being a part of this compilation and I’m thankful for Dave for reaching out to me. The song I covered was “Tack” from their “Cool to Be You” album. I give this perky punk song the Ospreyshire treatment and turned it into a dark ambient song. Changing the tempo and lyric order really changes the meaning of the song and I made only minimal changes to the original vocal melody. Feel free to listen and download my cover and the rest of the album.
The Old-Timers are back, BABY!
My friends in the Scottish/South African hardcore band The Old-Timers FINALLY released some new music in the form of a 4 song EP. It’s Short Sharp Shift and it’s 4 short songs and the whole EP is a minute and a half long. I’m glad Dave and Don are making music together again. Big props to ZAP Records to releasing this EP! It’s only $1 to buy. Come on, you can’t even get a song for that same amount of money, so support independent music.
Over 3000 views and the Birthday Aftermath
Well, the birthday surprises just keep coming, don’t they?
For starters, I recently crossed the 3000 view threshold on the Ospreyshire blog. Thank you to all who have checked out this blog for my music, opinions, poems, and everything else!
Without further ado, I’m going to show you some of the gifts I’ve received on my birthday…
I got this vinyl in the mail from my Scottish friend Dave. This is the newest album from 2 Minute Minor, who are labelmates of mine who also happen to be from the same state as me. This Chicago-based hardcore band make some conscious music while still making quality tunes. You can listen to their album here.
In this block of photos, it involves drawings, Twix, and a Target gift card from my friend Kip. He’s a talented artist and I hope he finishes the comic book projects he’s been working on for years. I’ve known him since I was in middle school and we still talk to each other.
I just so happened to get two Amazon gift cards with the same amount from two separate friends. They would be from Marcie and Christy whom I’ve known for a long time. Marcie went to the same church as I did growing up and Christy went to the same school as Kip and I when we were young. It was great of the both of them surprising me.
I hope my aniblogger friends appreciate this picture. This is an amigurumi (crocheted figures) of Kimba the White Lion. My friend Essence made this for me and it looks amazing. There’s no pattern to making Kimba, so she created this crocheted attempt at this character entirely from scratch and she did a phenomenal job with it. Feel free to support Essence’s crocheting business at Hooked on Cozy. She’s created amigurumi of Pokemon and Attack on Titan characters so far.
Thank you, everyone!
2 year anniversary of Ospreyshire’s Realm
I just got this notification and my blog has been around for two years already.
Wow, time has certainly flown by. I originally made this blog as a platform for my current spoken word/Avant-garde project. Funny how I’ve expanded my repertoire with multiple blogs, doing the Katauta 52 challenge, and talking about important events on here.
I’d like to thank anyone who’s bothered to follow my works and support me.
Ospreyshire's Realm 