Monday, November 19, 2007

Just a quick THANK YOU to everyone.

I just wanted to take this time to extend my deepest THANKS to everyone who donated to the Planet Gemini project. It's such an honor that you all appreciate the work I do and it means that much to you all.

So… to everyone who donated… from five dollars to fifty.. thank you all so much.


I hope all of the visitors to this webpage have a fantastic Thanksgiving (if you celebrate it).

I may appear to be going "underground" for the next month or so but I assure you that I'm still around and I'll be working on a new project (that's not Planet Gemini) with some friends of mine. We're going to be keeping the same vibe as PG as far as just playing what we feel… no genres to hold us back... but.. I'd like to start fresh and come together as a new "group". Don't worry there WILL be much more Planet Gemini material in 2008 as I am really just getting started to explore different avenues of songwriting. The great thing about this new project is that it's just a bunch of friends getting together who happen to play instruments. I've known some of these people for years and years and we've never even jammed.. so.. It will be fun.

I'll probably post an update and maybe some demos of our new project as it comes together.
Thanks so much and have a wonderful holiday season

Tuesday, November 6, 2007

How you can help Planet Gemini.

Something I neglected to mention in my last post is that I've been getting e-mails from a lot of people asking me if I would be pressing Cauldron of Fuzz V. A lot of people want to "Support" the project by buying the album and most of you already have the other albums I've released and or everything you don't have is out of print.

I have started a "donate" portion of the webpage. For those of you who enjoy the free albums and want to give a couple bucks… I would greatly appreciate it and it would really keep the project running and make it so I can press a lot more material. If enough money is raised to do a small run of Cauldron of Fuzz I will work out sending a copy of the album to you for just the cost of shipping. I'm not 100% sure how this will all work out and if anyone has any good ideas please feel free to write me about it.

The fact of the matter is that I'm not looking to "Charge' people for anything. The albums will still be free, and if you don't have the money to spare then by all means.. don't donate. But every little bit helps and my studio (while it does generate some money for rent) costs a hefty fee to upkeep.

So… in short if you enjoy the latest release "Cauldron of Fuzz V" and would like to help the project out please feel free to donate at our STORE's main page.

Again, to reinterate here. There is NOTHING changing about Planet Gemini. Whatever you donate is going DIRECTLY to the project. No middle man.. and will be used to press future albums and make it possible for me to offer more merch, bandwidth and other features that the page could use.

Thanks so much

Where it goes from here…

Hello everyone,

I just figured that I would give a quick little update about where things are going to go from here as far as Planet Gemini goes. Before I really get into anything major I seriously want to thank everyone that downloaded and enjoyed Cauldron of Fuzz V. I had reports from people that the server actually died on me on November 1st (4 or 5 e-mails saying the page was down). It's quite awesome that you all enjoyed it and it was actually a huge undertaking on my part (basically writing an album in 4 days and putting it out a week and a half later…

I wanted to comment on a post I made the day after releasing the album if you would indulge me for a moment. I posted a quick little "Thank you" post and posted the numbers that I got from my hosting company about how many people downloaded the album… and whatnot. Well, needless to say about 15 minutes after I posted it I got an e-mail that was basically saying that I was coming off pompous… and like.. that was never, ever my intention. I don't throw numbers out there to impress anyone. It may seem kind of hard to understand but, to be honest sometimes it even shocks me how many people download this stuff. So please understand that my intentions on posting anything like that is more in the lines of trying to give you all an inside look at the project and not me trying to "awe" you with numbers. To me all that matters is that you enjoy the music. Could be one person, could be hundreds. The person that wrote me with this wasn't rude about it and I truly do believe that they were calling it as they seen it. Due to that e-mail I definitely will be more weary down the line but I hope if anyone else had a chance to read the blog they didn't take it that way. Believe me the fact that someone is probably listening to one of my songs as I type this still blows my mind. Now, with all that being said.. back to news.

Where does Planet Gemini go from here?

Well I can tell you this. As of right now Wicked is being put on hold. It's not off completely but I really do have some stuff I'd rather work on. It's not that I don't love Wicked because I do. I'm just not ready yet to release it. It does need work. It's a fine release as is but it's not everything I want it to be just yet. So the album will go on hold and I will continue to work on other things until the time where I feel that I'm ready to tackle Wicked again.

I've already started writing new tunes for my next project (which is untitled) I must admit that the new stuff is a little more different. I'm broadening my horizons a bit and to me it really is a nice change for Planet Gemini. It's still Sabbathy and heavy in it's own way but I want to explore with more. More acoustic sounds.. more instrumentation. Things like strings, mandolin, and even (gasp) keys sometimes. Different percussive instruments are definitely in the future as well. I want to compose and I want Planet Gemini to be an explosion of different sounds. PG will always be a guitar heavy band and there is nothing to worry about as far as me ever selling that short. However, there is much more power that can be generated with other forms of music. I recently have been listening to the new High on Fire album and it's quite inspirational to hear how their songs took shape with different instruments. I am not a live performer.. and so.. I should be layering these pieces as if they are more geared towards a studio recording. The problem is that I've always played like a live player. I wrote like a live band member would write. Every song I released it was always kind of "well… if I ever need to pull that off live this is how I would do it". I want to do away with that. I want to be more ethereal, more powerful, more haunting.. and I think that in the long-run it's not too far off from where I was heading with Cauldron of Fuzz V.

While writing some of the material on Cauldron of Fuzz V I found myself saying (ya know I've never thought about approaching this song from this angle). With songs like "Ritual Evolved", "Temples of Infinity" or even "A Time Before Time" it wasn't as much a structured song as much as it was a fun jam session. I loved that Ritual and Temples were about 7+ minutes and Time Before Time was about 10… and I can listen to those tracks and they don't feel boring to me at all. Ritual Evolved basically got it's name because it was the same idea building throughout the 7 + minutes of the song. It started off with a tribal beat then the punching of the cymbals started growing. The vocals floated over but by the time you got to the end of the song you were still listening to the same tribal beat… it was just presented in a heavier way. The riff morphed and moved to make a heavier experience and in a nutshell that's what I loved about the track. By the end of the song with the three punches basically was basically the final breath of the song. It was born.. grew.. and died all in 7 minutes and 2 seconds.

I don't know when the next Planet Gemini release will be. I'm hoping for something in the spring/summer of 2008. I can't say that it's going to be Wicked because at this moment I have to look at what I have and look at what I'm stopping myself from creating in overworking on Wicked. In my experience when you hit a wall like this sometimes you need to take 10 steps back and find another route around the wall… if Wicked is meant to be released it will be. There is no question about that. However, I think that right now I'm creating music that is extremely deep and emotional and I feel that Wicked is holding me back from creating more.

For example, Cauldron of Fuzz V would have never seen the light of day if I didn't put Wicked on hold and decide to release something new, and Cauldron of Fuzz V is probably my favorite Cauldron of Fuzz project to date (it's definitely the most personal to me). So I don't want anyone to think that because Wicked is being put aside that I am going to stop writing and creating music. If anything I am doing this BECAUSE I want to write and create more deep, meaningful music.. and not limit myself to things that sound like they should fit in with the previous Wicked material.

Thanks so much for all of the response and to everyone who posted about Cauldron of Fuzz V on various message boards.
I know sometimes it feels like a thankless job but really every little bit helps. New people find out about Planet Gemini everyday and it's in a large part thanks to the people who go out of their way to spread the word. I can't thank you all enough.

Rev. H (The Hand of God)


PS: I wouldn't doubt if an extended edition of Cauldron of Fuzz V came out somewhere down the line with the full 13 minute Demonic Wall and maybe 1 or two more tracks. But, we'll see about that. One thing about Demonic Wall that worried me was making an album that started off with 22 minutes of drone. I can't stand too much drone starting an album. So Demonic Wall was stripped (not to mention the time restraints were quite huge).

PSS. And to the bible thumpers out there who tend to read my messages and then send me e-mails advising me to stop "Dealing with the devil"… I'm going to leave you all with… I don't judge you.. nor do I ask you to conform to my way of thinking. Hell, You don't even know what my way of thinking is.. so.. please… stop carpet bombing me with your church spam. I realize this is just acknowledging you and now you're just going to continue… if not get worse.. but I assure you.. I am saved.. you are much closer to satan than I will ever be… J