If this was any other year, i would release two albums this year, The Slender Man Musical and an album of tales from the universe in which the SMM takes place.
There are a range of details and world building backstory bits that are touched upon briefly, but could be devloped SO much further. The Sacred Order Of The Bleeding Rose, for instance. Holy crap could i make up some tales about them. Maybe even the Teddy Bears, although… they might be best if unexplained. The jade necklace, it gets mentioned once but it’s kind of important when someone asks how and why this is such and such a way. The prayer factory, the Siblings, there is no question i could fill an album with short song stories about so many details much like the Fairy Tale albums.
I can’t fit any more into the SMM. The damn thing is 2 hours long. I try to keep album to closer to 90 minutes, because you can JUUUUUST sit through 90 minutes uninterrupted. 2 HOURS? Forget it. But there is no where for me to trim it and still ahve it flow the way i like it. Personally, i feel it should be listened to as separate Acts. I would even release it as separate Act like the Atompunk Opera, but i did that already and i’m not sure if people really want that again. I want a happy audience and it SEEMS like the audience wants a full release. So…
In a normal year i release a full length opera, plus a stand along album (like a fairy tale album) plus one other major project like a video game or a pirate musical. However this year is a baby year. I had a baby last february and year 1 is a handful to say the least. So a single 2 hour long Slender Man Musical is all you get, alas. Sorry. I’ll make it up to you fine folks.
I will include a synopsis this time around, although there are many regards in which the story is told more clearly than other past operas. However, the story, after act 1, which is quite subdued and carefully paced, sort of gets batshit nuts in acts 2 and 3, and well, a synopsis is just not to going hurt. I would ideally wish that you listened through each act once first before reading the synopsis, but hey, it’s not for me to tell you how to enjoy your content.
The funny thing is with this one, unlike New Albion where i went out of my way to throw unrelated world building details in just for fun, i really don’t try to put anything in that is not absolutely necessary. However there are still a lot of periphery things, important to the plot impossible to go into in more details due to severe time constraints. And i can’t write about it here before album release because Spoilers.
So, if you ever want to know, does that preacher matter? Does he KNOW? What’s up the Order Of The Bleeding Rose? What’s up with the Siblings? Does the jade necklace do what i think it does? How did the… big escape come to pass? What help? What about that fandom subculture thing? There’s got to be good story about one of them. Can i party with Zoe? Are you done naming characters after Oxford students and why have you been doing this for three albums now? All these and other questions would have been explored.
(Note, if you are one of the 4 girls in cosplay who saw the Philly production the night i was there and who i talked to afterwards, drop me a line here. I will name future characters after you.)
In the meantime, the vocalists are recording their vocals and handing them in. I will make a teaser music vid as soon as possible as i need to whip up interest in this album. You can help. Folks, start talking about it if you’re interested. I will give some teaser material soon here, but if you want to keep me alive to keep making pulp operas (no idea what to do next, don’t care right now) help drum up some intersted and excitement. It’s coming. SOON. Almost certainly in October, by Halloween.
