Hi all.
Let me begin by thanking each and every one of you who are listening to, liking (and buying, bless your souls!) An Atompunk Opera. My deepest, deepest thanks. And trust me, you ain’t seen nothing yet. Acts 3 and 4 are where the payoff happens. Keep riding along and trust me, i won’t let you down on this one.
I have two questions:
1. What should i do as my next “opera”? I am taking suggestions. The only rule i’d point out, please don’t recommend an existing book or story. Writing the story is half the fun (and i couldn’t possibly afford the rights to an existing work anyway). This whole thing came about because i said “steampunk opera” as a throwaway thing. Those two words, not meant in any seriousness sparked the 3 albums (and one day i hope, world famous live show).
I do not plan to stop writing epics like this. These operas have taught me an enormous amount. ENORmous. Now i wish to take what i have learned and apply it to a new epic. Since you fine folks are the very people i’m looking to enthrall, i was curious to throw out the question. I haven’t considered it too much (it’s taken a LOT of work, a year of intense effort, just to get the Atompunk Opera done. Almost done. It’s still not perfectly mixed in the later Acts. Every night i listen to the entire thing and hope this will be the night where i don’t have a page of notes. The notes are getting shorter and shorter, but dammit, each night i still have them.) I have a strange idea, but it’s not based around plot, it’s just a musical concept. But i’m not going mention anything, i’m curious what you folks might throw out.
2. As you may know, when i release a physical CD box set in the late fall, i was thinking of including one last Act, an act not in any of the operas. Now, this is not necessarily a good idea. If i do NOT include a last act, then i could release a physical CD set MUCH sooner. I don’t have to write another set of songs. This would be smarter. But let’s pretend for a minute that i’m an idiot (i am) and i actually make anther short song cycle. What time period would you like me to revisit? Between steampunk and dieselpunk? Before atompunk? (i know it’s hard to say about atompunk since you have barely scratched the surface and barely know anything yet. You’ll know much more after Act 2.)
Once again i’m curious. I’m considering that adding more is not a good idea. People who really want a physical CD set shouldn’t have to wait so long, but i’m gonna throw out the idea anyway. Hell, maybe i’ll make a single long song, like New Albion 7. Maybe i’ll just move on to the next “in between epics” project (a series of stories set around the Tarot. It’s a short story album in the Fairy Tale vein) and just release a physical set asap, but i just want to throw out the question. And to be clear, answering question 1 is more important.