Hello everyone,
I thought I'd take some time out of my schedule today and let you know whats been happening here at Hurt and give you a slightly more in-depth look into the current projects we are undertaking. This may take a while... Get a drink...
Hurt
We've had some changes here at Hurt Records and it's come at a slightly awkward time. Just over a week ago we lost out customer care representative 'Chez' who has left us to study Mathematics at university. His remote office agency are still trying to find us a good fit and so for now, I'm sharing the admin responsibilities with Steve. Cesare was an amazing fit here at Hurt and I hope this is not the end of our relationship with him.
You may have also noticed that we have started our first advertising campaign in the UK. Our first campaign is for Quiet One and it features on Billboards, Gazette's and online adverts with Google. It's been a real eye opener for us as we weren't sure whether this form of advertising would be beneficial for us but so far (finger's crossed) it's been working really well!
The last thing to mention about the logistics of Hurt are our new range of hand-embroidered hats. I've been searching for a few months for a really high quality hat manufacturer who hand-embroiders. It's easy enough to find a company who would just throw our logo in a machine, but the care and attention invested in each one of our hat designs is incredible. I currently have 8 'Two Down // Empire of the Forest' hats all of which were sent as examples of quality from eight different companies. In my eyes the final was the only one worth looking into as it was by far the most intricate of the bunch and some of our logos will be seriously intricate.
Two Down
It's been a manic few weeks in the 2D camp and we are working really hard on completing a set of finished demos for the Two Lost Boys. You might be thinking... "demos... you are still in the demo phase?" and I'd like to explain what is happening. Up until recently we have been unsure as to which direction to take 'our sound'... as you are probably well aware, until now we have been fairly 'fleeting' when it comes to picking a genre and whilst that hasn't really changed, we have a least landed on what we think is a fantastic and new sound. This album has taken years to date and we want this final step to be speedy but accurate.
Upon launch we will be dubbing 'The Two Lost Boys' as our debut album, this doesn't necessarily mean that we won't be playing any older songs live, we will, but we want to draw a line under all that we have accomplished so far so that we have some form of clarity about the future. We've pulled out two singles for you from this mix of songs and the first (that was released earlier this year) was 'I'm Still Here' and the second will be released shortly with an accompanying music video.
In terms of tracking for the album, we will be tracking the album quality versions of these demos in the beginning of 2015. Callum and I have a meeting with our management/producer soon and we look forward to discussing the project further then. It's suffices to say that we are both ready to take Two Down seriously and with Hurt Records ready to help, we have nothing standing in our way. I assure you that the sound of the next Two Down will take you by storm.
(P.S. We are currently uploading our full back-catalogue to YouTube! Enjoy!)
Tragedy of Time
We recently finished the Tragedy of Time (EP) and it was mixed by Tim Morris in Fulham. The mixes are now awaiting mastering and we are looking to release the EP at our earliest convenience. It will be available on both Hurt Records (better) and iTunes (good). ;)
Tracking for this project has been gruelling but it's now complete and it's sounding really unique. It's nice to see just how much could be accomplished with just acoustic instruments. I've learnt a lot from the experience and working with Tim gave me a chance to 'nerd-out' and talk about compressors and analogue gear... heaven!
At this time we don't have a drummer or bassist so it's still very much a 'work-in-progress' project but when we are setup we will be bringing you some more music.
Quiet One
Some time has passed now since Quiet One launched and I wanted to explain what's happening. As of now (End of November) I have a couple of songs and an idea of an EP that I want to record in the Spring of 2015. I have an Irish producer in mind and would love to record in Dublin but I'm not sure if we can work it out or not just yet. I'm always hesitant to bring a producer in to a project like Quiet One but I have a feeling it will work out just great.
I'm also in talks with a small US based company about creating Quiet One canvases (square) of the album artwork (and EP artwork) as I've been asked multiple times now to look into it. Leave it with me. :)
Well that's it for now and I'm certain that i've forgotten to mention the vast majority of updates, but I have set a reminder on my phone to type up a recap every now and then and I hope they offer you some insight. From the outsiders perspective it may appear as though Hurt goes 'dormant' for a while but if you were a fly on the wall you would understand that every single day is a forward thinking drive for Hurt and I am loving it! It's humbling to know that none of these current projects would exist without Hurt Records and your support.
Be good.
Benn