Bandcamp page updated

Uploaded the 2011 Let the Dolphins Go album at our Bandcamp page.

And created a new banner.

Enjoy!

~ Ivan

2011 Let The Dolphins Go

Here’s our 5th digital album. A StarfishStories project in support of the “Let The Dolphins Go” ACRES’s campaign, to free the dolphins at Resorts World Sentosa.

• Album: 2011 Let the Dolphins Go
• Download at: Archive.org | Bandcamp.com | Jamendo.com
• Remixes are welcome, at ccMixter.org
• Band: Starfish Stories :: The Band – Adrian Loo & I-Ling Chia, Ivan Chew
• Original composition by Adrian Loo; Lyrics and Vocals by I-Ling Chia; Arrangement and Mix by Ivan Chew
• Initial release: 6 July 2011
• Album art can be downloaded at this Flickr page. Cover art adapted from: “2001-12-02 01-03 Neuseeland 305” by Allie_Caulfield, CC-BY 2.0 (last accessed 6 Jul 2011)

 

This is the title track, “Free”. With I-Ling on vocals.

The other two tracks are a rock guitar instrumental version, and a Minus-One. They can all be downloaded at Archive.org

This project came about after Adrian ran a marathon. It’s a long story and he tells it better. Anyway the gist was that he thought of his family to keep himself going. And it made him think of the dolphins who were torn away from their family and natural habit, to be part of a resort entertainment lineup.

Adrian felt compelled to compose something (apart from contributing to the general call for action). He emailed the raw draft for the song (on 1 Jun). Titled it “Free”.

He added this in his email: “Imagine dolphins porpoising in the water”.

It didn’t take long for I-Ling to come up with the lyrics:

Leap and turn in the air
Like a child at play
Whistle songs, sing your dreams
In the summer rays
Feel the rush of the currents
Find your way in the ocean

Glide along, ride the crest
There’s no turning back
Hold your breath and break the waves
Full speed ahead
Feel the rush of the currents
You’re a child of the ocean

You’re free. So free, oh, so free.
Breathe. You’re free, so free.

She emailed her vocal track to me. I mixed it, emailed a few versions (with subtle arrangement changes) to the two of them. I-Ling agreed to re-record her vocals to get a clearer take. While waiting for I-Ling to do that, I recorded and mixed a guitar instrumental version.

It was done out of fun, but Adrian and I-Ling gave it their thumbs-up, so it was considered to be part of the album.

After receiving I-Ling’s second vocal take (she decided to invest in an audio interface), two more email exchanges… and it was done.

Capturing intelligent creatures, who were roaming free, for the sake of entertainment. And calling the move as part of contribution to research. Doesn’t make a lot of sense.

Please, let the dolphins go.

Credits: 2001-12-02 01-03 Neuseeland 305 by Allie_Caulfield, CC-BY 2.0 (last accessed 6 Jul 2011).

Selected references:

• “ACRES continues pressure on RWS to free dolphins“, ChannelNewsAsia, 2 Jun 2011
• “Animal rights’ group takes RWS to task over dolphins“, TODAYonline, 2 Jun 2011
• “5 dolphins destined for RWS moved to Philippines“, ChannelNewsAsia, 8 Jan 2011

BTW, it’s really good to know we’re not the only musicians adding to this call. Check out Typewriter’s rendition of “Please let the dolphins go”:

~ Ivan

2011 Let the Dolphins Go by Starfish Stories : The Band is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Singapore License. As long as you ATTRIBUTE the music by stating this: “Starfish Stories :: The Band – StarfishStories.wordpress.com”* in your audio, video, website, printed materials etc., you are FREE to USE, COPY, SHARE, MODIFY, or SELL (yes sell!) any of the songs from this album.

In case we weren’t quite clear on the above, try reading this.

Music album: 2010 Sound Out Singapore

2010 Sound Out Singapore by Starfish Stories : The Band is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Singapore License. As long as you ATTRIBUTE the music by stating this: “Starfish Stories :: The Band – StarfishStories.wordpress.com”* in your audio, video, website, printed materials etc., you are FREE to USE, COPY, SHARE, MODIFY, or SELL (yes sell!) any of the songs from this album.

In case we weren’t quite clear on the above, try this!

For Track 01 “Open the Door (Smile Again)”, please credit as:

• Lyrics & Vocals by I-Ling (MyVanillaWorld.wordpress.com) – licensed under a Creative Commons ATTRIBUTION 3.0 Singapore license).
• Music & Arrangement by Ivan Chew (MyRightBrain.wordpress.com)

This is the 4th self-produced Creative Commons music album from two Singaporean guys who have non-musical day jobs, but with a passion for producing their own brand of music. Recorded, mixed and engineered exclusively with GarageBand (and everything else done via email).

• Album: 2010 Sound Out Singapore
• Download at: Archive.org | Bandcamp
• Band: Starfish Stories :: The Band – Adrian Loo & Ivan Chew
• Original compositions by Adrian Loo & Ivan Chew, with I-Ling as guest vocalist
• Mixed by: Ivan Chew
• Released: 6 July 2010
• Cover art available at Flickr.com under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 License. Courtesy of Stefano Virgilli, using Creative Commons licensed works by Olfert (Olof Adel): In a classroom | Pillemarisk

————————————–

INDIVIDUAL TRACKS:

1. OPEN THE DOOR (SMILE AGAIN) – featuring I-Ling on vocals

2. STOLEN DREAMS (Instrumental)

3. PETALS IN A CRYSTAL STREAM (instrumental)

4. SMILE AGAIN II (rock instrumental)

5. DRIFTING RUST (instrumental)

We welcome comments on how to improve our music. Feel free to share what you liked or disliked at the band blog StarfishStories.wordpress.com or email us at starfishstories@gmail.com.

The story behind the album at this blog post.

There are other contributors to Sound Out at soundout.sg/?p=heard. Do give them a listen. Or submit your own songs!

Starfish Stories :: The Band is a Singaporean duo – Adrian Loo & Ivan Chew. They are self-taught musicians who prefer to produce their music this way. Feel free to contact them at their band blog or email StarfishStories@gmail.com.

IF YOU LIKED THE MUSIC…

Consider making a donation!

Related posts:

• Sound Out Singapore album cover – by Stefano Virgilli
• Draft: Sound Out Singapore (2010) music album cover
• Lyrics: Open the Door (Smile Again) – soundout.sg
• Coming soon – another Starfish Stories Creative Commons music project: SoundOutSG
• I-Ling’s post: A Song for Sound Out Singapore

Draft: Sound Out Singapore (2010) music album cover

I’m a librarian, not a graphic designer. This is the best I can come up with. For our Sound Out Singapore CC-licensed music album.

We would be happy to have your contribution. CC licensed, of course.

The song line-up:

1. Open the Door (Smile Again) – Featuring I-Ling on vocals
2. Stolen Dreams [instrumental]
3. Petals in a Crystal Stream [instrumental]
4. Smile Again II [instrumental]
5. Drifting Rust [instrumental]

~ Ivan

Music album: 2010 Crystal Tears and the Dream Nebula

2010 Crystal Tears and the Dream Nebula by Starfish Stories : The Band is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Singapore License. As long as you ATTRIBUTE the music by stating this: “Starfish Stories :: The Band – StarfishStories.wordpress.com”* in your audio, video, website, printed materials etc., you are FREE to USE, COPY, SHARE, MODIFY, or SELL (yes sell!) any of the songs from this album.

In case we weren’t quite clear on the above, try reading this!

* NOTE: Please credit Track 06 “Goodnight Not Goodbye v2.2.” to:

• Dan O-Connor’s instrumental track, “Love Letters” (by Dan O’Connor’s “Free Music By DanoSongs.com” – licensed under a Creative Commons ATTRIBUTION 3.0 US license).
• Vocals by MyVanillaWorld – myvanillaworld.wordpress.com
• Words and arrangement by Ivan Chew – MyRightBrain.wordpress.com

Starfish Stories :: The Band is a Singaporean duo – Adrian Loo & Ivan Chew. They are self-taught musicians who prefer to produce their music this way. Feel free to contact them at their band blog or email StarfishStories@gmail.com.

IF YOU LIKED THE MUSIC…

Consider making a donation. Only if you wish to, thanks!

• Album: 2010 Crystal Tears and the Dream Nebula
• Download at: Archive.org | Bandcamp.com | Jamendo.com
• Band: Starfish Stories :: The Band – Adrian Loo & Ivan Chew
• Original compositions by Adrian Loo & Ivan Chew
• Mixing & sound engineering: Ivan Chew
• Released: 3rd Jan 2010
• Cover art available at Flickr.com. Designed by Ivan Chew using the following Creative Commons licensed/ Public Domains works: The First Tear by lepiaf.geo (CC-BY 2.0) | Crystal Antlers by LDRBRS (CC-BY 2.0) | Planetary Nebula NGC 2371 by NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA) (Public Domain)

INDIVIDUAL TRACKS:

1. CRYSTAL TEARS AND THE DREAM NEBULA 2010

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2. WE WONDER

WIP version: pre audio-mastering
.

3.FINDING LOVE v1.4

WIP versions: 1.0 | 1.1 (1.3 and 1.4 were not posted)
.

4. NEW BEGINNING

WIP version: pre audio-mastering | Music Video
.

5. STROKE OF MIDNIGHT v2.3

WIP versions: 2.0 | 1.0
.

6. GOODNIGHT NOT GOODBYE v2.2

Version: pre audio-remastering
.

7. TO BE FREE

WIP version: pre audio-mastering
.

8. RUN TOWARDS THE SKY 1.2

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9. THANK YOU podcast – CTDN 2010

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10. TEXT: How To Use Music in CRYSTAL TEARS AND THE DREAM NEBULA For FREE – 2.3KB TXT file.

We welcome comments on how to improve our music. Feel free to share what you liked or disliked at the band blog StarfishStories.wordpress.com or email us at starfishstories@gmail.com.

Related posts:

• Origins
• Announcement – “Online release of “Crystal Tears and the Dream Nebula” music album” | Facebook invite
• Display all other related blog posts

Online release of “Crystal Tears and the Dream Nebula” music album

It’s decided then.

The “Crystal Tears and the Dream Nebula” album (CTDN 2010) will be released on 3rd Jan, 2010.

Why 3rd?

Cos some one told me 31 Dec and 1 Jan weren’t so hot, since most people “would be busy”. LOL.

So we settled on 3rd, since CTDN 2010 is the third Starfish Stories music album project.

Here’s the Facebook invite.

Since I’m in a cheeky mood, this was what I wrote:

The online release of the 3rd Creative Commons music album, by Starfish Stories :: The Band (Adrian Loo & Ivan Chew).

This is just a fancy way of saying that details of the album, links for downloading the MP3 files etc., will be posted at the band blog (StarfishStories.wordpress.com) on 3rd Jan 2010.

Everyone’s invited.

For the story behind the “Crystal Tears and the Dream Nebula” title, here’s a ramble: http://starfishstories.wordpress.com/2009/12/26/crystal-tears-and-the-dream-nebula-origins/

Cheers!

p.s. We hope this message isn’t intrusive. If it is, do tell us (starfishstories@gmail.com) and we promise not to do it again — creating the FB event, not the music though

Adrian and I hope to “see you” here, on 3rd Jan 2010.

Cheers!

~ Ivan

Preview: Cover for our upcoming 3rd album

I’m pleased to announce that Starfish Stories :: The Band is just one final song away from our 3rd album.

Last night I created this cover using Photoshop, from Creative Commons or Public Domain licensed materials.

Credits for the images:

• The first tear; originally uploaded by lepiaf.geo under a CC Attribution 2.0 license.
• Crystal Antlers; originally uploaded by LDRBRS under a under a CC Attribution 2.0 license.
• Planetary Nebula NGC 2371; Credit: NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA) |hubblesite.org/about_us/copyright.php

As to why it’s titled “Crystal Tears and the Dream Nebulae”, more will be revealed later.

~ Ivan

Putting the “2009 One World One Moment” together

They say the journey is sometimes more important than the destination. In our case, I think Adrian would agree. I mean, we love the end results and have always been focused on that. But it’s the collaborative musical process that sustains that buzz.

Here’s a list of OWOM tracks with links to their individual posts as they were developed. They’d give you a clue, but not quite 100% of the “making-of” process, since Adrian and I tend to discuss the songs over email and chat (I’m sure you’d be entertained by our transcript but maybe for the wrong reasons LOL).

You can download the entire album, or the individual tracks, from this post.

1. ONE WORLD

First post here (May 08). Which was immediately followed by Firdaus’s super-cool remix. The song was refined for the MTL Paralympics supplement CD (Aug 08). The feather on the cap was this Music Video (Sept 08). Adrian agreed with me that this should be the lead song for the album, as we wanted to start with an uplifting mood.

2. QUIET AFTERNOON

First and only post here (Sept 08). It was the obvious choice for the second track, as it offered a nice contrast to the loud and relatively noisy Track #1.

3. GENETIC (re)MIX

This was the longest track in the entire album (posted Sept 08). But I’d like to think that it’s worth it. If you take into account the title, maybe you can get an idea of the story behind the music.

4. RAINY DAYS 2.4

This song had the most number of refinements among all the tracks in the album (Sept 08): This post has versions 1, 1.1, 1.2 and 2; Version 2.1 appeared the next day, and then a version 2.2 (what can I say? I was on a roll!); this semi-acoustic version v3 didn’t make the cut. There’s no version 2.3 posted (the skip in version was from my editing done at home).

5. SURFING ON SOLAR WINDS

Something composed in 2007 and then released in Mar 08. The final version you’re listening is slightly different from what was previously posted, as I’d reworked the bass sounds a little. But since it didn’t drastically change the song, I didn’t rename it as a different version. This song was also given as a birthday present.

6. HAVE I TOLD YOU LATELY part 2

Posted in July 08. At first I was apprehensive about including this in OWOM. Mainly because I sang the vocals! But since this song has a special place in Adrian’s heart (as he likes to tell me), and especially since the song fitted the “One Moment” feel, it made the cut.

7. DRIFTING

This track has never been posted. So this album is its first appearance. It’s meant to be an interlude of sorts, between songs — or what I’d like to think as “between the mood of the songs”. I included it as a demo track when Adrian and I reviewed songs for our second album. Adrian said it was nice so we considered it for OWOM. It made the cut.

8. FIREFLY 1.4

This was one of the earliest song posted in 2008. Adrian posted this in Feb 08 but I only got round to it in Sept 08. The final version for OWOM features a different guitar ending, based on Adrian’s comments on the first remix. I also added a percussion layer, as a contrast to the mostly repeated melody. We considered ending the album with this song, but I told Adrian it might inadvertently sound like closing the tracks on a sad note. So this song switched places with “The Hill”.

9. THE HILL

This was supposed to be the eighth song, but I thought it would be more apt for the whole album to finish off on a high. Posted in Dec 08 (but actually I’d completed this more or less in mid 2008). This song features no guitar leads at all, and is vastly different from anything Adrian and even myself had produced so far. It’s included as Adrian gave the “bee boo bee boo” a thumbs up. This is one of my personal favourites. I still get goosebumps (the nice kind) listening to it.

Songs published in 2008 but weren’t selected/ completed in time for this album:

• Finding Love (Jan 08) – still a WIP
• Walking On Air 2008 – with Friends from Songcraft (Mar 08)
• Weight of an Empty Page (Mar 08)
• Here And Now (Apr 08)
• Just Wanna Be With You (Apr 08)
• If You Were A Dance (Jun 08)
• Saying Goodnight demo (Aug 08)
• Two Ladies (Oct 08)
• I Wonder (Nov 08)
• Twilight (Nov 08)

Heh, I’m surprised at our productivity, given that all this music making is done with our spare time outside of our day-jobs.

We welcome comments on how to improve our music. Feel free to comment about what it is that you liked or disliked.

~ Ivan

Music album: 2009 One World One Moment

2009 One World One Moment by Starfish Stories : The Band is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Singapore License. Based on the work at StarfishStories.wordpress.com. As long as you ATTRIBUTE the music to StarfishStories.wordpress.com in your website or printed materials (if any), you are FREE to USE, COPY, SHARE, MODIFY, or SELL (yes sell!) any of the songs from this album. Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at http://starfishstories.wordpress.com.

In case you didn’t quite understand the above, READ THIS!

Starfish Stories :: The Band is a Singaporean duo – Adrian Loo & Ivan Chew. They are self-taught musicians who prefer to produce their music this way. Feel free to contact them at their band blog or email StarfishStories@gmail.com.

IF YOU LIKED THE MUSIC…

Consider making a donation. Only if you wish to, thanks!

• Album: 2009 One World One Moment [archive.org | jamendo]
• Band: Starfish Stories :: The Band
• Original compositions by Adrian Loo & Ivan Chew
• Mixing & sound engineering: Ivan Chew
• Released: Jan 2009
• Cover art: Designed by Ivan Chew; adapted from a Creative Commons Public Domain Licensed image from buchan | Downloads for the album cover available at Flickr.com

TO DOWNLOAD THE ENTIRE MP3 ALBUM:
128Kbps VBR version (35MB ZIP) | 64Kbps version (15MB ZIP)

INDIVIDUAL TRACKS:

1. ONE WORLD (4.6MB) | 64Kbps (1.9 MB) | Music Video

2. QUIET AFTERNOON (3.1MB) | 64kbps (1.2MB)

3. GENETIC (re)MIX (7.4MB) | 64kbps (3.2MB)

4. RAINY DAYS 2.4 (3.0MB) | 64kbps (1.2MB)

5. SURFING ON SOLAR WINDS (2.9MB) | 64kbps (1.1MB)

6. HAVE I TOLD YOU LATELY part 2 (4.4MB) | 64kbps (1.9MB)

7. DRIFTING (2.0MB) | 64kbps (679KB)

8. FIREFLY 1.4 (3.7MB) | 64kbps (1.6MB)

9. THE HILL (4.2MB) | 64kbps (1.8MB)

We welcome comments on how to improve our music. Feel free to share what you liked or disliked.

Visit the band blog at StarfishStories.wordpress.com

[UPDATE: How the album was put together]

Coming soon

Want a preview?

Email us: StarfishStories [at] gmail [dot] com

UPDATE: It’s here!