Ideas for the new album

I was thinking about the new album and trying to give it some form of direction or theme. So late one night, it occurred to me as I thought of the name for the band “Starfish Stories” – why not write the next set of songs to fit into a story. I can imagine its going to be sort of an extension of that boy who threw the starfish back into the ocean. What did he do after that. I would like to imagine that he went on an adventure and of course that the world he was in was a bit different. Something like the little prince but of course different, with a distinct story line and with musicals to fit the moods.

Here’s what I jotted down in an email to Ivan one day.

“I was thinking that perhaps…. perhaps we could thread the songs of the next album into a story. A story about a boy on a journey, meeting friends, facing some difficulties, coming up with philosophies along the way.

It would be an avenue for you to feature artwork (old or new) and for us to imagine.

just a thot that needed to be jotted down.”

So this album will be like a storyline with music and hopefully Ivan’s nice artwork. Basket, that guy’s talented man.

~ Adrian

Free CD if you help review the SeaStars 2007 album

I was furiously sending this email out to friends and contacts I managed to “ambush” online today.

Yeap.

Giving away MP3 CDs for first 50 people who help to review the SeaStars 2007 album.

It’s the only low-budget self-publicity that I can think of.

If you can find 30 mins during the next week or so:

1) Listen/ download to the songs from [this temporary link (EXPIRES Jan ’08)].
IF THERE ARE PROBLEMS WITH THE DOWNLOADS, WE CAN EMAIL YOU THE 64kbps VERSION.

Total playing time is about 32 mins. There are links for higher quality VBR MP3 files and also lower quality 64kbps ones. The link is available for 30 days only. A permanent list will be posted later, pending any changes after the reviewers comments.

2) Blog/ Email your impressions of the album. e.g. like it, don’t like, not your cup of tea, good for dieting cos makes you puke, which ones got hope and can improve etc. We’ll post all reviews w/o edits (good or bad) in our blog.

3) Blog/ Email us by 4th Jan 2008 or earlier (if you need more time, let us know).

We’ll then get in touch with you on how to pass you the MP3 CD we’re giving away for first 50 reviewers (CD will be supplied at a later date, once we get the supplies in for our home production!)

Thanks!
ivan

Music album – SeaStars2007.wordpress.com
Band blog – StarfishStories.wordpress.com

Oh the MP3 CDs we’re giving away would be the kind produced on a home computer though.

That is, if anyone still wants the CD after reviewing the songs. LOL.

~ Ivan

Our song 4 the chicken – Cry Fowl!

Cry Fowl!

Listen/ download at ARCHIVE.ORG

When I wrote the post “An Ode to Whales” on our Seastars album website, Ivan said something about duality when people say that hunting whales is bad but yet we eat other forms of meat without a thought to animals such as the chicken for instance. I remember reading in Thich Nhat Hanh‘s Miracle of Mindfulness about how we need to practice non-duality in our lives. Well, it basically means that at any instance in our lives, we can’t be contradictory. Like when we go to work we are kind to many people but harsh towards our family members. So Ivan was right when he said that we should accord the same kind of treatment or attitude towards even a “not so cute” creature like the chicken. (see also the Bambi syndrome about how we happily ignore the source of that piece of meat we eat..)

Anyway, so this is the inaugural song for this collection of songs from the Starfish Stories, having completed our album “Seastars 2007” This song is about non-duality and when I listen to it, I imagine the camera lens going into the eyes of the chicken and there the chicken is dreaming about itself walking down the road, enjoying the sights and the breeze of the empty terrain and the rolling hills by the side. Cigarette in one hand and a peace sign in the other? ha ha. But all this is an illusion for the chicken cos its actually in a battery farm…. sigh… “Free the chickens!!!”

This is definitely version 1. I couldn’t wait to put it up.

Interesting websites to do with Chickens
http://www.digital-sledgehammer.com/superchicken/index.html

http://www.archive.org/details/hpr013_chesterchicken

Hello. We’re “Starfish Stories”. The band.

It started with their search for a band name.

A biologist and a librarian.

For their SeaStars 2007 album.

They considered “Sardines On Vacation” (Adrian liked it but it didn’t sound right for Ivan).

“String Theories” sounded like a winner. There were aspects of the name that struck a chord with us (pun intended). But Ivan tested the name on his wife and got a scowl in return. Scrap “String Theories” then.

Adrian and Ivan then wondered if they really needed a band name.

“Adrian Loo & Ivan Chew“, or “Ivan Chew & Adrian Loo“. Didn’t really matter to the two of them (the former was fine with Ivan; he felt that being listed alphabetically had its advantages).

OK, so no pretentious band name then. They’ll try to make “Adrian Loo & Ivan Chew” a household name.

But the two of them were still in a “spin cycle mode”, i.e. being wishy-washy.

Until Adrian asked if they were going to create separate blogs for each and every music project.

Wow.

Never thought of that, went Ivan. No way they could manage so many blogs.

They didn’t know where their musical forays would take them, but it certainly wouldn’t stop at SeaStars 2007.

And so, here’s Starfish Stories: The Band.