CHRISTOPHER TIN'S BLOG

Heart-warmed By My Fans

2010-02-02T03:09:00.000-08:00

There was a post recently on reddit.com. Someone mentioned something about Civilization IV's music, and then all these people started chiming in about the new album. I had a nice boost in sales that evening. All in all, a happy moment for me.

But what I really found heartwarming was the fact that there was a genuine, concerted effort on the behalf of all those people to help support my music by buying my album, and encouraging others to buy it as well. There was actually one person who posted an illegal filesharing download link of my album--and when I saw that, I have to admit, my heart broke a little bit. But then his post was quickly deleted, and he was shouted down by several other posters who came in and suggested that people support my music.

I was touched. (Thanks Kardionoc, RedSnt, APeacefulWarrior and petawb.)

Many music fans don't realize this, but a lot of artists are severely emotionally attached to the work they do--myself included. And when people just post an album that you spent four years of your life perfecting onto some pirate site, it just kills us.

Gregorian Christmas Mass

2009-12-26T01:46:00.000-08:00

I happened to attend a Gregorian Christmas Mass with my mother today--it was a totally new experience for me, and it was fascinating. For those who don't know, it's conducted almost entirely in Latin (aside from the homily). The Missal included an English translation so I could follow along, but even more fun was the fact that it contained the plainchant responses in Neumatic notation. It had been awhile since I had to read neumes (since I was an undergrad music major, really) so it was a fun exercise in refreshing an old skill.

The missal had this to say:

The liturgy for Christmas expresses the uniqueness of the day by providing three different Masses, one at midnight, one at dawn, and one in the day; of these, the first and the third are most frequently celebrated. While the mass at midnight is still and intimate, that in the day is festive and public. Christmas is placed on the calendar about at the winter solstice, symbolizing that point when the length of day--the light--begins to increase. This realizes the dictum of St. John the Baptist, "He must increase and I must decrease," with the Nativity of St. John celebrated at the summer solstice, when the light begins to decrease. Midnight of the longest night of the year thus represents life of Him who is God of God, Light of Light. Its obscurity recalls the obscurity of that night in Bethlehem, when, unbeknown to the public world, the Savior quietly arrived in the world, being adored first by humble shepherds, then by wise men. It thus harks back to unseen beginnings in an intimate way; the chants for the Midnight Mass express the mysterious eternal begetting of the Son from the Father.

Holiday Promo!

2009-12-01T02:21:00.000-08:00

We're doing a little holiday promo at www.christophertin.com. If you buy two or more CDs, the price goes down to $10 per CD. AND, on top of that, each CD is signed. Because, you know, I just love signing hundreds and hundreds of CDs. ;)

Think about it: Calling All Dawns is a great holiday present. It's got a great message: unity, brotherhood, peace amongst differing religions and cultures. And a physical CD is a great present in an age of impersonal downloads... especially if it's customized with a signature! AND, on top of it all, you get to support indie music.

Go to the main page, www.christophertin.com, to get your copies. Happy holidays!

This Graph Really Makes Me Understand It Better

2009-11-21T17:10:00.000-08:00

For more information, click here.

The Music Dreams Are Starting Again...

2009-11-10T20:51:00.000-08:00

The music dreams are starting again. Maybe that means that I'm ready to start thinking about my next project?

It hasn't happened in awhile, maybe because of all the sheer craziness of the past few months, or maybe from the over-exhaustion and lack of sleep. It used to happen quite a bit. I think it's a sign that I may be getting closer to being ready to start thinking about the 'next step' after Calling All Dawns.

Last night's dream was a fun one. I had accepted a commission from the Angel City Chorale to write a new work. The piece was for chorus, classical guitar and piano, was in E major, and had a lot of sustained, minimalistic harmonies. (Not really a piece that I would compose in real life, since I can't stay to stay in one key for more than 90 seconds.)

The second part of the dream was closer to a nightmare, however. For some reason I dreamt that I had agreed to sing an unaccompanied solo on stage during their next concert. It was 30 minutes before show time, I was rummaging around in my closet looking for a suit, and I still hadn't picked a song to sing yet. My assistants Alex and Laren were waiting anxiously in the next room. I decided that I would try to sing 'Hey Jude', and hopefully get the audience to sing along with me.

Pics From Carnegie

2009-10-30T11:59:00.000-07:00

Pics from my night at Carnegie!

Here we are on stage. From left to right, it's Meghan Asha (technology columnist), me (just some dude), Alex Rigopulos (created Guitar Hero and Rock Band), Melissa auf Der Maur (bassist for Hole, Smashing Pumpkins), Grandmaster Flash (founding father of hip hop) and Pete Wentz (bassist of Fall Out Boy).

And here we are before the concert, looking like a badass posse.

The evening was capped off with a demonstration of Rock Band: Beatles. Here you can see me channeling my inner Paul, playing a plastic Hofner bass. Now I can say I've 'played Carnegie'.

The afterparty. Here I am with Melissa auf Der Maur and Jimmy Zankel (he underwrote the event, and his family built Zankel Hall, one of the three concert spaces at Carnegie).

Photos by Craig Chesek.

Carnegie Hall Sent Me Flowers!

2009-10-24T20:03:00.000-07:00

So classy.

Carnegie Hall, Baba Yetu Music Video, The Beatles, And Me

2009-10-20T11:35:00.001-07:00

Well, I just had pretty much the most fun night of my entire life.

I got invited to speak on a panel at Carnegie Hall last night. The subject was video games and music--a topic that I know a little bit about. It was moderated by Pete Wentz of Fall Out Boy, and the other panelists were Alex Rigopulos (CEO and founder of Harmonix), Grandmaster Flash (father of hip-hop), Melissa auf Der Maur (Smashing Pumpkins, Hole), and Meghan Asha (technology blogger and media personality). We had a fun, sometimes crass, and occasionally enlightening conversation about the video game industry, and the present and future of music.

I also got to debut the brand new music video of Baba Yetu to the sold-out crowd. The video is a collection of footage taken from the Civ games, and expertly cut together by director Brooke Hanson. It's terrific, and very moving--very much in the spirit of the Civilization games. I'll post it here soon.

And to cap off the panel, we did a live demonstration of Rock Band: Beatles for the audience. I played bass (and no, I did not play it left handed, like Paul did). Since I love Rock Band, and the Beatles are my favorite rock band, that made the evening complete. And besides, it's every musician's dream to play Carnegie Hall, right? Well, I finally did... granted, it was on a plastic bass with little colored buttons, but whatever.

I have to give thanks to the Carnegie organization for doing an amazing job of taking care of me, and handling every detail. It was just a first class experience from beginning to end.

I'll post pics later this week... and sometime next week, I'll also post the video!

No, Really... All Pre-Sale CDs Have Been Sent!

2009-10-10T16:09:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone,

Some people are confused by the fact that Google Checkout still shows that their orders haven't been shipped.

All orders have been shipped... but in order to mark each one as shipped in Google Checkout, we would have to go in and manually click 5 or 6 different steps to send an email confirmation. Multiply that by 1100, and you have an idea as to why we'd rather not do this. :) But rest assured, unless your last name is Dabramo or Isakiev (in which case please email sales@christophertin.com with your mailing address) your CDs have gone out!

Thanks again for your patience!

Home a.k.a CD Distribution Center

2009-10-09T22:12:00.000-07:00

I used to have a clean home. Now it has become a CD distribution center.

Dulce Estrella. WOW.

2009-10-08T00:43:00.000-07:00

Two of my favorite voices, together on one tour! I had no idea that they did this.

Dulce Estrella Tour

Dulce Pontes is a fado goddess. She sings the fourth track on my album, 'Se É Pra Vir Que Venha', and she performs the hell out of it! Estrella Morente is a flamenco wonder. I first came across her in the movie Volver, when her amazing performance of the title song was lip synched by none other than Penelope Cruz.

Two of the most soulful voices in the world, from stylistically similar traditions: fado and flamenco. I would have loved to have seen this tour. I think they do reunion concerts from time to time... wish I could read Portuguese, so I could actually tell what was going on on Dulce's website.

Needs More Epic

2009-10-06T10:08:00.000-07:00

A rather funny blog review of Calling All Dawns has popped up, from a blogger in Norway, Steinar Kristofferson.

Want More Good Music? Calling All Dawns

Some of my favorite lines:

With two previous versions of Baba Yetu to consider, each with their devotees, Christopher Tin did the sensible thing: he cheated. For the new version, he combined percussion elements from both previous incarnations while also adding something new, bypassing all those laws of propriety that say the track shouldn't be able to appeal to both camps, and then he goes one further and ACTUALLY IMPROVES THE FUCKING THING. I don't know what kind of person can listen to fucking Baba Yetu and think to himself, 'You know what this needs? More epic.'

So, buy it. Support the talented independent artist. It's an incentive for Christopher to make more music in the future of the sort that would make the manchild of Jesus Christ and Chuck Norris weep tears of joy.

Download Links Sent For Pre-Sales

2009-10-04T13:09:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone,

All download links have been sent to all who pre-purchased the album... but we're getting random emails, blog comments, and so forth saying that people haven't gotten the links yet! I'm truly sorry about this... it's been a rather large organizational task, keeping track of all this stuff.

If you pre-ordered and haven't received your download link, send an email to sales@christophertin.com and we'll try to figure it out. Thanks for the patience!

New Album, New Site!

2009-10-01T00:17:00.001-07:00

Forgive the month and a half absence everyone, but as you probably know, I was, oh, releasing my debut album. It's now out! :) Check it out, and the new website, at www.christophertin.com.

GAP: Born To Fit

2009-08-17T21:15:00.000-07:00

My Gap ad campaign has arrived!

A sample:

Check out http://www.youtube.com/user/gap for more videos. (They're all pretty much the same music, though.)

A Strange Video From Japan

2009-08-10T22:33:00.000-07:00

I wish I knew what was happening here!

http://dic.nicovideo.jp/v/sm2396637

I think someone did some clever cutting and created an anime dance number out of Baba Yetu. Oh how I wish I spoke Japanese.

Format Sales: From NY Times

2009-08-04T10:26:00.000-07:00

Fascinating graphic from the New York Times!

Did you know that in 2008, vinyl overtook cassette sales for the first time since the 80s?

Anonymous 4 Session Pictures

2009-08-01T19:40:00.000-07:00

Some pics from my session with Anonymous 4, the extraordinary early-music vocal quartet. These women have the most angelic voices aver, and they're performing a setting of an excerpt of the 18th-century Irish epic poem 'Caoineadh Airt Ui Laoghaire' on Calling All Dawns.

And on the topic of Calling All Dawns, in case you haven't heard, the release date is October 1st.

Skyline Studios: NYC

2009-07-28T23:10:00.000-07:00

Skyline Studios: NYC. Spent two days recording some fantastic singers here: Anonymous 4, and Jia Ruhan. Back to LA in the morning, with less than a month left before my mix.

Thoughts On Instrumentation

2009-07-26T09:10:00.001-07:00

It dawned on me the other day about the importance of instrumentation to the promotion of music. Many times the instrumentation that you select for a song--whether it be solo piano, orchestral, or pop--will make your listener decide immediately whether they want to continue to listen to your music. Here's what I mean...

If you're flipping through radio stations, catch a quick ad on TV, or even stumble across a user's MySpace page on the internet, the first thing that you'll hear when a piece of music starts playing is its instrumentation. Even before you hear lyrics, even before you hear a melody, even before you can figure out how fast a piece of music is, you'll immediately identify what's playing it. You may not know the specifics--is that an oboe or English horn? Nylon string guitar or finger-picked acoustic?--but you'll immediately get a rough sense of what's producing the sounds that you hear. And based on that snap judgment, chances are you'll immediately know what genre of music it is, and based on your existing biases, make a decision whether you'll want to keep listening or not.

In this day and age, most music is stumbled upon--that is, you casually came across it in an iPod commercial, or an episode of Grey's Anatomy, or even a video game. So what if the choices that you make in instrumentation are SO powerful, and SO compelling, that the moment someone hears the combination of instruments that you use, they're compelled to keep listening? That would be a powerful tool.

There's not a lot of music out there with instrumentation this compelling, however. If you work within a specific genre, a lot of times your instrumental choices will be made for you--acoustic instruments for country, electronic for electronica, beats for hip hop, orchestra for classical, etc. So to find stuff like this, one probably has to turn to more crossover artists. To give you a few examples, the first time I heard Bjork was a revelation. The way she would mix delicate timbres like a music box with heavy electronic beats in 'Pagan Poetry' was inspired:

I was not a huge Sting fan, but the first ever single I bought of his was his duet with Cheb Mami on the song 'Desert Rose', which I first heard in a Jaguar commercial. The mix of commercial production with Arabic vocals grabbed my attention, and I went and bought the track:

Peter Gabriel's 'Passion' soundtrack was a huge inspiration for me. Talk about fusing world music elements with synths... Peter Gabriel rewrote the rule book on this one.

My friends the On Ensemble do great work like this as well--fusing traditional Japanese music with hip hop and electronica:

And let's not forget all the excellent African music/pop fusion that's been done out there, by the likes of Paul Simon in Graceland and Hans Zimmer for The Lion King, perhaps the music that 'Baba Yetu' gets compared to most often. (Personally, while I love Hans' music and admire him as a composer, I don't think Baba Yetu and The Lion King are really all that similar. Most people make the comparison because it's the closest cultural reference they have to anything that's an African choral hybrid, but neither of us were the first to fuse African choral music with orchestral writing, and hopefully neither of us will be the last.)

DJ Spooky + Sussan Deyhim = Azadi (The New Complexity)

2009-07-24T21:56:00.000-07:00

My friend Sussan Deyhim (also featured soloist on my upcoming album) just released a track with DJ Spooky. Check it out!

Dj Spooky + Sussan Deyhim: Azadi (The New Complexity) by Dj Spooky

The Village Recorder: Gap Commercial

2009-07-11T10:26:00.000-07:00

I took a few days off to work on an ad campaign for Gap--and on Wednesday we hit the studio with a small band consisting of Matt Cooker on cello, Bernie Locker on guitar, and Greg Ellis on drums (Greg had previously played drums and percussion for me on my album). My assistant Alex laid down some bass from the control booth.

Elwin Goh, a photographer I had met last month at Video Games Live, stopped by and took a few pictures of me for a photo series he's putting together about people who work in the video game industry. Check them out!

Chris Owens was the engineer. He had also previously done some engineering for me on my album.

You can see Greg and Matt in this one. Bernie's in the iso-booth off to the left.

The Kids Are Alright!

2009-07-03T18:15:00.000-07:00

Earlier this year, Ms. Shannon Jones of Trinity Springs Middle School wrote me an email, and told me that her choir was learning Baba Yetu. This was followed by a bunch of emails from the students in the choir, asking me if I was going to come out and hear the performance! Unfortunately I couldn't make it out to Texas, but just for fun I put together a little video to say hi to the choir:

I think it went over well!

In any case, the choir sent me a DVD of the performance, which was much appreciated; most choirs don't even tell me they're performing my music--I just stumble across their performances on YouTube (even the big professional ones don't warn me in advance!). I'd honestly go to more of these performances if I could--especially the ones in Los Angeles.

At any rate, the kids of Trinity Springs did a GREAT job with the song. Hopefully someone over there will figure out how to post it to YouTube someday, but in the meantime, if any of the choir members from TSMS are reading this, BRAVO!!! :) You guys were a delight to watch, and you all sounded great--from the chorus, to the excellent soloist, to the orchestra. And great job putting it all together, Ms. Jones!

Hope you're all having a great summer vacation! :)

Need Your Help!

2009-06-28T12:38:00.000-07:00

My good college friend Jon Goldman, whom I've done three projects with, has entered his film 'Paul Sussman's Eleven-Step Guide To Self-Actualization' into the Netflix Find Your Voice Competition. He's currently a semi-finalist, and sitting in sixth place. In order to qualify for a chance at $350,000 worth of funding to complete the film, he needs to place in the top five, and he needs every possible vote he can get.

Please take a minute to click on the link below, and cast five stars for 'Paul Sussman's Eleven-Step Guide To Self-Actualization'. It's a great script, with a great writer/director and a swell composer attached (me).

Netflix Find Your Voice Competition

Also of note; this project is a bit of a reunion for me and fellow Stanford alums. The actor you see portraying Paul Sussman is my old housemate Andrew Leeds, and the music you hear playing in the trailer is by the On Ensemble, co-founded by Shoji Kameda and Kris Bergstrom, whom I played taiko with back at Stanford.