Kickstarter - India, Seattle 12" Vinyl

Help me press India, Seattle on 12" Vinyl!

http://ow.ly/PEDcZ

I've launched a kickstarter campaign with some fun and crafty rewards, a phone call from Larry (my dad) even Larry's old record player.

We listen to music so quickly today and I think having physical things and a physical record reminds us that we still live in a concrete and tactile world.  I think we need to be reminded of this by listening to music, holding artisan and crafted goods in our hands, and by going outside.

The link is in my profile and Thank you all so much!

India, Seattle Design

I have always loved thinking about the design and the cover of an album I have released. It's very important to me.  It's generally the first thing people see and I just like it to say something I guess.  My friend Jorge agreed to design it.  He also directed and produced the video for The Closer.  I feel like it took a little while to get on the right page, but I feel like the end design is amazing.

The Final Album Cover of India, Seattle

We started somewhere here.

We started to get on a good track.  Kind of a reference to my past album cover - The Last Of Our Mountains.

We landed on this design, and I loved the design but we searched around until we settled on the 'Butterscotch Feathers'.

Check out Jorge's notes about the design here

WinItWednesday

Head over to www.twitter.com/mikeedelmusic today for a chance to win a copy of India Seattle and a letterpress notebook made by That Sky Blue

Julia - Live Video from Southern Souls

There is something magnetic between cats and camera's and though I have a love/hate relationship with cats, this one made it into our video we shot of‪#‎julia‬ with ‪#‎southernsouls‬

It features Dave Zellinsky on cool moves and Jesse Boland on immaculate hair alongside a guest appearance of Jordan Clarke's rooftop and cat.

I talk about Larry having his birthday and make a good joke about the Edmonton Oilers.

Our show in Fort Saskatchewan was broadcast across Alberta on CKUA Radio Network last Friday, and now it's up on Soundcloud so take a listen!

This week on the TransCanada Music West podcast, we feature Victoria-based singer-songwriter Mike Edel live from the First United Church in Fort Saskatchewan. Mike’s brand new album India Seattle is an indie folk gem that’s received regular airplay on CKUA. The record was produced by Colin Stewart, who has previously produced albums for The New Pornographers, A.C. Newman, Kathryn Calder, Dan Mangan, and Ladyhawk.

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Blue Above The Green Video - 1 Feathers

FEATHERS

 I had someone ask on instagram the other day ‘the feathers are cool, but do they mean anything?’

It has always been interesting to me when people ask about meaning and generally the questions is ‘what does it mean’ or ‘how did you do that’ or ‘where did you shoot that’ or ‘when did you do that’ all asked more than WHY?

At first I had a quaff at the question in the van with my buds from Towers and Trees, as we were driving from London, ON to Eau Claire, WI. 

‘It’s metaphor!’ I said

‘Why ask the question!’

‘That’s such a silly question’

‘Figure it out,’ were all my answers at first.

I used to play another video I made for the song ‘The Country Where I Came From’ while I sang it at Younglife Camps and I would always get asked ‘What does it mean?’

I think there is a thing about art, and maybe a thing about video’s that I like when things are a bit abstract.  It’s kind of like a fantasy where you can take things out of reality, and you are allowed to, and it’s almost encouraged.  There is a part of making a video where you want it to be weird, to be visually appealing, and have a ‘wow’ moment or an ‘ah ha’ moment.  And in music video’s you have way less time to build a reality that is very similar to real life, so most of the time you end up using a few visuals that are more metaphorical or representative, because it’s hard to wow the internet these days, and it’s pretty hard to build character and setting in less that 4 minutes with no dialogue or anything.

I think the goal of Blue Above The Green was to present a reality that is pretty universal – (hiking through the woods in the spring with a tinge of love in the air) but represent that in a metaphorical way. 

Firstly - The feathers hold an idea of chance, and I think infatuation and love and relationship are represented well by them.  They fall, and they rise and they swirl around.  The wind affects them, and their own properties and shapes and size even without the winds affect their path from point A to point B.

Secondly – In this song and video, there is theme of ascension.  The lyrics (‘looked down onto our toes’ the ‘up in the sky we saw the trestle overhead’ ‘up above the canopy of trees’) and certainly the title (Blue ABOVE The Green) combined with the images, present this idea of ascension.  I think falling in love supports this, but I often think of it more as an ascension of love, and certainly this song presents it that way. 

The images of the water falling, the feathers falling off the bridge, the scattered feathers, the shots upward as well as the 4:3 aspect ratio, were all intentional in presenting this idea that love is this acension, and a potential rise and fall, the way a mountain’s tree line rises and meets the blue of the sky. (below is my text conversation with Robin a couple days before about the treatment)

And I think in reality, this ascension of love and relationship is no straight line; it’s a path.  The path loops and swirls, it rests and it get’s beaten by the wind; there are so many factors that affect it’s getting from point A to point B.  It’s the reason why the opening title sequence in the movie Forest Gump is amazing, and it’s more amazing when you go back and watch it after you’ve watched the entire film.

My answer to the question ‘do the feathers mean anything’ was – Have you ever watched Forest Gump?

Southern Souls - Blue Above The Green

'Just like the old days... I'll boost you up and then I'll pass stuff to you.'

I met my friend Jordan Clarke the first day I moved to Victoria about 6 years ago. He was wearing tight pants and liked to talk about videos, so we became friends. We shot the 'Turn The Lights on Bright' video together, 'The Country Where I Came From' video together, and also this box animation video that Ashton Kutcher tweeted about when twitter was still an infant.

I set out to shoot a video with Southern Souls and Jordo told me that the rooftop above his apartment was the best place with the best view... BUT... his neighbours made it very clear they didn't want anyone up there. A video or a project is always best when your heart races a little, when the cops come or you think you are going to die. So we did a little covert operation and handed some of our gear atop this Queen St. roof and shot this video overlooking Toronto. Jordan has since begun to wear baggier pants and now only tells people how to make videos.

I love the first 10 seconds of this video the most, and I hope you enjoy this version of Blue Above The Green.

Tour Blog 3 - My favourite thing about tour

I was asked what my favourite thing about tour is.

It came to me quick and it felt pretty easy to answer that question.  I love music and I love writing and I love performing and both these things are an ongoing art.  I love traveling and seeing Saskatchewan for the 8th time from the highway, arriving in Montreal and feeling like I’m in Europe and I driving underneath the CN Tower one day, and then arriving in Calgary only a few days later. But I also love people.

I’ve found more than ever I am on my telephone texting my friends in a certain city or my girlfriend, or posting on my instagram or organizing the next show or a load in time.  This grieves me.  And I am typing these words into a computer even.  There is a beautiful song by The Lonley Forest that says ‘turn off, turn off this song, and find someone to love and turn off this song, you can listen to it later… go outside.’ I think these things are isolating, and I feel it.  They take me away from people.

But my answer to ‘what my favourite thing about tour is’ is something that has been very evident in the past few weeks.  It’s something that makes me love the road, it’s something that makes me love people and something that I want to lean into and be more of, something that makes me feel like a human being who has all my senses aware and able to listen, see, taste touch and smell.

My favourite thing is experiencing hospitality.  It’s an amazing thing, one that goes beyond money, or time, or what’s mine and what’s yours, beyond mooching (my mother warns me of this often).  It’s about relationship, about kindness and about rest.  There have been many amazing people on this trip and I am thankful to them.

Connor made me breakfast. 

We sat on the hardwood floor, it was sunny outside but I was sick inside so I slept in Connors bed.  His apartment had no furniture yet.

Stephen Cheng is happy at 1am and is happy at 6am. 

He makes food for us at both of those hours.  He’s Chinese and he is my family.

James Kingsley lives in London with his wife Hillary. 

2014 was a rough year, we all agreed.  He is a busy guy because he is talented and brings people together.  We knew that but didn’t feel like it.  He was our landing pad in London, he was the stage to a great show.

Nate Larsen’s Barn

We drove to a farm and then a front-end loader immediately loaded a gear into a barn loft.  It felt like spring and the people were cool rural and our ages.  They drank pilsner and just wanted to have a good time.  It was easy and I’d do this every weekend of my life if I could

The Exchange in Regina was relieving.  Ali and Jeff’s parents have comfortable beds and really great breakfast foods.

Darren Hempel lives in Ottawa. 

He was a guy I went to highschool with.  We have the same hometown.  Now we are friends and I am friends with his friends (Jay, Shelly and Katie.) It feels exponential.  We tell jokes. I tried to get people to eat a wool cupcake and we were all a little drunk.  He’s a spy for the governement.

Jordan Clarke and I had an angry text conversation last time we talked.  But we’ve been friends for 6 years.  So everything was instantly ok.  We are sort of brothers.  He let me stay at his house for 6 nights. I should have payed him rent. Amy, Mateen, Theresa are his roommates and were mine too. Toronto is young and fun.  Joyce Cheng, Alison Murray, Justin Wotherspoon and Kaitlyn Wolf are all beautiful people and made my show a highlight in Toronto, because they are real people and enjoy music.

Evan Costas owns a nice restaurant near Chicago.

The Laube’s are the best family in Wisconsin, and Jenna Laube and I are officially real friends forever.

My girlfriend Alissa sent me these 3 paragraphs from a book she was reading. ‘Art is part of a deep, preverbal communication that binds people together.  It is literally a communion.’

ART CONNECTS US

The same could be said for what draws anyone to painting, athletics, poetic rhyming, punning, being a mimic, organizing the furniture, loving paper airplanes, and so forth.  Each of these play-based potentially aesthetic outflows arise from preverbal, emotionally inspired variety offered to an open heart ready to play.

            Another line of thought is that art promotes community integration and interaction.  Music, dance and painting, so often part of harvest festivals and religious observances, brings people together to ‘sing with one voice,’ Art is part of a deep, preverbal communication that binds people together.  It is literally a communion. 

            This ‘belonging’ is an outgrowth of early social play among kids.  Getting in sync with locl groups of kids, and breing able to follow that lead into more complex communal groups is a necessary ingredient for cohesive community life when conflicts and differences of style have been hammered out…

Thank you whether I mentioned you or not.