July 2024 - HOT COOL SUMMER!
Welcome back! Weird world, weird times, but I hope you’re enjoying the summer so far. I decided to not schedule any work travel until August, which means a two-month break for me. I’ll mostly be writing TRIALS OF THE JEDI and reading and seeing movies and maybe spending a day picking raspberries from the bushes all around my place. My birthday's this month on the 18th, a big one, and I intend to celebrate by kicking back and doing heck-all. You remember kicking back? I'm not sure I do, but I'll do some serious research and make a plan that I will execute with flawless precision.
I will also be working to finally get my new record, the CURSE WORDS CONCEPT ALBUM, into the world! Since we last corresponded, it’s been fully mixed and sounds absolutely beautiful. Now that it’s done, I feel really good about it – it’s a project saturated with the fun of making cool stuff just because it’s fun to make cool stuff. It’s a way to push back on the relentlessness of these times. While many things are bad – this is good (at least that’s how I feel about it!)
The album art there is by Ryan Browne, in case you were wondering. You know Ryan Browne, I'm sure. What a guy!
If you don’t know the story of this project, the bullet points:
--I’ve been a musician since I was very young, and my life almost took that path. I’ve been in a million bands, play many instruments, sing, studied composition, etc.
--After I became a lawyer, it became impossible to pursue music – it quickly became a side thing. My skills got a little rusty. When my writing career locked in, it became even harder to have music in my life in a serious way.
--In mid-2020, I realized how much I truly missed making music and decided I’d find a way back to it. I conveniently happened to be doing a Kickstarter with my pal Ryan Browne for an omnibus of our series CURSE WORDS, and offered as a stretch goal the idea that I’d compose and record an entire concept album based around the comic’s story – which we hit.
--The album quickly turned into something much bigger than I expected, and ended up taking four years to write, perform, record, etc. I had the shape of the thing pretty early – ten tracks, each sung by a different character from the book, with a vibe like a rock opera. Big melodies, un-self-conscious, unafraid of emotions, not winking or ironic in any way. Also very weird and funny, just like the comic.
--I did acoustic roughs for the whole record, then fully orchestrated demos in my home studio, and then went into a hyper-professional real-deal studio called Studio G Brooklyn to do the actual tracking. I performed and sang basically everything but the drums (which were handled by my friends Jorge Pertuz and Nate Chinen.) The record was engineered and mixed by eight-time Grammy nominee Joel Hamilton, and mastered by Adam Ayan.
I can’t believe it’s done. This project has been part of my life for a very long time. I’m so proud of it, and I can’t wait to get it into the world. Will it be for everyone? Dunno. It’s got a pretty specific vibe. That said, if you like anything Ryan Browne and I have made, from CURSE WORDS to EIGHT BILLION GENIES or anything else, or if you like rock-influenced musicals like Jesus Christ Superstar or Hamilton or Be More Chill, I’m pretty sure you’ll like this too. Here are clips from three of the tunes:
TIGERS!
Team Margaret
A Hole New World
Groovy business, eh? (Chip Zdarsky has heard the whole record and told me Team Margaret was his new summer bop. He's just going around spelling the word "Margaret" everywhere he goes, which I guess is my fault.)
I’m going to release the record in two ways: first, a very limited run of vinyl LPs; a standard black vinyl and then a few special edition colored vinyls (which I’ll print in runs of maybe like 200 – they’re pricey to make!) It’ll also be available in a digital version in the usual spots. The best way to get all of this into the world seemed to be a Kickstarter, so I am hereby announcing the CURSE WORDS CONCEPT ALBUM Kickstarter!
It will launch on July 15, and there will be early-bird options for people who want to get in right away, including some very cool things – have you ever wanted me to compose a melodic theme for you? Well, now you can. Super-rare test pressings of the record, new art from Ryan Browne, a new CURSE WORDS story… it’s a good one.
The pre-launch page for the campaign is live, and you can sign up here to get a notification the very moment it opens for pledges:
I’m thinking I’ll let it run for a bit before I do social media announcements, to give the true fans (that’s you) a chance to get in on the limited stuff.
All of that said… this is a strange one for me. I’m completely confident in the material, but nervous to put it into the world. After all, you don’t know me as a musician. It’s also very personal and exposed – you’ll be hearing my voice for every part and harmony, my hands on the guitar strings and keyboards and everything else. This is ME. Writing works at something of a remove – this isn’t like that.
What I am certain of, though, is that this project is joyful top to bottom. It makes me happy that I made it, it makes me happy that it’s both silly and serious at the same time, it makes me happy that my music chops are still there, and it makes me happy to be putting it into the world at this strange time we’re all living through.
THE CURSE WORDS CONCEPT ALBUM is about art and happiness and love overcoming evil. I could spend my time on worse things.
Again, the Kickstarter goes live on July 15, and you’ll have the record in your hands by mid-November, as soon as it’s pressed. Digital buyers may get it a bit sooner, I haven’t decided. (And, of course, if you backed that Curse Words omnibus Kickstarter back in 2020, or pre-ordered the album at any point in the past four years, you’ll get the digital version in your inbox and/or the LP delivered to your address.) I am handling all fulfillment here myself so I don't have to rely on third parties as much to get stuff out to people - that's been frustrating in the past.
I hope you'll consider grabbing this one. I'm happy it exists.
PLEASE TALK ABOUT STAR WARS NOW
Okay, okay! Geez Louise. I get it. A few quick updates from a galaxy far, far away:
-TRIALS OF THE JEDI is awesome. It's looking like it will be a good bit longer than LIGHT OF THE JEDI, although I'm still drafting. Things change a lot between the first draft and the one you get. It's been incredibly fun to write so far. Every chapter is its own little mini-epic. It's extremely action-packed. Once the various scenes are set, it just goes. I hear a lot about how the opening third of LIGHT OF THE JEDI was super intense because it never really let up on the throttle - almost all of TRIALS is like that.
-It was announced since my last update that STAR WARS #50 will be the last issue in that title's run, alongside DARTH VADER #50 from my good friend Greg Pak. Many new things will be coming down the road in Marvel's Star Wars line, but right now I'm thinking about everything this run was to me. I'll do a more focused post on it when the issue comes out in September. It's fifty full pages, structured like its own graphic novel, with all art by the truly incredible Madibek Musabekov, who's drawn a lot of the run and nailed it every time.
Star Wars #50 is broken into chapters, and these are the titles of those chapters:
"You Would Prefer Another Target?"
"You May Fire When Ready"
"Commence Primary Ignition"
"As If Millions of Voices Cried Out In Terror"
-Folks have been asking if I'm doing more Star Wars after #50 and TRIALS. Come on, people. Of course.
-Told you ACOLYTE was cool. It's also, on occasion, goofy and weird and strangely-tuned... LIKE EVERY STAR WARS THING EVER. Star Wars has room for Andor and Acolyte and Ahsoka and all kinds of other things. All vibrating on their own frequencies, all giving you many things to love but also, sure, maybe some things to bounce off. It's your choice which parts to focus on - I know which I pick.
ANYTHING ELSE?
Oh, sure, always. Ryan Browne and I got some nice news on the EIGHT BILLION GENIES front about that adaptation from Amazon Studios. We're working on bringing our next story to you in some really interesting, unique ways. Will Sliney is busy drawing the third Shrouded College story, THE COLD WITCH, and it looks amazing so far.
I saw FURIOSA in the theater three times. It's amazing time for TV right now - I'm loving INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE, EVIL, THE BOYS, HOUSE OF THE DRAGON, THE BEAR and more. I read and really enjoyed a book called DARK SPACE from Alex Segura and Rob Hart, sort of a John Le Carre meets The Expanse story which is out soon. My friend Peng Shepherd's new book ALL THIS AND MORE is out July 9 - I really dug that one too - really inventive structurally with a tight emotional story at the core.
While my next convention isn't until August - Terrificon in Connecticut - I will be out and about in public on August 1 at Bibliotheque in NYC to help my good friend Marc Guggenheim bring his latest novel to the world, IN ANY LIFETIME. I'll be "In Conversation" with him, and my understanding is that there will be wine. Would love to see you out. Tickets are available here.
Thank you for reading! As always, replies are open for questions and comments.
--CHARLES