Drake OranwoodDrake Oranwood (Eric Schrager) is a singer, songwriter, producer, lutenist, and medieval enthusiast who brings modern sensibilities to original songs set long ago and far away.
Toki Redbeard, also known as Toki Skaldagorvir (Toki the Skald-maker), passed from this life last Monday night. This is one of those seismic unexpected losses that shakes the SCA to its foundations. As far as we all knew, his cancer treatments were going well and about to wrap up.
This week has been a welling up of grief, stories, and remembrances across social media. Toki fostered and encouraged so many people, in the SCA and out of it, that his legacy is impossible to measure in this moment.
Arden has revised his detailed pencil rendering of the cover design per our discussion, revising garb for three of our singers and filling in the backdrop. This man is just incredible.
Happy New Year! (…for certain values.)
I got the second iteration of the album cover from Arden yesterday. I’ve also received the last couple of instrumental tracks that aren’t to be played by me. (The only person left that I need any recording work from is me, and I have fairly unlimited access to me.)
I’m excited.
Happy new year my friends! My resolution was to deliver to you the best album I know how to make. We are on track for that (we’re now in post-production), so I wanted to share this sneak preview with you. Enjoy!
This album is LITERALLY my pièce de résistance.
You may now go about your regularly scheduled day. More brilliant flashes of insight to follow.
I was introduced to Michael Van Slyke, a wonderful singer, by Cedric Fithelere, who has provided the incredible strings for this album that I cannot wait to share with you. Michael and I are collaborated live between New Jersey and Texas today, as he recorded the part of Sir Palamedes the Saracen for the title track, “Hold the the Door Open”.
So it wasn’t an obvious decision when I woke up yesterday morning and curled up into a ball…
But I’m finishing the damn album. I mean, I’m stupid close at this point. If any of these songs can give you a modicum of enjoyment or distraction or feeling connected or seen, I owe that to you and to my art.
Concept art for the cover by Arden of Icomb:
We are now in the endgame for Hold the Door Open (and for Normal Man, the separate EP I will be releasing just before the album, and which I should probably tell you more about in a future post). My Google Sheet with the task list on it gets a little smaller week by week. I’m tracking significant milestones to keep my spirits up. (I’m shooting for a February release for this, which may or may not happen, but deadlines keep me focused.)
Udalrich Schermer is in the house, bringing some authentic Elizabethan lute for “I asked of thee a boon”.
We have arrived at the cat herding stage of the album project. I’m maintaining a Google sheet of EVERYTHING that is left to do in terms of production, including the album cover. And tracking all the dependencies that require commitments from other people.
Drake Oranwood