We’ve been quietly setting up a new online store where we can sell branded merchandise to support independent artists. All profits from sales go directly to The Fair Attempts.
We added a new page to this website to display all available merchandise for The Fair Attempts. You’ll see the item prices displayed in United States Dollars on the new Shop page, but when you click on an item you’re interested in, you’ll be taken to our online store at Etsy.com, and all prices will be shown in your currency.
We are pleased to tell you that one of the biggest fans of The Fair Attempts ordered a special item for herself before we publicly announced the store anywhere! She knew it was in the works because she’s been in contact–you can also reach out to The Fair Attempts on the Contact page.
The Fair Attempts Carnal Insect Stainless Steel Travel Mug
This item was the first product sold to a fan of The Fair Attempts, who said she chose the travel mug because she always takes a hot drink to work, and that it’s such a striking design that customers are sure to ask about it. It was really nice to hear that a fan wants to spread the word about The Fair Attempts with an eye-catching conversation starter.
We have plenty of items to choose from, including unisex T-shirts in multiple styles, and great products for everyday living or gifts for any occasion. Check the listings shown on the Shop page, and stay tuned to this blog for announcements about special offers or new items in the store.
We are so excited to announce the release dates and more information about new music by The Fair Attempts. As you might have already read in our last post, a new album and single named “Carnal Insect” are going to be released soon.
First, you’ll be able to enjoy the single next month. The “Carnal Insect” song will be available for purchase or save to your library on Spotify starting Wednesday, June, 26. This is the most energetic and spirited song we’ve heard from The Fair Attempts so far!
The theme of the song is opportunism without moral inhibition. It paints a picture of a person who lives and breathes for their own carnal pleasure wherever it comes, with no second thoughts of the consequences of their actions or how it could impact their image among their peers.
The Fair Attempts “Carnal Insect” single cover by ensomber
The second single from the album will be released on Wednesday, August 21. “Little Light” is a moody, yet uplifting dance song. Friendly Timo was inspired to create a song about becoming overwhelmed by intense and conflicting emotions in response to a joyous experience, and about how a tiny little light within darkness can be like raging inferno that will consume you.
The Fair Attempts “Little Light” single cover by ensomber
A really interesting thing about “Little Light” is that it includes samples of a piano being played while its on fire. The piano hisses and cries as it goes down in flames, but it sounds so beautiful in its tragic demise.
At last—what we’ve all been waiting for—the second album by The Fair Attempts will be released on Friday, September 27! The “Carnal Insect” LP consists of nine tracks, and although it was recorded and produced only a few short months after the debut EP, The Fair Attempts’ music has noticeably matured. This album is rich with energetic and catchy songs that could just as easily suit the airwaves as they do the dance floor, but it also includes some moodier tracks that can make you stop and think deeply.
The Fair Attempts “Carnal Insect” album cover by ensomber
The “Carnal Insect” LP is structured as a three acts story that explores the process of human society becoming something that resembles an insect colony more and more. Act I is about behaviours and attitudes that lead to our downfall, while Act II delves deep into the self and the emotions destroying it. The finale, Act III, represents “the point of no return,” and reveals the true outcome for insect-like individuals.
Over the past week, we have had the opportunity to work with graphic artist, ensomber, to create a bundle of branded images for The Fair Attempts. With a new studio release in the works, cover art for the album and singles was required, and Friendly Timo desired a consistent theme to tie all the images together.
ensomber offers high quality custom cover art, logos, merch designs, social media rebranding, event flyers, and more to suit your personal needs and style. After seeing the impressive cover art created for the upcoming single, “Carnal Insect,” it became obvious that ensomber was also the right artist to design a brand new logo for Starwing Digital (that you see here in this blog). The ability to create an eye-catching symbol that clearly expresses a brand, artist or company’s identity is very rare, and the right logo makes the best first impression!
The Fair Attempts “Carnal Insect” single cover by ensomber
Here is the single cover for “Carnal Insect,” which features the gas mask motif The Fair Attempts is known for, and it ties in with the second single (to be revealed at a later date). Continuing the theme to social media, The Fair Attempts also got new profile art for all the leading social media sites–you can check out those great designs on the @TheFairAttempts Twitter profile.
Starwing Digital banner art by ensomber
In addition to the new logo, Starwing Digital also commissioned custom artwork and received a stunning scene in a space fantasy style, demonstrating at least a hint of the wide range of styles ensomber can create. If you need high quality art for your next album, single, or website, we absolutely recommend ensomber for your project. Don’t forget to follow @ensomber on Twitter.
Stay tuned to this blog for more information about the upcoming “Carnal Insect” album and singles, plus additional art reveals and news… including some behind the scenes details of a new music video!
Today a cool track was released! It’s a remix of Jessi Frey’s great new song, “Dark Heart.” The Fair Attempts collaborated with Jessi Frey to bring you this incredible Dance/EBM remix, “Dark Heart Punisher Remix.”
Jessi Frey is a dark synthwave artist from Bristol, UK, who’s upcoming solo album titled “Villainess” will be released on August 23, 2019. “Dark Heart” is the first single released from the album, and when Friendly Timo heard it he enjoyed it so much that he reached out to Jessi to discuss collaborating on a remix of her song.
Jessi Frey was first known as the frontwoman of the Finnish industrial metal band Velcra, Her vocals were praised for effortlessly flipping between powerful screams and soft melodies.
She also worked with other bands during her time with Velcra, and I first heard her through her collaboration with my favourite Finnish metal band, Turmion Kätilöt. (You can check it out if you’re interested – “Irstauden Ilosanoma (feat. Jessi Frey)” on Spotify and on Youtube.)
When I heard that she’s also making electronic synthwave music now, I was immediately excited to hear it myself! Listen to Jessi Frey “Dark Heart” on Spotify, and enjoy the music video below.
The collaboration between Jessi Frey and The Fair Attempts has produced one of the best dance songs I’ve heard, and we hope you’ll enjoy it just as much.
I write my blog posts to share my personal experience with my music and career developments for people who follow me, and also for my peers in the industry. This entry is written for the latter, but hopefully will be interesting to others who follow me.
The release of my debut EP, arisTotal, has now been done and I’ve engaged in a campaign to promote it around the media and all over the internet (with help of Starwing Digital, and Ginger Vine Promotions in Finland.) It has been an interesting and even humbling experience to get to know the current circumstances of this rather tough and unforgiving marketplace for many of us!
I set out my goals to be very simple, realistic and straightforward: I simply wanted to let people in the marketplace know about my existence. I think this is everything these days, and delving into the matter revealed to me the entirety of it: there is enormous over saturation of all kinds of music that is being pushed 24/7 to almost every single media, and they are having an extremely hard time to filter through all of it to make heads or tails of it all. There’s a whole lot of good music out there too; an enormous amount of talent and great ideas waiting to be heard, or even get the exposure they deserve. This proves to be a major challenge in this marketplace.
But no, the purpose of this post is not to bitch and moan about the situation of this marketplace for indie music, or the challenges that all of us newcomers face to get our thing heard and recognized. I write about this because, as I’ve been doing my grassroots work at Twitter (I am new to Twitter …at 2019!), I’ve seen a lot of my fellow colleagues struggling with this issue. Some being very inpatient or sad about not getting their name out, and some overly aggressive with their promotion. While most of you are doing a great job managing yourself, I can’t help but to reflect on these thoughts and take a deeper look into what the hell are we doing anyway. Why the hell are we even doing this music thing for?
So, Timo, what the hell are we doing?
I could provide some keys to be comfortable with your musical career by first answering this question: why do you even want to write and publish music? If it’s money you’re after, I’m sorry to say this, but our world is filled with a lot more lucrative opportunities to make money than the music business. It really is a fool’s task to get rich with it starting from the bottom up. So much work and time and uncertainty is involved to make this a viable reason, provided that you still hold an ability to view the your world from a sane and reasonable perspective.
Is it the recognition of yourself as a person, fame and attention you’re after? I would argue that this kind of path is full of disappointments and guaranteed to leave you feeling hollow and incomplete, with plenty of insecurities about how you perceive yourself. Many of you are after this singular goal, never entertaining a question of why you seek validation through others. Surely if you are comfortable being yourself, you must also believe in yourself and know yourself enough to believe in yourself? Of course all of our actions are ultimately based on an imbalance between what we are and what we want to become, but seeking fame, recognition, and attention might be the ultimate appearance of this imbalance and ones crisis of identity. I don’t think it would be a healthy path to pursue, or at minimum, not rewarding or fulfilling. To be fair, this is simply my opinion based on the way I view the world.
How I tend to look at it is that there are people involved in this field who are there to either receive or to provide. Receivers are expecting attention, gratification, fame and fortune. They are typically very impatient, envious of each others successes, competitive, and often end up being outright hostile to one another. Then we have the providers, who have the right attitude, in my opinion. These folks have a totally different mindset that is geared toward real and dynamic success. They work hard simply to share their work with others, and they are genuinely interested in the works of others. They share the music and projects of others, support them, and work together for the joy of expressing themselves in their respectful communities.
However, this alone does not complete the equation of surviving in the music industry. When you have your mindset right about what you’re doing and why, you also have to have the ability to persist and keep on doing your thing for years and years, even when you’re not getting much attention or recognition for your work. There are many musical acts that have been absolute nobodies for almost a decade before breaking deeper into public consciousness. This perseverance is what it takes to make your name. Meanwhile, let’s just not worry about it too much, and let’s have a blast doing what we love. Music for the music’s sake. It’s all about the feels, sharing, caring and having fun with it with one another.
Of course, I speak on the authority of myself only and I admit my thoughts and advice should be taken with that in mind, but I still want to share this with you in hopes it would possibly help you on your journey as an artist, to help you push through without needlessly torturing yourself with these negative feelings. You are not alone. Additionally, networking–on and off of social media–is a vital key to success for indie artists and musicians.
