We finally have the vinyl! They're stunning, they sound fantastic, and they'll be in the mail to those who ordered them in the next 10 days. They're worth the wait!!! We did order a few more than absolutely necessary so if you'd still like to grab a copy, drop us a note at [email protected] and we'll hold one for you.
Okay, at this point every order has been shipped with two exceptions:
1) If you ordered an LP (first off: thank you!), we've received the masters and are awaiting the very final artwork this week. Then it's off to the printers with an 8-12 week turnaround. Vinyl is slow (and super expensive!) but it'll be well worth the wait.
2) A few folks in Toronto who will receive them hand-delivered between now and October 5.
Please let us know if you haven't yet received your order (some of the US ones may be a bit delayed). We also received one report of a CD not working. If that's the case for you, let us know and we'll get a new one out to you ASAP!
We'd really love to hear your thoughts on the album. Thanks to those who've sent thoughts to us already at [email protected]!
Well, with an heroic effort from Stefan and Tim to get everything packaged up and addressed (hopefully!) correctly, the CDs and tshirts are on their way. The first shipment to Canadian backers went out on Thursday.
Our US CD-only shipments will also go out this week. In a complicated twist of fate, Canada Post wouldn't let us ship to the US last week due to the imposition of blanket 35% tariffs on all products entering the US from Canada (part of a general move to remove the 'de minimis' exemption on packages valued less than $800). As of last Friday, there's a whole rigamarole whereby Canadians need to use a 3rd party app to prove we've pre-paid the tariff. However, CDs are fully exempt. EXCEPT, the 3rd party app wanted to charge us $3/CD for 'clearance and permissions' for...reasons. The good news is that after we tweeted our disgust at this whole arrangement, the CEO of the app got in touch with us directly and has fixed what they've described as "an unintended error". Funny how those errors only seem to make cash flow in one direction, eh?
Anyway, turns out that taking to social media in anger is an effective way to improve the world. Who knew?
We're going to figure out the deal with shipping tshirts to the US this week. If there are any complications or unexpected fees, we'll need to figure out a plan and will be in touch with the backers impacted directly. BUT DON'T WORRY! We will get this sorted, promise.
We REALLY want to hear what you think of the album when you get it. Please drop us a line at [email protected] or find us on FB, Youtube, or Instagram and let us know! We'd really love to hear from you.
Great news! Thanks to a massive effort and push, we received the first box of CDs last Friday. They're beautiful!
If you'd like to see a short unboxing video with the CDs in all their glory, head over to our website and sign up for our mailing list (scroll down, it's on the right side of the page at the bottom).
We also have all of the t-shirts, which also turned out really well - though we might need some better models...
What this means for you is that if you ordered CDs or t-shirts in any combination they'll be on the way to you as soon as we repatriate them to Ontario in about a week (they're touring New Brunswick and Quebec with us right now).
We've also begun the rather quick process of remastering for vinyl so that will follow along pretty briskly.
Oh, and we'll finally be through all of the licensing and sampling paperwork in the next day or so...but that's a story to be told over some beers some day.
Really excited to announce that we've sent the CD order off to be manufactured - the digital masters and artwork are complete and so you'll all finally get to hear Departure this weekend!
Download codes will be coming to everyone who had that as part of their package and who has completed the survey, so watch your inbox tomorrow!
A few other quick things to know: - We will have the CDs and t-shirts in-hand the first week of August and will get those sent out to you (or available for pickup) ASAP. - The lead time on the vinyl is longer as we need to re-master for vinyl and they just take longer to make. We'll know more about timing soon.
Now this should go without saying, but with the great power of having MP3s in hand comes great responsibility. Specifically: We've worked really hard to ensure that the artists who we sampled (or sometimes the people who happen to own the rights to the music...which makes us feel a certain kind of way...but that's better kept to our mailing list) are fairly compensated for our use of their art. We've got contracts in various stages of completion but the upshot is that the artists/rights holders will get paid for every copy produced. That's only fair, so we'd please ask you not copy or share the album. We want this all to be on the up-and-up as much as possible!
Finally, just so you know just how good you all have it: Due to the requirements to please The Algorithm, the full album won't be available on streaming until much later in the year - so you really are going to be first on the block to have it to listen to for quite some time! Oh won't your friends be jealous! :)
We CAN'T WAIT to hear what you think of 'Departure'. It's been an absolute labour of love and we think you're going to love it as much as we do.
