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Archive for the ‘Severed Fifth’ Category


Posted on August 2, 2010 - by jono

Severed Fifth Update

Hi folks, back again for a quick update on my Free Culture music project, Severed Fifth. As before, I just want to share a bunch of links to interesting things that are going on.

To kick off with, I put a few short videos on the Severed Fifth YouTube Channel from yesterday’s rehearsal. These are the first videos of the full band playing, and of course all the music that you hear and the rest of album will all be made available under a free license. Here are the vids:

Don’t see them? Click here.

Other things going on:

It was also cool to see Chris Kontos, who is currently playing with Attitude Adjustment but previously on Machine Head’s hugely successful first album Burn My Eyes, and has played with Testament, Konkhra, Attitude Adjustment, Exodus, Verbal Abuse, Custard Pie, Anti Trust, The Servants, Dog Faced Gods, Death Angel, Grinch and with James Murphy, wearing a Severed Fifth t-shirt at a recent show in San Francisco:

Finally, don’t forget that the new album is recorded from 11th – 15th Aug 2010 and the entire recording will be streamed live on our ustream.tv channel. Be sure to be there!


Posted on July 15, 2010 - by jono

Severed Fifth Update

I just wanted to provide another quick update on the latest goings on in my Free Culture music band, Severed Fifth. As ever, you can always get the latest updates on Severed Fifth on our website, in the forums, and on Twitter.

The New Album

The up-coming as yet untitled new album, which follows up from 2008’s Denied By Reign is scheduled to be recorded from 11th August 2010 – 15th August 2010. As with the previous album, I wrote all the songs and will be performing and recording all the drums, guitars, bass, and vocals.

The new album comprises of eleven songs and runs in at around 50mins of audio. It is a far richer musical experience than Denied By Reign, and much more accessible. It retains the heavyness of Severed Fifth but brings in more clean vocals and a mix of fast, slow, thrashy, chugging, and acoustic guitars. I have a great feeling about this new record and I think you folks will like it too. :-)

What is exciting about this new record is that I will be streaming the recording of it live from the Severed Fifth studio on the Severed Fifth In The Studio UStream from 10am – 6pm Pacific from 11th August 2010 – 15th August 2010. This is going to provide an awesome opportunity to take a peek into the recording process, watch a Free Culture album evolve and interact with me while the recording happens.

The Band

More photos available here.

Over the last three weeks Severed Fifth has gone from being just me to becoming a full-fledged band. This all kicked off with the help of Chris Kontos from Attitude Adjustment and started with Ben Gibbs joining us on Drums, then moved on to Jim Adams from Defiance joining us, and on Saturday we recruited Ron Crockett on bass. I will be taking care of vocal and guitar playing duties.

In that three week period in which Ben, Jim and I have been together we have started working on our live set, focusing on six songs from the up-coming album. Four of the six songs are almost complete, we are going to now finalize the next two and then focus on refining them. Our goal is to be gig-ready by August 15th so we can get out there and break some necks. :-)

Our primary live focus is going to be the California Bay Area and then we plan on moving further afield as the Severed Fifth presence grows.

The Community

The Severed Fifth community is rocking (pun intended). We have been seeing some great growth in the community and some awesome work going on in a variety of different areas. These include:

Funding The Project

You have read the website, listened to the music, watched the videos, and possibly even chatted on the forum. You may have even taken some Severed Fifth content and used it in your own music or videos, played it in your car, shared it with your friends or otherwise enjoyed the content. All of this requires money to invest and produce these things, and I am passionate about Severed Fifth fans having the opportunity to contribute to the project, but only paying (a) what they can afford and (b) what they feel is fair.

Importantly: Severed Fifth will never expect any kind of payment for this content or service; we will always provide an awesome free service with lots of awesome content to rock out to.

To achieve this there are two ways of supporting the project:

  • Severed Fifth Fair Pay – it is simple: you pay what you feel is fair and comfortable. If you download the music and enjoy using the website and services and would like to pay $1, that is awesome. If you decide to pay $50 that is awesome too. It is also awesome if you decide to pay nothing at all.
  • Severed Fifth Store – we are adding more and more products to the store and right now we have some t-shirts for sale. Stickers and more shirts are coming soon!

Contributions help power the Severed Fifth project and buy t-shirts and merchandise to reward awesome Severed Fifth Street Team members, to replace broken equipment in the studio, to invest in cool new products, to rent rehearsal space, put on live shows and tours and other elements that spread Severed Fifth further afield, putting Free Culture music in the hands of fans and setting a great example for the music industry.


Posted on June 25, 2010 - by jono

Recording Dates Set For New Severed Fifth Album And Live Streaming

I am pleased to announce that from Wed 11th – Sun 15th August principle recording for the second Severed Fifth album will take place. Within the five day recording session, taking place primarily between 10am – 6pm Pacific I will be recording all the guitars, bass, and solos, and finalizing much of the drums, before going on to perform first-level mixes. The recording takes place in my home studio here in the Bay Area, California.

Not only is the recording session confirmed, but for the first time ever the entire recording process will be streamed live on the Severed Fifth UStream.tv channel where you can watch the recording and interact with me via the live web chat throughout the five-day session. This is a tremendous opportunity to take a glimpse into the studio, watch the recording process, and experience how a Severed Fifth album is put together.

Read more about the new recording here.

Dig the wallpaper at the top of this post? Grab your Severed Fifth wallpaper.


Posted on June 20, 2010 - by jono

Severed Fifth Update

I just wanted to provide you lovely people with another update about Severed Fifth my Creative Commons and Free Culture music project. There is lots going on, and here are some of the details:

  • I launched Severed Fifth Fair Pay as what I believe is the fairest way of providing an opportunity for Severed Fifth fans to help support the project financially. The idea is simple: if you enjoy the music or support the project, you can pay what you feel is fair and affordable, and if that means paying nothing, that is absolutely cool. With me needing to pay for rehearsal space for the live band, hosting, merchandise, studio equipment, and other things, every little helps.
  • This week I started auditioning musicians to join the Severed Fifth live band, and the auditions went really well. I will be writing up a detailed blog post about this soon, so stay tuned, but you also check out this forums post for more details.
  • I bought this new baby for getting out and doing some live shows with. It growls. :-)
  • I registered a new Severed Fifth MySpace page, so go and add us as a friend! This compliments our Facebook, last.fm, Twitter, and identi.ca pages, and my friends at libre.fm are helping to make the Severed Fifth libre.fm page rock.
  • The Severed Fifth Forum is continuing to grow, so come and join the community and get involved. We are particularly interested in growing Severed Fifth Street Team and bringing the free culture Severed Fifth love to your area. Come and get involved!
  • Thanks to the wonderful work of our Frets On Fire charters, the Frets On Fire: Severed Fifth Edition project is coming on in leaps and bounds, and nearly the entire Denied By Reign album is available ready for our first release. Rock and rolll! :-)
  • The second album is coming along really well, and is almost completed at the writing stages. It is sounding rocking. :-)

I think that is enough for now. More as it happens! :-)

Also, expect a videocast next week, so stay tuned to severedfifth.com for an announcement of the time and date. :-)


Posted on June 10, 2010 - by jono

Severed Fifth Updates

I just wanted to blog about some of the cool things going on recently in Severed Fifth land:

  • Severed Fifth Used In Video Soundtracks – one of the most wonderful elements of licensing your content under a Creative Commons license means that other creative types can use your content. It turns out a bunch of people are using Severed Fifth music in their videos.
  • ‘Frets On Fire: Severed Fifth Edition’ Announced – with the newly announced Frets On Fire: Severed Fifth Edition I had a call for transcribers to chart the songs and we are already seeing great progress.
  • Severed Fifth TV Begins – I have started doing a series of official videocasts and did the first one this week providing an update on the project, demoing ‘Frets On Fire: Severed Fifth Edition’, talking about the Street Team and more. Watch the recording here.
  • Street Team Begins – recently we have started seeing more activity growing in the Severed Fifth Street Team. It is still very much early days and there is lots to do, so get involved and tell us how you think we can make the Street Team rock. :-)
  • Second Album – finally, progress on the second album is going really well. Most of the songs are now written, and I will be releasing two cover songs on the new album too; one an Overkill song, and one an Iron Maiden song. Soon I will be announcing the recording dates for the album and be streaming the recordings live.

Want to find out more and join the fun? Check out the website, the forums, and of course the Twitter and identi.ca feeds.


Posted on June 8, 2010 - by jono

Frets On Fire: Severed Fifth Edition

Some of you may be familiar with the game Frets On Fire; a free equivilent to the rather awesome Guitar Hero series of games. For some time now I have dreamed about having a special Frets On Fire: Severed Fifth Edition version of the game, with all Severed Fifth songs available to play. Well, this weekend I started working on exactly this.

So far the game is looking pretty cool and all branded to look like Severed Fifth. It includes the familar artwork, the logos and other fun things. It also include a transcribed version of Edge Of Design from Denied By Reign. So far it looks like this:

To make this a reality I need help to get all the Severed Fifth songs transcribed into Frets On Fire format. If you are interested I have written up more details about the game and how to get involved and also kicked off a thread on the Severed Fifth forums to discuss this.

Thanks in advance to everyone who helps with this effort!


Posted on June 7, 2010 - by jono

Severed Fifth Part Two Begins

Today I am tickled pink to launch the brand new Severed Fifth website, hereby beginning the second phase of the project.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with Severed Fifth, it was a project I set up to see how far an unknown musician (me) could take his music when releasing it under a Free Culture license; a Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike license. To do this I wrote the debut Severed Fifth album ‘Denied By Reign‘; writing and performing all the instruments and recording it in my home studio. Just as the album was released, I entered one of the busiest times in my life – I was moving countries, getting married, work was hectic, and had just signed up to write The Art Of Community for O’Reilly. As such, time ran out and I didn’t have the mental bandwidth required to commit to Severed Fifth.

This changed about four months ago when I started working on the follow up album. As I edge towards the completion of the writing phase, I figured it was time to get the web presence and community kickstarted. Today I am proud to share the fruits of this work.

At www.severedfifth.com we now have a brand-new website, and this blog entry explains some of the key new features.

In addition to this I have set up a brand new Severed fifth forum. This will be the hub of the new Severed Fifth community, and I hope it will bring together fans of the music, Free Culture enthusiasts and community members who are keen to get involved with the Street Team. I will be blogging about the Street Team later this week.

Finally, I have also set up a Severed Fifth Twitter Account. It is a great place to keep up to date with the project and find out the latest about the new album.


Posted on June 4, 2010 - by jono

Severed Fifth II

For those of you who are curious about the next steps for Severed Fifth; my Creative Commons music project:

  • On Monday I launch the brand new website.
  • Writing for the second album is nearly complete and I will be streaming the entire recording sessions live.

I have created a new Severed Fifth Twitter account, so go and follow it to keep up to date with the latest. :-)


Posted on April 19, 2009 - by jono

Interviewed on FLOSSWeekly

A few weeks back I had the pleasure of doing an interview on the rather excellent FLOSSWeekly podcast with Leo Laporte and Randal Schwartz. On it I talk Community, Ubuntu, Art Of Community, Canonical, Severed Fifth and more. Check it out here.


Posted on October 23, 2008 - by jono

Denied By Reign: One Day Old

Well, Denied By Reign has released for about a day now, and I want to thank everyone for their kind comments and support behind the project.

I am pretty tickled-pink with the response so far. I have been trying to keep track of write-ups of the project and the album, and so far I have seen the following:

I also noticed some good Twitter and identi.ca action going on, and there has been lots of chatter on the Severed Fifth Forums and in the #severedfifth IRC Channel on Freenode.

In terms of downloads, I have been reliably informed by Neuro, king of the BitTorrents, that it is blazing pretty hard with over 500 BitTorrented downloads in the first day. I estimate that in terms of downloads from the Bytemark mirror that there have been about 280 downloads and I need to check with Adam about how well his mirror has done, but I think it is reasonable to suggest 1000 copies of the album have been shifted in its first day. Nice. :)

As I mentioned in my last post the next step of the project is to spread the word and build exposure. I am pleased to see that the Severed Fifth Street Team is growing and a bunch of street teamers are getting out into the trenches to spread the word. We have heard of people printing out posters to put up at schools/colleges/stores, contacting local radio stations, posting on discussion forums, sending messages on IM and various other activities. If you put up a poster, give out fliers or whatever else, do take a photo of it and send it over – I would love to feature some of these in the Severed Fifth News. :)

Another key element here us growing exposure of Severed Fifth and Free Culture in social networking websites. This is kicking off in earnest, and check the following:

More coming on MuseAmp (a rocking website by a friend of mine, Dan) and Jamendo. If you know of more which need attention, do let me know.

More later… :)