A Year In THe Life Of Niovel

It is hard to say when the NIOVEL years starts because things go round and round. We are making new music all the while we are getting the “old” music ready for a release. We are making videos for album 5 while we are working on album 6. We are fulfilling orders for albums 4 while we are shipping album 5. Circles within circles.

So let’s stick with the “normal year” even if it is a bit messy.

January

We are coming back from our Christmas break, our newest album is a couple of weeks old. I usually need up to two weeks to just get my bearings in the new year. There is something about that time, sometimes I want to revel in the introspection juuuust a little longer.

Without fail, though, Simon starts the year feeling invigorated and restless and somehow we meet in the middle to set up the Kickstarter campaign page for the CD release of our latest album. This is also when we think about what merch we want to add and what else would be fun.

Once the page is set up, we launch the campaign and my 30 day countdown starts! I get to talk about the album A LOT. Simon gets into writing weekly updates for the campaign and we make as much extra content as we can. Last year, for example, we had a performance video every week.

February

When we hit February, we are in the second half of the Kickstarter campaign for our CDs. I talk about our CDs every day. You will never see me talk about my CDs and my music as much as during this time. I will go “hey, have you gotten our CD yet” until I drop because it is REALLY important to me that everybody gets the message.

Also, I really enjoy the campaign format and get a massive kick out of every order. It is like starting the year on hundreds of blessings. The best way, if you ask me.

Some time in February, the campaign will end and I will usually drop quiet for a little. If you don’t hear from me for a couple of weeks, don’t worry, I am just tired from all the yapping.

In the second half of February, we order our CDs and merchandise and, more often than not, a little bit of songwriting will sneak in. We are tinkering with the next album.

March

At some point in March, the items for the Kickstarter arrive and we have a field day (or two or three) shipping them all out. This is the last “big push” in our release cycle. 

Once everything is shipped, our full attention shifts back to making more music for the next album. We usually have a few songs at this point, but still need a couple more to make it an album. Sometimes, they come slowly, one by one. Sometimes several come through all at once. 

April

We write more songs, we record demo vocals, we make a lot of progress on arrangements. On Social Media, we still talk about our last album, though, because hey, why not!

We might get our first guest spots finalised and slowly, a bunch of songs move to the “ready for studio day” phase.

May

This is a good month for the first studio day. Once we have about four songs ready to go, we book the time and just record as much as we can. Studio days are still very intense and tiring for me, but I have gotten a lot more stamina over the years. 

We have a few rituals around studio time that really help. I bring a massage ball to combat my shoulder tension, Simon makes me really nice pasta to snack on and I treat myself to a big steak for lunch.

June

Sometimes we have our second studio day in June. It depends on how many songs we have ready to go. Other than that, we keep working on the music and process the studio vocals. We usually finish our single around this time.

I tune a lot of vocals.

There is still some writing going on during this month. Often, we still need one or two more songs and one or two need finishing. Sometimes, we book another studio day, sometimes, we still need some time.

I contemplate returning to Ragnarok Online or World of Warcraft. Simon promises he will play with me when the album is finished.

July

This is the weird summer month where everyone is away. We keep working at things but everything seems to take longer. Also, it is just too warm so sometimes we just put our feet in cold water and let it be.

Simon is usually still working on arrangements for half of the songs on the album and waiting for guest musician responses. I tune more vocals.

I am also slowly getting wise to the sinking feeling of “we still need a video” and keep a look out for interesting outfits.

Simon wants to delete everything. I am still dreaming of Azeroth.

August

Summer continues. I usually get nervous about “I still have to make a video for our single” and start looking for an outfit in earnest. At some point, I get everything I have together and play dress up for three days straight until I either have an outfit or have a specific idea for what I still need.

Simon is sending another song to our mastering engineer and our guest musicians start responding again. Things are moving along. I keep tuning vocals.

Simon still wants to delete everything. I want to play World of Warcraft. He tells me “when the album is done”.

September

I am now panicking about the video. I hope I get better at imagining videos. My mind sort of does photographs only, I really struggle with “and then time passes and you do interesting things”.

If I have an outfit, I will set several weekends aside for filming the video. Then it may or may not rain and the filming gets moved.

I reach out to our designer to talk about the cover art and video editing for the single.

Simon is finishing up arrangements but there is always a song that still needs work. Usually our tracklist is complete at this point but we have had errant songs come in late. I don’t know. It is what it is. We have not deleted anything yet and that is a win.

I still want to play an MMO, Simon has enough to do.

October

The video shoot happens. Somehow. Usually in some sort of “ok now the weather is playing along let’s just do it” push. I am relieved and it usually looks way better thanI imagined. My husband, our videographer,  makes sure I look good. I am pleased and relieved.

I upload the single and prepare  for the release. We have an announcement. I count back the weeks from our album release and imagine what would work well. Simon says “anytime is fine”. I overthink a lot. We make it work.

Sometimes, we have a last minute studio day to finish things up or re-take vocals that really, really didn’t work out.

Simon does not want to delete anything anymore. An inconvenient song for the next album pops into our heads. I start talking about the next album in earnest.

I am suddenly too busy to think about playing World of Warcraft anymore.

November

The single is just out or has been out for a few weeks. I am getting a little obsessed with numbers and I am so relieved that the video came out pretty. We announce the album and keep talking about it.

I am ready for the holiday season at this point but also, I am sort of feeling creative and there is a song or two coming in. I do the mental gymnastics of talking about music I made a year ago while being very excited about the music I make right now.

I start considering the next Kickstarter in earnest and try to convince Simon to try a new merch item (yay, t-shirts!). We get the album art done and upload the album to our distributor. We triple check everything.

December

There is a lot of christmas stuff going on, time feels very strange. Everyone is busy with the holidays, we are busy waiting for our release day.

And then, just before we sign off for the year, it is the 16th of December. NIOVEL day.

There is the new album! Everything went well!!! HURRAY!!!!

I am too tired to overthink anything and just let the album do what the album does. I love that you love it. I am very, very proud and very, very tired.

I promise myself that I will play some WoW over the holidays.

We fall over and don’t do anything for the last two weeks of the year except hang around on the couch, drink coffee, and do cozy things until New Year’s Eve.

There is a firework.

BAM! The NIOVEL year starts again.