Eminence Blog

First things first.

If you hadn’t already noticed, www.anif09.com is live and the preliminary concert information is up and open to the public.  As of this post, there are 210 days and counting till the big night, on the 26th of September.

For ONE night ONLY!

And yes, it is only in Sydney this year.

But seriously, I know many of our Melbourne fans will be disappointed, but please understand that we are investing an insane amount of resources (blood, sweat and tears - and $$$) into this concert to make it the ultimate musical experience.  Keep an eye on this blog as well as www.anif09.com as more information regarding the concert gets released.

What i will let slip right now though, is that we’ve organised a venue thats bigger and better than our usual Sydney home turf.  I won’t (and can’t) say where yet, but the thought of it really sends shivers down my spine - at least for the MC that is.

For all our interstate fans, I would really urge you to save (or earn) some $$$ to make the trip to Sydney for this one special night.  I repeat, it is ONE night only, and in Sydney only.  I understand the concert is cutting it quite close to Year 12 finals, but think of it this way, it can be your huge start of exam ’stress release’, and then make your promise to your parents that you will kick arse in your HSC or VCE or what have you.  You’ve got a whole 7 months to organise yourself, and I promise it will be 100% worth it.

For the last piece of news for February, Eminence’s own Echoes of War album is now the main feature in the World of Warcraft game launcher.  Don’t believe me, check it out here:

For more information on Echoes of War: www.echoes-of-war.com

Talk about a totally random and unannounced break.

So it appears Nick is out and i’m in.  But i’m no stranger to the game.  Formerly known as Mr T, i’m Terence and I will be taking over the Eminence production blog.

Today’s post is to reassure you that we haven’t disappeared, but are really hard at work organising something incredibly spectacular.  There are so many things on the plate for this year but it’s all under wraps for now.

If you haven’t checked it, www.anif09.com is alive, and counting down like a skeptic approaching the armageddon of the year 2000!  In roughly 9 days time, the details of the grandest Eminence concert of all time will be released

So the Eminence production blog will be intermittently alive over the next few weeks, serving as a countdown treat to the ultimate website launch the anime and video game music industry has seen.

To satiate your hunger, here is a photo from our latest general meeting.  I wonder what we’re talking about?

Is Hiro really giving the finger?

See you soon folks!

MUST…HIT…80…

MUST…GANK…ALL…NEW…DEATHKNIGHTS…IN…HELLFIRE…PENINSULA…

Recording for EoW began back in May. I thoroughly documented the whole process for the Legendary Edition booklet (the section is entitled “THE RECORDING SESSIONS FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF UNCULTURED SWINE AND PROFESSIONAL COUCH WARMER NICK KOLAN”), of which here is a sample:

…fluorescent-orange tube…

Here is a slightly longer sample:

Shortly before the next session began, the harpist, Natalie Wong, came into the control room. She sat in a small, isolated room adjacent to the control room, on a stool, alone. This was apparently leading to some problems.

“Hey, can you possibly turn down, or turn off, the air-conditioning in there?” she asked the sound engineers.

“Uh, no, not really…”

“Because it’s really cold in there…”

“Yeah…” the engineers said, and drew out the word as if thinking of what to say next. They couldn’t think of anything, and the ‘yeah’ just sort of hung there. A moment passed, and Natalie reluctantly accepted her fate and walked back into her freezer room. I chuckled quietly at her misfortune.

Now, we had a fancy photographer with a fancy camera prancing fancily about and taking snapshots like a big fancy fancenheimer, but I, too, brought a camera.

I didn’t, however, bring the ability to keep my hands still for half a second, so all of my photos look like they were taken by a centenarian who has just consumed five different energy-drinks, and is standing on a giant, red-hot stone ball, in an earthquake-simulator, while ants are crawling all over his limbs. With that unpleasant thought well and truly squared away, cringe at the following:

Like an obese man falling down the stairs and into the ladies restrooms, the arrival of the EoW samples from Sony caused quite a ruckus.
There is very little that I can possibly say about it that photos wouldn’t say better, so, look! Photos!

As is no doubt obvious to you now, EoW is to other CDs what Muhammad Ali is to Gary Coleman, or what young Pamela Anderson is to current Pamela Anderson, or what a moss-covered log is to current Pamela Anderson.

Echoes of War: Brought to you by the colour Blue.

In May, a few members of Eminence took a trip across the globe in preparation for the looming recording session for Echoes of War.

Their first leg of the trip took them to Japan - the land of sushi and samurai.

It was there that they met up with Go Shiina (the arranger for Eradicate and Evolve), and Natsumi Kameoka who also assisted with the project.

It happened to be Go Shiina’s birthday, so drinks and celebration were naturally in order. Subsequently, nothing is remembered of that night save the blurry visage of a birthday cake, and the music of Celtic Women Live still ringing in our ears (the performance was part of Shiina’s birthday present. Sorry Shiina, we’ll get you something better next year). The morning was less “blurry”, and more “fuzzy”.

I don't even know what is going on here, but that's Go Shiina in the middle. Shiina, you loveable scamp, you!

From there, the Eminence crew, with arrangers in tow, made the long journey to Irvine, California - home of Blizzard Entertainment. Contrary to popular belief, Blizzard’s headquarters are not surrounded by a wall of living magma and hundreds of patrolling robo-dogs. Some might even say it’s a pleasant location.

There they met Derek Duke, Russell Brower and Glen Stafford - Blizzard’s composers, who among them have contributed music to all of Blizzard’s games since Warcraft II. There was much discussion of the project, as well as much begging (on our part) to give us a glimpse of StarCraft II in action. It looks goooood.

They also met several people from the creative development department, who helped us come up with suitable names for the songs based on the lore of the games they come from. As fans of the worlds they create, this was particularly fascinating.

A few business meetings later, Go and Natsumi made their way back to Japan, our lucky Eminence representatives headed back to Australia, and the fine folks at Blizzard Entertainment went absolutely nowhere.

Back in Australia, Eminence ignored the extreme jetlag and, with many-a-lesson learned, and many new ideas, got back to working hard on Echoes of War like they darn well ought to be.

Next time, I better get to go.

Seriously.

 PS: Why has my font changed? It is a mystery.

So I told you last time that I’d start recapping just what went into making EoW, but, well, I lied. Before we dive right into that, I wanted to say something about the packaging for the legendary edition.

If you look at the images we’ve put up on the site, you’ll notice that the box is pretty long. Now, you may be thinking “it’s one of those cardboard fold-out dealies” and you would be wrong. It is, in fact, one singular, straight, box of pure radness.

Let me put it another way:

You’re at a hotdog stand, and you’re hungry. Really hungry. You’re so hungry that you could eat like three average-sized hotdogs. But lo and behold, you see from the corner of your eye that this wonderful meatery is selling extra long hotdogs.  Someone down the street is holding one of these behemoth dogs, and it looks good. So you buy it, and it is emblazoned with awesome artwork from Blizzard Entertainment, and when you try to bite into it you notice that it is in fact filled with CDs and art cards and a booklet. So you turn back to the hotdog stand but it is gone and you are still hungry. See what I’m saying?

No?

Me neither.

All I know is that when I saw the box for the Legendary Edition, I blacked out. When I came to, I was lying in a forest, covered in blood, tightly clutching the box in my fist. It’s the sort of box you could put on your mantle piece, in place of photos of loved ones, because I guarantee* that you will prefer to hang out with just the empty box more than any friends, family or spouses.

It's simple maths, people!

*Not a guarantee.

What’s crackin’, everyone?

My name’s Nick, and on behalf of everyone in Eminence, I’d like to welcome you to our production blog! Technically the production is finished, though, so it’s going to more or less be a “Post-Production” blog (which is just as good, I swear).

We’re really excited about Echoes of War. A massive amount of work went into putting EoW together, and there’s not a doubt in my mind that you’re going to be extremely impressed by what we’ve created.

Some of the side effects of long-term exposure to this state of impressed-ness include:

- Having to wear one or more belts to prevent pants being blown off by an overabundance of awesome.

- A nagging compulsion to hi-five people around you for no other reason than you “really like that part in the song where that one instrument does that thing”.

- Sudden and explosive gasping.

- Diarrhoea… of the ears.

Simply put, EoW is dangerously good. And over the course of the next few weeks, I will endeavour to recap just what we did to create such a volatile masterpiece, and also probably make more poop jokes.

Oh yeah – if you want to ask us a question or leave a comment, head over to our forums! We check them frequently and will be happy to answer most questions.