So, finally, Severed Fifth is unwrapped. It has been something that has been kicking around my brain now for a few years and something that I really decided to start working on a few months back, shortly before LugRadio Live USA 2008. The first thing you should do to learn about the project is to head over and listen to or read the Announcement – it gives a pretty solid overview of the aims of the project.

One thing I mention in the announcement is that Severed Fifth is something that involves input and contributions from a number of people. The very first iteration of this input is the new severedfifth.com website, which was not possible without the excellent work of the following godly souls:

• Michael Evans – Mike produced the Severed Fifth logo and the design of the website. Mike has really helped to put a professional shine on the project, and I look forward to working with him on the art for the first album and other design elements.
• Stuart ‘Aq’ Langridge – Aq has built the website from a fairly rigorous technical and feature specification that I gave him – he has been incredible at integrating a number of different elements – static content, forums, blogs, news content, avatars, and he did all of this while implementing Mike’s wicked-cool design.
• Scott Thompson – Scott has produced the photography for Severed Fifth. About a month ago we went on a photoshoot in Birmingham and Scott not only shot the photos, but also post-processed them. As the photos are completed, the Gallery page will be updated. Scott will also be doing photography for the first album and promotional materials.
• Adam Sweet – Adam is the Severed Fifth system administrator and got the website up and running as well as setting up email and a number of mailing lists (more on these lists below).

Thanks to everyone involved in getting the site together ready for the announcement.

…and there really lies the intentions of the first step with Severed Fifth – the primary plan was to flesh out the aims of the project, write and record an announcement and put together a website that is suitable enough to get said announcement out. The next step is to begin building a community and buzz around the project and its intentions. So, with this being the very first blog entry on severedfifth.com, I figured it would make sense to share some ideas about how we can make this happen.

Together

Severed Fifth is a fairly ballsy project. While I have made clear in the announcement that the aims of the project are to explore the new economics of the recording industry, and as such to not advocate or mandate any specific approach, the project is testing a number of assumptions that have been common in music for a long time. Where the project becomes particularly ballsy is that if the end-game is a successful free-culture orientated music project, it will need a lot of collaboration between people with different skill sets, from key members of the project such as Stuart, Adam, Michael and Scott as listed above, to a burgeoning Severed Fifth community that is hooked into the ethos and wanting to contribute and make it happen.

I am referring to this community-to-be as the Severed Fifth Street Team – a community of fans of the music and fans of the message behind Severed Fifth working together to help promote the project and the music and create some buzz. This contribution can involve a range of things such as:

• informing local and national press about the project.
• getting metal fans interested in the music.
• contributing to building a community around Severed Fifth on the Forums
• when the music is released, helping to spread it by getting it played in clubs, on local radio and other local media.
• making the most of the licensing benefits of the new music economy – such as encouraging film-makers and other musicians make use of the music in their creative works.

If you are keen to contribute as a member of the street team, you should go and join the street team mailing list – more details can be found here.

Of course, I have no idea of the Street Team is a viable opportunity with the project – this in itself is one such experiment – can I build a community of enthusiasts around the music and the message behind the music, and can this community work together to help promote the project? I am certainly going to give it my best shot and see how far we can grow the community, but time will tell on this one of many experiments.

Making It Happen

With the project announced, some of you may be wondering how exactly Severed Fifth will work – the aims and goals of the project are fairly clear, but how exactly will it be executed? How will this new music economy be defined? Well, let me fill you in on some of my initial thinking.

My primary aim right now is to get my debut Severed Fifth album written and recorded. I been working on the project now for about four months, and the writing stages are largely complete. The album is expected to have around seven songs, and the music is a very thick and rhythmic style of metal – some of it is similar to my work in Seraphidian, some of it similar to my Recreant View work, and if you are familiar with Pantera, Lamb Of God, Killswitch Engage, Hatebreed, Meshuggah etc, you will have an idea what is coming. The music is also very political in parts – covering subjects such as terrorism, religious hypocrisy, dictatorial regimes, war and more. I want to create music that not only gets you moving, but makes you think.

With the writing largely complete, I plan on recording the album in July and potentially shooting a music video for one of the tracks in late July. Between now and July I will be spending time working with the press, fanzines, local media, radio shows and other media outlets to help spread the word behind Severed Fifth, and doing as much as I can before I have some music in the can that can form the basis for the next phase of the project.

Next Steps

Building a buzz and building a community around the project is critical to the success of Severed Fifth, and I would like to encourage every one of you reading this right now to do one piece of promotion of the project – this could involve emailing a mailing list, writing a blog entry, telling your friends, putting up a poster or anything else – your help will really help push the project forward.

There are a number of methods in which you can stay up to date with the project. First, you can keep your beady eyes on the News page, which also has a feed you can subscribe to. You can also join the Announcements Mailing List and of course, come and get involved in the Forums community. Finally, you can get in touch with me at jonoATseveredfifthDOTcom