MICHAEL FEUERSTACK

Hi

This time we’ve got “Stories”, featuring The Luyas‘ Jessie Stein. There are also some sweet background vocals in there courtesy of Wren Kitz and yours truly. Enjoy!

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Singer Songer is a collaborative record of songs I wrote and recorded for other people to sing. It comes out on limited edition blue vinyl on Record Store Day 2014 through Headless Owl and Forward Music. It also features a few other great musicians: Peter X, Jeremy Gara, Pietro Amato, Mathieu Charbonneau.

Check back soon,
xo MF

April 19th is coming – Singer Songer will finally be available…
For now, we’re just teasing them out one at a time.
Here’s “Did I?”, which features Bry Webb on vocals. I alwasy think of this stylistically as a tiny bit of a nod to JJ Cale who we lost last year. Bry delivered it exactly as I’d hoped he would. Enjoy!

[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/140210832″ params=”color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_artwork=true” width=”100%” height=”166″ iframe=”true” /]

For those of you just tuning in, Singer Songer is an album I made – a collection of songs that I wrote and produced for other people to sing. The album is chock-full of guests who rule.
It comes out on limited edition blue vinyl on Record Store Day 2014 through Headless Owl and Forward Music.

xo MF

Hi

Another song from Singer Songer has been made available to listen to in advance of the record’s release in April through Forward Music and Headless Owl.

Singer Songer is an album I made of songs for other singers to sing. The newest posting features Devon Sproule.

Enjoy!
xo MF

[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/139256616″ params=”color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_artwork=true” width=”100%” height=”166″ iframe=”true” /]

PS – You can also hear Devon as the guest on episode 2 of my Mind Parade podcast.

Exciting things are afoot. Singer Songer was announced this week. Due out on Record Store Day – (April 19), it’s an album on which I wrote a bunch of songs for some of my friends to sing. These songs are all now compiled on one limited edition record, thanks to my friends at Headless Owl and Forward Music. LPs will be available on Record Store Day, and CDs and digital sales will begin the following week. I am stoked for you all to hear this. I recorded and mixed it myself, with some singers recording here at my home or sending their own home recorded vocal takes through the air. For the most part, I wrote these songs with these singers in mind, and I feel immensely lucky that everyone I asked was game to jump in and give it a shot. I couldn’t be more proud.

Here’s the first track we’ve decided to share, featuring John K Samson.

[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/135907126″ params=”color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_artwork=true” width=”100%” height=”166″ iframe=”true” /]

In other news – I began rehearsals of new material for a new MF recording! We begin tracking on March 1, so it won’t be too long before there is even more new MF music. It’s great to be busy. For now, I won’t confuse the issue. Enjoy Singer Songer.

xo
MF

Hi everyone,

Thanks for checking in. Just a little update so you don’t get antsy.

I have been hard at work on turning sketches into songs. This is because I am going into the studio at the very beginning of March to lay down the true foundation for what will be the next MF record. I’ve got some amazing musicians lined up and ready to rock. I’ve got a lot of raw material, and I have an idea of how I want it all to sound. That’s it, right? I just need to decide what’s ok raw, and what still needs to go back on the fire for a while. My plan is to turn this thing around quickly. For the moment though, that’s all the album news that’s fit to share.

However, Singer Songer is in production and will be coming your way in the Spring, along with some shows here and there.

Meanwhile, the Luyas are working on new stuff too, and I get to be involved in that. Also, the Bent By Elephants record I’ve been producing with them is coming together really nicely, with mixing sessions going down at The Treatment Room Studios with my pal Gilles Castilloux. Hopefully all will be sharable soon.

In the meantime, I’m enjoying being home – cooking meals and sleeping tight.

xoMF

Hello again

Since returning from tour, I’ve been enjoying some downtime. I’ll fire up the engines again after the holiday break with all the plans I’ve been making.

TOUR REPORT:

It’s been a very busy autumn of shows. I want to send a huge thanks you to all the people who helped out with the last tours.

The Paper Beat Scissors dates were a treat. It was lovely to travel with such a sweet crew of people, and it’s been a pleasure to collaborate on an ongoing basis with such kindred spirits.

The solo shows ran the gamut – there were some high highs and some low lows. Touring is always a gamble, and I guess I’ve inadvertently become kind of seasoned at the game, if not good at it. I’ve been thinking a lot about music in its environment – it doesn’t happen in a vacuum. I don’t wish to change or control the spaces where I perform, but I do want to put even more attention into placing the music where it belongs. This has been a longtime goal, but I think I may have had some serious breakthroughs recently. Enough said.

SINGER SONGER UPDATE

Singer Songer – a record that I’ve made for a host of guest vocalists – has been mastered and we await the test pressings now as while we finalize the artwork and other such details. We are looking to release it pretty soon, by the standards of such things. It’s going to be a beauty and I can’t wait until you all have the chance to hear it. To read more and find out who the guests are, look at this older post.

WHAT’S NEXT?

Well, surprise surprise: I have begun early work on a new recording. Right now, the main job is to sort through sketches of songs and match them up with the sonic ideas that I have in mind-sack. I’m hoping to get started in earnest in February and work through March… We’ll see how it pans out with all the collaborators and studios etc.

Oh yeah, I’ll be on Luyas tour for a couple weeks in January.

I send you all love and good vibes for the new year. I’ll see you then!
xo
MF

PS – here’s a link to a holiday-themed song that I made a few years ago for The Line of Best Fit’s annual holiday compilation
(They made a great one this year too, by the way).

WOODEN STARS BOOK

This is a crazy trip down memory lane. Filmmaker, writer and musician Malcolm Fraser (you may know him as The World Provider) has written a not-so-small chronical of the trials and tribulations of Wooden Stars – one of my longest running and most formative collaborative musical projects. We made a lot of music off and on from about 1994 until 2007. Some of the music is amazing, and some of it is ridiculous. Some amazingly ridiculous and some ridiculously amazing. The details are foggy for us, and Malcolm really did his best to make sense of our story. So far, it’s weird for me to read it [Update: I read it and liked it very much, although it never stopped feeling weird – though not in a bad way]. I don’t know what else to say. If you are interested, you can find it at Invisible Publishing.

SINGER SONGER

If you’ve been following along here, you know I’ve been working on a collaborative record, where I’ve written and recorded songs for guest vocalists to sing. That record is tracked and mixed – and will be mastered this week. Plans for its release on Headless Owl Records will be finalized in the coming weeks and I’ll be sure to fill you in as soon as there’s something to share. It features vocal performances by: Mathias Kom, Bry Webb, Devon Sproule, Leif Vollebekk, John K Samson, Jessie Stein, Jim Bryson, Angela Desveaux and Laurel Sprengelmeyer. I am really happy with the way it has turned out.

EUROPE TOUR

As you may or may not know, I am embarking shorty on a fairly extensive tour in Germany and Austria with Paper Beat Scissors. I’ll be opening almost all of his shows, and I also get to play guitar on sweet, large, full-band arrangement of his gorgeous music. The PBS tour runs from Nov 14-26th and then I’ll be staying on to do a bunch of shows on my own in Germany, Netherlands and Belgium. Check all the dates if you want to come and listen. More dates are on the way, even at this late stage, so stay tuned.

PINBALL SESSIONS

Speaking of touring with PBS, last time I did so, we ended up doing a fun Pinball Session in Guelph. Tim (Paper Beat Scissor) played on my songs and I played on his. It was a great way to spend a grey day. Have a listen to what we ended up with at the link above.
Thanks so much to Shawna and Daniel and co. for the document and the afternoon.

As happy as I am to be home for now, sleeping in my own bed and working on music in my little “office”, I also really can’t wait to see old friends and make new ones on road in the coming month.

Take care, everyone – see you out there . . .

xo MF

Hi Everyone,

I am having a few mellow days at home since I got back from BC, YT and the prairies. It’s been an amazing couple of weeks, and there are lots of people to thank – thanks!

For the moment, I am just catching up on stuff here, and working on the mixes for “Singer Songer”, which should be ready to send off to the presses in about a week or so. If you don’t know what “Singer Songer” is, feel free to refer to earlier posts – or keep checking in and I’ll be sure to offer more info as time rolls on. For the moment, too much cooking, sleeping and mixing to do before I head to Europe in November. See you then. Nov 14-26 will be spent opening for, and playing guitar in Paper Beat Scissors, and Nov 27-Dec 9 will be spent doing shows of my own. More details are rolling in quickly, but there are still a few odd dates open if you need me to come and sing you some lullabies in your town.

All the best,

MF