15 years ago I wrote a song called âSay Itâs Possible,â and the song changed my life.
I went from an unknown artist to the most subscribed musician on YouTube at the time. Thousands of people around the world created their own cover videos of my song. I won the inaugural YouTube Award for Best Music Video, signed deals with Universal Music Publishing and Island Records, played solo at Wembley Stadium, toured all over Europe and the UK. My experience in the major label music industry was a whirlwind ride that ultimately did not serve my best interests, and it took years of dismantling, reprogramming, and letting go of painful experiences and toxic relationships in order to find my way back to my pure love of music and the joy that comes from sharing it.
This year I reclaimed the rights to my earliest songs from Universal Music, with the intention of recording new versions and giving these songs a life they never had. I am starting with my Async Music project: an interactive, collaborative version of my song "Say It's Possible." There are 460 possible configurations of the song and corresponding visual art, ranging from pure acoustic guitar and vocals to a lush arrangement with 13 different layers of sound.
I wrote, played, and recorded all of the music in my home studio, creating the parts in a modular way, like a puzzle, knowing the track would have to make sense in any configuration. My dear friend MG OâShea helped with the mix, carving out frequencies to ensure all the parts would sound excellent together, in any combination. Every mix begins in the same way, like the song itself began, with acoustic guitar and vocals, evolving into something more after the first verse. Some of the changes can be subtle and some can be striking.
The visual art is a series of self-portraits I created in the process of freeing myself from the expectations and demands placed on me by an industry that did not support me as the innovative and individualistic artist that I am.
One collector can own the Master. Up to five collectors of the individual stems (vocals, guitar, drums + percussion, bass + strings, bells + synths) will control the master mix and album cover art. A limited number of âblank recordsâ(2,000 silver, 10 gold, 3 platinum) are also available. You can collect a blank record in advance and mint your version as soon as you hear something you love. And if you do hear something you love, mint it at that time, because we might never stumble upon that particular mix again!
These song versions and cover art will not be released anywhere outside of this project, and the NFT you collect will be a rare and unique piece of my history and evolution as a self-actualized, independent artist.
