It is often the less well known, independent musicians who are willing to take chances on new media as artistic expression. The unfortunate Catch-22 is that these musicians or their record labels are usually unable to fund such endeavors. Now, with the advent of crowd funding platforms, artists can turn to their fan base and other interested parties to help bring new projects to fruition.

Yamantaka // Sonic Titan is no stranger to DIY. The multidisciplinary art collective has made a career of working in many different mediums, on little-to-no budget. Recently, the group finished a 6-month creative business development with the Canadian Film Centre, and have started an Indiegogo campaign to fund Your Task: Shoot Things, a mobile game set in Pureland, the realm in which their album YT//ST and other rock operas had been set.

YT//ST was founded by Alaska B and Ruby Kato Attwood in 2007, their mixed Asian Canadian heritage heavily influencing the group’s East-meets-West aesthetic and sound they cleverly named “Noh-Wave.” J-pop, industrial music, Buddhism, and Kabuki are just a handful of influences they have thrown out there. Originally working in strictly black and white (cheaper for printing), they have come to add metallics and the color red to their palette  a color synonymous with Chinese culture. “Home-brewed” instruments and cheap samplers and drum machines naturally evolved into an electronic/acoustic hybrid of music.

Said Alaska, “We sort of migrated from a post-modern interdisciplinary arts milieu into some kind of avant-garde anime stoner pop realm and are still straddling those worlds in our artistic expression.”

They have since self-recorded and mastered their first full-length album YT//ST, subsequently nominated for the Polaris Prize, created their own custom-designed lighting systems for live performances, and produced rock operas with elaborate cardboard-cutout set designs. Yet, YT//ST continue to push themselves, and are now attempting to develop and release a mobile game for iOS and Android devices.

Alaska was kind enough to discuss the group’s evolution and its current fundraising campaign with me.

What made you decide to explore video games? Was it the format, your personal interest, or something else?

I have a post-grad degree in Computer Animation from Sheridan College, but prior to studied interactive media, video, and robotics while doing my BFA at Concordia University. I first started messing with 3D software and animation as far back as 1996 in DOS environments, wrote my first BASIC code at the age of 5 or 6 on an Atari 800, and first learned MIDI from my father before the age of 10 on Windows 3.1 environments. My first job at the age of 14 was in graphic design for the web. So my engagement with technology has been pretty consistent throughout my career, even engineering and mixing YT//ST’s records myself. Gaming wise, I had been hacking DooM and Quake engine games since the moment I had access to the games, as the freedom of the first person shooter environment actually interested more than the violent gameplay itself. My goal was actually to some day study Game Design but my adventures in art took me elsewhere.

At this time though, the format particularly interests me. We want to do massive rock operas with video and robotic components, but the cost is astronomical during fairly lean economic times. The only other form of media that allows one to mix in that much art, music, and narrative into a single format, is interactive digital media, still allowing us to pursue the same goal and project with a different format for delivery or execution. Many of our fans are gamers, and after having worked on the soundtrack for Mark of the Ninja, I realized that the potential in interactive media allows us to be taken on the road or enjoyed beyond an MP3, instead of having to actually make it to one of our shows.

How is Your Task: Shoot Things related to your music? Does it address any messages you convey through previous or future recordings, or is it more of an extension of YT:ST generally, such as through aesthetic? 

Because we have built a series of Hyrule-like narrative arcs, extending through STAR and our opera 33, all of the music we write has been envisioned as the soundtrack of a place called Pureland (referenced on YT//ST), named after the disputed Buddhist realm. Your Task // Shoot Things has been imagined as the first step into situating our audiences inside of that realm itself as they listen to the soundtrack of that world, rather than trying to picture it with only the music to aid you.

But that doesn’t mean that whatever people have heard/seen through their own interpretation is incorrect, the music is like a soundtrack to eternal struggles that happen over and over again, whether the struggle for enlightenment is manifested in the story of two drag queens (33), the spiritual colonization of a fantasy First Nations and the immigrants implicated in a murder plot (STAR), or the physical battle between absurdist kung-fu super heroes and invading army of Dogs aided by ancient majik (Your Task // Shoot Things).

So it is really a new iteration of the same stories in the same environments: reusing audio motifs that resonate through these various worlds to tell the stories of archetypal characters in archetypal struggles, like how every Koan/Kung-An teaches the same basic Buddhist concepts.

How has the mechanics and benefits of gaming affected the story you’ve been developing? 

It makes it have to be streamlined and made for a gaming environment, you can make a story line that is filled with robot bosses but that doesn’t necessarily work in a stage opera setting.

When did you decide to start developing Your Task: Shoot Things?

The narrative is based on STAR, the narrative that underlies the record YT//ST, so it has been in conception for a while, but its mutation into a game concept started last summer. After doing an incubator and receiving some funding from the Canadian Film Centre, we’ve started the project in partnership with Golden Gear Games, the team of which has previously worked on Pop Sandbox’s Pipe Trouble.

From concept to actual release, how long will that take?

If we can secure funding, we will be doing Alpha testing this fall during our upcoming North America tour with a portable arcade box, playable at every show, and then complete and release the game first quarter of 2014.

How did you get involved with ideaBOOST? What was the development process like?

ideaBOOST was brought to my attention by Aylwin Lo, my development partner and part of the YT//ST Technological R&D division (not kidding, we kind of actually work that way). He previously worked with me on building our new MIDI lighting systems, as well as video projection. We had to be ‘boosted’ enough to show support in our project, and were chosen by final jury based on viability of our plans. We had a series of mentors and advisors who helped us hone our business plan and we were given the opportunity to attend business development workshops.

It seems Canada’s government has been doing a lot to support and promote digital/multiplatform content.

The Canadian government has loaning bodies that have focused on broadcast content for a long time, but in the last bunch of years shifted focus towards supporting transmedia projects that allow active audience participation over various forms of media, rather than just passive media on a television.

Why did you decide to use crowd funding? Specifically Indiegogo, as opposed to other crowd funding sites?

We saw the advantages in crowd funding, because of the community and exposure to an audience that it provides, testing the concept from the get go, rather than getting private funding without being able to see the audience response.

The hassle of Kickstarter for Canadians made us choose Indiegogo in the end. if Kickstarter was launched in Canada, we would have used it. There is the US Amazon account work around but we didn’t want to bother with it.

How did you come up with the perks for contributing?

The jewelry was something that Morgan Black and I had already conversed about doing as band merch anyways, and both Ruby and Brendan are teachers in their fields. The hot sauce is something that I do in my spare time, but had already designed some wacky labels with YT//ST branding already, and it seemed like an appropriately absurd prize. We have a 2nd LP scheduled soon, so one can pre-order it through the IG campaign and support our game in the process. The arcade boxes will be made for the tour, and then delivered to the purchaser afterwards.

Any plans to create other content related to/supporting the game, such as music, website, or social media?

We have a blog in the works that will be documenting the creative process, as well as video content related to our projects and work flow in production right now.

Are there any possible platforms you are considering creating content for in the future?

Because of my digital modelling background, 3D printers excite me. I hope to do some work using 3D printing and installation art related to the game content in the future.

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Thank you to Alaska for insight into the project and campaign, which you can find on Indiegogo!

From indie rock to hip hop to electronic music, browser-based games are becoming increasingly common extensions for musicians. The element of interactivity, inherently missing in traditionally distributed music, is a major benefit. These games offer the ability to build an actual world for fans to explore that is both easily distributable and accessible.

The most recent and very high quality venture into this realm is Skrillex Quest, an homage to The Legend of Zelda series and the Nintendo Entertainment System set to the music and themes of Skrillex’s work.

Skrillex is a highly successful electronic musician, who is often credited with taking dubstep mainstream in the United States. He has previously done music for various video games, and recently had a small cameo in the game-centric film Wreck-It Ralph, for which he also wrote a song.

Skrillex Quest can be played in any browser, but it runs more smoothly in the most up-to-date versions. After a loading period, the game begins, with title cards explaining that a game world has been damaged by dust getting into its video game cartridge, and is slowly corrupting. The dying king asks Player 1 to try and save their world, by venturing out and destroying “glitches,” which look like moving boxes of pixels.

It is very reminiscent of Zelda, which is of course the intent. Most of Skrillex’s fan base are young enough to have grown up entirely in the video game console age, and have played at least some edition in the series, even if it’s not the original NES game. A young man must save a princess and the world, often wandering the land alone, and occasionally meeting citizens or buying wares from local shops. These same concepts can be found in Skrillex Quest. The art is also purposefully reminiscent of the 8-bit style of earlier video games, yet rendered in very high quality, and dust in video game cartridges is a familiar curse to any former NES players.

As for Skrillex’s work, the world is built around four scant lyrics from the song “Summit”:

A silent heart ticking under the ground.
Taking the weight from which has yet to be found.
If you can hear me now why don’t you recall.
I was the one who loved you after all.

Developer Jason Oda took those lyrics and ran with them, crafting a world around a dead princess waiting underground for a hero to unlock her heart and rescue her. Various songs from Skrillex’s catalogue play in the background as the player rushes through the game, the sense of urgency to beat the countdown reflected in the intense, uptempo beats of the music.

Skrillex even makes a cameo as a DJ in one of the final scenes, who is corrupted and becomes the final boss the player must fight. If the player succeeds, it is revealed that the world has been completely destroyed, but he or she finds a switch that creates a new world from the rubble, life beginning anew.

A large part of the game’s success seems to be that it was mostly left in the hands of a professional within that industry. Oda comes from a background of “advergaming,” and has worked with musicians like Fall Out Boy and The Chemical Brothers, as well as brands such as Jiffy Lube and Meow Mix. Specialist partners are necessary for any musician attempting transmedia extensions, as they are far more familiar with the intended platform and how the music should be appropriately translated to take advantage of its benefits.

For example, one merely has to survive in order to make it to the final battle. The player does not move from one level to the next based on accomplishments, but instead due to time running out. This allows for casual players or fans who just want story to be able to get through to the end. However, upon finishing, the player is given a score card, that gives stats on how many special items were found, how many glitches were killed, and other tasks completed. They are then given a final score, which can drive them to replay for a higher score.

This type of gameplay accommodates many different types of people, such as fans of Skrillex, those nostalgic for old video games, or browser-based games enthusiasts. It also acts as a reward system: completing the game reveals a small video clip of Skrillex pausing during music production to clean out a video game cartridge. One is also given a certain ranking based on their score, such as “Apprentice,” which can be very gratifying for the work the player put in.

Direct communication with the musician is also very important, as he or she can convey to the co-creator what should be reflected in the core of the extension. Oda spoke with Skrillex during the inception of the project, receiving some input before production began. Oda therefore avoided working in a creative vacuum, as this can lead to artistic misinterpretations and therefore poor extensions.

It is likely we will continue to see browser-based games become more commonly used by musicians. Higher Internet connection speeds and more advanced browsers foster more complex gameplay and narrative. Many up-and-coming musicians are also young enough to have grown up with video games, making it a natural style of storytelling for them that may feel less comfortable to older musicians.

Gaming is also very familiar to their younger fan bases, appealing to their desire for interactivity and participation. This is the most important factor. Fans want to be able to touch and play with content, and that can be difficult with music in its usual form. These types of extensions can leave the music “pure” in its traditional state, and create additional venues for the themes, narrative, or components of the music to be explored.

A transmedia campaign is only as good as its co-creators. Many originators—filmmakers, authors, musicians—are excellent at their art form, understanding how to use the medium to its best potential. Instead of forcing them to fumble through new and unknown platforms, it is much better to partner with creators who hold an expertise in those areas. These co-creators can advise and produce excellent extensions, fully utilizing the benefits of other platforms.

Co-creations can assist in other ways as well. Partnerships allow for budget sharing, spreading out the costs to allow for larger projects than the musician or record label may have been able to shoulder on their own. If these are innovative endeavors, with partners of significant clout, sponsorships are an additional possibility, allowing a third party to take on part or all of the budget in exchange for some branding or a few moments with the users.

This is the origins of Soundplay, a collection of browser-based games inspired by music. Pitchfork, a music website, partnered with Intel to commission independent game developers to create games for specific songs, often from albums that were about to be released. The games were produced by Pitchfork’s sister site, Kill Screen, a blog about videogame culture. The games range from very literal to totally abstract interpretations, acting as portals into new worlds for fans to explore the songs from the inside out.

“We Were You” was inspired by M83’s “Intro.” A young girl finds herself lost in a snowy land, and she must seek out the help of magical creatures to guide her home. The game incorporates some of the song’s lyrics into dialogue, as the mammoths and the tiger speak of the origins of the world and how it has come to be a wasteland. The game was designed by Jake Elliott, who was nominated for a Nuovo Award for “A House in California.”

“Street Song” was created around Matthew Dear’s song of the same name. A helmeted traveler stands alone in a seemingly barren desert, unsure of where to proceed. The player directs him through the landscape, dodging obstacles to explore the mysterious buildings in the distance. “Street Song” was created by the Italian game design studio Santa Ragione, who previously created “Mirrormoon” an ambient space exploration game.

“Sun God” was produced for Cut Copy’s song of the same name. Two characters, connected by rope, pull each other along an abstract slope. They can move along faster and catch glowing lights if they work together well. The game can be played by one person or two people, each controlling one of the pair. The dynamic between the two characters harkens to a seeming exchange going on between two people in the lyrics of the song. “Sun God” was produced by Bennett Foddy, former bassist for Cut Copy, and most famous for his games QWOP and GIRP, which have been shown at the Museum of Modern Art.

“Geometry of Love” was inspired by Chromatics’ “Lady.” A female figure falls through space, passing through various shapes to collect stars while avoiding geometric obstacles. The synthpop feel of the song is reflected in the aesthetic, with early 80’s style effects and coloring often associated with the subgenre’s heyday. The game was produced by Ivan Safrin, who has created interactive installations for the likes of the Hayden Planetarium, as well as collaborations with musicians MNDR and Blonde Redhead.

“Take a Walk” was created for Passion Pit’s song of the same name. The player begins their journey as a little bug, but as points and ooze are accumulated, the character evolves into a frog and then a chicken. As the player changes, the footage in the background moves forward in time, from the formation of Earth to present day. “Take a Walk” was produced by Pachinko Pictures, an animation company that has worked with TV networks, advertising agencies, musicians, and mobile game app developers.

Each game is not merely an adaptation to a visual medium, but an expansion of the song in some form or fashion. The producers immersed themselves in the music and created a world around an element they wanted to explore. Some were literal elaborations on the lyrics, others abstractly dealt with tempo or aesthetic, but all gave a new way to experience the music.

This is a win-win for the co-creators and the musicians. Both are exposed to each other’s fan bases: the musician’s fans will come for the music and may discover they enjoyed games more than they thought, while game fans will come for the experience and may come to enjoy music they’d never heard before. As for the companies involved, Pitchfork and Kill Screen further reinforce their expertise in this area, and Intel gains excellent branding with a generation that has been reared on all things Apple.

The Internet has made it extraordinarily easy for artists of different media to overlap and collaborate. Hopefully these types of venues, where co-creators are given the time and space to explore someone else’s work, will continue to flourish.

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I’ll be discussing Adult Swim’s history of music partnerships with Jason DeMarco, vice president of marketing and promotions for Cartoon Network and Adult Swim, at NYFF’s Convergence event. Saturday, September 29th, 11am, Lincoln Center

I’m very happy to be hosting a conversation with Adult Swim’s Jason DeMarco at the New York Film Festival’s Convergence program on Saturday, September 29th! We will be discussing Adult Swim’s historic relationship with musicians and record labels, including Flying Lotus, El-P, Ghostly Records, and Stones Throw Records, and the numerous co-productions they have headed up.

Jason DeMarco is vice president of marketing and promotions for Cartoon Network and Adult Swim.  In this role, DeMarco is responsible for cultivating brand building partnerships and developing promotional marketing programs that extend each network’s reach, visibility and brand messaging off-channel. Additionally, he oversees the development and execution of customized integrated promotions and sponsorships that drive revenues for Cartoon Network and Adult Swim’s Sales and Marketing efforts.

Adult Swim and the Power of Music Partnerships
Saturday, September 29th, 11AM
Film Society of Lincoln Center
New York, NY
Ticket sales 

The basic concept of transmedia storytelling implies an ever presence across a multitude of spaces. This can appear daunting, especially to musicians who solely want to compose music or wish to maintain a low profile. Using social media or asserting oneself on other platforms is the antithesis of the private, elusive musician’s existence.

Yet at the very core of transmedia storytelling—or storytelling of any kind—is the need for narrative, content, and characters. Does this mean musicians who lack story are at a loss? No. The lack of narrative is a narrative. Crafting mythology through the controlled lack of information (or infusion of misinformation) is absolutely a storytelling method, and musicians are an excellent fit for it.

There are a number of artists who have leveraged this style to excite fans, drum up anticipation around their releases, and carry them through lulls in their careers. I believe the following musicians did this with varying degrees of conscious action, but I will operate under the assumption that each put some level of thought into this.

One method of fostering myth is by using evasion. Musicians agree to interviews or publicity, but end up turning questions around on the reporter, giving non sequitur answers, and going off on tangents or long-winded stories. Tom Waits is perhaps the most classic and long-running master of elusion. His early interviews are full of dodging, either avoiding the questions outright or giving outrageous, nonsensical replies.

Later in his career, interviews became more intermittent, yet still mystifying and intriguing. His public performances have also become sparse, and mere rumors of concerts spark heavy anticipation. An e-mail sent in July from Epitaph Records titled “Tom Waits: Permission to Come Aboard?” consisted solely of a photo of Waits wearing an eye patch and wielding a cutlass, with “Coming August 7” written across it. It whipped press and his fanbase into a frenzy: is it a new album? A tour announcement? (It was a music video.) Few artists command that kind of power that is born of sparsity.

Aphex Twin took a similar evasive approach, however he often weaved outrageous information into his early interviews. He boasted that he owned a military tank and lived in a converted bank, and in one interview he claimed to only sleep two to three hours a night, contradicting another interview where he stated that he loves sleeping a lot because of his mastery of lucid dreaming.

After a prolific run of releases, his last studio album was produced over ten years ago. Since then, he has only resurfaced to release one limited set of 11 records. Stories of his more unique performances became legends, such as a concert where he merely held a microphone up to a blender and played sandpaper on a record player, but he has wound down his touring, only appearing intermittently at music festivals.

One would imagine that keeping press and fans at a distance would hinder their careers, but it has actually helped. The unclear mixture of truth and fantasy fuels discussions of what is or isn’t real. The lack of disclosure of the meanings behind the music keeps fans pondering and occupied between releases, instead of wandering off to other music and never returning.

Even their physical presentations become mythic. Waits is rarely seen out of his standard outfit of over thirty years—pork pie hat, suit jacket, trousers—giving him a timeless, almost immortal impression. Meanwhile, Aphex Twin does not appear in any music videos, instead plastering his distorted face onto evil children and bikini-clad female dancers. Other variations of his smiling face are used in various album artwork. Recently, he used live facial recognition to map his face onto concert goers and display it above the stage.

Aphex Twin and Waits’ actions drive their images away from personal to iconic, symbols to build mythology around. This is ultimately their goal: getting on with their music, and allowing fans to create narrative around them.

Another method for this is cloaking, figuratively and sometimes even literally. A number of artists have taken on stage names, to the level of refusing to ever acknowledge their legal names. This base action already begins to fuel speculation and rumor, not only for who the person really is, but what is the meaning behind the name? Why did they decide to avoid the spotlight?

Many of these artists choose to wear masks or costumes to separate their on-stage and off-stage personas. Andrew Matson wrote an excellent history and dissection of musicians wearing masks, but I’ll briefly examine a few musicians here.

The Knife are a Swedish electronic music duo. Karin and Olof are siblings in real life, but you’d have a hard time visually deducing that. They never performed live for the first seven years of their career, and when they finally did, they often wore plague doctor-style masks. They have never appeared in person to receive any of the Grammis awards they have won, instead sending feminist protesters or an acceptance video in which their faces and voices are heavily distorted.

Karin has gone on to do the same with her project, Fever Ray. She designed elaborate headpieces and costumes for touring that evoked folkloric imagery and rendered her and her band mates unrecognizable. She also requested any interviews be done in disguise and with voice distortion, and accepted a music award wearing a facial prosthetic that prevented her from speaking.

One of hip hop’s most mysterious artists also hides behind a mask. MF DOOM hit mainstream after he had adopted his now iconic mask, a call-out to comic book character Doctor Doom. Much of his work has been related to comics or cartoons, including his collaboration with late night TV network Adult Swim, which further entrenched him as a character instead of an individual.

He kept fans on their toes by using his mask to cause mischief. DOOM has admitted to at least one instance of sending an impostor with the mask to perform a show. This not only increased the mask’s power of anonymity, but begged audience members to wonder how much they wanted just the performance and how much they really wanted him and his skill? While his repeated disappearances, including his current stint of absence, has made it difficult for DOOM to stay in the mainstream, his cult following has rallied around these silent periods, pondering where he has gone and what he is working on.

Possibly the most famous disguised musician, though, is Buckethead. While his real name is known, he has never been photographed without his signature white mask and KFC bucket hat on. He has bounced between solo work and collaborations, and is most publicly known for keeping his costume on during the failed revival tour of Guns N’ Roses.

Despite his reluctance to show his face, and therefore lose out on some gigs, his career has been consistently supported by an ever growing cult following. According to legend, he was raised in a chicken coop, but he broke free to become a musician. He has actively leveraged mythology to cover up real-life circumstances. In order to get around legal complications with Sony Music, he created an alter ego called Death Cube K for other music releases, a supposed photo-negative version of himself (black mask and all) that haunts his nightmares. He also blamed a recent absence due to unnamed health issues on his fictional nemesis Slip Disc causing havoc in his life.

All three musicians have explicitly stated the desire to separate their identities away from the music, so the music can be appreciated on its own. By doing this, they have succeeded in creating icons devoid of politics, language, and gender, that will never age or wither. Their reluctance to divulge information or be intimate has only given fans the space to fill with speculation, mystery, and theories.

While the fog of rumor and mythos surrounding these five musicians is not traditional narrative, there is still a wealth of story that has been constructed around them by the public. The artists may never choose to leverage this, however transmedia storytelling creates the opportunity to transpose this content onto other platforms with co-creators in a way that leaves the musician to their process and privacy.

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I’ll be discussing Adult Swim’s history of music partnerships with Jason DeMarco, vice president of marketing and promotions for Cartoon Network and Adult Swim, at NYFF’s Convergence event. Saturday, September 29th, 11am, Lincoln Center

Music apps continue to be at the forefront of innovation for musicians. Björk’s Biophilia app album and The Polyphonic Spree’s Bullseye app were both beautiful and immersive, allowing for expression on the musician’s end and engagement for the fan. Biophilia truly set the bar for future endeavors, so I was excited to see its architect, Scott Snibbe, had directed Passion Pit’s new app, Gossamer.

The app was released on July 18th, in support of the band’s second album debuting the same week. It features two songs, each of which have two interactive modes. The first option is the interactive music video for “Take a Walk.” Users listen to the song while creating a unique visualizer, mixing and revealing different images through window-like panes.

Snibbe explained to Evolver.fm, “The imagery for the app is all based on a bubble-like diagram that’s technically called a ‘Voronoi’ Diagram…We chose it for this app because the first song, ‘Take a Walk’ is about the financial bubble, and the hangover healing process coming out of it, so I thought this fragmented bubble imagery fit both metaphorically and psychologically.” Visually manifesting the message of the song is key for this type of transmedia extension.

The second application of “Take a Walk,” this time just the instrumental version, allows the user to create similar shapes with their fingertips. As the song plays, a bar moves across the lines on the screen and, depending on the length or placement of the lines, changes the melody, allowing the user to manipulate an element of the song.

There are two similar functions for “Carried Away,” the second song. It has the same style of interactive music video as “Take a Walk,” except with different images.

However, it also has the most exciting section of the “Gossamer” app: a remixer with the different segments of the song clearly partitioned out. The user can pick and choose between continuous loops for the background, and then improvise other notes over them. The app offers a helpful diagram to show you what each shape triggers. There is no time limit such as the length of the original song, so the user can play for as long as they like.

It is this true co-creation in the “Carried Away” remixer that seems to be a missed opportunity in the other functions. For instance, it is interesting to play with one set of beautiful photos provided by Mark Borthwick. His artwork was used for the traditional album release, so this inclusion helps immerse the fan in the band’s chosen aesthetic.

However, wouldn’t it have been interesting to allow the user to supply their own photos for the second video, “Carried Away”? The user could select ten photos from the gallery on their device, and load them into the app. Then, using the same style of Voronoi tiles, they could touch and play with their own memories to the sounds of Passion Pit. This act of co-creation would emotionally bond the listener closer to the music by marrying it to their visuals and related emotions.

The user is already able to interact with and, to some extent, remix the content of the songs. While this is definitely fun, the user is unable to record any of these compositions to share with friends. The same could be said of the music videos being created. There is an ability to “Share” to Twitter, Facebook, etc., but it only allows for screenshots. A screenshot certainly does not do justice to the app, nor does it allow the user to share their actual creations with their friends.

I believe that by being able to record and archive creations, this function would benefit both the user and the app creators. By allowing them to save, users will invest more in their pieces of work, both by using their own materials and by being able to share their accomplishments with friends. Playing a good remix for yourself is fun, but being able to record it, even as a simple low quality mp3, to receive praise from peers has a longer lasting positive effect. Creating a space where users could archive their pieces and compete with others would encourage them to spend more time in the app, creating and honing multiple versions.

Nine Inch Nails has taken to releasing the multitrack files of their recent work for free, to encourage fans to remix however they wish. The remix.nin.com website even allows registered users to upload songs under their chosen screen name, which can be rated by other remixers. This really validates fans who take the time to invest themselves in these works they have created. Fan validation is crucial for any successful artist participating in social media.

As for the musicians and app producers, the shareability is incredibly valuable for gaining new users, and thus, new fans for the musicians. I may not know who Passion Pit is, but if I saw a friend slotting their photos in a music video or showing off a remix they made, I would be very interested in purchasing the app. By making the functions of the app desirable, non-fans will be willing to give it a go, thus widening the customer base. As they play with the music video and remix function, they will be exposed to Passion Pit’s music repeatedly, tying it to their creative fulfillment and turning many of them into new fans.

All in all, Gossamer is a great app for current fans who already love Passion Pit’s music, but with the right tweaks, it could become something more: a fan converter.

Perhaps the strongest extension of transmedia storytelling for music is live events. It allows for fan interaction, engagement with the artist, physical manifestation of narrative, and community building. It can also be the most difficult extension, as it requires a commitment of time on the artist’s part, and money from them, the record label, or an outside source.

This is why it is so rare to experience a live event, but when one does, it is incredibly exciting. I bought a ticket to turntablist Kid Koala’s “Space Cadet Headphone Experience” the moment it was announced, as I really enjoy seeing him perform. What I soon realized was that the event was the live extension of his album-and-graphic novel Space Cadet, featuring carnival games, wireless headphones, inflatable space pod seats, in-world artifacts, and a variety hour-style performance!

Kid Koala (real name Eric San) is no stranger to innovative production. Besides his signature turntablism with unique samples, he has collaborated with the Gorillaz, performed for kids with Yo Gabba Gabba!, illustrated a previous graphic novel Nufonia Must Fall, and curated a cabaret-style tour with other DJs called The Short Attention Span Theatre. It is these experiences that Eric drew from to produce the Space Cadet Headphone Experience.

I spoke with Eric and he was kind enough to fill me in on the process. He began drawing the book Space Cadet in 2003, using a special type of etching board. The story of a robot and his space-exploring daughter has no dialogue, so Eric recorded an entirely new album for the reader to play as they sat with the book.

As the novel and the album were completed, Eric and his wife Corinne started planning a live show. “After so much time spent in isolation in the studio working on music or at my drawing desk working on the book, I was looking forward to touring and presenting this story to actual humans.” The development took about three years, and continues to evolve to this day, with Eric modifying “everything from setlists, to better ways of preventing needle skips on turntables, to cookie recipes.”

Exhibit

The Headphone Experience is an elaborate set-up, so it has only been hosted in museums or performance/art spaces, usually for a few days at a time. At the Brooklyn shows, the attendees entered and explored a balcony area while waiting to head into the main space. The area was filled with little exhibits of in-world material, such as extraterrestrial flowers the explorer collects, or clay carvings of the main characters. Pulp art of space exploration lined the walls, along with some of the original sketches Eric created.

Further along, attendees were able to participate in carnival games, such as knocking over cans with the explorer’s space suit face on them. Participating in games earned you raffle tickets, which were used during the show to give away prizes such as books or jackets. The audience even got to decorate and then eat their own cookies! All of these little details and activities involve the audience member, and make them feel lucky to have attended a unique and localized event.

Performance

After a short opening act, the audience headed into the main space, which was filled with large inflatable “space pod” seating. They were handed wireless headphones which broadcasted Eric’s music directly as opposed to using speakers; only the ambient sounds of a spaceship played in the open air. The stage consisted of Eric’s instruments, gear for an additional musician, and three large screens behind them. As Eric performed, close-up video of his hands on the turntables would project. Other times, the screens showed moving images from the graphic novel.

Having pulled “from musical concerts, to theater, to cinema, to visits to the science center,” it was more of a live event than a concert. Eric would play, but also talk to the audience in between songs, describing the project, what else he had been working on, or just cracking jokes. Interspersed throughout, he would call upon one or a few audience members to come up and help him play a song or a game. A man was chosen to play a video game ala Asteroids where he shot meteors that carried the pictures of other audience members’  faces. The photos were taken in a booth in the carnival section just before the show!

These instances make the chosen players and even those merely attending feel like they’re witnessing something special. Eric explained, “I’ve always been a fan of those kind of ‘dangerous’ moments in the show and by that I mean those moments where it’s absolutely clear that this is happening now and never again.”

The narrative extension was also clear. There were the literal artifacts such as the plants, but the look and feel of the space made the story come alive. The space pod seats reiterated the settings of the novel, and if one took their headphones off, they would only hear the ambient echoes of spaceship noises filling the venue. This was purposeful, said Eric. “It draws from all the live experiences we enjoyed growing up…going all the way back to ‘story time’ in grade school at the library. I loved that! I remember all the kids sitting on the floor and the drifting off into the world of the storybook as our teacher read aloud and showed the illustrations.”

Takeaway

Is this replicable by other musicians? With enough care and time, absolutely. Kid Koala is not on a major label, nor has he sold millions of albums, and yet he was able to put on these live events self-funded. One way to make this work is to pull in sponsorships or partnerships. Eric originally workshopped the show at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Massachusetts in 2009. He quickly discovered that 250 sets of plugged-in headphones made for an unpleasant experience.

Thankfully, Sennheiser came on board and supplied them with all the wireless headphones they needed. “[It] has been amazing asset to us. The Sennheiser headphones sound great, they are much easier to set up, and now people won’t get tangled up in 1000′s of feet of audio cables and extensions if they need to get up and go to the bathroom.” These types of partnerships improve the quality of the art for the musician, and give the supplying company exposure to potential customers. And keeping most of the budget self-funded allows for as much creative control as possible.

This event was immensely enjoyable and effective. The production and venue immersed the audience in the Space Cadet world without hitting them over the head with it. Space Cadet is ultimately a touching and sad story, and Eric was able to bring certain elements into our world while still keeping the event light-hearted with games and crowd interaction. There was a healthy balance of active and passive participation, giving the attendees agency to explore at will in the balcony, and then sit back and let Eric lead them during the performance. The event was also inclusive, with content that appealed to all ages and an earlier performance specifically for adults to bring their children to.

Most importantly, it is Eric’s ability to test out and improve productions over time that musicians should be paying attention to. Transmedia storytelling is not an easy feat, certainly not for music, and it can require a level of patience to invest time and energy into developing the different parts until they work together. Eric stated, “All my shows are in a state of constant evolution.  I’m always trying to find new and better ways to improve the show.” This persistence is clear in the quality of the work and a true takeaway point for any transmedia storytellers.

Once a more common practice, musicians are rarely moving into television programming. A number of bands mixed music and TV in the 60’s and 70’s, but beyond Flight of the Conchords, there have not been any notable extensions recently. Luckily, a quirky new series debuted on The Hub a few weeks ago, called The Aquabats! Super Show! The California ska/rock band The Aquabats, with its long history of mythos and world building, has made the jump to television, with remarkable reviews. How did an eccentric ska band transition into children’s programming?

The Aquabats were founded in 1994 by a small group of friends who met at their Mormon Church. This aspect of their personal lives would go on to influence the family friendliness of their music and presentation. Not long after forming, they began establishing superhero names and origins for themselves, going so far as to hand make costumes and choreograph on-stage battles with villains.

These Aquabats, such as The MC Bat Commander and Crash McLarson, were supposedly from Aquabania, an island known for its human-bat creatures, but had fled from Space Monster “M” and landed in California. Professor Monty Corndog took them in and amplified their super powers, enabling The Aquabats to gain notoriety and support through music. Empowered by their fans, they will one day return to fight Space Monster “M” and reclaim their island.

While the lyrics didn’t always explicitly tell stories (the liner notes and live performances delved into the mythos), the content was still in keeping with the cartoonish and fantastic nature of the band, with songs called “Captain Hampton & The Midget Pirates,” “Powdered Milk Man,” and “Food Fight on the Moon!” The aesthetic was also present in their music videos:

This tone extended to how they interacted with fans, most clearly with their fan club, The Aquabats Cadet Faction. Fan club members, known as Aquacadets, received a membership card with their enrollment number, photo, and chosen Aquacadet code name. Members were also invited to Cadet Summits, held in southern California, which acted as small conventions. There were Q&As, costume contests, autograph sessions, and of course, live performances. The Aquabats extensive career has had its ups and downs, but heavily investing in their community led fans to support them through thick and thin.

During a period of downtime, lead singer Christian Jacobs developed and created the pilot for Yo Gabba Gabba! with his partner, Scott Schultz. The children’s series, a mixture of animation, puppetry, live action, and music, was tremendously successful with kids and adults, leading to a live tour and even a performance at the desert music festival Coachella. Despite previously failed attempts at an Aquabats TV series, this success allowed Jacobs to develop and shop a new pilot to the channel The Hub.

The Aquabats! Super Show! is also a mixture of live-action and animation, with the primary storyline following The Aquabats as they defend humanity from ridiculous villains. There is an animated serialized section of The Aquabats fighting in outrageous situations, as well as another short cartoon of the little Aquabat man in their logo. The look and feel mimics that of the live-action TV series of the 60′s and 70′s (Jacobs specifically cites the Batman series as an influence), calling out to the parents who may be watching, but the plot simplicity and sense of humor is very much for The Hub’s main audience of children ages 6-12.

The TV show should be considered a successful extension of the band’s primary content, that being their music releases. The mythos has easily translated over, with all of the superhero lore intact: costumes, codenames, lingo, origins, etc. Any adult fans who may have strayed over the years would find the show to be instantly recognizable. The Aquabats have also made sure to include music in their series, writing new songs that weave into the episode’s story. Any fan that has enjoyed their music will be thrilled to find new content available in the show.

Most importantly, however, The Aquabats! Super Show! is a great example of fine tuning transmedia extensions of a property so that it is appropriate for the new platform and audience. One of the main purposes of transmedia storytelling is utilizing a property’s multiple appeals to reach out to new audiences. Many potential fans have simply not been made aware of a story before, partially due to the framing of the property and partially due to them being focused on other platforms.

It’s highly unlikely that young children would have had access to music in a way that would have allowed them to find The Aquabats on their own. However, placing the band on an easily accessible platform, a children’s TV network, is the best location for children to discover them. Children also may not have the attention span for a music album, but the reframing of the band for a fun colorful adventure story will immediately appeal to most kids.

Another function of transmedia storytelling is to best utilize a platform’s strengths, which can vary drastically from one medium to another. While the music is present in the TV series, it has been pulled back, allowing the characters and humor to come to the forefront. And while there isn’t large, epic storylines which are too much for younger children, there is a much clearer sense of story in the episodes that is harder to convey on CD or in a short music video. The show also allows for the quirky adventures of their logo character, previously unexplored before. This small act of branding makes the logo more memorable, and attaches good feelings and associations with him.

In order for this to be a true transmedia campaign, The Aquabats would need to have at least one more extension. (Definitions of transmedia vary, but most agree there need to be three or more platforms.) This would be easy to do, with obvious opportunities aimed at their younger audience in mobile games, an interactive web portal, children’s book series, and more. They already have a clear understanding of how to expand their content to fit the medium and audience, a takeaway point that many property owners do not understand, so I have no fear they will continue to expand their world in a fun and successful way!

As most storytellers wish to have their primary narrative kept “pure,” transmedia extensions can allow for fan interactivity. Some media is inherently built for interactive storytelling, such as video games or online content. Others, such as music, can be difficult to structure in such a manner. However, musicians have found a new way to involve their listeners: interactive music videos.

These videos, often dubbed “Choose Your Own Adventure” videos (after the successful children’s book series) are a very recent innovation. Last week, the band Chairlift debuted their newest video, “Met Before,” which follows the two protagonists (real-life band members) as they make various decisions throughout one evening. As the viewer watches, they must repeatedly decide between two choices for the heroes and click the corresponding right or left button.

This is by far the most successful interactive music video to date. In order to better understand the pros and cons of the video, though, it is helpful to first look at what has been accomplished in the past.

While interactive fiction is something that has exploded since the advent of the Internet, it has existed to some degree since the 1970s initially with text-based computer games. Visual media came next. Frank Rose described in his book The Art of Immersion the first attempts at an interactive cinema experience. The company Interfilm premiered a 20-minute picture I’m Your Man in 1992 in a Manhattan theater, where viewers pressed color buttons on built-in pistol grips to dictate the direction of the film. Sony decided to fund a larger-scale feature Mr. Payback and released it in 44 theatres, but it failed miserably. The technology was not there yet, and feeling competitive with your fellow audience members over story choices is uncomfortable and stressful.

The interactive music video inherently circumvents this issue, as it is currently only viewable online. This will change in the future with developments in digital television, but even then, the audience will only be whoever is in your living room. From what I can discern, the group Riot in Paris released the first ever interactive music video in August 2010 on YouTube. With just a small budget to work with, the video was all shot on an iPod Nano and hosted on YouTube in different chapters. Each chunk used annotations for the viewer to decide where the story would go next. They would then be directed to the corresponding YouTube clip.

This was a smart work-around for not having the expensive technology to make a truly integrated interactive video. The producers used the abilities of YouTube at the time to create a cheap interactive experience. While it should be applauded for being the first such video, there are some obvious flaws. Primarily, it is very clunky. The clips can’t audibly line up properly, as the creators weren’t sure exactly when users were going to click through to the next chapter. It’s also easy to skip around if one wanted to, as the videos are all visible on YouTube and easily accessible. This let the viewer easily stray outside of any narrative thread.

The British group The Streets did a similar project in February 2011. “Computers and Blues” is more of a short film than a music video, featuring clips from the album dispersed throughout different scenes. The film utilizes the same YouTube tricks, using annotations to lead you to the next chapter, however the videos are unlisted so the user can’t jump around at will. They must follow their chosen story through to the end, which is an improvement on Riot in Paris’.

It wasn’t until Andy Grammer’s “Keep Your Head Up” music video that the full content was held in one continuous and confined space. In October 2010, the video service Vevo debuted the interactive video, powered by Interlude’s technology. As the viewer watches the video, they are given a countdown to decide between two very explicit choices. No matter when you make your decision during the countdown, the next scene occurs when it should, leaving no gaps in the audio or video. The user is able to track their choices along the bottom of the screen, and at the end, they can share their version across social networks. The sense of ownership over their story is very important.

(Click through to play)

The technology is a big jump, and one can imagine a vast array of opportunities it could be used for. What’s missing in this video is the content. For starters, the protagonist /viewer is not making active choices on what to do, they are merely choosing what event occurs next. This is not very engaging nor does it make one feel invested in their decisions. As for the story itself, the choices may dictate small differences in the next section, but the user is ultimately following almost the same exact path no matter what choices they make: Andy is outside, he ends up in the hotel lobby, he takes an elevator ride to a party, and the party follows him to the roof. The direction of the story can not change, merely details within it. This feels too controlled and limited, and does not invite repeated use.

(Click through to play)

Chairlift’s video improves on these flaws. It does not have the jumping around and jarring cuts as did Riot in Paris’ or The Streets’ videos. Nor does it suffer from the same content choice issues as Andy Grammer’s. Using Interlude’s technology, “Met Before” runs seamlessly from one decision to the next, and the decisions lead to drastically different branching narrative. You could play this over and over and get totally different versions each time. The choices feel active, not passive, giving the user a sense of agency over the progress of the story. My only issue was that sometimes the choices were not clearly defined, so I would just haphazardly pick right or left.

While Chairlift’s video is clearly an achievement, I think there is one missing piece that none of these examples incorporated. Many critics, writers, and the creators of these videos refer to them as “Choose Your Own Adventure,” in reference to the book series that made this style of storytelling popular. But the difference between the videos and these books is guidance.

While a user wishes to feel like they have total control over where the story is going, they can also feel at a loss if they don’t know what the premise is at the start. When you bought one of the books, it had a pretty clear title (Secret of the Pyramids, Prisoner of the Ant People) and a plot set-up on the back cover. When the person started reading, they had a general understanding of who they were and what their main objective was. When any of these videos begin, there’s just no clear understanding of why. Why should the user do anything at all?

In my first play of “Met Before,” the characters and I got stuck in a college lab for almost the entire video. Was I supposed to be doing something else? What is the point of them being there? By the third play, though, it became clear that their interactions with their classmates were related to the song’s lyrics. Users do not want a heavily guided experience such as Grammer’s video, but they do want a little nudge at the get-go, especially if there is some basic premise that connects with the meaning or intention of the song.

This is the balance that future music-based interactive storytelling must strike. Now that companies like Interlude have made the technology possible, creators need to focus more on the story. Interactive videos shouldn’t just be for kitsch value or produced merely because it is possible. They should be utilized to create a very specific experience for the viewer. Why are you giving them agency? Is the conflict in the song something you want them to solve on their own? Do you want them to take on the character’s difficult decision?

It is not simply a matter of handing them the wheel. You must give them a reason to drive.

A transmedia campaign is only as good as its team. When a musician recognizes the value in creating extensions and decides to do so, they may not know how to successfully utilize the strengths of different platforms or how to create content for them. That’s okay! Musicians should be experts on creating and distributing music; navigating foreign platforms single-handedly could be a big time and money drain, and a distraction from their creative process. In order to further disseminate their art and messages, they should turn to producers who can assist them.

When Björk decided to create an app album, she went to two such collaborators. One was Scott Snibbe, a well-established interactive artist who has worked in a range of different media. He has released a number of iOS apps, exhibited his work in museums such as the Whitney Museum of American Art, and founded Snibbe Interactive, a company which develops immersive interactive experiences for a variety of uses, including James Cameron’s Avatar.

The other collaborator was Max Weisel, an up-and-coming software developer. In early high school, he experimented with the first iPhone and started building iOS apps before Apple’s App Store or their Software Development Kit were even available. He submitted his app Soundrop just as the store was opening and watched it become one of the first apps made available for the iPad launch.

This sound-based app drew Björk’s attention, and she hired him as one of a small team to develop her app album Biophilia. He specifically worked on the song apps “Moon,” “Solstice,” and “Dark Matter.”

You can see the “Moon” app below, as well as its incorporation into the song’s music video.

I was lucky to meet Max at the Creators Project’s excellent event Exploring Biophilia: Apps as the Next Creative Frontier for Music, and he was kind enough to answer some questions for me:

What are you currently working on?

Björk has pulled me onto the tour to get rid of the laptop. The audience has really no idea what my setup on-stage is doing. Throughout the tour, I’ll be working on iPad apps that change this. I’ll be creating more intuitive and organic apps that play her songs in a way that the audience can connect to. (Ed: See the quad iPad instrument above)

Scott stated that digital platforms can encourage users to “fall in love with music again.” Do you think digital/interactive platforms can accomplish this?

LPs forced a deeper engagement between the listener and the music. While not the most complex, LPs accomplished a few things. They included artwork, lyrics and stimulated the user while they listened to the whole album. Today when someone buys a new album, they listen to it while they’re working. Less attention is paid to the music because they have nothing to keep them from wandering off.

Björk’s app album solves this problem. User’s now have rich content that parallels the music they’re consuming.

Do you think music apps will become common place, or do you think there are too many barriers to entry? (rights issues, cost, etc.)

I believe Licensing in the record industry will stifle any similar project. Creating a single app is no small endeavor, let alone creating one for every song.

What do you think of apps/digital platforms as methods of telling stories within music? Effective? Supplementary?

This depends a lot on the development of the apps/digital media. I’ve seen plenty of supplementary apps that appear as an afterthought. It’s obvious the content was thrown together and isn’t well connected with the music. However, if you’ve got an artist that can collaborate properly with the developers and is dedicated enough to develop the experience alongside the music, an effective experience is extremely possible.

Unfortunately, this is becoming more difficult. The music industry is shit. Record labels retain all licensing of music and stifle an artist’s ability to branch out into other genres of media. As services like Spotify and Rdio make music more accessible, the amount of rich and unique content is going to decrease.

Would you like to work with a musician again? How do you think it’s different than other collaborations?

Definitely! I feel as though most companies don’t see app work as a collaboration. It’s simple just contract work. Artists want to have a say in what they create. They have specific reasons behind every detail. To most developers, this would be a nightmare, but if you’re working with an artist that knows how to collaborate, it’s like a dream.

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Check out Max’s company website Relative Wave or follow him on Twitter to find out what he’s up to next!