ALBUM UPDATE: Soundtrack To The Collapse out SEPT 1st
Pre-sale Pricing Ends This Weekend So Don't Miss Out: Head To gregarcade.com Right Now And Grab A Copy
It is August 25th and that means we are 1 week away from the release of my new album Soundtrack To The Collapse. I wanted to take some time this morning and send you guys an update about this album since it’s been taking up the bulk of my time this last month.
First off, if you haven’t pre-ordered a copy of this album yet you still have time. Go to this link right now and grab the version you’d like:
CLICK HERE TO PURCHASE A COPY
https://gregarcade.com/albums/soundtrack-to-the-collapse/
Every purchase helps me renumerate for the… at this point seemingly countless hours I’ve put into this collections of songs hah.
MP3 is a digital download only. The CD version comes with the CD mailed to your shipping address, but also includes the MP3 version. Everyone who purchased an album will receive an email on September 1st with a download link to the music so you can store it on your devices and play it without needing a connection. This is great because I know a lot of you go out hiking or into the bush. I know a lot of people also want to be able to stream music and keep the room on their device for photos or everyday use. Since that’s the case each page is going to have it’s own little “jukebox.” If you haven’t visited my site and listened to the jukebox yet you can do so free right here https://gregarcade.com/jukebox/.
The way that the code works allows you to listen to the music player just like you would any other streaming service without needing a specific app installed. You can navigate away from the music player, turn your screen off, etc. To make it easy to access from your home page you’ll be able to click the “three dots” or settings on your web browser on your phone and click “add to homescreen” or your device-equivalent. It’ll look like an app on your homescreen. This way you can listen to the album without needing to access streaming-sites that fund initiatives to attack people who believe in living the kind of life we do.
If you ordered a CD: the CDs are going to be ordered as soon as all the songs have been completed and mastered. I am hoping to have that wrapped over the weekend; I had originally planned for that to be today… but… i have so many ideas hah… Once the CDs arrive here I’ll repackage them and send them to you. There will be a bit of a wait, but they’re coming!
If you haven’t ordered your album yet here’s a bit of an incentive to do so before the end of the weekend: the presale pricing saves you a few dollars on your order, and even more if you’re ordering multiple CDs. I was originally going to end pre-sale pricing this morning, halt CD sales, and wait until September 1st to relaunch everything, but it looks like I’ve figured out a way to make my workflow a little more efficient Make sure you grab it before Monday otherwise you’re throwing away a few bucks.
If you remember back in April I went to perform in Olds Alberta for a fundraiser where the proceeds went to the support the Coutts 4 and their ongoing legal battle with the scumbags colluding with our government. I put out an EP then called A Little Gas In The Tank EP. If you purchased this EP navigate back to your download page and you will find a discount code there. Use it and save a couple more bucks towards your purchase.
Now that I’ve got the meat and potatoes out of the way, let’s get onto talking a bit about the album:
This album has really impacted me in a lot of ways as an artist. I don’t think a lot of people realize it, but I’ve been under attack by the cancel-culture-enthusiasts since back around 2012-2013. When you pose a threat to their frail-system of multi-tiered-mental-abuse, and go as far as heading off against them, their little goblin fingers do what they can to tarnish your name and reputation. They have been attacking me for damn-near-a-decade, but I’m not backing down. Those attacks do take their toll though…
For a long time I found it really hard to even function as a business, let alone a musician in an artistic industry. It got so bad back in 2016 that I became distrustful of nice people who came to my content. I literally believed no one liked what I was doing; I thought random nice comments were sarcastic… but I kept pushing forward doing it because there is something in me that pushes me to do this.
With you guys out there supporting me like you do I have to say: you have done wonders in healing me and my soul. That has allowed me to start making the kind of music I am on this album. There aren’t random love songs to some woman I’ve never met. There aren’t songs from made-up hypotheticals that I “think will sell” to an audience. Yes… that’s how a lot of songs are written… that concept is so foreign to me now. Instead of that, these songs are for us, from a guy “like us”: me. I feel like these songs represent many of the feelings you guys have felt, because I have felt them too.
I keep looking out into the world and seeing how people have swept what happened to us under the rug. Now that lockdowns are on their way back in, and people continue to trivialize the injustices we all faced, I feel as though many of the messages which have made it into these songs are even more relevant.
I hope that these songs can be something you guys can hold onto when times get tough. I hope that they can remind you that there are many of us out here and that you are not alone in your struggles. Like I say in the lyrics of Rally On Me: I don’t know what you’ve been through, but I imagine that it’s something that I’ve felt too… when it feels like there’s nobody around who’s seen what you’ve seen… you can rally on me.
Rally On Me was the song that really kicked this album into high gear for me. I saw so many of my friends hurting with everything they were sitting there watching. It really was “watching in terror unable to do anything.” It was completely demoralizing. I realized it was time for me to get up and use the talents which God gave me to put a message out there: we have eachother to lean on. When the inspirational figures many of you lean on to feel a little less crazy in this world are locked up… well that was time for me get a little out front and give you something to remind you that this too will pass… it was the same with my song Go Down Swinging.
Many of you have confided in me over the years with the struggles you have been facing. I ruminated on these quite some time. When people share these stories with me they effect me. They weigh on my soul. Writing this song helped me take that weight off my own soul, and hopefully theirs, and share their story with the other people who listen to my music. Every verse in this song was based on real stories people have told me. The chorus… well that’s a reminder: when it feels like you’re up against the wall fight like there isn’t going to be a tomorrow. I honestly feel like this for me and my situation right now, but i’m putting those feelings into more songs for this album…
I know some of you out there have heard me speak to death about the meanings behind these songs in radio shows, podcasts, and posts on telegram, so I won’t drone on too much: we can talk about them more after the record is out hah…
I’ve got a number of tunes on here that will only be available on this album like Keep The Wind On Your Face, See You On The Beach, After They’re Gone, and even more which I’m still working on… I’m really excited for you guys to hear these once they’re out. I’ll give a little more insight into what they mean to me later once the album has been out for a while. The reason I don’t want to do it now: sometimes songs mean something special to someone outside the realm of what the artist was intending when it was written. I want that to be something that happens for you guys as well. I want these songs to develop their own meanings for you guys, and then later we can talk about our relative experiences.
a little side now: I was looking through my music and I realized I hadn’t put The Ballad Of James Topp on a hardcopy anywhere. I thought it would be a perfect opportunity given the name of this album, the production style of the song, and how I’m sitting here right now listening to all of it and… it just fits right in hah.
So if you haven’t purchased a copy yet I will appeal to you one last time here:
CLICK HERE TO PURCHASE A COPY
https://gregarcade.com/albums/soundtrack-to-the-collapse/
If you have, consider sharing it with a friend. Maybe they’ll get something out of it.
You all are wonderful. I appreciate you a ton. I’m so excited to give you these songs. I… need to get back to work though. I still have a mountain to climb before I’m happy with the end product haha. Same old me, eh?
I’ll talk to you soon.
- ARCADE
Awesome buddy. I couldnt agree more with what you said about formulaic music vs the stuff you put out from your heart, which coincidentally you do very very well. I love your music, the artwork, your videos, your podcasts, all of it. It's often ahead of everything else in vision and just plain smarts, including your telegram posts, which for many seem "Extreme", and then time and again you are vindicated and proven to be correct. Keep on keepin' on good sir.