Kickstarter

Hello All

Greetings from Ivyland. I traveled out to Daniel Johnston's secret lair in east Texas, and he nailed the final bit of dialogue I needed from him. All of the "Drama" sections of the musical are complete and mixed, and I'm tidying up the final details. I had a fabulous adventure finishing up the intro and outro overtures, which, of course, needed full orchestration, like a hollywood movie. (Call the Teen String Force for a splash of symphony! Saxes and Horns for a 30 second big band extravaganza, straight outa 1938!) Out of the 31 separate tracks that make up the musical (16 tunes, and 15 drama sections) I've just got 5 songs that need one touch of finishing work each, and then they will be mixed. And the finished stuff sounds better than it's ever sounded, just like a final mix should.

 Closer and Closer I get! Valerie is doing a handful more lovely illustrations for the intro and lyric sections of the book. With luck on my side, I'll be going to mastering within a month or 2, and then we just need to assemble your packages and send them off.

 Once again, thank you for your help and patience. You'll have your own "Ivy and the Wicker Suitcase" real soon, I promise!

Brian

Hello All

 Just like you can depend on your cat to return to his empty bowl,  look up at you longingly, and say "MeeeOOWWrrrRWOWWWW!!", you can depend that Ivy continues it's steady pace towards completion. Will Sheff, who had been super busy touring and recording and doing other assorted rock dude duties finally came to Austin to perform Mister Kirby's song, "Busy, Busy, Busy", (which he nailed) and he also did a fabulous job with his dialogue. He IS Mister Kirby! Busy, Busy, Busy! (Mister Kirby is the 3 headed chief admissions officer of the Eternal Incarceration System, the organization which manages the UNDERWORLD!!)
        I'm working on the intro and outro overtures this week, I have a bit of tweaking to do with one of the dialogue sections, and I have to get Daniel Johnston to redo one line of dialogue, and it will be completely recorded. Then I have to do final mixes, which will probably take about a month. I'm also concurrently finishing up a wonderful record with Sahara Smith, so, once again, I beg for your kind patience.  I'm more in love with "Ivy and the Wicker Suitcase" than I ever was, and I promise, it will be worth the wait.
         I've still got a good chunk of work left, but it's a huge relief to finally have Will's part done. Another wonderful addition to the project is my good friend Scott Marcus, who plays the character "Org", the demon who rescues Ivy a mere moment before she's about to plunge into the LAKE OF FIRE! Scott, who played drums with me in the band Glass Eye, has been my buddy for about 34 years, and he's always been a bizarre joy to be around. He's a connoisseur of old cartoons and classic voice characterizations, and he's brought the drama to a lovely, surreal and hilarious level.

You'll all be able to hear this soon enough! (soon being a relative term, considering how long this thing has taken...)

Thank you all again for your generous help, and I'll write again as I get closer to completion.

 Brian Beattie

Hello All

Brian Beattie here. I have finally been able to spend some real time on the project, and I'm having a great time working on it again. I've been flapping demon wings, landing and ascending (Foley work), assembling dialogue, writing and recording incidental musics, and tweaking some of the details. Right now I'm completing the most involved of the dramatic sections. (A couple of longish Ear-Movie scenes which create the creepy surreally comic underworld mood) The final song is recorded, but the Star of the song (Will Sheff as Mr. Kirby, the underworld's 3 headed admissions officer) is on tour with his band Okkervil River, and we won't be able to record his parts till mid October. If all goes well, that will be the final touch, and I will be able to put it all together soon afterwards. I've got a few bits of the opening overture to record, and a final outro fanfare, and the final mixes left to do. It's a bunch of work, but it's light at the end of the tunnel time, compared with the unimaginable amount of labor I innocently put into my work cue a couple of years ago.
    I apologize for the seemingly endless wait, but have faith. Your help got us to this point, and we are forever grateful, and we haven't forgotten. I'll be workin' my tail off for the next few months, and then it will be real. To Hold and to Hear.

 Thank you all so much again. I'll write soon.

 Brian

Hello All

 Brian Beattie here. I'd like to thank you once again for your help and your patience. I'm making slow progress finishing the musical, but I haven't been able to invest the time I need to finish.  Actually, I have been simultaneously working on 2 (other) records 7 days a week since January. Recently, in an effort to regain a little sanity, I'm taking one day off each week, and what am I doing in that spare time? Well, I'm Working! On the Musical!

 It's progressing well, but realistically, given my work schedule, it will be at least till the end of the summer before I can send out the hand bound copies of the record that some of you are waiting for. Once again, I beg your indulgence, and I thank you from the bottom of my weird heart for your kind support. We have not forgotten. Ivy is just curing on the vine.

 I will write back with more updates. We still feel the glow of your help, and we'll send you something lovely soon. Ivy and the Wicker Suitcase will be worth the wait, I promise.

 brian