Greetings, dear patrons!

I'm excited to share my newest music video from NieR, in collaboration with world class percussionist and dear friend, Doug Perry!  This underrated Square Enix game flew under my radar for years until I came upon the incredible soundtrack and instantly fell in love with it. Doug was also a big fan, so we decided to collaborate on an arrangement of the "Song of the Ancients" theme featuring voice, vibraphone, marimba, and an assortment of cool hand percussion.

We actually filmed the video back in January during MAGFest, the video game music festival.  I thought emphasizing the contrast between darkness and light would be appropriate for the game, so Doug wore all black and I created my own ghostly white costume.  The set was an enormous statue of a man 'drowning' in the sand in National Harbor, Maryland.  We thought it was very reminiscent of NieR, like a relic of a once-great civilization that had fallen victim to the passage of time. Getting down there with the vibraphone in the freezing cold was a hilarious endeavor, though!

I'm also really excited to announce that this arrangement is being licensed and published through OverClocked Records, and will be on all major music stores & streaming platforms in the next few days.  (Of course, you guys will all be getting the free patron-only download!  ^^)

As always, thank you from the bottom of my heart for helping to make these music videos possible.  I couldn't do it without you.

Love,
Jill

This is part 3 of my 4-part series of "slightly more artsy and meaningful than usual" tracks. Hope you enjoy the vibes!

Patrons, the download should be in your inbox soon. Thanks for being supportive and beautiful. #Briggade

-Ben

http://nikaharper.tumblr.com/post/125361533295/the-last-time-you-asked

Okay so OH MY GOLLY, this month has been tons of fun! I went back to the doctor for a little brain-therapy that seems to be doing me good, spent a good hunk of time in Chicago (where I am currently) and went to a wonderful wedding of two souls who made me cry like a leaky faucet and smudged off all the makeup I had been so meticulous about.

Oh and also it was SDCC which was a blast, too.

You know what's funny?

I forgot to update. Huh-wha? So here's the first update of the month and likely another one shortly after (as this is you know, my primary means of getting paid nowadays) 

I'm pretty focused on restarting Wordplay with a quickness, because I miss it so much and getting paid to do something you love is an opportunity you shouldn't pass up or ignore. So I'm gonna STOP IGNORING THAT. Any input as to how I can make Wordplay even better (or get sponsorship, etc) is encouraged. Also there's a new FB page for it, should be http://facebook.com/ThisIsWordplay

But of course I am a sucker for only focusing on one thing at a time so I haven't written anything for a bit. THat's okay, I had this story hiding in the wings and I still think it's cute. Twilight Zone inspiration like whoa!

THanks all for bein' here, hope you like this tale. I shall polish up another one shortly!

http://nikaharper.tumblr.com/post/125442589330/the-trail-to-greatness

Wrote this, inspired by the stories I heard of the American West. It was full of atrocities but I imagined some of the most devout and pious perspectives, so different than my own. This is more of a monologue, I read it aloud to my friends and vowed to keep it.

It's strange, but I enjoy it.

http://nikaharper.tumblr.com/post/127094795440/the-touch-of-you-for-all-of-me

NEWWWW STUFFFF!

Well sort of. It's a story I wrote a while ago and looked back on, I'm a bit torn on it but it touches upon a lot of sadly realistic things in the internet world. There was a certain kind of life escape that many of us found, when we were young and awkward and never felt worthwhile unless we pretended to be someone else.

I remember those old vampire chat rooms, where every single person described their outfit to unerring detail and sulked in corners. You have to wonder how many corners this vampire tavern even had. Is it just a maze? A poorly-lit postage stamp of a room with cubicles for each mysterious, dangerous patron to haunt?

But anyway.

It's inspired by the Twilight Zone episode "The Sixteen-Millimeter Shrine" but the similarities are few. That's what inspiration does after all, creates artistic license.

Hope you like it!

Wow! That's a really long song title!

Anyway, here's the story: when I made the original instrumental track, I accidentally imitated jameslandino & grimecraft: Break Out of This World. Well, I actually ended up grabbing vocal stems (because they're bros like that) and spent probably too many hours painstakingly making this "remix" which is actually a full edit of my original song. Don't think too hard about it.

Check out both original source tracks:

Electro – James-landino-break-out-of-this-world-ft-grimecraft-edmcom-exclusive
Bbriggsmusic – Try-to-forget-it

As always, thank you so much for your support. Without it, things like this would never happen. You're awesome :)

-Ben

WOW! It was incredibly fun to talk about what inspires me and where I want to go, right now all I can do is hope I didn't say "um" too much. 

I'm at pax in Seattle, anxiously awaiting my bIrthday tomorrow when I turn 30. I can't wait to be old enough to be un - hip. Every day is another step towards eventual full time witchdom.

This isn't the story I promised to post, but I've been too busy playing card games with charming strangers and have not edited any tales yet. They are incoming. 

Thanks and love! Tell me your thoughts on the podcast! 

http://nikaharper.tumblr.com/post/129898993035/baby-fox-and-old-crow

I've missed doing font stories. This is a new one! I wrote another tonight, but I was dying to post this right away. I see it really cut up, fable-like, as an illustrated children's book. That is, if anyone wants to draw for it (*cough cough meowza hakk*)

I think it is funny to see a cute small animal talk so big about the world, so naive and self-centered. The world hasn't repositioned for the little baby yet. Who knows if it ever will? It is the way of the foxes.

Hope you like it!