Artist Profile: Warprophet

Band Name/Pseudonym: Warprophet

Real Name: Brian Anderson

Instruments Played: Guitar, Bass, Vocals, Drum/MIDI Programming

Influences, Musical or Otherwise: The Sword, Coheed and Cambria, Thrice, Jethro Tull, AFI, Joe Satriani, Iron Maiden, Cloudkicker, Symphony X, and a whole host of other loud, guitar-driven bands that I find inspiring, Videogames, History, Nature, Comics, Sci-Fi and Fantasy

Bio: I’m from South Jordan, UT and been doing various musical things as long as I can remember. I picked up the guitar in high school and have been attempting to play it properly ever since (with varying degrees of success). I’ve taken lessons and classes here and there but am largely self-taught.

Thoughts on your experience participating in Silent Sci-Fi: This was much more fun, and more difficult than I had anticipated. In terms of my writing process, I watched the film, guitar in hand, recording software running, and played whatever came to mind over those two hours. This seemed like a good idea at the time, but also resulted in me having to divide my attention between film and guitar, which likely made me less productive than I would have been otherwise. Despite the added pressure, I still managed to get a couple of ideas I liked out of that process. I kept coming back to some of the first scenes of the film for inspiration, mentally hearing a determined, driving groove as the ship approaches this unknown planet and descends through the atmosphere.

I used Guitar Pro 6 to build the framework of the song, then imported the MIDI into Reaper, intending to use it as a scratch track that would be muted in the final mix. However, I liked the chiptune-ish sound of the synth so much that I kept it in. This was my first time using MIDI in this way in a project, and I enjoyed the way it made me change the way I worked.

Gear used included:

Brawley Threat

Gibson Explorer Gothic w/ SD Black Winter pickups

MIM Fender Jazz Bass

Egnater Tweaker 15

Fender Bassman 250

Focusrite Scarlett 2i2

Contact info: The best place to contact me is through this blog, the Silent Sci-Fi Facebook page, or at silent.scifi@gmail.com.

Other projects:

See Scott Grow

Nightmare Robot Legion

A Way to Survive

Silent Sci-Fi, Volume II Overview

Ladies and Gentlemen, Aliens, Mutants, and Robots, Silent Sci-Fi, Volume II begins in just a few weeks! 

If you are reading this and are a musician, consider yourself invited to join in, whether you are a veteran of Volume I, or participating for the first time.

How Silent Sci-Fi works:

Kickoff: On Sept 15, 2016, the name of a classic sci-fi movie will be announced, via this blog and the Silent Sci-Fi Facebook page.

Once the film title is announced, participants have one month to do the following:

• Watch the film with the sound on mute.
• Write and record an instrumental piece (2-5 minutes is anticipated, but there are no hard    limits...) inspired by the film.
• Submit your piece to the organizer as a .WAV file.

Submission Deadline: All pieces must be submitted on or before October 15, 2016, and must be accompanied by a signed Artist Release. The release is essential – we can’t share your music with the world without your permission to do so.

Album Release: The submitted pieces will be compiled by the organizer, and the finished compilation album will be released for free download via www.bandcamp.com on October 31, 2016.  

Those interested in participating can follow the Silent Sci-Fi Facebook page, and/or email the organizer at silent.scifi@gmail.com.

Stay tuned for further transmissions…

Vol I Follow-up and Vol II Announcements!

Ladies and Gentlemen, Mutants, Aliens, and Robots, thanks for helping make Silent Sci-Fi, Volume I a success. To those who contributed tracks, and those who streamed or downloaded the album, thank you. We’ve had great feedback on this album from both artists and listeners.

The original plan was for the Volume II challenge to take place in January 2017, with Volume II dropping in early February. Due to overwhelming positive feedback from Volume I contributors, that has been changed. Multiple contributors, when told the proposed timeline for Volume II, expressed an interest in doing something sooner. The challenge for Volume II will now take place during September 2016, with the album dropping on Halloween!

So, to recap, here's our new timeline for Volume II:

Kickoff: Sept 15, 2016
Deadline for submissions: Oct 15, 2016
Album release: Oct 31, 2016

Stay tuned, and watch the skies. The title of the film for Volume II will be revealed on September 15!