Orchestral covers of System of a Down, The Mars Volta, Weezer, Muse, Florence + the Machine, and others
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$7,680
This project will only be funded if at least $25,000 is pledged by .
About this project
METAMORPHESTRA
Metamorphestra is a brand new orchestra, founded in 2016 by Nick Proch. The group brings an oversized, high-energy, film score-esque approach to familiar songs. You've probably heard the originals on the radio, but you've never heard them played by a giant orchestra of LA's finest session players, recorded and mixed in world-class recording studios. Skeptical? Check out what Rage Against the Machine's Killing in the Name sounds like when you throw in some screaming trumpets, a mess of string players, and a whole lot of energy into one recording studio:
Or Rage's Bulls on Parade?
Or how about Schism, by Tool?
…or Hysteria, by Muse?
THE SHIP OF THESEUS
THE SHIP OF THESEUS is the debut album of Metamorphestra, and it's going to be mind-blowing. Here is a small snippet of the tracklist:
- SAY IT AIN'T SO – Weezer
- STOCKHOLM SYNDROME – Muse
- SHAKE IT OUT – Florence + The Machine
- PERFECT ILLUSION – Lady Gaga
- TOXICITY – System of a Down
There will be arrangements of Radiohead, The Mars Volta, Deftones and others mixed in as well.
REWARDS
(Note: All downloadable items will be made available in MP3, WAV, and FLAC formats.)
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$5 – TRACK DOWNLOADS
Pledge $5 and you'll get to download 4 tracks of your choosing from either THE SHIP OF THESEUS or TANTAMOUNT (see below). Mix and match… you'll be able to download four tracks in total from either album. -
$10 – MORE TRACK DOWNLOADS
Pledge $10 and you'll get to download 10 tracks of your choosing from either THE SHIP OF THESEUS or TANTAMOUNT (see below). -
$15 – DIGITAL ALBUM(S)
Pledge $15 and you'll get to download both THE SHIP OF THESEUS and TANTAMOUNT, the successfully-funded Kickstarter album whose success led to the creation of Metamorphestra. The digital versions of the albums will include both the audio tracks and music videos. The tracklist for TANTAMOUNT is:
• WELCOME TO THE BLACK PARADE – My Chemical Romance
• HYSTERIA – Muse
• BULLET PROOF – Radiohead
• DREAM ON – Aerosmith
• WAKE UP – Arcade Fire
• BULLS ON PARADE – Rage Against the Machine
• CINEMA – Skrillex
• SAY SOMETHING – A Great Big World
• SCHISM – Tool
Here's a ten-minute-long preview of all the tracks recorded for TANTAMOUNT:
- $25 – CD, DIGITAL ALBUMS
Pledge $25 and you'll have the CD version of THE SHIP OF THESEUS shipped to you, along with the option of downloading both the whole album and TANTAMOUNT. -
$35 – CDs, DIGITAL ALBUMS, SHIRT
Pledge $35 and you'll get the the CDs of both THE SHIP OF THESEUS and TANTAMOUNT, the option of downloading both, and a Metamorphestra t-shirt -
$50 – CDs, DIGITAL ALBUMS, SHIRT, TICKETS
Pledge $50 and you'll receive the CD version of both THE SHIP OF THESEUS and TANTAMOUNT, digital downloads of both albums, and a Metamorphestra t-shirt. You'll also be given an admission ticket for yourself and one guest to a future Metamorphestra concert in Los Angeles (date TBD, tentatively fall 2017). -
$80 – CDs, DIGITAL ALBUMS, SHIRT, MORE TICKETS, REASONABLY SIZED ARTWORK
Pledge $80 and you'll get the CDs of THE SHIP OF THESEUS and TANTAMOUNT, the album downloads, the Metamorphestra shirt, tickets for you and two guests for a future Metamorphestra concert, and a high-quality, medium-format print of the album artwork. -
$125 – CDs, DIGITAL ALBUMS, SHIRT, EVEN MORE TICKETS, UNCOMFORTABLY LARGE ARTWORK
Pledge $125 and you'll get both CDs, the album downloads, the Metamorphestra shirt, tickets for you and up to three guests for a future Metamorphestra concert, and a high-quality, large-format print of the album artwork.
Risks and challenges
In working on TANTAMOUNT, I learned future obstacles and pitfalls to avoid, and I'm up for the challenge of creating a bigger, wilder, and more demanding album in THE SHIP OF THESEUS. The biggest hurdle that extended the production time of the first album was compounded delays—one small delay would ripple into many larger ones. While a hiccup here and there wasn't unexpected, the degree to which these delays stacked on top of each other was. If TANTAMOUNT was jumping off the ledge and hoping for the best, THE SHIP OF THESEUS is at least knowing to use a hang glider this time around.
I've simplified the rewards for this Kickstarter, and I removed incentives that invited backers into the studio to watch the recording process… Not because I don't want backers to get to watch the sessions, but because I want anyone who contributes to the Kickstarter to feel welcome to drop by the studio to watch (recording dates and location to be confirmed later).
Learn about accountability on KickstarterFAQ
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Put simply, Metamorphestra didn't "officially" exist until long after TANTAMOUNT was recorded. At the time that TANTAMOUNT was recorded, the orchestra didn't have an identity, because I ran the previous Kickstarter under my own name and similarly released the album as an album of orchestral arrangements of Nick Proch. In fairness to my players who agreed to record for me for the first album (and weren't agreeing at the time to be a part of a group called "Metamorphestra," since it didn't exist under that name at the time), I've tried to avoid referring to the arrangements posted on YouTube thus far as being recorded by Metamorphestra, because I don't like the idea of retroactively signing up my musicians to be part of a named, identified group they were a part of two years prior without having had their agreement to do so at the time.
A lot of the nice articles written so far about the videos posted have been confused about this, but it's not a big issue. THE SHIP OF THESEUS is simply the debut album under the Metamorphestra name. TANTAMOUNT was recorded with essentially the same group of musicians, but it was only released under my own name.
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Some things are best left a mystery. :) I have a completed track list in my mind, and the arrangements are written in their entirety already, for the most part, but I would rather keep the full track list a semi-secret for now. For that reason, though, I'm giving the $10 incentive option as downloading ten tracks in total, with the option of taking tracks from both TANTAMOUNT and THE SHIP OF THESEUS. It's hard to please everyone's musical tastes, but my hope is that I might also expose a few ears to new songs that they'll be interested in seeking out the originals of. The songs being covered span a rather eclectic set of genres. Someday I would really like to be able to do more narrowly focused albums (especially reading comments indicating how many people would love to see an album of just Tool arrangements), but that's a bit further down the line.