Well folks, 2012 is off to a roaring start – on the first day of the new year, we were the featured video on Vimeo’s HD Channel. As I type this, the video’s been viewed 15K times since the feature! And a few weeks ago, we were featured on the extremely awesome Laughing Squid – bada bing bada BOOM!

Moving right along, wanted to share with you the alternate version of the 360° music video for “Come and Go.” This alternate version allows you to pan the camera around in either direction as the video plays. Makes you feel as if you’re right in the center of the action – pretty wild stuff. And definitely make sure to watch it in full-screen mode to get the full effect.

Enjoy!
A

FRIENDS!

I’m outrageously psyched to share the first video from PRINTS for the song, “Come and Go (feat. The KickDrums).” As you probably noticed, the video is quite a bit wider than your average video – that’s because we shot it using a single-point capture 360° panoramic video camera! Think of it as ULTRA widescreen… as if you’re looking in all directions at once. When one character steps off the screen on the left side, they simultaneously enter the screen on the right side – it’s a real mind-melter, and I HIGHLY RECOMMEND you watch it in full-screen mode to get the full panoramic effect.

The video has already gotten a wonderful response on the web, with features at both Paper Magazine and The Atlantic!

I co-directed the video with my super-talented pal, David Sosnow. David is the co-founder of Kogeto and specializes in making 360° video camera lenses. The company has gained quite a bit of notoriety lately for their DOT, an attachment that allows you to shoot 360° video with your iPhone (TechCrunch and USA Today articles).

I met David serendipitously through a mutual friend (and the video’s co-producer), Tavit Geudelekian. From the very beginning, we wanted to capture the senses of euphoria and over-the-top joyousness of the song. It’s also quite epic in nature, feeling both fast and simultaneously slow, and we knew that slow-motion video would lend itself perfectly to that sensation. As Tavit, David and I discussed the technology David was pioneering at Kogeto, we knew instantly that we had to work together, and that 360° would be the perfect way to create the fully-immersive video experience that the song needed.

As we sketched out possible concepts, we kept coming back to one basic issue: in order to fully-exploit the 360° technology, we had to keep things interesting in all directions at all times. If we didn’t have some kind of action or character movement occupying the full 360° spectrum, we would have giant empty spaces on screen. Our challenge was to come up with something visually-compelling that would surround the camera in a circular form at all times. The image of ladies dancing in a circle first occurred to me on the subway, but it was critical to keep things beautiful and other-worldly, as opposed to crass or heavy-handed. We hoped to achieve that beauty and mystery by the identical costumes. And by having the one blonde actress in a different outfit, we hoped to create a sense that they were a team or unit of some kind with a fearless leader.

We shot the video over the course of two days on location in Brooklyn, first in May 2011 (with the ladies), and then in June 2011 (with the singer, Alex Fitts). Remarkably, our only expenses in making the video were the rental of the dolly ($70) to hold the camera for the walking shots, and then meals at both shoots (thai food & pizza, respectively). David and I then painstakingly edited the video over the course of about 3 months at David’s Brooklyn apartment. We worked incredibly well together and were able to push each other and take the video in different directions. It was a true collaboration, much like the recording of PRINTS.

As we were editing, we thought it would be best to keep the overall image “flat.” With 360° video, there are some players that enable the viewer to pan around the full 360, themselves (for example, see here). We were concerned that by giving the viewer too much choice vis-a-vis which direction to follow, it could feel overwhelming to watch. We also believe that the image is most stunning when you can see the full 360° all at once. We will be making a pan-able version available soon, but we wanted the definitive version of the video to be “flattened.”

David and I poured our hearts and souls into this project, and we had an incredibly fun time making it. None of it would have been possible without our amazing actors & friends, and we are so happy to finally be launching it into the world. We hope you enjoy it as much as we did, and if you have any questions at all, please feel free to comment below – I’ll be sure to reply ASAP.

Lastly, if you’d like to grab the MP3 of “Come and Go,” here’s a link: bit.ly/Wilkis_CAG

Thanks!
A

Happy Monday!

Here’s yet another video that surfaced with “The Hustle” as its backdrop, produced by Clash Productions. Awesome!

Love,
A

Well, I recently discovered two new ones worth sharing. One is a Rube Goldberg Machine video, designed by a group called Interplay Design:

And the second is a kind of hilarious parody of freerunning made by some high schoolers for their digital media class… Go figure!

And lastly, here’s the video I originally wrote the piece for, those 2 fateful years ago… “It’s Your Ride” for Hutchinson Bikes. The video’s getting close to 200,000 views!

Tuesday night this week marked my IFC TV debut. My song, “Pink and Purple,” found its way into an episode of Dinner With The Band. The episode’s special guest was Brooklyn MC-extraodinaire, Theophilus London. If you’ve never seen the show, it’s actually pretty cool… Each episode, NYC-rockstar-chef Sam Mason hosts an indie band and prepares a meal for them, and the band in turn performs a song or two. Previous guests this season have included Au Revoir Simone, Rufus Wainwright, Andrew WK, The Mountain Goats, and many more… good stuff!

In a fit of excitement I snapped a little photo of my name on screen:

And because I’m feeling generous today, here’s “Pink and Purple” to stream and/or download free! It’ll only allow 100 downloads, so get ‘em while they’re hot!

DOWNLOAD: “Pink and Purple” by Alan Wilkis

And lastly, here’s a video of Theophilus London performing “Cold Pillow” on the show:

Check out the Midnight Socialite mix, courtesy of URB Magazine – they put me on there twice! “Pink and Purple” and my Shwayze remix.

It’s guaranteed to get your party started: DOWNLOAD

1. B.o.B feat. Bei Maejor & Bruno Mars- Nothin’ On You (Villains Remix)
2. Marina & The Diamonds- I Am Not A Robot (Penguin Prison Remix)
3. Fever Ray- Triangle Walks (Tiga’s 1-2-3-4 Remix)
4. Róisín Murphy- Dear Miami (Original)
5. Gossip- Yr Mangled Heart (Original)
6. Groove Armada- Drop The Tough (The Twelves Remix)
7. LCD Sound System- Get Innocuous (Soulwax Remix)
8. Crookers- Hold Up Your Hand Ft. Roisin Murphy (Original)
9. Uffie- MCs Can Kiss (Original)
10. Justice- DVNO (Original)
11. Gorillaz- Stylo (Alex Metric Remix)
12. Little Jinder- Youth Blood (Silk Wolf Special Sauce Edit)
13. Kenna- Say Goodbye To Love (Remix ft. Lupe Fiasco)
14. Death From Above 1979- Black History Month (Alan Braxe & Fred Falke Remix)
15. Shwayze- Get U Home (Alan Wilkis Remix)
16. Passion Pit- The Reeling (Yasutaka Nakata Capsule Remix)
17. Bloc Party- One More Chance (Alex Metric Remix)
18. Lykke Li – Little Bit (Villains Remix)
19. Datarock- The Pretender (Holy Ghost Remix Radio Edit)
20. Relation- Your Tiny Mind (Lifelike Remix)
21. Alan Wilkis- Pink and Purple (Original)
22. Mystery Jets- The Boy Who Ran Away (Riton Re-rub)
23. Clap Your Hands Say Yeah- Over And Over Again (Original)
24. Metric- Monster Hospital (MSTRKRFT Remix)

And speaking of my Shwayze remix, here’s a little fan video I came across on Youtube – this dude’s got some serious pop-and-lock chops!

Much love,
Big A

* Chiddy Bang – Under The Sheets
* YACHT – Psychic City (Classixx Remix)
* The Virgins – Rich Girls (The Twelves Remix)
* PNAU – Baby (Breakbot Remix)
* Passion Pit – Sleepyhead (Emil and Friends Remix)
* Neon Indian – Deadbeat Summer (Database Remix)
* Air & Ryhmefest – Alpha Beta Gaga (Mark Ronson Remix)
* Matt & Kim – It’s a fact (Mano Remix feat. Hollywood Holt)
* The Cure vs Lil Wayne – Close To Me (Remix)
* Pharcyde & Sublime – Summertime in the LBC (Remix)
* The Very Best feat. Ezra Koenig – Warm Heart of Africa (Alan Wilkis Remix)
* Chromeo – Call Me Up (Bag Raiders Remix)
* Imogen Heap – Say Goodnight and Go (Remix by Back Ted N-Ted)
* Edward Sharpe – Edward Sharpe (RAC Remix)

And you can stream the episode below:

Pop tarts!

-A

A month or two ago, I got a very polite email from a dancer from the National Slovak Theater regarding my song, “The Hustle” (DOWNLOAD). He was organizing a workshop in which he and his fellow dancers would each present a choreographed routine, and he wanted to use my song for his segment.

I of course obliged, but only under the condition that he videotape it and put it up on youtube so I could see it!

It arrived in my inbox this weekend, and I was blown away. This was one of those rare and incredible moments in my musical life that I could never have imagined or predicted, one in which the power of art, music and the internet overwhelmed me completely. To think that my song somehow wound up in the ears of a dancer and turned into a show, here:

Mindblowing…

Love,
A

Good day, internet-travelers!

Two pieces of news to share today. The first of which is my song, “Milk and Cookies,” soundtracked the trailer to 48-Hour Magazine’s launch, pictured above. The concept for the project is pretty incredible, and I was stoked to be a part of it. Here’s their mission-statement:

“A raucous experiment in using new tools to erase media’s old limits. As the name suggests, we’re going to write, photograph, illustrate, design, edit, and ship a magazine in two days.”

You can learn more about the project at their website, 48hrmag.com. The trailer was created by the lovely and talented Ms. Kasia Cieplak Von Baldegg, and you can check out more of her work at www.kasiacieplak.com/.

The second piece of news for the day is another of my songs, “Snuggle Up to Nail Down,” was played during the most recent episode of “Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me.” I got an excited voicemail from a friend saying, “99.9% sure I heard you on the radio!” How cool is that? Granted, they only included the first 8 seconds of the song, but still feeling pretty cool, right now. You can check out the podcast on iTunes by clicking HERE. The song comes on around minute 39 or so, if you REALLY wanna go the distance…

New remix to come later this week, so stay tuned for that. Happy trails, til then!

-A

Hello homies!

Got a truly wonderful response to my White Hinterland remix – I’m thrilled everyone came along for the ride!

A few things to report before I recap:

1) As many of you know, I’ve been co-producing the latest record for Project Jenny, Project Jan. We are so close to wrapping it up, I can taste it! Final mixes are complete, now in the middle of the mastering process. I seriously can’t wait!

2) Pleased to announce I’m working on MY next record – going to be a collaborative effort, working with a host of awesome special guests. Been sketching out ideas pretty regularly, very pumped to be working on my own stuff again. Lord knows where it’ll all end up, but it’s going to be awesome, I can tell you that…

3) Also been working a lot these days with my new friends, The Kickdrums. Doing some Postal-Service style email exchanges, trading ideas back and forth. Really fun stuff.

4) And lastly, my song “The Hustle” randomly wound up in yet ANOTHER extreme sports video. This time for some sort of Mountain Dew snowboarding event… Check it:

Moving right along, the White Hinterland remix picked up all sorts of steam over the past few weeks! Made it into Elbo.ws Hot Tracks after a nice thumbs up from WH’s record label, Dead Oceans.

Here’s the blog breakdown – thanks a bazillion to everyone that was kind enough to listen and write:

The Independent
Prefix Magazine “warm, lounge-ish electro-pop”
The Portland Mercury
Consequence of Sound
YK2 Daily
Better Propaganda
Killah Beez
The Music Slut
Killah Beez
Day ‘n Night Blog “I don’t have to tell anyone how good Alan Wilkis and Memory Tapes are.”
MBV Music
Arjan Writes “Alan Wilkis knows how to turn obscure indie gems into wildly unique pieces of atmospheric pop and electronica”
Boom Boom Chik “It sounds fantastic… Light one up to this”
Hypetrak “Restructured into a thumping, electro-pop tune. Very clean execution of the remix”
Cause Equals Time
The Fast Life “Wilkis drops his latest airy goody inside your speaker to conjure colorful flowering meadows into your livingroom… A pure and relaxed hymn for spring… Chilled, soulful music”
Plug In Music
Hot Biscuits
Mahogany Blog “There’s no doubt White Hinterland are chuffed”
Daily Beatz “A funky quasi-psychedelic remix… I would say he hit it out of the park”
Atari Cool Kids
Ickmusic “Wilkis is no slouch in the remix chair… Spinning it on its end with a musical drumbeat and his signature sense of funk”
Music Like Dirt “He’s become something of a hype machine fuelled phenomenon… A beautifully subtle reworking of White Hinterland”
Too Much Happiness “I like the original. It’s whip cream. But this Alan Wilkis’ remix is what I like to call a sure thing”
Short and Sweet NYC
Head Underwater
Too Many Sebastians “A rather lovely remix”
What to Wear During an Orange Alert
Super Official “Another solid remix from Alan Wilkis… transforms it into something head nodding and atmospheric.”
Music for Perfect People
Parasites and Sycophants
This Music Wins
No Modest Bear
Durrty Rice “Man, AW, this dude continues to impress with his ability to put his touch on a song… I honestly haven’t heard a horrible remix by Wilkis”
Indie Here
Subservient Experiment
Blastercase “a nice, ethereal remix… the perfect track to help you shake off that winter dust, and get ready for the nice warm weather to come”
The World in a Paper Cup “Wilkis is one of the most consistent artists out there. Perhaps it’s his ear for a beat or his ability to tweak and twist just right; whatever it is I always get a grin on my face when he drops me a tune”
Ears of the Beholder “a great remix from the talented re-thinker of songs”
The Weekly Feed
Their Bated Breath
Dumb Bass
Music is My Sunshine
Cater ATL
Above Second
Together in Digital Dreams
Sonic Dissonance
Gis Gis Gis
JP’s Blog
Radio Deconstruction
Tea n Muffin
Stay True
Pop That Rocks
Street Index
Everyday King
Cities of the Plain
Yvynyl
Joey Plays

Well, that about does it… Phewf :)

See you soon!

-A