2024 – Too many projects in parallel
Another year flew by, now it’s time for a review. 2024 has been a very challenging year. Not all plans succeeded, but some more interesting things happened, that may push my musical future into a new direction.
Review
All songs, that I uploaded in 2024
Last year I received a lot of great feedback for the collage, so I decided to do another one. I didn’t write and produce as many songs as in 2023 as too many things happened in the background. I had to cancel, postpone and restaff quite a big amount of musical projects, but I still reached my goal of uploading one song a month.
Most songs received positive feedback. International radio stations and podcasts aired many of them, which made my follow and listener count grow (more later). The only thing I didn’t understand is my decreasing amount of clicks on YouTube and SoundCloud. In the last three years, most songs made 400 clicks each, but now we had to do a lot of promotion just to reach 200. I’m not the only one who noticed this big change on the platforms. Some of my friends and fellow musicians also struggled a lot. We are pretty sure that this is not because of the quality of our music.
20th Anniversary Remix albums
Having a deeper look into my collage, you may have found the big cassette. This is the cover of my 20th anniversary remix album, a compilation consisting of two full length albums. Starting November 2023, international independent artists worked on remixing a big part of my discography. We published the album end of May with 30 (!!!) remixes to celebrate my 20th anniversary of music production. This big project has been one of my personal highlights, because I got in touch with people I haven’t seen or spoken for 10 or more years. A Bandcamp listening party brought us all together, and we had a great time reviewing the remixes. I am lucky to have met some of the team in person. All remixes are great. It’s been impossible to promote all of them at once, so we decided to highlight one remix every 1–2 weeks on Facebook and Instagram.
Nebula – b-sides between 2004 and 2015
I spent the second half of my year with remastering and cataloguing my discography. While changing hardware and software quite a couple of times in the last 20 years, some songs were archived on different mediums. I found about one dozen of songs on YouTube, that were not on Bandcamp yet.
That’s why I decided to remaster and compile them into an album called “Nebula”. It’s a collection of b-sides between “Trancemotion”, “When The Sun Goes Down” and “Event Horizon”. As this album also sounds like a transition between those albums, I am lucky that Felix Nendzig shot a cover similar to “Event Horizon”. Thank you so much!
“Nebula” is available since December 6 on Bandcamp. As YouTube doesn’t allow changing the audio data from existing videos, I decided against reuploading these songs. I also didn’t want to mess up the chronological order of my back catalogue.
Your remixes
Despite all the remixes I received for the 20th anniversary remix album, there were a few outside. I am always happy to hear your interpretations. More remixes are in progress.
Nadine de Macedo – All Hallow’s Eve (Der Makrophag Remix)
Nadine de Macedo feat. Vera M. Van Bergh – Frozen (Lemonbrew Remix)
Hitting the wall – part II
I’ve been struggling with a creative block ever since I finished “Quarterlife Blues” (2023). Instead of writing new songs, I’m busy finishing my older works. I still cannot believe how many half-recorded songs I found in my archives. Songs, where vocals, guitars or lyrics are missing. Sometimes people quite during recording, leaving such a mess behind, that the remaining bandmates were lacked of motivation to continue. I’m sure that a big part of my creative block is a result from these unfortunate situations. Therefore, I decided to finish off these halfway recorded songs, even if it means that I have to find a new team. I will not throw away songs, where other people spent days and months for recording. Have a look into my list, if you want to help me. Despite the songs in that list, I will not start any collaborations and remixes.
Statistics
Your favourite songs
Like every year, I counted all the clicks from YouTube and SoundCloud to figure out which songs have been loved by the audience. All songs with the most listens from 2024 are part of this YouTube playlist. Here are the statistics:
- Take The Black – 1426
- Nuff Said – 1208
- Goodbye Warrior – 973
- Stir Fry – 807
- The Wind – 722
- Diplomacy – 649
- Princess – 642
- Hold On To Your Dreams – 610
- Something More – 615
- Hunk of Junk – 527
Most of these songs have been recorded and uploaded in 2024. My audience seems to enjoy metal, rock and pop music. I am a bit disappointed, that Pedal To Metal, one of my personal favourites, didn’t make it to the top 20. A very interesting outlier is ATB – Desperate Religion (Nadine de Macedo Remix), a remix from 2007 that still profits from daily listens. I have absolutely no idea, why this remix shows up on the YouTube algorithm, but I am grateful when people enjoy my music.
Social Media
Social media has been a prevalent topic this year. Some of my collaborators started or joined big indie music networks on Facebook, SoundCloud and Instagram. I got to learn a lot of new people, made new friends, started new collaborations or helped to promote. As a side effect, online radio stations and streamers caught interest in my music, which also gained a lot of new listeners. My SoundCloud and Facebook page both grew to 1000 (!!!) followers. YouTube grew to nearly 400 subscribers, and Instagram around 500. All these were numbers I could never think of. I am extremely grateful for your support!
I must also admit that I spend a lot of time building this network. Maybe that’s the best thing to do when you’re musically exhausted and uninspired.
Preview
In comparison to 2023, my workload is much better, but I’m still not where I want to be. My aim for 2025 is to eat up my plate before I take something new. Every project will get a deadline. If I don’t find people who record this, I may put these songs into my archive until I accidentally stumble across the right person. I may also cancel projects that have absolutely no change of finishing.
A long-lost MIDI album from 2004
Talking about archives… While cataloguing my discography, I accidentally stumbled across a floppy disk. I found a full album of MIDI files from 2004. Songs, that I never product. I guess that they got lost while moving from a MIDI sequencer to DAW. I decided to give these songs a new home by producing these songs with my old equipment (if possible).
As all songs fall under electronic music, I can happily produce and finish them on my own. This mysterious album will be published whenever it’s ready, but I consider Spring 2025. You will hear more when I decided on a title and cover.
No fixed date for the next album
Planning my next album is much trickier. Yes, we recorded and finished about a dozen new songs since “Quarterlife Blues”. There is too much noise in the background, too many topics that have to be decided before we can even think about a release. Should my next album be about one topic? Or rather one genre? Will I get the OKs of all involved people? It’s impossible for me to decide and name a release date. If you want to listen to new songs, please visit my YouTube channel.
I wish you a happy new year!
