NOTE: Can we all appreciate the irony that I sent out an email about learning from your failures, and I completely botch it? That’s some next-level meta humor right there. 

Hey kiddo,

Let’s talk about failures.

So we’re getting close to the release of Love Bites (February 10th). Back in November I was pretty sure I wasn’t going to be able to make the Valentine’s Day deadline I’d set. I just had WAY too much to do, and too many holidays in the way. Add on top of this some motivation-killing depression, and it was pretty much set in stone that it wouldn’t get done.

The upside of giving up is, it takes off a lot of pressure. No longer dreading the missed deadline, I was able to focus a little more and get done as much as I could. With more time, I could try to do some harder things, like photographing the album cover.

I mentioned in the last Spotlight update my photography escapades, but I wanted to give you guys a little more insight. Cause the more we can learn from our failures, the more successful they are!

My original idea for the Love Bites cover was a big, juicy heart, with a fat stake in it. With it being a Valentine’s Day release, I wanted to put a vampiric twist on your standard valentine. So I needed a heart, a stake, and a way to photograph it well.

The stake was easy. Grab some spare wood from the garage, carve it up, give it a black wash to make it all old and used.

Here’s a shot of it all finished:

Not too shabby, huh?

Much trickier was a heart. Turns out China seemingly has a lock on fake hearts, and all shipping from China would take until late January. Not enough time. So I had to think of another way to make a heart.

I looked into buying a cow heart from the butcher, but it turns out they are fairly expensive, and ENORMOUS. (But let me know if you need any cow heart recipes. I found plenty of those.)

While looking for a fake heart, I came across heart-shaped jello molds. This seemed like the most plausible path to pursue, so I ordered two of them.

But what do you put IN a mold to make a fake heart? Plaster of Paris is the easy answer, but I can’t put a stake through a stone heart. So how about silicone? Works for sex toys, why not a heart? Problem is, again, that stuff is expensive, and shipping time was prohibitive. So, I found what I hoped was a happy medium. Paint-on liquid latex rubber. It’s designed to make mold of small things, so you can make cookies or ornaments. It’s meant to be layered on top of an object, painting a thin coat over and over again. I was going to try and fill a 12 oz mold with it.

The first day I would paint a thin layer, wait three hours, and then paint another thin layer. I wasn’t even sure if it was drying. That night I just poured the rest in there, and left a heater blowing on it all night. I let it sit for a whole day, and the top of it seemed pretty firm and sturdy. S I tried to pull it out…and it was a total disaster. The middle of the heart was as liquidy as the unused stuff in the container. Even a bunch of THE VERY FIRST LAYER was still wet.

Two days lost.

Back to square one.

Well, I had no intention of writing a novel here, so let’s stop there, and I’ll pick up with the rest tomorrow. I can assure you, this ends happily, and tomorrow I’ve got a special surprise for you.

Keep being awesome,
Vlad, your Vampire Step-Dad

The long wait is finally over! No more contests or anything else in between you and your very own Vampire Step-Dad T-Shirt.

Imagine all the phone numbers you’ll get sporting this stylish tee featuring my handsome mug! Just don’t be surprised when they request you wear the t-shirt on the first date. Maybe even the second. But, you know what, if they ask you to wear on the third, I think that may be a sign you should call things. You deserve better than that. You want someone that’s into YOU, not just your t-shirt.

But, you know, make sure you send them in my direction during the break up speech.

Where was I?

Oh yeah! Shirts! I took a mirror selfie so you could see how awesome the shirt looks on a grade-A (step)dad-bod.

So the awesome folks over at Square Wave are producing some very fine wares, and one of them just so happens to feature your favorite nocturnal surrogate parent. There are currently only 5 in existence. 3 for the shirt contest winners (all of whom have reported back as being very happy with the quality of the shirt) and one for me, and one for my wife. She actually got the first shirt. I didn’t even get mine til last week. She kept sleeping in it, like it was just some old shirt. No respect, that woman.

You guys, there is no hope of me staying on topic for this, so I’m just going to drop the link and tell you to go have fun.

TREAT YO’SELF!

In other news:
The new EP is officially announced! “Love Bites” will be released Friday, February 10th, just in time for whatever romantic weekend plans you have for Valentines Day. Whether it be a romantic beach get-away, or a frozen pizza with the cats watching a pirated movie, I just want Love Bites to be your soundtrack.

Check out this neato teaser video I made for it:https://twitter.com/VampireStepDad/status/817496255886741505

Love Bites will be available digitally, and on a limited edition, hand-signed cassette. The cassette will also feature A Night In The Life Of…, my last EP, on side B. So you’re really getting 2 releases for the price of one cassette. Who says the ol’ step-dad doesn’t take care of you?

Alright, now, you gotta promise me something. If you buy a t-shirt, you are OBLIGATED to send me a pic of yourself wearing it. If you don’t want them made public, that’s fine, let me know and I won’t post it anywhere. Put please, I would love to have a picture of your face smiling back at me up on my wall while I make new tunes. You are an inspiration, and I’d love to have you there while I write.

Alright, enough of that gushy stuff. Go get dressed for school..

Keep being awesome,

Vampire Step-Dad

Vampire Step-Dad Update:
Oh boy. I am officially in crunch mode. I have all 6 songs for the new EP almost completely finished. I need to get a recording session booked for my friend to do some saxophone, but other than that, the music is finished.

But I’ve also got to get some voice acting recorded for Thursday at 7 Part 2. Yep, that’s right, the next EP will open with another installment. I think you’ll like it. Unless you hated the last one, then you’ll likely hate this one too.

I spent this week trying to learn how to make silicone molds and photography, so I could shoot the album cover. Let’s just say it didn’t work out. 4 days of work lost, but I learned some neat things about alginate and how it doesn’t hold paint very well…

 

Big news in the physical merch world!
This EP will will be my first physical release, cause I’m putting out cassettes! I’ll be making just 40, with the new EP on Side A, and my last EP, A Night In The Life Of… on Side B. They’ll be $10. So for $10 you get two EPs worth of music, and a sweet collectable cassette. Oh, and I’ll be signing every single one, so you can brag to your grandma about that.

 

ALSO, Starting January 10th, I have SHIRTS! I’ve partnered with Square Wave Clothing to manufacture and ship totally awesome VSD shirts.

I’m trying to get together some pretty media to make the EP announcement something special, so sorry I’ve not given you the release details yet. But I assure you, it will be within the next two months.

Maybe this little teaser video of one of the songs off the new EP will tide you over until there’s more news.

Alright! Stay tuned!

Hey guys! This week only, you have a chance to win a currently unavailable Vampire Step-Dad t-shirt!

I’m teaming up with the awesome folks at Square Wave Clothing to bring you some totally sweet merch. As a launch promotion, they asked me about doing a contest for a free shirt. I thought it was a great idea, but I didn’t want to do that contest you’ve seen a thousand times where you like a Facebook page, follow on Twitter, tweet out a link, etc etc. I wanted to do something a little more meaningful.

Instead of asking you to whore out your social media accounts, I want to ask you to make a little sacrifice to me. I mean, for others.

I have a soft spot in my heart for a little island nation called Haiti. It’s had a tough history, and despite the wonderful people there, they seem to keep having the rug pulled out from under them. Whether it be politics, earthquakes, hurricanes…they have a hell of a time getting back up on their feet. SO, I’m asking YOU to donate at least $1 for a chance to win a Vampire Step-Dad T-Shirt.

Yeah instead of trying to bolster my social rankings or sell some more music, I want to try and do something that really matters. Will you help me do that? 

Here’s the deal: In order to accept donations as low as $1, I am using YouCaring.com to collect the money, which I will then transfer over at the end of the contest. (Sunday the 18th). I wanted to use HTF’s own site, but they don’t accept donations lower than $5 (because of fees and stuff), and I didn’t want the barrier to entry to be that high. You’ll have to trust me on this one. That’s really all there is to it.

What is you money going to? Good question!
The Haitian Timoun Foundation is a group that works alongside HAITIAN based organizations, helping them to scale and remain sustainable. It’s like a mutual fund, if you’re trying to invest in Haiti’s future. Or a startup incubator for Haitian-led organizations focusing on leadership, education and poverty eradication. It’s not about swooping in and saving Haiti. It’s about giving Haiti a chance to fix itself from within.

There’s more detail on the donation site, and the official site says it all a lot better than I can.

OK, sound good? Great! So here’s what to do!

Donate $1 or more HERE = Get a chance to win a VSD T-Shirt. Contest ends Sunday the 18th at 11:59pm EST.

But wait! There’s more! To try and encourage you guys to share this contest far and wide, I’m going to sweeten the deal. Square Wave offered me one shirt at no cost. BUT, I’ve decided I’m gonna throw some of my own weight in there to help make this big. So, for every $100 raised, I will add another winner to the contest. So if we raise $99, one of your will win a shirt. $100? TWO WINNERS / TWO SHIRTS/ $200? Three winners! How far can we go? That’s up to you!

This email is getting way too long, but I just have to say thank you to anyone that’s even considering entering. I believe very much in HTF’s mission, and hopefully you can see the value in it too.

If you have any questions, you know where to find me. Reply to this email, or find me on Facebook or Twitter (links below)

Keep being awesome!
– Vampire Step-Dad