April Shmapril

It's with some sadness that I have to announce my book Independent Animation: Developing, Producing and Distributing Your Animated Films will, as of this month, no longer be in print. Ah well, we had a good run and it was nice to be a *sniff* sort of real author for a while.

APRIL FOOL'S. Ah, we have fun. I'm delightful.

It won't be in print because a brand-new, updated second edition will be coming out on April 11th. 

In essence this is the same book at its heart but it was a welcome opportunity to condense elements of it and keep it more up-to-date, as well as adding in a bunch of brand-new case studies and expanding on certain areas that have become more invaluable to indie artists in recent years, such as navigating the festival landscape and getting films out in the world and seen by the right people. As with the first edition, it is loaded with exclusive insight into the working processes of some of the industry’s most noteworthy indie animation talents, including Signe Baumane, Adam Elliot, Don Hertzfeldt, Kirsten Lepore, Robert Morgan, David OReilly, PES, Bill Plympton, Rosto, Chris Shepherd and dozens more; not to mention curational perspectives from the folks behind Ottawa International Animation Festival, Animafest Zagreb, Manchester Animation Festival, Cardiff Animation Festival, London International Animation Festival, . It also boasts a new cover model courtesy of the incredible stop-motion talent Joseph Wallace, whose pictured film Salvation Has No Name is smashing it at the moment (be sure to catch it at Annecy if you've not seen it yet). It's a little sad to bid farewell to the original Ernie Biscuit cover, but rest assured the areas of the book that cover Adam Elliot's work have remained untouched.

You can preorder now - and if you buy it directly from the publisher you get free shipping to boot. PLUS if you buy it at any point throughout April you get a freakin' massive 20% discount. We spoil ya, so we do.

It'd be nice to get a new film of my own off the ground at some point in the near (or at least not horribly distant) future. In the meantime I'm still riding the magnificent Laura-Beth's coattails all across the magical land of Wales with Crafty Witch's CAF on Tour inclusion. Next stop will be the Taliesin Arts Centre in Swansea, Monday 24th April at 7:30pm.

Circling back to the subject of shilling my wares, the extraordinarily short run of the My Head is Too Small for My Body physical CD editions is nearly depleted; there are just four copies left so if you don't want to miss out (just imagine the unbearable, wide-reaching shame) be sure to hit me up on Instagram or Facebook and we'll sort you out.

That's enough now. That's enough.

February Shmebruary

In spite of myself, I've put out an EXTREMELY limited (because I'm delusional but not that delusional) CD run of my latest album My Head is Too Small for my Body. Pop me a message on Insta or Facebook if you want to grab one up, if for no other reason than to have something shiny to put your mug of tea on. Or even better, waggle it about when your mates come over and bond over what the fuck that Ben Mitchell thinks he's doing.

A mere £5.50 incl. postage (UK only soz) and boasting a chunky SEVEN bonus tracks #phwoar

Of course if you don't fancy the clutter and like your music all digital-like, you can check it out on a variety of streaming platforms. I'm not up to much else outside of work these days, so here’s some more podcasts for ya:

After a bit of a hiatus I've resumed my Independent Animation companion podcast series, starting with  a chat with indie filmmaker Sean Buckelew about his incredible film Drone, which some of you may have caught at my Manchester Animation Festival screening back in November. If you didn't come then, firstly, you're dead to me, but the good news is you can now watch it in full online. Hopefully that'll bring you some comfort in death.

There's also a new Animation One-To-Ones where I meet Hair Love co-director Everett Downing Jr. and Patrick Harpin to discuss their new family animated Netflix series My Dad the Bounty Hunter. They're nice guys, so go check it out and cheer yourself up, for chrissakes. 

Heads-up for next month, Cardiff Animation Festival On Tour featuring Laura-Beth's Crafty Witch has another stop coming up at Brynmawr's Market Hall Cinema, 11am Saturday 18th March. Pop it in your diaries, you lovely Brynmawr-ians.

A'ight, I'm done. Go in peace.

Pod Pals

Some new podcasts for your waitin' ears. In episode 106 of the Skwigly Animation Podcast we welcome back pals o'Skwigly and all-around good eggs Matthew Walker and Jane Davies, directors of the new Aardman series Lloyd of the Flies. Beginning on CITV this week, the project marks the continued expansion of Aardman’s project roster as its first “in-house” CG production with a major brand push planned for the show and its characters.

Also discussed: The premature demise of the Young Audiences Content Fund, notable projects from the recent Disney D23 Expo, the South Park 25th anniversary concert, excitement for upcoming Netflix features Wendell & Wild and Pinocchio, Mike Judge’s second Beavis & Butt-Head reboot, fake/scam festivals and mysteries surrounding the production circumstances of the new Ren & Stimpy Show.

Our series of podcasts minisodes in association with the Linoleum Contemporary Animation and Media Art Festival programme I'M FINE! continues with episode 3, in which I speak with Fabienne Priess (Tick) and Jakub Krzyszpin (Inertness) about their work and mental health in general.

If you're based in the UK you can catch the full I'M FINE! programme at the Bolton Film Festival on October 7th 10:45am at the Bolton Museum. You might also want to check out some companion written interviews over on Skwigly with participants Yen Liang Chen (Am I Oright), Angel Wu (Drawn Undrew Draw) and Anna Samo (Conversations with a Whale).

Some festival news for you France-dwelling folk, my film Speed will be among the line-up of the 2022 Festival International du Court Métrage de Lille's all-night animation programme Nuit de l’animation. This takes place September 24th at Théâtre Sébastopol from 9pm and goes through to 6am, so maybe bring a thermos.

Much love and gratitude to the folks out there who've supported the new album My Head Is Too Small for My Body over on Bandcamp the last few days. If you're a milleniboomer like me who still holds on to such archaic methods of music consumption as iTunes then the album is also available via Apple Music, and if you're more of a streamer than a buy-for-keepsies-er then it's available now on Spotify:

I've never looked better

I'd originally planned to release my new album My Head Is Too Small for My Body on the 19th, but as that's proved to be an unexpectedly contentious date I've rescheduled it...to right now. Surprise!

While I've been popping out a fair few EPs in the interim, this is the first full-length record of mine since The Birdcage in 2015. Part lockdown project, part therapy exercise, this one's a bit more thoughtful lyrically than my albums have been in the past and I got a lot of demons out of my system with it. I also got some help from brilliant musicians Ed Richardson, Phil Brookes and Leanne Brookes to make it sound extra swish.  

It's available on Bandcamp now for a mere bag of shells (and you can try before you buy), but if you just can't bear to part with your cash then it'll be rolled out on various streaming platforms over the next few weeks.

I actually snuck out one final EP for this one last week, featuring the unnecessarily rude On The Air plus two non-album tracks Burnout and Revolución that didn't quite make the final cut. Again that's on Bandcamp as well as various streamers plus I cobbled together a disconcerting little lyric video for it:

Piggy, where'd it all go wrong?

Happy inauguration day folks!

Man alive, we actually made it to this point. To mark the occasion here's a completely unrelated new song I wrote about a certain Piggy that outstayed its welcome. The last Struwwelpeter EP in anticipation of the nearly-done new album My Head Is Too Small For My Body is available from today via Bandcamp (stream below) featuring the exclusive extra track Mysterious Bruises with guest vocals by Laura-Beth as well as an alternate acoustic mix of the title track.

Gracias to Hannah Stevens of Weird Eye Collective for the painterly assistance with the EP cover art.

Another little'un

New music for your Monday!

Hell For Leather, my latest EP in anticipation of the still-cooking Struwwelpeter album My Head Is Too Small For My Body, is up now on a bunch of platforms to stream/purchase. As well as an instrumental version of the title track it also features alternate non-LP versions of Act Right (which originally appeared on my 2015 LP The Birdcage) and the previously-unreleased Worst of You, which will be a bit longer and ruder on the album proper when it comes out.

Depending on where your loyalties lie you can check it out on Spotify (below), Bandcamp, Google Play, Apple Music, Amazon and Deezer, with more to come.

Listenables

Guess who liked "Weird Al" album covers growing up...

It's been a minute or two since the last one but today sees the release of the second single from the upcoming sixth Struwwelpeter album My Head Is Too Small For My Body. The album's still a ways from being cooked but it's taking shape and unlike any records I've produced it's actually turning out to be quite thematically consistent. In the meantime this song is called Progressive and it draws on an affection for alternative synth-pop I developed during my time on Trampires. It also lyrically felt like a prescient choice given the recent convergence of cancel culture and societal uprising that kicked off a couple weeks back. To that end, if bought/streamed from Google Play, Apple Music, Spotify or Amazon then 100% of any sales revenue will be going directly to the NAACP Legal Defense Fund and Color of Change (so 50% each), two organisations doing particularly important work amidst all of this uproar. For those of you on Bandcamp they will similarly be donating revenue to NAACPLDF if you buy on the 19th of the month moving forward.
The EP also features an exclusive remix of the song as well as a re-recorded acoustic version of an old track Staying In, a song about...well, staying in. Although the original version was less about social responsibility and more about being anxious and lazy it felt like a fitting topic either way.

If you're after some more lockdown listenin' then there a bunch more episodes of our Skwigly Film Club series in which we watch and discuss animated features. We'll be resuming the podcast from next week for another batch if you want to get involved but in the meantime you can listen back to our watch-throughs of The Iron Giant (Brad Bird), Corpse Bride (Mike Johnson/Tim Burton), South Park (Trey Parker) and The BFG (Brian Cosgrove).

Montage!

In these final months of its festival eligibility there are two events left on my wishlist that I'm waiting on before I start thinking about an online release for Sunscapades. One of them - the fantastic Anima Brussels Animation Film Festival - has just announced their official selection and I'm very happy to see they picked it for their Animated Nights category. Especially humbling to see it in such good company, alongside some brilliant new work by Erin Kim, Laura Jayne Hodkin, Fokion Xenos and Mirai Mizue among others. Don't have the specifics just yet but the festival runs from February 21st to March 1st; fingers crossed I'll be able to head over to this one in person.

Some non-film news is that I've just put out the first single from my upcoming sixth Struwwelpeter album My Head Is Too Small For My Body that I'll hopefully have done by mid-2020. This one features special guest guitars by my old chum Ed Richardson and is a Spotify exclusive so it can't be bought or streamed elsewhere, at least for the time being. Give 'er a whirl:

I'd always suspected there was a delightfully corny action movie montage song in me somewhere and I imagine that working on Chuck Steel a couple years' back knocked it loose. For the b-side I even did a special "80s Movie Montage" remix for it to amp up the cheese.

After taking a brief break from being on sale after Black Friday, my book Independent Animation: Developing, Producing and Distributing Your Animated Films is once again, yep, on sale! From now through to the new year you can get it at 20% off if you order direct from CRC Press, and if you act fast you may even get it in time for the holidays. This is another publisher-wide sale so it applies to their other books - and if you get two or more of then it's a meaty 25% off! Plus free shipping, of course. What are you actually waiting for?