Ross and Jarlath - Airfix - Album artwork

Ross and Jarlath are both ridiculously talented, not just at playing the pipes but, whistle, mandolin, singing, guitar. Whatever it is one of these boys can play it and play it very, very well. In fact I would say it's a little unfair how talented this pair is. Now I think it's fair to say that a duo of pipes is not a particularly easy thing to make work. Especially if your idea of pipe music is based around the howlers that are present on most high streets around the country. This album is quite simply the polar opposite of that stereo type and not only does it sound great - care of engineer - Andre Gobbi - It also displays the boys startling technical profeciency. Just listen to 'Smenco' it is a complete mind melter, played accurately, with flair and an unwavering ability to process super complex and mathematically intricate rhythms.Now we tried to fund this record through pledgemusic.com. We failed. Mainly in part to the boys being away on tour for most of the campaign. In reality the boys have forked out most of the production costs themselves to get this off the ground and more power to them. Hopefully we will get the people who pledged to buy the album directly and the boys will not be left in a hole by taking the risk of self production in the first place.Reality dictates that artists, producers, record companies and people like me must strive to build some sort of industry ourselves. Let's face it the record companies in Scotland have always been pretty gash and now that the value of music, both digital and physical product is so depleted there simply isn't enough revenue for 3rd and 4th parties taking their cut. I been involved with a few crowd funding projects in the last 2 years and some have been more successful than others. They certainly can't be relied on to fund an album before it's made and they really only seem to work when artists are highly involved constantly update / pester their fans. Social media is a fickle and unreliably form of marketing. The results from it are not only fleeting but also inconsistent and mind boggling. Perhaps I still have to get to grips with how to use social media properly? Giving stuff away for free seems to work pretty well, competitions and alike. However it's hard to make a living out of doing things for free isn't it. I think in truth nothing can replace getting CD's, Vinyl and T-Shirts made, hitting the road, putting on a f*cking rockin' show and selling stuff direct to your audience. If you can actually do that your social media will grow anyway.Och it's a brave new world isn't it.Please go and buy the CD / Download or wait till the vinyl gets pressed and get something really worth owning. All available here.http://www.rossandjarlath.com/