30 Days... Introduction
The year is 1779. Our ship is The Armageddon. 30 songs in 30 days tell the story of her crew and our final voyage...
30 Days & Nights At Sea... Filmed in Bellingham, Mt. Vernon & Anacortes, WA, these 32 videos feature over 2 hours of brand new music and support from 10 other artists from around the Northwest. Watch the trailer below, then check out each of the three acts containing 10 videos each...
Act 1 | Act 2 | Act 3
Author's Notes: An Adventure In Creative Writing...
"30 Days & 30 Nights At Sea..." is a Musical-Adventure-Novel. Recorded daily & consecutively for 30 days, these 32 video segments tell the story of the Face Reader & his journey on the Armageddon's maiden voyage in 1779.
The rules: 1) Write, record & post a new song everyday. 2) No old material. Period.
The Tools: 1) My wits. 2) My mitts. 3) My continuity beard.
Having only decided to begin this month-long writing bonanza the night before, Day One began with a bang with the news that the King of Pop died. After hearing the news, I recorded the first chapter in a friend's empty bedroom. Thirty coffee-soaked-sleep-deprived-wall-to-wall days later, a load of friends with a ton of confetti met to record the last chapter at the park. What lies between the first and last chapter is a time capsule of creativity. These aren't the polished, produced, 6th draft versions of songs that make it to an official album release, but songs in their most raw form: the First Draft. We left the room noise, the car alarms and technical flubs because quite honestly, with a daily deadline, capturing the moment becomes more important than capturing perfection. The byproduct is a collection of some of my favorite moments in music thus far.
The workload for each day consisted of writing the story (fig. 1), writing the music (fig. 2), recording the material (fig. 3), editing the video, posting it online (fig. 4) and sleeping for a few hours to do it all over again the next day.
How To Read A Musical-Adventure-Novel
A) As the Author intended: Listen to "30 Days..." from start to finish. It was written daily and consecutivly with each song representing a chapter in the linear story of The Face Reader and his journey on the Armageddon in 1779. The narrator appears at the end of each Act recounting the events contained in the Act and giving choose-your-own-adventure choices. Refer to the text as there are illustrations, chapter headings and additions not included in the audio/video.
B) Highlights: If you don't have the time to listen to more than two hours of brand new music, then start with some of the featured chapters including those featuring local artists from Bellingham & Anacortes, WA. Some suggested chapters are "Ch. 1: Bon Voyage", "Ch. 8: Any Port In The Storm", "Ch. 14: Evangeline", "Ch. 13: Some Kind Of Harbinger" & "Ch. 22: That Poor, Poor Serpent". Be warned: skipping around can spoil the story, so proceed at your own risk.
-CJRW
Forward, by Jacson A. Bevens
"We walk through life at our own pace; some sprinting, some crawling, some meandering. Some stroll, some jog, some even skip. Most walk. Corbin Watkins somersaults.
"When he told me on his birthday that he was going to record 30 different songs in 30 days, my immediate reaction was, "of course you are." Corbin's mind is a space where creativity knows not its boundaries -- an artistic field so fertile that it houses a veritable eco-system of ideas and expression.
"It's not Corbin's creativity that makes him a genius, however. Many, if not all, of us have moments where inspiration strikes and we feel as though we have created or discovered something truly unique and beautiful in our very own brain -- that invention that would totally make life so much more convenient, that poem with the enchanting meter, that idea for a screenplay that would completely revolutionize modern cinema. No, Corbin is a genius because he puts feet to the faith, as it were.
"You see, Corbin's faith in his own artistic and musical abilities is so strong that, should a psychological earthquake of doubt strike everyone simultaneously, Corbin's vision would be the structure still standing: the paradigm of inspired architecture. There is a chasm between Idea and Reality that is intimidatingly wide and, while most of us can barely muster the strength to imagine a bridge, Corbin is busy building a zipline.
""30 Days & 30 Nights At Sea" is a musical novel combining classic adventure narrative with modern pop sensibilities. Corbin takes the listener on an oceanic journey with the Face Reader, a tormented but determined protagonist whose voyage is beset by obstacles both wondrous and terrifying.
"Collaborating with some of Bellingham's finest musicians like John Furtado, Jeremiah Austin (of the Love Lights), Jon VanDuesen, Erin Harker, and Late Tuesday's Dana Little, Corbin's project rides the ebbs and flows of his hero's journey. Strain to catch the details in the story and you will be impressed; step back to feel the music and you will be transported to the high seas, where myth and treachery reign.
"It is follow-through that separates the geniuses from the plebes, and Corbin Watkins has battalions of follow-through. "30 Days" truly was written and recorded in 30 days, and it has been my privilege to have yelled "Bon Voyage" when the ship set sail and to have waved it back in when the journey was finished.
Enjoy."
