Greetings, fellow travelers. Time (our greatest mortal enemy) is running as fast as it can. It’s hard to believe a half year is already gone and even up here in the vastness of space, it doesn’t slow down. I do love summers on Earth in the northern hemisphere where I originated, especially knowing the icy cold hands of winter will soon be upon us and those hands will hold on tightly, comparable to how fast time’s feet run. Bastards. Oh well, not much I can do about it so I think I’ll just focus on making music. Let me tell you about that.


I’d like to say I’m about to do something completely different, but In many ways it’s just me going back to things I’ve already done. If you’ve been reading these transmissions, then you already know about all the fatigues: digital fatigue, social media fatigue, AI fatigue, political fatigue and the list goes on. I know there are many of you that feel the same way, and of course some who don’t. Regardless, much of these fatigues have led me back to a path I forged over a decade ago. There were no real systems to plug into, no leaders that I was witnessing, leading the charge on how to distribute music. The old-school record label model was dead and buried and many of us were still figuring out how to navigate the shifted landscape. As I often do, I just ignore what others are doing anyway, come up with my own ideas of what makes sense to me and what I think is cool, and then move forward. Sometimes that works, sometimes it doesn’t, but if some of you remember a little album I did called Wish Upon a Blackstar or another little album End of an Empire then you were witnessing and participating in some of this already. I released music in ‘Chapters’, including a sonic ton of demos, I called “Beta Cessions” and doing commentaries over my demos so those who cared had a much more inside look at what I was thinking or doing throughout the process of writing the songs that made the final album. I included fan art in PDFs, did remix contests and the list goes on and on. So much of this has gotten totally lost in the modern streaming environment that now dominates music consumption and quite honestly I’m over it. I don’t care about my Spotify streams or how many playlists I’m added to. When Apple has reported that 33% of their daily submissions are 100% AI generated and Spotify is loading up their playlists with more and more AI generated slop, the value of the playlists and the streaming numbers becomes less and less relevant. But you know who is relevant? YOU. This is why I’m returning to giving back the power to the people, the people who actually care and the people who matter.

So let’s talk the new Celldweller album, GOD MODE. When I released “Fakebreaker” it was just a standalone single - I had no further plans beyond that. Then the idea of a gaming-centric EP was born. That thought eventually turned into “I NEED TO MAKE A WHOLE ALBUM!!!,” and here we are. So without me knowing it at the time, “Fakebreaker” was part of level 01 (What I was calling ‘Chapters’ on End of an Empire.) So if Fakebreaker was Level 01, what’s Level 02?!?! I’m so glad you asked… my next single “Respawn” is queued up and ready to drop on all mainstream platforms July 29th. So how does that tie into the entire paragraph above?? Well, for those that want to stream on DSP’s like Spotify, Apple etc, nothing will change. You’ll just get the single when it drops on July 29th. But for those of you who want more, to dive deeper… that’s where the “levels” make sense. Level 02 will not be 1 song. There will be the main song obviously, but also the instrumental and what I’m calling “XP’s,” which are similar to the “Factions” from End of an Empire. These songs are based on the corresponding main song from the level and will include “Story Mode” content like I did on the “Factions”. Characters (probably mostly voiced by me like they were on the “Factions”) will be sprinkling a bit of the narrative of the GOD MODE concept album throughout. Our main character Fakebreaker makes his debut on both the “Fakebreaker” XP (the song “Invisible Shadow”) and the “Respawn” XP (“I’m Still Here”), along with The Swarm (voiced by my 3 sons :) More of the plan is to funnel content from the studio, like photos and video content as part of these levels, and we’re working on more exclusive things as part of this.


Ok, sounds good but where does this all go down?!? I’m glad you asked, again… EVEN. EVEN is a rapidly growing platform we’ve been vetting for awhile and feels kind of like Patreon on steroids. All relevant details will be revealed very soon, but I’m pretty stoked about going back to roots in a musical culture that is now totally drowning in noise. I’d rather just fill up the kiddie pool and invite you guys over to hang out at my private pool party instead of us all treading water in an ocean of slop. Oh, another cool part of EVEN is anyone participating there will get tracks early, before they are ever released anywhere else on the web. You get to stream them initially and later download them. No suddenly greyed out tracks in your playlists which is painfully common. It’s time to get back to the idea that we WILL own stuff and be happy!


There’s more to divulge but I think you get the idea for now, and that’s a good thing for those waiting for the new Scandroid album Lost Horizon because I’m doing the same thing for that. In fact I’ve had a song mixed and ready for a looooong time, just waiting to roll the plan out. The next single being the Scandroid cover (not remix) of Celldweller’s “Jericho.” I know, I know… a Scandroid cover of a Celldweller song with additional programming by Circle of Dust, remixed by FreqGen… 😂 I do  love collaborating with myself because I know everyone involved pretty well. Me, myself and I have it on lockdown and for me, all 4 projects have a distinct sound. (To be clear this version of “Jericho” is all Scandroid.) It’s very different from the original Celldweller version and I’m sure at least 2 or 3 of you will like it. (Thanks Mom & Dad.) I will also be doing what I’m calling “Lost Transmissions” (which are like the “XP’s” - songs related to the main track, probably a few with “Story Mode” content.) These so far are much darker, heavier, cyberpunk-ier tracks than I’ve traditionally done with Scandroid. Some are downright filthy and may get me locked up in that XR-87 prison system you’ve probably heard rumors about. (If you want to know more about it, check out the song “Breakout” from End of an Empire.)


Let’s talk my label FiXT for a minute. It’s weird for me to see these words typing across the screen as I clickity-clack my keyboard, but it’s true - FiXT celebrates it’s 20th year as a record label this year AND we have some pretty exciting things to announce. Wait, what?? When and where?!?!? Well, I’m glad you asked again, again. We are going to announce an online event that will go down in August, and it will be jam packed with updates, cameos, new signings and other cool little easter eggs. Stay tuned!


Well the proximity light just flickered on, so that means I’m reaching the gravitational orbit or some planet or another. I’ve been too lazy to check the Positional Drift Monitor (a.k.a.. the “Where-am-I” monitor, as we refer to it) to see what planet it is, but it doesn’t matter - I just need to wrap this up before I’m too deep in the GravPull of this circular rock I’m apparently plummeting towards. I do sincerely want to thank all of you who replied with encouragement in response to the last Transmission (the most emails I’ve gotten.) I replied to many of you, but if I missed yours - THANK YOU! I keep saying it, but I haven’t done it yet, but I’ve been wanting to flick a camera on and just read these Transmissions for those of you who may have to manually control their transport devices and would just rather listen than read. I’ve been thinking about it, so that’s a start. I mean much of the time I’m just sitting in the cockpit waiting to get to another star system, so I could use some of that downtime to do a video-read of these newsletters. Let me hear from you if you’d want me to actually do something like that.


Until the next time I send a transmission (which is usually ~30 Earth calendar days,) be safe & stay sane in a crazy world, whichever one you may be residing on. ❤️

PS - that thing I told you about getting to access songs early on EVEN - yeah, you can go do that RIGHT NOW and listen to “Respawn” a full week before it goes live on other platforms plus other exclusives available on EVEN. Details below.

Unlock total system control with the ultimate GOD MODE access.  The top-tier includes the full album, all XPs, instrumentals, full song stems (vocals and all instrument types split into separate audio tracks), music/lyric videos, Beta Cessions demos, commentary tracks, and BTS media.  Plus, get direct access to Klayton with exclusive Zoom Q&As.  Explore the lore, dissect the audio, and step inside Klayton’s spaceship for the ultimate Celldweller experience.


The full GOD MODE album arrives in 2027 - unlock the Season Pass on EVEN to get early access and exclusive content not available anywhere else, as each level of the album is released.