IamA Little Cecil, I'm not a real musician, but the song I made just to annoy my wife was released worldwide on all possible platforms and is officially registered and eligible to be in the billboard charts . AMA!

Well, don't leave us hanging. Did you successfully annoy your wife?

man she is livid. she’s actually being a very good sport about it and has finally agreed that maybe yes, the dust on the desk does look like an epic space movie. She’s also my best friend and we tend to have an ongoing battle to see who can take a joke the furthest. At the moment I think I’m winning but that just makes me nervous what her next move will be.

It really doesn't sound like she thinks it does look like an epic space movie. Have you considered turning it into an epic space trilogy? That might convince her.

I think it should be an epic ten part series on netflix, that would get the point across

The lyrics go "The dust on my desk IS like an epic movie!", while the title everywhere say "LOOKS".

Does this bother you just as much as it does me?

This was a very drunken mistake. It was also 2am at this stage and I was way too excited about my ridiculous plan

What's cooler than being cool?

0 degrees Kelvin, or being cool before it was cool to be cool

Why did you think it was okay to mention your cat looks like an english gentleman and NOT post a picture? I demand satisfaction

Let me get home and I'll upload a snap :)

This is dumb. This is my kind of dumb. I like it.

What does your wife think of you now?

she sees the funny side but cringes every time I play it to her. she HATES the autotune stuff which is exactly why it’s in there

Would she prefer a lo-fi punk version, because I'm pretty sure I could make that happen in a few hours.

EDIT: Just waiting on our drummer to get home from work. We'll get a couple shitty recordings done.

I’m working on a few remixes ;)

Obligatory "How high were you?"

a couple beers in.

Why don’t you consider yourself a “real musician”?

I don’t read music. I only know what sounds good or what I like to hear. I only last week discovered that I rather enjoy experimenting with things like garage band and adobe audition and my iphone microphone.

Just because you can't write doesn't mean that you can't speak. ;)

Seriously, I'd argue that the majority of folks that play music have little to no comprehension of how to read musical notation.

Nice job on doing it just to get at your SO. I used to "serenade" my old GF with a hot lil ditty comprised of staccato diminished fifths and the refrain of "Beef Jer-ky", so I can share in your glee.

Cheers!

[deleted]

want to be my friend? :) (edit: sorry, I was trying to ask in a clumsy way if you’d be able to offer any advice? a quick pm would be great if you think of anything! thanks)

Is it on YouTube?

Yes, I’ll update the post with that now :) edit: here it is

Are you going to release an instrumental version? I could actually listen to an album of music like that if there wasn't the annoying robot voice over it. The instruments were good. Voice bad.

sure I can do that. I’ll be working on some new stuff this weekend

You really need to get some big stupid artist to do a remix for you. "The Dust on My Desk Looks Like an Epic Movie (Instrumental) (DJ Tiesto Remix) (Extended Version)"

If you could just reach out to David Guetta for me that would be great

How do you feel knowing you made a modern masterpiece?

I can’t wait until it’s christmas number one. heh.

Have you managed to make any money out of your masterpiece yet?

​

Any plans for future work?

No nothing really. I just hope I make back the $25 I spent creating an artist profile with a distributor otheriwse my wife really will be cross. But seriously yes, I love the process and have been consuming all kinds of inspiration and tutorials in the hope that I can improve my work, even just as a hobby. :)

Looks like you already made that 25 dollars from Spotify. Well 24.492 at the least. Apparently Spotify pays at least 0.006$ per stream and the song is now at 4082. That's a w!

maybe dick

What was the hardest part of the music production process for you?

Doing it quietly without waking my wife and child because it was after bed time and I was sneaking the hell out of the project :)

Did you purposely make the album cover “looks like” and record “is like” just to further annoy your wife? Because if she’s OCD like me, that’s just brilliant.

It actually says both. Almost as if the female vocal says it incorrectly and the male corrects her ;). but yes that was a foolish error on my drunken part

Are all spouses as aggressively annoying as you?

she started it

Really milking this for all it's worth, huh?

read my username. I have a mission to complete. It’s not over until she has to listen to the song playing in the frozen yoghurt section of the grocery store

How exactly does one get 'officially registered and eligible to be in the billboard charts'? And for that matter, get onto platforms like Spotify or Apple.

Also, your desk totally looks like outer space. Good eye. And the whole thing is hilarious, so a job well done all around.

I had to register it with Nielsen soundscan in the US and Millward Brown in the UK. They need the song’s EAN or UPC (barcode number, track, artist and other details.) It’s a straightforward process (UK needs applying for a tornado account first) or a distributor can do it for you for a reasonable price, sometimes also included in their more expensive packages.

Spotify, apple and every other platform submission, is currently available only through a distributor. CDBaby, Distrokid or Dittomusic all offer different angles.

Are you okay?

Mostly. Thanks :)

I'm suddenly very glad my guy hasn't got a shred of artistic anything, because this is definitely something I could see him pulling lol. This is just all sorts of awesome.

When you decided to just put it out there, realistically speaking, what did you really expect from it? Just the annoyed-wife-total-win result? Or were you hoping it would spread a bit and become amusing to others? Any plans for more annoy the wife musical hits?

I hoped I could kick up a bit of fuss on imgur about it and for her to see it as she browsed in bed. this is way cooler and yet I'm now constantly nervous of her releasing a diss track in retaliation

I would love to see it animated, any plans for that?

Not at the moment. Although I did also turn it into a fully playable asteroids game on a whim (see spacedesk.itch.io)

Sorry I'm late! What was your wives reaction when she woke up and found out you've released a song worldwide when she was asleep?

By the way, I'm really digging the instrumental up in this b. It's so groovy, I might unironically listen to it lol

It’s not how late you are but what you do when you get there that defines you. She just generally tuts and tries not to show how funny she thinks I am. She’s doing a great job of hiding it, but she’ll crack any moment now I can feel it. And hey, thanks!

Can you tell me why most alligators are abnormally aggressive?

Everybody’s always leaving them when all they want is some company. Everyone tells them they don’t have time right now and promise instead to see them later.

Was the lil rocket already there, or did you draw it for the sake of the photo/cover art?

I hand drew this with my expert rocket drawing hand :) and placed it in the panoramic scene before taking the snapshot

You like soup Cecil? Got a favorite kind?

Literally just eaten cauliflower soup. I liked it.

All possible platforms? Where do I find the 8-track cassette version?

let me set up that kickstarter ;)

Wow. That's a truly terrible song. You really weren't kidding about not being a musician, were you?

I aim low and almost make it

What is your favorite Dinosaur?

The doyouthinkhesaurus

Who did the Kung Fu and space rock remixes?

also me

Yeah one thing.

What's the song called?

“The dust on my desk looks like an epic movie”

So essentially you are a real life Andy Dwyer. Do you watch Parks and Rec? Do you book children's birthday parties?

Parks and Rec is on my to-do list. Just as soon as I finish writing this broadway show

I'm really digging the kung fu version. Why does it exist?

simply because my wife hates my kung fu movie collection so there HAD to be one

Cool vocoding at the end there. What kind of set up do you have?

for voice recording I literally just have my phone microphone and I did that way at the other side of the house behind a towel so that she wouldn’t wake up and wonder what the hell I was doing