What is A&O? Where did they come from?

A&O (Ants and Ostriches) is one person. Just me. I named the effort based on a band generator - I saw Ants, then saw Ostriches and pieced the two together. If I would have taken the generator's recommendation directly, I would have had something like the Saint Paul Ostriches. Which sounds more like a baseball team. Although cool - I just couldn't (or refused to) visualize myself in a baseball hat.

There are a number of tools out there to get a band name. This tool got me the closest.  https://www.name-generator.org.uk/band-name/ Or just Google "band name generator"

If you want to be more serious WikiHow has a good article. https://www.wikihow.com/Pick-a-Band-Name (Look at #10)

That is who "we" are and where "we" came from... The royal we of course.

The most important component, in my mind, of where "we" came from is the music - the Wait EP was put together with the following equipment.

Music Equipment:

• M-Audio 45 key USB Midi controller 
• SCGC OO Guitar 
• Sigma D28 Guitar 
• Yamaha Classical G-55A 

Recording Equipment: 

• Logitech Desktop Microphones (2) 
• Blue Snowball iCE Condenser Microphone 
• GarageBand (Apple) 
• Mainstage 3 (Apple) 

Mastering: 

• Audacity (Songs: Hausen, Fifth Letter Mine) 
• Adobe Audition (Songs: Cognitive Dissonance, D28) 

A free download of the album is available on Bandcamp, SoundCloud or on the album site. It will be available on other digital distribution channels on October 2nd.

New Wait EP by Ants and Ostriches

A few friends encouraged me to put out an album. I thought this was a ridiculous idea at first. I do not have professional equipment, just a few guitars, a couple all purpose USB microphones and a basic MIDI controller.

Sure, I like to record as a hobby. I have loved playing guitar for years - but an album?

I have been blessed with opportunities to listen to local artists - enjoying brilliant songs with a sound quality unique to Minnesota... I got pushed (I mean encouraged) last month for the last time... Damn it - I don't have the money put into an album - and I detest playing in front of folks...

What the hell - I will do it on the cheap and see what happens. Also, how fast can I put this out?

Worldwide debut of Wait... October 2nd. What is an EP? Extended Play are collections of tunes bands typically put out between albums, or LPs (Long Play). EPs are bigger than a single, at just a few songs - but not big enough for a full album. Back in the day it related to space you could fit on an album.

My tunes are small, weird and wouldn't fill up a full LP.  I am not sure how many folks debut with an EP... to me it doesn't make too much sense. But again, what the hell.

I was sharing my progress with another good friend of mine. His family is in the music industry, at a small scale - they make guitars and his brother went to school for the business side of things. He said there are great musicians that would really appreciate how to create and distribute on a tight budgets. "Why don't you share what you are doing?" he said to me.

So - here is the first article... In the upcoming weeks I will journal my steps through this process. What works for me, and what hasn't...

Sorry to my friends that wanted an "album". It is almost an album. Which is one of the first things I learned in this process. Don't rush. "How fast can put this out?" is a question I first posed and is not a good question. If I would have taken a few more months - I would have probably had an LP.

No regrets though - Just going through the process and learning along the way.