We will be celebrating 5 years of the “Reforged” line-up of Kaine in May on the 19th at Three Wise Monkeys, Colchester. Tickets have already started to sell well and we have already sold 20% of the allocation available. This event will be filmed/recorded for a video and live album release.
Our new music video for Green to Grey from the album After Extinction has broken over 43 thousand views since its launch on Friday. This has been achieved through a number of Google Ads (which make up 91.6% of the views) and a Facebook advert campaign, both being run simultaneously which we will be doing and adjusting on an ongoing basis. So far, while the campaign has generated a lot of views, with over 500 people checking out the Bandcamp from the video, a 159 people subscribing to the channel however this is yet to transfer to a single sale of the album.
We launched the video on Friday to help promote the band’s new album After Extinction. We have taken advice recently, and we were told while our music was very good, we were losing out by not having a visual component or message to go alongside it, and thus we were losing out on much of the audience as a result.
Over the last few months, we have been experimenting with Google Adverts and learning how that could work as part of a marketing strategy. We have since set up an ongoing campaign alongside the video launch which has seen over 35k people watch the video, 500 clicks through to the Bandcamp (although no sales at this stage), and 100 new YouTube subscribers. So far, we have found that the reach is much more effective than Facebook/Instagram marketing, but we will continue to experiment with all forms of promotion.
Please check out the video on the link above or here, and like/subscribe to our YouTube channel.
We are pleased to launch our brand new music video for Green to Grey! The video contains a new single version of the track which was given a remix and release to help promote the new video. The video was recorded, directed and produced by Talon Payne of Gallow Wood media. The new version of the track is available on all streaming sites and on Bandcamp.
Directed and recorded by Talon Payne Rage Sadler: Vocals, Rhythm, and Lead Guitars Liam Etheridge: Drums and Backing Vocals Toby Woods: Lead and Rhythm Guitars, and Backing Vocals Isaac Healy: Bass and Backing Vocals Heidi Crowell: Keys and Harmony Vocals
You can watch the video by clicking the play icon above or by clicking here.
We will be working at Gallow Wood Media with Talon Payne this morning for our first music video for the new album After Extinction. This will be the second music video the band has done, the last being in 2018 for the A Crisis of Faith album. Joining us will be Heidi Crowell who will be performing her keys/vocals from the album.
The music video will be released alongside a new single, which will be a new version of the track from the album for which the video is for.
After shooting is completed, we will head over to Unit One Studios for our rehearsals to prepare for our gig at the Hotbox in Chelmsford next week. You can get tickets for the event here.
I thought I would do a write-up on the year with the band given it’s been our busiest ever. In the early part of the year, we played a run of gigs put on by One Eye Toad Records which really helped us get back on the road again after the Covid-era restrictions were finally lifted in most cases. Most of these gigs were with Neverworld and Planet Fatale, two bands we have played with on a number of occasions over the years and with who we enjoy playing alongside. It’s worth mentioning that John Morter who organised these gigs and helped us get back to a regular gigging schedule sadly passed away last month. For all of his hard work and dedication to the scene, he will be greatly missed.
Coda – 9/3/2022
During that run of gigs, we had a one-night-only reunion with Anthony Murch on lead guitar. Ant was in the band from 2012-2015 and played on our first two albums. Anthony again played songs from both his time in the band and later albums since his departure. He’s currently playing alongside our former drummer Chris MacKinnon (who likewise joined in 2012, but after our debut album before leaving in 2018) in a band called It’s Not A Phase Mum, covering the 2000’s era classics which can be found here.
We made our return to two of our favourite venues this year too, both the Melbourn Rock Club and the Rock Den in Hatfield, both of which were fun nights.
A large portion of the year has been taken up with recording, editing, mixing, mastering, and so on. We worked extremely hard to get our new album After Extinction finished this year, as well as recording a further 10 tracks for two EPs, one of which has been released digitally and the other is currently being worked on. I have said previously that I cannot remember a time the band has been busier and 2022 certainly was a challenging year, but I feel a great relief to know everything on our end is now completed and there is very little remaining to do going into 2023.
It is worth mentioning that there will be a new Falling Through Freedom t-shirt and patch coming to all our Patreon’s soon, with two EPs (which include a multi-disc set) on CD heading out to everyone paying £3 or more ASAP. We have been slightly delayed in getting these out due to the Extinction After EP still being finalised! These will be with you soon, depending on Royal Mail strikes!
In August of course we joined the Lillian Axe/Riot Act (ex-Riot) tour as a replacement for Kim Melville. This is the first tour this line-up has done, and we had an amazing time on the road, and we are very thankful for the opportunity to play with two exceptional bands here in the U.K.
We aptly finished the year with two hometown shows in Colchester both at the Brewhouse on the 25th of November and Coda, on the 14th.
We also introduced a new Patreon tier, a band backer tier which was to help the band fund an opportunity we were recently offered. Without giving too much away at this stage, an official offer/contract has come through and we used some of the new Patreon funds to have the offer independently accessed by an expert, as well as general guidance on the best route forward for the band in 2023, with more the be revealed at a later date.
Since the release of our album back in September, we have been keeping a close eye on where our album is being streamed. We still don’t have all the data from all the stored but so far the results are:
YouTube: 32,139
Spotify: 3,836
Bandcamp Streams: 3,084
Facebook: 2,751
Apple: 267
CD Sales (Bandcamp): 121
Downloads (Bandcamp): 82
Itunes Sales: 0
Amazon Sales: 0
Total Streams: 42,067
Total Sales (digital and physical): 203
YouTube continues to be the place where the album is most streamed, with Spotify in second, but some distance behind. Free streams on Bandcamp are just over 3k now, converting into 82 purchases.
The growing trend still shows the audience moving away from physical media and paid-for downloads and towards streaming services which is in line with industry reports on music sales. However, to have had over 42k streams since the album release so far is an impressive number for a band our size and we can only hope this continues going forward.
I thought I would do a write-up on the closing period of what has been one of the busiest periods in the band’s history.
As many will know, we started work on After Extinction back in 2019, the plan was to put it together and record it in 2020 however Covid happened, and everything was delayed. Trying to finish this album while trying to work on our Patreon projects has been a challenge! We only just finished recording the After Extinction album this year, before editing, mixing, and mastering it enabling us to finally release it digitally in September. We’ve been set back a year and playing catchup.
The After Extinction album has been one of our most successful records on launch, despite an initially slow start the pre-orders were over a 100, with additional downloads and our streaming numbers for the new album have reached record numbers due to the success on YouTube. It obviously feels good to have that sort of response. What’s interesting is that in terms of reviews and press coverage, this album has received the least amount of media attention. We have had two reviews in so far, one being good and one average. Obviously with finances tight we don’t have the finances to pay for a press agent, manager, PR team, or whatever else, so we really rely on word of mouth and our own social media. So far, the best promotion for the new album has come from the NWOTHM Full Albums channel.
The album was a departure from much of the sound and imagery we were known for, so it was a gamble, there’s a lot less NWOBHM influence on the new record compared to previous. It’s a darker, heavier album than any of our previous releases and deals with much more complex subjects lyrically. I am glad most of the feedback has been positive.
On top of finishing the new album, we are still catching up with the backlog of work to be done with our EPs. We had the 21’ Patreon EP which has been delayed due to the need to focus on getting the album done. I will have finished recording the vocals on the 25th of November (I hope!) and we can begin the mixing stage after that. On the Falling Through Freedom EP, I will have hopefully finished recording that on Sunday. I am also getting the artwork completed with the new artist, you can see a sneak peek of the 21’ EPs art here.
We have never had a year where we worked on three different studio releases simultaneously, it has been a massive workload to juggle but I am feeling a great sense of relief now were almost there with both EPs and I can only apologise for the delay in getting these out to you!
The 21’ EP, which will be named soon when the artwork is released, is a heavier release than even our new album! 5 brand new songs, again continuing a darker tone to previous Kaine material. The 22’ EP is five songs to celebrate ten years of our debut album, which includes re-recordings of 3 songs from the original album and two that didn’t make the original release.
On top of the studio work, and our regular gigs and rehearsals we also jumped on a tour with Lillian Axe and Riot Act in August which was a great experience. So, this year we have worked on three releases and toured! As I said I can’t recall a time when we were as busy as we have been this year! We will have played 22 shows by the years end too, having played everywhere from Hastings to Edinburgh, to Swansea and back to Colchester!
So, what’s the plan? After we have released both of the new EPs, we will be announcing our 2023 Patreon pack! Next year there will be yet another new EP, shirt, and patch and we will have details of those soon.
You can order the new album here, and grab both new EPs here.
Our CD has finally broken 100 pre-orders on Bandcamp. This means the album has covered the cost of the printing for thew new CD. the CD will be printed to the highest industry standards and limited to just 500 copies. The CD comes in a super jewel case and contains a full colour lyric booklet. You can still pre-order the album for a lower price here.
The After Extinction CDs will arrive on Friday, will be signed (where requested) over the weekend and will begin shipping from Monday next week. The price from Monday will go up to £15 per CD, but we’ll continue to honour the pre-order price for the remainder of this week. You can grab the CD at the reduced price here.
CD sales represent a large part of the band’s income, we thankful to everyone who pre-ordered the CD and helped us fund the cost of printing the release.
