Jason Richardson Crowdfunding Solo Album (And Departure From Chelsea Grin)

[Emperor Guillotine]

In case anyone has missed the news: Jason Richardson has split from Chelsea Grin and is crowdfunding a solo album.

JASON RICHARDSON Is Crowdfunding a Solo Album - GearGods

If anyone has listened to and liked Born of Osiris during their best years (The Discovery album era) or Chelsea Grin during the past few years (Evolve and Ashes to Ashes era), then you'll know that Jason was the heart of the sound of both bands. BOO's sounds took a turn for the worst when he left, and now I have a feeling that CG's sound is going to go down a similar turn for the worst.

I think it would be pretty cool to see his solo album come to actualization. Ever since I heard his track "Thought", I've been interested; but the song itself was lacking the production and engineering needed to make it sound HUGE.

For those who have not heard "Thought" yet, you can check it out at the following YouTube link:



And finally, here is a link to Jason's IndieGoGo campaign:
IndieGoGo - Jason Richardson Solo Album

 

[ChubbyEwok]

Well this is very interesting, I had no idea he left Chelsea Grin. I'm excited to see how this turns out, might go for the vinyl perk.

 

[Emperor Guillotine]

Well this is very interesting, I had no idea he left Chelsea Grin.

Neither did I until I checked CG's Facebook page and Wikipedia page after reading this.

Edit: they just posted the news on Facebook a few hours ago.

I do wonder though, this guy has been through three big bands in a relatively short time (All Shall Perish, Born of Osiris, and now Chelsea Grin). It just makes you wonder what could be behind the rapid changing so much...

 

[wannabguitarist]

Neither did I until I checked CG's Facebook page and Wikipedia page after reading this.

Edit: they just posted the news on Facebook a few hours ago.

I do wonder though, this guy has been through three big bands in a relatively short time (All Shall Perish, Born of Osiris, and now Chelsea Grin). It just makes you wonder what could be behind the rapid changing so much...

All three of those bands can't be hard to work with

 

[akinari]

Dear God was that song fragmented and long winded. Also, 20k for this is just astronomical.

 

[Emperor Guillotine]

Dear God was that song fragmented and long winded. Also, 20k for this is just astronomical.

Could be worse. Could be like the Lucas Mann solo album that never happened due to poor crowdfunding and asking a ridiculous amount.

 

[akinari]

Could be worse. Could be like the Lucas Mann solo album that never happened due to poor crowdfunding and asking a ridiculous amount.

Anything more than the cost of Guitar Pro would be a ridiculous amount in that case.

 

[The Reverend]

I really like some of his melodic ideas. It's almost like pop music, or EDM in the way that he'll sometimes come up with a line that hooks you instantly. That's a rare talent, IMO. I don't know if he needs 20K to fund an instrumental album, though, unless he's planning to hire session musicians to play drums and stuff.

EDIT: That's kinda what he's doing. I can see where he gets the number from, now. If he has seven or eight guest spots, pays their airfare (because who lives in Utah?), pays the standard for studio time, and pays his guest artists, I can see where it would start getting close to $20,000. Add in quality physical copies and he'd probably walk away with a lot less profit than you'd think.

 

[xCaptainx]

20k doesn't sound like too much, once you factor in studio time, engineering, mastering, flights, hiring/paying other contributors. Let's not forget that Jasons productions skills aren't on par with what he is aiming for (which isn't a dig, as he's a monster of a guitar player in his own right and has no intention of being a producer)

Conquering Dystopia asked for 15k (and received 35k) and that was involving someone much more proficient in production than Jason. Which again, was reasonable to ask for.

I'll be contributing $5 at the very least. I've really enjoyed his contributions to his previous bands, and I'm looking forward to seeing what his solo efforts would sound like.

 

[Pav]

Aw ...., I thought I read Kevin Richardson and got super excited.

 

[Emperor Guillotine]

20k doesn't sound like too much, once you factor in studio time, engineering, mastering, flights, hiring/paying other contributors. Let's not forget that Jasons productions skills aren't on par with what he is aiming for (which isn't a dig, as he's a monster of a guitar player in his own right and has no intention of being a producer).

Exactly. Guest spots, live drums, studio time, engineering, etc. It all factors in.

His production skills are pretty good in-studio and from home (in his bedroom, I guess?) because you can hear his production contributions all over the Chelsea Grin material. In a CreativeLive video that Eyal Levi did regarding metal songwriting, he used the intro from CG's "Lilith" as an example and he talked about how Jason sent him all the files (not sure if he meant just the synths since he was talking about mixing the synths for that section or if he meant ALL of the instrumentation). But he said that Jason knows where he wants a song to go and what he wants it to sound like, which is a trait/skill of a good producer.

Conquering Dystopia asked for 15k (and received 35k) and that was involving someone much more proficient in production than Jason. Which again, was reasonable to ask for.

Boom.

 

[noUser01]

Saying that he was the heart of the sound of those bands is a bit of a stretch... He joined Chelsea Grin and then the next album they put out was extremely disappointing to a large number of fans. A lot of people also like the current BoO stuff more than the old stuff, although that opinion is met with a pretty even amount of opposition.

I'm not too interested in this personally. I think Jason's a great player - to be honest he's probably my biggest inspiration and motivator when it comes to technique - but he's not the kind of guy I'd want to hear a solo album from. Maybe it's just my own preferences regarding instrumental music, but the stuff he's put out on his own is just really random and boring to me. It just sounds like a lot of technical demonstrations, whether it be speed or complex rhythms. Probably just my own tastes in music, I'm sure a fair amount of people would be stoked on it.

I find the asking amount to be a tiny bit questionable, but it's not absurd. If you're going to do it you might as well do it right. I'll definitely give it a listen if it comes out as I'm certainly curious.

 

[Emperor Guillotine]

Saying that he was the heart of the sound of those bands is a bit of a stretch...

Notice the massive changes in sound for both bands when he was brought onboard. (And notice the change when he left BOO.) Also, notice the similarity in sound between The Discovery and Evolve. I probably shouldn't have used the term "heart of the sound" of both bands, but he was a large (if not, the largest) factor in the writing for both when he was a member.

...but he's not the kind of guy I'd want to hear a solo album from. Maybe it's just my own preferences regarding instrumental music, but the stuff he's put out on his own is just really random and boring to me. It just sounds like a lot of technical demonstrations, whether it be speed or complex rhythms.

Ditto. I do enjoy him as a player in a band, but I agree with this completely.

But hey, it seems like every skilled guitarist has to try their hand at putting out a solo album at some point nowadays, right?

 

[noUser01]

Notice the massive changes in sound for both bands when he was brought onboard. (And notice the change when he left BOO.) Also, notice the similarity in sound between The Discovery and Evolve. I probably shouldn't have used the term "heart of the sound" of both bands, but he was a large (if not, the largest) factor in the writing for both when he was a member.


Ditto. I do enjoy him as a player in a band, but I agree with this completely.

But hey, it seems like every skilled guitarist has to try their hand at putting out a solo album at some point nowadays, right?

Drastic changes in sound are not at all the same thing as being the heart of the sound of an entire band. Especially in the case of Chelsea Grin. It's like saying Lou Reed was the heart of the sound of Metallica.

Hey, he's more than welcome to put it out. I'll certainly give it a listen and I hope it does well for him.

 

[Quantumface]

Wow I always forget how awful that album sounded production-wise.

 

[wannabguitarist]

That section at 7:36 sounds way too much like BOO

 

[JustMac]

Yes but will he be able to wank out 50 minutes of harmonic minor sweep crap?

No thanks...

 

[Lorcan Ward]

I'm a huge fan of Jason's playing so I'll be buying one of the higher perks. The guy has always been held back(when it comes to super OTT shred & tech) in the bands he plays with so it will be great to hear just how far he can push his playing on a solo record.

I would much prefer if he was teaming up with another player like Loomis or maybe Rusty Cooley. I'm not sure of many players who could keep up with him.

I would not like to be the new guy who has to play Jason's parts live now.

 

[Rollandbeast]

The discovery is one of my fav all time album and its pretty much because of Jason , pretty sure he wrote most of the solos on it ? correct me if im wrong anyways it would make sense since Lee cant play any of em lol

really looking foward to this !

 

[Lemons]

Actually loved about 80% of "Thought", definitely needs to be cut down to about 6 minutes though. Nevertheless the guy is a monster guitarist and I completely support anyone with the skills to tackle a solo record.