Looking back on 2018: Crowdfunding, Origine and Making Impious Dystopia

I had forgotten the excitement that gets you when you know your album is gonna be out soon. I almost can’t believe it that after 4 years I’m getting this special feeling again, I really can’t wait for you to hear Origine!
As you know, for several reasons (explained here) it took us a long time to get back to where we are today. But, after years of silence, we were lucky enough to have yet another proof that our fans are loyal and awesome: we launched a crowdfunding campaign and reached our goal in 3 days! This successful result has been of paramount importance for us, not only because it provided us with the tools we needed to be able to actually record an album, but it gave us the reassuring feeling of still being in the hearts of our fans, and that our music really matters to them.

For crowdfunding rookies like us, setting up the campaign meant a lot of work, that fortunately paid off. We are currently receiving the exclusive merch we created for our fans, proud members of the ancient Bards Knighthood, and everything looks incredible. Here’s a little sneak peek of the two medallions:

I love them and I can’t decide which one’s my favorite. Did you get yours through the campaign? Which one did you choose? I can’t wait for you to listen to Origine and learn all about these two symbols.

The new album will be out on January 25th and that same night we will have a super Release Party with old and new friends. It’ll be our first concert in 2 years, we want it to be great! We’re gonna present Origine playing a wonderful set with new and classic songs and, after the show, we intend to party hard with you all. Come and have fun with us if you can, find all the details of the night here.

Origine is available for pre-order on Ancient Bards Webstore together with some truly amazing new T-Shirts designs and all of our previous releases (The Alliance of the Kings, Soulless Child, A New Dawn Ending). The ORIGINE BUNDLE, a package with album + T-Shirt, is abailable at a special price, check it out!

Another major highlight of 2018, one that required another insanely large amount of work, is the creation of the video clip for Impious Dystopia, the first single extracted from Origine. The video was released on December 14th and has now more than 200k views, that’s not bad! I’m so proud of this video, I love every part of it, Matteo Ermeti did an incredible job.

A big fat thank you to everyone involved:

🎥
Video directed by Matteo Ermeti
VFX by Davide Grussu e Matteo Ermeti
Shot in Tarzo (TN) and Cesena (FC) at Studio Vision
DOP at Studio Vision: Leonardo Monti of LM Service

Eirene is Letizia Fabbri
Lork is F+ FlammablePlus
Pyrotechnics by F+ FlammablePlus
Hair and Makeup (on white) by Barbara Montanari Expression Make-Up
Hair and Makeup (on black) by Sara Squadrani
Eirene’s dress:
Concept by Vincent Lefevre
Tailoring by Lady Camelot
The Crystal Sword is the work of:
Concept by Vincent Lefevre,
3D model by yours truly,
Blade milling by Mattia Mercatali at Desitaly,
Hilt 3D printing by Alan Francisconi at Pixel 2 Atom,
Assembly and paint job by Istvan Zimmermann at Plastikart.

In the gallery below you can find a few pictures of the making of. You can see my progress in the modeling of the sword, the milling of the blade, the 3D print of the hilt and the final product. You can see Martino proudly holding the crystal sword and the awesome Letizia as Eirene, sporting her blue hair and aqua skin. There are some shots from the car where I was trying to stay warm during the super cold night when we shot the flaming parts and some shots from the much more comfy studio in white.

All in all, it’s been a great year, the year of tour comeback, even though it was only the staging part and the actual comeback will -hopefully- actually take place in 2019. So here’s to a great new year! I hope to be able to see you all in the crowd soon and exchange a laugh or two.

See you on the road pals!

Take care,

Sara