Celestis

“Vibrant Fade” is an incredibly fun tune to play, not the least because of its stylistically eclectic and fast riffing that takes me all over the neck.

Originally composed in 2009 for a completely different collaborative project that never ended up coming to full fruition, it took me many years to convince myself that it could actually fit within the Celestis mold, not the least because of some of its more four-on-the-floor “disco-ey” elements.

Admittedly, every time I play the solo, I envision myself in a foggy warehouse in the 1980’s, wearing a trench coat with rolled-up sleeves. Could be a fun clip to film sometime... 🤔

Have ya heard it alongside the rest of the new album, Unchain The Days Gone By, yet? It’s available now, exclusively via BandCamp (along with a pile of dope, downloadable and yours-forever, never-to-be-released-elsewheres extras — linkie in bio).

Also, the full guitar playthrough is similarly available for your enjoyment on mine YT channel — also linked via profile.

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TLDR — https://alyag.bandcamp.com/album/unchain-the-days-gone-by

Surprise album drop!

I’m doing it – I’m finally putting it out there.

Honestly, the only thing holding me back from unleashing this pile of material that’s been in the works for over thirteen-plus years (and has actually sat finished for a while now) has, indeed, been the promotional snag – the looming need to throw a pile of money (and even more time) to fight an uphill battle to convince the social media ‘rithms to actually push your stuff to the masses, using a complex ecosystem of online marketing tools and platforms… which, first-hand past experience has proven that it’s a colossal beast to tackle on your own as a solo artist with a shoestring budget. Truth is, website / CRM tech stacks and ads are expensive, content creation is overwhelmingly tiresome, and I am but one smol scruffy fella with so little time, and even less coinses in my pocketses. But I’d much rather have the tunes be out in the world and being actively enjoyed, rather than continuing to collect dust on a hard drive, so… whatever, here ya go.

Because this was such an impromptu decision, I’m making this a BandCamp exclusive for the time being – it’ll be a while yet before it’s available on streaming DSPs (when, exactly, remains to be determined). BUT! The really cool thing about BandCamp is that, not only can you support my noisemaking antics directly by purchasing it (and thereby bypassing all the middleman fees that the DSPs skim off the meager and ever-constricting royalty pool), but you also get a bunch of rad extras I’d created to accompany this album. Plus you can download all the audio in a studio-quality lossless format.

In addition to the 16 tracks on the album, here’s what you’ll get via BandCamp that you won’t get anywhere else:

- Lyrics for every song, along with accompanying back stories, which describe the inspirations behind each, and everything that went into making them.
- A written interview that delves deep into the history and lore of the Celestis project, including early origins, influences, production process, trials and tribulations along the way, artistic identity, and more – basically an exclusive insider look into an immensely significant part of my personal and creative journey.
- Three unreleased demo tracks dating back to 2008 – the only way you’d have ever heard these would’ve been if you were there with us in a dingy, sticky-floored underground bar back in our early band days (when it was still a band rather than a solo project). These were some of the earliest tunes, but didn’t ultimately end up making the cut for either album.
- Another early demo version from the same era, of one of the most badass tracks on the album – super fun to compare the contrast in the evolution of its writing and production.
- Finally, a secret cover of a silly classic radio jingle from the 50’s about aliens, metallized. This one will definitely never be released elsewhere.

Again, these are bonuses that won’t be available anywhere else outside of BandCamp. If you really dig the tunes and want to immerse yourself deeper in the lore of it all, you won’t want to miss out on these.

Also! It’s BandCamp Friday today (8.07.26), meaning the platform will be waiving its usual 15% fee, meaning 100% of the purchase bucks go directly to yours truly, which is tremendously helpful in this flippin’ economy.

As always, I can’t thank you nearly enough for being here, and for your incredibly kind support. And for those of you that have genuinely yearned to hear it, I truly do apologize that it took so long. Once more: thank you. 🖤