Thinking Metal: Frequently Asked Questions
How and when did Thinking Metal come about?
Thinking Metal was originally formed in 1995 as Thinking Metal Productions and its primary focus was as an outlet for the musical ambitions of writer, instrument designer and composer David J. Hughes.
The company released 2 discs on the original Thinking Metal label, The Infection of Time and Connexion, both by T-Bass UK.
The company temporarily ceased all activities in 1999 but was resurrected in 2006.
Why have you resurrected Thinking Metal?
Thinking Metal was resurrected because we felt that it was time to move our ever-expanding musical activities out from under the Infection Music umbrella and into a separate venture. The same was true of our web page activities, which we broke away into a separate company, Infection Media.
This move will allow Infection Music to concentrate purely on electronic musical instruments. Thinking Metal will focus on music production, CD's, concerts and our new library/licensing project leaving Infection Media to provide web services to both of the above companies.
Will all of the Infection Music CD's be available on the Thinking Metal label?
Most of the discontinued titles such as The Infection of Time and Fallen Angel have been remixed and remastered with additional tracks and new artwork. We're just waiting for the right time to release them.
What about the album download service?
The album download facility has been greatly extended and developed to give the best possible service. Firstly, we have already signed distribution deals with Magnatune.com to support several of our more popular releases including Future Forever, the debut disc from Ion, and The Secret Life of Angels by SkinMechanix. Future Forever is currently available as a downloadable album from iTunes, E-Music and Last FM.
Those discs not supported by Magnatune are now available from the MusicZeit download facility. We had planned to phase out downloads from this site although we're re-thinking this in favour of a new service we recently signed up for, Payloadsz.com.
Do you send out CD's to radio stations?
Sending discs through the mail is expensive and seriously reduces our level of stock, especially some of the limited edition discs. There's also the issue of the Black Hole at the centre of our local Post Office to contend with, if you see what we mean. These days, we prefer to e-mail links to our download area and we only send discs out to radio stations when there is no alternative. Sorry about that.
What's all this about a library/licensing project? Why?
There has been an explosion in the number of radio and TV stations in the last decade and programme makers the world over are desperate for incidental and background music. Thinking Metal will be developed to provide a reliable source of quality programme material across a wide range of genres.
Is Thinking Metal currently looking for new talent?
Sorry, no. We want to focus all of our efforts on our current roster.
Will you be interested in my music?
We might be... but we need to hear it first. If you're an experienced musician with at least 3 full length discs, and by 'full length' we mean each disc should hold a minimum of 50 minutes of new music (not covers), in a genre that works well on TV and radio then we'd like to hear from you. If you don't want to send us a disc then you can send us a link to your music, if you prefer. We're happy listening to downloadable albums.
We're especially interested in all areas of electronica where the material can be edited down into clips of 1 minute, 2 minutes and 30 seconds duration so that it matches the needs of programme makers.
Who are the people behind Thinking Metal?
David Hughes is the writer, composer and instrument designer behind the venture. David has been active in the field of electronic music for over 30 years and, thus far, he's scored 8 full length albums, written for TV and video, contributed pieces for magazines such as the industry bible Sound-on-Sound and is the designer of the ZEIT and ATEM Step Sequencers.
Jules C takes care of all of the important stuff such as the accounts, the legal stuff and occasionally deputises on keyboards at live appearances.
Where does the name Thinking Metal come from?
It's from the song "God Only Knows" by Gary Numan on the album, "The Fury", and the line goes:
"I've been surrounded, for hours
by the sound of thinking metal..."