The duo Arcanum (Jarod Ameil and Brett Schieber)
self-released their first cd, "The Spoken Scream", in
the last quarter of 1996. The previous year, they had
planted the seeds of their ever expanding fan base
by using the internet.
Brett explains, "I first got access to the internet in '95,
and I found out so much about bands that I was a fan
of by going to all their web pages. At this time, since
Jarod and I were writing and working in studios and
not playing live, we needed an outlet for people to
hear our music. It occurred to me that I could e-mail
the people that were fans of similar bands about our
own music. I was very naieve about the internet at
the time - and still am - and knew nothing about real
audio or mp3. So, in the e-mail I sent them, I told
them that we would send them a free cassette of our
music. When that got too expensive - we probably
mailed off at least 500 tapes for free - we discovered
real audio and so on.....Anyway, through this
process, we came across dj's, record execs, writers,
etc., and many helped us out".
(An intervew profiling Arcanum's internet success
appears in the April '98 issue of Gig magazine).
Because of the internet, Arcanum (totally
independent, without any label,
promoters, lawyers, etc.) has:
appeared in Pro Sound News along with Fiona
Apple, REM, Sublime, Chris Isaak and Counting
Crows in Dec. '96
reached the charts in Lithuania (The Bravissimo
Top 20 with the song "The Puzzle of Reflection".
Peaked at number 7 in the summer of '97 -
between David Bowie and Seal songs!)
had "Record of the Day" at Pons Radio in
France the summer of '97
appeared on US MTV's "The Countdown to the
10 Spot" with vj Toby Aimes. Mr. Aimes called
Arcanum a "fantastic, amazing, incredible,
fantastically original new band".
This led to Arcanum signing the cd over to a
German label named Westcom/Visage. They
released their version of the cd in the first
quarter of '98 with different art work, a remix of
"Love Like a Loaded Gun" and a new song
called "Phantasm". The cd got many great
critical reviews, but Westcom/Visage went out of
business soon after the cd was released, so
proper marketing never happened.
A full page article of Arcanum appeared in a
German fashion/music magazine called Nova
Files in June '98.
Their song "The Rhythm is a Sadist" has been
bootlegged by Land Records, a Russian label.
The song appears on the compilation cd "Best
of electropop Vol. 2" next to a Depeche Mode
song.
Arcanum has had 12 fan created web pages
made in their honor
Arcanum has recently recorded their official follow up
to "The Spoken Scream", called "No Mercy for Virgin
Soil". They are currently offering the cd for sale only
on this web site for $10 (plus $2 s.h. for US, $4 for
non-US residents). E-mail arcanum@mindspring.com
for details.
