We just added 3 new shows: Montreal Otakuthon Anime Festival :: July 31-Aug 2 Edmonton Tattoo Convention :: Aug 21-23 Ottawa/Gatineau Tattoo Convention :: Oct 23-25(TBA)
And we're looking into going to NYC for a show but we're not 100% sure yet. More news later. For our entire list of events and flyers with all the necessary info click here:
Don't get me wrong. I love traveling and seeing different things, NYC being a great place to visit, but I'm at a point where if I'm not going for myself or for Akumu then I'm not really interested.
So yeah, the new design is going up by this weekend. I will have my laptop with me so I will turn my side of the NYC hotel room I'm staying at into a studio. Dora and I made the screen Monday night, last night I printed the shirt, tonight we'll take the pics. In NY I will clean up the pics and set up the website and voila! New design ready for you to buy! Also I want to add a bunch of the raspberry and army shirts to some older designs as well as a hoodie for "Faceless."
What else? Let me share some of the music I've been listening to lately.
First, the origins of how I got into asian music as well as asian culture ::
5 years ago when I was going to College in Ontario I dated a Korean girl for a short while. She had recently moved to Canada so she was still pretty into asian pop culture. She gave me 4 songs to listen to, (I forget the song tracks but these were the artist's names): Arc-En-Ciel, M-Flo, BoA, and Utada Hikaru. We soon broke up and these songs sat on my computer for a year before I remembered having them and gave them a listen. Immediately I fell in love with the melodies and originality of the sound. I listen to hardcore and deathcore, so obviously this comes as a surprise that I would like such pop/hip hop songs. But whatever, when you like something there's no reason you should feel ashamed ;)
Anyways all that to say that BoA, a Korean pop star and Utada Hikaru the Japanese American singer songwriter have both released English albums this year. Very Americanized trying to break into the american public, personally not my favorite songs as of yet. But both these albums are extremely catchy and fresh sounding. I suggest both of them to you if you're into this sound. I'm posting vids of each, hope you enjoy it:
Went to the City and Colour concert Saturday night. I was kinda tired and not really looking forward to going downtown that night, but honestly once I got into my seat and the concert started I was totally sucked right in. Before City and Colour there was this guy who played Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody" alone on an acoustic guitar with no lyrics, he played like a classical version of the song. The crowd started singing along and the choir-like sound was surreal. It was really gorgeous to hear, a very original opening.
I loved watching Dallas play, the sound of his guitar and voice are ridiculous. I've included a pic from the show, and a video from one of his singles "Save your Scissors", I also thought it was appropriate to include the newest alexisonfire single "Young Cardinals" which is Dallas' other band for you more aggressive music listeners :) If you haven't yet heard of Dallas Green and his work then here's a great chance to discover one of Canada's gems.
Well next weekend is the weekend that I'll be in NYC...instead of being productiv. Crazy how fast time goes by, and next month we're going to Toronto for a tattoo convention. The month after (July) Dora and I will be heading out to Indonesia for two weeks on vacation. You're probably wondering how Akumu is going to work when we're gone for two weeks? Our website will continue to accept orders and there will be an obvious note on the page saying that we're gone and will only be shipping when we get back. Hopefully we'll be back with a bunch of new ideas and designs to decorate your wardrobe with. Also in about 10 weeks something big will be happening. Very excited about it, and can't wait to see how it will turn out. More on that later, until then take care.
Well finally one of the two cars has been covered with the decals and I've got to say this is the most brutal looking drifting machine by far. I will keep you posted if you want to catch any of this drifter's races and when I get some video and pics of the other car :) As I mentioned if you want to get your car done contact me for a quote.
How awesome is it to be an artist doing your own thing creating wearable art that people actually wear on a regular basis. But what if wearing it on a tshirt isn't enough for some? I know we are heavily implicated with most of Canada's tattoo convention circuit so we are around tattoos and tattoo artists a lot. But we didn't really think we'd be the reason for someone to get a tattoo! I got a call from my friend/tattoo artist extraordinaire Melissa from Sin City Tattoo and Piercing in Montreal, letting me know that one of her clients was really interested in getting a tattoo done of one of our designs. I was shocked that anyone would want my art on their skin forever! Then at the Laval tattoo convention I had the pleasure of meeting Danny (Melissa's client). So now it's your turn to meet Danny and Melissa and see the process of tattooing our Death Embrace design. Enjoy :)
Today we finally sent out all our items to the shops that will be carrying Akumu Ink. I've even updated the new list of shops that will be holding our gear here. If you're in the Netherlands, Cyprus or the UK be sure to get some of our items. Also we just sent out today a bunch of shirts and hoodies to one of our bands Meet the Storm. Also along with the shirts we sent their banner and some promotional pins. Look at how good they came out :) We hope to see some great photos and videos of them with The Storm banner behind them.
This was written on the Sa-da-kO Facebook page on Saturday, and I thought it was quite clever:
The two creatures face each other from across the sea and plot their attack, each creature has evolved to be totally in tune with its environment and has its own special set of devastating attacks.
Where will the battle begin? Which Monster will be slain? How many innocents will be strung from the trees?
You guys have a ringside seat get ready for......
Sa-da-kO vs Akumuink June 2009
Sorry, I wanted to post a link to their facebook fan page, but I couldn't find it.
So it's official we are sponsoring a third band. The UK based metal band Sa-da-kO. Which is Japanese for child of innocence. They took the name from the memorable character in The Ring movie.
The band explained to me that they "really like the idea that you have this quiet fragile little entity that has a dark core and awesome power."
Also inspired by Japanese horror this band is really a good representation of what our label sounds like. We are currently working on some Sa-da-kO vs. Akumu Ink merchandise. This will be our first collaboration project where we will be creating a screen just for the project, therefore highly limited edition. You will only be able to buy these Sa-da-kO vs. Akumu Ink tshirts from the band at the merch table of their concerts.
If you are attending this year's big UK metal show Download 2009 (which has a ridiculous lineup of great bands) check out the merch area when you get a chance. There will be a clothing booth that will be carrying our "vs" tshirts.
At the end of this month I will be going on a business trip for my dayjob to New York city. There's a book fair going on there and I'm going to be attending. At first when I was told I was going (as opposed to asked) my mind was racing (is there a tattoo show that weekend?) luckily there isn't. I was kinda reluctant due to the fact that I won't be paid for spending my entire weekend at the convention working, arriving back in Montreal at 9:30pm on Sunday, and expected to come in to work the following day (on time).
So I was kinda bummed to hear that, but then after talking it over with Dora she got me seeing the positive side of things. I can stay connected throughout the 4 days that I'm down there with wifi and my itouch! Also I'm going to be really close to some really inspiring clothing brands such as Billionare Boys Club/Ice Cream (Pharrel from N.E.R.D.'s brand), A Bathing Ape, and Kid Robot. So if I can spend a day to at least see those stores, get some pictures and get inspiration from them then I think the whole trip will be totally worth it.
If you know any clothing stores in New York that I should visit that would carry our stuff I wouldn't mind knowing about them. Or if there's other specific stores worth checking out (I've been there2 years ago for the same reason, so I'm not interested in the touristy spots). Or if you're a fan of Akumu Ink and you just want to meet up with me, and get a beer or even get some tshirts and save on shipping. Message me or send me an email and I'll be more than happy to do that :)
Here's a pic of Dora hard at work heating up your tshirts. She uses a heat gun over the entire shirt to make sure the print doesn't fade when you put it in the washing machine. We had to put a huge fan in front of her due to the smoke that is caused during this process (which is why her hair is all crazy flowing).
Also if you'll notice in this picture there is a cat on the roof of our neighbors house. We kept pointing out the cat to Tiny (our dog) without any recognition on his part that he even noticed the cat.
Recently we've been printing none stop for 3 wholesalers: An online store in the UK, a boutique in Cyprus, and the lovely Dominia Shop in the Netherlands. As well as printing your orders, as soon as all these shirts go out my focus will be concentrated on a new design. I want to use grey and red (seperately of course) as the next design colors.
As of Wednesday Dora and I have been together for 2 years. And since we tried to celebrate our anniversary on Wednesday with some sushi from a new restaurant, we were unpleasantly rewarded. It was the grossest, least inspired, took over an hour to receive. So to not remember our second anniversary as being a disaster we're going to try again by going for Chinese food and going to see Monsters vs. Aliens 3D. Also on the same day as our anniversary was my sister's birthday. I bought her a wool beard which Dora and I just had to put on and take photos of ourselves wearing it. And once we got to taking photos we started taking photos of everything so here is a bunch of stuff from our little world. Also there's a pic of my new shoes!
