July 23, 1701
My name is Dexter Jared Peterson.

I am twenty-six years old and I live in New York City. In the last seven years I have lived as 201,573 different people.

I watched another man die today, this one a pirate who personally disrupted shipping around Jamaica for the past year. He targeted my company’s tea shipments almost exclusively, though I can’t imagine what offense this cretin would begrudge me. It’s not easy being wealthy.

I received grave news from the expedition I dispatched to what we’ll call “Colombia” in another hundred and fifty years. All but one man has vanished and I fear the last soul that entered that temple may have disappeared shortly after sending the letter.

God, I wish they’d discover coffee already.

The Lives of Dexter Peterson is Matthew Ebel’s upcoming album, book, and graphic novel scheduled for release in 2011. If you want to know more about Dexter and who he is at any given moment, grab an All-Access or higher pass at www.matthewebel.net

Don’t get the wrong impression… it’s not my album. My friend and indie cohort from Nashville with humongous hair has just dropped an awesome new record on the Music City called That’s Gravity. I just bought my copy and it’s picking me up better than a cup of coffee right now. I strongly recommend that you piano-rock fans go get this sucker! If you haven’t heard of Geoff Smith before, you probably haven’t known me that long either. He’s got a more Beatles-esque flavor to his music than I do, so brace yourself for the awesome.

Here are a few places to grab this album (all of them affiliate links, just FYI):

• CD Baby (Round Plastic or MP3)
• iTunes (DRM-Free AAC)
• Amazon (MP3)

And here’s the video for the title track:

Those of you that attended my 2010 Beer Bash know that I’m now working on a new album. Not a collection of songs, an album. If you weren’t there, well, I’m working on a new album!

The Lives of Dexter Peterson

A few years back I wrote a 120-page book for National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo. In thirty days I pounded out over 50,000 words and won the challenge on my first attempt. I was so proud of myself, I didn’t know I could produce anything that big in such a short period of time. The Lives of Dexter Peterson, draft one, had been born.

Then I sat on the manuscript. It’s actually been in a box in my basement since then. I didn’t see it or think about it until we moved from Boston to New Hampshire, but like buried treasure it surfaced during the boxing process. I’d forgotten how much fun I’d had with that story, especially given the ADD nature of the plot. I’ll save the details for later as the editing process heats up, but I will tell you that finding this book inspired me to write again.

I’ll be writing an album’s worth of music to accompany the story. One part companion disc, one part outright soundtrack, we’ll see how this turns out in a year. Oh yeah, and Genesis Whitmore will be making a full-length graphic novel to go with all of this.

How To Pre-Order

Isn’t it a bit early to talk about pre-ordering when I haven’t written a single note or lyric for the album? Not exactly. Again, as my Matthew Ebel dot net subscribers learned at the Beer Bash, any All-Access or higher membership is good for a copy of the album when it’s ready. A real, physical CD. Heck, the VIP’s and higher get the full package- album, printed material, audiobook, everything.

In addition, they’ll be getting updates throughout the project, from Gen’s sketches to my song ideas to behind-the-scenes videos from the studio. It’s going to be a heck of a project, so this is what my entire focus will be for the next year.

If you’re interested in getting on board, just grab a subscription at www.matthewebel.net/subscribe – and watch for my announcement “Introducing Dexter Peterson” soon!

I’m no Ariel Hyatt, but I’ve been told I have some good ideas for using online tools as an indie musician. I mean, heck, I do this for a living. If something I do doesn’t work, I drop it like a bad habit and move on to the next idea. Is this list comprehensive? Hell no. In fact, I’ll probably have better ideas tomorrow. Right now, though, this is the best list I could divine. Here are some patterns I’ve seen over the years:
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For when you absolutely, positively must be killed in a soft-spoken acoustic way.