THE MUSTER POINT PROJECT

Take a Load Off Kevin

The Muster Point Project is the musical alter ego of my friend Kevin Franco. The multi-instrumentalist writes songs and sings them. His latest release, now available for purchase in its entirety from Apple (not that Corps), is an EP called 5 KG: five new songs with a creative twist, lyrics written by me. 5 KG: Kevin, Geoff – get it? And you should get it.

Together through “I Got This,” “Grub Street,” “I Love that Song,” “I Did What I Did” and “The Little Things” we tell stories. Online music press (is there any other kind anymore?) notices from sites around the globe have been positive, almost enthusiastic. It’s gratifying to be described as an “acclaimed” novelist. Please. I’m also Kevin’s front man according to some, his lead singer. Apparently, I’m still supple enough to perform all the bathroom mirror Jagger moves I perfected in high school. Now that is gratification.

I’ve been working on the first draft of a sequel to my novella Of Course You Did for these past 17 months. I took a welcome six weeks off from my manuscript last spring (I was stuck and contemplating setting it aside) to write a dozen pages of lyrics for Kevin; all on spec following a casual electronic conversation: some were dreadful, some didn’t suit him, some obviously inspired him. My work on 5 KG was a distraction for me and its potential cost to Kevin was modest, a percentage of our publishing agreement.

I’m one of those left-handed scribblers who drags his hand over the medium point ink. Most lefties avoid that by using an awkward, palsied technique, curling their wrists over the last line, trying to keep ahead of their smeary selves. Once I’d finished my job for Kevin, I just washed my hands – the Governor of Judea would’ve loved the pandemic. Over the course of the summer, I began to appreciate the scope of this particular Muster Point Project. Kevin is something of a force and so the velocity didn’t surprise me, but there were so many elements flying around at once it was a perfect ponder why they didn’t collide.

The opportunity cost of creativity is time spent on more practical endeavours or elegantly wasted. The digital revolution has reduced expenses for independent artists, but still. Kevin needed time to compose music and lay down demos. Kevin needed to hire a studio, a producer and guest musicians. While he conceives and directs TMPP videos, there are post-production costs. Marketing and promotion take time and money. Minor concerns are constant, such as ensuring his band’s thumbnail streaming identity, its visual consistency, across multiple platforms and past TMPP releases.

Kevin’s music lends itself to more ears than my prose does to eyes. He sends me spreadsheets from time to time, screen captures. His audience numbers, modest in a disrupted industry, are of a quantity I’m too much a of a realist to even fantasize about for my own stuff. But all those streams, those penny fractions don’t add up to much more than one red cent. Indie artists, those not groomed as cash cows by Svengalis or corporations, stake their claims in culture knowing the odds are against them, the game is fixed. Kevin doesn’t make music for money. Kevin makes music because he must. The key to TMPP sound is that it’s true to its creator, it’s not on trend, it’s not piggybacking on hashtags, it’s real. His only calculating is composition. If you’ve added a few of his songs to your playlists or watched the TMPP YouTube videos a couple of times – “Grub Street” set to Depression-era, colourized footage of My Man Godfrey is genius – you may wish to buy the 5 KG EP complete as an iTunes download. Consider that. Kevin’s just looking to break even so he can afford to make more music. There’s a link to purchase at my other site and all that pertinent information is immediately, directly below this sentence.                                 

Dispatches from the Crooked 9 is celebrating ten years as your most unreliable, unbalanced and inaccurate alternative source of everything. My companion site www.megeoff.com has been refreshed, revamped, revitalized and otherwise reinvigorated. Watch and listen to some of the songs I co-wrote with The Muster Point Project or buy 5 KG, the complete EP. Of course, you can still purchase my latest book Of Course You Did in your preferred format from your preferred e-retailer.