Sun Keeper - Solarpunk Band (The Carbon Coast)

Hi! I'm nearing the last stages of production of a music concept album which presents the story conceptually, lyrically and musically. It won't be for everyone, because the genre of the music is "progressive metal", so it's pretty intense, but then again so is the story, and the lore. It's also very uplifting, colorful, and rejuvenating compared to most metal music. It will be released under the artist name "Sun Keeper"

All of the instruments were recorded last year except for the orchestral strings which will be recorded by the Budapest Symphony Orchestra around next month. Right now we are entering vocal recording, there's about 20+ vocalists who will be voicing the different "dialogue" of about 30 of the characters from the world, so it's sort of a "adventure fiction story book music album"

Depending on how well it does, I could return to an actual manuscript and produce a novella or similar to supplement the concept album, which could be cool! But the manuscript I was working on in 2018 or so was analyzed by two publishing industry professionals and we realized together that the angle wouldn't have worked very well for a traditionally published novel.

So the original approach to telling this story (the novel, told from my original angle) was kind of like very-ripe bananas but now we are baking banana bread (this concept album) out of them. So it's still coming out, but in a very different way.

I'll post more updates on here once we finally complete the record and begin figuring out how to get it out to the world.

Hello! Well, over the years I presented the novel manuscript to a novel coach, and she helped me determine that the character I chose as the protagonist wasn't going to be easy to tell as a novel but WOULD work well for something else such as music album, comic, or game.

Fast forward to today. I am currently working with a team of about 30 people to record a 70-minute progressive rock and metal album that tells the story through the eyes of about 30 characters throughout the music. We're working with a lot of renowned artists in the progressive metal subgenre, and it's really taking off so far, but we have 5 months left of the recording process left.

I have always wanted to have a solarpunk / lunarpunk music project, and I'm so electric about this project. I know not everyone likes rock & metal music but this is a way we can get the Sun Keeper story world out into the world most easily, and our plan is to approach the story similarly to how Claudio from Coheed and Cambria does: release "story-music" and if there's enough interest for deeper lore, put out graphic novels or novellas that dive deeper into the lore, and self-publish the literature. We will explore all adaptations of the story we can scale to in the years ahead, but the music album is our "foot in the door" / "stepping stone" to begin proving to potential show-runners, game developers and more that there is interest in this world and that it is set up for a Transmedia approach where we can entertain with solarpunk storytelling across multiple mediums.

If you or anyone else are interested in following along with the project as we record and produce it, we have just recently made our Sun Keeper Discord server. It's very new and needs organizing, but it's the best way to keep up until we get our other social media set up and in use.

A new solarpunk (technically @tidalpunk) relaxing video of a place from my story world called Abystine.

Come visit the Ocean Tower at Abystine and enjoy all the nautical low-tech renewable energy vibes on the sea shore

Well, that query in general can go a lot of different routes in terms of general solarpunk art that was not necessarily commissioned for my own project. However, I do have about four pieces of art that I’ve commissioned to represent places in my story world, which is specifically a solarpunk story world. (you’ll see a couple lunarpunk examples as well, meaning night time centered solarpunk)

I’ll attach them all here in case you’re interested in any, since they would all be free use without any worries of legal complications and of course I could give you proper credits of each artist since I worked personally with them.

However I also could help you with good places to look for other solarpunk art and possibly hunt down the artists of the pieces. Email [email protected] and we can figure out more for your project via email!

- Connor

Optimism Brewing Company in Seattle has three drinks on tap named after the solarpunk movement and I just wanted to share with yall.

Hey everyone. Going into 2020, (and as of late) I’ve been less active with this solarpunk Tumblr and the lunarpunk and tidalpunk  sideblogs because I’ve been really focusing in on the one most important solarpunk thing I can be working on: The Carbon Coast novel series.

I now have hired a creative coach who has assigned me to really just focus on getting that one big thing done with all my efforts and creative ability and spare time and money. When I do have a spare moment, I’m updating the Carbon Coast Patreon with patron-only content, previews, behind the scenes stuff, life updates, etc. That’s because the 11-or-so Patrons on there are chipping in as much money each month to support this story universe as some people do to afford Netflix every month! That’s huge, and so I try to post all updates and solarpunk content we’ve made on there (sometimes as public posts for followers who can’t support, too!)

So this is just an open letter for anyone curious that, it’s not that I don’t want to post, or that I think it’s not worth it, here on Tumblr lately, and I definitely don’t think people who aren’t paying for Patreon access shouldn’t get updates too, but my creative coach has literally analyzed my life/work/creative balance situation and has said I really should only be writing the novel itself, delegating all other work (like video production), and only updating the Patreon regularly to reward patrons and followers on there, with only occasional posts on other social media.

So that’s where we’re at going into 2020 and I hope the #solarpunk community is still thriving and collaborating and getting tight and focused on their own solarpunk stuff too here on Tumblr! I miss hunting for all things solarpunk and reposting like mad but I just gotta focus on this novel series so I can get them in the hands of people who can get it published ASAP, and as of New Year’s Eve, I really gotta be committed to focusing on that one thing.

Keep the solarpunk dream alive and growing. We are smol but mighty. We are the plant that grows through concrete!

Much love. Also, I didn’t put a link to patreon on here cus this isn’t a sales pitch, just an explanation. If you’re interested, you’ll seek it out on your own terms. But do remember that you can just follow for free and get the occasional public update on there, more often than I can post updates on here!