Have any of you ever questioned what was happening throughout the album art for “Wish Upon a Blackstar”? Who is the girl? Who are the children on the Chapter 01 cover? What is this fiery planet we keep seeing? Why are there “Blackstar” ships plummeting from the sky? When the hell is Klayton going to release more music? Why on earth am I still reading this post??

Well, I can answer most of those questions for you. “Wish Upon a Blackstar” is a conceptual album and the visuals surrounding it were there to help tell the story. I’ve had bigger ideas and stories to tell, but that was difficult to do through just song lyrics and concept art. I’ve been looking for ways to take the story further & that’s exactly what’s happening. I’m proud to announce that I’ve teamed up with 5 time award winning author Josh Viola (The Bane of Yoto) & renowned author Keith Ferrel (Bloodmoon: Birth of the Beast) to write the novel – “Blackstar.” I’m going to finally be able to tell a little bit of this Sci-Fi epic I’ve had playing inside my head for the last God-only-knows how many years as I was writing “Wish Upon a Blackstar.”

This isn’t something that I’m hoping to accomplish sometime in the next few years – It’s already underway. The characters are named and in place, the worlds and environments are being built as I type AND I’m going to score the whole thing. My desire is to help set the aural landscape for this movie that will (for now) exist in your head and mine. Tracks like “Re:memory”, “Retros” and “Into the Outlands” are already finished & awaiting release. (More on that in a minute.)

There is one more pretty important part to this whole equation too: a brand new Celldweller album. It’s already underway and will add another level to the experience. My first Official track towards the new album “Purified” is already done and, you guessed it – awaiting release.

There are many more questions that all this info will raise, but we’ll be posting more info as it comes. I don’t want to say too much or too little, so for now I’ll leave you with a sort-of recap:

1: My “Blackstar” novel. written by Josh Viola & Keith Ferrel is in the works right this very second. The plan is to release it in 3 acts. When all 3 acts are done, the full book will be released in print & digital. (Initial acts will be digital only.)

2. “Blackstar” score. I will be releasing a soundtrack to accompany each act of the book. I’m creating the music that I hear when I watch this movie in my head (well, mainly bc that’s the only place I can watch it, for now.) My “hope” (but not “promise”) is to have a full album of score to release when the full book is released.

3. A brand new Celldweller album. I’m planning on a pretty non-existent touring schedule for this year. Why? Because I want to put out a LOT of music & that’s virtually impossible for me when I’m touring. I’m pretty sure 97% of you are cool with this plan 🙂 Again my “hope” (but not “promise”) is to have multiple new Celldweller songs to release with each act of the book. Can you guess what else I’m hoping? Yep, that when I release the full novel & the full score album, that I will also release the next full Celldweller album with it.

Just to beat a dead horse here: this is all already happening – Novel, Score, New Celldweller album.

One last thought – I am hoping some of you may want to get involved too. Since I’ve seen so much great Celldweller artwork floating around the web, and I got so many great submissions for “Wish Upon a Blackstar” fan art, I think you guys would create even more amazing stuff based around the story. I have to think that through & I’ll announce it if and when the time is right, but I’ve done it in the past & you guys did amazing things, so let’s do it again!

Oh, and one more thing – www.celldweller.com has been completely revamped and we’ll be adding more and more content to it in the coming weeks. Go check it out.

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“You can see we’re alive
You didn’t think we’d survive
From the hills & the ground, we’ve risen with a sound
Through the flames, Purified
Raise your hands to the sky”

Klayton