You can now pre-order my debut album by clicking the button below!
Releasing an album has been a lifelong dream of mine so thank you for helping make my dream come true :)
The album costs $5 and will be released on January 22, 2021.
When you pre-order the album, you’ll immediately get access to my first single (i.e. the song I wrote during my Ultralearning Experiment).
You’ll also get access to all the other bonus content that I plan to release over the coming months.
Why is this album secret?
Well, I expect that my music project is going to get pretty weird so I want to keep my music alter-ego completely separate from this Mad Fientist one.
To find out all about this other world of mine (i.e. the one that’s been occupying the majority of my time since quitting my job and the whole reason I wanted to hit FI in the first place), click the button above!
Something to look forward to at the beginning of the year! I’m tres excited :)
Thanks a lot for pre-ordering, Gwen :)
Hope you’re doing well!
Hey congratulations on the album! So do you have a sample snippet? It’s always good to have a little taster…
I had one in the podcast episode initially but then I figured people would be listening at 1.5x or 2x so I took it out. I’ll try to figure out a good way to share a snippet for the next single that’s coming out in December.
Youtube or Soundcloud
Ha! I think you are overestimating the amount of ppl who listen at high speeds. I listen to podcasts at normal speed. I like to enjoy them and actually process the information. Not all of us are “bro-ductivity cult” followers.
I’ve had so many people meet me in real life and say I that I sound different because they’re used to hearing me at 1.5x or 2x :)
I’m a x2 listening. x1 Sounds like everyone is either drunk, tired or both .
Awesome stuff, Brandon! I look forward to finding out about your apparently-even-weirder-than-Mad-Fientist alter-ego in the music world.
Haha, thanks Michelle! And yes, Mad Fientist is going to look like a middle-aged librarian compared to what’s going to go on over on the music side of things :)
Can’t we hear a sample or a free song? I’m interested but it wouldn’t be very frugal of us to spend $5 on music with zero idea of what it sounds like, from a guy we only know as a personal finance scientist.
For the record, you’ve done a great job at keeping your music identity secret and separate. But why the sudden change now with this crossover link to your music?
I definitely want to keep them separate so I’ll need to figure out a good way to do that. Maybe I’ll send a snippet by email or something for the next single? I’ll try think about a good way to do it…
Isn’t it too late? I mean everyone buying this album today is doing it to support the famous Mad Fientist, not due to hearing and appreciating your band/music for its own sake. That’s why I’m confused about this move, after such a firm stance prior. Maybe I misunderstood, or I need to hear your latest podcast episode to understand.
Super stoked to check it out! I have the same desires in retiring early, so I cannot wait to get there.
Take it from me…don’t wait!
I always blamed my job for stopping me from making progress but really it was a bunch of other things (mostly psychological) that I’ve had to work through after leaving my job.
Start trying to do it now and then you’ll be in a much better position to take advantage of your increased free time after you hit FI.
Good luck and send me a link when you release something!
Congratulations! Thrilled you turned your dream into a reality. An excellent example to us all. Excited to hear your music. Time to celebrate! Cheers, Britt
Congrats on taking a leap and pursuing one of your lifelong goals. As a mediocre guitar player I look forward to the day where financial independence can allow me more time to pursue getting better as a musician. Keep growing!
Don’t wait until FI! If you watch TV, you have time for guitar. If you browse Facebook, you have time for guitar. Don’t let your job be an excuse (like I did). Good luck!
Of course I just pre-ordered – Congrats Brandon! You are truly my music production hero even though I’ve never heard your work. I’m working on following in your footsteps and can’t wait to hear your album. Thanks so much for the inspiration :)
Thank you so much for pre-ordering!
It is worth the five dollars to encourage you and others to pursue your dreams! Well done
I REALLY appreciate it, Rachel!!
I’m definitely curious to hear the music and also glad to pitch in $5 token support. Your podcast library was my initial rabbit hole into FIRE for which I could not be more grateful. You have a loyal and supportive music fan now too! Congrats and well wishes for this cool new chapter!
Thanks so much, Matt!!
Awesome! Count me as another who is interested, but waiting to hear a sample first.
I’m in for $5 worth of your music – hopefully some backup vocals by your lovely wife?
Congrats on the project – I’ll listen to it while I’m shoveling snow…
Ha, no chance! Thanks for buying though and hope you guys are doing well!
Me three on the sample – keen to support but would love to know what I am buying
Can you add a soundcloud link to 30s on here to give us a taster?
Also, some feedback on your latest poddy – the repetitive sound underneath the intro for the first 6 mins got a bit overwhelming and made it difficult to concentrate on what you were saying
Yeah, sorry about the intro music. My wife noticed the same thing so I brought down the level a lot but I guess I didn’t bring it down enough (usually the intro is only 30 seconds or so but this intro was much longer so it stood out more).
Interested in hearing a sample before spending money, please send a link!
Mad respect Brandon!
Way to go. I’ve been following since the Mad Fientist was launched (shout out to MMM for linking to you). Happy to support this project. Keep up the great work man!
Wow, thanks for following for so long and big thanks for the support!!
I just started listening to the podcast about a month ago and didn’t know you are a musician. I am literally a late thirty-something with the same dream. I really connected with everything you said in your latest episode about struggling with musical goals and it felt like that episode was made for me. Thank you for the great work you do and good luck with the album and future releases. So awesome!
Glad it was helpful! Make sure you send me your music when you get some finished :)
Excellent! Glad to see you at this milestone in your path.
Been with you since mid 2014 – I think first through MMM forums.
Wow, thanks for sticking with me for so long!
Might want to rethink your launch date: 1.21.21 is way cooler. Best of luck with your musical pursuits!
I thought I would be able to hear the single but I don’t see any link for it :(
Yeah, the link to this page said a single was released, but I can’t find it anywhere. I like the Mad Fientist, but I’m not buying an album without hearing at least a 30 second preview :)
I’ll be emailing out a clip on Friday so if you’re not already on the email list, join here!
Bravo Brandon!!!
Cannot wait to experience what has been cooking in the MadFientist’s lab lately.
Congrats on the album! It’s been in the making for a while so congrats on putting in the work and seeing it though.
Brandon,
So thrilled for you; just pre-ordered.
You’ve given so much high-quality insightful practical digestible wisdom to this community, I’m certain many more readers/listeners will happily show support regardless of music taste.
Best wishes and looking forward to hearing more of both the journey and the music.
Hi Brandon,
I’ve been a longtime listener and I’m glad you are making progress toward your goals. I bought the album and I’m looking forward to hearing what you are working on!
I’ve been an audio engineer for 20 years and I specialize in helping independent musicians with mixing and mastering. I know the internet is filled with information about recording; some great, some confusing, and some bad. If you run into any road blocks or have questions feel free to reach out.
Take care,
Jared
thefilterlab.com
Nice, thanks very much Jared!
Hey Mad Fientist.
Just wanted to say I’ve followed your podcast for a couple of years and have learnt so much from it. I managed to get to FI at the end of last year, so left the office job at the start of the year. Things have been a little bit disrupted (I wasnt planning on being a school teacher for 6 months whilst my girls school was shut!)
But one of my visions was do something more creative than process emails, sit in meetings and play with spreadsheets. I’d played in bands at school and wanted to get back into it
I picked up my guitars again and discovered garageband and I’ve been loving making music. I find it has really filled my time, I can can completely lost in playing, recording. I was previously a coder and playing with garageband to me feels a bit like the creative part of coding (without the stressful stuff!)
Your posts and podcasts on this have been super inspiring. I mean this in the right way but seeing you struggle and succeed has made me realise I can do it to. Ultimately I realised it is quite simple, if I want to make music I just need to sit down and make music. There is some writer I’ve read about that says all you have to do to be a write is just sit at your desk for an hour each day. But as you know it is quite hard to force yourself to do it. I’ve realise whatever I do doesn’t have to be “good”, I don’t have to go on tour, I can just do whatever I like for me.
Thanks for documenting the journey, be interested to hear what you create
If you want any guitar parts on your tracks let me know
Cheers
Ian
Enjoying your music! Not gonna lie, I did not expect these songs to slap this hard. Nice work :)
Haha, thank you! You made my day :)
Can you at least tell us what type of music it is? I have no idea if I am spending $5 on a country album or some type of dubstep.
Check out this playlist for similar music but I guess I’d describe it as synth pop/dance punk/indie rock/electropop/etc.
Just bought the album and listened. Really great work. Love both tracks. Vocals remind me a bit of NIN.
I’m really glad you enjoyed them! I love everything Trent Reznor does so that’s a huge compliment :) Thanks a lot for pre-ordering and for the kind words!
Just listened to the snippet you released on Dec 11 – love it! Got a nice Italo-disco vibe, like the lost classic Take a Chance by Mr. Flagio. Just pre-ordered the album.
Nice!! Thanks very much for the pre-order and the flattering comparison :)
Just listened to your preview. I am not a techno punk fan but hearing and participating in your dream is priceless. Great to hear the results of your hard work and fun! You have delivered hundreds of dollars of knowledge, and tens of thousands in investment returns for me, so I am happy to finally do a little something for you. Thanks for helping me on the track to be financially independent!
One recommendation: You should be charging more. Haha.
Ha, really appreciate it, Jim!
Happy to buy; that’s like paying you 10¢ every time I’ve used your blog posts to help explain HSAs and Roth conversion ladders. Congrats and good luck, Brandon!
Thanks so much for the support, Kelly!
Grateful for the chance to support your work, Brandon! Best of luck and looking forward to hearing the full set!
I just pre-ordered…sounds like good background music while I work from home :) It’s my little way to show you support from all the great content that you have provided! The fact that your podcast has no ads is worth more than $5! lol
Thanks a lot, Janet! And I agree…albums are way better than ads :)
I like the preview that you provided. I don’t usually listen to much synth. music, but I will give it a try. Glad to see you having fun with this project!
Thanks very much for pre-ordering and hope you like it!
Congratulations on pursuing your lifelong dream! I just pre-ordered the album, and I can’t wait to hear more!
Nice, thank you!
You asked for ideas to thank those that preordered: I’m a big picture guy that gets easily overwhelmed at even the slightest whiff of a detail. I’ve always appreciated the concept of travel hacking, but get turned off by my perceived detail orientation of actually doing it, so I’ve never done it. If you came up with 5 bullet points or actionable items (“get this card at this bank”) or somehow a nice neat package that simplified it, that’d be great. I took one snippet of info from one of your podcasts (“Vanguard funds are all you need”) and ran with it, and I’m up 20% – way better than I’d even dreamed of picking my own stocks – so simple works for me. The pro/subscription version of Mad Fientist is appealing as well. Thanks and what you aired on your minipodcast explaining the music industry was sweet.
Thanks, Steve.
If you haven’t checked out this email series yet, it may be what you’re looking for with regards to travel hacking. The series emails you out a recommended card every ~6 months and is a similar strategy I implemented to obtain over a million miles/points while maintaining an 800+ credit score and good relationships with the banks. The series is currently paused (I wanted to see what happened with COVID and find out how all the different airlines/hotels/banks/etc. survived before recommending anything) but I plan to start it back up again in a few weeks (since the vaccine is looking good) so hopefully you’d get the first email in the series before the end of the year!
I will buy it based on the great work you have done in the past for the FIRE community.
Thanks a lot for the support, Steve!
Looooooong time listener, first time leaving a comment. I retired back in April of ’18 (48 yrs old). I’ve always been a saver not knowing much of what I was doing but by listening to you and reading MMM, when the financial numbers worked out, we pulled the plug on the daily grind and couldn’t be happier.
Now with Covid, I borrowed a bass guitar from a friend of mine and am learning how to play. It’s a lot of fun.
Congratulations on completing your first album and I’m happy to spend $5 to help support newbie musicians :-)
Congrats on hitting FI, huge thanks for pre-ordering the album, and have fun slapping that bass :)
Congrats on your first album! I’ve been using quarantime to build eurorack modules and work on recording electronic music for the first time, and this is giving me good energy about being able to focus more on it once I can make it to FI. Living the dream!
Very cool! I built a passive attenuator Eurorack module (AT-AT-AT) and really enjoyed the process so I can definitely see myself doing more of that in the future.
I also got the Engineering Pass at last year’s Moogfest so I got to build the Moog Spectravox over two days with the help of Moog engineers and it was incredible.
What kind of stuff are you building?
Despite my best efforts to not open the Pandora’s box of Eurorack, I now have a Moog Grandmother, DFAM, and Spectravox so I’m sure my Eurorack problem is only going to increase from here :/
By the way, don’t wait until FI to work on your music. I did that and it was a mistake (see https://www.madfientist.com/best-and-worst-about-fi/). Good luck!
The workshop to build the spectravox sounds so fun! Is that what we’re hearing on the single you released?
Eurorack doesn’t give the features-per-dollar that standalone synths do, but so far it’s been a really fun way to learn more about electronics and synthesis techniques as I build things, which is worth the extra cost to me! Parts sourcing, building, and putting it to use all become part of the fun.
My favorite builds so far have been Dreadbox Antiphon (8-sine-oscillator complete voice with spring reverb and sounds like a sci-fi horror film), micro Ornament and Crime (multifunction module that I’m usually using for quantization), and Nonlinear Circuits triple sloth (slow moving chaotic modulation). Next few projects in the pipeline include a couple Mutable Instruments clones and a wavefolder. It would be awesome to see what you end up working on next!
Thanks for the reminder and motivation to make FI “more time to do the things I’m already prioritizing in my life” rather than “when I get to start my actual life.”
The Spectravox makes a few small appearances on the album but not as a vocoder (it’s only 10 bands so the intelligibility isn’t great).
Wow, you’ve done some really impressive builds! You’ll have to let me know how the wavefolder build turns out because I plan to get a wavefolder module at some point (and I’d prefer to build it myself, if possible).
My plan is to sell the Moog Grandmother and replace it with the Matriarch (want that stereo analog filter/delay) and then add modules gradually to make the ultimate analog monosynth :)
Enjoyed the preview track! My default audio intake is typically podcasts, not music. Got a tinge resemblance from New Order late 80’s/early 90’s vibe, so felt oddly nostalgic while slightly futuristic. Looking forward to the rest of the album and the potential FI-related perks that may accompany. Congrats!
Wow, that’s a fantastic description/comparison so thank you very much :)
Congratulations on the album! Your ultralearning experience inspired me to live the life I want now before reaching FI. I’ll buy any music from you to support your project, even if it were a country music album. lol. But I’m glad to listen to your sample and that it was pretty good!
Really glad to hear that and thanks for pre-ordering!
Take my money, sir! I pre-ordered the album. I love synth music and I love the Mad Fientist, so this is directly up my alley in every way. Happy to do my part to help you reach your dreams! Looking forward to hearing the full album and seeing what else you create in the future :D
Haha, huge thanks for the support!
Hey, saw your email and ordered an additional three copies! Let’s get you on the charts, my man!
Got tonnes of value from you blog/podcast over the years so here’s me showing my apprecation!
Really appreciate it :)
I just preordered the album based on the email snippet. For me music is a great value. There is way more than $5 of happiness here. Thanks for making it. Enthusiasm is contagious. 5 bucks….HA… I got the album “for a song”.
Thanks a lot, Dan!
Brandon – I’m thrilled that it wasn’t either country or dubstep (Lori Ripper), but I’d have been happy to show some appreciation anyways.
I am looking forward to your interview with Jacob (is he still a quant?) and video is even a better. Forsooth, he is the most extreme of us all.
If you have shows stateside, keep us apprised.
Much love and thanks.
Will do and big thanks for pre-ordering!
Happily just purchased the fruits of your passion project!
Thank you so much for all the great content that you have provided over the years. I have benefited greatly from all of your thoughtful work. Very happy to be able to support your latest efforts in some small way.
Merry Xmas!!
Really appreciate the support!!
Pre-ordered, not only because your music preview in your email was bad ass, but also to support your dreams. Let’s be real here, you support so many of our dreams without knowing it.
That’s very kind of you, Art :) Thank you!
The small sample as promised from the latest podcast episode was great – even just a few second here and there lets people know what they’re getting =)
Glad you enjoyed it, Greg!
I freaking love this! Just preordered and got your two singles. My husband and I have benefitted so much from your podcast and we love seeing what you are up to post-FI. It’s an awesome mix of financial education but also points to the deeper questions about a purposeful life that we’re all searching to answer. We’re eagerly awaiting the rest of the album!
Thanks so much for pre-ordering (and for the kind words)!
Hi Brandon, just preordered.
So happy to be able to give something back to you after all of your contributions to your listeners over the years.
Also great to be able to contribute to the achievement of a dream – thank you for keeping us updated on your post-FI life, it’s equally as educational as the journey to FI. Good luck in the charts!
In addition to the wonderful FI content you’ve provided over the years, thank you for inspiring us by following your passion and creating this album, Brandon! Glad to be one of your ‘groupies!’
“As soon as you begin to pursue a dream, your life wakes up and everything has meaning.” — Barbara Sher
Looking forward to hearing the album Brandon. I have just started to learn the music recording software ‘Logic’ and it is incredible what a huge array of options you have for sounds and instruments just on the basic version. So I can imagine why you could have procrastinated on getting down to business with that, let alone having all the extra options you have with all the other synths you mention. It is a whole rabbit hole you can disappear into. Good luck with the launch.
It sounds great. I meant to pre-order last year, but life happened.
Will be doing so shortly. Good luck to you and your continued success.
Glad to support you! Your insight, writings, podcast and website tools (laboratory) are invaluable.
Congrats Brandon! Happy to support your new adventure. I’ve certainly gotten way more in value out of your blog and podcasts over the years.