Mad Eye co-founder Howard “Merlin” Wulkan shared this story with us: “My daughter
and I were music video surfing on YouTube and a song started that caught us both completely off guard. A haunting, drone-y cover of “True Love Will Find You in the End” by Daniel Johnston by someone called Freddie Dickson. We were awestruck.”
After 2 months of searching, watching and listening to everything Freddie, Wulkan decided to reach out through his FaceBook fan page to say “hello” and to share the story of how he discovered (and fell in love with) his music.
It didn’t take long for Freddie and Howard to strike up a friendship, albeit 5,000 miles apart. You see, Freddie’s in Berlin & Wulkan’s in SW Florida. After numerous conversations about everything from the state of world affairs to the ever changing landscape of the music industry, the 2 decided to collaborate on a song.
After writing remotely, Freddie came to the states where Wulkan owns Farmadelica Sound, a recording studio based on an island off the coast of SW Florida and the 1 song became 2. Then 2 became 5 and so on. We think you get the picture.
A bit of background on the players, if you will: Howard “Merlin” Wulkan | Merlin has been writing, recording, producing and selling/marketing music for 30 years. His past projects include Terminal Sect (industrial), HAETHOR (ethereal pop), sstaria (alt rock/electronica) and the original scores to the movies Cornerstone & Maria Morte.
As a producer, he’s worked with Ezra Bell, Howie Beno (Silver Relics, Ministry), Freejack (Tupac), James Whiton (Tom Waits), Georgia Anne Muldrow, David Abbruzzese (ex-Pearl Jam), Shawn Smith (Brad, Satchel, Pigeonhead), Lilah Rose (Prism Bitch) and many more.
Freddie Dickson | Larry Day of BeardedMagazine.com writes: “Freddie Dickson sings
like someone has jabbed a blade into his vena cava. These are his final, dying words – he
spills his soul like Mercutio and weaves tales of a tainted life, marred by fallen love and
eternal suffering.
It is overwrought and intensely over-acted, but his music is all the more powerful for it; he’s putting on an intimate show, baring his innermost, and as is in our human nature, we rubberneck. He wants people to watch his denouement, and in our schadenfreude, we’re more than happy to oblige. His vocals are effortlessly mighty, all sighing gasps and breathy barbs, with a smoothness like pop sirens and earthquake cracks like Ben Howard or alt-J.”
Ryan Jarvis | Ryan Jarvis is a studio and performing musician based in Albuquerque, New Mexico. A diverse performer, he plays a variety of styles and instruments -specializing in drum set, percussion, and mandolin. He has recorded or performed with Talujon, the New Jersey Percussion Ensemble, The University of New Mexico Wind Symphony and Percussion Ensemble, Amy Owens/HAETHOR, The Breaktone and many local and touring acts from New Mexico. He credits his dog Roger for being an excellent practice supervisor.
Fast forward to today, 16 June 2019. Mad Eye is preparing to release their first single,
“Outsider Man” on 26 July, 2019. The single is accompanied by a beautiful video, conceptualized by filmmaker Andrew Bennett (Perry Farrell, Jonas Brothers, Deftones, Katy Perry, Van Halen). The song also features Silver Relics founder Alex Sepassi’s guitar chops. “We’re so grateful to him for blessing the track with his melodic wizardry,” says Wulkan.
The single will be followed by an EP, to be released early November 2019. Plans are in place for a second EP, featuring such guests as David Abbruzzese (Pearl Jam), battle rapper Complex and others. MAD EYE plan a tour of Germany and/or Europe in the Spring of 2020.
Track Listing:
1. Outsider Man
Social Media:
Facebook: www.facebook.com/wearemadeye
IG: @wearemadeye