Jody Whitesides

Category: News

What The Time Machine Animated Cover Iteration Really Looks Like

If ever there was a wild time to be alive, I’d say it’s right now. In the U.S. we have a childish leader who’s looking to start WW III. Creative people are coming to terms with AI. I’m battling hackers in other countries trying to take over my server. If I had a Time Machine I might make some changes in the past. Sometimes you have to push and iterate before the real magic happens.

By that I mean with the server and the music, not with a terrible leader or wars.

For visitors to this post, I’m an American, but I do not condone what the President is doing or threatening to do to foreign nations. It’s idiotic and not the way a lot of us feel.

The beauty is, I’ve solved a giant portion of the problem with the server security. I was never in danger, but it was getting a little overworked. Unfortunately I can’t get that time back, nor am I throwing the gauntlet for the hackers to try again. Nothing that some musician’s aren’t used to: hard work.

Now it’s time to get back to the music. This week it’s a song called Time Machine. It’s also the reason for my statement about iteration. There’s a lot of iterations that happens for all kinds of creative people. This week’s animated cover took an awful lot of iterations.

One of the best people to ask about the sheer number of iterations to that cover animation is Ken Bailey. He went thru a ton of hell with me for that singular animated cover. The end result was something I could finally be happy to show come Friday.

Mentioned in the song notes, I had a notion that I would do this song with Tori Amos, even though it is not her wheelhouse. Who knows maybe some day there will be a chance to perform it together. Until then I want you and the rest of the world to enjoy the updated mix.

Stay tuned for more.

2026-01-20
New Song “Echo” Continues Jody Whitesides’ 2026 Releases

It’s already off to a rockin’ start for 2026. In the past couple of weeks releases for some heavier tunes have hit the ground running. I got to eat at a restaurant where Presidents dine. We’re slowly getting one of the coolest animated covers finished. I’m back in the studio and it’s nearly all systems go!

Kicking off the new year with another year of new songs coming out every single week. Started off with Publicity, followed by Digital Empire. This week it will be a mellow song with a heavy vibe called Echo.

If you haven’t been paying attention, new goodies hit the store for each release. If you’re clever enough, you’ll find the current week’s upcoming release items at a discount. The latest edition, besides the full blown studio mixes, transcriptions and shirts is… Wall posters of the artwork. All printed on high quality paper and shipped right to you.

Last week I spent some time in the city where Jazz was born. I played hooky from my own work to help out my girlfriend and her high school’s Jazz band. While in the city of New Orleans we ate some amazing food! Saw some incredible live music and enjoyed the mild weather.

There’s a spot in New Orleans called Dooky Chase’s. This particular spot came highly recommended by a good friend. A small group of us hoofed to the joint and got incredibly lucky to get a table. Seems a group of 4 in front of us decided not to wait the hour+ of time and we got to sneak right in.

After scarfing down a plate of stuffed shrimp, I asked the waitress about former President Obama and what he ordered. Turns out, she knew what he ordered. The gumbo. Then we were privy to a little story about that order of gumbo and what happened to President Obama. If you want to know the story, I strongly suggest that you get yourself to New Orleans and get your butt to Dooky Chase’s. Don’t forget to ask, as it’s a funny and worthy anecdote.

My time of distribution to get animated covers to Apple Music has dropped from what would normally take nearly a week per cover, to one day for all the art. Not the production of the covers themselves. Some are still in production and taking much much longer than anticipated.

There is a cover that I saw a test run of the animation last night and I’ll say this – it was fuckin awesome. Fingers crossed it gets done in the next couple of days.

Back in the studio. Getting more merch done for the store. Rounding up the next batch of animated covers and getting it all planned out for release. Plus getting more music bits into fixed form. Also, there’s multiple updates that happen right here on my dot com every week, from this blog, to the about page, store items, and more.

If you haven’t signed up for the Jody Army, it’s high time you did. You can snag a nice discount on top of newly discounted items each week.

2026 is looking like a whirlwind of happenings all year long, every single week. You don’t want to miss it.

2026-01-13
Digital Empire Music Release and a Year of New Music

Looking into 2026 it’s already a year with wild amount of opportunities sprouting up. Waiting to hear final word on a commercial looking to use some music. New music every week this year! Creating more cool items for my store. Another new song release called Digital Empire, And Improved communication from me.

Spent yesterday getting a few new items up and running on the store. Including wall posters, and more transcriptions of songs. More items coming soon.

The bigger switch is I’ve opted to offer up free shipping on all items, worldwide! I want all purchases to be as easy as possible. Don’t worry about the shipping, it’s on me.

Sadly as much as I wanted Publicity and Digital Empire’s releases to have their animated art on release day, there’s been some difficulties beyond my control and I’m waiting on external forces to correct the delay. They were in on time and you can see them here on my website, until they’re on Apple Music.

BTS I’m getting another batch of animated covers ready for releases several months from now. As I progress, I’m getting bolder on the cover art ideas and I’m hoping I can pull them off. Time will tell if the vision is too bold to make happen.

This week’s song is Digital Empire. It’s quite apropos for what I’ve been building and all the fan oriented updates I’ve been adding to the website, store and email system. Building a Digital Empire bit by bit.

Are you part of the Jody Army, on the email list? There’s new stuff happening there too. I’ll make it worth your while to join.

In the mean time I’m about to hit New Orleans with a Jazz band. More amazing things coming next week.

2026-01-06

© 1997-2026 ON RECORDS