Spain

It's been a while and already the heat and sweating in Spain's coast climate seems distant in this Finnish September weather, but I'll try to recollect something for your entertainment. 

The thing is, I really needed a vacation. I hadn't had a proper one for like two years, ever since the last visit to Spain. And I really needed some time separated for the sole purpose of writing songs and letting new ideas come into my head. My job is to teach singing, which is a socially tasking job because of the attention and focus you have to continually give to the student. In the long run I feel it eats away some of my creative energy. That's why the opportunity to rest and get away from my familiar surroundings was so important to me. 

The opportunity was given by a society which rents an artist's residence in Arenys de Mar, a little town near Barcelona. To apply I had to send in an application and a written plan what I was going to do during my stay. Oh, that's easy: I'm gonna write songs and finish a bunch of unfinished ones. The last time I planned to compose some contemporary music, which I also do, so I was a teeny tiny worried about whether my plan, this time to make Rock songs, would be accepted. But it was and everything was in order, I got the residency for August.

Arriving in Barcelona felt funny because it's familiar to me by now and feels kind of like coming home, but at the same time the climate, the way people go about, the city, it's all different from Finland. Barcelona is the capital city of Catalonia district, which has it's own language and cultural heritage. In fact Catalonia has long sought for independence from Spain, although the people are still divided in that matter, and of course Spain will not allow Catalonia to separate. There's been some disputes and demonstrations just recently. While people do usually speak Spanish, some prefer English when speaking to foreigners, and some won't do even that, sticking to Catalan all the way.  So, communication is not always easy, but I managed with the few words I knew, and English.

At the residence there were artists from Finland and this time also from Sweden. We had our own rooms and a shared kitchen. Everyone of them were nice and social enough to have a conversation with, and even spend an evening at a restaurant with, but also considerate and polite enough to leave others alone while they were working. Luckily there was plenty of room to have a quiet working space for everyone. A great improvement since the last time were keyboards, which the society had bought to the residence. I spent most of my work time by them or writing somewhere out of sight.

I worked mostly on songs that I would like to have on our second album, if there ever is going to be one. I had made several songs about religion and the recent developments in my relationship towards it, so it started very much to look like a theme album. Nothing wrong with that, it might just be great. But it might not be a smart move to disregard some of the strong songs that were not about religion. So I'm not really sure yet how it will turn out. I just finished as much as I could, and we'll see what happens when we start to rehearse. "Finishing" in this case meant polishing the melodies and words, deciding chords, creating possible riffs, bass lines and drum ideas. I left most of the pre-demo work for home, although I did one basic demo, on which I could record keyboard tracks. A lot might still change before the songs reach their final forms.

Stylistically, I would say that these songs are even closer to later Siouxsie and the Banshees than the ones on the still un-released first album. I feel there's less Metal influences, but there will be a few aggressive tracks. Some of the ideas have come into existence several years ago, never having any lyrics to them, but most of them came to be during the process of changing my world view and the separation from my religious upbringing, which happened a few years ago. Some of them are very recent, but of course won't be by the time they are released. In the essence, the song lyrics are very personal and contain a lot of symbolism and metaphors, some of which may not be clear for a listener without experience of a religious environment. I'd like to write posts about the whole issue in the future.

Of course, my days weren't filled only with work. I also had a lot of fun and new experiences, I visited new places and saw new things. I enjoyed swimming in the ocean, nearly every day. Only, after heavy rain there were red flags raised on the beach, which apparently meant "No swimming". When once asking a local about it, he only said the word "Rats". And yes, I saw one dead in the sand, seagulls picking at it's body. During rain the rats drown in the huge sewer lines which direct the excess water from the mountains into the sea. The sea water itself is also quite dirty after rain, but clears in a few days. But that was an ugly side of that romantic little town I hadn't seen the last time I was there.

I went to Barcelona many times, just to see the place and experience the vibes. I'm not much of a shopper, except form thrift stores, and there are a lot of those in Barcelona. The biggest flea market was Els Encants, a huge market space, where people sell just about everything. It was quite chaotic and I soon got tired of it. Maybe I'm more a fan of little vintage stores, which could also be found all around.

I also visited Girona, where I'd heard they'd shot some episodes of Game of Thrones. There was the medieval old town and wall, and the Jewish quarter, one of the world's best preserved one. Quite an experience to be in surroundings with so much human history. A great experience was also the Theatre-Dali Museum, designed by Dali himself into an old theater in Figueras, his hometown. To see the details of the paintings, and everything the artist had made with through other arts than painting, was striking. The only down side to that place was that it was packed full.

Girona

There's all kinds of cafeterias and restaurants all over Barcelona, and in every other town I went. It looks like there's one in every corner. It's hard to pick. But anywhere I went the food or coffee was delicious and the service great. Just remember to tip. That's another foreign thing for a Finnish person. The food in Catalonia is great, and it's cheap, and alcohol is even cheaper. Of course I'm now comparing to the prices of Finland, which are just ridiculous with that heavy taxing. If you ever visit the area, you should not leave without tasting the local seafood Paella. It is heavenly. Also I found a new favourite with coffee, Pao de Deus, which is actually a Portuguese pastry.

August was holiday season for the locals, and they had quite a lot of activities going on, even in that little town of Arenys de Mar. There were live concerts of classical music in the local park, activities for children, and people spent a lot of time on the beach. There was also a big three day festival of Sant Roc. On the first day there was an event called La Pesta, commemorating the Black Death and of course surviving it as community.

The legend of Sant Roc tells that he was of noble origin and helped those who suffered from the plague, but then got sick himself. When he retrieved from society to heal himself, dogs brought him food. When healed and returning to his home town he was arrested as a spy. He died in prison without revealing his noble identity. For these legendary reasons he is the patron saint of those suffering from the plague, of dogs and of those wrongly accused.

La Pesta then contained a procession, where local youth carried huge dolls representing local inhabitants and Saints. The procession went through the whole town, ending up at the church square. Then, a "wrongly accused" guy was brought to a stage, and just when they were about to "execute" him, a fanfare was heard and a "Sant Roc" character came down from the church's clock tower on a wire, to rescue the poor victim. I didn't understand anything they said, but it looked like fun. There was also a whole street dedicated to the plague, where "witch doctors" sold their "cures" for plague and "body sacks" were laid in front of the doors. A procession of plague doctors went around inspecting people...

The next day the local youth ran around the streets and yelled "Sant Roc" and sprinkled people with water from peculiar glass jars. They came also to our door, and luckily there was someone who spoke English and explained the whole thing. The following day there were traditional dances on the main street. The dancers sure looked beautiful in their traditional costumes. The whole Sant Roc celebration seemed odd from the outsiders perspective, but it looked like fun, and something that unites the people. In essence, not very different from, say, Wave Gothic Treffen or Mera Luna...

I've been home now for a while. It was hard at first and everyday life felt heavier after a break. But I'm getting used to it again. And now it's mushroom season, so there's nothing really to whine about. I also have glad news: I managed to book us in a local bar in Turku! We'll be playing on 26th October, just in time before Halloween!!

Oops! I might've gotten a little tanned!

Lumous-Festival and other happenings

It's been a while but there's a good reason for that: I was in Spain again, for a whole month, writing songs and resting.

Before that there was of course the event of Lumous Gothic Festival at Tampere, July 12th-15th. 

We arrived there in good time at Pub Dog's Home and the stage was set by the festival organizers and the people from the bar and us. The other bands, Astral Zombie and Agnosia came a little later, so we decided to start with the soundcheck first. We got to decide the playing order among ourselves, so we agreed first Astral Zombie, us, and last Agnosia. 

After soundcheck of course FOOD! Because we had been driving for several hours. And then checking into the hotel. Then the guys took their naps. But I had no time for that, I had to paint my face. Since this was a Goth festival nothing would be too extravagant or over the top. I went with red eye shadow and dark lips. Clothes were simple, just a net skirt and a top with lots of jewelry. 

So I was just about ready when we had to go to the venue already. Showtime was at nine and an hour was reserved for every band, so our turn would be at ten o'clock. We chatted for a while with the other bands and noticed that Agnosia was actually from the same city as we. Maybe we could play together some time?

Astral Zombie was a solo artist who used a sound effect track and improvised on that with heavily distorted bass and screaming a poem about Death coming to visit and drinking coffee. All the elements of goth music you really need. There were three songs all knitted together so you wouldn't know where each one ended or begun. It was something really different and would also fit nicely in a contemporary art/music festival. After his gig Astral Zombie wanted to show us his blistered fingers: having suffered enough was an important part of his artistry, I gathered. 

Then it was our turn, and boy, was I scared. But it passed quickly. It was just so much fun being out there. The stage was small, not much room to move, but I did what I could. We started with A Night Like This and there was some problem with feedback. But the Mixer-guy from the venue fixed it from his side and things went better from there on. Next song, Choices went quite well, except I ruined the end by starting the last chorus too early. Well, mistakes happen. The rest went without problem and we had a lot of fun. I even survived playing guitar AND singing at the same time. 

During the gigs I could notice the audience's reactions. During some songs more people listened attentively, and even smiles and enjoyment was visible. During some others I could sense some critical faces and more people focusing on chatting among them selves. I get it, because the songs of our coming debut album are all quite different. There are some more metal-related with heavy guitar riffs and even d-tuning, which might not be every Trad Goths' cup of coffee, and some very pop-like songs, which might sound, well, pop. And I say "sense" because you don't really notice it consciously. There are so many things you have to give your attention to, so I guess some of it just happens sub-consciously. 

After the gig several people came to personally thank us. That felt nice. I remember especially one guy in Ghost's T-shirt, thank you, who ever you were! Thanking personally really made me feel like there must be something to this music we are playing. 

Finally Agnosia played. They were a kind of a "punk-attitude with goth elements" band, with sometimes Finnish, sometimes English lyrics, live synths and heavy guitars and basses. I especially liked the drumming, which borrowed much from post-punk. Vocals were basically distorted singing. I actually chatted with the singer for a while and we realized we were originally from the same city in eastern Finland. The world is small.

The whole evening was fun and ended too soon. The next day we went to see an exhibition of a Gothic artist, Henna Pitkämäki. Then the others went on their way, the guitarist to another gig, the others had work or something. I stayed for another day to enjoy the unique atmosphere of Lumous, day two. I spent the afternoon in parks and wandering around Tampere, and then got back to the hotel to get ready. The first band to play would be Chaos Research, in Pub Dog's Home. 

I was anxious to be on time, which I always am when alone in a strange place. There was nobody yet, except Chaos Research's cellist. I sat alone for a while just waiting, and then he came to talk to me. We had a nice chat. Turned out he also played in Two Witches, the iconic nineties' Finnish Goth band. Clueless me, but then again I was introduced to the scene pretty late and never knew the band well except the name. After a while his friends from Sweden came and sat around the same table. Then their Finnish friends came, and I had company all evening. We talked a lot about Goth bands and events and what the scene is like nowadays. The Swedish guys were organizers of a Goth- festival in Umeå, and of course I was keen to introduce my band to them, since they hadn't been there when we played. It might lead to something, or not, but it's fun to make connections get to know people anyway.

Chaos Research was ethereal and beautiful, with magical vocals and cellos. What more can I say? It was beautiful!

There were three more gigs at another venue close by, and we all went there. First was The Doctors, a duo from France. The guitarist played the whole gig with a mask on and took it off only at the end. Certainly created a mood. Then there was Randolph's Grin. I quite liked the vocals and can still recall some of the unique rhythms and riffs. The lyrics stuck to me, because they seemed to handle a wide variety of issues and were not all unpolitical. Last was Metallspürhunde, from Switzerland, an energetic and aggressive band that reminded me of Rammstein with an up-beat. Between bands everyone gathered at the bar's porch. I talked to some new Swedish people there, also organizers of the aforementioned festival in Umeå. During the last band I noticed that most them just stayed at the porch, so I danced away to Switzerland rhythms by myself. After that was more dancing with dj:s Jyrki Witch,  Xavier and Jussi40. My feet were dead tired when I got back to the hotel.

The next day, and final day to me because I had to be back on Sunday, dawned and I went for breakfast. I met the Swedish people from last night and we chatted some more. They were sweet! We walked together to the Festival's Dark Market. I found some music and jewelry. I also stopped to talk briefly with Jyrki Witch, who had his own table at the market. We talked about record companies, releasing music and how it is done nowadays. I also had the chance to thank him for having us in the festival. After the market I went home. Didn't stay for the legendary End-party, but maybe next year, because I'll definitely be going!

So, Thank you Lumous Crew: Jyrki, Toni, Nina!

Thank you Marko from Chaos Research, Nick, Sara, Ola, Maija and all others I met there!

Thank you Astral Zombie and Agnosia, and most of all, thank you Hateful Chains for being there with me!

You are all beautiful people!

Love: Hypnosis