After Christmas Party

While on vacation, I'll take the opportunity to tell you guys all about the video shoot, part one, and also what's going on in the band and life in general.

But first things first: We have released our fifth single Good People on December 13th. At last. And I didn't even warn you here, even though I tried to give several warnings on social media. No reviews on that yet, but it took some time with It's All Right as well, so I'm hopeful. Either way, it's a relieve to have gotten it out.

In our media release I described the song as follows:

"Good People, HC:s fifth single is about everyday hypocrisy, describing the lengths we all go to explain to ourselves that we are actually good people, but fail to see the brokenness of our dark hearts. Enjoy the gloom!"

In a way, Good People is a really uncomfortable song. Everybody tells themselves the story that they are good people, and that it's the others who do the bad stuff. Or at least that they're not as bad as that next guy, whose mistakes have taken them down the rabbit hole. In almost biblical terms, there is none that can say that they're truly good people, because we have all made mistakes. We are all somehow broken, either from something done to us or something we have done to others, and ourselves.

But seeing the wounds is difficult. Really seeing the wounds that haven't healed and those that we keep slashing open all over again by repeating our mistakes and harmful patterns. Looking yourself in the mirror and seeing the reality of that warped and cracked image is very hard. And that is the only way to change. Like with addiction: you can't change unless you admit you have a problem.

In Good People I tried to express how we as human beings collectively live in a state of denial. Admitting our mistakes and challenging the way we think and believe is one of the hardest things for us. We all do this, we all think we are good people. And yet, no one can claim they are perfect. In the lyrics is also hidden the fear, that if we as a collective human race don't change our ways, things will go down hill. Which is obvious by now, if you're not in denial of what the researchers are saying about the state of the planet.

The song is old, the lyrics written about four years ago. I recognize now that the worldview I had then was a little more black and white than it is now. Hopefully. At least now I can say that I believe that there is also none that is completely without hope, that there is a spark of light inside the darkest hearts, a memory of something good. And I believe there's hope for us collectively too. There are also good news around the world. Achievements are made in every field. We have all the tools we need to change, for the better. It all comes down to choice, which is a whole another debate in itself. But let's just say that this song, Good People, comes from a bit darker place than where I am now, and maybe I'll write something lighter in the future. Or maybe my lot in life is to mourn for the world. Deal with it.

So, that's quite a lot about the lyrics. What about music?

Well, the working title was "Goth-queen song" but I don't know where that came from. Maybe it's because first there was a bass line, which reminded me of Queen, but could just as well be inspired by Jackson's Billie Jean. Moving, rolling, on top of that very basic guitars and plain song. That's the verse. Then comes something that I would call a "Siouxsie-moment" due to it's heavy influence by none other than Siouxsie and the Banshees. Which is basically O-O-Oooo singing and some kling-klang-kling-instrument, which then expands to chorus, more heavy, more distortion in guitars. But I won't let you rest here. After this comes more O-O-Oooo and acoustic guitars. We actually had some debate within the band about which part is actually the chorus and which is the bridge. I guess it's for the listener to decide, but hopefully we achieved a satisfactory compromise with that...

At the very end of the song, when you think it's all over, in comes the choir. It's a piece of it's own but has been there from the start. The text is basic Kyrie Eleison, which is a basic part of a Mass. Due to the classic background it felt quite natural to put it there. And also suitable was to record it in a church, which I wrote about in the last piece. We also recorded some clips of my singing in there, which kind of formed a bridge, soundwise, between the last bit of the song and the choir piece. As I wrote before, Aino-kuoro from Turku recorded it very professionally.

While mixing and re-recording some guitars our guitarist/producer came up with some great guitar lines for the chorus. In my opinion, the final touch, really gave the song a more goth air to it. The mastering was in the end done by Waudio Mastering, a very experienced and popular sound engineer in Finland. We decided to give some new direction a try, and yes, the result was indeed very good. Oh yes! So good that we actually decided to release it as a single.

So I had to start thinking about the cover. That was a thinking process in itself. There was so much I wanted to say with the cover, let alone the song. It felt impossible to grasp the message within a single image. But then I remembered the photographing experiments I did in Spain the previous summer, when I accidentally broke a wine glass. i took the one with the best light and just slightly adjusted some color balance and contrast. I didn't even have to do much, the picture summarizes the message.

Now, Good People is in the air, on Bandcamp and Spotify, and all major platforms. Go and have a listen. And be good to each other.

https://hatefulchains.bandcamp.com/track/good-people


Next time, I'll write about the video shoot, promise.

Love, Flora

                                   Work Pays, Doesn't it?

How having a full time job eats away your time, and other things related to the end of the year...

Cemetery at All Hallow's Eve, full of little lights in the midst of darkness

It's been a while since I've even touched this keyboard. The last piece I wrote was about Skeletal Family for Project Goth Playlist. I hope it's doing well there. I don't know, since I haven't been on social media very much lately, except checking on Instagram or Twitter every once in a while. Nor have I had much to add there... And there is a good reason for that: I started a new job.

I have a bachelor degree in fashion design, but so far I have just done a few dresses for customers every now and then, and my own stuff. Just a hobby, really. My day job was vocal coaching, a part time job which allowed me to concentrate some of my time to song writing etc. Now that time is short, because I started a new job, related to my previous training as a designer. It's mostly manufacturing, but there have been some interesting design projects for single customers as well. For now, it's just for eight months, maybe a year, but you never know what the future holds in store for you.

In addition to working from eight to four, some new project have come across my way in the music life, my dearer occupation: Having some years past been a keyboard player in a metal band, I was asked to a disco band project, to keyboards and backing vocals. Of course I had to accept!  It is a whole new field of music to be conquered, but it's been going well so far. We've had a few gigs already and hopefully will get more once the marketing stuff is settled. And I enjoy it, which is the most important reason to do anything. So, not going to give that up just yet, even if it takes a chunk of my time.

I still teach after my main job and the days tend to get long, even if I don't have as many students as I used to. So unfortunately I won't be writing as frequently as I would hope.

But do not despair, for many things have passed that I wish to reveal to you!

As you may already have noticed, our fourth single, It's All Right came out in summer, after of course we were finally happy with it. It has attracted some attention, but I think more needs to be done to receive that. Even if I'm working an eight to four job now I will try to get things going!
I sent it to numerous blogs and other media that handle alternative/straight out goth style music. After some time there were answers, and the single has now been reviewed in Onyx Music Reviews:

https://onyxmusicreviews.com/2019/10/17/hateful-chains-its-all-right/

It was a real pleasure to read about it, and with such flattering remarks. We'll try to live up to that image you painted of us! It has to be said here, that it's truly amazing and respectable that there are people out there who are willing to give their time and energy to write about music and dig up some new gems that might attract new listeners. You are one of the many reasons that keeps us, the yet minor bands, going and gives us reason to believe that the time and energy we put into our work is not for nothing. Thank you!


While It's All Right was put out there, we already worked out our next piece. In spring we recorded a piece for a lady choir, which I posted a snippet from in Instagram and other socials. The choir was magnificent, did all I asked them to and more. I originally wrote the piece for a male-female choir, but it turned out really complicated to get enough people to sing it. Perhaps while I was still in music school it would have been simpler. Now all my previous colleagues in classical singing had scattered across the map and continued their lives in music or other fields. But when I noticed through social media that there's a female choir in our town, who have done many recording projects before, I seized the chance and asked. Never hesitate to ask, for it will cost you nothing.


Turns out, they were happy to record with us and we even got to use an acoustically awesome church to record it in. The piece was recorded and edited with success, and was added to the end of our next song, Good People. And We have the Aino-kuoro to thank for that. So, thank you! We hope that the result will pleasing to your ears as well as it is to ours.

http://ainokuoro.fi/

After many mixing and mastering sessions, Good People is now ready to be released. I'm still working out the details around releasing, like album cover and how to get it seen and spread. But I will soon release the release date and then it will be out there to hopefully please your ears.

Meanwhile, while workity working and rehearsing and everything, we haven't abandoned our music video project for She Smiles. Slowly, but surely it is coming together. We have come up with a general script and looked for locations. You know how it's all about location? That's why we spent some more time to find the ones that really fit the ideas we have in mind. That is now almost sorted out. We have asked all kinds of dance groups and people who work some how in the field of bodily expression, to join us in the making of the video. Thus the combination will be quite interesting, with a minor risk for chaos, which we simply ave to accept, if we want to achieve something. We have a make-up artist with us, which we are really going to need, because of the nature of the video. I will reveal it all to you in good time and in manageable pieces.

The big job for me in this video is once again costumes. How do I always manage to grab a bigger piece of a cake than I can swallow? Greed. Must be. It's just always so tantalizing to start something new, to visualize it in your head and solve the problems that surface on it's way to reality. I can't help it, and I think that's the case for many that create, what ever the field. We have a saying here that goes something like "having many irons in fire at once" which is used to describe the situation of having many things to deal with in your life just now. Or too many things. I feel like that's the situation in my life, but hey, it's always been like that in the months before Christmas. So, with the knowledge that it won't last forever, I have the strength to work out some costumes for dancers and do all the other stuff there is as well.

The video will be shot in the end of this month, November and the beginning of December. Hopefully we'll get out there for new year, which would be great!! We are still going to use the flashing faces of smiling people in between scenes, which we have repeatedly campaigned for in social media, to get people to be part of the video and send us a picture. There's still time! If you want to have your sad smile flashing in the video, send us a picture to:

hatefulchains@gmail.com

At least some of the irons have been taken out from the fire at the end of this month, which was a huge relief to me. I had to prepare three applications for grants before the end of the month and the paper work was immense. Luckily I had other people from our organization to help me get it sorted. The grants were applied to finance our Contemporary Music festival, which we hold annually here in our home town. The little project that started among us music students has surely grown into something bigger and more permanent, and that makes me proud. Still, the effort and the paper work that goes into doing this thing surprises me every year. You'll hear about the festival somewhat next spring, but I won't let it take too much space in here, since this blog is dedicated to the story of our band.

The other irons are the orders that need to be finished at work, which all apparently are due JUST NOW, or were already LAST WEEK. it's because of the Christmas markets, I get it. But I can't help stressing about it and wondering, how on earth is anyone in this position able to handle it all. But luckily, we got a huge order to get out in time, with me and some other workers doing overtime. (Something needs to be done about these schedules...)

So in the end of October, just in time for Halloween, luckily some of the huge tasks have been done, and I'm hopefully able to give some time to the advancement of the She Smiles-video and releasing Good People. In the midst of all these things I wish you all happy Halloween, take the time to reflect on the past year, embrace the darkness around you and within you, and prepare for the new things that are coming your way. The time of the deepest nigh is now. Enjoy it!

With love, Flora/Hateful Chains

The light just doesn't do justice to how we see the cemetery with our own eyes

The Project Goth Playlist Tag

I'm not a content creator on YouTube, other than our two music videos so far, so I wasn't tagged. But the originator of this tag, The House of Wyvern, has made it an open one, so all kinds of content creators may join. So, thank you House of Wyvern, all my respect goes to you!

At first I was thinking I'd write about some of Hateful Chains' influences, since I've had that on my mind anyway, but they are mostly those big names everyone in (and many outside) the subculture knows already. And they were already being done by someone. So, I thought, why not choose something equally important to the formation of Goth music and aesthetics than The Cure, Bauhaus, Joy Division, Siouxsie and the Banshees and Sisters of Mercy, but maybe lesser known? And because singing and vocals is one of my passions and a professional interest, why not choose a singer's viewpoint? How about the singer, who in my opinion has been left a little bit in the shadow of the great Goth vocal archetype, Siouxsie Sioux?

I'm talking about Anne-Marie Hurst, the ex-and present vocalist of Skeletal Family, and ex-vocalist of Ghost Dance, which must be the lesser known of her projects. I came across Ghost Dance when casually searching around YouTube for some eighties' Goth music similar to those fore mentioned big names. I was born in the eighties' and maybe that's why the aesthetics of vinyl sound in that time, before the loudness war really exploded (cd's came) and everything, has really grown on me. Ghost Dance's sound definitely hit home.

Anne-Marie Hurst's voice is quite different from Siouxsie Sioux's. It's higher, softer, one could say more feminine, and has a throaty quality, in no way unpleasant. I've found in my profession that some people just have that kind of voice. Siouxsie, on the other hand, is chesty and commanding and lower too. If Siouxsie could be defined as mezzo-soprano, Anne-Marie is surely a soprano, and a true soprano at that. Just listen to the screams she does in the early Skeletal Family material. You can also hear that compared to Siouxsie, her lower register isn't that strong. But what does it matter? Well, to me, Hurst is an important example of using the strengths of one's voice to one's advantage. You don't have to be Siouxsie in order to do Goth music, you can find your own thing and use that. 

The first of Hurst's bands was Skeletal Family, which was formed from the remaining members of a former band, The Elements. The new group took their name from a David Bowie's song Chant of the Ever Circling Skeletal Family. They released a single, Trees, and then were signed to an independent record label. Their first album, Burning Oil (1984) topped the UK independent chart. They then "gigged furiously" around Europe and supported Sisters of Mercy on their 1984 tour. On the second album Futile Combat (1985), was their probably most well known and successful single Promised Land.

After this Anne-Marie Hurst left the band to form Ghost Dance with ex-Sisters guitarist Gary Marx. The other Skeletals disbanded not long after...

Early Skeletal Family is quite Post Punk. Especially on Burning Oil there are the punkish tribal drums on almost every track, and Hurst's vocals are a combination of declamation and high screams with Punk frasing and long single notes in between. She uses much growling and yodeling effects to make it lively. The guitar sounds are already very gothy, much chorus and other effects are used. The bass is quite in the front, which is something they used to do in this era. (Joy Division too) Some of the songs are like a witchy horror story, with their declamation vocals and half tone melodies on guitar.

If you like Siouxsie and the Banshees' album Juju, you'll definitely find something here too.

The next album, Futile Combat, is already evolved into more of a Rock band, instead of Punk. The tracks are very up-beat, in many using the bass-drum-on-every-beat-rhythm with classic Goth style fills, which creates the air of tremendous energy. The guitars are much Rockier here too, and use an even wider range of different effects than on the previous album. Add to this mix the growling saxophones and voila! The vocals too are much more straight forward, some of the yodeling and growling still being there. The songs quite are varied in structure and style, and there's even a bubble-gum-pop-surprise you wouldn't expect from a Goth band. Promised Land is the most well known track of this album, but maybe my favourite is Street Light, just because it's so damn progressive. Oh, and Move really succeeds in incorporating the saxophone into a Goth Rock song, in my opinion.

Ghost Dance started out with a drum machine, and released their first single River of No Return in 1986. The sound, the guitar riffs, the vocals, all were now much more like classic Sisters of Mercy-Gothic Rock. They released a bunch of these singles, including some covers, before having an actual drummer join on their EP A Word to the Wise. On this EP they had in my opinion polished their sound and made it their own. There's a new softness and the melodic lines really compliment Hurst's voice. All the songs are just so singer-friendly! 

When I Call is really good, but so is Fool's Gold, can't choose. Their debut album was Stop the World after which the band slowly disintegrated. It's a more eighties Rock-album than the EP, with synths and guitar riffs lending their sound from the era's musical currents. Some one who likes classic eighties Rock, would certainly enjoy this despite not being a Goth. Me likes. Unfortunately, it seems that physical copies of Ghost Dance are very hard to find. Hopefully someone will re-issue them at some point...(Up-date: I did find Stop the World in a web store!)

But the story of Anne-Marie Hurst and Skeletal Family isn't over yet! In 2002 they reformed with the original members, Hurst included. However, due to some family issues she had to discontinue, and was replaced by another vocalist. The band released the album Sakura in 2005 with Claire Bannister in vocals. This albums soundscape struck me as reeeeally different from the original eighties' Skeletal Family. 

The guitar riffs and sounds are brought into this millennium and are quite heavy, using distortion much more than before. Even in bass. The atmosphere of menace and horror is still created with the use of the half tone harmonies, like in the eighties, and there's still some of the tribal drumming present. Bannister's vocals are ok, but cannot rival the original, in my opinion... I cannot help but comment, that compared to this album, the early albums and the Ghost Dance ones were incredibly well produced. It's the digital age, I guess.

In the 2000's they played at several festivals, including WGT and Drop Dead. The next album was Songs of Love, Hope and Despair (2009). It continues much like the previous album sound-wise. You could say that at this point it's clear that Skeletal Family has evolved into a completely different band than it was in the eighties. Which is what bands do, and it's their artistic right to do so. I can't really choose a favorite song from these albums, they're so different... Maybe Alive Again from Sakura? It's quite an atmospheric song.

So, after Songs of Love, Hope and Despair they disbanded again! In 2012 Hurst and the original guitarist and bassist re-formed the band with the assistance of two others, and they've continued with this line-up to this day. They also have a compilation album Eternal (2016), which contains singles, albums, live sessions etc. So if you've missed out the eighties, go for that.

If I were to choose, I would definitely go with the eighties' and Hurst's era Skeletal Family. Futile Combat is an excellent album! I could run for miles with that energy. But my favorite songs to sing are those of Ghost dance. And that sound production, boy, isn't that something to aim for?

Hypnosis

Part II

We sent the tracks to the producer/audio engineer. He asked for some references and I linked a bunch of them for him, along with some general ideas about the sound. He then spent a work day with the tracks and we came to listen to it in the afternoon, when the work was almost finished. I think he did a great job with vocals, and the drums did sound bigger than before. We asked for some changes in the guitars and backing vocals and then left him to finish it. Later, a mix was sent to us and we listened, commented and a few days later listed some changes for the audio engineer to consider. 

We were so far used to the system that changes made to the mix are included in the negotiated price. After sending that list it occurred to me, that this might not be the case this time, so I called the studio to make sure we weren't exceeding the budget. They assured us that we weren't, although the audio engineer had worked some overtime making the changes we suggested. The song was now ready and they would send it to us. I talked to the promoter-guy on the phone and he said they still wanted the publishing deal with us. Then he pondered aloud, that the producer wouldn't get any share of the copyrights, since he didn't arrange anything, only mixed. That kind of confirmed my initial thoughts about their business strategy, which I mentioned in the previous part.

Money issues were settled then. But when we listened to the song, we were a little disappointed, to be frank. The changes we asked for had not been made, at least to the point we hoped for, and the general sound and balance was still not something we'd hoped for. We knew and understood that the man had done his best, but at the same time it wasn't the result we wanted. But we didn't have the resources to pay for another workday at the studio. So this is where we needed to tread carefully. 

Our suggestion to the studio was, that we hoped to make one more final mix of the song where we could unite the best part of each mixes, theirs and ours. We would then send this mix for them to listen and if they would like it, we could then talk about a publishing deal. We tried to be very polite about this and be careful not to offend in anyway, because we knew this might be a touchy issue. I suspect some hurt happened because we had to wait for a week to get a response to this suggestion. In the end, they agreed, and sent us the vocals and drum tracks.

We, or rather our guitarist, set to work, expecting to finish the song quite soon. After each period of work we would listen to the results together, and this was when I noticed something odd, namely something wrong with the backing vocals. We had been promised, that no auto tune or anything like that had been used on the vocal tracks, because we wanted to keep it natural and not do what they do in metal and every other scene nowadays. But we noticed that in one cadence, before second chorus, where I specifically wanted a major chord, the backing vocals had been changed to a minor chord. I don't know if this was intentional or not, but it sure made me furious.

We took these altered backing vocals out and put the original ones we had back in. After this I sent the resulting mix for a listen to that studio and basically told them this was the one we were going to publish, adding "if it's ok for you" in the end. You know what? They never answered! This tells me they either didn't care anymore and didn't want to work with us, which is fine by us! Or, they realized we had seen through what ever the hell they were thinking.

I'm not going to name any names. It's useless and I don't really want to take that burden of directly accusing someone without any veritable evidence. This is just what happened and I can only tell how I interpret it. Maybe there were really good reasons for this "producing" without asking. Maybe this is the way it's done in the big business. I don't know. What ever the reasons, I sure would have liked to know them. You know, we did ask, if it was ok for them to have the song re-mixed by us. And they sent the tracks for us to do just that.

Anyway, this whole episode has made a slight dint in my trust towards record companies and producers. Being independent has it's downsides, but at least you know what you get. I know that producers are needed, and many people might think our songs could use one too. Maybe they could, and if a good one comes along, who's good to work with, I'll accept it. But there's a difference between working together with a band and trying to sneak in alterations without asking.

However, the story of this song is not over yet. It's All Right went through much, very much mixing and mastering back and forth. Every time we thought "This is it!", the moment we listened to the result through home stereo or any other device, we were brought back to the drawing table. It was our perfectionism and the need to make it sound better than what we received from the studio that kept us going. All thanks for enduring this goes to our guitarist and producer. At times he was very frustrated and tired at listening to the song all over again and starting over, over and over, but he endured. He's great!

One final change that was made to the song, was new bass tracks. Since the original bassist had left us when the song was still being recorded and mixed, we thought we might just as well record them with the new guy. And besides, like a pro, he had mastered the song very fast. He played it with attitude! At the final rounds of mixing the song started to sound like ready, and we still had to decide between mastering it ourselves or trust the instincts of another pro. So, at the moment It's All Right is being mastered by the same person who did the previous songs. When we receive the master, we will be able to announce the release date! So, keep your eyes peeled for that!!!

Hypnosis

Funny Story, though...Part I

You might remember me shouting about a new single in here, even posting pictures of it's possible cover on Instagram. As you may have noticed, it got delayed, and now is the time share why that happened. 

Possible cover for It's All Right, stage one

Before Christmas time I sent our songs to a new record company, which had started out quite recently, just to try it out one more time and see what happens. In my e-mail I specifically asked if there would be a chance of collaboration, seeing that they also did promotional work and other stuff. They actually replied and called me out of the blue a few months later, telling that they liked the songs and were interested. 

We had a meeting with them at their studio where we played more of our songs for them and discussed the collaboration options. Nice people, all of them, and the place was nice too. All very well done and with a specific strategy. As it turns out, it just wasn't the strategy we had in mind.

Their interest was to produce a song of ours in their studio and push it to radios etc. We heard some songs of another banda they were working with, who had apparently agreed to let the audio engineer/producer play the drums for them.  It's sometimes the job of the producer, I get it, and a good one can really bring out the best in a band this way. But to me this felt slightly uncomfortable.

It's partly my reluctance to let someone touch my creation and alter it, but partly not, because we work together all the time on these songs with our guitarist/producer. Partly, it was the uneasy feeling that these people wanted their share of copyrights, which they would have gotten by being one of the arrangers. So, we told them that one of our terms is that the band plays all instruments.

They agreed on this and we then talked about which songs would be the ones to start collaboration with. They really liked the song we had just finished, It's All Right, and said nothing would really need to be changed there structure wise. However, we had just spent a lot of hours with the song and hoped to start with something else, if a whole new production was going to take place. They agreed.

So we played the other songs as well, and another of them caught their attention: Invite Me in, a dance able tune with lyrics about the devil on your shoulder. The guy who did mostly the promotion work in the company said that if he were to choose, this would be the one. But the song was too long and would need some cuts. When I seemed to be uncomfortable with the idea, they suggested a radio edit, and a full length version on a possible full album. The reason was of course, that the song was too long for radio. They had in mind the pop-song three minute standard with no long intros and the chorus preferably at one minute mark..."You see, I have to push you through", said the promoter-guy. I reluctantly agreed to this.

One other thing that struck a bell slightly, was when he associated the song with Marilyn Manson. I told him that he's not completely off the bat regarding visual things, but musically or sound wise, this is not what we are aiming for, except maybe on modernity of sound, but yeah... no. It left me thinking that maybe this guy didn't know this genre well enough. For the record, I don't even listen to Marilyn Manson and Invite Me in doesn't sound remotely like that. Think more Siouxsie and the Banshees' Cities in Dust...

We then discussed the general terms of business: They wanted to sign a publishing deal about Invite Me in and produce it in their studio. The costs of using that studio would be payed by us. Possible full album would be a separate deal. The pros for us in this were that they would do promotion. After a while of thinking and discussing we suggested that we could start slowly, by letting the audio engineer/producer make a new mix of It's All Right. If that would prove fruitful we could then think about going all the way with Invite me in. This was agreed upon.

Back home, I commenced to work to find out what publishing deals are all about, because I didn't have a clear idea. It's basically about selling a part of your copyrights in exchange for promotion. The common way nowadays in the pop-music industry is to make a deal like this just for the one track. There are some problems, which troubled me about this: What if we want to make an independent music video about a song that's under a publishing deal? Can't do that without publishing company's agreement. What if we want that track on the album, but go to a different label or independent? Might cause problems... So you see, it's quite problematic when you don't own your music all the way. There are of course good deals and bad deals, and a good deal with a right label could help a band in the long run. But I was already thinking this might not be the one...

Stay tuned for Part II

Hypnosis

The Endless Discussion

Any one who follows any Gothic YouTube channels or even happens to pass one of those by can't escape the endless discussion that goes on, and has been going on there for forever. It seems like every Goth YouTuber has a video about the topic "What's Goth?", where they then define Goth for themselves and what belongs and doesn't belong to that definition. A variety of books have been written about the Subculture, explaining it's roots and ingredients. In the past, Goth had to explained to the uninformed in interviews, in magazines, TV. Now, everybody can google and search on YouTube and a cluster of these What Is-videos is recommended. 

Now, Goth Subculture as a whole has the reputation of being a community of open mindedness, where the gloomy folk looked down upon by society find their home. All kinds of orientations and identities are accepted, many religions from Christianity to Paganism gather under this dark umbrella and express themselves in numerous ways. But when your music taste isn't right, or you lack some other trait of a proper Goth citizen, your Gothiness is questioned by the gatekeepers. 

You know, those people who define something for themselves and because they are in a position of influence, usually because they were there first, they get to form the definitions for others too. They get to decide if you're Goth or just merely darkly inclined, which they say is totally ok, just don't go around saying you're Goth. This is the dark shadow of Goth subculture, much under discussion all the time, which unfortunately alienates many of those who genuinely like most aspects of it and would like to be part of it.

Me in 2012, not part of anything,
but I had the love for dark things.
Would I have been accepted?

There was a time when the subculture in general was something that evaded closer definition and most bands now considered most influential to it's formation rejected the term "Goth". In fact, the very name Goth was imposed from the outside, in the attempt to define this new direction some of the Post Punk bands were taking back in the eighties. But that was forty years ago and the defining now happens within the subculture itself. 

There's nothing wrong with defining things, it's human nature and something inescapable. We give names to things and attach attributes to them in order to know their nature. A plant is not a mushroom. An edible mushroom is not poisonous, etc. It could be argued that the ability to put things in boxes is a survival mechanism. So maybe the need to describe and define the Goth Subculture stems from some basic need as well?

If you're an odd non-conformist and in some way an outsider to the normal culture, and then find a home within a subculture, I think it is only natural that you feel the need to somehow protect this home. In fact, I had written this paragraph already, then later saw a tweet from a not un-known influential Goth, describing the Subculture as "The only home I've ever known". So that particular definition is not very far fetched.

However, when this protection becomes a way to exclude new-comers, I think we're on a wrong track. On a track of elitism, to put it bluntly, and that's something no real Goth would want to be accused of. In my opinion, too tight definitions serve as a way to exclude. "Conforming" is generally scorned at and we keep up the illusion that this subculture is a non-conformist community. Yet, we expect so called Baby Bats to conform, to know the right bands, right books etc. We claim to be unique, individualistic, expressing ourselves, but yet there are certain norms to which we all conform. This is, of course, making it black and white, but you see my point.

Not to worry though, this is phenomenon shows it's ugly head everywhere, where there is a community centered around some idea. People are the same everywhere. Sometimes the drama even reminds me of my youth, growing up in evangelical church surroundings. There too, some people define for themselves what is a good Christian and then throw that definition on other people's shoulders...just like the negative stereotype of Bible-bangers describes. They are gatekeepers who question your Christianity 'cause you don't speak in tongues, or you smoke.

I know this comparison to organised religion of which many of those in Goth Subculture have a negative experience must seem rather distasteful. I assure you it is intentional. I want to draw your attention to the fact, that this phenomenon of gate keeping and exclusion is everywhere. More over, a church (or a cult) is not just the tenets of that religion, it is a community of people gathered around a common belief. Likewise, subculture is a community. It does not actually exist without the people sharing it's ideas. And where ever there is a community, be it in actual life or the internet, there are those who are afraid of losing it, afraid that their home will change beyond their recognition. And some of them will be protective to the point of exclusion.

I'm finishing this writing during Passover celebrations, hence perhaps the allusion to Christianity. It's a huge subject and not easy to put in words. But maybe I've succeeded at least in describing what may, in my opinion, lie behind the actions of those who in sometimes quite nasty ways judge newcomers (or simply anyone) as "not goth enough". It is simply fear of losing. In this sense, maybe we can understand the gatekeepers as well? Understand, yet maybe not accept what they do. Let us also remember, that the Goth Subculture is in general accepting and open minded, a home for the non-conforming. A few bad apples will not ruin the whole basket, if we up-hold that open mindedness and accept the newcomers and their genuine love of the subculture and what it stands for.

In these thoughts, happy Passover, or Easter, what ever you guys celebrate, or don't. In the words of another influential Goth: Be nice to each other.

Hypnosis

Is this Goth enough?

Another Leaf Turned, Time to Move on

Ok, so now I'll tell you what happened. of course you have already seen it on Instagram and facebook: We didn't make it to round three in Emergenza. Our drummer thought it was maybe even a good thing, thinking about all those competitions that lead to nothing, really. I personally would've gladly taken the chance to play live for a third time in this happening, but maybe it wasn't meant to be. 

We were placed on a Thursday night, which ate away the possible audience. Although all of us did the tiresome work of shouting about it on social media and then contacting all friends and colleagues, asking them to come, only a handful showed up in the end. It's just that working people don't have the juice to go see a band on a regular week day, and that band being something they already saw a month ago. So that's it. 

But whatever the audience, we had a blast. No technical issues or anything, everything worked out smoothly. And the new guy knew his way around bass! Happy to have him in this group. Happy also to announce that this wasn't the last time to hear about us: May 18th is the next show in Turku!

The reason I didn't write sooner about this was that the very next weekend What ever Works! Contemporary Music Festival took place. It has been brewing all year and taken a lot of organizing and going around, even paper work, as we now have an organisation to see over the festival arrangements. It was a huge project, not something I could have done alone by any means. 

We had three concerts in three different locations around Turku, international guests and guests from other cities, new contemporary pieces of music played for the first time and of course, a great time together. My piece, The Living Statue 2.0 was played, or sung actually, in the final concert. The biggest chunk of my time was taken by the costume I designed and made for this piece. For that not to go to waste I planned it in a way it could be used again, perhaps in a future Hateful Chains video?

Speaking of that, maybe it's time to start planning the next one. I'm thinking it should be She Smiles, our most aggressive song so far. I really want the production quality to take a big step up and that takes careful planning and some budget. Before that, however, maybe it's time to update our band photo? You know, with the new bassist? By the way, he's coming to record some basses to a new song in a few hours... So, things are progressing, time to move on and leave these competitions and other stuff behind.

A Rant about Music

Today I have stuff to do and don't really have too much time to write this, so forgive me if it comes out a bit ranty. For I will rant.

I'm currently building a costume on a doll. It's for a contemporary music piece I will be performing with a colleague at What ever Works!-Contemporary Music Festival in April. To work I usually need some babble or music, and for that purpose I was searching for something new. I searched for a band in Bandcamp that I've heard much praise about and took a listen. 

It was nicely produced, modern sounds especially in drums, cool modern picture as an album cover. Vocals are nice too and as a vocal coach I can't really help having critical ears there. The vocals actually sound a bit Grunge-like to me, although there's that dark tone that suits Goth Music so well naturally present in the singers voice. 

Everything is balanced. Everything is done well, just like modern standards would require. Apparently it's produced by the band itself, so way to go! At least I can't no record label. And the feedback the album has received is positive, judging from what the band put on their page. Even the words "genius writing" are mentioned. 

There's just this slight teeny weeny feeling of too much cleanliness. It's the current trend in metal, I hear said, and hear myself in the music as well. Everything is clean. In fact everything must be so clean in most today's metal genres, that the living parts have been cut away and replaced with samples or straightened with autotune, and then the whole package is compressed to the roof. And I hate what it does to the music. Maybe it's just me, and me liking the sound of Eighties Goth and generally the more analog sound of past ages. Maybe it's false nostalgia. It's a whole another debate, though...

Anyway, the more I hear, the more I'm glad that there's not too much of this over cleanliness in this band. The natural tone of the singer can still be heard and I like that. And I can hear the slight variations in tempo and dynamics a bit somewhere, which in my opinion just makes the music living, played by actual people. The aesthetics in producing must be due to the genre, I conclude, and if you like the more Doom/Metal side of the wide Goth genre, then this stuff is worth listening to. 

What bugs me the most, and is the reason I can't really listen to this and genuinely enjoy it, is the arranging. It's the fact that most of the time everyone is playing the same thing, and on top of that, the vocals do exactly the same. I mean, the bass, the guitar and the synths are all playing the same melody and then the singer sings that same melody. To me as a singer, a song writer who writes the songs mostly based on the vocal melody and melodies around it, and yes: as a contemporary classical music composer, that is the one thing I try to avoid. It is in fact one of the basic things they teach you in music theory: Everyone does not need to play the same thing all the time. That kind of writing is not genius. 

Now, I'm not completely guiltless of this phenomenon. I'll tell you a story: before Hateful Chains ever existed I used to play synths in a Christian Metal band. As you can imagine, this placed a lot of boundaries to what you could sing about and where you could play, and that's one of the many reasons it never really took off. So, once we were playing at a Christian teen happening, and the guy who organised the event mixed the show. After it he gave us some feedback that really stuck to me: All of you don't have to play the same thing all the time. It makes the music muddy, hard to hear in a live situation. 

And what was the reason for this? In my opinion it was because the songs were based on guitar riffs and chord progressions first. And vocals or song melodies second. It's actually hard to come up with a good melody and lyrics on top of that, when the song is already stuffed with guitar parts. It is hard for me, and that's why I appreciate the true geniuses who are able to do that. What usually happens, though, is that the singer ends up singing the chord progression or even the bass line. In the worst case, it's everyone playing the same thing all the time. 

Now, in the case of this particular band I'm happy to say that there were also nice synth ideas and guitar melodies that were more independent from the whole. There were also some cool moments of tension. And the guitar sounds are nice, especially the beginning of the last track. I also like the way it continues throughout the whole song. The overall blending of Metal and Goth sounds is attractive and cool too. And what's most goth about it might just be the lyrics, the usage of religious imagery and the twists and double meanings there in.  If this band continues, and I hope of course that they will, they'll surely develop into something beautiful. 

And did you guess it? 

Yes, it was Her Despair and their EP Mournography (2018)

Now, off the internet cave and into the cave of handicraft. Maybe I'll do a post about it later.

Sweet dreams, Hypnosis

Good and Bad News

There's a saying here that goes about something like this: Nothing so bad without something good as well, which in English would be "Every cloud has a silver lining". Many things have happened lately and I'm going to tell the good news first.

We made it to round two in Emergenza 2019! That means that enough people apart from our friends (Thank you for showing up!) liked us enough to vote for us. My sincerest thanks to all of you! I would have thought this to be such a marginal music style that it wouldn't have been many a persons cup of tea, but maybe it was? And maybe one factor is also the other musicians from other bands who could be voicing their genuine appreciation for the songs, even if it's not within the boundaries of their specific favourite genre. I don't know, and it might be useless to think about that. The important part is that we're in the next round, playing in a bigger venue in about a month, and we'll have to up the performance and really show what we're made of.

The beautiful thing about Emergenza is that there are no limits to style of music your band is playing. There was even a rapper and a dj ob the last night of the first round, even though this might be considered more a contest for bands. Also, there are no age limits, like there are in many such contests. I like that. I think it gives a more accurate picture of the music scene in a not very big town. 

Most band members I've seen so far are I would say 25ish to their fourties and play in bands alongside their day job and family life, not having the opportunity to be a full time musician and tour the world. They do it for the love of music, and I think it's great that there's a place for those bands too, to appear on stage. As well as those tiny teenagers! There was one band like that as well, full of attitude reaching comic levels, players getting tangled in guitar cords and everything. But they kept playing and held it together. Skill doesn't ask for age.

The next round will happen in just about a month, so we have lots of time to prepare and practice to make our performance tight and gripping. However, one thing hinders our progress so far: Our bass player left the band. We had to do the first round without him and used a backing track. It felt quite awkward as we already had the synths as a backing track, but it couldn't be helped. The other option would have been to quit Emergenza altogether. It seemed to be the safer and easier option, but after all, we decided to do it anyway, and here we are, luckily so! 

So we asked around and since we know many people, a bass player was soon found to assist at least in the upcoming shows. I'm not sure yet, but I think he might stay after that too. We might have to practice some extra, but I'm pretty confident that we'll get our act together in time. These three people that I now have with me in this have played together in various forms since childhood, and I have sung with them in other projects as well. I'm really looking forward to play with this formation, although it is sad to see the original bass player go. 

Meanwhile the collaboration with the small record company has been going forward. New mixes were done of the song we were about to release independently a while ago. What the final version will be is yet to be decided. Still, nothing is written down yet. They would like us to sign a publishing deal with us. That's why lately I've been searching and finding out about publishing deals and pondering on whether or not it would be a sensible thing to do. There are upsides and downsides to it, but then again, that's how it is with remaining independent too. 

But, after a month we'll be playing again and that makes me happy, what ever the future then holds for us after that. Please join, if in the area. Tickets are available from the same link as before:

buyticket.link/hatefulchains

Exiting Stuff

So, I sent our songs to a record company, and they replied! 

We'll be trying possible collaboration with one song first. Nothing is written down just yet, nothing carved to stone. But it seems promising. I'll tell more, when there's something to tell.

The song we'll work on was just about to be released. The only problem with it was sounds, so probably it'll work out just with re-mixing.

I already painted a picture for it, when feeling like nothing is happening, nothing is going forward. Which is not true. Something can emerge from right behind the next corner. 

Speaking of emerging, it's Emergenza-time in only a week! We'll be starting the evening, quite stressful, as I remember being in that position a lot in my classical singing days. But we'll make it a night to remember! Please join us!

buyticket.link/hatefulchains

Hypnosis

What Genre Is This?

The year 2018 has passed. It was eventful and rich, and overall a happy year for me. Much was done for the band, and something came out of it as well. We're not there yet, and might never be, but I think we are on the right track, and steadily advancing. 

We started working on our first album in spring. It's not done yet, but we're getting there. Half of it is already recorded, mixed and mastered, the other half is coming along soon. I cannot yet give a date or a promise there of, but I will as soon as the end of the process seems to be in the vicinity...

Our first video, A Night Like This, was shot and edited with the help of our friends in Videoketju. It was a first for me, except for the one done for Rautavaara X, where I played the innocent girl in white. 

We played a first major gig at Lumous Gothic Festival, Tampere in summer. The whole event was awesome, and I'll definitely be there next summer as well. Hopefully other such events and opportunities will show themselves in HC calendar. 

August was spent in warmth and sunlight, organizing material into new songs and creating wholly new material as well. The songs will be heard on HC second album, if we ever get there. We also shot material for Siouxsie on the Beach video, which has now been released on Youtube. The rest and change of environment was needed, and gave me energy and strength for the rest of the year, but I think I had not realized how exhausted I really was before the trip.

When home again, everyday life felt kind of heavy and things seemed to be at exactly the same point as before, not moving at all. But of course they were moving, because we were able to organize yet another gig in October. It was generally a success and we had fun. Hopefully everyone else did too...

Two more songs were released and they received good feedback although they didn't spread that widely. At the end of the year we also released the Siouxsie on the Beach video. Somehow it received more watches and feedback than all the other stuff before. Maybe the work done hitherto is gradually paying of. Still, some serious work needs yet to be done about that spreading issue. Maybe the release of my interview at Lumous helped a bit? Sorry, it's in Finnish. There's also Marko from Chaos Research and Jyrki Witch from Two Witches/Lumous. Listen to it here:

https://soundcloud.com/mieletontavaloa/raskausaika-xx

Last thing to happen before the year's end was entering the Europe wide band happening, Emergenza. It's a kind of a competition, but I can't really say it out loud. The guitarist threatened to leave, if I do. Seriously! No. The first round will be here in Turku  february 16th 2019. There are nearly forty bands entering the event from Turku alone, so I won't waste too much energy on hoping that we'll even get to the next round. I'll just concentrate to make the performance as good and energetic as possible, and the audience will then decide by voting. 

It's just a hunch, but I think genre will play some part in that voting too. I hope, of course, that people will hear and see just the music and performance, but it is a fact, that this music and this genre is not the easiest and doesn't necessarily speak to the masses. So what genre are we then speaking about?

I have named it Gothic Rock, which would represent the widest possible umbrella. It's just the general direction, not merely rock, but Gothic Rock. Some of our songs have that same general tone and even structure as HIM or 69 Eyes, which I consider the most main stream Gothic Rock at least here in Finland. In this concept releasing A Night Like This as our first single seemed a safe option. There is something in that song that anyone can relate to.

But then there are all the other songs, like Siouxsie and She Smiles, which represent a whole other spectrum. Siouxsie must be our most Indie song, while it's constructed like a Cure song. She Smiles is a near-metal track with it's heavy guitar riffs. But it's not typical Metal, and in retrospect, Siouxsie and The Banshees must be it's most important influence. So, we're not fully a Metal band, although it does influence our music, and neither are we truly Indie. And there are just too much basic Rock elements to put it under any other Gothic label, say Cold Wave for example.

The very thing I refuse us to be in any sense, is Gothic Metal. That term has really suffered an inflation in my opinion, and is nowadays used to describe mainly Symphonic Metal bands with a female vocalist. Hateful Chains has nothing to do with that music. The one other term that I think leads astray is Alternative Rock. That too refers to a number of bands that have nothing what so ever to do with this music. I've even heard comments that we have strong Stoner Metal vibes. All I can really say on that is that it's certainly not something we strive to do, and that I'm not very familiar with that genre either.

I'd like to think that this is Gothic Rock simply because I want to make such music, and it's the base line where I start with every song, what ever influences and elements I then take from other genres, and what ever then happens to the song when arranging and producing it to it's final form. There are some key elements which I consider the main factors of Gothic Rock and try to include in any song I make, for example, the chorus effect in guitars and certain types of vocals.

It's also Gothic Rock because most of our influences are those bands that have defined the whole Gothic subculture, from the very start, to this day. I'd like to dedicate a whole post to those bands, but to name a few, there's of course Sisters of Mercy, The Mission, The Fields of the Nephilim, London After Midnight...Then there are a few odd bands many of you may not have heard about, but are very important to me: Saviour Machine, Virgin Black and The Awakening...phew, that's a lot already!

Finally, although some might argue against it, I think the lyrics and the general visual elements around our music are gothic too. I don't mean horror elements, or fantasy, but the general feeling of something being "off" or weird in a spooky way. Some work can and should still be done to actualize that feeling even better, but we're getting there, I think. In the end, it's the combination of music, lyrics and visual, that make the whole, and that combination, I think, is Gothic Rock. Whether or not that proves to be true is ultimately up to the listeners, that is, you.

So, in 2019 we are entering a band competition as a Gothic Rock band, and take yet another step forward. Have a rich, happy and eventful year everyone!

Hypnosis