Some Updates

Things are going crazy everywhere and social distancing is the thing right now. So it would seem that we have a lot more time in our hands for making music. But in reality, working from home eats up your time just as well, or even worse than going somewhere else to do it. Starting the work gets harder, and all the undone chores and things catch your attention. And when you finish, you can't really let go of the work stuff. Home life and free time get mixed up with work. This is the reality in many homes right now. 

For me, this was the norm when working part time and doing the music stuff at home, before I started working at the manufacturing place. I'm slipping into my old habits as the covid-situation prolongs...The up-side to this is that you can gets the things done when ever you feel like it. The downside is those things mentioned above. 

Anyway, we've made some progress with our debut album, which we hope will be finished and available in summer 2020. After releasing Good People in December 2019, we have recorded and produced two tracks that will be included on the album. That is, mixing drums, recording bases, guitars and vocals, mixing, re-editing, adding some details and final touches etc... They're now mixed and ready to be mastered!

Invite Me In is a song you can definitely dance to. It's the one the record company we tried working with wanted to produce. I'm actually happy we didn't choose that one to do with them. It turned out quite nice, if I may say so myself. Still gives me the prickles in my neck. Siouxsie and the Banshees was once again a great inspiration in this one. 

Drifting Leaves is the sad, slow track of the album. I don't know about you, but I enjoy those ones. This one gave me the chance to do something unconventional for a goth song, and I ended up using a vibraphone. But the whole song is quite heavily influenced by The Awakening and, curiously, Radiohead.

There are three more songs that still need some serious work. One of them doesn't have vocals so to speak of, only speech and some backing vocals, but needs a lot of drum editing. The other two need to be recorded and produced except for the drums, which we did already two years ago. Two years! Time flies...

But I'm having my hopes up right now, and have started checking and re-recording the synths for Acid Rain. Hopefully I'll get them done this week, and then some more!

best of luck everyone, and keep yourselves safe!

Hypnosis

Day in a Life

Here's something about life in general, pre-covid19-situation of course. Right now I'm laid off from work and mostly confined home. But I'll write this anyway, now that there's time, and so you'll know what's going on.

Each morning I wake up, drink my coffee with caffeine, find something for lunch, to wear and then hop on the bus to work... Then I work. But after that I'm free to do what ever tf I want, because I quit my job as a vocal coach! And it pays off. We have made some progress with the up coming album. It won't be out ahead of schedule, but I dare guess, that we will be able to keep our promise. That is, album out next summer.

Now I need to vent. I really thought that I would be able to handle a day job and a side job as a vocal coach. Turns out, I can't. I was just too spent after a day of coaching at the manufacturing place, and besides that, also cutting fabrics and sewing as well. Not to mention being in charge when supervisors were on their paid leave. There was much more social burden in the manufacturing job than I expected and I quickly noticed I had much less energy for teaching, which is also a very social activity. Paying continuous attention, being positive, noting the problems and coming up with solutions for them, being motivational... Yeah it's a lot.

Not to mention preparing. Not to mention all the pop-songs I hated, that stuck in my head afterwards. Not to mention all the schedule changes. A lot of things. The thing is though, that it was sometimes rewarding too. To see real motivation and people ready to do the work it takes to be a better singer. To see and hear the results of that motivation. To see the light come up in their eyes when they suddenly notice something new about their voices. But what I'm sad about as a teacher, is that most of the time this is not the case, even with people who pay.

The real energy eater is a student who expects the teacher to do all the work and nothing really seems to sink in. But then you can't really say much, because the student is also a paying customer. And the customer's always right, right? Towards the end I didn't have those ones around that much anymore, only the quite motivated ones, but they were unfortunately too few to continue. It was just too few customers, but still felt like too much after a day of manufacturing.

Besides paid work there is also the unpaid hours that I put into this band and other music projects. These are something that require time. It takes some quiet time with no other distractions to come up with melodies or write lyrics, or just sit at the computer and go through the ideas to see if anything new pops up in your brain. The best part of the day for me would be mornings, when there's now rush to go anywhere. But now I didn't have that luxury. I even struggled to find enough time to practice my instruments.

So, the situation was that I quickly became exhausted. And I had that nagging feeling that it's not worthwhile. That something has to go and that after all, the most important thing in this situation was my survival. Having had that awful burn out a few times in my life I know how much I can take. And with burn out there's this unlucky side to it, that next time it comes more easily and from less stress than before. So I made that decision. It was financially logical for me to keep the manufacturing job and let go the teaching job. But I also decided this way because the manufacturing doesn't follow me home.

So I arranged my quitting before Christmas and told all my students. Most of them understood me, and I hope they'll find someone to continue with. I believe they will, if they really want to. For me, things have been way easier now. I'm in manufacturing until summer, and after that I might have some related plans. But that is still very unclear.

Right now, during this confinement I hope I'll be able to produce many new songs that we'll get to try with Hateful Chains when we're able to rehearse again. I actually have many in my head, or on paper already. But it will take some time to have them recorded etc. Meanwhile we'll also continue our work to get the album out by the time we have promised.

I hope you are all well and safe. I'll keep you posted, now probably some what more than usual.

Love, Hypnosis