The Creation of a First Album
It's been a rough couple of months, but light can be seen on the other side. Now that the journey is almost over and done, it's time to share the story.
As I mentioned in an earlier post, we approached a record label in hopes of some kind of a deal. Since we've tried several times already, we didn't expect too much. Most of the labels just didn't answer at all, and when some did, the deal they offered was too risky for us or they wanted changes to be made that I just didn't want to do. I've told you about one case previously in this blog, happened two years ago. So, when the positive answer came and they wanted to do video meetings and everything, we were honestly quite positively surprised.
The record label we approached and finally made a deal with is Danse Macabre Records, a German record label focused on Goth and dark music. It was formed by the members of the band Das Ich, and has operated already since the 90's. It's actually quite thrilling to be able to together with people with such an experience. There's a real possibility that this is going somewhere.
At this point all the music had been recorded, except for some bass tracks and we were at the stage of the final producing, mixing and mastering. We sent one song for a mastering and with it our own testmaster to Waudio Mastering, where Good People was mastered before. Surprisingly we got very positive feedback, that actually nothing much needed to be done with the song, and our test master was quite near the result we were looking for. That is why we made the decision to do the final masters ourselves. And I'm saying "we" all the time, but most of the work and tweeking was done by Kimmo, of course, and he has done a huge job to find the result that satisfies the ears of all the band members and some others' too!
While recording the songs and doing test mixes and masters, we have also used the ears of our friends, especially those audiophiles who have a wide taste and experience in different genres, to make sure we're not doing this just in our own safe bubble. They have given valuable advice and critique, and we have tried to make sure to take heed and use what helps us in this. All these people are mentioned in the up coming albums thanks, but I just want to say it here too, that we are very thankful for all the help and advice we have received during the process.
With the record label we went through some negotiations, just to make sure we knew and understood what we were getting into, and to understand what kind of process would take place to make this album a reality. When everything was clear, we signed the papers and had a deal.
On the day of signing we were actually filming a music video. We had this idea for some time already, but decided to complete it so we could release it in connection of the album. The idea was to make a "live" video, just us playing the song in a club environment or something. How this happened is actually a story in itself: When we arranged the Monsters of Turku last Halloween, our drummers partner met a woman who works at a local night club, Apollo. So when we were wondering about where we should shoot, she just went and asked that woman if we could come and shoot at Apollo! So they said yes, and we had a very nice location for our video. On top of that, very nice lights too, because they were handled by the Apollo light engineer. Forever thankful for this too! We were also asked to make an introduction video by the record label, so we thought, why not kill two birds with one stone, and use the music video material in the introduction too.
For the music video I made skirts for the boys. Yes. I have formed a co-op during last summer and we have rented a big hall as our work space. So I used the space to my advantage and made some black, long skirts for Kimmo and Ikke. Ankle length, with d-rings on the side, which you unfortunately can't see very well on the video, because their instruments are in the way. Too bad. However, these skirts are just the start and the very first prototypes of the things I want to do for HC. I've got all sorts of plans for merchandise. But they'll have to wait until the album itself is finished.
So, we had signed, shot material for a music video and an introduction, and it was about time to make the covers. You see, of course I wanted to do that myself, too. It was a creative process in itself and I enjoyed it very much. When I started, the ideas started flowing. I had ideas with painted stuff, and more photographic ideas. All of these had to be tested and tried. I used GIMP program for everything, which is a free image manipulation program. In the end I had like ten different ideas which I presented to band members. They then chose the best ones, which I then proceeded to experiment with further.
At the end of this process I had the cover image, but still a lot of work needed to be done: the texts and images for the cd booklet, back cover etc...The final layout in other words. With this I needed help, and luckily there was a colleague in the co-op, who could do just that. I couldn't have finished the work without his help, so he has my sincere gratitude.
The graphics process wasn't the only process going on, there was also the finalizing of the masters and getting them into a form which can be handled by the printing place. And then there's the digital versions. In the middle of this I wrote a media release, a kind of an info package about the album for media use. This was sent to all kinds of places, magazines, influencers etc. We also edited the music video and shot and edited the introduction video with the help of our friend, who has helped us before in our video experiments. Thank you for that! It took several evening sessions to get the material into the shape we wanted, but I think the result is worth that time.
During all this, which alone would be enough time to be a day job in itself, I've also worked full time, as each one of us has in fact. I've been working in the local theater since the summer, as a seamstress and om top of that been active in forming the co-op and getting it to function. You can imagine, that all of this has not left too much time for making music and has quite honestly taken much energy. This is why I intend to focus on the co-op and making music when the job at the theater ends this summer. But of course, a steady day job has been very useful and much appreciated in these times when you can't be sure of anything. I'm thankful for having had a job during the pandemic, when all gigging and all events with audience in general have been very limited. And obviously, the creation of an album does cost money.
Now that all of the aspects of the process are completed, that is, everything is sent and all last minute changes and urgent emergencies have been taken care of, I feel quite relieved, and daring even to feel a little excited already. This is finally happening! Now it's time to focus on advertising and shouting about this everywhere we can: Our first album will be out on April 2nd 2021!!
Check out the introduction while waiting:
Love, Flora
