Gigs and Video

Now that the darkness and cold is already upon us and soon Halloween will open the door the realm of death season, it's a perfect time to reflect on the past year. Useful for everyone, but in here, I'll just dwell on the events of the band. 

It's been quite a good year, especially with live events. Even when the epidemic was still holding us hostage and preventing gigging for many, there were more chances for us to play than any of the previous years. It's quite remarkable. I'll even go as far as saying that this year has been a defining one in that respect.

First, there was Turku Band Festival, which we were already chosen to the previous year, only that time it was a streamed event, as no live audience was allowed. Because of Covid, just as a reminder. So this year we were able to participate live, in a small venue near Turku. There was a reasonable amount of people, considering the circumstances: One band had had to cancel due to illness. 

At this time I had also started arranging a gig to Helsinki, at Hard Rock House, so I asked that band to join us. So, in March we had a live event at hard Rock House, with Grand Sorceress. It was their first appearance live. I had also asked a Turku/Helsinki based band, The UFO Cult to join us, but they were unable to, at such a short notice. But their lead singer dropped in anyway, and we had a nice little chat. The few people who were there, on a quiet Thursday night, seemed to like what they heard.

Even when we had a little problem with our lap top, and our synth tracks would not play... Unfortunately we were unable to arrange a more well known local band to the event, who would have attracted more people. But there are always some curious music lovers, who come to check out new bands just for the fun of it. I like to do that every now and then as well..

Turns out The UFO Cult were arranging a live event for the summer, at Bar Loose, and us and Grand Sorceress seemed to fit well with their stuff. So, there would be another Helsinki gig for Hateful Chains, this time in the center. But before that, there was Monsters of Turku. 

We've been arranging this event with our drummer for several times now during these past years, this time, we scheduled it for May 14th at Utopia Club, Turku. Again, getting bands to come wasn't easy, reason being maybe the after math of the epidemic, which meant many bands were not in shape to play live yet. But Ultra Noir, our trusted friends who've joined us several times already, agreed to come. Then, I contacted an Indie band from Turku and just asked them to come. Because that's what I apparently like to do, and I actually liked one of their songs. So, we had a Monsters of Turku-event with Ultra Noir and Tender Lakes. 

A successful event with the audience with us from start to finish. We tested a few new songs from  the up-coming album and they were received well. Like a hot knife in butter... The advertisement I decided to put into the vent seemed to work out as well: One person from the audience told me they came all the way from Tampere to see us, which really warmed my heart. 

Next stop, Helsinki: In July we had the event with Grand Sorceress and The UFO Cult, which actually started to feel like a normal live night. Like they used to be. A dark cellar packed with people, all three bands with incredible energy and drive. Now this was that something we'd been missing for these last two years! The only down side was that we had a half an hour playing time, which meant we played in a bit of a hurry. But, we rocked anyway!

These pictures by Arto Alho

After this successful night we agreed with the another bands that we would try to arrange a night with the same bands to Turku. That would be a first gig in hometown for both Grand Sorceress and The UFO Cult. That chance came by in last September. I asked the local club for a free date, and it just happened that there was one available on September third. So we quickly decided to take that chance and have a three-band night at Turkus Utopia Club. We organized the event all together and went through the trouble of contacting all the media we could think of, like the local papers who made a story about UFO Cult, and Imperiumi, who make gig reports. We also marketed the event the best we could. The result was quite satisfying: familiar audience, but also first-timers to see us,  media personnel, and Imperiumis reporter who wrote a totally great review about the happening! And this time we played last, so we took full advantage of the time we had..

So, not a bad year, and hopefully next one will be a whole lot better!

Next, as you may have noticed, Crimson Sun music video came out on October 13th. We were quite happy to have its first ensiesitys on Sonic Seducer magazines web page! And it has already received such positive feedback! It's all thanks to the people who participated in making of the video, it's their performance, dancing and art that gave the video its spirit and atmosphere. 

There were some set backs in the production of it, which in the end were the reason for its delay. Because of course we shot it already a year ago, in October, on a beautiful beach surrounded by formidable rocks and dark woods. The theme of the setting sun in the song was reflected in the video and continued with a fire and the fire arts. The continuation of the theme could be seen in the candles in the scenes of the woman bathing, which activity is also mentioned in the song. The bathing scenes were possible to shoot only in January, which delayed the video in the first place. But, having shot everything at the start of the year seemed to be decently in time. 

So, the fire elements combined with the element of water gave the video enough structure and coherence to make it a rather good one, but originally I had planned to add some 3d- after effects after all the scenes were in order. Turns out this was more complicated than I knew. The person who first had agreed to create the after effects suddenly backed out and we were on our own...

I couldn't find a professional who would have enough time to do the effects, not in my social circles, not among people who knew people, not on-line either. Maybe the reason was that I had somewhat unreasonable expectations on what could be done as after effects? I guess I'll never know. On-line they said it's possible, but after all, no body had time to do them. I later heard from a person in film industry that there is a lack of professionals in that field here in Finland. So that perhaps explains something.

But what I've learned from this, is that everything must be planned better.  The video material must be good enough to not need any after effects. That is location, costumes, make-up and lights and first and foremost, a skillfull person behind the camera. Which I think we've had in both previous videos. Yeah, all that eats money. If not money, then time. Usually both! That's why it'll take some time before the next video will be shot. I'm already planning it and preparing costumes, already have one of two or three locations, have a make-up artist...and we have the next track ready. Just you wait

Here's Crimson Sun, if you haven't seen it yet :)

https://youtu.be/qWvO4zpkbsM

All the love and candle light for the rest of your year, 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