Influence

I've been talking about our influences here for a couple of times, but never really gone trough them in depth, or analyzed, what it is in them that has such a great impact on my music making. It should be known by now, that I'm the one coming up with the songs and lyrics, while we all participate in arranging in some way. Everybody's musical history and influences has an effect and leaves it's mark on the end result. But the effect of those influences on the song writer and composer is much more direct and immediate. That's why I'll take a moment to reflect on those, maybe do a whole bunch of writing about that, as I've seemed to promise before, at some point.

So, what is actually my first influential band? What got me into the Goth subculture in the first place? It's a long story. When I was a teenager in Finland there were some bands that were becoming huge locally, and actually worldwide too. I got my share of those bands too, because I listened to the radio pretty often. The biggest at the time for me were HIM and Sentenced. These were actually considered more metal, but yeah, there you have it: I used to be more of a metalhead. (Still like some of them bands) Then there was also 69 Eyes, who still tour today. 

HIM's red album, Greatest Love Songs Vol. 666 was the thing. The melancholy, the atmosphere, the voice, it was really something unheard of for me. My friend recorded a cassette for me from her cd. I listened to it all the time, in secret, because at the time my parents were strict about any music that had some kind of reference to the occult or things like that. I got so used to their cover versions of Don't Fear the Reaper and Wicked Game that the originals sounded weird to me. I loved the whole album, but my favorite song was definitely For You. No other like that. Then the pink album came out and the heartagram and the great music business machine brought them to the attention of the whole world, and somehow, I just lost taste. Maybe the heartagram was too much for me, and with my fourteen-year-old brain I though it was a stupid idea, while in fact, let's face it: it's a brilliant logo, very memorable and somehow outrageous because of it's simplicity. 

Sentenced was the band I poured my sadness and suicidal thoughts into. What band could be more appropriate? Their lyrics are all about dying and suicide. When I wasn't listening to HIM, Sentenced was the way to go. Maybe this was the time I also started writing down some of my own ideas too, reflecting on those dying wishes and dreams of being somewhere else. With the album Frozen, it was about atmosphere as well. I didn't think about song structures or things like that back then. What appealed to me in HIM and Sentenced was sound, really, and also song melodies, I would say. The whole atmosphere… What I later found out, when reading about them, was that many of their influences were actually Goth Rock bands. Maybe that's where their sound came from, partially at least?

69 Eyes remained somehow obscure for me, although they played on the radio a lot. I always thought they were the epitome of a Goth band, because the media kept informing me that they were. At the time I thought "Gothic Girl" was a typical Goth song. But I didn't get the hang of the whole Goth subculture and didn't actually know there was such a thing, let alone that it was based on very different and a wider variety of music than what the 69 Eyes represented. Their music is cool, Dark Rock or Gothic Rock, with maybe the emphasis on Rock, which is cool. They use a lot of Goth imagery and you can definitely hear some Sisters of Mercy influences in the music as well. Some people might be of the opinion that they're not a Goth band, but I think they can be added under the very wide umbrella of Gothic. At least to me, at a time, they seemed to represent "Goth".

As I said before, my access to "worldly" music, let alone anything with a certain kind of darkness in it, was limited. In the Nineties, there were these scandals and waves of propaganda going on in the  Finnish Church circles, due to some church burnings and murders related to the Black Metal scenes of Scandinavia. It was an absolute no-no to listen to such direct blasphemous and Satan worshiping music, but I did manage to get a hold on some in secret. Cradle of Filth, Children of Bodom, Dimmu Borgir, all appealed to me because of that neo-classical dramaticism, aggression and the sound of danger. Some of that might still sometimes pop up in my songs, but it's there less and less, as I'm turning more to the roots of Goth. 

When, due to my circumstances, I couldn't listen to these horrible Black Metal bands anymore, I turned to their Christian alternatives, which were on the rise back then. Similar music, but Christian lyrics. These I often found at Christian festivals, which I used to attend in my teen age summers, at a stall of an underground christian record store. It was there that I found something that I really consider the roots and cause of my being into Goth music, and a creator of that music today, the starting point of a journey, if you will: it was Saviour Machine, and their first album.

Saviour Machine's sound was something unheard of for me. The over- the- top reverb in the guitars, the rhythms in drums, Eric Clayton's booming baritone, his mysterious and symbolic lyrics, his goth make-up on the album cover, the whole visual imagery, all of this opened a completely new world for me. Yet, they are not even considered a Goth band. Saviour Machine is an ideologically Christian band, so they are not a huge success world wide. But they were a success in Germany, for example, and managed to seal a record deal with Massacre Records. After two more Rock-albums they set to form a trilogy album about the book of Revelation, with big orchestral sounds and a choir. That too, left it's mark on me music-wise.

After finding this gem I always kept looking for stuff with something similar to Saviour Machine. I think the biggest thing for me in it was the vocals. Eric Clayton has an operatic baritone-voice which he tended to use in a quite heavy way, un-like, say Ville Valo or one of my later favorites, Ashton Nyte of The Awakening. That darkening of an already dark voice had it's appeal to me and I soon started mimicing it, thus finding my own low register, always going as low as I could. The other thing was drums. Although this band was considered a metal band of some kind, I though the drummer did something different than what you had the typical Metal bands. No double kick, but a lot of toms and beats taken from other music styles. Many times the beat had almost a dancing drive to it. Really good examples of this are Carnival Of Souls and The Mask, from Saviour Machine I.

I once spoke to another Goth about our Christian up-bringing and how it affected our Goth path, and he said that he listened to Saviour Machine a lot back in the day, because it was the darkest music he could find. In the Christian circles, that is. Well, I happened to stumble upon another gem, that was in some ways similar to Saviour Machine, in the aesthetics  at least, but it was wayyy darker. The sound of the band was more metal-like, but they had a very artistic way of constructing songs, which struck a chord with me because of my back ground in classical music. The band was from Australia and it was called Virgin Black. 

It was shivers down my spine when I first heard the start of their album Sombre Romantic, a solitary vocal line, repeated and followed by cello. Ach, my favorite instrument! Then I had to listen to all the beginnings of every song and decided to buy the album from the underground music stall I was standing in. I'd say I've never felt such a yearning to listen to this, to have this, as with this album. It's still one of my favorites, and every time I listen to it, it just satisfies me so much to hear the thoughtfully arranged songs and all the pauses and dynamics, that are not so typical in rock music in general. 

While they were considered a Christian band they had some shocking, even disturbing songs which I wondered about, but of course never told my parents. There was especially this one piece, called Museum of Iscariot, quite ballad like, but the lyrics described the protagonist beating and killing Jesus. No wonder they had to explain in the album cover, that the Jesus in the song describes one's faith. The meaning of the lyrics opened to me through out the years to come, the line: "He's never really lived" perhaps being the most striking and true for me, as I was going through the loss of my own faith. It's still one of the saddest songs I know.

Musically, Virgin Black has had an impact on me particularly in thinking song structure. It doesn't always have to be A, A, B, A, C, B,B, like in a typical pop-song. You can always break the usual pattern somehow. You can always bring out something of your own in a song, and abstain from the typical ways. Virgin Black might be one of the reasons I tend to put more than the usual parts in songs, and why there are some quite guitar-heavy tracks on the up coming album. But Saviour Machine is the other big factor. In fact I've been told that some of our demos sounded like them. Of course demos change, but the original influence can still be heard, if you know them well enough. 

I've written a lot about my earlier influences but there's still a lot to cover. When I realised there was a separate music genre called Goth, I of course set out to find out what it is. And that's where I found Siouxsie and the Banshees, The Cure, Joy Division, The Sisters of Mercy, all the oldies but goldies, and then there were the classics of the Nineties Goth genres, Fields of the Nephilim, London After Midnight etc. I could write about them but you'll just get bored, 'cause of course you know about them already. But I'll write a little something about how they have influenced this band. Hopefully you'll enjoy that, and have enjoyed this part too!

Lot of love, Flora/HC

Statement

So many things have happened and escalated in the past few months, that I can't even keep track. The Corona-situation and how different countries have handled it, The on-going and still not solved! Climate Change and the sixth wave of extinction that seem to have been buried underneath other bad news, all the human rights violations and other bad news all the time... But what I've seen just recently on the news and media has made me think. Such things are now escalating that make it necessary to make a stand and speak out.

What I have seen on the news and various media platforms has made me really worried and upset. I'm talking about the news about George Floyd's murder by police officers in Minneapolis, and the shit storm that has ensued after, which some could argue, was bound to happen anyway at some point, judging by the state of things in modern USA. Of course, America is not the only place where white supremacy and ugly ideologies like that raise their monstrous heads, no. In my country a politician was just ousted for making a sick joke about George Floyd's death, and rightly so. (However, the party that kicked him out is still problematic...) This problem is still unsolved, and it is everywhere.  

There has also been discussion on Twitter recently, about whether or not Goth music is a-political, and about some bands, whose members have/have had racist affiliations. There is discussion about how the  Goth scene is not racist, but still not all people of color feel welcome in the scene, and there are things about some bands related to racism, or misuse of that imagery, that we still have to come to terms with as a subculture. (We know some of the early bands' members used the Swastica-symbols to piss off their parent's generation)

I came across someone who said that it is not enough to not be racist. You have to be anti-racist. I agree with this and I want to make it perfectly clear that I, and we as a band, are against racism. We do not accept the idea that white people are superior to others. That idea is bullshit and based on nothing but imbecile fantasies. That idea has caused immense suffering and cost countless lives. We will not have anything to do with such bullshit. 

Just to make it clear.

Love, 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?