Plunge into the year 2022

Ok, so the start of the year hasn't been that great, pandemic-wise. Cases have been on the rise so badly, that venues have closed and events have been cancelled. Same old, all over again. I don't know what to think anymore. It seems like a never ending cycle. Spring and summer comes and things get eased up again, venues open, people go to gigs like they used to. Come fall and winter, everything escalates into that miserable limbo where nothing happens and you just wait. Like winter wouldn't be like that already, without the pandemic!

This whole thing has had an effect on us as group. It feels like endless waiting. We are working to advance the music, the possibilities and chaces to play live, but it all seems to be happening in a slower pace. We have to work regular jobs, of course, like everyone else. That takes it's toll, now more than usual, because there are no opportunities to play to an audience and wind up and relax. Which is the salt of this occupation. It feels like we are not allowed to be musicians. And it's been like that for all of these years during the pandemic. Performing arts is the field that has been restricted by a heavier hand than most occupations, including bars and restaurants. Why that is, beats me. It must be the easiest way, and culture folk are expendable. They should get a real job anyway. 

Of course, I understand that measures have to be taken and everything must be done to keep the number of cases low in order not to strain the health system to much. The un-fairness of it just bugs me. But there's no other choice really, than to sit it through and hope for better. That's all we can do as a group, for that matter. Even though it seems like we're just floating in limbo and things don't seem to go forward, and we're just waiting for our turn forever, the reality is that we are doing something, all the time. Little advances, a rehearsal, a recording session, a new mix and mastering that needs to be listened to, a video shoot, an interview.  And not all of it has even reached social media yet, because not all of it at that stage yet. So we don't give up hope. We just work, prepare, then let it out, and see what it bcomes.

One of these things I have been pretty silent about recently is the Crimson Sun music video. We meant to shoot the final scenes before the end of the year, but there were curves on that road. The reason was basically the schedules of many different people, which are kind hard to put together. Must be familiar to anyone doing a group project. The scene involved a bath tub, which could be filmed around. Turns out it's not so easy to find. Hardly anyone has a bath tub in Finland anymore. But an acquaintance who lives a bit further happened to have one. And you could move it around! And the bathroom wall was a nice color too! So in order to go there to shoot we had to reschedule to the second weekend of January. 

Unfortunately I have no pictures of the scene or the filming. But there will be nudity. And a heavy chain! Which our drummer found somewhere and which definitely will be used a prop at some point. I hung some white sheets and curtains all over the place to make it look more mystical, or whatever, and put candles everywhere. Hopefully that does the trick. And the rose petals we sprinkled in the bath water. I'm trusting it will look awesome!

After that there's just the editing and some animation on top of that...

Meanwhile we'll be continuing rehearsals and recording, in order to complete album number two.

May your year 2022 be filled with hope and may it be a better than the previous one!

Flora

                                    

               Crimson Sun 

It's been a month already since the release of our first single of the coming second album. It feels like an eternity, just because of the sheer amount of work and things that have been happening, and because social media has the tendency of warping your sense of time. If you don't post for a few days the thing you did post just gets sucked into the void and it's just like it never existed. Unless the thing goes viral or something, which I think hasn't really happened for us yet. 

Still, the single has been well received and there has been some plays on net radios and interest from magazines. In fact, I just finished answering questions to an interview. One of the things that came up, is the subject of Crimson Sun, and the symbolism in it. I realize I didn't really open it up in the media release, let alone here, because I still wanted to keep a thin veil of mystery to it. But, I figured now would be as good a time as any. It's also perhaps time to start opening up about the general themes and the background of the second album. It's going to be a full series, many posts, so I hope you'll enjoy the ride. I think I will.

One of the reasons we decided to go with Crimson Sun and release it first was because it's themes fell quite neatly as a continuance of the last songs on our first album, thematically, but perhaps musically as well. The theme in Good People was the hypocrisy of human kind, the self-anointing of all of us who think we're good people. 

In Siouxsie on the Beach the theme was the end of the world as we know it, like it had already happened, and how we did nothing about it. To be perfectly clear, it's about climate change and destruction of nature, in which we, the good people, contribute to the most and are not doing enough about. In this I am pretty judgmental, and fully aware of that, but I do count myself into the lot, being a first world inhabitant myself. However, the point of view in both of these songs is lamentation, not that much pointing of fingers, and maybe a somewhat cynical approach. The same approach is present in Crimson Sun. 

In the verses are presented all hopes that we have for the future, all wars being ended, all pain and suffering ending, all that. It's also something many religions and cults promise will happen in the next world, or after death. Towards the end of the verse the question is raised: Why is it not so? Or the attempt to convince oneself: It must be so. And in the chorus the idea of Good People is again present in different words: We hope for a bright future, but keep blaming others for our mistakes, we bathe in the blood of scape goats, but the sun is setting already. Then of course the question comes to mind, who is this "We" the song is describing? Because surely not all people think this way?

The lyrics of Crimson Sun originate in a lengthy exchange I had with my aquaintance, a Jehovah's Wittness. This was a few years ago, before Hateful Chains was formed, at a time when I was in the process of growing out of my Christian faith and organised religion altogether. I lived alone in a new apartment as I was recently divorced, and the doorbell rang. It was them, Jehovah's wittnesses, whom I had always turned away with some excuse, or just taken their leaflets and wished them a happy day, the leaflet ending up in the bin. But now I had nothing to do and felt like I could take the challenge of debating a person from a different sect of faith than me, and enjoy the exchange. 

It turned out to be not very enjoyable, because the Jehovah's Wittnesses have a strict program for their interaction with the people they're trying to recruit and turn into followers. The person who contacted me at first never came alone, she always had another woman with her, and they basically wanted to go through a "program" of explaining their beliefs and persuading me to join. I was looking for a reason to end these programmed "bible studies" and finally it came in the form of a belief I just couldn't accept.

 Among the many wacky and distorted (at that point, in my view, distorted, because I could not yet see the oddities of my christian faith) beliefs, one was just too unjust for my taste: That communion, was not for everybody in the congregation, but only for a select group that counted themselves as one of the chosen. It was something that was against everything I had been taught about the core beliefs of Christianity and made me very angry. So, I stopped the meetings and stopped communication with these people altogether. 

After this episode I had the need to find out, what kind of belief system it actually was, that made people hold on to such strange views and go to such lengths as even refusing blood transfusions and shunning their family members. What better source of that information than the people that used to believe, but have walked away? And to say that Youtube and all of internet was full of them would be an understatement. It seems I hit a time when loads of people had decided to share the story of their "awakening" on the web at the same time. It was a gold mine, not only of information, but also inspiration.

At this time, many lyrics of the forth coming second album came into existence. Some were born out of the process of my own journey, some from the frustration and outright fury, when I found out about the serious injustices and beliefs and systems that hurt people, present in the cults I was looking into. Most of these are about the Jehovah's Wittnesses. Sometimes a song is an end product of a lengthy thought process, and seems to just pop out of nowhere, but when looking back, you understand it was there all along, brewing inside your head. And Crimson Sun is a song like that.

I cooked it up when playing just something on a piano and waiting for my vocal student to come to class. Chorus came first, just had to write it down. And then I made a verse. Chords and melodies at the same time, all just happening so smoothly. The best part, (in my opinion) in which I put my thoughts on the Witnesses in, was the middle eight, where I describe them as carrion birds, picking the bones of the dead. Who else believes that after Armageddon, they will be the ones that survive and will build a new world, be the kings of the corpse mountains? Quite literally, really. But, of course we all wish that things were better, and that the world would some day be a blessing to all of us, not just a select few. So, the last verse is just that, a tiny hope, not much more, that it would be possible. Most of the time it's just too hard to really believe in it.

So, this was the first writing, disclosing the stories and background behind the songs we are currently recording. I'll be writing much more on the subject and the matters of faith from the perspective of one who has walked away, as it has really been a source of inspiration on songwriting and a force of change in my life.

Love, Flora

 

 Ok, so Hello, Hi, We Have Been Filming Again!

I got a flu after the spending the weekend outside filming, so I'm sitting at the couch now, listening to Penderecki's symphony (which might be the next great love of mine among the classical contemporary composers. Well, he's dead, so not so contemporary, but anyway...) (Reminds me so much of Shostakovits somehow)

So, my bathroom and all the clothes there are full of sand and they smell like smoke, and while I am ill and at home, I'll still have to get that laundry pile smaller today. And how'd that happen? Well, again I had some ambitious thoughts and ideas about a music video and decided to do the whole costume process myself, in addition to writing the basic script and performing on the video myself. Oh my, but what can you do... At least this time I chose not to sew anything.

There were several other things and items to be acquired or simply on the checklist: food, snacks, wood, petroleum, coffee, warm clothes, blankets, a boombox for audio, blankets, towels, what else? Camera, phone...

The first parts of the video were to be filmed on a beach, actually an abandoned sand pit with a beautiful clear watered pool at the bottom. There was a place for fire which we used to our advantage, and magnificent rocks and sandy walls surrounding the pit, with a forest area on the other side of the pool. It was already impressive in daylight, and by night time with some artificial lighting the pool looked absolutely magical!

 

While it was still light, all the dancers and actors participating gathered there, got info on the basic filming plan and got their clothes, which were either from their own closets or ones I had been buying from thrift stores the during the previous week. The general idea was, that there would be a group of hippie/bohemic people (except for me, I was my goth self ) around a camp fire on the beach, telling stories and having a good time. When the daylight wanes their movements and dancing becomes odd and a bit crazy, until there's a lunatic house on the beach.

The clothes I acquired were mostly cotton and wool and other natural fabrics, the reason for this was fire safety. See, although natural fibres do catch fire, they at least won't melt onto you, unlike synthetic fibres. The style was floral, hippie, bohemic, which is mostly found in summer clothing. That's why underneath these quite thin fabrics we had to wear good amounts of wool and warm clothes. I wore my black gown and underneath an underskirt, stockings, woollen socks etc... Luckily it wasn't freezing and beside the fire it was actually very cozy, although the cold did start to creep in later in the night. 

We did the group scenes around the camp fire first while there still was some daylight, from different angles and distances. Around the fire we had some blankets to sit on and also to act as emergency fire extinguishers in case somebody would actually catch fire. While it would be perhaps unlikely to catch fire simply by sitting around it, there were other people involved with a higher risk of that.

When the light had gone it was time to introduce the fire arts. There were two people, one with fire fans and the other with sticks, bois, and nunchakus. He also blew fire. It was already too dark to see anything outside the light so artificial lighting was prepared too. For that we had some really efficient led lights from Turkuaudio. With these we could light up the pool too. In these lights the fire arts were performed. They were filmed separately and combined with dancers. Even from a distance the movement and blowing fire looked awesome, up close even more impressive. I'm confident that there will be a good amount of that stuff in the video.

After group scenes and fire stuff it was time to film each individual with their crazy movement and dancing. Other than the camp fire and the fire arts we also made use of the beautiful rock structures as a background scene, which in coloured lighting looked quite enchanting. In this part I also marked some places on the dancers bodies for the animation artist's later use. What will be animated shall remain a secret for now, for it wouldn't be fun to know everything in advance, would it?

Among the last scenes to be filmed was the craziest group dancing, the group passed out in the sand and one fearless actress walking into the pool of October temperature water with her clothes on. Not me, I couldn't, but she is an extreme model after all, so she had the guts. She told me it wasn't even the coldest water she's been into. After her stunt we got her quickly into some dry clothes and filmed the final scenes with a slight hurry, because the cameraman was actually getting a bit cold, as was the driver, who didn't join us at the fire side...

After the final shot it was time to wrap things up, find all the missing stuff in the pitch black dark with the help of the led lights, extinguish the fire with care and pack everything in the cars. Most people had a ride of their own and we took the fire artists and their equipment (quite smelly at this point!) in our car and went to sit in a pub for a while before going to sleep...

I humbly wish to thank everyone that participated and helped us to realize the filming of this first part of our music video, whether you were on the video itself or working in the background. This couldn't have been done without you!

Your's truly, Flora

 

 Summer gigging

It's already been a week into September! Oh well, time flies, it seems. The summer has been quite hasty because when the covid situation seemed better, all the places opened up and gigs just kept coming! That is, other than Hateful Chains. I've done Disco gigs, sixties rock -cover gigs, all kinds of stuff...and was working full time until the end of July. 

So, time hasn't been on my side. But it has all become easier since I started working halftime at the theater. The other half of the time has been consumed by independent work at my workspace, where I first and foremost create Hateful Chains merchandise and my own designs, but also do other work, and then gigging and practicing.

We had one seriously fun gig trip with Hateful Chains this summer, and that was at Seinäjoki, north from our home town Turku. We rented a van to fit all the gear in. Of course, we still don't have a tour bus. Maybe it would be useful if there was an actual tour at some point. Thumbs up!

The gig was arranged by an acquaintance of mine, who has a Ramstein cover band called Rumstein. It was a kind of a collaboration. The place was a genuine rock cave, with even covid directions given with an attitude. Being a cave, they still had a pro doing the mixing. Nice for a change not having to do everything yourself. That means we had to wait for quite a while, before Rumstein were ready with their soundcheck. Hanging out at the hotel, then.

Backstage

By the time we were ready with our's there were already people oozing in. Audience! And yeah, at summer gigs there's audience, the kind that just want dance, just want to hear their favourite songs and are there just for the drinks and partying. The ones that are interested in new stuff, the genuine music lovers, they are usually early. And it warmed my heart to see so many of them there!

                              

On stage again!

The set was perfect. I mean, it wen't so smoothly, we had such fun, and it was over way too soon. I could have played another one right away! Which was a really good sign for me personally, but also gave a hint where this group is heading, if everything runs our way. After such a high and rush there was so much energy left, and it couldn't have been a better timing for Rumstein to play!

And I mean, they nailed it! They had quite a long set, but since Ramstein is practically heavy-lover's party music, at least here it is, it didn't feel long at all. They had the lights, the smoke, the stage dramatics, a clown who didn't actually play, but whose role was to be the clown. Everything thought out to make a great show. I think Rumstein is quite ready to play Ramstein for bigger audiences. It was just a great, great party!

                             

Backstage with Rumstein

                              

And after that we partied some more. And continued at the hotel. And the next day we gathered the gear and started our slow descent southwards. Party continued. Every stop was long. And music went on and on. It's a kind of freedom, not healthy in the long run and definitely not for every gig trip. But every once in a while very enjoyable. And we had a great driver to take us there and back, Heidi, whose been helping us around in many other ways too! Many thanks!

 Aside from gigging, we've been preparing for the recordings of our second album. I've finished as many pre-demos as possible and we've been trying out the songs at the rehearsal room. We'll be doing a cover of a Finnish song and a new one of our own, the first single of the future second album! I really can't wait to start hyping about that! But I'll still get into that in the next part, just to keep you on your toes...

Until next time, Flora