Hateful Chains

Good and Bad News

There's a saying here that goes about something like this: Nothing so bad without something good as well, which in English would be "Every cloud has a silver lining". Many things have happened lately and I'm going to tell the good news first.

We made it to round two in Emergenza 2019! That means that enough people apart from our friends (Thank you for showing up!) liked us enough to vote for us. My sincerest thanks to all of you! I would have thought this to be such a marginal music style that it wouldn't have been many a persons cup of tea, but maybe it was? And maybe one factor is also the other musicians from other bands who could be voicing their genuine appreciation for the songs, even if it's not within the boundaries of their specific favourite genre. I don't know, and it might be useless to think about that. The important part is that we're in the next round, playing in a bigger venue in about a month, and we'll have to up the performance and really show what we're made of.

The beautiful thing about Emergenza is that there are no limits to style of music your band is playing. There was even a rapper and a dj ob the last night of the first round, even though this might be considered more a contest for bands. Also, there are no age limits, like there are in many such contests. I like that. I think it gives a more accurate picture of the music scene in a not very big town. 

Most band members I've seen so far are I would say 25ish to their fourties and play in bands alongside their day job and family life, not having the opportunity to be a full time musician and tour the world. They do it for the love of music, and I think it's great that there's a place for those bands too, to appear on stage. As well as those tiny teenagers! There was one band like that as well, full of attitude reaching comic levels, players getting tangled in guitar cords and everything. But they kept playing and held it together. Skill doesn't ask for age.

The next round will happen in just about a month, so we have lots of time to prepare and practice to make our performance tight and gripping. However, one thing hinders our progress so far: Our bass player left the band. We had to do the first round without him and used a backing track. It felt quite awkward as we already had the synths as a backing track, but it couldn't be helped. The other option would have been to quit Emergenza altogether. It seemed to be the safer and easier option, but after all, we decided to do it anyway, and here we are, luckily so! 

So we asked around and since we know many people, a bass player was soon found to assist at least in the upcoming shows. I'm not sure yet, but I think he might stay after that too. We might have to practice some extra, but I'm pretty confident that we'll get our act together in time. These three people that I now have with me in this have played together in various forms since childhood, and I have sung with them in other projects as well. I'm really looking forward to play with this formation, although it is sad to see the original bass player go. 

Meanwhile the collaboration with the small record company has been going forward. New mixes were done of the song we were about to release independently a while ago. What the final version will be is yet to be decided. Still, nothing is written down yet. They would like us to sign a publishing deal with us. That's why lately I've been searching and finding out about publishing deals and pondering on whether or not it would be a sensible thing to do. There are upsides and downsides to it, but then again, that's how it is with remaining independent too. 

But, after a month we'll be playing again and that makes me happy, what ever the future then holds for us after that. Please join, if in the area. Tickets are available from the same link as before:

buyticket.link/hatefulchains