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

Exiting Stuff

So, I sent our songs to a record company, and they replied! 

We'll be trying possible collaboration with one song first. Nothing is written down just yet, nothing carved to stone. But it seems promising. I'll tell more, when there's something to tell.

The song we'll work on was just about to be released. The only problem with it was sounds, so probably it'll work out just with re-mixing.

I already painted a picture for it, when feeling like nothing is happening, nothing is going forward. Which is not true. Something can emerge from right behind the next corner. 

Speaking of emerging, it's Emergenza-time in only a week! We'll be starting the evening, quite stressful, as I remember being in that position a lot in my classical singing days. But we'll make it a night to remember! Please join us!

buyticket.link/hatefulchains

Hypnosis

What Genre Is This?

The year 2018 has passed. It was eventful and rich, and overall a happy year for me. Much was done for the band, and something came out of it as well. We're not there yet, and might never be, but I think we are on the right track, and steadily advancing. 

We started working on our first album in spring. It's not done yet, but we're getting there. Half of it is already recorded, mixed and mastered, the other half is coming along soon. I cannot yet give a date or a promise there of, but I will as soon as the end of the process seems to be in the vicinity...

Our first video, A Night Like This, was shot and edited with the help of our friends in Videoketju. It was a first for me, except for the one done for Rautavaara X, where I played the innocent girl in white. 

We played a first major gig at Lumous Gothic Festival, Tampere in summer. The whole event was awesome, and I'll definitely be there next summer as well. Hopefully other such events and opportunities will show themselves in HC calendar. 

August was spent in warmth and sunlight, organizing material into new songs and creating wholly new material as well. The songs will be heard on HC second album, if we ever get there. We also shot material for Siouxsie on the Beach video, which has now been released on Youtube. The rest and change of environment was needed, and gave me energy and strength for the rest of the year, but I think I had not realized how exhausted I really was before the trip.

When home again, everyday life felt kind of heavy and things seemed to be at exactly the same point as before, not moving at all. But of course they were moving, because we were able to organize yet another gig in October. It was generally a success and we had fun. Hopefully everyone else did too...

Two more songs were released and they received good feedback although they didn't spread that widely. At the end of the year we also released the Siouxsie on the Beach video. Somehow it received more watches and feedback than all the other stuff before. Maybe the work done hitherto is gradually paying of. Still, some serious work needs yet to be done about that spreading issue. Maybe the release of my interview at Lumous helped a bit? Sorry, it's in Finnish. There's also Marko from Chaos Research and Jyrki Witch from Two Witches/Lumous. Listen to it here:

https://soundcloud.com/mieletontavaloa/raskausaika-xx

Last thing to happen before the year's end was entering the Europe wide band happening, Emergenza. It's a kind of a competition, but I can't really say it out loud. The guitarist threatened to leave, if I do. Seriously! No. The first round will be here in Turku  february 16th 2019. There are nearly forty bands entering the event from Turku alone, so I won't waste too much energy on hoping that we'll even get to the next round. I'll just concentrate to make the performance as good and energetic as possible, and the audience will then decide by voting. 

It's just a hunch, but I think genre will play some part in that voting too. I hope, of course, that people will hear and see just the music and performance, but it is a fact, that this music and this genre is not the easiest and doesn't necessarily speak to the masses. So what genre are we then speaking about?

I have named it Gothic Rock, which would represent the widest possible umbrella. It's just the general direction, not merely rock, but Gothic Rock. Some of our songs have that same general tone and even structure as HIM or 69 Eyes, which I consider the most main stream Gothic Rock at least here in Finland. In this concept releasing A Night Like This as our first single seemed a safe option. There is something in that song that anyone can relate to.

But then there are all the other songs, like Siouxsie and She Smiles, which represent a whole other spectrum. Siouxsie must be our most Indie song, while it's constructed like a Cure song. She Smiles is a near-metal track with it's heavy guitar riffs. But it's not typical Metal, and in retrospect, Siouxsie and The Banshees must be it's most important influence. So, we're not fully a Metal band, although it does influence our music, and neither are we truly Indie. And there are just too much basic Rock elements to put it under any other Gothic label, say Cold Wave for example.

The very thing I refuse us to be in any sense, is Gothic Metal. That term has really suffered an inflation in my opinion, and is nowadays used to describe mainly Symphonic Metal bands with a female vocalist. Hateful Chains has nothing to do with that music. The one other term that I think leads astray is Alternative Rock. That too refers to a number of bands that have nothing what so ever to do with this music. I've even heard comments that we have strong Stoner Metal vibes. All I can really say on that is that it's certainly not something we strive to do, and that I'm not very familiar with that genre either.

I'd like to think that this is Gothic Rock simply because I want to make such music, and it's the base line where I start with every song, what ever influences and elements I then take from other genres, and what ever then happens to the song when arranging and producing it to it's final form. There are some key elements which I consider the main factors of Gothic Rock and try to include in any song I make, for example, the chorus effect in guitars and certain types of vocals.

It's also Gothic Rock because most of our influences are those bands that have defined the whole Gothic subculture, from the very start, to this day. I'd like to dedicate a whole post to those bands, but to name a few, there's of course Sisters of Mercy, The Mission, The Fields of the Nephilim, London After Midnight...Then there are a few odd bands many of you may not have heard about, but are very important to me: Saviour Machine, Virgin Black and The Awakening...phew, that's a lot already!

Finally, although some might argue against it, I think the lyrics and the general visual elements around our music are gothic too. I don't mean horror elements, or fantasy, but the general feeling of something being "off" or weird in a spooky way. Some work can and should still be done to actualize that feeling even better, but we're getting there, I think. In the end, it's the combination of music, lyrics and visual, that make the whole, and that combination, I think, is Gothic Rock. Whether or not that proves to be true is ultimately up to the listeners, that is, you.

So, in 2019 we are entering a band competition as a Gothic Rock band, and take yet another step forward. Have a rich, happy and eventful year everyone!

Hypnosis

Siouxsie on the Beach- video comes out!

It will come out, as soon as I get my producer code for videos!

Meanwhile I'll tell you something about the making of:

I mentioned the song in an earlier post, describing it as a "Cure-song", which it kind of was, because I tried out that specific structure The Cure more often than not uses in their songs. That is, to start with the band playing the basic cord sequence once or twice, then introduce some keyboards, then guitar riff, then maybe another riff... This way the cord sequence gets played multiple times before the verse kicks in. And there can even be another part before the verse. But it stays interesting because all of the parts are not introduced at the same time. We ended up using only four cycles before verse, but the idea is there.

Siouxsie and the Banshees' "Christine" and their cover of  The Beatles' "Dear Prudence" were a huge influence to me at the time of writing the lyrics. As a complement and recognition of that, the protagonist of the song became "Siouxsie". To give the call "Come out to play" a more sinister meaning I put the story in a post-apocalypse world. The chorus simply describes that world with the common symbols of destruction: the black rain, related of course to fallout after a nuclear devastation,  the bloody sea, which is straight from the book of Revelations...

For the verses I came up with the idea of describing the state of things before the end in the first verse, and the state of things now, in the second. As the first line was "before it all came down, we had everything" I decided to end every line like that, to "everything", because why not? And so it became a story of our greed and selfishness, that has destroyed the world as we know it. A lamentation if you will, before the things that it laments have come to pass. Funny thing about major key, in this instance I think it actually underlines the sadness of the subject.

Spain and it's sunny beaches in August were the perfect place to shoot material for a music video, so we used that opportunity. With little experience and just the camera and a basic lens we got some good takes. The weather was windy but sunny, completely in our favour. We had a location in mind: An old Spanish Civil War- era bunker by the sea and the rocks and an isolated little cove around it. We had to climb over the tricky rocks rising from the sea to get there, but luckily there was a local guy to show us the way. 

The idea was to combine beach material with stuff shot at rehearsals. We got the editing done in two sessions. I think it came out nice: Amateur-shooting, which was exactly what we wanted, to give the impression of "Good memories on the beach" and "Fun times at rehearsals", with some colour definition to add some final touch. 

Hopefully the video will give credit to the song and add to it visually the atmosphere it aspires to achieve musically. Enjoy the sweet memory of sun in the midst of darkness!

A negative image of the beach