Funny Story, though...Part I

You might remember me shouting about a new single in here, even posting pictures of it's possible cover on Instagram. As you may have noticed, it got delayed, and now is the time share why that happened. 

Possible cover for It's All Right, stage one

Before Christmas time I sent our songs to a new record company, which had started out quite recently, just to try it out one more time and see what happens. In my e-mail I specifically asked if there would be a chance of collaboration, seeing that they also did promotional work and other stuff. They actually replied and called me out of the blue a few months later, telling that they liked the songs and were interested. 

We had a meeting with them at their studio where we played more of our songs for them and discussed the collaboration options. Nice people, all of them, and the place was nice too. All very well done and with a specific strategy. As it turns out, it just wasn't the strategy we had in mind.

Their interest was to produce a song of ours in their studio and push it to radios etc. We heard some songs of another banda they were working with, who had apparently agreed to let the audio engineer/producer play the drums for them.  It's sometimes the job of the producer, I get it, and a good one can really bring out the best in a band this way. But to me this felt slightly uncomfortable.

It's partly my reluctance to let someone touch my creation and alter it, but partly not, because we work together all the time on these songs with our guitarist/producer. Partly, it was the uneasy feeling that these people wanted their share of copyrights, which they would have gotten by being one of the arrangers. So, we told them that one of our terms is that the band plays all instruments.

They agreed on this and we then talked about which songs would be the ones to start collaboration with. They really liked the song we had just finished, It's All Right, and said nothing would really need to be changed there structure wise. However, we had just spent a lot of hours with the song and hoped to start with something else, if a whole new production was going to take place. They agreed.

So we played the other songs as well, and another of them caught their attention: Invite Me in, a dance able tune with lyrics about the devil on your shoulder. The guy who did mostly the promotion work in the company said that if he were to choose, this would be the one. But the song was too long and would need some cuts. When I seemed to be uncomfortable with the idea, they suggested a radio edit, and a full length version on a possible full album. The reason was of course, that the song was too long for radio. They had in mind the pop-song three minute standard with no long intros and the chorus preferably at one minute mark..."You see, I have to push you through", said the promoter-guy. I reluctantly agreed to this.

One other thing that struck a bell slightly, was when he associated the song with Marilyn Manson. I told him that he's not completely off the bat regarding visual things, but musically or sound wise, this is not what we are aiming for, except maybe on modernity of sound, but yeah... no. It left me thinking that maybe this guy didn't know this genre well enough. For the record, I don't even listen to Marilyn Manson and Invite Me in doesn't sound remotely like that. Think more Siouxsie and the Banshees' Cities in Dust...

We then discussed the general terms of business: They wanted to sign a publishing deal about Invite Me in and produce it in their studio. The costs of using that studio would be payed by us. Possible full album would be a separate deal. The pros for us in this were that they would do promotion. After a while of thinking and discussing we suggested that we could start slowly, by letting the audio engineer/producer make a new mix of It's All Right. If that would prove fruitful we could then think about going all the way with Invite me in. This was agreed upon.

Back home, I commenced to work to find out what publishing deals are all about, because I didn't have a clear idea. It's basically about selling a part of your copyrights in exchange for promotion. The common way nowadays in the pop-music industry is to make a deal like this just for the one track. There are some problems, which troubled me about this: What if we want to make an independent music video about a song that's under a publishing deal? Can't do that without publishing company's agreement. What if we want that track on the album, but go to a different label or independent? Might cause problems... So you see, it's quite problematic when you don't own your music all the way. There are of course good deals and bad deals, and a good deal with a right label could help a band in the long run. But I was already thinking this might not be the one...

Stay tuned for Part II

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?

Another Leaf Turned, Time to Move on

Ok, so now I'll tell you what happened. of course you have already seen it on Instagram and facebook: We didn't make it to round three in Emergenza. Our drummer thought it was maybe even a good thing, thinking about all those competitions that lead to nothing, really. I personally would've gladly taken the chance to play live for a third time in this happening, but maybe it wasn't meant to be. 

We were placed on a Thursday night, which ate away the possible audience. Although all of us did the tiresome work of shouting about it on social media and then contacting all friends and colleagues, asking them to come, only a handful showed up in the end. It's just that working people don't have the juice to go see a band on a regular week day, and that band being something they already saw a month ago. So that's it. 

But whatever the audience, we had a blast. No technical issues or anything, everything worked out smoothly. And the new guy knew his way around bass! Happy to have him in this group. Happy also to announce that this wasn't the last time to hear about us: May 18th is the next show in Turku!

The reason I didn't write sooner about this was that the very next weekend What ever Works! Contemporary Music Festival took place. It has been brewing all year and taken a lot of organizing and going around, even paper work, as we now have an organisation to see over the festival arrangements. It was a huge project, not something I could have done alone by any means. 

We had three concerts in three different locations around Turku, international guests and guests from other cities, new contemporary pieces of music played for the first time and of course, a great time together. My piece, The Living Statue 2.0 was played, or sung actually, in the final concert. The biggest chunk of my time was taken by the costume I designed and made for this piece. For that not to go to waste I planned it in a way it could be used again, perhaps in a future Hateful Chains video?

Speaking of that, maybe it's time to start planning the next one. I'm thinking it should be She Smiles, our most aggressive song so far. I really want the production quality to take a big step up and that takes careful planning and some budget. Before that, however, maybe it's time to update our band photo? You know, with the new bassist? By the way, he's coming to record some basses to a new song in a few hours... So, things are progressing, time to move on and leave these competitions and other stuff behind.

A Rant about Music

Today I have stuff to do and don't really have too much time to write this, so forgive me if it comes out a bit ranty. For I will rant.

I'm currently building a costume on a doll. It's for a contemporary music piece I will be performing with a colleague at What ever Works!-Contemporary Music Festival in April. To work I usually need some babble or music, and for that purpose I was searching for something new. I searched for a band in Bandcamp that I've heard much praise about and took a listen. 

It was nicely produced, modern sounds especially in drums, cool modern picture as an album cover. Vocals are nice too and as a vocal coach I can't really help having critical ears there. The vocals actually sound a bit Grunge-like to me, although there's that dark tone that suits Goth Music so well naturally present in the singers voice. 

Everything is balanced. Everything is done well, just like modern standards would require. Apparently it's produced by the band itself, so way to go! At least I can't no record label. And the feedback the album has received is positive, judging from what the band put on their page. Even the words "genius writing" are mentioned. 

There's just this slight teeny weeny feeling of too much cleanliness. It's the current trend in metal, I hear said, and hear myself in the music as well. Everything is clean. In fact everything must be so clean in most today's metal genres, that the living parts have been cut away and replaced with samples or straightened with autotune, and then the whole package is compressed to the roof. And I hate what it does to the music. Maybe it's just me, and me liking the sound of Eighties Goth and generally the more analog sound of past ages. Maybe it's false nostalgia. It's a whole another debate, though...

Anyway, the more I hear, the more I'm glad that there's not too much of this over cleanliness in this band. The natural tone of the singer can still be heard and I like that. And I can hear the slight variations in tempo and dynamics a bit somewhere, which in my opinion just makes the music living, played by actual people. The aesthetics in producing must be due to the genre, I conclude, and if you like the more Doom/Metal side of the wide Goth genre, then this stuff is worth listening to. 

What bugs me the most, and is the reason I can't really listen to this and genuinely enjoy it, is the arranging. It's the fact that most of the time everyone is playing the same thing, and on top of that, the vocals do exactly the same. I mean, the bass, the guitar and the synths are all playing the same melody and then the singer sings that same melody. To me as a singer, a song writer who writes the songs mostly based on the vocal melody and melodies around it, and yes: as a contemporary classical music composer, that is the one thing I try to avoid. It is in fact one of the basic things they teach you in music theory: Everyone does not need to play the same thing all the time. That kind of writing is not genius. 

Now, I'm not completely guiltless of this phenomenon. I'll tell you a story: before Hateful Chains ever existed I used to play synths in a Christian Metal band. As you can imagine, this placed a lot of boundaries to what you could sing about and where you could play, and that's one of the many reasons it never really took off. So, once we were playing at a Christian teen happening, and the guy who organised the event mixed the show. After it he gave us some feedback that really stuck to me: All of you don't have to play the same thing all the time. It makes the music muddy, hard to hear in a live situation. 

And what was the reason for this? In my opinion it was because the songs were based on guitar riffs and chord progressions first. And vocals or song melodies second. It's actually hard to come up with a good melody and lyrics on top of that, when the song is already stuffed with guitar parts. It is hard for me, and that's why I appreciate the true geniuses who are able to do that. What usually happens, though, is that the singer ends up singing the chord progression or even the bass line. In the worst case, it's everyone playing the same thing all the time. 

Now, in the case of this particular band I'm happy to say that there were also nice synth ideas and guitar melodies that were more independent from the whole. There were also some cool moments of tension. And the guitar sounds are nice, especially the beginning of the last track. I also like the way it continues throughout the whole song. The overall blending of Metal and Goth sounds is attractive and cool too. And what's most goth about it might just be the lyrics, the usage of religious imagery and the twists and double meanings there in.  If this band continues, and I hope of course that they will, they'll surely develop into something beautiful. 

And did you guess it? 

Yes, it was Her Despair and their EP Mournography (2018)

Now, off the internet cave and into the cave of handicraft. Maybe I'll do a post about it later.

Sweet dreams, Hypnosis