Another day shooting video

We are now in the process of tweaking the final masters of the songs that will be on the first album, soon to be released. We listen in the car, through home stereo, everywhere and then do some tweaking here and there. All the recording is done, all the tracks are there. The order is almost set, it might go through some slight change, but the big picture is there.

I had a nice two weeks off from work, which has continued during Corona-time, and I spent that time creating the album cover. I used several photographs and paintings and created a bunch of images with image manipulation software. (not PS, although quite similar) It was nice to get into the flow state when the ideas started coming, and when I got the first not-so-good ideas out of the way. The band voted for the best three, and these will go into further processing and finally one image will be chosen to be the cover. I can't share them here, as the work is still in process, but I will as soon as I can.

Last weekend we gathered together to shoot video material. We want to make another music video, this time a "live" one, like Siouxsie's Israel. Our drummer's partner was really helpful in finding a location. She had a contact to a local night club, Apollo and she just called and asked, if we can shoot there, since it's empty now anyway. And it happened. There was personnel helping us with the lights and sound and we also had smoke. It was such a nice feeling to just do your job while other people handle the stuff you're not the expert of. 

We had the same photographer to handle the shooting as before. This time we did the "directing" ourselves and had a simple list of all the takes and parts of the song that we needed. After everything had been saved on camera, there was of course time for funny stuff and tomfoolery. I think we'll do the editing ourselves, as soon as possible, to get it out as soon as possible of course!

To get some variation in the takes we changed clothes, just the guitarist and bassist, though. I made them black skirts, with metal d-rings on the side. Long skirts, ankle length. It was actually the guitarist's idea, and I said ok, I'll do it! The model was quite simple but it still took me one day to finish both, because the machine I used was a monster to be tamed. But how ever difficult the making of them was, they looked really good on the men! 

I wore my band vest, which I DIY:ed out of a thrift store find. Messy hair, regular make up. And killer boots with red leather and strings...

After shooting we went to dinner. I had a good glass of wine, which I felt I needed after all the jumping in very high heels and trying to give it all. Exhausting, but so enjoyable! Another kind of flow. 

So, it's a promise that there will be lots of interesting video material on the way! Thanks to all people who helped us shoot and organize everything, that is! I'll keep you all posted about the video and other news. Because there are some interesting things happening in the near future...

 What has happened lately?

OOOOoooo, so much. and I haven't been recording everything here as I should have. But let's do that now.

Let's see, after the succesful trip to Catalunya we kept our quarantine, and after that I started work in a local theater as a seamstress. It's been interesting work, rather tiring as well and time consuming since it's a regular ninetofive-job, and adding to that the work needed in a newly started Co Op, time has been really limited recently. During September and October there was also a construction job done in my apartment, so we had to live elsewhere for a while. That added some stress, to say the least. 

In these three months the Covid situation was at first fairly good, but it turned worse and after a quite relaxed summer some limitations had to be re-instated. That meant bars having to close at an earlier hour and their capacity limited to half. Private parties and gatherings were also limited. The theater has been keeping up with half capacity and masks and regulations, and I've actually been lucky to have my job, when the situation for musicians has worsened every week. Our October was quite a contrast to that, because we seemed to have some kind of gig every weekend, in either a private party or the venues we had previously arranged a gig with. They wouldn't cancel, saying musicians have it hard enough already. All thanks to them!

We also had plans for a Halloween happening, which we started when the situation looked better. Our drummer has been arranging this happening for a number of years now, and it's basically a charity concert where the ticket sales profit goes to a charity purpose. So, the bands do volunteer work here. It's been a more Metal bands-driven thing, but this time around I wanted to make it an actual Goth band gathering. At first we had booked ourselves to play at a small local venue, that fits a hundred people. Then we decided to make it into Monsters of Turku, or rather Monsters of Halloween, since it was planned for the Halloween weekend. 

I was so surprised to get three other bands to play at the event! One of them was a band that played with us at the same time at Lumous, called Agnosia. I also asked Ultra Noir and Murnau's Playhouse to come, and they all agreed! Epic fantasy coming true. When new regulations kicked in, Murnau had to cancel for personal reasons. But instead, Chaos Research agreed to come. Also the local Dj:s agreed to play their lists. In the last minute we actually managed to get a sound engineer to do the live mixing! This was actually a very very good thing, because doing it ourselves for four bands would have been an enormous amount of stress. I'm so grateful still, that all of them came to play and participate, and made this thing happen. There is not much Goth happening in Turku, so this was really important to me and it seems for a lot of people. 

With new regulations the capacity of the venue was just 50 people, so the charity purpose had to be smaller in size. We decided to give the money to a school for a children's home, so they could buy art supplies for their students. I was hoping that some twenty people would show up at both night, but the first night there were fifty people. Fifty sold tickets! And the next night, when we played wasn't worse either. That's a nice sum for art supplies. The thing that really warmed my heart is that people came because they really missed live music and they said it was so lovely that somebody would arrange such a thing when everyone else is canceling events.

 I know how it looks like to have an event during Corona time, but we did everything by the book and within regulations. The audience behaved well too. I haven't heard anybody getting sick after the event and I hope nobody has. Anyway, the situation is actually worse now than a month ago, so I'm happy we were able to do the event when we had the chance. Now is not a good time for events like that: In Helsinki area the audience for live music is now limited to 20 people and theaters and public places are now closed for a few weeks. There has been a bit af a controversy, because the limitations strike mostly the culture and music area, but shopping centers and such are open and free to have their Black Friday events. Seems a bit unfair, shall we say.

So we had gigs in October, and were able to save some money for the eventual printing of our debut album. Which is still almost ready, but not quite. We are not able to release it at the end of this year. But there's another side to that: We contacted a record label and there was a positive answer!! We have now had a few meetings with them and this time the content of the deal seems like something we have been looking for and that would benefit both parties. I have had really positive vibes about the meetings, and it seems we are really going to sign a deal this time. Woop, woop!! I'll tell you more about it, when the time comes. But now, it will take a month or so to finish everything and do the cover art as well. And that's why our album will be released early next year. 

I would love to chat more, but time is limited and I have to continue with that cover art, do some work for the co op and rehearse... There are not enough hours in a day.

Thank you again for Monsters of Turku: 

Agnosia

Ultra Noir

Chaos Research

Hateful Chains

The DJ:s of Club Undead

Jasse, from Aura Audio

She Smiles video comes out at last!

We have finally come to the point where She Smiles is ready and set to be released on August 21st!!! The people involved were pleased and stoked, happy to say. I can give you an explanation, many in fact, as to why we didn't finish it sooner: Firstly, there was this things called Covid19 that fucked up a lot of peoples project and, well, the whole world... But there was also people having babies, work, organizing other music-stuff in between, work, recording, work... You know, life. 

But after all, between the time we shot the video's material and now, a lot of things got done. The video was edited and sent to us for comments. We wanted some changes and video was re-edited. We also did some re-mastering to the song it self and recorded new bass lines with Ikke, our bassist. This version will also be on the album. After finishing this the audio was sent to the video editor, who attached it to the now-ready video. So phew! We haven't been idle. And, oh, if you've been following our social media, you might have noticed that we also took new band photos. 

It was really long over due, because the former bassist left ages ago, and those pictures were no longer valid. We went to an old villa with a photographer friend and took a bunch of funny and serious band photos, to be used in covers, media-releases, socials. etc. I've been posting some of them on our instagram and facebook lately. I also wanted to make it into a project where I kind of introduce each band member and in a way declare our current line-up. Now all have been introduced except the bassist. So keep your eyes peeled for the last introduction!!

We had also booked a trip already in december, our every other year-visit to Catalunya, where we get the chance to focus on music and composing for a whole month. It's a place I've really grown attached to, and it means much to me. This time we had to wait until the very last week before the flight there departed, before we knew if we could go. Spain had already lifted quarantine regulations there, but Finland had not, so two weeks home bound would be expected when returning. But this opportunity seemed too narrow to pass by, we might not get another chance any time soon. So when the plane did fly, we took it. 

The month spent in Catalunya was basically like being in quarantine: We didn't meet anyone and avoided big crowds and cities. Seeing small villages was enough, especially after the news that covid- cases had soared again in Barcelona and it's surroundings. A face mask was obligatory in public transports and later outside in general as well. Only when eating and when doing sports were you allowed to take it off. Hand sanitizer was used in stores and you weren't allowed to touch vegetables with bare hands. So the rules were quite strict but it seemed to me, that some part of the population, mostly teenagers and middle-aged men, interpreted them quite loosely. Social distancing is hard, so the masks were really a good thing.

We spent the time mostly composing and practicing. I finished a number of songs for Hateful Chains, that of course yet remain to be tried at rehearsals. I also wrote some goofy songs just for practice, don't know what I'll make of them, really. In addition, also artsy and contemporary classical music was composed and many other ideas put onto paper and brain. We're now back home, quarantined and finishing the stuff we started in the residence. She Smiles- video has gotten end credits and thus is now ready to be launched. And media releases have been written. And I'll go through my list now and send it everywhere. 

We hope that we'll remain healthy, so that on August 21st we'll be able to celebrate the release of She Smiles-video with the people who participated in it's making!! From a SAFE distance, of course.

Thank you, and good health to you

Love, Hypnosis

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