Influences Part II

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 part one too!

Goth Subculture has suffered from the mix-up with metal, industrial, emo and the likes, those other equally valuable subcultures that have taken some influences from Gothic aesthetics and elements, but are not the same. Especially in the nineties and later, the confusion with other genres was prevalent. At this time the media did it's part by getting infatuated with the whole phenomenon, which seems to happen every once in a while. Often you would read stuff about Goth people in magazines, or see a news piece made of them on TV etc, but what the genre actually contained was never discussed in depth. Usually they would just tell that these people listened to "heavy and gloomy" music. That, in retrospect, doesn't make much sense, when you consider the roots of the whole subculture. But what could you expect from media who concentrate on the looks, rather than content?

This, I think, is the reason I too had no real knowledge of what Goth actually is. During high school I was more immersed in Metal and in college kept on, adding Saviour Machine and Virgin Black to the list. I even sang a Cure-song (yes, it was Friday I'm in Love) when there was a concert for parents, having no idea about the connection of this band to the looks and people I kept seeing in the media. It wasn't until later, when I had already started my classical singing in conservatoire that I really started searching information about Goth. What prompted me into doing that I cannot say for sure, but it was one of the early symptoms of my transition back to my self, which I will probably dive into later in this blog. But by simply searching online I stumbled across all the early post-punk acts and the bands that came to describe Goth music as we know it.

When I first heard Siouxsie and the Banshees, I knew that this was my stuff, my music. Juju was and perhaps still is, one of my favourite album from them, but it's really hard to choose between that and Tinderbox. The way Siouxsie Sioux used her voice was just, well, striking. Compared to the other similar sounding and mostly later bands like X-mal Deutchland for instance, their music was also just better produced and made as a whole. Well, they did evolve into a "dynamic pop-group", as I've read somewhere, and it wasn't only the proto-goth sounds and her singing that made me fall in love. Equally important and what made a lasting impact on my own musical thinking, was that they were such chameleons and made every album slightly different. And in every one of their album you can find very different songs. It's Siouxsie's voice that unites everything. I've let that fact also console me in the moments I feel like a song I made is too odd.

Sisters of Mercy came later for me. It was the power, the coolness, let's say masculinity or something, that told me, this is Rock. When I first heard the Sisters, I understood where 69 Eyes took it's influence and singing style. The power came from the harmonies, and arrangements, I think. It's the major chords that don't sound happy, but dangerous, powerful, even menacing. The use of acoustic guitars was a wow for me. Dr avalanche might have annoyed me at first, but I soon got used to the groove and as it turns out, drum machine has been part of the Goth aesthetics ever since. Some of the first songs I wrote were made after the fashion of Sisters of Mercy. They have actually grown on me more in recent years and my appreciation has solidified. Their music and style is quite unique, something not many achieve.

The Sisters of course led me to The Mission. They took their use of acoustic guitars a step further and you could hear the roots of the early Sisters too, no explanation needed here. This band actually sounds very Pop-Rock to me, but is still considered as one of the Goth tradition. But yeah, this kind of music was big in the eighties. Later I also found Ghost Dance, which was a spin-off from Skeletal Family, who actually toured with the Sisters. All of these bands, including The Damned and the likes, represent to me the more poppy branch of Goth Rock, and it could be argued, that they are not that Goth, but that would take us into a whole another discussion. Let's not do it here. Now, the one truly Goth/Pop-group, or a band that really transitioned from Goth or Post Punk to Pop, would be The Cure.

I knew some songs beforehand, but I really dove into this band at the same time as Siouxsie came into my life. The one album for me was, and still is, Disintegration. It was such an emotional ride and an inspiration. When I read somewhere Robert Smith created this music during his crisis of turning 30 and feeling he hadn't achieved anything worthwhile, it was a kicker for me. At the same time I was composing my first orchestral work and I had the same crisis going on. 

Another inspiration about Robert Smith and The Cure was their song style, namely, that there are always many instrument layers while the song itself can be quite simple. I tried this technique in our song, Siouxsie on the Beach, and I dare say it will stay in my toolbox, since it's such a useful and effective tool. 

It was of course a huge thing to see this band live in Helsinki 2016, and hear all of those very dear songs performed in front of my eyes by the very people who created them. And Robert Smith's voice still sounded so good! They played almost everything from Disintegration, except the one darkest and saddest song. I also enjoyed their warm up band, Twilight Sad. What was food for thought for me afterwards, is the way Robert and the other band members were still true to their identity, looks and all. It tells me it's something more than just keeping up the appearances of a rock musician. Something to strive for, I'd say.

This brings me to the last band I want to discuss. It's not maybe such a huge influence, like these other pioneers I've mentioned, but it's something that created a connection, and is important for that reason. Our guitarist has always been a huge AC/DC fan and it was one of those identity forming bands for him. When we started to make music together it was hard to find something that would bring us on the same page, which is really important, if you are going to trust the production of your songs to someone

But there was one band that connects eightie's goth vibes and rough rock sounds. The one that started out as The Southern Death Cult and who later changed into The Cult and turned their music into energetic rock. Our guitarist had found this band through AC/DC, I stumbled across them in my searches about "Goth". It's a band that evolved from an identity to another. To us, it's a bridge from one world to another, the page we found our ways to from different parts of the book. 

Now this is already such a mountain for you to read, that I'm afraid you just skipped here. So I will continue in part three. Because there's the Un-Goth confession to make. Until next time then!

Hypnosis

 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