Statement

So many things have happened and escalated in the past few months, that I can't even keep track. The Corona-situation and how different countries have handled it, The on-going and still not solved! Climate Change and the sixth wave of extinction that seem to have been buried underneath other bad news, all the human rights violations and other bad news all the time... But what I've seen just recently on the news and media has made me think. Such things are now escalating that make it necessary to make a stand and speak out.

What I have seen on the news and various media platforms has made me really worried and upset. I'm talking about the news about George Floyd's murder by police officers in Minneapolis, and the shit storm that has ensued after, which some could argue, was bound to happen anyway at some point, judging by the state of things in modern USA. Of course, America is not the only place where white supremacy and ugly ideologies like that raise their monstrous heads, no. In my country a politician was just ousted for making a sick joke about George Floyd's death, and rightly so. (However, the party that kicked him out is still problematic...) This problem is still unsolved, and it is everywhere.  

There has also been discussion on Twitter recently, about whether or not Goth music is a-political, and about some bands, whose members have/have had racist affiliations. There is discussion about how the  Goth scene is not racist, but still not all people of color feel welcome in the scene, and there are things about some bands related to racism, or misuse of that imagery, that we still have to come to terms with as a subculture. (We know some of the early bands' members used the Swastica-symbols to piss off their parent's generation)

I came across someone who said that it is not enough to not be racist. You have to be anti-racist. I agree with this and I want to make it perfectly clear that I, and we as a band, are against racism. We do not accept the idea that white people are superior to others. That idea is bullshit and based on nothing but imbecile fantasies. That idea has caused immense suffering and cost countless lives. We will not have anything to do with such bullshit. 

Just to make it clear.

Love, Hypnosis

Some Updates

Things are going crazy everywhere and social distancing is the thing right now. So it would seem that we have a lot more time in our hands for making music. But in reality, working from home eats up your time just as well, or even worse than going somewhere else to do it. Starting the work gets harder, and all the undone chores and things catch your attention. And when you finish, you can't really let go of the work stuff. Home life and free time get mixed up with work. This is the reality in many homes right now. 

For me, this was the norm when working part time and doing the music stuff at home, before I started working at the manufacturing place. I'm slipping into my old habits as the covid-situation prolongs...The up-side to this is that you can gets the things done when ever you feel like it. The downside is those things mentioned above. 

Anyway, we've made some progress with our debut album, which we hope will be finished and available in summer 2020. After releasing Good People in December 2019, we have recorded and produced two tracks that will be included on the album. That is, mixing drums, recording bases, guitars and vocals, mixing, re-editing, adding some details and final touches etc... They're now mixed and ready to be mastered!

Invite Me In is a song you can definitely dance to. It's the one the record company we tried working with wanted to produce. I'm actually happy we didn't choose that one to do with them. It turned out quite nice, if I may say so myself. Still gives me the prickles in my neck. Siouxsie and the Banshees was once again a great inspiration in this one. 

Drifting Leaves is the sad, slow track of the album. I don't know about you, but I enjoy those ones. This one gave me the chance to do something unconventional for a goth song, and I ended up using a vibraphone. But the whole song is quite heavily influenced by The Awakening and, curiously, Radiohead.

There are three more songs that still need some serious work. One of them doesn't have vocals so to speak of, only speech and some backing vocals, but needs a lot of drum editing. The other two need to be recorded and produced except for the drums, which we did already two years ago. Two years! Time flies...

But I'm having my hopes up right now, and have started checking and re-recording the synths for Acid Rain. Hopefully I'll get them done this week, and then some more!

best of luck everyone, and keep yourselves safe!

Hypnosis

Day in a Life

Here's something about life in general, pre-covid19-situation of course. Right now I'm laid off from work and mostly confined home. But I'll write this anyway, now that there's time, and so you'll know what's going on.

Each morning I wake up, drink my coffee with caffeine, find something for lunch, to wear and then hop on the bus to work... Then I work. But after that I'm free to do what ever tf I want, because I quit my job as a vocal coach! And it pays off. We have made some progress with the up coming album. It won't be out ahead of schedule, but I dare guess, that we will be able to keep our promise. That is, album out next summer.

Now I need to vent. I really thought that I would be able to handle a day job and a side job as a vocal coach. Turns out, I can't. I was just too spent after a day of coaching at the manufacturing place, and besides that, also cutting fabrics and sewing as well. Not to mention being in charge when supervisors were on their paid leave. There was much more social burden in the manufacturing job than I expected and I quickly noticed I had much less energy for teaching, which is also a very social activity. Paying continuous attention, being positive, noting the problems and coming up with solutions for them, being motivational... Yeah it's a lot.

Not to mention preparing. Not to mention all the pop-songs I hated, that stuck in my head afterwards. Not to mention all the schedule changes. A lot of things. The thing is though, that it was sometimes rewarding too. To see real motivation and people ready to do the work it takes to be a better singer. To see and hear the results of that motivation. To see the light come up in their eyes when they suddenly notice something new about their voices. But what I'm sad about as a teacher, is that most of the time this is not the case, even with people who pay.

The real energy eater is a student who expects the teacher to do all the work and nothing really seems to sink in. But then you can't really say much, because the student is also a paying customer. And the customer's always right, right? Towards the end I didn't have those ones around that much anymore, only the quite motivated ones, but they were unfortunately too few to continue. It was just too few customers, but still felt like too much after a day of manufacturing.

Besides paid work there is also the unpaid hours that I put into this band and other music projects. These are something that require time. It takes some quiet time with no other distractions to come up with melodies or write lyrics, or just sit at the computer and go through the ideas to see if anything new pops up in your brain. The best part of the day for me would be mornings, when there's now rush to go anywhere. But now I didn't have that luxury. I even struggled to find enough time to practice my instruments.

So, the situation was that I quickly became exhausted. And I had that nagging feeling that it's not worthwhile. That something has to go and that after all, the most important thing in this situation was my survival. Having had that awful burn out a few times in my life I know how much I can take. And with burn out there's this unlucky side to it, that next time it comes more easily and from less stress than before. So I made that decision. It was financially logical for me to keep the manufacturing job and let go the teaching job. But I also decided this way because the manufacturing doesn't follow me home.

So I arranged my quitting before Christmas and told all my students. Most of them understood me, and I hope they'll find someone to continue with. I believe they will, if they really want to. For me, things have been way easier now. I'm in manufacturing until summer, and after that I might have some related plans. But that is still very unclear.

Right now, during this confinement I hope I'll be able to produce many new songs that we'll get to try with Hateful Chains when we're able to rehearse again. I actually have many in my head, or on paper already. But it will take some time to have them recorded etc. Meanwhile we'll also continue our work to get the album out by the time we have promised.

I hope you are all well and safe. I'll keep you posted, now probably some what more than usual.

Love, Hypnosis

She Smiles Video Shoot Part Two!

This is where we brought in the boys.

One tuesday evening we gathered to our friend's apartment, that is me, the rest of the band, director/shooter, two dancers and the make-up artist, and we shot the band scenes for She Smiles music video. Before that I spent the morning by getting some snacks for everyone and doing my hair in somewhat fifties' style. About noonish the make-up artist showed up and started experimenting with latex and my face...

The idea was to create a mask to cover my mouth, so that I couldn't speak, and it would look like I had no mouth. I would rip it off in the final scene, exposing a smiling mouth. It was supposed to be taken with one shot. First the eyes and lips were done and I ate something before a thin film of latex was glued onto my mouth. We realized the one shot wasn't gonna happen, because the lipstick went off right away... But we decided it could be ripped off, fixed and then take the final smile, and maybe there would be something that could be used in the video. After the latex some scar gel was added and then the pale foundation. The final result actually looked like I had a plaster mask.

Now I couldn't eat or drink for the rest of the evening. But the hardest part was actually keeping a resting face and not to laugh. Everyone laughed of course when they first saw me, and I couldn't but react to that. Throughout the evening the mask was cracking and I was of course sweating underneath it, so it would need to be fixed between takes. But it held together surprisingly well after all.

I wore my grandmothers old dress, a black velvet funeral dress. It didn't quite sit on me, but that was just plus. The nature of these band parts was to be the negative side of life anyway, a gray reality where everything is dull and stagnant. Under the dress I wore a corset. That way I would be forced to sit more straight and move in an overall constricted way, hopefully adding to the idea the director had in mind.

Living Room, scene is set

The band members were all dressed up in suits, like to a funeral or old dance music gig. They had some pale foundation on their faces and dark shadows under their eyes, as did I. Like we hadn't slept for a week. We sat around sadly on the sofas around a coffee table and played out the story the director had in mind. We didn't use the music for these scenes and didn't play our instruments, except for my brief moment at the piano, which maybe is included in the final cut, or not.

Although some of the band members didn't have very much experience with acting, it all came together when we concentrated and were able to focus on the moment. The articulate and calm way the director managed the whole thing was a great help in that too. I must say the band were great playing dead in the end scenes! No reaction at all to my efforts of waking them up.

Later the two dancers came in, one of the "naked" masked ones and the breakdance/dark character. This time they didn't dance, but were present in the scenes as characters from the fantasy world. The dark character was painted black again, while we did some scenes with the other one. And then we realized something had been forgotten again: black gloves for the black character! We used black mittens then, and I'm slightly worried about the takes that show his hands...

We did mostly the same scenes and actions that we did with just the band, now added by the fantasy characters.

Photo by Rotkoarts

Photo by Rotkoarts

After everything else was captured, it was time for the final scene and ripping off the mask. The big moment. I stuck my fingers in it and pulled it apart, trying to be slow. It came off quite good, as a single piece but under it was a red jaw and lips, stained by lipstick and sweat. So I had to sit down for the make-up artist to fix it. No eating yet, and I was so hungry! Fixed and ready, I then held the remnants of the mask close to my face and revealed the final smile. 

I was so relieved when it was all over, and first of all I drank a coffee drink I had reserved for this occasion. Then there was snacks and laughter and thank yous and goodbyes. We got it all taken in a few hours but it was the make-up that took the most time and effort. That's why Rotkoarts deserves my everlasting thanks for dedicating the day for this video project. I'm in your dept!

Also thank you for Teemu for letting us use your apartment, Ville/ Solkigraphy for shooting and directing, the band (love you guys) and dancers, for adding your skill to the mix!

We left and went to the store to get some supper supplies, with our pale foundation and funeral clothes still on. People looked