New Album Out Now!

It's oddly satisfying to say that out loud and to write it down. The album Invite was finally out on May 7th, and it makes me so proud and happy! This process has finally come to it's goal, we have reached an important milestone on our journey. The plant we have nurtured is blooming. But it has not yet come to it's full fruition and there's still much to be done to realize it's full potential and to make it heard by as many ears as possible. 

Promotion and live shows, that is, but unfortunately we can only start planning for live shows here in Finland, and that's a big maybe too. All depends on how the summer will turn out. But we'll start planning and booking as much as we can! Hopefully it will work out and we can play somewhere, that's all I can say. When the borders open in Europe, it's time to start planning for that too...

Promotion has been going on before and after release, most of all in Germany. I'm glad, really glad, that there is the boost from the record label. And I mean it's a big help! So far there's been several interviews, including Sonic Seducer, Imperiumi, and NEGAtief. Thank you for all of them, for including us in their releases!

You can find Sonic Seducer May issue in here:

https://www.sonic-seducer.de/index.php/de/aktuelle-ausgabe/die-aktuelle-ausgabe

 And Imperiumi in here:

https://www.impe.fi/imptv/1

What has kind surprised me with the interviews especially, is the interest in the cover art. I didn't really expect that, but it has been quite pleasant as a creator to explain the origins of the art. The phenomenon which usually happens when you release art/music is that the audience makes connections and assumptions about it that you didn't have in mind originally, and didn't expect, but when brought to your attention, you see your creations in a new light. Like when you're compared to a band you didn't have in mind, for example. To me it's refreshing and interesting. Of course the audience could interpret your art in a way that frustrates you, not like you intended. Eldritch comes to mind, somehow. But once the music is out, it's not in your full control anymore. I remain interested and eager to see what people will finally make out of Invite.

There's also been radioplay in various German underground music channels, like I mentioned in the previous post. The song they mostly played was Siouxsie on the Beach, which is also something I didn't expect in the sense that it's not our rockiest song. But, of course, I named it after Siouxsie, which in itself  bares much cultural weight in the Goth scene, and it's perhaps our easiest song, most radio  friendly, so to speak. Maybe relatable as well? On a metal based radio show perhaps a different song would work, like She Smiles? But yeah, it's been great to follow the shows and podcasts and to hear your song played!

Before the release date we also received our own copies from Germany, two hundred neatly packed Hateful Chains cd:s. They came to our local store which handles packages as well. Having only an approximate estimate what kind of space two hundred would take, we went with bikes. This is the result:

                                                 

But we were able to get them safely to the secret location where we'll keep them buried under all the junk. Kidding, of course the purpose is to sell them. Mostly in connection of live-shows, but otherwise as well. There were several pre-orders form early birds already, and to pack them safely for posting we  first had to get some padded envelopes. Luckily they came quite fast and the pre-orders have been sent. Thank you all for ordering! 

I also found that there are several record stores in Finland that sell our album, so there's actually a quite good distribution in our area. For Europe I cannot tell for sure, really, but with a quick googling I found a German and an Italian store that sell it. In Finland you can find our album at least in Levykauppa Äx. 

So it seems our little debut album has had a nice covering around Europe among alternative music magazines, radios etc. And now you can find the album in multiple places. So, go and get it!

Love, Flora

                                        

  Some Setbacks...

Of course, I spoke too early and there's been a delay in the release of our album. Oh well, can't help it in anyway, this pandemic keeps f---ing everything up. It should be in a week or at least in April. So let's hope so. The album has been printed, I hear, so it shouldn't be long until we have our own copies in our hands...

I've been posting stuff about the songs to keep the buzz alive somehow. For now it seems a little quiet, but I'll have to make some noise again, when we have the album. And we agreed to release the music video in connection to the actual album release. Can't wait to show it to y'all!

There's been a few online radio shows that have played our songs, and I even got to make a little jingle for one of them. Thank you Flyflew Radio, Flatlines Radio and Radio Hazzard of Darkness, for noting and giving us some air time! I've also done an interview, about that later then... This pre-promotion has mostly happened in Germany, which is of course, the home of Danse Macabre Records as well. 

While waiting for the release I thought I'd give you guys a glimpse to the album cover process. Here are some of the other options, which were not bad, but in the end the one chosen was the most original in all our opinions. That is, the band. In the end, though, I was the one who made the final decision on the cover picture and the album title.

This is a photograph of a plastic mask, which I then altered. We thought of Hollow Place as the album title, but decided on Invite in the end...

This one is a painting by a close person of mine, in it's original colouring. 

Maybe it could be used some day?

And this one is a negative of that same picture, actually pretty nice this way too

This is a photograph of a beach and I just made it red. It's ok, but didn't make it to the top three.

And this is the final version of the cover we chose. 

In the end, we went through with a cover full of cows. Luckily weird cows, slightly melting, maybe tears in their eyes or something. The cow is from a painting of mine. The original is red characters on blue, so for this idea I detached the characters, multiplied the cows and turned the background red too. The other characters are in the cover material too, so you'll see them once you have the album in your hands. 

I describe quite simply what I did with the pictures to make the cover, but the truth is that it took a long time, first the process of choosing the right one, then the actual making of the cover, the booklet, the back of the cd- case, and the cd itself. I was lucky to have help. Two people, who have done lay out and editing like this before, and pro ones actually. Alone I wouldn't have been able to get the material into the right printing format and all that. I have some experience in graphic design, but this was honestly a deep end for me. 

After all the trouble I went through I have decided that the next album cover is probably going to be black and white. With candles, probably... And yes, we are already working on that. There are still some things to be done with this one, to get it out there to be seen etc. But I have written new songs during all this time it took us to finish this album. So there is enough material to fill two albums. Which is awesome!

Yours in darkness, Flora

A Week Before Release

Next Friday is the set release date of our first album, Invite. Everything seems to be in order now.

There is, however, some bad news too: Both drummer and bassist are recovering from injuries that prevent them from playing for a while. So, even if we could have a release party, we would not be able to play live. And we can't anyway, because next couple of weeks strict restrictions will come in place. This is of course because of the pandemic, and it's been getting worse in our area. It's as bad as in the capital city. The restrictions prohibit gatherings larger than six people even now, so any kind of real party is impossible. 

It's actually kind of sad that we can't really celebrate our first release properly, but I guess many bands are in the same situation now. Let's just hope next summer will be better and that gradually life will come back and live music will be possible again. Luckily, we have something planned for the release date, and that is the music video for the song Invite Me In.

Part of that video was of course included in our introduction video. The whole video will be much more than the snippet and I have a feeling it's going to be quite enjoyable. Hopefully you'll enjoy it too!

Here's some sneaky peakies from the editing sessions, which we did together with Videoketju's Pasi, who has helped us before with our videos. 

Either I'm not too happy with the results, or just making a face...

Green witch or Sheschreck?

Now that the album itself is ready, I've had time to start working on merchandise. I plan to use the themes of the album, but alter it slightly so I can print it myself with one colour. That is, white on black fabric. Let's see how it works out. I'd like to do something else than the regular T-shirt with the print, which you can get form a manufacturer very cheap. I dislike the idea of doing merchandise in the easiest and cheapest possible way, which is why I intend to do it the hard way, myself. But, since design is my other profession, I trust it's going to work out. I'll post about it's progress later.

I'm currently posting something about every song from the album on our social media channels, so keep your eyes peeled for those. And wait just a couple of more days for the album itself! It's been so nice to see all the anticipation so far, a genuine thanks for all the attention! We can't wait to be there, a band with a released debut album! Because as you know, that's only the start of it all...

Love and kindness to you all

Flora

 The Creation of a First Album

It's been a rough couple of months, but light can be seen on the other side. Now that the journey is almost over and done, it's time to share the story.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, we approached a record label in hopes of some kind of a deal. Since we've tried several times already, we didn't expect too much. Most of the labels just didn't answer at all, and when some did, the deal they offered was too risky for us or they wanted changes to be made that I just didn't want to do. I've told you about one case previously in this blog, happened two years ago. So, when the positive answer came and they wanted to do video meetings and everything, we were honestly quite positively surprised.

The record label we approached and finally made a deal with is Danse Macabre Records, a German record label focused on Goth and dark music. It was formed by the members of the band Das Ich, and has operated already since the 90's. It's actually quite thrilling to be able to together with people with such an experience. There's a real possibility that this is going somewhere. 

At this point all the music had been recorded, except for some bass tracks and we were at the stage of the final producing, mixing and mastering. We sent one song for a mastering and with it our own testmaster to Waudio Mastering, where Good People was mastered before. Surprisingly we got very positive feedback, that actually nothing much needed to be done with the song, and our test master was quite near the result we were looking for. That is why we made the decision to do the final masters ourselves. And I'm saying "we" all the time, but most of the work and tweeking was done by Kimmo, of course, and he has done a huge job to find the result that satisfies the ears of all the band members and some others' too!

While recording the songs and doing test mixes and masters, we have also used the ears of  our friends, especially those audiophiles who have a wide taste and experience in different genres, to make sure we're not doing this just in our own safe bubble. They have given valuable advice and critique, and we have tried to make sure to take heed and use what helps us in this. All these people are mentioned in the up coming albums thanks, but I just want to say it here too, that we are very thankful for all the help and advice we have received during the process.

With the record label we went through some negotiations, just to make sure we knew and understood what we were getting into, and to understand what kind of process would take place to make this album a reality. When everything was clear, we signed the papers and had a deal. 

On the day of signing we were actually filming a music video. We had this idea for some time already, but decided to complete it so we could release it in connection of the album. The idea was to make a "live" video, just us playing the song in a club environment or something. How this happened is actually a story in itself: When we arranged the Monsters of Turku last Halloween, our drummers partner met a woman who works at a local night club, Apollo. So when we were wondering about where we should shoot, she just went and asked that woman if we could come and shoot at Apollo! So they said yes, and we had a very nice location for our video. On top of that, very nice lights too, because they were handled by the Apollo light engineer. Forever thankful for this too! We were also asked to make an introduction video by the record label, so we thought, why not kill two birds with one stone, and use the music video material in the introduction too.

For the music video I made skirts for the boys. Yes. I have formed a co-op during last summer and we have rented a big hall as our work space. So I used the space to my advantage and made some black, long skirts for Kimmo and Ikke. Ankle length, with d-rings on the side, which you unfortunately can't see very well on the video, because their instruments are in the way. Too bad. However, these skirts are just the start and the very first prototypes of the things I want to do for HC. I've got all sorts of plans for merchandise. But they'll have to wait until the album itself is finished. 

So, we had signed, shot material for a music video and an introduction, and it was about time to make the covers. You see, of course I wanted to do that myself, too. It was a creative process in itself and I enjoyed it very much. When I started, the ideas started flowing. I had ideas with painted stuff, and more photographic ideas. All of these had to be tested and tried. I used GIMP program for everything, which is a free image manipulation program. In the end I had like ten different ideas which I presented to band members. They then chose the best ones, which I then proceeded to experiment with further.

At the end of this process I had the cover image, but still a lot of work needed to be done: the texts and images for the cd booklet, back cover etc...The final layout in other words. With this I needed help, and luckily there was a colleague in the co-op, who could do just that. I couldn't have finished the work without his help, so he has my sincere gratitude. 

The graphics process wasn't the only process going on, there was also the finalizing of the masters and getting them into a form which can be handled by the printing place. And then there's the digital versions. In the middle of this I wrote a media release, a kind of an info package about the album for media use. This was sent to all kinds of places, magazines, influencers etc. We also edited the music video and shot and edited the introduction video with the help of our friend, who has helped us before in our video experiments. Thank you for that! It took several evening sessions to get the material into the shape we wanted, but I think the result is worth that time. 

During all this, which alone would be enough time to be a day job in itself, I've also worked full time, as each one of us has in fact. I've been working in the local theater since the summer, as a seamstress and om top of that been active in forming the co-op and getting it to function. You can imagine, that all of this has not left too much time for making music and has quite honestly taken much energy. This is why I intend to focus on the co-op and making music when the job at the theater ends this summer. But of course, a steady day job has been very useful and much appreciated in these times when you can't be sure of anything. I'm thankful for having had a job during the pandemic, when all gigging and all events with audience in general have been very limited. And obviously, the creation of an album does cost money.

Now that all of the aspects of the process are completed, that is, everything is sent and all last minute changes and urgent emergencies have been taken care of, I feel quite relieved, and daring even to feel a little excited already. This is finally happening! Now it's time to focus on advertising and shouting about this everywhere we can: Our first album will be out on April 2nd 2021!!

Check out the introduction while waiting:

Hateful Chains Introduction - YouTube

Love, Flora