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d-criss-news · 3 years

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1883magazine.com

Darren Criss

On his new EP ‘Masquerade,’ the multi-talented Darren Criss welcomes everyone to the party.

Throughout his career, Darren Criss has never been one to shy away from boundaries. As an actor, he has won numerous awards and critical acclaim for his portrayal of Andrew Cunanan in Ryan Murphy’s award-winning drama American Crime Story: The Assassination of Gianni Versace, as well as hearts and a cult-like following for his portrayal of Harry Potter in Team Starkid’s A Very Potter Musical. As a musician, his talent shows the same range; he is as well known for his ability to belt a broadway ballad as he is for his covers of Top 40 hits on Glee.

For Criss, this is because all music is simply music. Musicians and listeners alike need not box themselves into certain genres and while this concept is currently growing in mainstream media, it is one Criss has known since he was a teenager. At Warped Tour, he encountered fellow San Franciscans Me First and the Gimme Gimmes, a punk-rock cover band that specializes in the unexpected (their most played track on Spotify is Country Roads.). Inspired by what he’s always known was possible, Darren’s career has had freedom most artists take years to explore — and with his new EP, it’s clear that is the most recent chapter.

‘Masquerade’ is an exploration into Criss’ more eclectic side with each track on the record representing a different persona or masque for the artist. The overt character-driven quality of the EP lends not only to allowing fans to learn more about Darren Criss, but also to create a project where something can be found for everyone.

1883 Magazine spoke to Darren Criss about his perception of genre, his new EP, and the curse of creative people.

Congratulations on ‘Masquerade’. I love it. It’s so fun!

Fun is a very fair adjective, I would agree.

I feel like there’s a very cohesive vision or aesthetic to it. When you set out to make the project, did you have this end goal in min or were you just making music?

Yes and no. First and foremost, when you’re dealing with the whole of what an artist does, there are so many different facets that make the whole piece. To start, I’m just a songwriter — that’s the main thing that seeds everything else. But, because I’m a creative person, I’d like to think that I have a somewhat cohesive vision for my projects. However, you can conjecture and pontificate over what you want to happen, but ultimately a project is going to come out how it does. The thing that ties it all together, hopefully, is the artistry of the music or the person’s voice. When I heard you say “cohesive” my mind was like, “Phew!” Because we’re all scatterbrained people and we just constantly pray other people somehow think that we planned something or we had it envisioned all along, so to hear that is an enormous relief.

That being said, I had hope for how the EP would come together. I’ve been leaning into this notion of a character-driven song. The dirty secret about that is all songs are character-driven; all art is character-driven in some way or another. I just use that wording to aide folks that might be perceiving me as an actor and to apply that methodology to music.

How so?

I always thought it was a bit of an unfair double standard — where actors can be in a horror movie or romantic comedy — and we’re still behind that person as an actor. Actors can put on a prosthetic nose or a wig and do different things to service whatever story they’re doing. Historically music has been a little trickier, but now I think that’s changing. I’ve always been a self-proclaimed genrephile. I love so many different kinds of things. Growing up it was difficult for me to really assert this without confusing people. Now, that kaleidoscope has shifted in my favour, because people are more into eclecticism and musical diversity due to playlist culture and the whole homogeneity of everything. I’m employing this notion of being an actor and being behind a character and applying it to music by treating each song as its own kind of character. I want the art to correspond with that.

That’s an interesting concept to apply to music.

I know that everything I just said is horrifically more cerebral than it needs to be. If you like the music and it’s fun, great. I’m just trying to help people out that might be confused by perhaps some of the cognitive dissonance that’s happening between some of the styles. At the end of the day, it’s an artist’s voice, literal singing voice, and heart voice — what they have to say and how they say it — that tie everything together. People are more accepting of that than they used to be. This is exciting for me because I finally got to lean into something that I’ve always leaned into my entire life.

The last EP you released was ‘Homework’ in 2017. How do you think you’ve grown as an artist since then?

For me, obviously, there’s personal growth and professional growth. I think my growth is much more technical — getting better at recording music or being able to translate abstract ideas into physical recording — the things that I don’t think necessarily would be seen on the records. Again, much like an actor, ‘Homework’ was me playing the part of making a very low-key, singer/songwriter record. I’m a big believer in dressing for a party. I had some singer/songwriter songs that I wanted to honour. Each record I release shows a different version of myself that I haven’t gotten around to sharing.

The songs on ‘Masquerade’ are not like, “oh man in the past few years, I’ve suddenly become this person.” The EP was me finally getting in touch with my more Garage Band musician roots that I hadn’t been able to flex. It made sense to me to finally make this music. I had linked up with people that I thought could help me bring it to life in a way that hadn’t been done before and I felt like the timing was right. As I mentioned, it seemed like audiences might be a little more privy to this kind of thing.

I don’t want to be so stubborn as to think that there hasn’t been growth. I’ve been so lucky as an actor, that I’ve been busy as an actor. The only obstacle to me putting out more music, which I wish I was doing all the time, is time. I’m not an artist that just shows up, sings, and checks out. I’m writing, I’m producing, and I’m really in the weeds. It takes a great deal of investment, emotionally and mentally when I make music.

So, when you say, “you wish you were always releasing music,” do you mean to imply you have more music or at least ideas for more music?

I think the curse of creative people is that our ideas move faster than our bodies can execute. What this inevitably will create is a huge queue of unattended things that you will always be haunted by. From there, you have to catch as catch can. At any given moment, there’s still so much more in the queue that I want to put out. It literally took a global shutdown for me to finally have the time to look at the said queue, and say, “Okay, which project do I not only really want to do, but also do I have the resources to do and do I think fits into where I am right now?” Because I’m very cognisant of l where I am in my career. I have this huge selection of songs and when I have the time to focus on music, I go through and pick the ones I think fit where I am mentally and how I think other people are feeling.

With all these different genres of music you’ve released and all the music-centric projects that you’ve been a part of, is there a type of music that you enjoy performing the most?

I would say everything, but I don’t mean that in a way to just include everything. By nature, I’m a dot connector; I like shortening the distance between two things as much as possible and showing people how they can coexist. It’s my MO personally and professionally. Genre, while it has a lot to do with the cultural background and history of a type of music, is the boxes that we’ve arbitrarily made up to categorize and market music. I’m completely nondenominational when it comes to genre because all I can hear is chords, melody, and lyrics. It’s never been separated to me. When I’m performing live, I relish getting to lean in and bring together genres. I love using the setlist to show an audience how similar different genres are. For example, I’ll play a punk rock song and right after that I’ll sit at the piano and sing a ballad. My voice will be a little different, but it’s still my voice. Just like in acting, no matter what character an actor is portraying, it’s still their face and their body. Trying to minimize a distance between genres when I perform is an exciting prospect because I like getting audiences to rethink what they think they know about the differences between genre and how really at the end of the day it’s all just storytelling. So…I like performing it all.

I didn’t say you couldn’t say you liked everything. [Chuckles] That’s a perfectly acceptable answer.

I like putting all of it together specifically to show the similarities. Historically, all the great steps forward in a new kind of art form have been by mashing two or three seemingly unrelated things together. It’s happening constantly. It’s happening right now. Culture is a constant conversation back and forth. It’s a sharing of ideas that ebb and flow to create something new. I’m not saying that I’m taking part in this ancient conversation, but I’m certainly enjoying it. When I see pieces of it that I would like to showcase, I jump at the opportunity to do so.

Since ‘Masquerade’ has been in your creative bank for a while, what would you say inspired it?

Every song has its own inspiration. The album doesn’t really have an inspiration. If anything, I’m trying to make sure that I can show up for myself. I feel like with everything that I’ve done musically, I haven’t gotten to represent who and what I am and what I do. To me, this EP gets me closer to that goal. I still think that only a small percentage of me has been represented and that’s just because of time. I haven’t been able to focus on music in the way that I’d like, but ‘Masquerade’ is a huge stride for me.

Speaking of you being on Broadway, Elsie Fest is Sunday! On top of it just being exciting because it’s back, it’s your first public gig in almost two years. What did you miss most about the festival?

Listen, even without a global pandemic to worry about, putting on a music festival is hard enough. It’s one of my favourite times of the year because I’m very proud of what we’ve built and what we’ve continued to build and expand upon over the years. There’s been a community that has been built around not only people that come to the festival but people that have been part of it. I’ve followed these performers’ careers and I’ve been really grateful that we got a piece of their magic and got to be part of their journey at Elsie Fest. Magic which I can’t take credit for. I just lucked out with having incredible people perform. Over the years, we’ve had Cynthia Erivo perform twice. The first time she premiered a song called ‘You Will Be Found’ from a musical that would open in a year called ‘Dear Evan Hansen.’ We premiered a song from a movie called ‘The Greatest Showman.’ Keala Settle went on to win a Golden Globe for that song. Last year, we had a young girl from Disney sing for us — her name was Olivia Rodrigo. Those are just three examples. There’s been a lot of people that I’ve been thrilled to see do their thing. This year we have an incredible lineup. Barlow & Bear are coming, along with Jordan Fisher, Adrienne Warren, Pentatonix’s Kirstin Maldonado, and Alex Brightman. It’s gonna be great.

The obvious and the biggest answer is getting to perform live within as much of a safe and comfortable environment as humanly possible. Luckily we’re an outdoor festival, so that’s already to our advantage. I will be performing this new EP, but there is also a lot of music to catch up on and a lot of music I want to share. I’m mainly excited to share it with other human beings. I look at performing as a service industry. Everything that I do isn’t worth a whole lot unless other people experience it because it takes on a life of its own. The audience is not there for me & I’m there for them. I’m trying to service an experience that’s bigger than both of us and create something that couldn’t have been there if both parties were on their own.

Before I let you go, I need to tell you that Tramp Stamp Granny’s is one of my favourite bars in LA. I’m obsessed! I haven’t made it back yet. Like I said earlier, the editor Kelsey is also one of my best friends and when she comes, it’s top on my list of places to take her.

Really?! That makes me so happy. You couldn’t have said a better thing. We’re open again to limited capacity. We require vaccinations cards at the door and we’re only open Thursday-Saturday. Talk about being with people — the night we reopened, about a month ago, I got pretty emotional. It was nice to see people just being happy to sing and celebrate life with strangers. That was a really encouraging sentiment because despite the use of digital communication which I do think is an amazing thing, we, so clearly, inevitably, yearn for each other. Despite everything, people were coming to the bar and were so happy to be there and be around other people. Our need for other human beings is a constant that is extremely encouraging to me as a bleeding heart idealist. It’s nice to be a small part of that.

Finally, you said earlier Barlow and Bear were going to be at Elsie Fest. I cannot wait for the Unofficial Bridgerton Musical and was so excited to see you’re involved.

It’s cool meeting them because in a much more organized and impressive fashion they’re doing what my friends and I did ten years ago with ‘A Very Potter Musical.’ They are insanely talented and deserve to be the huge phenomenon they have become. They’re the future. I’m trying to grab onto their coattails however I can. [chuckles] They’re just getting started. I’ve been a big fan of Emily’s for a long time. She hates it when people say this, but [mock yells] she was a child prodigy and she still is. She’s an amazing human being.

Masquerade is out now.

Follow Darren Criss @darrencriss

Interview by Sydney Bolen

#darren criss #1883 magazine #elsie 2021 #masquerade ep #tramp stamp granny's #homework ep #press #august 2021

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steve0discusses · 4 years

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Yugioh Ep 34 S4: The Boys (and Mai) are Back in Town

OK, back to the writing table! It’s been a while! So I made the mistake of like...scrolling down on the playlist when I realized...

This duel is like 6 episodes long (7 even? It’s a lot) and like...yo I have no idea if we’ll finish this season in 2020! Damn you 2020. Damn you.

But wtv, what I like about this side project of mine is that I don’t have to rush things, and I can really spend the time with each episode and just...enjoy the moment. So often I watch a whole series in like half a week and then it’s like...I don’t get to enjoy it. This series I’ve enjoyed for years now. That’s kinda neat. So...we’re gonna be slow...but lets just enjoy this weird ass anime moment together. 2020 deadlines are all fake anyway. I’m not even sure if 2020 was a real thing that happened or like...an alternate universe opening a door and letting through just so many terrible ghosts. We might never know.

Last we left off, everyone has decided to hallucinate Dartz’ terrible backstory.

Unfortunately we have NO darts in the past. Was really hoping to see at least one darts reference in this entire season, just one darts board on his wall. But alas, we will not have a Season Zero death darts match with Dartz. (Man I need to get back to Season Zero. And FMA. And a lot of things)

I feel like if I watched the original version there would have been some things different. First off...what ocean? Second off...well, we’ll get to that. There’s some things I think were changed for English TV.

Including censoring the nude people like it’s James Cameron’s Avatar.

Fun fact did you know that James Cameron��s Avatar was supposed to be ass naked and that they were supposed to have like 8 cat nipples? Yeah.

Man, that movie was a mistake. I’m so glad we all decided to collectively forget James Cameron’s Avatar.

(read more under the cut)

The actual locations of anything in Atlantis does not match up with it when it’s zoomed out. We have giant cities, we have sprawling wheat fields, and we have...THIS situation. This active volcano next to...pine trees?

I feel like they wanted it to feel vaguely Pompeii, since I know people like to put Atlantis in the Mediterranean. Maybe? Maybe that’s what they were going for here?

One of my top ten favorite Yugioh plot twists ever was finding out this episode that this snake who has no limbs somehow created these...rocks...that all of our main characters have been wearing and obsessing over this entire time.

And so this is my theory, this is the thesis of my Yugioh college paper. These rocks are turds. There’s no way these rocks aren’t turds. There’s no way this snake didn’t poop out a bunch of glowy magic stones and then stuff them into a volcano.

THE ROCKS WERE TURDS THE WHOLE TIME.

God bless, Yugioh.

Seto spends this entire episode groveling that he isn’t playing cards that will absolutely kill him. Like Mokuba, Seto isn’t happy until he’s cheating death.

(I really wish we got more super past future tech. I love that type of concept art. Instead, we just got a lot of flying boats--the same boat that I think the team flew on in S1 when they went to Seto’s video game universe.

So those boats are 10,000 years old? They existed in the 10,000 year old Pangea, huh?

Neat.)

Anyway, lets take a gander at Princess Zelda circa Ocarina of Time.

SUPER princess Zelda, and I know it’s not 1:1 but damn it feels so much like a late 90′s Princess Zelda outfit to me. Check out that PURPLE. That low poly circlet. The random ass sword. The thick ass belt.

Also check out this super dead family.

Yo so this is a 00′s thing, a period of time where we liked to tell stories like LOST, with just a bunch of random ass plot twists in flashbacks instead of just...telling a story from start to finish. And can be a great and fun way to do it--but at the sacrifice of actually making me care about these characters while they were still alive.

Like I would have maybe cared about Chris and Ironheart dying if I had known that Dartz was killing his whole family? With...lightning strikes? But alas, these dumbasses decided NOT to tell us they were royal. It’s so strange both from a logical perspective and a storytelling perspective.

Man...missed opportunity, IMO, but I can see why they did it. The wanted the ‘Gotcha!’ I feel ambivalent about it, honestly.

And who am I kidding, people are still doing unpredictable plot twists this. It’s a way to tell a story. Is it the most impactful way? No. It’s...it’s a gotcha!

It’s at this point in the story that things start ramping up, but it’s not clear if it takes place over years or just a couple hours. People just start going a little cray and turning into Monsters.

Straight up, though--did they turn into monsters that already existed and are modern Duel Monster cards, or are the monsters from modern Duel Monsters cards actually descendants of Atlantis who were once human?

They don’t say, actually. Maybe...maybe every card was a human once. That would be a freakin weird Yugioh twist if Kuriboh was like a 45 year old dude.

PS Dartz was married...soak that in.

ROMANCE ON YUGIOH ALERT.

Love it every time. She was there for like...half a second, and Dartz was like throwing so much shade about how “only the people with evil in their hearts were turned” and it’s like...

...dude that’s your wife? OK then. I can see you guys got along real well.

Anyway, so long to the ship of IonaxDartz, you were here for even less than the amount of time that Seto dated Blue Eyes White Dragon in a hallucination, which kind of sets a new record for us.

This might be the shortest-lived ship in all of Yugioh and they have a 12 year old daughter and what I assume was a 12 year marriage for that entire time.

that is if they...HAD the concept of marriage 10,000 years ago on Atlantis Pangea island. Maybe?

I mean they might have not had the concept of dating and marriage yet because he gets over this like immediately. The show will never hover back to that time Dartz watched his own wife turn into a creature. We have no idea if he was like “OK honey lets uh...let just get you a haircut and maybe no one will notice?” We have no idea how long he was desperately trying to remain married to the beast that was no longer human and was also trying to eat everyone else in his court. We just don’t know.

Dartz just had a lot of other things to think about. He’s been King for like...a year...he’s only 21...he’s just doing a bad job at everything.

(Biden opens Pres Trumps bedroom in the White House come January and it’s juts full of glowing green evil golf balls) (OK that was my last 2020 joke I swear to you)

Anyway, Dad is here, but it’s a little too late to really do anything with the situation. Everyone is worshiping little snake turds. What can you really do about that?

One eye golden, the other eye, the color of a glistening Leviathan turd.

After the rest of the surviving royal family was chased out of the castle, Dartz decides to just wave his hands around a lot.

I’m not entirely sure what Kings do...never really had one...but I think they’re supposed to do more than wave their hands at a crowd like the Pope. Like...everyone’s dead right? Like everyone?

Who’s he talking to?

Meanwhile, Chris and Ironheart decide to revive some monster tablets to get some real actual duel monsters to do their bidding.

So apparently some monsters are in the tablets, and other’s have just always been here...and...

They didn’t know violence but they did have the cards?

There’s a lot of vague stuff they didn’t feel like ever writing, because it would have probably been boring to write about. I guess we’ll just let our imagination fill in the rest and ignore all the inconsistencies. It’s a kid’s anime. well........kind of a kid’s anime. A lot of people have died this episode and I don’t even know how to add it to the death count.

How many people live in Atlantis? I dunno.

Are the inhabitants of Atlantis even dead, or are they just turned into Monster cards? I dunno. Clearly the Great Leviathan wasn’t awoken this first battle so...did all those souls get returned? I dunno.

Either way I’m not gonna bother the death count about it because I just do not know if they died, and since it was neither an implied death or an on screen death...I dunno.

Just feels like a bit of a translation snafu--where maybe they couldn’t kill that many people on English TV, so they were like “AND IT’S A DRAW!” but also...it could be canon to both versions. The leviathan didn’t work the first time, maybe no one died? I dunno.

In this shot, PS, Raphael just gently backs up out of this flying plane, and it looked really funny to me. I probs won’t cap it because it’s split between two other cuts, but just...they just kind of moved that sprite to the right really slowly, no animation, it was great.

Dartz decides to end the backstory hallucination, and we get introduced to a new twist--a better twist than that last one, that’s right, all our boys are cards!

Including this asshole!

Been a while since our boys have been cards! Man, I miss Bakura!

Yes, I looked back to earlier episodes this season to see what was going on with Pegasus’ new look. I think what happened is that it’s always been this shade of gray purple--but when you put purple next to it’s opposing color (which is yellow colors) it looks even MORE purple. It’s just how color works. Love color theory. mm. Good stuff. Good purple hair.

I can’t wait until Yami kills Yugi for the 3rd time in one season.

Anyway, that’s all for now, and like always, here’s a link to read these in chrono order.

#ygo #yugioh #yu-gi-oh #recap #photo recap #episode recap #yami yugi #seto kaiba #Dartz #I don't know if he has a last name or if they were invented yet #Dartz' hot wife #Yugi muto #Joey Wheeler #Mai Valentine #maxamillion pegasus #Raphael #s4 #ep 34

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x-exo · 3 years

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*slides into your asks with a rose in my mouth* why hello, tis me!

Apologies for the long wait but your favorite long asks anon is here and OOF so much has happened. Let us break it down one by one lol

Monsta x our beans, welp we can officially say we are army wives for them because shownu is now at the military and just welp this feels weird lol. I lowkey forgot he was meant to enlist so when the news came out I went through so many emotions. Its why the latest comeback feels a bit bittersweet to me. It is their BEST for sure and for this year, I agree so to not see him perform right before he left is a bit sad. I don't blame him of course (if anyone does i am fish slapping you) but just a shame. I'm happy we do get content with him still? Seems pre-planned so that is nice!

Onto legends exo, fantastic comeback. I cannot stop listening to the album, its just bops full of bops to me. They broke so many records and I'm over here sipping my tea because fudge yes. It isn't a full member comeback, 2 of the members featured in the comeback are off playing call of duty and they still did THAT. While having lay properly in the comeback!? (Or at least some form, better than tempo era!) Kyungsoo my beloved, the man that can swoon you off your feet, his proper solo album. Omg I am just in love? The album feels like a Playlist that you hear while taking a walk or on a raodtrip? I love it, I just love everything about this with how much thought was given. It makes me feel warm and I'm so proud of him (I think he even got a first win) but sadly xiumin got the it shall not be named virus D: I feel so bad and I can only hope he gets better! It makes me worried because I keep seeing more and more idols getting sick and I can't help but wonder why don't the kpop entertainment just put a pause with stuff? Of course that is VERY unrealistic, I am aware that is naive for me to think but its just so idk how to word it properly (my English brain is not working I am sorry) I cannot help the feeling of while I get people are being safe and yes we need to still live like normal beings, is it worth risking idols health just for some entertainment? Idk how to explain my thoughts properly but maybe I hope I made sense!!

Onto svt! That is perfectly fine to not vibe with a comeback! I will admit, I didn't fully vibe with this comeback and it shocked me because every comeback was a hit to me. Even fear, left and right or homerun where I know many fans were split on, I liked but RTL was a grower. For me, listening to it without watching the mv, helped it alot and it is a song I like. Is it their best? No I don't think so but it is alright to say "hey I didn't bop to this, not my cup of tea" (imo I blame the mv? The mv REALLY didn't do the song justice at all, I am sorry if I sound like a fake fan but this mv Just is bad in all aspects. Sure we have some pretty shots but like it just doesn't fit at all?) So if anything listening to the song or wishing the live performances does it better. Seeing the choreography amps the song up more, cannot go wrong with their dancing. As for the rest of the songs, I admit game boy is my top favorite? Idk if it is because I am a gaming nerd and found all the production of the song so creative but yeah. We can wait for the next comeback! Svt always have something up their sleeves, plus we do have their music projects to look forward too (I wonder when we will get one? Seeing as RTL promotions stopped) some positive news with the boys is they resigned like a year before their contract ends and I'm a bit emotional :') I'm excited to see the boys future projects. We did have caratland recently! Did you watch it if I may ask? We did get in the soop confirmation so I'm excited to watch that, the boys deserve that nice break (even if it was filmed for a show fjsbsns)

Ok I think that is it for kpop updates? XD I do hope life has been treating you kindly! Life has been a bit all over the place sadly so I hope it wasn't like that for you as well! Until next time my bean!

hii!!!! omg sorry for the late reply i've been pretty busy these days 🙈

indeed so much has happened! and much more since you sent this ask omg!!

our shownu is at war *looks into the distance* *wipes away tear* *sighs* by now I got used to enlistment news (see what happens when you stan 2nd and 3rd gen groups) but STILL [[IT HURT]] when they uploaded the monchannel videos of his goodbye day like ????? what kind of twisted mind diuhdfuihdifuhs but the boys were all so cute and soft but they seemed so sad they didn't want to let go of their super leader :(( I hope he's learning lots and making new friends (and also we've got our international super spy yoo kihyun giving us small updates on him every now and then so everything's fine!). Yeah I totally get you it felt empty without him this comeback and at first it didn't really clicked with me but when the enlistment news came out i understood he had to take care of his health and thoroughly check on his eye sight in order to be 100% ready for the military so it made sense he had to be absent :( everything was so close (the comeback and enlistment) that I'm sure there was no other way for doing it I'm pretty sure he couldn't maybe postpone the enlistment day any further

onto exo! my ksoo my soft boi my romantic boi 🥺 his album is so him SO HIM i can't explain it bur it's just HIM you know it's the type of album you'd play on loop on a summer afternoon when you've taken your papers and paints outside in the garden to paint a bit with the warm soft breeze moving the trees lightly 🤧 and he signs in English and SPANISH (he did it for me) my multilingual king he's a native. Also I've been watching Honeymoon Tavern with Jongin these days and OMG i could d word for him really (if you haven's watched it go do it when you have time) he's SO SOFT and SO CUTE and he works as a waiter and a wedding planner and helps with the room preparations and is also a tour guide and he's just so cute so happy al the time the way he interacts with everyone is so 🥺🤧😭 onto more serious stuff now: yeah i was so worried about minseok catching covid omg but i'm glad he went through it with our any major complication and the rest of the boys are safe too! I guess the industry doesn't stop bc that would mean a huge loss of thousands and thousands of dollars/won/etc so as long as the gov doesn't prohibit going out or gathering like at the beginning of the pandemic, they'll keep on going with the idols' schedules otherwise the industry would just shut down having no way of earning money to sustain all the companies and idols.

as for seventeen! yeah i like the songs too! the mv sure ruined rtl and listening to it without watching it has really helped it grow on me more but still it feels kind of meh to me idk i really like anyone i think it's my favourite from the album. AND NOW WE'VE GOT A COMEBACK IN OCTOBER!!!! yayyyyy i can't wait they seem to be preparing very diligently (i hope they release a sexy bop) it's a shame junhao aren't gonna be present for this comeback but i'm soooooo happy they have the opportunity to visit their families again omg they have spent 2 whole years without seeing them in the flesh they must be so happy to get back to them again!!! it's so funny seeing them be bored at the quarantine hotel and doing lives every day duhdfiudhfiuh i hope it passes quickly and they can see their loved ones finally! and I did watch Caratland!! omg the unit switch song was the best thing ever hhu doing lilili yabbay and not being able to stop laughing idfuhdifuhs perf team doing chocolate and owning it????? hello??? performance team more like main vocal team wow! and the vocal team being a complete mess during check in lmaooo i loved it! In The Soop has finally started!!! I love these kind of "normal life" concepts I love seeing the boys being themselves cooking and relaxing I've watched the first and second eps as of today and also few clips from the third and omg mingyu and jeonghan drowning in the pond dfuhidfhidfs lmao they're so dumb i love them 🤣 i'm glad they could go away for a few days and spend time together away from their hectic schedules!

I hope you're well now and if not hang in there it'll all pass soon enough! 🥰💕 bye bye!!

p.s.: I got your request for the svt this or that gifset and i promise i’ll do it one day i just don’t feel like giffing these days dhbduusi i’m out of energy

#ask #my super nice lovely anon

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swamplatibule · 3 years

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Paramay Prompt Three! Para+Childhood

I HAVE BEEN WRITING THIS FOR FOUR MOTHERFUCKING DAYS NOW AND I HAVE NO REGRETS :DDDD

this has not been proofread it is 10 at night, I am exhausted, please accept my humble offerings

Damn, only prompt three and I’m already forced to reveal everyone’s tragic backstory oh well lol

Trigger warnings: Abuse, arson, su•c•de, death, homophobia, murder, gun mention

tw; death mention

Alright alright alright let’s fuckin goooo we’ll start off with Hollister, her childhood is no doubt the easiest to write since it’s basically been the same her whole life.

She never met her parents. She doesn’t know if they’re dead, or if they just decided they didn’t want a kid, or if something else happened, and she doesn‘t care. It’s not her problem. At least, she tells herself that, but she really isn’t 100% sure that it wasn’t somehow her fault. Poor baby.

She‘s completely grown up in the foster care system, bouncing from home to home. Hollister kept running away, getting caught, and being sent somewhere else. She’s also, guess what, a fucking genius with technology.

One time she tried running away and then erasing herself from the system. It didn’t work, but nobody realized that she’s tried to do it, so it’s fine, nothing went wrong.

A few weeks into her newest home, one of the other foster kids named Silas (who she’d been fast friends with) went missing days after developing a weird anti-gravitational power. And so she tried to find him. She stumbled across the Starwritten Society - when I say “stumbled across” I mean she followed a few very questionable leads on, like, conspiracy theory websites and shit and actually found something - and hacked into the archives, trying to find some sort of info.

Now, you can imagine the panic that caused in the Society. Complete lockdown. The Starwritten Society is top-secret, and nobody just hacks into the archives that easily. She didn’t actually find anything, one because she didn’t get time to look around before the security system actually started working and kicked her out, and two because Silas just wasn’t in the records anyway, meaning he’d disappeared some other way.

However, before she could go out looking for him, there were three agents knocking at the door, having tracked her location here. And you can imagine the looks on their faces when they saw that the person who had caused the mass panic that morning was none other than some kid with a computer that looked home-made.

Things happened, she asked to join because, y’know, fuck yeah secret society, paperwork was filed, and she got in. She’s currently the youngest trainee to join the Society in seventy-four years. Also, fun fact, they had to fill out the adoption papers and such, so she’s listed as the child of Director Iara Adams. Which isn’t that big of a deal, since literally every kid in need of adoption taken in by the Society is adopted under her name, and most have only interacted with her like once, but... it’s a cool world building detail I felt like I needed to add.

Anyways, ONWARD!!!

——————————————

tw; homophobia

Kennedy was born in a pretty influential family with very “traditional” values. They kinda suck, so we won’t get too into that shithole.

Each generation of that family has had like six kids, and every single time, one turns out to be lgbtq+ and gets ✨disowned✨because the parents are just kinda assholes. It’s just this never-ending cycle.

Suffice it to say, Kennedy - being a flaming bisexual and all that - got disowned when she was like twelve after one of her siblings outed her by accident. Her uncle took her in. Guess what? He had also been disowned! When he was fifteen!

And he also went on to become a very important person in the Starwritten Society, and when he discovered Kennedy’s complete genius with technology, he recommended her to become a trainee at 17 years old.

To be honest, Kennedy’s basically gotten the short end of the stick when it comes to characterization and fleshing-out. I have quite a few paras like that, sadly. I think I might make her a playlist sometime and let her be the main character for a while.

——————————————

tw: abuse, arson, su•c•de, murder, gun mention

Fox. Oh boy. Fox grew up in a very... tense household. His father started out pretty okay when he was a younger kid, but he slowly started getting more and more violent and controlling, to both Fox, his twin sister, and his mother.

Fox always had a very close relationship with his sister, Wren. You know that siblings meme? The “You are my sister, you are my brother, we are siblings and we care for each other,”? The were the living definition of that. They managed to keep a definite sense of humor and lightheartedness with each other, despite everything that had been going on.

They weren’t fine, but they had each other.

And then Wren went missing. There was a huge police search, but they didn’t find anything. Fox was fourteen at the time. That experience basically broke him, and he never saw Wren again.

A month later, he was coming home from school, got off the bus, and found the house in smoking ruins. His mother hadn’t been able to take his father’s abuse anymore, and she couldn’t see any way out. So she set the house on fire, killing both herself and her husband.

Fox, who was a mental wreck at this point, as almost anyone would be, was placed into the foster care system. He never stayed anywhere for longer than a week. His humor became a shield for him, an easy way to seem like he was fine when he wasn’t. After about a year, he ran away. And then joined the circus. Why, you ask? Because I said so; I grow these flowers and if you don’t like it then you can leave my garden

Fox was always a flexible kid. He’d been in gymnastics classes since he was five. And, as it would turn out, he was damn good on a trapeze. It wasn’t a very big circus, just some small family-run traveling one, but it gave him a place to stay and an environment that welcomed him, and that was good enough for him.

He was with the circus for about four years, up until he was eighteen, so technically this isn’t his childhood anymore, but I’m gonna keep going because I want to.

The Starwritten Society was following a lead on an underground lab somewhere around the place where Fox’s circus was performing. Kennedy was actually on the mission, although she doesn’t do many of those anymore after she got injured in the field and such and I’ll talk about that later. Anyway.

The team of agents who were on the search came across the circus, and figured it was as good of a place as any to try and find the person they were looking for, Eleanor Sylvidas. She was actually in the crowd watching, and there was a confrontation after the show. Fox went to check it out, being the one generally in charge of telling people to cool it whenever small fights broke out between customers, but he wasn’t quite sure what to do in a situation where both parties happen to have guns pointed at each other. Especially when Eleanor pointed her gun at his head and told the agents that if they didn’t back down, she’d shoot him.

That wasn’t exactly something that happened to him on a day-to-day basis.

Of course, a fight broke out. Actually, Fox made the first move, he literally tried to snatch this woman’s gun out of her hand. It didn’t work, but the shot she took at him definitely missed, and then there was a very chaotic fight scene and Eleanor ended up losing and got arrested. Course, they still had to find the lab so they could get the kids out of there. Fox was very helpful in that aspect, too.

Once the mission had been completed, he was offered a place as a trainee in the Society. Those who were there will say that the offer was accepted immediately, but he was actually a bit reluctant. He made the choice to go, however, and it proved to be one of the best decisions he’s made.

——————————————

tw; abuse, violence, gun mention

Wilson. Where do I start? He has trauma, definitely, although so does practically everyone who works with the Starwritten Society.

See, Wilson is actually one of the people who were rescued from labs as children, but there are two things that sets him apart from others.

1. He wasn’t kidnapped at birth or after he developed abilities. He was literally created in a lab, which has led to a lot of self-doubt due to being raised to believe he wasn’t “natural”.

2. The Society aims to rescue all powered children from labs as soon as possible, and since many of them are kidnapped at a young age, they try to get them out at least before they turn 10. Wilson wasn’t found until he was a bit older than 17.

He wasn’t even given a name while he was in the lab. He was just “Project Firebird”, with abilities including fire and heat manipulation, as well as immunity to those two things, plus flight and enhanced strength, speed, and stamina. Wilson was made for the sole purpose of being a weapon.

The person running the lab? An absolute fucker of a man named Alastor Killigan. Him? I cannot put into words how much I hate him. He just really fucking sucks, and not in a “loveable bastard“ way. I honestly wish I could physically teleport into my daydreams just to set this bitch on fire.

Anyway, he’s running this whole operation. He’s got guards, he’s got other scientists who he may or may not have blackmailed into helping him, he’s got people who work for him. And this isn’t the first time he’s done this. That’s right, Grey isn’t the first time he’s tried to weaponize a kid. He got caught by the Society last time, but escaped, and now he knows that he has to keep moving around constantly.

So the first 17 years of Grey’s life were just constant training and experiments and tests and moving around and being raised to believe that he was a literal monster and wasn’t worth anything if he wasn’t a weapon. Fucked up, right? But, see, the Society had no idea he existed. They found the lab kids through keeping tabs on recent kidnappings and disappearances. Grey wasn’t on any of those lists. The only people aware of Grey’s existence were Alastor and the people working for him.

In fact, the Society only found him by chance. They managed to track Alastor’s location and find him to arrest him, and they found Grey while they were doing that. There was a huge fight, but Alastor lost, and Grey got rescued. Things were looking up.

Because the Society legally adopts all the orphaned kids they take in, Grey needed a name. He also just needed a name in general. The lady filling out the papers told him he could just pick something, and he panicked. He wasn’t used to being allowed to make his own decisions. There was a plaque on the wall with a list of people who’d been top agents in the past, and he just read one of those.

Grey Wilson.

So, y’know, that‘s why it says he was a top agent in 1937. Just a heads up.

Have I talked about the Society’s different departments yet? No? Maybe I’ll do that later, but anyway - one of the divisions is basically therapy, because some of these kiddos have severe trauma and need help. Grey worked with a woman named Mags for a few years, and then started training for the High-Risk Rescue department. He was taking charge of his own future! Yayyyy!

Oh yeah and then Alastor escaped - again, and Mags went missing on the same day and it was presumed Alastor killed her on his way out, and Grey hasn’t seen either of them since. He’s been working in the Society for about 22 years now, trying to make sure that nobody goes through what he has. He decided early on that he didn’t want to use his abilities again, ever, and it’s become his personal secret, with very few people knowing.

#paramay #paraportal #my paras #my paracosm #paracosm: The Starwritten Society #Para: Hollister #Para: Fox #Para: Wilson #Para: Kennedy #tw homophobia #tw suicide #tw death mention #tw murder #tw arson #tw gun mention #tw abuse #Oh boy I just realized the picture of Tom Hiddleston from my first Paramay post is the header photo #for the whole tag now #well ain’t that fuckin embarrassing lol

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awsugar · 4 years

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Confession time! I've never actually listened to anyone's solo stuff (either pre or post mcr) aside from maybe 2 of Ray's songs, so any advice on where to start? Like who made what and why Frank has close to 6 million bands on the go at once? Sorry if ur busy, u just seem pretty good at keeping track of this stuff. Cheers!

ok! i saved this so i could answer it properly so i hope you end up seeing it now that i am answering it.

this got really long so i am putting it under a read more lol

who to start with is up to you. if you liked the songs of ray’s that you heard maybe it would be good to start with just listening to remember the laughter! ray’s the easiest cause he’s done the least solo stuff. as far as my memory is telling me he’s done remember the laughter and one other song for the lost and brave which was in tribute to leelah alcorn. he’s also played guitar on songs for gerard and other people but those are his like official solo work.

for gerard you can probably just start with hesitant alien, his only full solo album. he’s also got a bunch of singles which are also on spotify/apple music or whatever you use i’m sure. i use spotify so i know they’re for sure on there. also i mean. you may love hesitatnt alien a lot of people do! but if you happen to be like me and you only really enjoy a couple songs i would still listen to the singles because theres a lot of variety in style. my favorites are pinkish, baby you’re a haunted house, and getting down the germs. also he did a (unofficial) cover of superstar by the carpenters which i think you should listen to because it’s incredible. it’s his voice over a karaoke track that he did as a warm up during the black parade recording process. also we got some new stuff like? 2 weeks ago? a week and a half? time isn’t real anymore. anyway he uploaded some new tracks to his soundcloud. it’s the first 4 tracks. the only real song is the first one, phoning it in, and the others are snippets. if you go into the comments you can see the commentary gerard gave on each of them and i think its really interesting.

i believe the only thing mikey’s done is electric century which is on spotify/your preferred streaming service.

where to start with frank…i really don’t know. i will start by saying that if you don’t happen to like the first thing of his that you listen to doesn’t mean you won’t like some of the other stuff. there’s a big range. also i’m biased cause his stuff is my favorite but i do think you should give all of it a try at least. the earliest stuff we have by him is pencey prep that’s the only playlist i could find on youtube, it’s out of order but if you’re worried about listening in order you can look it up easily on google the album is called heartbreak in stereo and there are a couple of other songs thrown in there. one that’s not on the playlist tho is attention reader which i have to include cause i love that song. there’s debate over whether it’s a pencey prep song or an i am a graveyard song because there was some overlap there but. technicalities.

next would be leathermouth, the album xo is on spotify. there’s also a bonus track, myself on youtube. if you don’t like heavier stuff and screaming you probably won’t be into leathermouth..or death spells. ik it’s not for everyone but leathermouth was the first band i ever listened to like that when i was 13 and it got me into that kind of music so who knows.

ok so for frank’s official solo stuff where he is frank iero and the ___. he’s got three main albums and an ep: stomachaches, parachutes, barriers, and keep the coffins coming. stomachaches is really different to the rest of his albums because it was recorded in his basement by himself and it sounds like it. so if you don’t like that one or vice versa you may like the others more! stomachaches i think is most peoples favorite frank album?? from what i’ve seen. mine is parachutes personally. he’s got a bunch of other stuff too. he did a two song 7 inch called for jamia with two covers: walk the line and be my baby. other random frank songs not on albums: 2.5mg just aint enough for me, getting into heaven can be hell, give me liberty but give me depth, xmas sucks. he’s done two maida vale sessions and you probably don’t have to bother yourself with listening to different versions of the same songs unless you really end up liking them then i would look into those but specifically he did two covers which i think are phenomenal: helter skelter and losing my religion. i think that’s all his solo stuff under his name…

edit: i was wrong. somehow i forgot this song is a curse which was on the frankenweenie soundtrack.

death spells is like electronic hardcore. they have one album, nothing above, nothing below which can be found on spotify. i really love death spells. that’s not relevant i’m just saying it anyway i love this album.

lastly, bloodnun, is a black metal project that there’s like very little known about, it was only released extremely limited as a casette. i’ve gotten lazy at this point but if you search it on youtube the songs will come up.

aaaaand i think that’s it! if i’ve forgotten anything please feel free to let me know. i know this is a lot but we’re all stuck at home so you’ve probably got the time to go through it, i’m sure you’ll find something that you really like. i’m sorry i couldn’t be more helpful with where to start out, maybe just go chronologically, that’s the best i can say.

#my chemical romance #frank iero #gerard way #mikey way #ray toro #anonymous #answered

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independentartistbuzz · 4 years

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Good News, Good Music 1.0

Here we are at the end of 2020. We don’t need to tell you that this has been a very hard year. We are feeling beaten down by the bad news and music is the one thing that lifted our spirits again and again and saw us through. We have partnered with our friends at Cyber PR Music to bring you a series of GOOD News from artists who carried on making music in spite of all of the insanity that was happening and continues to grip us. We have cried listening to some of the tracks, felt deeply inspired and yes we laughed as well. What we have seen is the Cyber PR artist community is rich and varied - there are artists from all across the USA included as well as Jamaica, Australia, South Africa, France, Sweden, The UK, Germany and Scotland.

So - we bring you part 1 of our 4 part series GOOD NEWS, GOOD MUSIC.

Please Follow the Spotify Playlist below to hear all of these amazing tracks.

Thanks to all of the artists who shared their music AND their good news.

JVMIE & Lionel Cohen | “We Will Rise Again”

Started A Collaboration From A Quarantine Hotel Room and Got Nominated For A Major Award

We had a crazy year but some great things came out of it! I was forced to leave LA and head back to Australia until things ‘calmed down’ but started a remote collaboration with LA based film composer Lionel Cohen - we received a grant from HOTA (Home Of The Arts Gold Coast) to create an album and we were just nominated for a HMMA Hollywood Music In Media Award :) The whole process of collaborating and talking every day was what helped me keep my sanity throughout this crazy year!

Perle Vybz | “Electric Dancefloor”

Almost Lost Her Partner To COVID And Took The Leap Of Faith To Release Music

My debut single 'Electric Dancefloor' was released on Dec 8th, against the odds. A few months ago , my partner almost lost his life (to COVID). He was hooked up on a ventilator and had a really rough time. At the same time, I lost my main source of income and so, during the pandemic lockdown I had more time on my hands to focus on my music. So I'm glad that in spite of what was happening around me I was able to take that leap of faith and get my music out there.

Arielle Silver | “What Really Matters”

Became Music Connection's Hot 100 Live Unsigned Artists and Bands and Top Prospects 2020 lists in their year-end issue

As COVID shut everything down in April, I leaned into my commitment to authentic connection and inspiring creative expression with the creation of two weekly livestreams: Tomes & Tunes, a weekly show where I interview songwriters about books, and Arielle's Acoustic Happy Hour, both of which are going strong. In June, I released a new album, A THOUSAND TINY TORCHES, along with two official music videos (one shot entirely during quarantine), which have been featured in American Songwriter, Music Connection, and more.And in September, in the wake of closing studios, my sweetheart and I launched a new online yoga studio, Bhavana Flow Yoga, with online classes, workshops, and retail.

Alongside my own sorrow at the pandemic, I have been living a year of creative expansion, and was recently featured in Music Connection's year-end issue on both their Hot 100 Live Unsigned Artists and Bands and Top Prospects 2020 lists.

Hannah Judson | “Deep Sea Diver”

Launched The Backwards Record Release Concept And It Worked!

The 2020 lockdown was an exploration of new ways of doing and connecting. Everything became an experiment as new processes were developed to replace the no longer actionable old ones. I launched the Backwards Record Release for "Stingray," a rock/folk collection of songs. The 8 week campaign started with a socially distanced concert in a chateau courtyard, was fueled by my new podcast the Hannah Judson Beat, conversations with women in music, and concluded with a capstone edition of MUSEfest Online, a music festival I normally produce in major cities that promotes women in music, film, art and culture. I stayed connected with colleagues and fans, envisioned future projects, and maintained momentum and enthusiasm for creative projects, present and future.

Evan Mazunik | “Comfort and Joy”

Funded, Recorded & Released A New Holiday Album

I’m grateful that I was able to successfully fund, record, release, and sell my new holiday album this year.

Eli Lev | “Anywhere We Can Go”

Released A Touching Global Fan Driven Music Video

youtube

I had a powerful experience this year when my music community from all across the world helped me create the music video for 'Anywhere We Can Go.' I was in happy tears editing it and seeing all these wonderful faces come together and make something truly special. Here it is and I hope it brings some joy to folks.

Jeff Oster | “Five Great Mountains”

Found Solace (And Music) In Mother Nature

youtube

I was lucky to spend three months in the fall of 2020 up in Vermont. In the midst of all of the turmoil, Mother Nature just kept on shining. I was able to create this video on my iPhone, in an attempt to capture her beauty.

Beca Dreams | “Calm Before the Storm”

Had A Creative Burst That Resulted In Ad Campaigns & New Singles

It’s been a very challenging year, and yet I’ve somehow managed to have some awesome wins I am super grateful for.

Partnered with Bounty to write/perform Quicker Picker Upper, currently streaming on all major platforms and has gotten over 7M views on Tik Tok and 150K streams on Spotify so far. Composed/performed song for an ad campaign for fashion designer Asher Levine on launching his new groundbreaking LED outerwear line (who’s recently worked with Doja Cat, Lil Nas, Lady Gaga). I also released 2 singles “Calm Before The Storm” and “Taking Time For Myself” and most recently was featured on “Dance Party In The Living Room” by UK producer Fritz von Runte, about making the most of the quarantine.

I feel so lucky to be making music and doing what I love, which has been a huge silver lining during these dark times.

AfriCali | “The Struggle”

Turned An Eviction Into A Special Retreat & Healing Place

Our landlord lost her pilates practice and couldn’t afford her Oakland home so

Our family of four with a baby due any month now had to figure it out and find the humanity in moving out before the lease was up. In the magic of mother earth and without knowing we were blessed with a beautiful place to be away and seven thousand feet above the mountains where we could have this beautiful bundle of joy. Which would turn into a special retreat healing place after our departure this past October.

Akira AK | “Pearl”

Completed His New Release Remotely Over Zoom

My "good news, good music" story is simply how I was able to release 2 major projects this year despite everything that is going on: putting out my second EP and my first music video. The EP in particular had been in the works for 3 years and was SO CLOSE to being done when everything started to shut down, so with the work of my engineer, we set up remote sessions via zoom that helped put the last song over the line and get the release out there! From there I was able to promote it with it's adjacent merch.

As far as my first music video is concerned; I was able to safely show up in person in NYC and film it with the help of a great videographer. The conceptualizing of the video is very special and I think speaks to the experiences some of us have had about going to that special place inside your head where you feel most powerful/comfortable/fierce to deal with whatever is going on externally. The promo for the video was also a success in terms of being able to schedule it on time and put it out there to hype the video itself. And once it was out it was really (unexpectedly) well received!

Those are just my personal success stories and I'm excited to see others' as well!

Monsterboy | “Ain’t Worth the Dime”

Played 60 Livestreams That Reached 7,000 Households

When my husband and I found ourselves without gigs and our small business closed, we decided to go live with our music and stay in touch with our fans. We cobbled together equipment from our home studio and gigging rig, going live in that first week. We really didn't know what to expect. The messages we got from people were so heartwarming, we built a little community for them night after night, reconnecting with existing fans and finding new. In total, we did over 60 live streams during the shutdown and reached over 7k households on some streams. Entertaining and interacting with people was our way to do our part for our community. A podcast found us via the streams and started hiring us to produce music for their shows from it.

Artist: Crotona P., Producer: Pablo Brownbeats | “Silk”

Forged An International Collaboration South Africa and the USA via A Chance Facebook Meeting

I'm Pablo Brownbeats, a producer who has been producing since my youth and creating music for the last 12 years. I just released my new Ep with Crotona P from Rochester New York featuring Street Da Villain, Dj Shawn Touch, KING Flamez all from Rochester New York and SOLO MAJITA from Free State South Africa. The African Ep is available on digital stores and Bandcamp. I enjoyed making this project and it will be an honor to share the leading single Titled Silk.

This project was recorded during the early days of Covid19. Me and Crotona met over Facebook and exchanged some few words and he agreed to do the single (silk) then African EP was born.

Scott Whitfield | “A Bi-Coastal Christmas, Vol. 1, by Scott Whitfield & Friends”

Released A Christmas Album That Features Artists Who Have Passed That Started Recording in 2004.

Despite the challenges, I was able to release a Christmas album on Bandcamp! It's available as a digital download OR a physical CD. This is the culmination of MANY years of work (some tracks date back to 2004, and, sadly, a few of the artists who played on them are no longer with us).

John Maksym | “Drinkin’ & Thinkin’”

Worked With 22 Collaborators Spanning 7 Countries and 16 Cities

I kicked off this year as a solo recording artist for the first time in my life and had an ambitious goal of releasing music every 5 weeks. When the pandemic struck, I had just started recording my 4th single in the studio and everything got shut down. Within a couple of weeks I was able to pivot and invest money into building my own little home studio, to continue to create. With every musician in the world stuck at home, I was able to connect with a dream team of collaborators who helped me finish the song that I had started and go on to record 8 more songs through remote session recording from their own home studios. All in all I worked with 22 collaborators, spanning 7 countries and 16 cities, which I would never have thought of doing had the world not been in lockdown. It also allowed me time to revise my original release plan and build a more robust plan to release a number of singles and eventually an album throughout 2021.

Stay tuned ...There’s more Good News Coming!

#2020 #2021 #independent artist buzz #indie music #music blog #spotify #spotify playlist #positive vibes #good vibes #cyberpr #cyberprmusic

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interesting-blog-name · 4 years

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LOOSE REVIEWS (It Looks Sad., Pablo’s Paintings, Vancouver Sleep Clinic, Steve Lacy)

Just a bunch of very quick, very throwaway reviews that I put together while I’m writing the Björk discography post (I’m currently at Vespertine, so this shit is gonna take a while). Mostly slightly underground bands, all very short projects and one of them don’t even have a project, but you should check them out. Anyway.

It Looks Sad. – Songs For Quarantine

Not much to say about this. It is a 9-minute EP, obviously not meant to be taken as a serious, ambitious release, but it’s from a band I wanted to check out: It Looks Sad.. They’re categorized as emo, but their style reminds the listener a lot more of shoegaze and dream pop, at least from what I’ve heard by them (right now, this and Drool, which fits cozily in my Summer playlist).

If you want some moody music for the quarantine (if it’s still going on by the time I post this) and you don’t care if the songs sound like they were recorded in an underwater cave, then go ahead and listen to this I guess. It’s average as fuck but whatever, that’s the point.

WORST TO BEST: Eyes, Love, Waves, Bug

bedroom music/10

“*insert shoegaze mumbling here*”

It Looks Sad. - Kaiju

2015 EP. Two tracks, one sucks and the other is tolerable. Like I really don’t know what the fuck the singer was trying to do with Creature, he’s hollering all over the place, and the delivery would be more at home in maybe some poorly-recorded punk song, but the instrumental is nothing like that, as it’s pretty much indie-rock 101; not to mention the lyrics, which are the blandest broken-hearted songwriting I’ve heard yet, probably. I now understand how truly emo they were.

For Nagoya, I can at least say the hook is pretty cool, but that’s it really. I guess I’m grateful they changed their style.

2.45/10

“Best friend this is terrible. You know it’s inevitable. I hope you come back, I hope he comes back.”

Pablo’s Paintings

Just wanted to give a shoutout to the underground Leeds, Yorkshire band Pablo’s Paintings. I had listened to Lizard a long while ago, and loved it, so I decided to check out the rest of their stuff today (May 25th), and it’s very solid. The track You’ve Got A Long Way To Go draws heavily from a psychedelic influence, while Paint’s Gone Dry and So Long (All Your Friends) sound like something The Beatles would maybe write.

I guess you could call them formulaic, but their mixing and distinct sound are all pretty good for a band that hasn’t gotten a song with over 2000 streams on Spotify. Their songs can be a little to bubblegum-ish, such as So Long (All Your Friends) which doesn’t really stand out as many others, but for the most part, they deliver. Can I Draw You Something? has a slight edge to it, in comparison, but still sporting cute lyrics about just drawing for someone, and Ghost In The Machine has a great progression to it, and a very cool cover art to accompany it. It’s clear the band has a taste for visual arts, from the lyrics to the band’s name.

In short, they do have a long way to go, and I hope they release an album soon, considering all but two of their Spotify singles were from last year; I’d be the first to listen to it.

WORST TO BEST: So Long (All Your Friends), Paint’s Gone Dry, You’ve Got A Long Way To Go, Can I Draw You Something?, Lizard, Ghost In The Machine

good band check them out/10

“I draw these lines and take them for a walk. I find that I say things better when I don’t need to talk”

Vancouver Sleep Clinic – Winter

Contrary to the name, the band Vancouver Sleep Clinic is from Australia. Led by ambient singer (a term I didn’t know existed until today) Tim Bettinson, from my understanding, the band have partly built their audience by reeling people into the music by putting having the songs feature in TV shows and movies and whatnot, since there’s a hefty list of times their songs have appeared in this type of media on their Wikipedia page. I decided to listen to Winter because I discovered Stakes from the fact that the $uicideboy$ sampled it on the song Sold My Soul To Satan Waiting In Line At The Mall, and liked it a lot. The EP as a whole, however, not nearly as much.

To start off with the main problem I have with Winter, the tracks are all the same. Seriously, I cannot distinguish one from the other; all the songs are soaked in reverb and mainly center around simple acoustic guitar chords and generic pianos, mixed with Tim’s head voice and sometimes the dumb decision to include a synthesized drumming track, like in Vapour, where the fast-paced hi-hats sound so out of place and clip so badly in your ears, it sounds like your earphones are having a mini seizure, but not in a cool way. Meanwhile in Flaws, there’s this unnecessary, wack finger-snapping that makes it sound like I’m listening to some techno song with around 3000 views on YouTube (I do like his backing vocals in the track though).

At its best, tracks like the opener, Collapse, offer an actually powerful passage, in that song’s case, the hook breakdown, where the 808 drum patterns are actually very welcome, and the synths under it are very beautiful and harmonize really well. The final track, Rebirth, also attempts a grand breakdown of sorts, but falls flat because the song is so unnecessarily stretched out and weirdly segmented, and it’s so unexpected: the song is a slow piano/guitar ballad as usual, and then, around 3 minutes in, after the song fades out almost entirely and tricks you into thinking it ended, the drum kicks start rising and all of a sudden there’s... something? I don’t even know what instruments are playing apart from the superimposed drums and what I think is an electric guitar, because it sounds like god knows what, an overheating computer mixed with some shrieking sound, which I assume is the guitar, way off in the background. And then Tim sings a last verse and the song suddenly ceases to exist. Same thing happens with the shortest track here, (Aftermath), consisting of 4 lines, your average piano and strings, and of course, the reverb. It builds up an epic instrumental, and after the brief singing section, just ends. No further instrumental work, just woosh. It’s gone.

I will give credit to Tim’s verses. Even though they’re always delivered with the same intonation, his lyrics are alright, and at least in Stakes, he employs some backing vocals that really make the track, and the hook is magnificent. They tend to blend into one another, with constant themes being metaphors for words he should have or regrets saying, the cold (obviously, given the EP title), sometimes drowning/large bodies of water, and of course, all tracks are about melancholy and heartbreak. But in some parts of the EP, his verses really do feel like some alright poetry, such as the awkward last verse in Rebirth (“I’m starting again, tearing my flesh, stripped to the bone, the all that I’ve grown. Leaving behind, breathe like a child. It’s taken the winter to find who I am”) or the already mentioned beautiful hook in Stakes. In most of the songs, however, I find his themes to be too repetitive and, I wouldn’t say uninspired, but run-of-the-mill.

So overall, the EP doesn’t amount to much. All the tracks attempt to go this emotional route, but they’re very repetitive, and that numbs them and robs them of their emotion a lot. Listen to it if you want to relax, or maybe even sleep to it if you want to take their name literally.

WORST TO BEST: Vapour, Flaws, (Aftermath), Rebirth, Collapse, Stakes

4/10

“I sunk in oceans blue, now they’re all frozen over. I should have took your hand, we should have crossed the border.”

Steve Lacy – Steve Lacy’s Demo

Member of The Internet, singer-songwriter, guitarist, bassist, drummer and producer Steve Lacy is an artist I’ve wanted to check out for a while. I have at some point in my life heard his song Looks, off this demo, but thankfully I forgot how it went so I can check it out again. It’s gonna be a quick listen and review, but I’m curious (and while looking him up I found out he won a Grammy with Kendrick’s DAMN., for producing, backing vocals and songwriting, so that’s cool, congrats Steve).

Right away, I’ll just mention this project is very lo-fi. As in, the drums and his voice are poorly mixed. I’ll give it a little bit of a pass because this man played all the instruments in here and I appreciate the fuck out of that, but anyway. You can tell right at the first track that singing isn’t Steve’s forte, at least in this album, at this time. The hook in that song is just bad, the good part are the instruments, the guitar riffs and the very dynamic bassline, plus the fun little bongos. However, just like all songs here except Dark Red, this is waaaaaaaay too short. It has two short hooks, the verse, and that’s it. The songwriting, I feel, is one of Steve’s more substantial talents; this song I just mentioned is mainly about how a relationship can’t progress because the two involved don’t like much about each other apart from their looks, and Ryd is all about taking a girl to your backseat, but even though these themes are very simplistic, Steve fleshes them out into something more interesting and melodically rich. In Ryd, his smooth vocals surf over the sunny riffs, but what takes away from it are the weirdly mixed drums, as they sound like they’re playing way louder than they should be. The track is groovy though.

The most focused song here, Dark Red, tells the story of a man who’s worried his girl might leave him soon. The instrumentals are nothing special, very basic, and same with the vocals, even though they’re more rooted and solid in this song. The next song, Thangs, emphasizes its bass way more than other songs, but once again, Steve’s voice is not pleasing to listen to, specifically his high-pitched backing vocals, they’re awful. The lyrics are the most basic here, and this song just goes by without leaving any impact after ending pretty abruptly.

Haterlovin is weird. The vocals are way too low, but I like how they differentiate themselves by not going the melodic route, instead Steve chooses to rap them, and his flow in the verse is impressive, but at the same time the hook is way too repetitive for the song to work, and even though it’s nice he switched up and focused the track on the drums, it still leaves it pretty bare.

To close it up, Some brings some promise, with a pretty funky bassline and hook, but then ends out of nowhere and starts a hidden track, Snaily, which I admit has nice falsetto vocals from Steve, but I don’t know why I couldn’t be a separate track. Overall, the album isn’t great, but I appreciate how organic and talented Steve is. Throughout the songs, his creativity is pretty noticeable, so I can’t hate his efforts, but unfortunately his ideas don’t find the right light to shine here.

WORST TO BEST: Thangs, Haterlovin, Looks, Some, Dark Red, Ryd

4.5/10

“Next thing I know she was feeling on me, and I was in the M double-O D when she said park my car down the backstreet”

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freelancingnation · 4 years

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90 days and some change (Day 4, Video #1): Getting to my first course goal step-by-step layout by Caleb Bourquin at Freelancing Nation

Scrum… the final frontier for freelancing

What is up here guys and gals, yeah I know that was random as hell know but I just wanted to come and actually say that I want to start documenting my growth throughout making my first course.

I do not know how many people know that I am making a course, so that’s why I kind of wanted to document it. Also, I kind of wanted to show myself for my future reference on how I went about doing everything, and how I sort of went through the problems run into.

So, what I decided to do was straight up start documenting my day today.

I do not want to say it is a Vlog type of thing, but I wanted to go ahead and give myself a certain amount of days, to reach a goal.

Due to wanting to achieve the goal, I found something recently called Scrum to help with it. It is a framework that SaaS companies, and pretty much a way to lay everything out and also allow you to see if you are on schedule.

Anyways, I’ll quickly lay out what this video goes over and lay it out here… I used an app to transcribe this and it’s VERY long. I don’t want to edit anymore so:

I went and broke down how Scrum sorta works and why it’s great to lay everything out

Why I think it would be cool to document everything and also that I make money in what I am teaching. That is NOT to say like “look at me, I’m so cool”, no, it’s simply to state that I am teaching this because I know a little bit about how to make money with Freelancing and also I enjoy teaching…. Also, I like the money as well, I ain’t no saint, everyone needs money. I am simply trying to help others create their first money online.

I’m scared that this will not work out and it’s possible that it will not. I am however much more confident that it will work out due to changing a lot over the 7ish years in business.

I breakdown everything I am doing and have written down.

I explain how these videos and documentation will work.

Let’s get back to work!

Note: What this challenge is about is giving myself just over 90 days to complete my newest course and get my first 100 students!

Here’s the links to the free course group, my new eBook, the rest of this 90 days and some change and my SEO micro services if you want to check anything out:

Get my 5 step process for becoming an online Freelancer now: https://course.freelancingnation.com/ebook-optin-main

Free Course FB Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/197569828171452/

Check out my 90 days and some change series: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL5MTlC0PoGk1W2CyYyd1bobnfcYnFzAn8

Check out my Legiit Marketplace SEO services: https://www.legiit.com/profile/DripfeedNation

Head back to the Freelancing Nation Homepage and check out our training, more posts and what all we do!

I wouldn’t read it if I was you, but I wanted to show that I wasn’t lying… it’s long (and not super great lol)

”

I guess overall view really quick overall view is straight up and that it’s just breaking down everything that you need to be able to reach a certain goal, and pretty much going and sprints or working in Sprint’s is what they call it, and I don’t really know exactly all that goes into it, to be honest. But I just know kind of what the general basis, and that I need to write every freaking thing down that I can think of, with every single thing that I need. So that’s exactly actually what this is right here and when I, When I started the video off with here but now since this is my first day, actually, I’ve been doing a documentation and everything like that I just kind of wanted to give a brief overview on what I actually wanted to do. And also as well kind of what all I’m doing so. What I was kind of thinking her and not kind of thinking actually am trained to do is get my first hundred students in the first course that I’ve ever made. And the first course that ever made is a freelancing course and that’s where I make most of my money well, I guess not most of my money that’s where I started, I guess you could say I make most of my money from like client work and stuff like that now, but where I started anyways with like the whole entire entrepreneurial online marketing type of thing was from freelancing right and what freelancing is is pretty much just, you don’t really know what it is but it’s pretty much just selling a certain services, micro services on a marketplace. And they can range from any sort of niche rather if it’s software rather if it’s some sort of marketing such as what I do SEO rather if it’s paid advertisements you know there’s there’s tons of different things just, most people think of Fiverr. If you ever heard of that when they go into freelancing or go look for freelancing so anyways not but I just wanted to go ahead and create a course that goes over how to exactly, go into a freelancing platform and start to make money online, so just kind of like how I went about it. And what I’ve learned throughout that entire process of doing so. I want to be able to teach other people because one will I really enjoy teaching, I’m not gonna lie, I do. It just makes me feel good to actually know that I could potentially like have an impact on somebody else’s life. I’ve always been that way and it’s just something that I honestly just enjoy. Obviously I like the money to know, don’t get me wrong I’m not some saint and just like, just like most people ain’t saying like you know just, you know, it’s just all because of the passion that I have no I mean I do have a passion for it but still have, I need to make money too right we all need to live right. So, no, but I wanted to just kind of start kind of documenting exactly what I’m going to be doing what I kind of want to do I kind of wanted to do some sort of 90 day sprint sort of thing, and or overall goal I guess you could say, and I didn’t really want to just call it a 90 day because everybody calls it that so I was gonna like say 90 day and some change, I don’t know. But pretty much what the actual goal is so like I said I’m just going to kind of break it down some of the things here. So, what the actual goal is and you can see up here is if it focuses that’d be great. It’s pretty much just getting 100 students in my course. Second is going to be going and doing five of those students actually having some sort of success with the actual course and I actually have what the success means right they’re gonna food focus. Pretty much what it means is, I want a couple of people that I have taught how to actually make some sort of money with freelancing, and it’s also a bonus there if they get like their ads set up, or some sort of like website or doing YouTube, or something like that, because again, I teach those things in the course. Now, again this is the program to promote the course I’m just telling you what I am doing there so anyways now that’s that’s what success means right with the students right. So, what I want to be able to do is have this done by all by July 31. And because I’m actually moving out I just moved to California, and with actually my, my buddy who’s also an entrepreneur he’s a software developer. But, anyways we’re actually making a podcast together as well just just FYI, but no but anyways. No, so we’re going to be moving to Florida from California, in about four months, I think is August from now, because today is what it is for for sorry there’s a lot of flipping around to the camera here that’s for 2019 2020, right, Jesus this thing is not focusing anyway so yeah that’s what I’m kind of wanting to do is by July 31, is that I want to do pretty much it would be 90 days from now almost, and some changes are like I said I want to call it, right, so that’s what I’m doing there.

I want the actual course itself done within the next 30 days and then me running ads and everything like that for those first 100 students and five successful students at minimum, there as well so I’ll kind of go into just a quick overview of what all that means when I say that like the actual course done because my course isn’t done by the way. And that’s totally fine for and I’ve already made some sales as well so and that’s totally fine by the way to have it’s not a big deal. Just as long as I’m still consistently moving at actually going and getting the course done that’s what really matters. So, and also as well still having enough there to be able to teach people at least the basics, and then some, some of the more like advanced stuff as well, in which I have pretty much most of the face basic stuff, just some of the more advanced stuff is still what I have to make but again it’s still good to just start making money with it, because it did take a lot, a lot of time of my time to go and record all the videos that I have so far and everything like that but I’m not going to get into that right now. So, actually. First off, one thing that I do want to say, and before I want to preference this I should actually preface it preferenced it before actually even started video. But why I’m doing this by the way, I’m doing it this way where everything’s like broken down and stuff like that and I’m really glad that I was able to learn about this whole entire Scrum thing is, because of the fact that I’ve always had trouble with going and starting things now.

I’m sorry, I’ve always had trouble with actually going and finishing things that I’ve started, that’s the better way to put it. Like most entrepreneurs and actually some that I even talked to on the daily I know are like this as well, is that I go ahead and start a project I jump into it.

In only recently have I any of the ones that have jumped into actually made money because it took me a good couple of years to figure out how to actually like go into something and have enough knowledge from my other stuff that I’ve done before. Other failed businesses that I actually make some sort of money with it right so anyways. With that being said though.

It is something that I’ve always had trouble with is to just jump into a business and start it like I was saying like a lot of entrepreneurs had so I have. So, with this one. I’ve already had, or already been kind of running a semi successful business, business doing my freelancing which by the way is called drip the nation is my brand. It’s freelancing, and also I have clients of my own that I do marketing services for right. So, I’ve already made money online and started to make money online so doing now, a actual course over that is something that still, it’s not. I mean, it is new because I’ve never taught directly taught in like a course before so it’s, I guess it is. It is new, but it’s still wrapped around the current business that I’m doing because I’m pretty much just teaching, what I’ve done, you know before I’ve actually done it I’m not one of these people that have gone and just like say that they’ve done it and they like just started themselves right. No I’ve actually I’ve actually made a couple couple thousand dollars a couple. I think the last time I checked was like $35,000, with my freelancing stuff and then I think it was like 70k 80k 90k somewhere around there I can’t remember exact numbers for my actual like client work and stuff like that so far. Right, so again that’s not even very much. For some people, again, that may be a lot. Again, I’m not even talking about monetary right now so don’t even don’t even look at that. I’m just simply stating that I’ve done a couple of things I’ve actually already made some sort of money even though it may be not too much compared to what most people may Cray. I’ve actually made some sort of money in it so I’ve got a little bit more knowledge and all this stuff right so I’m actually able to go and start a course and be able to actually know how to promote it. And or at least know how to do the research to promote it, things like that so I was like well because I already know that. I want to actually do something that I never have done before. And honestly, I don’t like doing. And that’s exactly what this is. That’s exactly what I’m trying to do here is writing everything out every single thing that I wouldn’t need per like subject and actually going and giving myself a specific amount of days I don’t know if you can see that there. Yeah, it says it right there I know it’s all jumbled and stuff like that but that’s just how I write anyways yeah that three to four days is is giving me. Just what that one was actually this one, sorry for flipping the camera around. Yeah, that one was actually the three four days is literally laying out Scrum. So that’s what this paper is right, three to four days and that’s from the 426 I actually, that’s actually three days ago now that I actually started this I just wanted, I just thought about, I should actually be documenting this stuff so that’d be pretty cool actually I thought about that yesterday But anyways, you’re just gonna happen but anyways. With that being said, I want to be able to have something down here so I can actually know all that I need to go through and just kind of have it all laid out for me so that way I can just kind of go day by day, just, you know, knocking things out one by one, and having like little micro sprints like this is its own thing right here right so the layout of Scrum is its own thing I have to do an E book. Right, I had to do an E book for my funnels and stuff like that so that’s going to be, I think it’s yeah four to five days, and then a couple more days for some of the editing to be done. Because I’ll have to send it off to be edited and then have it come back and do a couple of things there. Then I have like funnel pages broken down right so I have my opt in page I’ll need that. And then also as well I have my sales page so this is going to be my. I’m not on the thing, sorry. This is going to be my sales page for my first actual sections of my course I’m splitting into by the way. At least, that’s what I’m thinking right now is I’m going to have sections one through nine actually as like a monthly payment at a really stupid cheap price. And then also, as well. I’m going to have a Next, the actual like more advanced stuff, and its own price, probably for 179 a month I believe that’s what I’m trying to price it at. And, yeah, that’s what that is there, and then nothing more on there.

Yeah, then okay so yeah, coming back to my order funnel pages again I’ll have my order confirmation. Right. And then also as well have testing the funnel so I got to test the funnel that’s, that’s two or three days so Oh, by the way, I’m sorry.

Actually I didn’t give myself days for this one yet for my funnel pages like I said, My Scrum isn’t done yet isn’t done yet. I have today and tomorrow to actually knock them out.

So that’s that there.

Yeah, so that that doesn’t have like actual days yet on it, then testing the funnel out to actually go and test my funnel again don’t have the day set for that one.

Gotta go and edit more or read the rest of my videos so I have sections one through five are actually done right now on my course, and are well I’m sorry one through nine are recorded and one through five are actually edited. So editing videos, is one thing that I didn’t think would take a long time, and it does take a long time. So I had to learn that that’s one of the things that I just had to frickin learn as I as I was going along with this I didn’t know that that was going to be one of the problems I ran into but it was. And hey, you just got to frickin just deal with it right you just got to deal with it. Keep moving break it down and make it happen right and that’s exactly what I had to do with this. So, with that being said though.

Yeah, so one through five is actually edited and in the actual course right now and it’s still at beta so it’s. That’s why I say it’s fine to have it I just call him beta test phase right now that the course is in and actually it’s super cheap right now, but anyways.

With that being said, like I said, I do have one through nine recorded right now, and I’m just slowly going to be editing those videos, as I go along with all of this right now. And then like I said that, just edit the rest of them that’s pretty much what that means there is I’m just going to edit the rest of the videos.

Yes. So after that though I’ve got some automation that I want to do in my Facebook. In the actual Facebook group. So I have a couple of days to do, I’ll probably just do that one or two days it won’t take too long just some like posts and some reminders and stuff that I want to do. And then also as well I want to actually start doing webinars so QA webinars type of thing we’re actually going to answer questions for my students that are in right now so I’ll want to do that as well and that actually is going to start.

I’m going to have the first one scheduled of what it says right here. 30 days after I actually start ads which are over here somewhere sorry I’m not pointing in the camera you can’t see me anyways yeah, then I’ve got some forms to do so. This is some forms that have to do for the unlocking that I want to do. And that may actually be changing I’m not sure I’ve got a couple ideas on that but that doesn’t matter.

Then also as well so this is the second part so this is actually so like it says right here I’m not sure if you can see that but I want to do this, like I said, the 30 days is where I actually want to go and start actual ads and stuff like that so all of this stuff before all of this and then all this on the back here. I actually want this to be all done within 30 days and I can definitely do that. That’s why I have this laid out though. That’s why I want to have this laid out though because it really like.

I set it up, and that’s what you do with Scrum as well but you set it up so that you give yourself a, a nice variety of days, but a certain amount of days and then you add like one or two just to be able to give yourself a little bit of extra time with it as well. So, I think that was a pretty cool concept to be able to learn about and actually my buddy Leon was the one that told me to do that. So thank you, Leon but actually he’s the guy that we’re doing the podcast. I mean him are doing the podcast but anyways yeah so that’s that there and then yeah so after that though after the 30 days I’ll still have about 60 left, depending again on you know because things can change and stuff like that. Some days I won’t want to work at all you know just regular parts of being entrepreneur you don’t, you know, obviously you try to be as consistent as possible right you try to be as consistent as possible and getting your health and wellness and working out and eating the right foods and stuff like that listening to Sam ovens that’s a huge one as well. No for real though that is, and doing that type of stuff it helps a lot with like the focus and consistency and all that sort of jazz and I know I’m sort of kind of rambling here I’m sorry but no it’s definitely good to know. And again, like I said before, actually doing this I didn’t really have that. And that may be another reason why I actually don’t like making schedules like this are like layouts of everything that I needed to do, because it never got done because I again I would just start it and then never get the friggin project done right so yeah so that that may be another thing is like, because I had problems with like my focus and my eating and stuff like that, or I have problems with my focus and not wanting to do work and you know mentality and you know mindset and stuff like that. It’s because I had problems with like my eating and my diet and not working out and you know not getting rid of distractions where I could rather if it’s on my phone rather if it’s social media crap that I don’t need rather if it’s gaming, you know, rather if it’s freakin smoking marijuana or you know drinking or my problems with tobacco, I had a lot of problems with that, you know, whatever the case may be getting rid of that crap and just completely stopping it because you know that it’s hindering your success is absolutely freaking huge and I wish more people would understand that and like start to learn about that anyways it’s very good information to know and I want to actually start teaching about that.

But anyways, with that being said, let’s get back to this. So, yeah, sorry about the random, random thing there but anyways yeah so so yeah next would be the actual second part of the beta so I again I because I don’t have everything done, which I actually did not have in this yet is going and making actually, sorry, the camera. Going actually doing right here, 10 through 14 which are my other sections. I have to go and actually record those and then edit. So since those won’t be done yet. I’m going to just start running ads to sections, one through nine still that are done, of course, just to the course, but, you know, and those will be added on later but, again, there’ll be relatively quickly added in. As I’m running ads and stuff like that but. And then I’ve got retargeting here as well. For the last one up here so far and then like I said a couple more things like you know making new videos, and also doing affiliate outreach for my actual course itself but anyways rather than that though. Yeah, that’s, that’s a handle that may sound like a lot in this video did last a while a lot longer than I thought it would but since it’s the first one I kind of wanted to just kind of go over everything that I’m wanting to do within this 90 days and some change that perfect header headline though. 90 days and some change. Anyways now, but for although that’s what I wanted to do, and that’s what I am going to be doing now.

I was definitely scared on making this video because what I’m not scared of making this video because I’m used to making videos now from making doing like courses and stuff that’s totally fine I’m scared of the fact that I’m going to have this like I’m going to do all this like writing down and going to start this, but I’m not going to actually get the freakin project done or get to visit goal of 100 students in the course right. And I’m not going to make that happen and that’s a potential I mean it could definitely happen that way I don’t know, right, the only what what I can do, though, the only thing I can do though is hedge my bets, to be the best, as I possibly can be with the whole entire thing. So a part of that hedging of the bets is having it clearly laid out on what all I need to do. And also, as well just keep as consistent as possible daily. Right. With my, you know, getting better at eating or getting, I guess back into the, you know, eating the right foods and stuff like that because I was out of it for a while I did it for a while but then I was out of it.

And also as well, making sure I’m consistent with working out every single day which I have been getting back into my routine of doing that.

And, yeah, just just, you know, getting back focused on things and I definitely have been doing, doing much better these last couple of days.

And, yeah, also being able to like record this and just kind of be able to have a new mentality since the last time that I did this sort of structure. Definitely, you know, I guess it’s been it’s been actually a good few months since I’ve started any new project or. I mean even that that’s a really isn’t a new project because again it’s like wrapped around my current business. So it’s been a few months since I’ve done anything that’s like, Like the next step I guess you could say in my business. So, yeah that’s that’s huge. So, yeah, but anyways, with that being said as well. I don’t know if they’re I don’t think there’s anything much else to talk on that I haven’t talked on me yet. I don’t know but if there is then I’ll document it again, like I said in a later video but like I said, I want to do these every day possibly I may do them every other day, and there may be a little bit of a, a time expands, or whatever, whatever I’m trying to say. There may, I may not upload the video until like the next day or so with that whichever what I’m doing so that just know that that may be a thing as well. And I’m not sure if I want to do like a transcription of each of these videos I made do that too. And it’s just gonna be a free thing on frickin Google Docs but anyways I may do that too and just put it on like a medium or something like that or like a blog or something because I want to do. I want to be able to get some sort of, you know, actual like people that are able to come and check this out and see what I’m doing and potentially like have some sort of impact on them as well, maybe, maybe get them in the mood to freakin go and, you know, write all their stuff out and you know any of you entrepreneurs out there who are trying to make something happen, right, write all your stuff out and actually like sit down and know that you’re gonna frickin focus on the damn thing, and he consistent with it, and you can be consistent with it, as, as while I am as well. And to be able to hear from any of you guys doing that that was pretty freakin amazing to be able to hear as well I mean, I know that I’m going to stay consistent with this I damn sure know that I will even if it does take me a little bit longer than I anticipated. I damn sure we’ll be doing so because again, I have that knowledge now from actually like making money and stuff like that on the internet. And I guess with my own business that’s weird to say but I guess it is it is it is honest, you know I’m being honest with that. I have that knowledge now that it is possible. So, you know, starting actual, like, if you’re starting out right now. It may sound like a hell of a lot, or it may sound like something that you’re just not confident in yourself in right or confident with yourself with right but i don’t know i just i just have a lot more confidence now I guess you could say because of the fact that, again, I’m not trying to toot my own horn or anything i don’t i don’t mean for it to sound like that whatsoever. No, I’m just saying I have more confidence now I seriously do because I actually have something already, right. So, anyways, like I said though for somebody else to be able to, you know, give, give me some something they’re doing as well you know it doesn’t have to be a 90 day or some shit like that you don’t have to go and do that you know 90 days and change or anything like that but just to be able to have like, you know, show me that you have something laid out, and like a project that you’re working on or, you know, something like that. That would just be freakin cool so anyways I’m not gonna have this video drag on any longer than it is and hopefully you’ve got some sort of value over this and hopefully you really enjoyed like my whole entire scrub my paper of absolute craziness here. Just, just the way that I take notes right so that that’s just me So anyways, like I said, this is the first video of my 90 days and some change documentation I guess you can call it. And, yeah, let’s go ahead and get back to freakin work. All right, let’s make this thing happen.

”

If you read all that, you deserves come freshly baked cookies, I’ll ship them to you for the low cost of $73,256 dollars ;p

Be sure to check out my next 90 Days and Some Change freelancing course challenge here:

The post 90 days and some change (Day 4, Video #1): Getting to my first course goal step-by-step layout by Caleb Bourquin at Freelancing Nation appeared first on Freelancing Nation.

source https://freelancingnation.com/90-days-and-some-change-day-4-video-1-getting-to-my-first-course-goal-step-by-step-layout-by-caleb-bourquin-at-freelancing-nation/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=90-days-and-some-change-day-4-video-1-getting-to-my-first-course-goal-step-by-step-layout-by-caleb-bourquin-at-freelancing-nation

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whnvr · 4 years

Text

Brain Drain

Ah yes, hello. It is once again time to drain these brains of mine. A couple of more thoughts on this ‘Morning Pages’ process. Firstly, I’ve decided to take the Artist’s Way wording to heart and think of this as a non-negotiable exercise and, at least for the time being, I am going to do the full 1500 words as a block before I move onto anything else in my day. I’m still going to take the approach of retroactively editing them before I sleep in order to be more formatted, but the main body of text will be done first as, based on yesterday, I think this will focus me far more than spreading the writing out. Secondly, the more I think about it the more experimental I realise this entire process is for me. It’s probably best thought of as a heavily modified and specified version of the ‘Artist’s Way’ approach, as one of the stipulations offered up by Julia Cameron is that these are to be for your eyes and your eyes alone - even then going so far as to suggest that these should be sealed away in an envelope so that even the practitioner does not read them. So in that sense I am both taking a more documentative, methodical approach to the process and I am altering the formula by hosting these in a public forum. I understand that privacy helps to remove any filtering one may do but I also believe that the potential for these to be read comes with its own benefits. To that end this feels like an experiment of being creatively candid in public which is simulatenously exciting and daunting given that it runs so counter to the common approach of creating behind closed doors. I’d love to explore these ideas further as this journal progresses and see how my relationship with creativity changes due to these factors. So, I guess I’ll start by taking the measure of my day, as I am very much enjoying the ‘touching base’ element of these Morning Pages. I definitely feel a lot more blocked than I did yesterday, and it seems as though there’s somewhat of a hump to get over when I do these within the first 500 words or so before I get into a state of flow with it - this was true of yesterday also. Maybe that is one of the possible benefits of this exercise, that 'ramping-up-to-flow’ stage is one I likely experience whenever I sit down to create and the Brain Drain may be a way of me overcoming that before I come to do any of the actual creative work of my day. It seems as though forcing myself to do all 1500 words yesterday put me into the same sort of flow-state I gain from working on a really successful piece of music, and then today I am once again reset back into that familiar place of being 'blocked’, which even now I am slowly working through and unpicking purely by writing these words. Looking back on previous creative work this would seem to make an awful lot of sense. How much more demotivating it is to have to wake up and untease the same blocked feeling each morning on projects that I care deeply about and am heavily invested in than it is to instead get that part of the process out of the way on an off the cuff exercise like Brain Drain each morning. Maybe attempting to ease such a block through the work we care about is where all feelings of 'I’ve lost it’ and 'this project is hard now. Therefore how much better it must be to work through those blocks in a format that we’re not quite so invested in. Even right now there is a part of me that is very much resisting this process. It is an anxiety that masks itself as restlessness and tells me to 'go and watch a film, Aaron. Why put yourself through something so hard?’. As it is the creative enemy I have decided to call this my personal Antagonizer. Other thoughts of the Antagonizer, or the 'me’ that feels uncomfortable and uncreative: - 'Go and make a milkshake Aaron. Don’t do this. It’s 30 degrees outside today. You really need to just cool down.’ - 'Get up and walk around. You really need to release some of this tension that you’re feeling.’ - 'Go and talk to a family member. Telling them about what you want to write would be much easier than simply writing it’. That’s right Antagonizer, I WILL use your criticism in order to help me hit this wordcount. Checkmate. Yesterday has taught me that past this feeling is where enjoyment and flow lie if I can only push through it. I imagine some days will be significantly harder than others, and I imagine that I will even have days where 1500 words won’t begin to scratch the surface of this block, but I would so much rather try to push through this block writing whatever comes to mind over-and-above pushing through this block attempting to create whatever passes for a masterpiece in my world. On to next steps then. I would like to select a new artist to listen to today as I get on with other work. This would also be a good opportunity to show off a little of how I organise my inspiration, despite how embarrassingly over-elaborate it is.

On Spotify I keep a folder of artists who I’m either interest in, inspired by, are important pieces of musical history, examples of current artists who are doing what they do incredibly successfully, or artists that I feel would be generally useful to experience. For each artist, I will create a playlist, and in each playlist, I will save that artist’s entire discography chronologically. I will then slowly work my way through each of the artist’s discographies, deleting what I’ve listened to and categorising songs that jump out to me either in terms of whether I love, like, or dislike them, the emotional qualities that I want to emulate in my own music, or the technical qualities that stand out as exemplary within each song. This allows me to simultaneously build a picture of what my musical tastes are, keep an accurate record of my listening history, and create song palettes for different emotional qualities that I wish to put into my own work.

(Above: the technical qualities of music that I have categorised. This forms up a reference library that I can use to further refine these qualities when I’m working on my own music)Here are the criteria I use to define each of these categories. Idea: the concept behind a piece. Narrative: the story told. Lyrics: how ideas are expressed through words. Mood: the emotionality of a piece. Expression: how ideas are framed and delivered through the articulation of the music. Musicality: the use of harmony, rhythm, and theory to communicate those ideas. Rhythm: the measure, speed, flow, and cadence of a piece. Timbre: the overall texture, tone, and sonic palette of a piece. Structure: the flow of a piece over time. Mix: how the timbre has been arranged as an ensemble. Master: how the piece has been polished. Delivery: the title, artwork, context, presentation, and moving image that contain the piece.

(Above: the emotional qualities of music that I have categorised as a reference library for how artists that I look up to achieve specific emotional qualities in their work). These are decidedly more abstract and are generally more subject to the songs themselves that are being added. For reference, here’s the current list of artists who’s work I want to study, all at various stages of listened to, completed, or not listened to at all: - Labelle - Car Seat Headrest - Snail Mail - Japanese Breakfast - Let’s Eat Grandma - Soccer Mommy - LCD Soundsystem - Big Thief - Have a Nice Life - Beebadoobee - Animanaguchi - 100gecs - Courtney Barnett - Chromonicci - Owsey - Dark Cat - Valentine - SOPHIE - Kamasi Washington - Prince - Aurora - Massive Attack - Haywyre - Maths Time Joy - Counting Crows - Jack Strauber - Blossom Calderone - Goldfrapp - Janelle Monae - Meteorologist - Easyfun - Saint Lewis - Julian Gray - Jade Cicada - Blake Skowron - 92Elm - Maxime - Stereo Cube - Chuck Sutton - Gemi - Queen - Laxcity - Duumu - Oh Wonder - Galamatias - Umru - Underscores - Brockhampton - Fleece - i Monster - Deaton Chris Anthony - Amy Winehouse - The Beatles - Sumthin Sumthin - Radiohead - Flume - Knapsack - Dodie Here are the artists who’s discographies I have completed via this approach: - Sidney Gish - M.I.A - In Love With a Ghost - Bowie - Pink Floyd - Baird - Rudimental - Iglooghost - Madeon - Porter Robinson - 100gecs I use a similar system alongside this over on Pinterest for visual work in order to better inform my visual style and aesthetic sensibilities. Here is how I define my visual observation: Interior & Exterior, the space of dwelling.

Colour, of which idiosyncrasy and primary colours are a main focus.

Tone, subtler than colour. An intangible quality communicated by shifting hues and gradiated layers.

Mood, the way an image feels.

Looks, clothes, & apparel: personal artistic image and identity.

Desolation, a quality not currently present in my own work, but one that I often observe and love within other work, as well as in storytelling and other environments.

Layout, the way things are arranged in relation to one another within a space.

Idea, the concept behind a thing.

Texture, the tactile quality of visual elements.

Form, the shape and bounds of a thing.

Presentation, the context a thing is placed within.

Render, the quality imparted by computer generated imagery.

Type, how words are displayed.

Pattern, the use of repetition.

As you can see, how I define sound and visual art share a fairly common language between them. Anyway, I divert. I’m going to select SOPHIE as the next discography to tear through and I am also going to continue working through the UE4 Beginner learning path, though before either of these I have some university paperwork/admin stuff to finish so I’d best crack on with that. Toodles!

#25.6.2020

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misas-biggest-fan · 5 years

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backstory and record!

THANK YOU SO MUCH !!

backstory: how did you come to love writing?

as a kid, i wrote pretty consistently. some of my biggest projects was 1) a story about a ghost appearing to a group of people shipwrecked on an island that i wrote and finished in elementary school, 2) a super involved death note self insert crossover AU in middle school that i would write on notebook paper during class and 3) a story about a girl with pink hair who lived on an island and explored the ruins of humanity and found portals to the moon which I wrote in high school (and wow that one actually sounds pretty sick maybe i ought to revisit that LOL) and.....

4) !!! around the beginning of college, i started writing captain america fanfiction and finished a whooping 3 novel series in the space of like, 1 year. that was a hard year and i was going through a lot and writing this series helped me a ton. it was a huge milestone for me because for the first time, my writing REALLY really worked. i learned SO much about how to write by just letting myself have fun and express myself and PLUS the reactions i got for this series online made a HUGE difference to me. people were SO supportive!! so i’d say this series is one of the major things that REALLY made me the writer I am today and taught me SO much and made a big impact on my life. I loved writing my whole life, but this series taught me how to ACTUALLY LOVE writing.

record: have you written things based off of songs? do you like to?

evanescence played a HUGE part in my middle school death note self insert fic LOL but since then, i haven’t rly credited many of my ideas to songs. i like to make playlists and i love music and im sure it influences me, but not as strongly as to put lyrics in pieces anymore like i did w the OG dn fanfic LOL

EXCEPT. i will say. the slasher au involves a queen song LOL given that misa is a main character, music is a big part of her aesthetic. you’ll have to wait and see, i think it turned out p cool and fun if i do say so myself!!

#grelleswife

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strontiumsun · 6 years

Photo

New 8tracks! As I do around the holidays, I have prepared for you guys the next and final (for now) Heroes of Thantopolis character playlist! This time it’s for Redburn, the last of the main characters to appear in the story. His playlist is based around rhythmic and percussive-led songs. Give it a try if you’re tired of Christmas music!

Track listing and full lyrics under the cut:

Redburn playlist lyrics sheet

“Alphonso Muskedunder” by Todd Terje

Instrumental

“It Takes a Village!!” - $10,000 (FCC/Explicit Warning)

Lyrics source: Interpretation from music

Go!

It takes a village!

Oh it takes a village to settle

And every time that I meddle because I leave

Just like she’s over

Just like they’ll bring you down

[?]Bottomless bottomless service taxes!

My mates’ll bring me round.

Gogogo!

It takes a village!

Please allow me anybody else would see you now

Whoever you are

[?]and check will bounce

Oh yeah you’re gonna go far!

It takes a village! (fuck!)

“The Burglars” by Animal Collective

Lyrics source: AZ lyrics, likely official lyrics

https://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/animalcollective/theburglars.html

I could be a hare and I’d sneak into my private rivals dreaming I’m a burglar

Quick as any day in my fleeting little chest of hopefuls lost it to the burglars

I can be aware and ya maybe I’m the same like pirates likened to the burglars

Threat on any day and I��m hiding from the hare who’s also hiding from the burglars

I didn’t catch his name pow shot him on the range yow cause he was a burglar

Happens in the parks boohoo even in the old days stinking of the burglars

Happens in my home I never see it coming

When I was young we used to put alarms on our doors and screens like a burglar net

now that I’m older I’m sure that’s absurd that’s the word for the man who collects who’s he stealing from next

When I was young my parents yelled beware of the ivory man that will steal and sell

now that I’m older those words are still pure not the look of a crook in his books what’s he taking from you?

And worried peeps go on about it

Say a lot of changes better come

A pocket full of change is emptied by

A little gawky bright and bubbly bird

Lots of heroes out there thinking bout it but minutes of their lives are ticking down

and bottles full of love are drunken by a tricky trite and thirsty hungry bird

Blooming tips on tulip cones that

Don’t pay out they keep on growing

Costume thieves who never hand back half of what you end up owing

Has this town really gotten much better are the burglars gonna keep on trying to meddle with it?

Probably driving your car with someone

Close up your head cause are they reading your letters come on pack up the bed for betters

What you think you own you don’t watch out the burglars

Stealing from the day. Didn’t take a second. Listened to a record and they got away sneaky are the burglars.

When I cross their way like a helpless chicken bones will soon be clinkin wearing me for play bracelet on a burglar

Thought I was ok not as bad as some and sunset on the slums see another day happy are the burglars

Brush it all away or do I let it sink in? Is it my ambition just to turn away? Freedom for the burglars

What you think you own you don’t watch out the burglars

“I’m So Free” by Beck

Lyrics source: AZ Lyrics

https://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/beck/imsofree.html

I'm on a tangent

Textbook ephemeral

Facts are confusing me

I'm so free now

I'm on a one-man waiting list

I'm bored again

I buried all my memories

I'm so free now

I see the silhouette of everything

I thought I ever knew

Turning into voodoo

I'm so free now

A panic cycle, sentimental

Feel it out until you know

It wasn't meant for you

I'm so free now

And the way that I walk

Is up to me now

And if I breathe now

I could scream now

You can hear me

From Topeka to Belize now

I'm gonna freeze out

These enemies out

They never see what I got

No need to bend my knees down

Heaven forbid

Time is running out

Nothing new under the sun

Better get down

I'm so free

Free from me

Free from you

Who am I supposed to be

In the middle of the day

With no good connection?

I'm so free now

They try to keep me down

With affliction

Alpha male fell asleep in the engine

I'm so free now

A horizontal aspiration

In the basement

With a digital lust for life

I'm so free now

I coin the phrase of the realm

Let it roll into the street

Like a token of sweet nothing

I'm so free now

And the way that I walk

Is up to me now

Hey nobody's going to keep me down

Nobody's going to keep me down

Gonna do, gonna do, gonna do what we want

I don't want to go

I don't want to go down

Gonna do, gonna do, gonna do what we want

“Amazing!” by Indicator Indicator

Lyrics source: Official video

https://youtu.be/g4y__Wm78II

Like some climactic scene

Hanging by fingertips over a ravine

In my mind I just let go, but it isn’t so

My hands must know what my head doesn’t know

Amen I live with a friend

Who wakes me up and picks me up from the floor again

In my mind I just let go, but it’s never so

My body must know what my heart doesn’t know

Oh, A-maze-ing Amazing, A-maze-ing Amazing

Amazing!

It is what it is and it is what it isn’t

Go about your day like it’s somehow your decision

All the noise saying there’s no choice

I mean it’s right but we don’t have to act like it’s right

You twist and twist until it’s you that gets twisted

Unassisted by a vision that seems for real but isn’t

Saying effort is rewarded, gold stars forever

It’s sordid and distorted but it’s how we keep the order so

The body solves what the mind makes

Muscle through the mental mistakes

The heart pumps through the heartache

Don’t know about you but I’ll have the steak

Oh, A-maze-ing Amazing, A-maze-ing Amazing

Amazing!

<It’s who you are>

So send a little love into the deep

To the tired old solider who never retreats

The machine watching everything

As you lie asleep

Releasing your soul out as steam

Oh, A-maze-ing Amazing, A-maze-ing Amazing

Amazing!

“Dbl Trbl” by Dinmachine

Instrumental

“The Death Graduates” by The Octopus Project

Lyric source: interpretation from lyrics

Shake down to the water, shake down where you wanna Chained down to the rail, shapes telling your secret Oh-oh-oh no, oh-oh-oh no, oh-oh-oh no, oh-oh-oh no Oh-oh-oh no, shapes trapped in stone, oh-oh-oh no, work, ten feet tall Oh-oh-oh no, secrets are been told, oh-oh-oh no, oh-oh-oh no Oh-oh, oh-oh, oh-oh, oh-oh

Oh-oh-oh no, secrets are been told, oh-oh-oh no, words down below

Oh-oh-oh no, shapes covered in stone, oh-oh-oh no, oh-oh-oh no

Tigers only we all have them

Welcome someday will come power

Rising power, rising flower, rising tower and []

“Lots” by Dan Deacon

Lyrics: lyricsbox

https://www.lyricsbox.com/dan-deacon-lots-lyrics-dx136bf.html

Head south headstrong Wake each grey dawn Hold on weakness No prints princess Mother my nest Once choice to make Get ready to go Feel like we've been here before Without a choice and insecure Of where we'd be without this net around Yet we've always hated it

Now we stand a chance to break the chains And break lance that cuts into the heart And burns the essence of our dreams desire No hope in sight Held on too tight Skylines burnt down No crops dust cloud Blind dogs run deep Pale surf, cold feet Once choice to make Get ready to go Cold throne, no sire Black earth past fire Flushed out regret No past, no sense Brave days ahead None rest, none yet Once choice to make Get ready to go

“You’re My Best Friend” by Buhu

Lyrics source: Interpretation from music

Tracing hands, racing thoughts

Keep it close before they all split apart

Dollar bills and textured seams

Chasing myths, he says you’re abandoning

Well I can’t stand to see you suffering

You’re my best friend

Flash of light, so invoke

We can change or we will never all alone

Don’t short ending between

Chasing myths and he says you’re abandoning

Well I can’t stand to see you suffering

You’re my friend

You’re my best friend

Well I can’t stand to see you suffering

You’re my friend

You’re my best friend

There’s a sense of looking back

My best friend

#8tracks #heroes of thantopolis #music #playlist

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annathesimple · 6 years

Text

MELOVIN: "You should stay yourself". (An interview)

Credits for the interview go to Alina Mironova (Алина Миронова), its author, and "РОКправДА" project. Translation is mine.

Here is the original.

MÉLOVIN - the winner of "X-factor" and Ukraine's representative in the competition with the biggest scale, "Eurovision 2018". Now he is on tour around the country, as part of it he performed in Dnipro. MÉLOVIN receives great support from his fan-club, "Big House Melovin" team and his family. He achieves everything on his own thanks to his hard work and talent and has already reached considerable heights.

Before the concert we talked to the musician about the concert itself, his creative life and big plans for the future.

What was the main lesson you learned while participating in Eurovision?

The result.. Probably that in all that time I have never done something in vain. I haven't had a single minute when I regretted something or said, "Guys, why have we come here? Why have we faced all this?" I think that Eurovision is a contest for young performers. It helps you a lot to understand how the world of music and show business works. There you can face all the things that you wouldn't face in Ukraine. To some extent everything is more serious and harder, but for me it was easier there than here. Because here you often run into some disrespect from other teams, performers etc. But I haven't seen anything like that there. Or it was there, but I just haven't noticed. (laughs). The Eurovision itself is what I call a "musical Easter". Everybody is happy, everybody is glad, everybody is listening to the music and everybody talks to each other. Here we have more of a competition going on, I call it unhealthy. Unhealthy, cause the first thing they use is rumors, evil mouth and everything else, just to sidetrack you. But nobody will succeed, I am a tough guy.

If you have to describe Eurovision in three words, what would they be?

Experience. Harmony. Self-conquest. (smiles).

Look, you haven't got in X-factor in the first try, same with Eurovision. Can you call your creative career a hard one or is it easy?

It's not easy. I am always afraid to use the word "hard". Because what we talk about and say out loud - we attract all this to ourselves. That's why when I wake up in the morning I say, "I am haply, I am rich, I am successful, I am pretty." Even if some of these points are not quite true, you will start to attract them anyway. (smiles) The universe hears us well. Everything you speak about comes true. So people that dream big... You know, you should be careful with your dreams. Be careful when saying some things from yourself, be careful when saying some insulting things, be careful regarding other people. You never know who will become who in 5 years, and what a person will do in response after some time. Even if he was weak, insecure, inexperienced 5 years before that.

Do you often have to face this roughness towards you from other people, performers?

(sighs) I do. (laughs) It seems to me it's very cool in a way You can call it whatever you want, with any words: jealousy, resentment, anger, lack of my acceptance, whatever. If these factors have affected me in any way I would stop, slow down and wouldn't work on music anymore - that's one way. But if I wake up, then go to the studio, work, then go on some tour, then do something else, then vice versa, it means it doesn't stop you, doesn't slow you down, and you do even more later. So I am glad that some people are not competent when treating my team, because it "charges" us to do even more. As my grandma used to say, "Not out of spite, but in spite of it." (smiles)

Then here is a question, is the topic of Eurovision closed for you, or maybe not?

I think at the moment - yes. I quit saying "never". (laughs) Cause everything that I have said "never" to comes back to me. Again, here we have the "saying your things out loud". And then your phrases work against you. My fans did a video out of clips where I was saying "I will never go to Eurovision (Tr.note: national selection) again" - and I went, "I will never sing this song" - and I sang, "I will never sit at the instrument again" - and I sаt. So for now the topic of Eurovision is closed for me. It's a huge experience, a huge experience for the team, a huge experience in communication, a huge experience even with English language. Cause in the end when we were talking with other contestants from abroad we could connect. And you understand that it's not in vain after all. All of this is not in vain and my attitude towards myself has changed as well. (smiles) There I understood how we should work, how one should be dedicated to his job, not only in my case, but in case of all staff members that work there. They have strict deadlines there, get up at the same time, go there, do this thing, treat every participant with respect. You really shouldn't forget about this, about the attitude.

After all Eurovision is a song contest. Are there songs from other participants that ended up in your playlist?

I don't have a playlist at all. I only have a record player and vinyl records at home. I love to listen to them a lot. And I listen to everything starting with jazz, with Fitzgerald, Armstrong, with some less known jazz singers. I even bought a few records in Portugal, of their local jazz performers. I bought a couple of Gaga's albums cause I wanted to do it for a long time. Then my manager Nastya bought me Adele's record. And I am (Tr.note: -listening to them so much that I am-) wearing them out, because this way you get a completely different impression of the music. You feel it not just through hearing it in your ears, you can take the record in your hands, open it, read about the song's history, see pictures, you immerse into it. So I don't have any playlist. I really liked France this year and Ukraine gave them the highest score. We met, they are insanely cool guys. We talked with Rybak, we talked with Alekseev when we just were going upstairs for the dinner in Amsterdam, in pre-party, a very pleasant guy. We have talked to Netta. We actually have talked with a lot of people. But I was cheering for France till the end. It was like the most unusual song. And the audience's reaction confirmed it, when everybody raised their hands and did that move along with them. I was sitting in the greenroom doing the same thing. It was such a huge family. (smiles)

Here you have mentioned some singers, but do you listen to Marilyn Manson?

No, no. (smiles)

Because I think you have heard that you are being called his Ukrainian version.

It's very funny when you come to Europe and never even hear such a thing. And it's even funnier when you come to Ukraine and hear that you are a parody, a copy, reusing the image and so on. It wasn't Manson who was the first to put the lens on. As I remember it was in fact David Bowie who was the first to put on the lens. Marilyn Manson was later... You can find reusage everywhere in fact. But music itself can never be a reusage. I will never get on stage in tights, on heels... I am saying "never" again, yup... (laughs) But I would never come out with the smeared lipstick - it's Manson's style. Mine is different, completely. That's why I never heard anything like this in Europe. (laughs)

You have said that you wake up in the morning and say certain things, that you are happy etc.

You should always do that.

Do you consider yourself a happy person?

Yes, I consider myself a happy person. Because I have my favorite wonderful family - my parents. I have my wonderful fans - it's a big family of melovinators. I have an awesome team that consists of people that do achieve everything on their own. Starting with how we got together 7 years ago in the garage and began to think what do we want to do in this world, why should we be heard. So it's my big pride and I am happy.

Many performers in their everyday lives are completely different from how we see them on stage. Is it true for you as well?

True only when we are talking about how I treat my fans. (Tr.note: In everyday life-) I can be angry, can be rude.. But it seems to me all of that can be outwaighed when you are honest in your life. That's why I will never say any bad word behind somebody's back, if I don't like something I will say it to their face. Again, it's about how you have been raised. Am I different in life from how I am on stage? For somebody maybe yes. But I don't think I am a lot different. It's just on stage I love to the maximum everything that is going on. But in life you have been getting ready for that performance for a long time, you are like a squeezed lemon already. And I call the work of any artist, any that does a good job, a "mature wine". Cause I can't stand all these rehearsals. It's like a sequence you learned, and you have to hone it. But on stage all that sounds different. I always call my music transparent, so anyone can color it. It's very important, you let people be in that art, to create all that together with you. So I wouldn't say I am different in something. I don't have a complicated character, behaviour, as for example some other artists have. It's absolutely normal, it's an image and stuff like that. But fortunately we don't think it through. Here I am like that, and I can be absolutely different. Sometimes I am in some state of depression, reserved, without any contact with people - there are periods like that. And (Tr.note: I go-) to some expressiveness, to an explosive state that mostly happens on stage. It seems to me you just should collect this emotion while living, so you can get on the stage and explode.

What emotions and feelings do you get while on stage?

I get a lot of adrenaline while on stage, some euphoria and happiness because I see people that think I affect them somehow. I get a lot of hand-written letters. And the longest letter was more than 200 pages from one person. And when I was rereading it I was in tears. Why am I treating my fans so seriously? Some even think (Tr.note: I treat-) myself and fans too seriously. Because they haven't read it. Because people let themselves to open their entire lives to you. There were moments when me and team are sitting, crying and I say: "Guys, look, you see, we aren't doing all this in vain." People believe and want to open up, and you open in response.

Yeah, you receive great support from your fans and they give you a lit if presents on concerts.

Yes. (laughs) I already commented this to them, "Guys, don't give gifts, don't spend money."

And what present was the most valuable one, not regarding the price, but in terms of emotions?

In terms of emotions - every gift is precious. A letter, even some drawing by a little girl that barely can draw at all. Cause people spend their time on this. Sometimes, when the posters they draw get piled up-, I don't know how to throw all this away, I am against it, I always say, "Mom, take this with you to Odesa." (smiles) And there is just a huge closet where all this is storaged,more than a thousand letters.

You will have to open a museum soon.

It seems to me, later, when I will be around 70 years old, I will sit in a rocking chair next to the fireplace in my big country mansion and just reread letters and and remember how it all got started. (smiles) The ones I remember the most vividly: I was gifted a flight on a hot air balloon, that I haven't used, I am afraid of such heights, I am not ready yet. I was gifted a telescope that I dreamed about and I even got a tattoo of it. My God, how much stuff I have been gifted. This silver thing was also given to me as a gift, with a phrase from the song «Under the Ladder» — «Now or Never» engraved in it. And there are many presents like this. From time to time I wear some of them, that I feel something about. (smiles)

What emotions do you experience the most often in your life?

I don't even know, it's always such a strange question for me, "What (feelings) do you experience in your life?" I don't know, because 85-90 percents of my life are some constant trips from the studio to home, to have a lunch break, for a fitting, to meet with the team, to discuss something. In general, 99% of my life isn't work. (smiles) It's a process of creating history, a big history of «Big house Melovin» team. That's why emotions in my life are happy. If there would be less anger in this world as well, then I would be even more happy. When there is anger around in this world the main thing is what you give to it at that moment. Because, what's people's problem? - the fact that when there is a lot of aggression and negativity around we start to immerse into that state of aggression so much we begin to radiate it ourselves. That's why our people are always unsatisfied, people's mentality is "everything is always isn't right". We should clean it off, on the contrary, to radiate positivity. It's hard because the mob starts to win.

You live your music, but even so, every person has a moment when he has to take a break

Yes, of course there are some (Tr.note: moments) like this. I have simply gone to the village, I got far away from the city, 400-500 kilometers from it. To the village where my parents were born, where I have actually spent all my childhood. And I draw something from there. Though sometimes I visited my relatives' graves, communicated in a way, you are recovering in these moments. I wrote a post that when people say that "music, music, music..." - it's all cool and it's true. But nonetheless everybody has a moment when he has to take a break, even from music, even from your most favorite occupation. It happens to me sometimes. I go biking to the park with my friends, I go to the village, walk, walk in the forest, get inspired, breath the air. Yeah, there are moments like this.

What was the most unexpected thing to inspire you or has a capacity to inspire?

The most unexpected? In fact the most unexpected thing that inspires is evil. This is the most unexpected thing for you. When everybody says that good inspires a lot-, but sometimes evil inspires even more. Cause you fight it, and there is nothing to fight in good. But you do fight evil and it inspires you as well.

Do you have some traits you have to fight?

Impatience. (laughs) All our team fights it. I like it faster, now, right now. Without any delays, everything has to be done right now. I don't know, I don't really have any negative traits that I would want to get rid of. Because all of them are helpful at work, when moving forward in life and getting inspiration. I am very stubborn, obstinate - it helped a lot.

What other people's traits irritate you?

The trait that irritates me the is hypocrisy. People walk around and smile, then turn around and whisper, text each other about you. It's the most horrifying.

Do you have 5 things that you want to do, like a «wish list»?

There is a lot I want to do in my life. Even my team is always laughing at me, "You are writing such a huge list, it's cool, but you should start to do it." (smiles) There are a lot of things like that. I dream to open my café so, so hard. I am a coffee fan and I can't always find a good one, so I really want a café. I really want a movie theater. There are a lot of places I want to open. I mean, I want to leave places that you can come to get inspired after myself. I don't want my name to be forgotten in 100 years. I want to leave something on Earth. So there can be thousands, millions of such things. The main thing is for people to be able to come and find inspiration, it means that all this time my work was done brilliantly. (smiles)

What if you are to make up a list of your latest achievements?

I have one main achievement. I just don't consider the rest, cause they are not really achievements, they're you trying to reach that very high point, that thing you want to do in your life. The biggest achievement is in fact absence of fear of something new. And I achieved it thanks to my parents, my team and fans, everybody involved. I don't fear new things, I don't fear people that supposedly can do something to you. In general, the biggest problem people have - everybody is afraid of something, of somebody. So, let them be afraid of us. You shouldn't be afraid of anybody. Actually we are feared more.

Do you have a dream?

The dream is to not lose myself. It's the strongest and biggest dream. And it isn't a dream, it's a point that is above all your thoughts, ideas, above everything. You should stay yourself and know what are you doing all this for. So my final goal is simply to make more things that can give emotions. Actually it's always important for me to give exactly positive emotions. Because a bad emotion controls the good one. Because the evil is good, and good is evil.

As an artist you probably often have to do things that...

That i wouldn't like to do. Yes, I have to.

Are you ready to do anything for music, or are there things you are not ready to do?

No, not anything. I will never betray for music, I will never turn away from a dear person for music, whatever I would be offered in return. I was offered some things that are not okay. For example to get the person out of the team. And you understand that without him I won't be able to continue working, you draw something from him. Even if he doesn't understand something in his age. My favorite phrase, "Even Steven Spielberg hasn't been a Steven Spielberg from the beginning." So you need to learn, on the contrary, to help each other on the team. To analyze everything together, to help, to learn together and the most important thing, to point out each other's mistakes. Then there is growth. That's why there are many things I wouldn't agree to for music. I am a person with strong principles. You know, I prefer to look for compromises. It means that if I like something we will find a compromise that will satisfy both you and me. But if there won't be any compromise - then it will be as I say.

Then, if there is some offer to perform for big money but you don't agree with something, would you refuse?

Of course I would. It happens quite often. When all that commotion started there were requests to come to Donetsk, and they were inviting me to some other places for a good fee, and I had an opportunity to go. And we had no money at all. (smiles) And you start looking for an answer in your own head, "What to do?" And then you understand that it's not worth it. You will earn even more in the future. It's just for me it's a moment of treason and misunderstanding. Here many say phrases like, "Music is outside of politics. Only fans, only music." For example it's a pity that there are a lot of my fans in Russia but right now I don't have the opportunity to go there. Because of my stance, because of how I was raised I can't go there for now. And there are people that write, "Yes, we completely understand you, we understand your stance and will wait until everything will be all right." I wait till everything will be all right too. But I won't go for whatever money, for me it's like to betray my followers, my country. It seems to me after "Eurovision" I completely changed my attitude towards my country. Now I want to do a lot so Ukraine shows its other side. And it does. Ukraine is an insanely awesome country, it's just not all resources are put to work. (smiles)

And at last, what does your follower look like in your eyes? His portrait?

They are wonderful people. (smiles) Sometimes I don't understand why they react that way, why they admire something, and then there are those who doesn't like it. But you know, I am always cheered up with one thing, and it's an achievement. (smiles) An artist's achievement is either when he is praised or when people can't stand him. (smiles) When people are indifferent it means you are not an artist anymore. You can just turn away, leave the team and get away from here. You should make people love, and you should make them hate and experience anger. MELOVIN doesn't have a middle ground. He is either accepted or people can't stand him. That's cool! (smiles)

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