#guys who had games release in 1996. guys who had music done by a band | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

caw4brandon · 3 years

Text

What Linkin Park Was and Always Be

When I was just a boy, I used to visit this neighbor and church friend of mine who plays video games and has older brothers. (unlike me) His name is Gary and he’s a middle child. Whenever I visit him, I would find this corner of his gaming room with this pretty looking stack of albums, arranged neatly next to the disk player. These albums were all named;

The American boy band that, instead of making fun love songs, have girls swoon and make guys to roll their eyes hard. Produced music that makes you want to scream and punch somebody...IN THE FACE!

I...may be getting a little too nostalgic recently. With my Animorphs talk and all. But anyways, I wanted to take this moment of trip down memory lane to talk about Linkin Park. About how their music affected me and the mark they left behind for a generation of teens and adults based on what I have observed.

- It Starts with Meteora -

I’ve tried so hard, and got so far

Formed in 1996, The sound of Linkin Park is described as a fusion of heavy metal and hip hop and was later transitioned into more electronic and pop-influenced music. In their early years, the band was founded by three high school friends: Mike Shinoda, Rob Bourdon, and Brad Delson under the former name; Xero.

After a long and difficult journey of finding a lead singer while struggling to get a singed record deal, Xero became Linkin Park; an homage and play on words to Santa Monica's Lincoln Park, now called Christine Emerson Reed Park and on October 24, 2000. <Hybrid Theory> was released, earning the status of best-selling album of 2001 followed by is successors <Reanimation> and <Meteora> on March 25, 2003.

Things went from quiet to eleven very quickly as the band gained major stardom for their unique sound mixture of genres with lead singer; Chester Bennington's dynamic vocal range and screamo. Backed up with Mike Shinoda's raps and very occasional singing.

Very quick personal story. The actual first album that introduced me to the band was the Extended Play, <Collision Course> a collaboration with Jay-Z when I was just eleven years old. Given that there was a whole stack of albums at Gary’s and given that he’s my friend with good taste. I decided to give it a try, loving it since then. Linkin Park was not the only thing the bandmates worked on though. On the side, Mike worked on Fort Minor while Chester went on stage with the likes of DJ Letha and Dead by Sunrise.

- What They’ve Done -

Put to rest, what you’ve thought of me

At this point, I REALLY got into Linkin Park. The songs I’ve heard on that poor disk with no cover (which could have been my dad’s or uncle’s), on the radio or on good ole MTV had me headbanging, rapping and screaming in the car like a mad man which probably annoyed my mom who had to send me to school every morning. (Sorry mom)

At around this time, LP made a comeback in <Minutes to Midnight> The album that I used my hard earned pocket money to purchase and listen to. So much so that I can recite <Bleed It Out> with ease. Even till this day.

But, I won’t lie. At that time, I was moving on to other stuff like Japanese music; UVERWorld and The Back Horn or listened to something a lot more religious; Planetshakers and Everfound. All banger bands might I add.

Of course, LP never left the little corner of my angsty heart and I was surprised but listened with interest to their album <Recharged>, <Living Things> and <The Hunting Party> about a year or two later in college thanks to a fellow churchmate of mine who selflessly bought the albums to me as a gift. Which I played, in the middle of the night at my college house! (Now that I think about it, I'm a terrible housemate.)

But, eventually...I had to grow up and all that screaming had to stop one way or another. I placed my albums at a safe place in my childhood bedroom and never looked back since. But every now and again, that angsty corner would send those earworms to me and I would begrudgingly search it up and sing along with little to no problem.

THAT was just a week ago when this post goes up.

Needless to say, Linkin Park is a name that lingers in the air and its something I like to revisit then and again. Every time I revisit, still a hell of a band!

- Why is Everything so Heavy? -

I know I'm not the center of the universe...

From my teen hood to adult hood, The sound of Linkin Park speaks a different tone now. The songs are no longer just headbangers but felt like fragments of the struggles that bleed into words from heart and soul of Mike and Chester. Accompanied by the pure talent of the great musicians of the band.

So, after all this talk. What was Linkin Park’s legacy? It surely must have created a generation of angry monsters right? Well...No. At least from what I can see. It has created a generation of people who are empathetic, a little bit intense but thought-provoking, with a layer of kindness to them and their music even saved someone from their lowest point thanks to a fan. [Story Here]

While I don’t have a music degree or anything. I could feel that no matter what form the band took in the past seven albums they’ve made, its prove that Linkin Park is not bound by genres and themes. While other parts of social media loves to use songs like “Crawling” and “In The End” for meme reasons I can’t completely understand. I get a sense that as artists, LP is far more versatile and adaptable than others while maintaining an ethos (character) of themselves.

By the time I was done with college and nearing my final year. On July 20, 2017. The news broke out that Chester Bennington lost his life by committing suicide and while I am very much more of a casual. The loss was felt and there was not much to say. It truly was a dark day.

And then, Here WE are...2021

What Linkin Park Was and Always Be to me is STRENGTH. Even when it its hard to get up. Even when no one cares. THEY say, “we do” The themes in most of Linkin Park’s songs deals with topics that are (no pun intended) Heavy like, frustration, depression, loneliness and fear but it also builds on empathy, taking back control and allowing one’s self to occasionally tell the world to go screw itself sometimes which can be quite cathartic. (At least for me)

They also remind me of veterans. Fighters and survivors from some kind of war whom are now lowering their megaphones and taking a more gentle approach with storytelling and messaging. Change is a frightening thing, especially for a band that’s all about the angsty, rebel, punk style but change could also mean, they’ve grown, matured or developed into something new compared to their yesteryears.

It has been FIVE years since the band and the community lost Chester and FIVE years since the band went silent after but from what I’ve heard, Mike and Linkin Park are in the works for a comeback.

What I will leave with is this, there truly is nothing like Linkin Park the themes, the lyrics or even the iconography. While it definitely won’t be the same and would certainly take time, it would surely be good to have them return.

- To Chester and to Linkin Park -

Thanks for Reading

- B -

166 notes · View notes

gstdaisuki · 4 years

Text

A Talk with Nathan McCree

(this is a followup to my video on Nathan’s work, which you should watch(!), and a mirror of the Patreon post)

Nathan McCree is well-known for his work on Tomb Raider. If you go digging, you’ll find he’s been interviewed about the series several times. However, he’s done quite a lot more. I’d like to fill in some of the gaps. Below are snippets from my chat with Nathan about music on the Megadrive, what it’s like to work within limitations, and music in the future.

---

GST: Skeleton Krew's music is an oddity on the Megadrive. there's nothing else quite like it. I saw you mention that the soundscape was inspired by the graphics, which makes sense --they compliment each other beautifully. I want to ask what other influences you had in mind, if any. How much of the soundtrack was just created by just pushing strange sounds out of your tools?

NM: It's very difficult to say exactly where inspiration comes from. Mostly I am inspired by the kit I am using and the sounds they make, so in this case it was the sounds I was creating on the Yamaha chip inside the Megadrive. But musically at the time I was listening to a lot of psychedelic electronic bands like Ozric Tentacles, The Orb and lots of dance/trance/house music of the era.

GST: Now that you mention Ozric Tentacles, the arp sequences in Clockdrops have a similar feel to some of the tracks in Skeleton Krew. It's kind of striking, though I think the direction you went in is actually better realized because you seem to work so well within the FM on the Megadrive. (Hopefully the musical comparison isn't too offensive!)

NM: No I'm not offended by the comparison at all. I did learn a lot about synth patterns and textures from Ozric Tentacles, but again, without copying, I took what I learned and went in my own direction with it. It's important to always have a picture or an emotion of the project you are working on as this helps construct the music in a way which fits the mood of the product and as a result should gel the visuals and the animations together. The music in effect, acts as a kind of glue for the project which holds it all together.

GST: On the opposite end of the oddity spectrum, Astérix and the Power of the Gods for the Megadrive features nothing but classical songs. I'm curious if this was a decision from the game designers, or an exercise for you, or something else.

NM: It was a decision made by the game designer and programmer, Stefan Walker. Stef asked me if it were possible to convert 15 or so of the most famous classical pieces in history that were out of copyright protection (older than 90 years). Of course I said yes, and we set about listening and searching for pieces which fit that criteria and which would be suitable for the game. The conversion process from a full-orchestra down to a 6 note-polyphonic FM synthesizer was a challenge but a very enjoyable one, and the result earned the accolade "Best Megadrive Music Ever". I was rather chuffed with that.

GST: The soundtrack for BLAM! Machine Head is listed as released in 1995, which is before the game came out. Was this a promotional thing?

NM: Yes it was a promotional release of 300 vinyls. We sent a load to UK Clubs to try and get some club play time to promote the game. We succeeded a little but game soundtracks weren't really the thing back then so it gained little traction.

GST: That’s pretty amazing! That was late 1995, right on the precipice of game music leaking into the mainstream. (For reference, "Sega Tunes" came out in August 1996, "Club Saturn" in 1996, and Tommy Tallarico released his arrangement albums in mid-94 and mid-96) Did you get any feedback / reviews from the clubs?

NM: Yes we did. A few were kind enough to give us some feedback. One club I remember said about Nano-Seed, "a floor-filler!". That was good.

GST: Relatedly, what is your experience with club music? Some of the tracks on BLAM! sound perfect for the era. I wouldn't expect them to be written by someone who was previously unfamiliar with club music. Do you remember any particular songs or artists that you drew inspiration from?

NM: I was clubbing a lot in the 90s. I was going to Hot To Trot in Mansfield once a month, Renaissance in Derby in between and a few other local dance venues in Derby. In the end I was clubbing every weekend. Apart from the psychedelic bands I mentioned earlier I can't really pin-point a particular dance music artist. I was listening to so much and none of it was being repeated. I was constantly listening to new tracks. It was a very inspirational time musically and on top of all this I was writing my own dance music in my spare time outside of working at Core Design. So yeah, there was a whole lot of influence that went into the BLAM! Machinehead soundtrack. Having said that, with my writing, I always try to write something which I haven't heard before so I hope there is something unique and new about the music in BLAM! Machinehead.

GST: About Swagman: This seems like the most involved orchestral soundtrack that you had created since Soulstar. I'd like to compare the two a bit. How closely were you working with the rest of the team at this time? Swagman isn't a rail shooter so you can't match the soundtrack with the action in the levels... How much better was your gear at this point? I'd say "it doesn't sound like you struggled with your gear this time" but you actually disguised that struggle quite well in Soulstar, haha.

NM: As you say, Swagman wasn't a rail-shooter, so scripting the music to fit the game wasn't possible. Instead I used the location of each level as my main source of inspiration, and created atmospheres to fit those - The Nursery, In the Garden, Down the Well, The Crypt for example. I had some new kit by the time I started writing Swagman. Mainly the addition of the Roland JV1080 which I had expanded with the Orchestral Boards 1 & 2 and the World Expansion Board. I also had a Roland JV90 which is the keyboard version of the JV1080. That too was expanded. So I had plenty of voice-polyphony at that point and lots of very useful orchestral patches to play with. So you're right, it was less of a struggle with Swagman, but both projects were still very enjoyable to create. With Soulstar, I ended up using quite a few saw-tooth, synth-lead patches to create the brass ensembles. They actually sounded pretty good once they were buried in amongst the rest of the orchestral sounds!

GST: Battle Engine Aquila marks a soundtrack where you were freelance AND in the distant future of 2003. How much of your gear did you leave behind when you left Core Design to go freelance? And how much of it was digital instruments on your computer at this point? I ask the latter because, to my ears, this game sounds about as good as you can get without hiring a real orchestra.

NM: So obviously leaving Core Design meant saying goodbye to all the kit I had built up over the 6 years that I worked there, but of course I needed something to work with as a freelancer. So I spent a large chunk of my Tomb Raider money on a new studio for myself. Apart from the obvious stuff like a mixing desk, studio monitors and a PC, the decision needed to be made as to what instruments/synths I should buy. I had been really impressed with the Roland JV1080 so I bought one of those (and expanded it as before) and the synth geek in me also decided to by one of Roland's latest creations, the JP8000 - a fully record-able and controllable raw synth machine! With this machine it was possible to record the movement of every pot and fader straight to Cubase. A very useful tool for dance music, and to this day I still haven't used it to it's full potential. I also bought an Akai S9000 sampler which I used mainly for drums, so once again my orchestral setup was synth-based, rather than sample-based. So I started out freelance with this kit in 1998. When I got the opportunity to work on Battle Engine Aquila I decided I needed a bigger orchestra so I bought another Roland JV1080 (expanded again) and an E-MU Virtuoso 2000 orchestral synth which I quickly binned when the main controller knob became faulty and I wasn't impressed with the architecture of the signal path. I continued to use the Akai S9000 sampler for a few more years for electronic music but as soon as computers became fast enough for sample based editing inside the sequencing software, it too became a dust collector on my studio shelf along with other outboard gear which were replaced by VST instruments and Plugins. To this day I still use the 2 Roland JV1080s and my Roland JP8000, and that's about it. I'm not one of these musicians who needs to hide behind a million synths or new pieces of kit every month to convince people I can write music. I'm one of these guys who can make music from anything. A fork, knife, bottle, my kid's mini toy guitar, or glockenspiel. If it makes a note, I can use it, which I frequently have in my compositions over the years. I remember when I was working on a prehistoric game called BC, I used a metal electric fire which I scraped with a nail and hit some bricks with drum sticks to create the percussion sounds for the music. I don't need to buy new kit to be creative.

GST: I'm curious about what the limits are when it comes to crafting something unique. If you go too "far out," you'll have a unique song, but it might not resemble "music". Where's the balance between copying the songs you heard in the club and becoming autechre? Same question for non-electronic music: It's possible to get unique compositions if you go to the edge of music theory, but that can also become inaccessible. (You did seem to use odd time for the end theme of Waterlollies (11/8 by my count) though, which is always a fun technique.)

NM: Finding something new isn't about moving further and further away from music, it's about persevering with textures, ensembles, sounds, patterns and harmony until you find or create something which you haven't heard before. You have to wade through a load of stuff you have already heard until you find new waters. Sometimes that can take hours, sometimes days. You have to keep going. Adding stuff, deleting stuff. Thinking outside the box. Sometimes forgetting what you have been taught. Turning things upside down, back to front. It also helps to enter altered states of the mind when creating. This can be done in a variety of ways. Working late into the night until you are close to falling asleep for example, puts your brain into an almost dream state which helps create new things which you wouldn't normally think of during the day. This is why many creatives, and not just musicians, do their best work in the early hours of the morning. Other things can help too, drinking alcohol, but this has a negative impact on your hearing, and then of course there's marijuana which I think most musicians that have ever lived swear by! Personally for me, it's about perseverance, working at the detail and striving for perfection. Music doesn't have to be complicated or removed from tonality and harmony to be different. There are billions of combinations, it's just about looking for the new ones.

GST: One more question about the early days: Does any of the original software or source code for your Megadrive music still exist?

NM: There's a possibility that I have a copy of the programme somewhere on my hard drives but it needs a special custom built PCI card installed in your PC to work and that, I do not have anymore. You see in those days, getting access to certain elements of the games console just wasn't possible like it is today. Now you install some dev tools plugin and you have direct access to every feature of the console. Back in the early 90s we had to dismantle the machine with a screwdriver, rip out the circuit boards, making notes of the chip serial numbers and manufacturers, then calling the company and asking them for a full specification of the pin numbers and what each one did. After that, we would order the chips we wanted (or rip them out of the games console itself) and design our own circuit board which included the chips we wanted and have it all re-mounted onto a custom built PCI card which we would then install into a PC. After that, it was all about programming. We followed a similar process for the Megadrive sound chip. It was a Yamaha YM2612. So we ordered a couple of these directly from Yamaha and once we had the full spec it was pretty simple to work out how to wire it up on a circuit board. All we needed to do was to add left and right phono sockets to the output pins on the chip and send the 5v power supply to it and there you go, Megadrive synth on a PC! Of course there are the other pins (24 in total) which needed connecting up to the data bus, memory access pins, read/write request lines, interrupt request line, ground pins etc. but once we'd figured all this out it was simple enough to create a circuit diagram for the board. Once we had that we sent off the design and the 2 x Yamaha chips to a circuit board manufacturing plant in the UK. A week later our 2 x Megadrive synth PCI boards arrived. We plugged one into my PC and the other into Sean (programmer)'s PC, and we got to work coding up the sequencer. Sean took care of the machine-code level programming of the synth engine and I programmed the high-level language user interface. We had the whole sequencer up and running in 4 months. So I may have the source code and sequencer files but I don't have the hardware on which it runs. Of course I could have another circuit board made but it would take some time to get all that together again.

GST: What happened to Console Sounds / Industrial Ambiance? I can’t find it anywhere.

NM: I took the album off-line. It was available as a library album for a while but the critiques viewed it as if it was an album release and began slating it for sounding like off-the-shelf music - which is exactly what it was. It was never an album release. It was just a bunch of tunes that had not been used for anything, and I was just trying to earn some money. But when the critiques got hold of it and slated it, I took it down.

GST: That's understandable, but unfortunate. Have you considered bringing the album (or any of the songs) back on a service like Bandcamp or Soundcloud?

NM: Yes I do have ideas and avenues for a lot of my music. The first thing I want to do is to officially release all my game soundtracks. After that I'll see what's left and if there's any mileage releasing any of it.

GST: Actually, how much of your music can you release on Bandcamp? I know that the rights can get tied up...

NM: Well after the Kickstarter campaign, I am now officially a record company and publisher so I can release any of my music whenever I like. I don't need a platform like Bandcamp or Soundcloud (where often the composer/performer ends up surrendering their rights for little compensation). I don't need to do that now. I can release my music myself and retain 100% of the rights, which is a better way to go. It's been a hell of a lot of work to get to the company to this point, but the infrastructure is there now, so I'm going to continue with that.

GST: Oh, that's exciting! Do you have any idea when we can expect to see some old soundtracks released? I'm also very interested in the dance music you wrote outside of Core Design. That would be a fun throwback thing.

NM: I want to start rolling my old game soundtracks out over the next few years. I have earmarked about 10 albums which I think are worthy of release. They all require some work in terms of remastering and re-recording. Some would benefit from a live orchestral recording like Soulstar, Heimdall II, Swagman and Battle Engine Aquila to name a few, but those kinds of production are very expensive so we'll have to see how funding goes for that kind of thing. In the meantime though, I will be releasing new synthetic recordings of these soundtracks - all made using the original equipment which I wrote them on, so they will sound the same, only better! Yeah there's probably an album or two of dance type tracks kicking around which could be released. Other songs too which are still unfinished so i'll need to do a bit of work to finish those up into some releasable form. So plenty of work to keep me busy for the next 5 or so years I'd say.

GST: Where can we find news about these remastered albums? Where's a good place to find you? Is there anything else you'd like to plug?

NM: The best places to keep informed as to what I'm doing career wise is on my official FB page: https://www.facebook.com/nathanmccreeofficial/ and also my Twitter page: https://twitter.com/nrpmccree As far as plugs go, please just support my concerts. They cost a huge amount of money and time to organize and I can only keep doing them if we get a good attendance. It's really important, not just for The Tomb Raider Suite, but for games music in general, and if you do like the Tomb Raider Suite album which is free to play on Spotify, please consider buying a copy. This is how us musicians make a living and it really does help us to keep going and writing more stuff which hopefully you will enjoy. A big shout out to all the fans who have supported me so far and who continue to do so - you guys rock!

9 notes · View notes

randomvarious · 4 years

Video

youtube

Lisa Lisa & Cult Jam - “Lost in Emotion” I Know What Boys Like! Song released in 1987. Compilation released in 1996. Pop / Freestyle

From an old biography on Billboard.com:

Lisa Lisa and Cult Jam were one of the most musically diverse and successful recording acts of the '80s. With hits produced and written by Full Force, the six-man performing/songwriting/production team from East Flatbush/Brooklyn, NY, they scored million-selling hits with dance-based tracks ("I Wonder if I Take You Home"), beautiful ballads ("All Cried Out"), and unabashed pop tunes ("Head to Toe," "Lost in Emotion"). They were one of the early exponents of what later became hip-hop R&B. With five gold singles, two number one singles on both the R&B and the pop charts, two platinum albums, and inclusions on various compilations and movie soundtracks, Lisa Lisa and Cult Jam were the most successful act of Full Force's "One Big Family" roster of acts.

A constant theme throughout Lisa Lisa & Cult Jam’s history is the influence of Motown. Motown music is what seemingly brought them together and it’s what ultimately led them to achieve gargantuan levels of success throughout the 80s and early 90s. But it all started in 1984 with a struggling New York-based hip hop / R&B / funk / electro band called Full Force. They couldn’t get a label to bite and decided that they needed a change in direction. Having witnessed the success of R&B boy band New Edition, who were transparently packaged as an 80s rehash of the Jackson 5 (a new edition, if you will, of a Motown group), the members of Full Force formed an idea that they thought was sure to hit: an 80s rehash of The Supremes (an all-girl Motown group!). Full Force would write, produce, play the music, and provide backing vocals while a group of girls would take care of the main singing parts.

Full Force percussionist and roadie, Mike Hughes, would then come upon a 17-year old girl named Lisa Velez at a New York club called The Funhouse, which is also where Madonna ended up being discovered. Velez, who had visions of pop stardom, was a member of a traveling troupe in school that performed Motown hits and showtunes. Initially impressed by her looks, Hughes would invite her to an audition at a house in Brooklyn where three brothers from Full Force resided. Velez wouldn’t tell her protective older brother (she had nine siblings, by the way!), probably out of fear of him denying her request that she be allowed to go, and hopped on the D train to chase her dreams.

But it wasn’t all initially hunky dory. In fact, Velez’s first time meeting Full Force was rather creepy. From a 1988 interview and profile of Lisa Lisa in Spin:

...”I sit on a stool in the basement, and I’m looking around, and I see pictures of these big, big guys. Six big guys. I’m saying to myself, ‘Oh shit, they’re gonna kill me.’ I didn’t know what to think. I had just met Mike. Enter the six big guys, and I almost shit in my pants. Paul Anthony was the first one to come up to me, and he bent down and he kissed me and he says, ‘God, you’re very pretty.’ That’s when I thought, ‘Oh Jesus, he’s gonna rape me now.’”

But her fears were soon alleviated.

...Lisa started to sing. “She was singing this song that Mike Hughes wrote for her to do,” says Lou George, “and it wasn’t kicking at all. It was horrible, plain and simple. Because it had her singing so off-key, because the way the song was written, she was singing all off. I was just laughing until my tears came down because of the fact that she was off and Mike had wrote it, and it was just so funny the way the notes was going. And I was by the bathroom crying in tears, and Lisa couldn’t see me.

“Then she sang ‘For Your Eyes Only,” [the theme song from the 1981 James Bond flick] and that’s what got it. Everything fell into place.

Full Force would end up auditioning more girls, but in Velez they had found the Diana Ross piece to their 80s Supremes puzzle: an attractive young woman blessed with a high-pitched and innocent-sounding voice that MTV-watching teenybopper types could fawn over and try to emulate. Rather than wait to fill out the rest of the group with more singers, Velez and Full Force got to recording. She would be given the stage name Lisa Lisa, a sort of play on the Full Force-produced, 1984 breakthrough hip hop hit, “Roxanne, Roxanne” by UTFO. Mike Hughes and a guitarist and bassist who was associated with Full Force named Alex “Spanador” Moseley would make up Cult Jam. LL&CJ would then debut in 1985, finding decent chart success in a platinum-selling album with songs like “I Wonder If I Take You Home,” “Can You Feel the Beat,” and “All Cried Out,” the last of which would reach the top ten in the US. A couple years later, they followed up with Spanish Fly, achieving platinum status again thanks to two chart-topping pop singles, “Head to Toe” and “Lost in Emotion.” Both songs would be noted for their clear infusion of Motown influence.

“Lost in Emotion” really is just a perfect piece of sun-drenched 80s pop. And yet, despite the fact that it’s clearly such a bop, and that it reached #1, it still feels a bit overlooked today. Throughout all my years of listening to the classic pop and rock radio format, I feel like I’ve never heard it on there. Similarly, I also feel like I don’t see it included on all that many 80s mixes or playlists. I mean, this song has over 4 million plays on Spotify, which is a lot, but “Straight Up” by Paula Abdul, which hit #1 the following year, and has that same type of young and innocent girl vocal affect, has over 40 million plays. They’re both good songs, no doubt, but go listen to both of them back to back and tell me which one holds up better today. The answer is “Lost in Emotion” and I will fight you if you disagree.

Ultimately, this song reflects a fantastically catchy pairing of an in vogue and upbeat, poppy freestyle sound with old chunks of Motown mixed in. Alongside slapping percussion, flooding synthesizers, and twinkling, sort of tropical-sounding melodies courtesy of a combination of xylophones and bells, Full Force divine their main inspiration for this song from a pair of Mary Wells hits (she was a Motown star!), “Two Lovers” and “You Beat Me to the Punch.” And if you listen to those songs, you can hear the bits and pieces that ended up motivating Full Force to write “Lost in Emotion.”

But this sweet 80s jam struts with more than just Motown flair. The main, funky bassline that undergirds the whole thing has a definite Ben E. King “Stand by Me” feel to it, which is still 60s, but not Motown, and the extended bridge section, which also contains a nice sax solo, showcases even more glints of non-Motown 60s sounds. The male bass baritone backing vocal that briefly swoops in the outro portion is a clear callback to doo-wop groups of the 50s and 60s, which wasn’t Motown’s lane, and Lisa Lisa also appears to give tribute to Del Shannon with her own backing vocal by briefly wailing an “aye-yai-yai,” mimicking the iconic “why-why-why” from the early 60s rock-and-roll-pop masterpiece, “Runaway.” It’s these combinations of Lisa Lisa’s naturally nubile voice, not to mention her sheer attractiveness, along with Full Force’s expert mixing of both old and contemporary sounds that would enable “Lost in Emotion” to be the most popular song in the US during the summer of 1987. It’s also a tune which proves that, when done right, Motown doesn’t go out of style. At least it clearly hadn’t by then.

Of course, there was a music video for “Lost in Emotion,” too, which plainly shows Lisa Lisa lip syncing the whole song as she and her friends move through a crowded street fair rigged with carnival games and a stage, which Lisa Lisa graces at the end. According to Wikipedia, it was the fourth-most played video in 1987 on MTV.

youtube

An absolute classic banger of an 80s pop song that shows Lisa Lisa & Cult Jam at their peak. You ignore this flawless summer earworm at your own peril.

#pop #pop music #freestyle #freestyle music #music #80s #80s music #80's #80's music #80s pop #80's pop #80s pop music #80's pop music #classic pop #80s freestyle #80's freestyle #80s freestyle music #80's freestyle music

2 notes · View notes

theplaguezine · 6 years

Text

HAMMERFALL

Interview with Joacim Cans by Daniel Hinds

(conducted October 2003)

Though the hype that surrounded HammerFall when they first broke on the scene six years ago has died down, the band hasn't slowed down a bit. Releasing their fourth record late last year, the band proceeded to tour the States with Dio and King's X, a very successful venture for all. While the band has really only progressed in terms of production, they continue to pump out quality heavy metal the way it was meant to be made - heavy and fast, but tempered with melody and emotion. Chatting with vocalist Joacim Cans was a blast, as he's a very nice guy as well as a talented singer… How's it going? Pretty good. I'm just watching a soccer game. I know you don't like it over there, but it's pretty entertaining. Sweden is doing pretty good, playing Portugal. How do you feel the new album turned out? When I sit here with the results in my hand, I feel this is the ultimate HammerFall album. It's much more powerful than the previous albums. To say it's more raw, maybe sounds wrong, but powerful is the best word for it. Also the production, the guitar is tuned down even lower on some songs to get this really raw sound to the guitars. It's more of a mid-tempo album compared to the previous releases. You have the diversity in the songs with a track like "On the Edge of Honour" (the fastest song) and the acoustic ballad "Dreams Come True." It's by far the most mature album we have done I would say. Every single note on the album is there for a purpose. It's really well thought out without losing... I mean, we don't sit down and make a plan like, 'We need five songs in that tempo and we need two fast ones and a ballad.' We just sit down and start writing it and this is how it turned out in the end. Are there any songs that are particularly personal to you, lyrically? Not really. This time I have been trying to link the songs together but without making a concept album. That's too hard and too many people have done that and some people made it and some didn't. It takes more than just a little story to make a concept album. It's kind of a cliché, but it's the battle between good and evil, between heaven and hell so to speak. To me, since this album is more raw and more mid-tempo, these type of lyrics fit perfectly with the music. The ballad on the album is probably the most personal one but that was written by Oscar himself. I think he's the more romantic type, I don't know (laughs). I'm the evil guy! (laughs). How did you settle on the title Crimson Thunder? Always when we try to get the title, we want to have one of the tracks. Naming an album where you don't have a song with the title is a bit awkward to me, but Crimson Thunder is more of a feeling that you have. It comes from a song on the first album, the song "Unchained," where we talk about "the crimson thunder running through your veins." It's kind of the blood that you have, it's hard to describe in English for me sometimes. It's a feeling. When it comes to the title track, it goes, "Follow the sign of the crimson thunder." It could mean to follow your heartbeat or follow your instinct, but when I wrote the lyrics it was more thunder in its true sense. I think it's a cool title for the album and that's enough sometimes. I see you worked with a different producer in a different studio this time. How did you decide on that? First of all, as a band, we were really satisfied with the outcome of the Renegade album which we did in Nashville with Michael Wagener. But in the end when it is time to pay the bill for the studio, especially when you use one in the States, it's pretty expensive. Of course, we wanted to invest a lot of money, but in the end it didn't really pay off. When you have to pay your bills and the rent, you can't tell the company, well, sorry I don't have any money - we spent it all in the States. But we wanted to have a production equal to Michael's' but lower cost. So as always, you sit down and listen to your favorite albums and check out different producers. And I found Charlie Bauerfiend who has done amazing work with Helloween, Blind Guardian, Gamma Ray, and we thought that he would be the perfect guy for HammerFall without losing the personal sound of HammerFall. When I listen to his productions, he adds more of the band's personality. Some bands go to a producer who has produced a certain band and in the end they sound exactly like the band that they had as an influence. That's a big problem sometimes, but with Charlie we hoped he would make HammerFall sound more like HammerFall. In the end, we absolutely sounded more like HammerFall than we ever have before; if that's possible I don't know (laughs). But it was like, 'Yes! Finally!' Charlie, when it comes to backing vocals, I knew already what I wanted to have back on the debut album in 1996, but I didn't know how to do it. For the second album, we tried even more to get this Acceptish, football choir backing vocals, but we didn't know how to make it. I just described to Charlie what I wanted and when I listen back to this album it is exactly what we have been struggling for ever since 1996. With Charlie, he came up with a good plan on how to record this album so that in the end we wouldn't lose too much money but still would make a worthy follow-up to Renegade. That was the best decision that we've made so far, to work with Charlie. He's easy-going and, even though it's kind of a cliché to become the sixth member of the band, it was more or less a very friendly atmosphere and he was really nice as a person. And really professional when it was time to work, really kicking our asses sometimes. Especially the first three days, I was about to leave the band and go back home. No matter what I did, he said, 'No, come on! Put more edge to it! Push harder!' And I'm like, 'No, I sound like this, please give me a break!' (laughs) But then when I understood what he was trying to tell me it became kind of obvious. So this is as close as you've come to what you originally imagined for the HammerFall sound? Maybe not the overall sound, but for me since I'm doing all the vocal arrangements, I finally found someone who understands what I wanted to have. I'm not a studio engineer or producer or anything, I just get these visions of how I want it. And you need a person who can understand what you're trying to say, even though sometimes you don't even know yourself. Hopefully we can work with Charlie for the next album and maybe for the next five or ten years, if we last that long. Did you learn anything in particular from working with Michael Wagener? To have fun in the studio. I mean, that was a joy ride working with Michael. Both Michael and Charlie are Germans and Germans are kind of strict. They're marching to the studio more or less - they're not walking, they're marching. (laughs) But Michael has been in the States for so long that he's Americanized by now, so it was more relaxed, 'Hey, come on, it sounds good, leave it like that!' Charlie was the total opposite: 'No! Do it one more time, you can do it better!' But did I learn anything working with Michael… I learned how to cook better, how to be a better chef. (laughs) I think Michael gained ten pounds when I was there because I made him a meal every day. The new DVD is great, a really good mix of performances and behinds the scenes footage. Were you happy with it? Does it reflect pretty well what it's like to be on tour with HammerFall? Absolutely. I think some people actually complained, 'Oh, this is really bad footage, too much bootleg' but hey, you know, that's the only way you can show what's going on behind the stage. You don't have a professional camera guy with you. Because if you do, then all of a sudden, there's acting going on. A lot of this footage is when people didn't know there was someone standing behind them with a camera, so then you get the most honest stuff. I think it really represents the band 100%. Both me and Oscar sat down and went through 30 or 40 video tapes with each 2 hours of footage just to find the best pieces, it was really tough. I don't think we could do it better and I don't think we could show HammerFall from a more honest way than we have on this DVD so I'm really satisfied. HammerFall has always had a rather positive message, lyrics like the chorus to "Destined For Glory." Is that an important part of HammerFall to you? In general, to me it is a way of escaping from reality for 45 minutes. When you put on a CD or vinyl, I just want to get carried away. When I write the lyrics, I want it to be entertainment, to escape from reality and feel better. A lot of the lyrics talk about medieval battles, the Templar crusades, things like that, but there's always a little message they can interpret in two ways. You can draw parallels with the lyrics. I'm talking about the medieval battles to daily life. The importance is to always tell people is that, even though your life maybe bad today, you can make a change. But you always have to remember that you have to take the first step yourself. There's a song on Legacy of Kings called "Dreamland" where I talk about 'the ivory gates' - you have to go through the door yourself. We're just pointing out directions to people, but still in the end, it's up to you. And also the importance of following the beat of your own drum. Why follow a trend when you can create your own? To me it's important to not make depressed people even more depressed. And also we're not trying to act like Jesus or something, 'Follow us and your life will be much better.' We're just handing out some tools and then people have to decide for themselves. I like the fact that you've stayed away from dealing with religious themes in your music. Is that an intentional thing or just not a topic that interests you enough to write about? I'm a musician and if I wanted to talk about politics, I would have become a politician. I think that says it all. I don't want to bore people too much. If you turn on the TV, switch on the radio, you'll hear about the bombings in Bali on every channel. There was a bombing in Finland the other week and it was on the TV 24/7. If you feel depressed and you turn on the TV, you get more depressed. I just want to give people 45 minutes of relief from all the misery in this world. On the new album, though, there might be some parallels since we are now talking about the battle between good and evil. Because there is so much evil in this world, there might be some parallels, but that is up to the listener themselves to decide how they want to interpret the lyrics. But religion - nah. Nothing really there I want to talk about it because it just pisses me off sometimes. There's too much lack of respect in the world today and I just want to change the mode with people. You guys pick the coolest songs to cover - how did you decide on Chastain this time around? Was it a spur of the moment thing? No, that was actually two or three years ago, I played this song for Oscar, I made a mix tape for him. I included that song along with other more or less obscure songs that he had never heard. He freaked out when he heard this song, he thought it was a fantastic song, and I had the same feeling when I heard the song for the first time. So much emotion but with some pretty poor production. We started to play around with what this song would sound like, first of all, with a proper production and second of all, with a male vocalist. I was a little scared because when you hear a female sing, it doesn't sound that high, but they are a natural octave above the male voice, so I didn't know if I was capable of doing it or not. But then when I started to sing along with it I realized that it wasn't that high after all. For the Renegade album, this song just didn't fit at all, so we put it in the 'maybe for the future' pile. Then when we started to talk about covers for the new album, we didn’t want to have a cover on the actual album, we only wanted to have it as a bonus track, so we decided to do an Yngwie Malmsteen cover for the European release, we did a Loudness song for the Japanese release ("Crazy Nights"). So we just wanted to have something special for each territory and wanted to have the Chastain cover for the US. But then when all the original songs were done, I told Oscar that I'd really like to have this song on the album because it really represents the rest of the songs and it feels like we made this song a HammerFall song, even though it's a cover. So that's why we decided to put it on the actual album for all the territories and ended up doing a KISS cover for the States. It's not an obscure thing to do "Detroit Rock City," but what the hell. We wanted to do Malice's "Sinister Double," but then I realized the vocals are a bit high and if you take it down and don't do the high screams, people go, 'Oh, why couldn't you sing like that?' No, I'm sorry I can't, I have my limits! (laughs) What are your thoughts on the current state of heavy metal now compared to when you first started out? I think it's a big difference in Europe because metal is pretty big over here, especially in Sweden. With Renegade, we were #1 on the charts in Sweden, we were #1 on the video charts, we had a gold album and we were doing pretty big tours. So in Europe, it's pretty huge, but the problem is that now you have too many new bands coming up. And they're not ready to record yet. You ask them, 'What do you guys sound like?' and they're like, 'We sound like Gamma Ray.' And you listen to the album and they do sound exactly like Gamma Ray, but it's a bad version of it. The power metal scene, now they want to put labels on each and every band that comes out. HammerFall, we play heavy metal, but people say, 'No no no, you play Epic Power Heavy Metal' or 'True Epic Power Heavy Metal.' And we're just like, 'Nooo, please, we play Heavy Metal and nothing else.' The scene in some countries it became more or less mainstream again, even though radio and TV are trying to close the doors, we're trying to force ourselves through the doors, 'You HAVE to play our music!' And to a certain extent it worked, but I see that the more melodic fast metal is on the way down. A few more years and it's hard to predict what it will be like, but the heavier side of metal will survive longer. You don't have the same problem in the States because the European power metal is not that big. We gotta make a change, gotta force-feed the Americans with European metal! (laughs) Please do! (laughs) I understand you went to MI at one point? Stefan and I went there. I studied vocals there for a year and Stefan was there for almost two years. Well at least he was there playing guitar for one year, I don't know what he did the second year... drinking and partying, living the Hollywood glamour life, I don’t know! (laughs) It was a cool thing to do though. I was unemployed, didn't have anything to do, didn't want to play music or anything. Then I got a phone call from a friend and joined a band. I realized I never sounded like Geoff Tate like I wanted to, I sounded more like Lemmy. That was a problem, so I thought, 'Well, maybe I should give it a try and go to this school everyone is talking about and see if I can learn how to sing.' I didn't have any expectations and still thought I was the crappiest singer in the world, but I came there and people said, 'Wow, you sound great man!' and I'm just like, 'What are you mental or something?' (laughs) When I asked Oscar a couple years ago to describe each member of the band, he said you were "goal-minded, full of ideas and very visual." Would you agree with that? Yes, maybe not as much today as I was two years ago because I've realized that there are more things in life than just music. I'm still the person who if I come up with an idea at 4 in the morning, I give Oscar a call. (laughs) It can't wait. If I get an idea, I need to start working on it right now. I think a lot. I realize that my brain has a big hard drive and processor but the processor is getting slower, maybe out of date, but I can't really update it (laughs). That's why I have to reconsider things; maybe I should focus more on my family. I formed a record label and now I have my publishing company. I know that in a few years, metal might be totally dead. I don't know, I can't predict the future, so I don’t' want to sit here and in the end I can't do anything else but sing. So that's why I have so many ideas going on at the same time. I'm writing a musical, I have a staff of song writers in my publishing company. Of course, I'm probably going to die of a heart attack at age 39 because it's too much to handle for one person. I think Oscar was pretty right though. (laughs) www.hammerfall.net

#HammerFall #interview #oct2003

0 notes

samanthasroberts · 6 years

Text

The fake stories hitting the headlines – BBC News

Image copyright Suffolk Gazette

Image caption Suffolk Gazette’s story about David Bowie was published three days before his death was announced

On the day of David Bowie’s death, a national broadcaster reported the rock star had performed at a Suffolk curry house just days earlier. For some, the fine line between spoof and reality is increasingly hard to detect – so what are the key components of a successful send-up?

During the hours after Bowie’s death, journalists scrambled to gather details of the music icon’s last days.

When a story emerged about the singer “giving curry house diners a treat” in Bungay, Suffolk, a media frenzy briefly ensued.

“I was watching the news, and people started picking up on the curry house story and tweeting it,” said Simon Young, a former Sun journalist based in Suffolk.

“As I was watching Sky News, Eamonn Holmes read out about how the Suffolk Gazette was reporting Bowie had performed in a curry house.

“My jaw dropped into my cornflakes. You don’t get much bigger than Sky News on breaking coverage of a high profile person’s death – and they mentioned my site.”

Sadly for Holmes, the Suffolk Gazette is not a genuine newspaper. It is, instead, a spoof created by Mr Young to “satisfy creative desires” and “raise a bit of beer money”.

He had written the Bowie article on the singer’s 69th birthday, three days before his death was announced, and later put a note on the story to explain.

The episode highlighted the prevalence of one of the internet’s growth industries – spoof news – and the pitfalls it can create for its more sober cousin; the actual news media.

Image copyright Southend News Network

Image caption Southend News Network was created in October 2015 and has attracted thousands of social media followers

“Morris dancers and blind footballers in mass brawl” cries one headline. “Dartford tunnel closed due to thousands of Kent residents trying to enter Essex illegally” screams another.

These stories might seem ludicrous or plausible, depending on your point of view. Each treads carefully the fine line between reality and ridiculousness, relying on the reader’s moment of uncertainty for its satirical punch.

Broadcaster Fraser McAlpine, who wrote a book called Stuff Brits Like, said in recent times it had become increasingly difficult to tell which stories were fake.

“You’ve got David Cameron and Jeremy Corbyn having their spats in Parliament, making awful jokes. You’ve got Donald Trump – he’s beyond parody – saying the worst possible things.

“News outlets are behaving like spoof sites, and they’re making spoof sites look like sensible news.”

In the world of spoof news, there are a few big-name players. There is US site The Onion, of course, the granddaddy of all spoof sites, which began publishing online in 1996.

In the UK, websites such as The Poke, The Daily Mash and NewsThump have been offering up spoof news across the nation for more than a decade.

Mr McAlpine theorised that news parodies were about “banding together and cocking a snook at people in power”.

“Sometimes spoof news feels like a righteous sword in the side of something you’re bothered about, and sometimes it feels like flicking Vs at a policeman – it’s a release and a relief.”

Image copyright Tim Telling

Image caption Editor of The Daily Mash Tim Telling said the internet had changed the game for spoof news

Tim Telling, editor of The Daily Mash, said the internet had played a huge role in what was being published, and who was publishing it.

“The Daily Mash is a kind of DIY thing done by a small group of people,” he said.

“As a kid, I was into Viz comics, and there was a spirit in Viz that’s also relevant to The Daily Mash – it felt like it was just some guys doing it in a shed, rather than coming through the existing comedy establishment.

“It’s a kind of punk ethos – I think Viz used to sell their copies at punk gigs – and that’s the kind of thing the internet has allowed to proliferate.”

Image caption Satire legend Armando Iannucci reads another legend of the form – Viz

Fifteen years ago, a group of friends from Chelmsford, Essex, decided they would harness the power of the internet after seeing the success of The Onion and satirist Charlie Brooker’s spoof television listings site TVGoHome.

The Framley Examiner took the form of a newspaper, but was displayed as though each edition had been scanned and uploaded to its website.

The brainchild of Joel Morris, Alex Morris, Jason Hazeley and Robin Halstead, the site was set up in 2001 at a cost of 25.

Headlines included “Local museum to be put in a museum”, “New library: the dream is over”, “Fluff misery” and “Cycle lane ‘not even as long as small cycle’”.

Image copyright Framley Examiner

Image caption “It wasn’t a joke about news – it was a joke about the way news was reported”

Image caption Joel Morris and Jason Hazeley honed their spoof news craft on The Framley Examiner

For the Framley Examiner, the joke was as much about the stories as it was about how local news media worked.

The site had the look and feel of a real newspaper, but was never intended to be mistaken for one, Mr Morris said – it was pure parody.

“In the beginning, we wrote about stuff that was quite close to reality. As it went on it got much sillier,” Mr Morris said.

“It wasn’t a joke about news – it was a joke about the way news was reported.”

The Framley Examiner’s popularity led to a book and launched the comedy-writing careers of Mr Morris and Mr Hazeley, whose credits include That Mitchell and Webb Look, Charlie Brooker’s Screenwipe, and a series of spoof Ladybird books.

To make a site seem as authentic as possible, spoof news creators agree the style of writing is key.

The creator of Southend News Network, a site recently officially recognised by Southend Council, said his stories were often compared to those printed by local media.

The Chief Reporter, as he is known, reckons about half of the people who read his stories realise they are fake, with the other half indignantly commenting and sharing his stories on social media.

Spoof success

A Suffolk Gazette story about an old lady getting trapped in a council toilet in Felixstowe for four days was picked up by several national newspapers and publications, including The Express, The Daily Mirror and The Debrief

Former Fifa vice president Jack Warner appeared to be taken in by an article from The Onion about the World Cup being held in the USA in May 2015

The Onion’s story on North Korean leader Kim Jong Un being the sexiest man alive was picked up by a Chinese newspaper, which reprinted satirical comments and a photo gallery

In 1957, an April Fool’s Day report by the BBC on Swiss spaghetti crops prompted viewers to try to find out where they could purchase their very own spaghetti bush

Suffolk Gazette’s creator said his intention was never to trick people into falling for his stories – people believing them was a “happy side effect” which generates hits, rather than the main aim.

“You do get people commenting, saying ‘haha, that’s hilarious’, but then there’ll be that one person who says ‘I think it’s disgusting’.

“Those who are in on the joke get a double kick out of it – you enjoy the moment other people are taken in.”

Source: http://allofbeer.com/the-fake-stories-hitting-the-headlines-bbc-news/

from All of Beer https://allofbeer.wordpress.com/2018/05/23/the-fake-stories-hitting-the-headlines-bbc-news/

0 notes

adambstingus · 6 years