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harianadimples · 4 years

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I Know You’re Not Far, But I Still Can’t Handle All The Distance

1.8k: hariana friendship rise warning(s): unedited soz just had to get this one out before I overthink

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“Harry?”

“Yeah?”

“I wanna sing.”

Harry stops playing for a moment so he could hear what Ariana had to say.

“My fans have been wanting me to jump on Instagram Live to sing a few songs but I really can’t handle all that real-time shit. I just want to sing and then dip so I’m just going to record a quick video. I think it’d be a nice surprise to have you join in, finally feed your fans some new content of you.”

“Hmm, I suppose but I won’t sing.”

“Why not? They’ve been wanting some sort of duet for a while, you know.”

“Um, and show the world how rubbish I am singing next to you?”

“You are not rubbish! Have you forgotten our killer duet of ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ when we watched ‘Wayne’s World’?”

“No, I just wanna listen to y’voice. I miss it,” Harry pouts, leaning into his elbow as it rested on the hood of the piano.

“Okay, then, H,” Ariana rolls her eyes, smiling as she fixes herself. “Suppose you’d like a relatively easy song to play. How does ‘My Everything’ sound? For old time’s sake?”

“I Know You’re Not Far, But I Still Can’t Handle All The Distance”

The one inspired by an alternate universe where Harry played the piano for Ariana’s 2020 version of ‘My Everything’ while in Quarantine

-:-:-:-

“‘Lo love, how are you?” Harry asks as he fixes his laptop screen, leaning it just right so the light coming from his bedroom window wouldn’t cause such a harsh glare. When it was just right he could see Ariana much better but it seemed like her picture needed another moment to catch up with her voice, as behind the frozen image he could hear her giggling softly.

“That was quick,” Ariana’s voice strays as if she walked away for a moment, but the picture’s finally changed and is moving so Harry just waits on his phone until she appears again. When the movement settles Harry sees that Ariana is sitting in her living room. “I’m good by the way; miss hugging everyone, I swear when we’re given the all clear I’m inviting y’all over and cooking the biggest fucking Italian dinner y’all will ever have,” she says.

“I could so go for Italian right now,” Harry sighs as he sets his phone down and shifts himself up a bit so he can be more comfortable, “Been eating all the bread in this household m’tooting up a storm in here.”

“That is… horrendous.”

Harry chuckles at her reaction, fiddling with the strings of his hoodie. “‘ave you got the pups with you?”

“Always,” Ariana smiles, “Toulouse is right here, Pignoli is watching me from the other sofa and Myron’s having a nap.”

“Miss the little ones so much–,” Harry is suddenly interrupted by a guttural snort which scares even Ariana. She soon breaks into laughter as she picks up Piggy Smallz who’d been lurking behind her. “Aw does miss Piggy want her Harry love too, my big girl?” Piggy makes a noise which sounds extremely happy which causes laughs all round.

“Yeah, miss ‘aving the wind knocked out of me whenever you give me kisses,” Harry chuckles.

Of her pets, Piggy became to be the most territorial over Harry.

It started when Harry went to support Ariana at her Sweetener Tour show in London. He’d finally gotten the privilege to meet Piggy in person, and after some time holding her thinking they’d become the best of friends, she took a massive shit which splattered on his white pants. He just had to have been wearing an all-white outfit that evening.

“You reading anything good?” Harry asks.

“Um… I’m currently reading ‘We Have Always Lived in the Castle’. Seems good so far.”

“‘Kay, adding it to my cart right now,” Harry mumbles. “I’ve read like two books so far. Trying to get through this third one but I keep fallin’ asleep. So nice to just sleep.”

“I know right. It’s weird actually getting like fourteen hours of sleep for once, instead of two.”

“You deserve the rest though. Bloody insane, your tour. Can’t believe the year you had. I like… honoured to have witnessed history unfold, y’know?”

“Oh please, can we talk about your music though. I genuinely cried listening to ‘She’ earlier, like full-out, ruined-my-makeup, swollen-eyes, everything– just… tears.”

“Thanks? I guess?”

“No, H, really. My mind can’t fully comprehend Mitch’s solo in that song.”

“Oh, well, thanks, I’m only the one singing the song.”

“It’s nice to hear you exploring different vocal dynamics. You have the range and it really shines on a song like ‘She’. These are all things I’ve told you before H.”

“I know but it’s nice to have my voice praised by the vocalist of our generation.”

“Oh my God–.”

“No, seriously, I have not stopped listening to the song you showed me a couple days ago. Can’t believe you posted it to your socials.”

“Yeah I don’t really care if I get in trouble at this point, I’m like in that place mentally, emotionally, whatever where I’m creating and it’s nice and free and I just wanna share that. But thank you.”

“That reminds me I’m writing something and sort of like putting the skeleton of the music together and I was wonderin’ if you mind if I use your vocals for the synth?”

“Yeah sure, use whatever’s on google drive.”

This folder on Google Drive that Ariana’s referring to, is a shared folder with a couple vocal notes they’ve made in the past that they’ve sometimes dipped into for production samples. Harry’s relatively new to using vocal samples as instrumentation on a song since his previous record was mostly classic rock inspired. Apart from double tracking his voice, the extent of his vocal exploration on that record had been the infamous duck sound on “Woman”.

With Fine Line he’d really been inspired by Ariana’s vocal production and wanted to do a lot more of it on this record. With his producers he got a lot better at curating his own sound but if it weren’t for Ariana’s support he wouldn’t have known where to start with figuring out what else his voice can do.

He liked the idea of sampling someone’s voice, hiding it within a song where no one knows it’s even there. Who better than Ariana to be that voice.

“Can I hear what you got so far?” Ariana asks.

Harry nods and gets out of bed (with great effort which makes Ariana roll her eyes). He brings his laptop with him as he descends down the corridor. He enters the living room where a grand piano sits in the centre and props the laptop down on its surface as he sits by the keys.

“Fair warning, m’still learning,” Harry says as he plays a few random notes to prep his fingers before he begins to play.

Harry’s only got a verse and a pre-chorus, and a sort-of chorus figured out. It’s mid-tempo for now, but it might change once he can get in the studio. He starts singing, trying not to focus entirely on his fingers playing but he’s still a beginner so he’s got his head down more or less the whole time. When he finishes, he looks up again and is honestly… not surprised to see Ariana crying into her sleeve-covered hands.

“It’s sooo good.”

“Obviously, it’s not done yet–.”

“The first verse got me, but that pre-chorus– damn it,” Ariana quickly, and quite dramatically wipes under her eyes as Harry smiles with warm cheeks, kind of loving the praise coming from her, “like you’re so fucking talented, and can I just say your piano playing has improved a lot! You have nothing to worry about.”

“Thanks love,” Harry looks down and plays a few keys, hoping the terrible MacBook camera quality would hide his sudden bashfulness.

“Harry?”

“Yeah?”

“I wanna sing.”

Harry stops playing for a moment so he could hear what Ariana had to say.

“Hmm, I suppose but I won’t sing.”

“Why not? They’ve been wanting some sort of duet for a while, you know.”

“Um, and show the world how rubbish I am singing next to you?”

“You are not rubbish! Have you forgotten our killer duet of ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ when we watched ‘Wayne’s World’?”

“No, I just wanna listen to y’voice. I miss it,” Harry pouts, leaning into his elbow as it rested on the hood of the piano.

“Okay, then, H,” Ariana rolls her eyes, smiling as she fixes herself. “Suppose you’d like a relatively easy song to play. How does ‘My Everything’ sound? For old time’s sake?”

“You’re in luck, that’s literally my go-to practice song at the moment. Surprisingly quite a vocal heavy track, or maybe I just don’t know how to sing.”

“Harry I fucking swear to God, you say one more self-deprecating thing–.”

“Sorry, sorry, m’just blown away every time I listen to it. Right then, let me take this old thing off. Gotta look good if I’m gonna be playing next to you,” Harry says as he pulls his hoodie off and sets it aside. He’s got on a black t-shirt that’s two days old and counting but the camera probably won’t pick up much quality anyway so he’s got nothing to worry about. Harry pulls his hair out of its scrunchy and runs his fingers through until his fringe looked somewhat contained.

“Got sent some cute-ass nails today,” Ariana says as Harry leans up close to his screen, being met with her brand new white nails with small light-grey clouds on the very tips. “Cute,” he agrees. “My nails are looking God-awful. Fuck, you think the camera will pick them up?”

The blue colour on his nails had mostly chipped off, leaving them in a ‘too naked to be fully edgy’ situation that has Harry hiding his hands from sight.

“I barely noticed.”

“I’ll just angle the camera so they don’t show.”

“You ready then? I’m gonna record the screen. Hopefully it works.”

“Okay, yeah, hold on. Okay, yeah.”

They eventually do two takes. One to see if it was actually recording and sounded good, and the second was the actual recording that Ariana planned to post.

This should have been easy, real simple, considering it isn’t their first time just hanging out, singing songs on the piano or whatever. Literally the other day she sent him a voice note singing some random meme and it didn’t phase him at all because it’s expected at this point. When it’s just them it’s not nearly as nerve wracking. Now he’s torn between wanting to play the piano well as to not mess her up, wanting to sound good to prove to himself that he’s doing better at playing like she’s said, but also wanting to just melt into himself and listen to her sing.

It seems this internal struggle appeared very well in the video as he and Ariana watched it back. Ariana sang beautifully; effortlessly as per usual, while Harry looked genuinely lost between playing and listening to her sing which with their videos side-by-side made it look like Harry was sort of in disbelief that the person next to him was singing so angelically, which wouldn’t even be far from the truth.

“Hah, that’s funny,” Ariana grins, “I’m posting it now. Prepare to become a meme.”

The video quickly went viral apparently. Neither Harry or Ariana would know since right after she posted the video they did as she wished and let it be, allowing the internet to have at it while they curled up in their beds and put on “Tiger King” to see what the hype was all about.

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gerardwayisarchive · 6 years

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MSI’S JIMMY URINE ANNOUNCES SOLO LP FEATURING GERARD WAY AND…ROBOTS?

https://gerardwayisalive.tumblr.com/post/176963498454

https://www.altpress.com/features/jimmy-urine-james-euringer-solo-record/

Jason Pettigrew August 13, 2018

“I wanted it to sound as if Depeche Mode hired J Dilla and DJ Premier to drop loops while Frank Zappa produced—and then I came in and shit all over it.” So says James Euringeraka Little Jimmy Urine of ADD-addled electro-rockers Mindless Self Indulgence when asked to describe his new solo album under the handle Euringer, featuring cameos from folks such as Gerard Way, System Of A Down’s Serj Tankian, Grimes and Chantal Claret.

(Read more: Jimmy Urine talks MSI, Guardians Of The Galaxy role and new album.)

The album—slated for release Oct. 19 by Metropolis Records—is the beginning of a whole new chapter for the multi-instrumentalist and programmer. After visiting New Zealand a few times in the past, Euringer and his wife, Claret, decided to leave their Los Angeles home and move to the other side of the world.

“I totally think New Zealand is the most awesome place in the world,” he says. “It’s like a combination of San Francisco, New York City and Middle Earth. And I’ve always wanted to live in Middle Earth.”

“We loved [New Zealand] when Obama was president, but now we love it more since it synced up with the world turning to shit!,” he continues. “Awesome! We’re ahead of the curve!’”

Moving is one big step for a whole new reboot. While his previous album The Secret Cinematic Sounds Of Jimmy Urine was primarily an instrumental dive into various synth-laden idioms inspired by such classic electronic composers as Vangelis and Jean-Michel Jarre, Euringer is a whole new pint glass of piss altogether.

The album’s audio verité vibe is best described as sneaking through Urine’s diary, with diversions of everything from metaphorical politics to wild-assed cover versions to having his buddies and parents (Ma Euringer counts in Spanish on “That’s How Jimmy Gets Down” while Dad assumes the role of disappointed parent on “Two And A Half Years” and a bitter old record producer on the cover of the Doobie Brothers’ “What A Fool Believes”) helping him out on the record.

“This album is kind of a psychedelic, counterculture, avant-garde record with vocals,” he opines. “I’m calling it Euringer because I didn’t want to corrupt any of the other stuff. It’s not Cinematic Sounds. It’s not MSI, which have always been a provocative in-your-face kind of band. [The solo album] allows me to experiment with various BPM speeds, lyrics and tones and try some other avenues.

“It is very personal,” he agrees. “As much as I like being in a crazy shock-rock band, the one thing that gets lost is that people focus on the shock rock and don’t really focus on the fact that I’m a really fucking great programmer, and I’m a deconstructionist and an audio collagist.”

“I sculpt audio and make songs around it,” he continues.“And that’s the first thing that gets lost. [imitates fast-talking industry type.] ‘Awww, Jimmy! You’re crazy and the band’s crazy and they’re great and they do all this provocative amazing stuff,’ and that’s fine—that’s what Mindless are supposed to be. But nobody ever says, ‘I like how you programmed that beat and sampled that stuff backwards.’ [Laughs.] That area is what I went full hog into.”

Urine is thrilled with what his collaborators brought to the proceedings. On “If It Ain’t You Today It’ll Be You Tomorrow,” Urine and Tankian updated Rev. Martin Niemöller’s famous anti-Nazi sermon, “First They Came For The Socialists…” “I always thought that quote was really great,” Urine says. “I wanted to write something a little bit political considering the climate, but not a whole record. Serj was in one of the most amazing politically charged bands of the last 20 years. He went through a whole bunch of lyrics and poetry that he had and screamed stuff for an hour. We had coffee, and I went home and edited [the parts] I liked. The point I’m trying to make [on the song] is that we should all stand up for fringe causes because once they’re gone, you’re next.”

Urine teams up with Claret on “Fuck Everything,” describing it as “our ex-pat song. We kind of wrote it while we were packing up our house and leaving, and then we recorded it in Wellington. She’s a really great songwriter: I’ll be sculpting a song for two months, and she’ll write one in a day. I was like, ‘Oh, my God, that was so quick! No wonder I married you!’” [Laughs.]

For “The Medicine Does Not Control Me,” Urine was trying to write a song about alcohol that wasn’t about partying or rehab. “I don’t have an addictive personality. I’m not trying to use alcohol to escape; I use it for time travel,” he explains. “I can pull myself a glass of scotch and then go watch a ton of movies that are based in New York. I can find a movie that was shot in the neighborhood I grew up—‘Oh, there’s the place I went to school. There’s the place where I used to play pinball’—immerse myself in it and then fall asleep. I don’t drink to get crazy. I think there’s a middle ground where people use liquor to get creative, but you never hear songs about it. You only hear the ones where people ‘went too far’ or they’re ‘gonna party!’”

He wanted to work with electronic/hip-hop maven Grimes because of her hands-on work ethic. “She’s DIY like a motherfucker. There aren’t a lot of ladies doing synth work, producing, mastering, editing their own videos, everything. Because she’s so talented, I wanted her to write the track and to produce me singing it, like a reverse Britney Spears thing: I’m the ingenue, and Grimes is the mastermind. We didn’t have enough time to do it that way, so I gave her some tracks and ["Medicine”] was the one she chose.”

Urine has been friends with Way back in the days when My Chemical Romance were opening for MSI in NYC. So having the 21st century polymath appear on the fast-paced “Sailor In A Life Boat” was a complete no-brainer.

“First of all,” he begins to laugh, “Gerard could have sang every song on the record! MCR did a B-side from something off Danger Days [�["Zero Percent”]here the programming was drum-and-bassy, very weird and hard at the same time, like MCR being MSI.”

“This time, I figured we’d go the other way and leave it up to Gerard,” he continues.“I sent him the song, and he obviously knocked it out. The lyrics—“you’re a dogface on the frontline,” “a pilot on a ship that’s going down,” convey that you used to be a sailor in the Navy, but now you’re just some dude sitting in the middle of the fucking ocean. His vocal and lyrical style comes across to me like a Frank Miller comic book from 1981, like Sin Cityand stuff.”

As usual, Urine can’t resist taking a swipe at the scene. And here he is with “Random EMO Top Line Generator,” one of the most heartfelt songs he’s ever written. And the joke is on all of us: Much like the net’s random name generators for everything from porn star names to Wu-Tang handles and other monikers, Urine had the net write lyrics.

“I loaded up, like, a thousand random generators that gave me words,” he explains. “I put in a word, then a random generator would give me a sentence. Than I’d put that sentence into a different random generator, and it would give me a phrase. I wrote this song based on what I’d get out of these random generators, and I made it a very emotional and heartfelt song.”

“So the schtick is people will say, ‘Wow, it’s so deep, look how mature Jimmy is,’” he continues.“Motherfuckers, a robot wrote that song. The robot wrote the lyrics, and you’re lovin’ it! A robot wrote a song that’s so emotionally empowering it could have been written in the last 10 years. And random generators are all over the internet, you could write a whole album that way! We’re really living in a William Gibson cyberpunk reality these days.”

With all the cool collabs with women, men and machines happening on Euringer, it might be easy to ignore the elephant in the room. You know, the one with “MSI” painted in 4-foot DayGlo letters and festooned with crudely rendered drawings of penises. Urine swears that everything is good with his homies in Mindless, and the door is always open.

“That’s not the reason I made a solo album or why I moved to New Zealand. We were all on different coasts. These days, the technology exists so you don’t even have to be in the same room to make a record. MSI are a wonderful art project that never stops.”

And you’re not going to see Euringer on tour to support the new album, either. “I’m not going to tour for it because I’m gonna chill here in New Zealand for a while,” he says. “I’ll make some videos, do press and work on some top secret projects—maybe a Mindless record—down here. Incorporating New Zealand in all the stuff I’m doing is really cool and fun. I like touring with Mindless; I don’t need to put a whole new band together.”

Right now though, he’s enjoying his time in Middle Earth and keeping busy. He’s also working alongside Tankian and the animation house ShadowMachine for an English gangster cartoon called Fuktronic. Expect more, but on his terms, as he steadfastly refuses to reveal if the other projects he’s got rolling are for film, video games or elevators.

“Oh man, I wanna do stuff for elevators really bad!” he beams excitedly, in the same perverse glee that has marked every creative avenue he’s cartwheeled and silly-walked on for decades. “I can’t remember the last time I’ve gotten into an elevator that had music playing in it.” He pauses for a moment. “Damn, we gotta bring Muzak back into elevators. I’m gonna change all the Mindless songs into Muzak. The future is elevators.”

You can preorder Euringer here prior to its mid-October release date. Check out “Problematic” from the LP and the record’s artwork below.

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