Soundcloud is about to be replaced with an all new version! I use SoundCloud all day. Whenever I finish a track I put it up there so I can listen to it in my car. I am very pleased they are continuing to innovate. Sign up for the beta and read in detail all the new changes coming up here: next.soundcloud.com
“Today is a special day for us and we’re so thrilled to finally be able to share with you what we’ve been working on for a while: Next SoundCloud, meet the Community. Community, meet Next SoundCloud, the next phase of our mission to unmute the web. Since 2008, we’ve been focused on building the best social sound platform on the web. Today, SoundCloud has grown to over 15 million with more interests and needs of SoundCloud. With Next, we are taking a first step to reflect this.” – blog.soundcloud.com
Follow me on Soundcloud: soundcloud.com/thingstocome
This entry was written by , posted on May 9, 2012 at 5:21 pm, filed under promotion and tagged promotion, SoundCloud. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink and follow any comments with the RSS feed for this post.
It’s a Friday in February, early in the morning dark and dreary. It seems appropriate to tell you another behind the music look from Joyless Pleasure. We are on song number four. This song has the same title as the album so consciously I’ve highlighted it in yellow for you. If you look closely at the album you will notice this song is not the original mix. I’ve had help on this one so now I’ve underlined the song too.
This song is about being in love with sadness. The song is about feeding addiction, depression and danger. It’s about the search for pain and keeping your head up after you found it. I once lived in Chelsea for about a decade. The years I was there a notorious homosexual community was locked in crystal meth addiction. I met some very troubled soles screaming, crashing and melting into each other. There was incredible pleasure. All of it incredibly joyless.
Although I didn’t think of it at the time when I hear the song now and hear the chorus it reminds me of the lyric “Keep your head up (moving on)” in the Eurythmics Sweet Dreams. Not the vocal style or melody but the message. I loved the song Sweet Dreams when I was a teenager. It makes me a bit sad today that I now now what she really means in the song. We have all had times where the only way forward was to just walk, keeping walking and forget. Funny how we preemptively connect with things.
The vocals took about a full month to get right. I would do a verse here and there because sometimes inspiration trickles instead of flows. When I have the lyrics perfect I have to re-sing the entire song because each previously recorded verse was a different take and don’t sound right (different mics, times of day). That usually causes another issue: when I have everything done and want to record the final full vocal all at once I’ve heard the song so many times that instead of singing it with inspiration I sort of parody myself. This is why many times I have to shelve the song for a long enough time so I forget about it, come back to it hit record and hope the first new take after 4-5 weeks is an insprired one. So yes that was the original mix… its just drums, one synth and vocals. I sent it to my most trusted musical friend Gabri Negro (Richter) to hear. He always asks to remix/reedit my work and in this case I was so exhausted by the track I said please do. I didn’t expect what he returned with. Usually I have enough confidence and bravado to think I can always make a better song than anyone else. In this case the original or anything I was going to do wouldn’t be better so I asked him if I could use his version on the album. I should note here he never asks for any money or anything in return. If your looking for a version that can be played on the dancefloor check out Frank Kvitta’s remix (link) on the Joyless Pleasure Remixed album.
Listen to and read more stories from the album here: Modern, We Will Get Wicked and Darkling Lullaby
“I like dancing do much it makes me really crazy. I like you so much come come kill me.”
Buy the song: iTunes, Amazon and Beatport
This entry was written by , posted on February 10, 2012 at 7:02 am, filed under music, promotion and tagged Frank Kvitta, Joyless Pleasure, Richter, The Horrorist, Things to Come Records. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink and follow any comments with the RSS feed for this post.
Disney was selling a Micky Mouse T-Shirt based on Joy Division’s Unknown Pleasures album. Could it be some hip/depressed designer working there snuck this into the supply chain? It’s been pulled and therefore I must say these are instant collectibles. They may even fetch some big money on eBay.
“And in even odder news, the Disney Store… was, until today, selling a new t-shirt design based on the iconic Joy Division “Unknown Pleasures” album cover, with Mickey Mouse’s face inserted in those wavy lines. From Manchester to Mousechester!” – Boing Boing
via Boing Boing
This entry was written by , posted on January 26, 2012 at 8:17 am, filed under political, promotion and tagged Disney, Joy Division, Micky Mouse. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink and follow any comments with the RSS feed for this post.
I was interviewed for Industrial/EBM web portal Side-Line. If your into this type of music the forums are a great place to hang out.
“Chesler, who lives in New York, released a new album this year, “Joyless Pleasure”. You may expect the remixed version of it to be soon out as well. In between recording sessions we asked him a couple of questions…” – side-line.com
Read the full interview: side-line.com/id=47205_0_2_0_C
This entry was written by , posted on December 14, 2011 at 4:03 am, filed under interviews, promotion and tagged EBM, industrial, interview, Side-Line, The Horrorist, Things to Come Records. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink and follow any comments with the RSS feed for this post.
Robert Snelten sent me a Facebook message showing me his Things to Come Records cake. While it has some issues I’m honored. Thank you Robert!
“Dumbest idea ever……..Musicians should NEVER bake pies ! Congrats with the remixalbum though.” — Robert Snelten
For more info: thingstocome.com
This entry was written by , posted on December 11, 2011 at 10:35 am, filed under promotion and tagged cake, Things to Come Records. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink and follow any comments with the RSS feed for this post.
The new stickers for “The Horrorist” have arrived. They were designed by Maurice Roy and printed at uprinting.com. Maurice created 3 color versions based upon red, white and black. They turned out quite beautiful. The first people to get some of these will be in Malta this weekend!
“Shift & Cubik are proud to be able to bring over the PETs and The Horrorist for a night of bone crunching bass and in your face vocals. Supported by: Faddy, Punisher, Jefaz & The Volt Tickets are out at €20 from PCWise, Royal Impact, Fact and selected runners. Infoline – 99909808″
For more info: facebook.com/events/260324614002446
This entry was written by , posted on November 30, 2011 at 7:42 am, filed under promotion and tagged Malta, stickers, The Horrorist, Things to Come Records, uprinting.com. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink and follow any comments with the RSS feed for this post.
If you come to my live show and your anywhere near the front half of the club when I perform there is a good chance I will give you one of these new stickers. They were designed by Maurice Roy who does almost all of my graphic works. The “I Know Your Pain” text is a lyric from the song I Stand with You. That song was the most chosen to be remixed on the soon to be released Joyless Pleasure Remixed album. The next live show is Malta on December 3… see you there!
“YOUR FIST IS IN THE AIR YOU SCREAM AND I KNOW YOUR PAIN I WILL SWEAT WITH YOU I KNOW YOUR THOUGHTS I HAVE THEM TOO”
For more info: thehorrorist.com
This entry was written by , posted on November 8, 2011 at 9:44 am, filed under promotion and tagged promotion, stickers, The Horrorist, Things to Come Records. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink and follow any comments with the RSS feed for this post.
I was thinking to myself the other day, “It’s been a while since SoundCloud added new features. I hope they keep innovating.”. Well it seems the Berliners have been busy getting us an iPad app. I think musicians are more keen on design than the regular person and that’s one of the reasons I like the new iPad app. It’s pretty.
“The iPad is a revolutionary device that has changed the way we interact with content of all types. Our amazing iOS and design teams have created a fantastic app to reflect this, enabling you to interact with the sounds shared with you in a very intuitive way.” – Soundcloud.com
For more info: blog.soundcloud.com/2011/10/27/ipad/
This entry was written by , posted on October 27, 2011 at 6:55 am, filed under iPad, promotion and tagged Berlin, iOS, iPad, SoundCloud. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink and follow any comments with the RSS feed for this post.
I’m almost finished putting together my next recording studio. The new space has a huge wall of windows. In these summer months it feels like the sun is five feet away. I installed huge grey opaque curtains. They are quite dramatic in the all white room. It’s almost like if I pull them back there will be an audience sitting there waiting for me to play. It got me thinking that I should name this studio “The Grey Curtain”. So here’s my question: Do you name your recording studios?
“Complementary colors are defined to mix to grey, either additively or subtractively, and many color models place complements opposite each other in a color wheel. To produce grey in RGB displays, the R, G, and B primary light sources are combined in proportions equal to that of the white point. In four-color printing, greys are produced either by the black channel, or by an approximately equal combination of CMY primaries. Images which consist wholly of neutral colors are called monochrome, black-and-white or greyscale.” – Wikipedia
photo credit: Tm. Jhnsn.
This entry was written by , posted on August 22, 2011 at 6:26 am, filed under promotion and tagged curtain, gray, grey, Recording Studio. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink and follow any comments with the RSS feed for this post.
Frank Kvitta feat. The Horrorist – Electronic Pleasure EP by Frank Kvitta
My next big music project is a collaboration with Germany’s Frank Kvitta. There are two songs “Lick the Sweat” and “Destroyer” which are being released on Frank’s label. The remixers include: Ben Sims, DJ Rush, Dave the Drummer, Submerge, Patrick DSP, Alex Kvitta, Mario Ranieri, Boris S and David Christoph. Lick the Sweat is what people know me best for aka a dark sex fueled dance track. See you on the dancefloor!
“As one of the most booked german based techno artist, he is playing worldwide all important club and festival gigs from japan through europe, to north, middle and south america.” – frank-kvitta.net
For more info: thehorrorist.com, frank-kvitta.net, daveclarke.com
This entry was written by , posted on August 19, 2011 at 6:38 am, filed under music, promotion and tagged Ben Sims, Dave Clarke, DJ Rush, Frank Kvitta, Lick the Sweat, techno, The Horrorist, Things to Come Records. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink and follow any comments with the RSS feed for this post.
Recent Comments