So, let's see ... continuing from where I left off yesterday, this time I'll write about how it all felt / feels from musician's point of view. Were there obstacles, or surprises, ... things worth mentioning? Yes there were.
Musically speaking, something was very obvious to me as soon as I started structuring the songs for "cosmic time foundation" in last June. I had saved melodies and riffs beginning from Spring 2011 already, continuing into Autumn 2014 and I had a rough idea about what kind of songs I would be making out of them. When it comes to tempo, they came down very much like I thought they would come, yes. But the obvious thing that kind of surprised me at first was the fact, that the "more silent / peaceful elements" in the demo material got dropped during right at the start of song structuring process. I didn't feel at all like doing / adding the peaceful elements into the songs according the early demos I had saved during past 5 years. It was about following my heart & intuition. I could feel it right from there, that this album will be more ... it's hard to put the feeling into fitting words, but you could say it felt it was going to be more "straight to the point", or perhaps "more metallic approach" in style - there wasn't going to be much if any mellow moments like there were in the debut album back in 2011. Or there would be (take "leaving the giant molecular clouds" for example) but it would be dark ambient / space soundscapes, not piano/synth etc interludes. And that's also what happened. I could have crafted mellow moments and material for the songs but it simply didn't feel fitting.
Thinking about it now afterwards, I can see one explanation why it went down like this: The oldest riff / melody ideas (and rough demos) I had done, were done under one month from when "the misery quadrant" got released (April 2011). Very soon after debut album. And the next oldest demo package was from August 2011, so it too was just some months after the debut album. So this first and primary explanation is; those oldest demos were done in the 2011 album style / mood, so of course there were ideas for mellow sections, doing the material in the same style than the material is on debut album. That was 5 years ago, and it's a long time. If I had done the songs back then, they would certainly had turned out quite differently - time is the key, as it happens to be the key in the lyrics in "cosmic time foundation", too. Not exactly a coincidence, ehh. The material wanted to come out this way at this exact point of time and that's the biggest explanation, I believe.
Well, of course there's another big factor which affects the way the material turned out: The fact that Timo dropped out from M4D in late 2014 which didn't come as a big surprise back then, really. Simply a lack of time and as he had (and still has) lots of music projects of his own, couldn't participate 100% anymore. Yes, it's a story already known. But yeah. considering that he had a major role especially with the mellow material (on debut album) that's one, if smaller reason, too. On the other hand it's worth noting that it wasn't just Timo who planned the mellow moments on debut album; it was us both - some of the mellow moments (like f.e. song "dormant") were originally planned by me, and then taken further by Timo by composing piano interludes etc.
Okay, composing mellow moments aside, another big fact is that back in 2011 Timo was handling all the synth/pianoworks, most of the ambient sounds, wrote all the lyrics, recorded bassguitars as well as real drums and also handled all the vocals. Yeah, as you can see the list of what he did is a long one. It was a strong and dedicated teamwork that resulted into "the misery quadrant" album back in 2011. We shared a strong vision of that album and I still rate that album as the best result of our teamwork sessions during the years (you know, we did 3 albums for Scumfusion together, too, and "lost constellations" is my personal favorite ouf of those - even that it was getting clear during the recording of "lost constellations" that it shall be our last teamwork together).
All this is also one reason it took me so long to really put the second album into motion: Originally I was thinking about starting to record the album in late 2014 already but as Timo's leaving got confirmed then, I had to take some time off to think about how I'll continue from there. I knew I could do it all by myself (as I have been doing one man band projects since ... ages ago already) but I needed time since I value M4D high, and I wanted to make sure I was continuing it in a way I could myself genuinely respect. I know, it is my own band project and not someone else's, but it only underlines the need to be sure about matters. I wanted to be 100% sure from art(ist)'s point of view about the art itself. So, it took notably more time than I originally imagined to get "restarted" so to speak, but the end result is something I can be proud of. Sure, it was a big work for me to do pretty much all on my own, but as it's a hobby and something I love to do - it was a smooth and pretty much a very natural process as it got started.
Okay, there's this specific thing that deserves some attention from musician's point of view and no longer technically speaking like in previous blog post: The vocals. I wasn't at all worried about anything else in the music, not about recording guitars, nor bassguitars, not a bit about the programmed drums and not even about the dark ambient / space elements. All that is something that I love to do and am inspired to do - there was nothing to worry about in any of that. What I did worry at first was the vocals. Since Timo used to be the vocalist, I didn't have to think about the vocals in past - you know, I didn't even have to think about the lyrics. Even that lyrics aren't a problem for me either, I've been writing lyrics for 20+ years by now when needed. But the vocals. Yes. Or should I say: Yikes! I am not at all a growler type vocalist myself, I've always struggled with growling and that's why I even developed some abnormal vocal styles in distant past (which partially resulted into the birth of Scumfusion amongst other things) ...
So, ... to begin with, M4D had several different vocal styles as can be heard on the 2011 debut album. Originally the idea for that debut album was to have different characters in the stories (lyrics) and different vocal styles representing different characters / sides of the parties involved in the space tales. For example robot voice for machinery / artificial intelligence, low growling for desolate mankind, high pitched "mad" screaming for a lone traveller, survivor from Lossidia, our main character in space, rather normal male clean vocal sound for ... etc. Time became the problem and in the end the lyrics / stories didn't turn into tales containing different characters / parties but different vocal styles were still used. Some of them experimental like high pitched screaming vocals which were the first of that kind that Timo ever tried. This background explains why I felt "a bit worried" about the vocals on the second album. Will I ask some musician pal help me with the main vocals? Will the main vocals be low growling or what will they be? What style would fit these new songs the best? What if I myself recorded the vocals, even if it would mean something else than growling? Should I still ask someone else to help me with the vocals, still, or not? Etc.
I took a rather long break from crafting the album as I started at new work 1st September. Actually that break came at perfect timing, it gave me some time totally away from the album and as I returned to it over 6 weeks later (after mid'October) I could both listen the material with fresh ears and confirm my thoughts with vocals. The idea of doing the main vocals myself, and also not doing it the growling way - not just because "I can't growl well enough" but probably even more because I feel there are more than enough doom death bands & material out there, slow metal and growling. Another important factor was that I had been thinking about the lyrics; I had started to feel that I want the vocals to be recorded in a way, that it would be possible to hear the lyrics to some extent at least. Not just hear growling (or screaming for that matter). So yes, I started to think about clean'ish vocals more and more, it felt like the perfect solution for the album.
Then I got the idea of combining two vocals styles (as sung by me); clean, yet intentionally rather monotonic vocals and the vocal style I came up around year 2000; a style I labeled as "sewer vocals" back then - style that partially led to Scumfusion back then, too. Clean vocals would be more audible, and the "ugly" sewer vocals would be mixed more on the background. Icing on the cake came in the form of idea about recording background vocals for selected lines in selected songs with another vocalist; my wife! Who has (unlike me) been practicing singing in her youth and has in recent years wanted to get back into singing. Never recorded any vocals though, just have had clean singing as a hobby. It felt like interesting idea well worth trying even that the schedule was getting pretty tight, deadline getting closer.
In the end we succeeded pretty good, even that the vocals recording was all new thing to do for her. The tricky part is the beginning as they say, and I sure had to do my part luring her in for singing - since extreme metal music isn't exactly her style (and M4D is in some ways quite extreme). Considering the tricky starting situation with the planning of vocals, the end result is enjoyable. Some uncertainty can be sensed occasionally, perhaps (and unfortunately the lack of pop filter for vocal mic!) and that's the combination of tight schedule and someone recording vocals for the first ever time, for music style that isn't one's favorite. It was definitely what this album needed though - it gave all new edge to the material and it also gave me personally courage to sing some clean vocal parts probably most honestly I've ever sung anything in my whole life. So, not exactly a small matter in the end. I think I crossed some lines within my mind's limitations, too, when it comes to clean singing. When it comes to my own vocals, I'm mostly happy how I got the vocals recorded and there are even some moments of being extra successful: For example take the song "nebula wisdom". Listen to that song and if you didn't look into credits, you might think there's female voice doing background singing in that song, too, sure? There is not! Ha! It's all my own vocal experimentation, and you can bet I myself am the one who's most surprised with cases like this.
Okay, only one more thing to examine from musician's point of view: The lyrics. When I started writing the lyrics for "cosmic time foundation" I did have a vision about what I'm going to write, sure. I was visioning certain kind of fictional space tales, which would have a sort of believable edge to them, too, if possible. Well, believable edge ... at least for those equipped with vivid imagination. As I started writing the lyrics, things started rolling - it was bit the same than how the mellow moments were cut off from the early demos ... just the opposite way; the more I wrote, the bigger the space tales grew. From descripting one life in cosmic drama play ("m-light formation"), through tale of neighbouring planet's fall into doom ("dissolian energy foundation") ... into a interstellar machine giving birth to stars while passing by ("star birth machine") or even bigger something cloning galaxies like child's play ("cosmic scale cloning"). While the stories came and grew, it was interesting to note how time was playing a role in most of the songs. It felt so obvious that I even recorded some of the vocal lines where word "time" appears, intentionally in a more powerful way, or using multiple voices, etc. The album title came at very late stage completely out of blue and it felt as a perfect description of what those eight tales on the album form; together they form a cosmic time foundation, of course. Yeah. ^_^
Well, I guess that's more than enough afterthoughts for anyone to read - if you read this far, go and have a cup of coffee or tea to celebrate! Tomorrow I'll write still one extra thing (not even nearly as long as this, but let's say it might be interesting to some) related to this album on this blog, and then it's this one cosmic case closed.
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