Hello, everyone! Casey from Fadenfreude here with some, yes, I can’t believe it, Fadenfreude news. Who would have thought my little industrial metal experiment from last year would turn into something that I, well, care about? And care about enough to give it news? Oh well, things happen, and I’m happy to welcome Fadenfreude as the next entity in my creative catalog (because I LOVE having a billion projects to work on. . .)

As you no doubt know, last month was February Album Writing Month (or FAWM for short), in which thousands of people around the world attempt to write 14 songs during the shortest month of the year. I completed this last year (resulting in the first Fadenfreude album, available for listening here!), and was intent on creating the second Fadenfreude album.

After full time job-ness, project schedulin’, a concert, feeling all around burnt-out, and on the last day severe technical problems, I only managed to write six songs. That’s 42.8%, which, in every education system in the world is a failing grade (except maybe the United States). I could have bumped up my song total to 7 had my computer randomly begun to have a problem with recording (I love cheap stuff so much!). All excuses aside, here are the six tracks which will appear on the next Fadenfreude album, to be released hopefully sometime later this year.

Some are completely done, while some need an extra bit of ornamentation that a couple additional tracks of strings or electronic whatnot could easily do. They’re all at varying degrees of volume, having not yet been through the meticulous polishing process (that comes later). All the lyrics are in German, but I’ll provide a little summary for each one, as well as a link to the full lyrics and English translations. So grab your headphones and turn it up!

1. Meister aller Herren (Master of all Misters)

A song about Mr. Feeny, the teacher and mentor character from the great ’90s show “Boy Meets World.” Explains how he strikes fear and is boring, but is also smart and intelligent. As the songs states, he’s “had many experiences and already found the answers for us.” Some men just want to see the world learn. Click here for a link for the full lyrics and translation.

2. Kostenlose Möbel (Free Furniture)

Chronicles the life of free furniture hunting and all its dangers. “Crooked nails, ripped cushions, doesn’t bug me at all!” Decorating on a budget can lead to, well, “eclectic” interior design principles, but as the song states, the bank account says “Nein!” when trying to buy nice things.  Click here for a link for the full lyrics and translation.

3. Jeden Tag Los (Every Day Go)

My first real serious song, as in meaning the entire lyrics aren’t a joke. I usually don’t like songs about partying, or feeling good, like P!nk’s “Get the Party Started” or “Let’s get it stared” by The Black Eyed Peas. Like, we’re already partying, do we need to say, “yea, let’s party!!”? Despite my aversion to such titles, I wrote one (because the world doesn’t make sense). And what started as a party song turned into a metaphor for life and how we must “go, go, go! (los, los, los!)” every day because we won’t be here forever. Weird! Click here for a link for the full lyrics and translation.

4. Stuttgart

Another type of song that has always perplexed me is the song about a city. Like, how can you write a song about a city? Every week, FAWM would present its FAWMers with a challenge, one of which was to write a song about a city. I had no intention of doing this, since I have only really lived in towns (and didn’t want to write a song about L.A. . .), but eventually decided I should give my study-abroad-second-semester home a shout-out: Stuttgart. At the end, I say all the ‘burbs I frequented or my friends lived in. Mine, Vaihingen, is mentioned last. Click here for a link for the full lyrics and translation.

5. Verschränkte Melodien (Intertwined Melodies)

“Every person is a melody, that has specific properties. A tempo and instrument, the soul about the sheet music. And sometimes when people meet each other, no matter how they arrived there, the melodies mix together and they go together perfectly.” So begins the most serious song Fadenfreude (and just me in general) has ever tried. A melancholy song for those us whose melodies with others might have mixed, but not been happy songs. It is common for people to believe in a soul mate, some mystery person you’re destined to share a life of happiness and togetherness with. But what if we have sad soul mates, too, who we’re destined to have sad stories with? “At first, smiles, at the end, tears, because not every song is happy”. Click here for a link for the full lyrics and translation.

6. Plastik (Plastic)

A companion piece to the furniture-ode above, “Plastik” chronicles the life of the plastic-bottle Vodka drinker, who, despite wanting quality, doesn’t want to spend too much money (because they can’t). Click here for a link for the full lyrics and translation.

So that’s that. I have another song ready for recording, but am currently fixing my technical problems with recording (or trying to fix it and getting frustrated as hell). I’ll get back to that later for sure. Hope you enjoyed this little sample! I’ll get working on those other songs ASAP! Signing off for now.