Category: Music

Menneisyyden Laulut: One Year Later and Album III news

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Hey there, Linnalapset! Been a while since I have posted on here, but do not worry, Linnalapsi is not forgotten! Quite the contrary, actually, as work on the third album continues slowly as I focus on other projects. But this is no place to talk about those, and let’s not talking about the nine-,eight-,ten- (?)-track Linnalapsi III just album yet. It’s time to take a look back on “Menneisyyden Laulut” (second Linnalapsi album, to be referenced here as ‘ML’), which I released one year ago today.

It’s weird to think that it has been a year since I released ML, especially since it seem like it took a billion freakin’ years to come out. While the initial splash wasn’t as big as I anticipated (y’know, not getting me the top spot at Wacken and all…), I slowly began to see ML pop on random blogs and metal tracker websites from all over the world. For the first time ever, Linnalapsi was somewhere on the web where I didn’t personally put it, which is pretty damn cool (and nice for a change).

Some statistics. . .

If you know me personally, you’ll know that I am stats freak (just ask my friends about my custom-made Xbox FIFA stats that one summer…). Now and then throughout the last year, I was monitoring Linnalapsi’s “growth” throughout the web. While it didn’t grow into a massive tree or anything, here is what I found:

-In the year after the release of ML, Linnalapsi’s official website received a 280% increase in hits than the previous year, the most of which came from Germany. Besides the USA, Russia, Finland, and UK were the most frequent visitors. That’s pretty cool!

-Linnalapsi and ML have popped up on numerous metal bloggy things and forums from all over the world (even though they all say I’m from Finland, lol). According to my bandcamp site and just one other site that gives downloads numbers, ML has been downloaded 77 times. That averages out to someone downloading the album every five or so days. That’s not too hot, but remember, this is just the data from TWO of the sites. Odin only knows how many more times ML has been downloaded from all those other file-sharing sites!

-On Youtube, the ML videos have amassed a little under 2,000 views. That is nothing compared to other bands’ 9,000 or even big bands’ 40,000 (a month) views, but hey, I’ll take it.

Compared to the first album’s numbers, that is pretty impressive (there were months when this site got zero hits). With numbers like that, we can guess that about 1,000 new people learned about Linnalapsi last year. Hell, even if it’s 500 new people, that’s still 500 new people who didn’t know about you or your music a year ago. And as one of my friends said it, ‘Dude, someone is Estonia could have you on there iPod.” He was right.” SOMEONE IN ESTONIA *COULD* HAVE ME ON THEIR IPOD, and that’s a pretty encouraging thought.

Marching Ahead to Album III

Despite one nice, decent review and a couple other statements of “good work, dude”, ML was not received with much love by, well, anyone. That’s all right, though. I can see ML’s faults now: some of the song structures are repetitive, the drumwork (which I had no clue about) can be a bit boring, the synthy sounds are not desirable, and my growling (and just regular) vocals are no good. I might have known some of this before, but either wasn’t mature enough of a composer, or didn’t take Linnalapsi seriously enough to make it absolutely great. That’s all right, though, ML is the best album I could have made at that time, just as the first album, “Laulu Linnalapsien” was the best I could do at that time.

But now is now, and with each month, or riff, or song, you learn to get better at things. I feel like there is an immense quality gap between the first and second album, and I feel the same will happen again for album III. I always hear composers and musicians saying “our new album is going to be the best we’ve ever done”, and while I’ve never really believed it, I can now understand where it is coming from. Just as I was assuring you my second album would be better than the first, I can guarantee without a doubt in my mind that the upcoming Linnalapsi album will be the best one so far! Most of the songs’ demo-versions are done (or close to being done), and they’re CATCHY AS HELL. Whether it’s the evil poundings of a piano, the sinister plucking of a banjo, the roar of mischievous horns, an epic call for battle, or that tear-jerkin’ melancholic solo, Linnalapsi III will be sure to get the blood of any folk-metal fan riling. I guess what I am trying to say is that these new songs have gotten MY blood riling, and I’m excited to share them with all of you (y’know, in a billion years when they’re done).

Thanks for listening,

Oh, and if you haven’t downloaded ML yet, you can do so here!

Kippis, Prost, Cheers,

Casey of Linnalapsi

Listen to the first six songs from the new Fadenfreude album!

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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.

Linnalapsi: Self Promotion and Album 3 news

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Hello, fellow Linnalapset! Sorry I haven’t updated in a long time, but lots of things have been going over here!

First off, I wanted to address September 12, 2012’s Korpiklaani concert at the Whiskey a Go Go in Los Angeles. Even though it featured some of my least favorite folk metallers, Korpiklaani played absolutely wonderfully. They were having a good time, we were having a good time. It was really, great fun (even though they didn’t STILL didn’t play “Metsämies”, jerks). After the show I handed out forty-two CDs of Linnalapsi for free to anyone I could find. I gave out all of them, and in the month since the concert, virtually no one has visited either this site or the bandcamp site (which were written on the front cover). That’s totally fine. At least it’s OUT THERE, in the hands of my target audience. This foxy girl said that she liked my cover artwork, that it had a “good energy”. That was pretty cool, I guess. In addition to getting kudos on my artwork, I met Melkor Mortis of The Mordor Horde, who website can be found here. Support them and download their demo!

Go forth, my children!

So yes, not many people checking out “Mennesiyyden Laulut” via bandcamp, but that’s alright. I was snooping around the interwebs and found “Menneisyyden Laulut” on some Estonian and Russian sites, and on one site, found that it had at least been downloaded eighteen times. That’s a lot (sorta). So, I guess it’s being downloaded a lot more than I was expecting, which is good. Getting out there slowly…excellent.

While “Menneisyyden Laulut” slowly circulates the most unpopulated corners of the Internet, album 3 is slowly starting to form, and what I mean by that is, I don’t work on it every day, or even every week. Some songs have been done for a year, others are in a creative limbo, and others are just starrting to sprout, which is cool. Just as I promised the second album would be better than the first, this one will be better than the second. Well, I’m not promising ANYTHING, but what I can say is that I dig some of the new songs. One of them, actually, sounds like A REAL SONG, which is pretty gratifying.

One thing I’ve argued with myself about is a musical direction. All bands have one, y’know? Finntroll is the scary, carnival-esque, goofy, jazzy type band. Enisferum is more epic and guitar-lead-and-rythm based. Korpiklaani is total folk, violins and accordions going nuts in every song. Turisas is fit with epic brass, movie-score fanfare. When looking at Linnalapsi 3, I see songs that are scary, troll-y, dreary, and then songs that are epic, and then some that are melancholic and pretty. What the hell?

So an idea has been circulating in my brain that this would be a concept album of sorts. Not so much in the way that it’s all about one thing, but simply that all the dark songs come first and the softer, more epic ones come later. For some reason, I am seeing a dark forest for the first half, and a coastline for the last half. Could a weary group of soldiers get lost in a scary forest, to finally to escape and join their comrades for some battles and melancholic contemplation on the beach? While I don’t like the idea of following a narrative, this would be a good way to separate the conflicting styles. I could, y’know, just do ONE type of folk metal, but whatever. Gordon Ramsay says a good restaurant does one type of food excellently. A shitty restaurant does a whole bunch shittily. Does it apply to folk metal bands and musical directions, too? Oh well, whatever.

Oh yea, and my computer, the one on which the previous two Linnalapsi albums were made, is in a state of, well, not working. I wouldn’t call it dead, per se, just…not really turning on. Which means that the recording of the third LInnalapsi album might have to be on another computer. This isn’t bad, neccesarily, but my old comp had all my recording programs all ready to go. Now I have to mess with all this new shit. Not to mention that the laptop I am currently using has a different sound card than my old one, so all my songs fit with creepy, forboding strings and sythn effects sound, with a new sound card, like the Star Wars Cantina. Might have to do some retooling of instruments, but oh well, whatever!

So yea, that’s what happening over here in terms of Linnalapsi. New songs, all placed randomly on the musical-direction-ph-scale, being prepared for a computer that is (almost) dead. Sounds ideal! Other than that, nothing going on, really. Just enjoy “Menneisyyden Laulut” for a couple more years until Linnalapsi 3 comes out. I’m suspecting it will, like the gap between the first two albums, take two years to come out, which would place it in the Fall of 2014. I’m just guessing, of course, but it’s still fun to make dates and make things like this:

Anyway, that’s all for now. Now I’m going to dance to one of the new, groovy songs. Until next time!

Kippis,

Casey of Linnalapsi

Die Bäckerei ist geschlossen

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Cover artwork

Die Bäckerei ist geschlossen (German for “The bakery is closed”) is the first full-length album from my industrial metal music project Fadenfreude. It was released May 18, 2012 on Bandcamp. Except for the Finnish lyrics on track 4, all lyrics are German.

Track Listing:

1. Intro
2. Dieses mal sieht sein Haar nicht so blöd aus (This time his hair doesn’t look so stupid)
3. Bewusstseinskontrolle (Mind control)
4. Numerot Huvi (The Finnish words for “Numbers” and “Fun”)
5. Fankummer (Fan-pain)
6. Unzuverlässig (Flaky)
7. Wahnsinn (Insanity)
8. Smaragd, Silber, und Gold (Emerald, Silver, and Gold)
9. Hilf Mir (Help Me)
10. Essendiebe (Food-thieves)
11. Die Bäckerei ist geschlossen (The Bakery is closed)
12. KnowwhatImean

Credits:

All music, lyrics, vocals, and guitars by Casey Poma
Backing vocals on “KnowwhatImean” by Ralph Blanchard

Cover artwork by Casey Poma

Menneisyyden Laulut

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Album Cover

Menneisyyden Laulut is the second full-length album from my folk metal music project Linnalapsi. Do to lack of equipment, all the music is entirely from sound banks. The album was released on May 18, 2012 through Bandcamp. Get the album from my bandcamp here!

Track Listing:

1. Tyyntä myrskyn edellä (Calm before the storm)
2. The Invasion
3. Schwert (Sword)
4. Flammenheim (Flame-home)
5. Greedy Bastards
6. Forstfest (Forest fest)
7. Burnt the Kalkanuut (Burnt the Turkey)
8. In My Dreams
9. Sometimes
10. Der Zeichner (The Illustrator)
11. Geist des Berges (Spirit of the Mountain)
12. I Don’t Work Tomorrow
13. Sininen Taivas (Blue Skies)

Credits:

All music, lyrics, and vocals by Casey Poma
Backing vocals on “Greedy Bastards”: Ralph Blanchard

Cover Art and Photograph by Casey Poma

Produced and Recorded November 2009 to May 2012
Made with: Guitar Pro 5, iTunes, Guitar Rig, Adobe Premiere Pro, Audacity