Loch Ness: The Webseries and Me

I moved down to the glorious Los Angeles area to work in the movies, armed with a film degree and the naivety of one fresh from University. Now this is not a post to complain about the absolutely impenetrable wall that is Breaking In Hollywood, but a post to tell you that, after not working on as many productions as I would have thought (like practically none), I finally got to work in one of those places where a bunch of people are tired and starving and about to cry/give it all up at any moment: a movie set.

Well, it was more like a webseries set. Well, more like a webseries location (we were just at a dude’s house), but there was a fancy camera, real lights, an HD monitor, and sandbags, which all means this was a legitimate production (especially the sandbags).

The shoot was for the webseries coming out soon, titled Loch Ness, a show about a high-school folk metal band who tries to make it happen despite various complications. I don’t know if you read that closely, but it’s a show about a FOLK METAL band, which, if you don’t know, sits extremely high on my list of things I find interesting. It also sits high on my list of things I try to convince normal people are cool.

Kivimetsan Druidi
It’s really hard sometimes.

In addition to helping out the only day I was free (the other day was an all-night shoot, which would have been followed by a full day at work. Translation = YaIdon’tthinkso), I provided the art department with some awesome photos of my fake (real?) metal one-man project (band?), Linnalapsi. Back when it was still a joke, and had lyrics like “We are ready for battle/ we are quick like wolves, our enemies slow like cattle“, I coerced convinced a bunch of friends of mine to pose as your run-of-the-mill folk metal band with access to forests and facepaint.

Early on, I told my a friend that my main goal for Linnalapsi was to get someone to play one of the technology-restricted, midi-tastic Linnalapsi songs with real instruments. I mean, sure, the main goal now is taking the metal world by storm (like why wouldn’t it be?), but for the mean time, getting some people to play a song seemed a little more doable. After years of complete obscurity, I was down to settle for anyone to even notice or mention Linnalapsi at all. So the fact that a poster for Linnalapsi is featured in Loch Ness: The Webseries is still both cool and surprising to me. Check it out:

Loch_Ness_Linnalapsi_Poster
I apparently have a gig next month.

Of course, they could totally cut the scene it’s in and re-shoot it entirely or whatever, but as far as I know, this little poster will be among the others in the scene, which is pretty damn awesome. Someone might not have covered one of my songs yet, but if my little joke band can get this far after five years, will could it possibly go in another five?

Check out some of the production pics posted below, and then be sure to follow the show’s Facebook and Twitter and Instavine and whatever new social media has been invented in the last five minutes. I have to go now and practice for my May 19th show. Does anyone know where the Valkyrie Castle is?

-Casey of movie-sets and Linnalapsi

Production Pics!

Loch_Ness_1
Extras, standing around, “working”.
Loch_Ness_2
Myself and three others as extras. I hit my head on that light next to me and started bleeding. It was pretty metal.
Loch_Ness_4
See his hand on the left? That shot is looking pret-ty nice!
Loch_Ness_Band_Photo
This is surprisingly not a band photo. Maybe “extra photos” look the same?

Loch Ness Links!

Official Website
Loch Ness IMDb
Loch Ness Facebook
Loch Ness Twitter
Loch Ness Kickstarter

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Linnalapsi

Linnalapsi was my very first folk metal music project and first music project overall. It was founded in late 2008 when I had made a few parody rap songs, one of which was a Viking-metal themed rap song. A few more songs were written as spoofs of Viking metal, and eventually the project grew to cover two albums as of 2012.

Linnalapsi is often comedic and spoof-heavy, although there are some more serious songs in the body of work. Since I had zero money for equipment, all of Linnalapsi’s music is generated by computer, either through MIDI sounds or electronic “re-creations” of real instruments. I will not lie and say that I don’t want to re-record all of Linnalapsi’s music someday (with some slight compositional tweaks).

Taking heavy influence from folk metal bands like Finntroll, Ensiferum, Korpiklaani, Alestorm, and early Turisas, I have tried to combine elements of folk and Viking metal (as well as punk and industrial metal) in my pieces. My lyrics are mostly in English, although a good number of songs are also in German.

My lyrics deal mostly with adventurers of days gone past, chronicling forest adventures, drinking adventures, silly mishaps, and epic battles.

To date, I have made two full-length albums, the newest being Menneisyyden Laulut, released May 18, 2012. Two EPs, each representing a subgenre of folk metal, are planned for the future with an unknown release date.

Discography

2010 – Laulu Linnalapsien
2012 – Menneisyyden Laulut

Music Videos

2009: Battle Chaos (often mispelled “Choas”)
2009: Hei
2009: Olut ja Vapiti
2009: Spears to the Sky

Images

Here is a gallery of images pertaining to Linnalapsi! They are presented in chronological order. I have provided some captions to describe what was happening in each one. Enjoy!

Menneisyyden Laulut

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