Studio Recording Experience

This past weekend we've locked ourselves for a 3-day recording marathon at Blackstone Studios. We were recommended the studio by two acquaintances (one of them being H.U. Unrüh of Einstürzende Neubauten ftw!!!) and the date was set in advance.

We had a lot of fun recording. Everything turned out as planned and we even managed to slip in an additional song (where I sing!) which wasn't planned. I think we worked really well together as a whole and everyone was satisfied with the process and the result so far.

The best part was working with the studio-sound engineer-guy, Gerrit. We weren't wrong to assume that he really liked our music and we felt that he enjoyed working with us as well. It's such a great feeling of having your creative process in good hands. It also works as a sort of feedback, when a person outside the band takes the song apart and composes it together again. it makes you look at your music differently, also from the eyes of a professional.
Gerrit also suggested some creative ideas here and there that were very helpful, and overall we had very good chemistry which I consider to be huge luck.

I have recorded in a studio before a few times before and it has usually been incredibly stressful for me and I felt like placing myself under a lot of pressure, with the intention of making everything perfect.
Luckily this time was different, somehow things were running smooth, maybe thanks to me being more self confident about the instrument I play and the people I play with. And again, having someone sitting at the controls that you can trust helped a lot.

Here is a snippet of when Maike (the drummer) was recording some tambourine realness:

So aside from everything else. some cool psychedelic patterns were found...

 and some deep connections were made...

Can't wait to go on from here!

Happy week everyone, saturday in Pride Parade in Berlin, so I hope to blog after that as well :)

Maria

Minsk and a Funeral

Last week Boris' grandmother has passed away unexpectedly. The next day we found ourselves on a plane to Minsk, Belarus. This is also where Boris was born and grew up 7 years of his life before his parents (just like mine) left everything behind and immigrated to Israel. It's been 20 years since they've been there last.

I was telling Boris a few times that we should pay there a visit, to the place where he comes from, to see the city. He always dropped the idea claiming that it would be another depressing post-Soviet Union country, with unfriendly people and a stark atmosphere.
Now that we had a "reason to visit", we were happy to be wrong.

Orthodox church in the old district. It was beautiful inside.

Despite the circumstances we still had a chance to visit the center of the city. I was surprised by how spacious and huge everything is: the streets are enormous, the buildings tall and broad; everything is very grand and big, and Minsk is filled with many green parks. 

There weren't many people on the streets but the ones we saw were very friendly and "simple" in a soothing kind of way.

The Belorussian language was fun to listen to and, unlike many other Slavic languages - easy to understand. Boris and I felt at ease hearing Russian on the streets too, we've never been to a country where our mother language can be heard everywhere. 

And even more surprisingly - we didn't feel completely out of place there.

"The feat of the people is immortal"

 The heaviest part of the trip was of course the funeral. The day before that we had to go to the morgue with Boris' mother and her sister. And so we saw a dead body for the first time. Clothed but without makeup yet, lying so grimly on a metal table.
I cannot compare the feeling to anything else I've felt before, but to see Boris' mother grieving next to her dead mother has upset me greatly.
I couldn't help but remember all the horror movies and the gothic rock songs about death and dying and to think how mocking those are. You just feel sad, and empty, and you don't even realize the person who's dead used to belong to you. They just lay there, not asleep, but strange and far away. Like a doll. Lifeless.

It was a Christian Orthodox funeral, with a pope and another person who was singing. It was a good ceremony, we felt like we were saying goodbye to Boris' grandmother with respect. I loved the singing, it was very spiritual. I have nothing against the religious ceremony, it was very deep and right.
I have only witnessed a Jewish burial ceremony before and there they lay the body covered in cloth in the ground (ashes to ashes, dust to dust). Here things took a lot more time and we could actually be around the body, to look at it and to personally say goodbye.
I touched her arm, and it was stiff and cold. I could never imagine my mother burying her own mother, not to mention myself being in the same situation. I would die from sadness.

I recalled reading Smoke Gets In Your Eyes (which I most recommend!) and compared things with the book. But honestly nothing could prepare you to the real thing. Being physically there, being close to the dead person is so important. Being close with your family in this time is too.

Railway Station Square in its Stalinist glory

We've decided we would love to come back to Minsk some day. We simply liked it there, something in the atmosphere wasn't completely foreign. And though we came to the city with a different purpose, we would love to check the alternative scene there next time.

I filmed a short video during our rides through the city and the final edit turned out quite psychedelic. I missed my experimental videos!

Music is a song called Fellini by 2 rock legends - Splin and B-2, the latter is a Belorussian band, both are amazing.

Maria

First gig ever!

I just had to quickly update about our first ever band gig with Girls Like Us! It happened last week and I am still left in it, if I do say so myself - it was a hell of a first gig and I am so proud of us three for rehearsing our asses off to feel so comfortable on stage together! Friends were surprised it was our first time as (from what they told us) we looked and sounded very confident on stage.


And look at the super cool Trabant we drove in to the venue! All thanks to our drummer Maike (in the middle):

coming to the gig like 1969

My first experience with an electrical instrument on stage wasn't as "shocking" as I would expect. I mean- Boris always told me these horror stories about bad soundcheck, asshole soundmen who couldn't care less about you and not hearing some of the instruments as a result.

But the venue was really good, the sound guy was super sweet and really cared for everything. You could tell it was a somewhat high class bar and not a squat we were playing at.


Speaking of which, we actually warmed up Marakesh, an alternative rock band originally from Ukrane, they were pretty big there from what it seemed and even warmed up Placebo in their home land at the time. So we were stoked to play with them, and needless to say they were awesome live, very tight and of course- Mark is one charming frontman!


I still need to get proper photos, but in the meantime here's a short clip from the only song where I sing lead vocals :D
It is sadly only the ending of the song, but I am still happy we've got some kind of recording! More to come in the future I hope.

Next gig is at the end of the month, can't wait already!

Hope you're having a nice summery time! I am still busy as hell, as it's always is when summer semester comes around.

Maria

Atmospheric video

I finally sat down and edited some clips from our trip to Copenhagen last month. The video was taken on the ferry ride from Germany to Denmark, which is always my favorite part of the 7 hour bus ride. You get to go on the deck and enjoy the wind and sea.
I wrote about my fear of the sea before, but as long as there are little to no waves it´s fine, calming and inspiring :)

The editing is bad and I can do some much better, but a windows movie maker and an old laptop is all I have.
I was happy to finally find a song with the perfect atmosphere - Benjamin by Chelsea Wolfe.

Hope it will gloomen your day :)

N. Finsternis

Starting 2015 with creativity

New Year´s eve was spent well with friends, food and a lot of champagne. We enjoyed firing some fireworks outside at midnight as well, and I believe the part that I like most about the new year in Berlin is how the city turns into a 3rd World War reality for a couple of hours: people are taking the fireworks very seriously, up to the point where it´s dangerous to walk the streets, especially towards midnight. I still consider it to be very fun, no matter how scary or stupid it is.

We had the most beautiful snow for like 2 days, but it was all melted down right for the new year. At least it wasn´t that cold.

I was also very motivated by your resolutions posts and decided to get in shape -gasp!-. So on the first day of the new year, after I woke up at like 16:00, I did some exercise and actually felt good about myself. So I hope to continue hardening my buns, no harm in that. I will probably quit in a few days to compensate it with food anyway.

Also, I managed to scramble this cliche experimental video yesterday, when after listening to the soundtrack of Only Lovers Left Alive for the hundredth time, I realized how much it inspires me, and next thing I knew my hands reached for my camera and any occult item I could find at home.
It is a lot of fun for me to be creating these silly videos, and even if the outcome is facepalmingly amateur I am still happy to share it. So here you go:

Experimental video No.1 using the music of  Josef Van Wissen and SQÜRL

I also have a few photography ideas in plan, since it has been ages since I have taken pictures, and I used to do it a lot the past 2 years. 

But before I get caught in any other creative hobbies I must attend to university matters first, since the second half (even less!) of the semester is in full bloom, which will require a lot of homework, reports and Hausarbeiten to do.

I hope you will have a wonderful winter and an amazing start in the new year!

N. Finsternis

My first ever creative video

I wanted to make creative videos [specifically music videos] for many years, but never knew how to approach it, from where to begin and how to edit everything that it would look the way I want it.
Practically every song I listen to plays inside my head as a music video or a dance performance. If there are people who like not to imagine anything while listening to their favorite music, or to dance perhaps, then I would be the person who dreams to make music videos and touching or heartbreaking scene to my most loved tunes.

And I made a fan video at last, with the help of dear Boris of course :)
It was a lot of fun making this, tricky but interesting getting into details. I had all scenes planned in my head, some I sketched before filming to know how the settings can look like.
The biggest problem was to find a normal video editing software that would not either stuck my entire computer, make bugs in the finished video file or mess everything up. At the end I worked with Adobe Premiere Elements, which wasn't perfect at all and some takes get stuck in the beginning, but I couldn't fix it. And I saved the file in Windows Movie Maker, because I can't call myself professionally amateur for nothing.
I can also tell that my self gained experience and knowledge in photography helped a whole lot to how a scene should [or could] look like, what angle can be interesting and how to use the space that I have in my frame to benefit the scene. The only problem was that I didn't have a camera stand, so some scenes that were supposed to look still and not shaky [and there are some shaky scenes on purpose] look a bit messed up. But here's a conclusion for next time I guess.

Overall I believe that for a first in a lifetime directed video it turned out fine.
I have decided to take Metro Decay, one of my favorite Post Punk bands ever for a start. I wanted to take the song Keimillia which is my favorite, but decided to save it for later when I'll have more experience. So I took the song Ebenoz from the same album instead.

Fun Fact: one of the reasons for me taking Metro Decay is that first of all, the band doesn't exist anymore so I won't be afraid of copyright vengeance, and second of all, I adore this band so much [and the previously mentioned song Keimillia especially] and I try to show them to my friends or new people that I know and tell them how amazing they are. But no one appreciates this bands and worships it as much as I do ^^''

Please go to my youtube channel and watch it there in high resolution, instead of the tiny window here, it's not worth it :)
If you have time feel free to comment, express your opinion and critique! It would help me a lot!

Thanks ahead for watching!

N. Finsternis

The Secret Elevators @ The Municipality of Schoeneberg District

I am having quite a busy week because our beloved and best friend Avichai came to visit us from Israel this Sunday. He is staying at out place for one week and then he spends another week at a different friend.

I am so tired after going around the city for entire days, not to mention having language school every morning.
Which is why I have decided to share this lovely video with you internet.

We have discovered it with Boris 4 months ago, but didn't have a chance to film it properly.
Presenting to you- the creepy elevators of the municipality of Schoeneberg district in Berlin!
Now this is something you can never discover as a tourist! God thank bureaucracy for a change ;)

I'm afraid it's way too small here, please go to youtube and watch it on a big screen!

the song Laugh Clown Laugh by Kan Kan was used in this video.

More stuff to come soon, now I shall rest!

Have a wonderful almost weekend!!!

N. Finsternis

Why am I so suddenly depressed?

Recently I have been very busy with living and had no time to relax.
Holidays required pointless visits to different meals and family meetings that were a complete waste of time for me, and as the holidays ended the everyday life didn't leave any time to sleep or rest.

I spent sodomizingly tiring days at work that had me so fed up  wanted to just leave and never come back, but luckily I convinced myself not to do so hence I really need the money and eventually the place where I work is too convenient and flexible for my ever changing daily life.

I've also been down for some days but I will have a few days to rest at last, and I've been also busy with studying german, drawing and customizing clothes which generally always makes me feel better and doesn't let me drown into complete despair.

Here are some pictures of the last day's holiday and some random shots at work:

   The leckless is by ~Pneuma Sonata!

 What is comforting me is that those tiny signs of autumn at last in the air: I am actually sleeping with clothes at night covered with a blanket, I can AT LAST wear two stocking at once and layer clothes like a descent human being as I love to, I can ware chokers without.. ehm.. choking from heat and sweat.. and I can finally wear my favorite combat boots!!! I am so happy!

My 21th birthday is soon to come on the 5th of October, which will follow along our new apartment, the loads of stuff we would have to move from here to there etc.... I am pleased with the new one, I am dying to move already. Luckily my father surprisingly offered his help by loading stuff in his car to help us move. This I didn't expect, however this is extra nice of him. Boris' dad is obviously helping us as well, but that's not a surprise :)

But what I am really waiting for is my little vacation. I will have it from the 5th to celebrate my birthday properly, because I will never ever have a day at work on my birthday! And this will follow a whole week i am taking off from work for final apartment arrangements and to finally set down.
We are being supported by Boris' grandmother, who kindly, decided to give us a lot of money for the holiday. She isn't at all rich, but that gesture was something I couldn't expect in a million years!
I am afraid this would fool me to actually count on the people I consider my family. Hope I won't and will only count on myself! I hate when these thought fill my head.

And to at least try and end this post on a positive note, I will put up here a video we did yesterday when I tried to walk in heelless heels! Haha, they are actually for real!

Stay strong,

Nebel. 

Spooky Bats At Night

What a nice Friday it was. After convincing some friends that they should hang out with us and drink beer at our favorite pub, this Friday turned out to be better as expected.
Boris was supposed to DJ again at another Dubstep Metal + Dark 80's event [insert heart pain here] but at the very last moment the owner of the place told him he wouldn't pay him because he is only a beginner DJ and that's the concept... Boris opposed the "Punk Way" saying he won't play, following a serious discussion with the owner about how some people [especially in Israel] would do anything to make it the cheapest way to "support" the alternative culture. Fuck this stupid place, will go to our old Goth Club, they're nicer anyway and always have good parties.

And this is what I was wearing for yesterday's night:

 Pardon out messy apartment, we're moving soon. That's not really an excuse.

A new mesh shirt I bought since it's not anxiously hot to ware it. I can even wear my stockings at last!

An owl!

And another thing I wanted to do for a long time ago.

A silly video!!