sunnuntai 25. marraskuuta 2018

"Downtuned" is a (direct translation) word used to describe my mood in my psychiatric assessment documents. I'm sure they wouldn't use that word in english, but apparently in finnish it's a thing. And yes once more I have to point out that it's a DIRECT TRANSLATION of the word. Yes you get it. But it's funny like that.
Then I think about the music I have written and try to remember what guitar tunings I have used over the years to do Charming Timur.
Surprisingly a lot of it is just 7-string normal tuning, with occasional jumps down to something like 7-string D-tuning. Yes, with 7-strings, not 6-strings. And then there are a few drop-A tunings with the 7-string which is not really big of a deal whatsoever. Later on I have used G-tuning on the 7-string while having another 7-string guitar at normal tuning for melody/lead guitar purposes. Most of the stuff you listeners might think as "electronic" or "synth" are actually played with a guitar, but with a ton of effects and technique that makes it sound less like an obvious guitar. (Just don't bend anything anywhere and it can sound like a synth, especially if you also tap some of the notes) AND YES there are also electronic and synth parts in my music too...go figure...
And then we get to the more current stuff (Which no-one has heard yet) where I use an 8-string, mostly in standard tuning or down half a step. And then occasionally something like drop D# or E, but not that often. It gets kind of unnecessary and starts to just sound like a bass guitar so what's the point? The bass guitar I have now is tuned to C# tuning... okay this is getting ridiculous!
Who cares what tuning people play in? It's gonna sound almost the same when you play it at home with whatever tuning you have going on. It's a small difference that people obsess a little too much about. Of course at some point 6 strings are just not gonna be low enough, but then again just distort a bass guitar and have a blast!

Fun fact: never owned a regular 6-string guitar. I'm thinking of buying one to be my new lead guitar. Perhaps it would sound better if I buy a good quality one?
"Sound better" and "Charming Timur"... nah, probably not...


maanantai 30. heinäkuuta 2018

Ambiguous Mooooon

Life can feel oddly dark even when it's +35 C outside. Loneliness and a heatwave are not the best combination. Yeah in general I'm quite a lonely person, despite however socially skilled or popular I might seem. Well that's enough of complaining, I'll save the rest for my songs.

And now for the actual topic:
I released that album "There is no Going Back" in the early summer with "no warning",  and obviously I'm already planning new material because...why not?... And then there's the secret album or "hidden album" that people get when they buy CDs from me on bandcamp. Well there's only 10 copies so not a lot to go around with, but after that I'll put the album on bandcamp for free download for everyone. 
I'm having a hard time figuring out a) what people would like to hear from Charming Timur in the future, b) what I would actually like to do in the future, c) how should I go about doing new material? 
Focusing a lot more on question C than the other two, my mind is really split between various options and ideas. I could try to start constantly improving the sound quality or I could start doing some really weird...and not to put myself on a pedestal, but to just honestly point out: when I say weird, it's like  double-triple weird for normal people...weird songs. Those won't even need to have improved production quality or they might be impossible to have any of that, because it might be intended to be very noisy. Obviously I could do both, but which now and what later? 

 Going back to the topic of There is no Going Back, which is very accurately described here: http://occultblackmetalzine.blogspot.com/2018/07/charming-timurthere-is-no-going.html
it's an example of what I mean with the improved sound quality. You can download it for free so no-one needs to risk any money in case the album would be unpleasant to your sensitive ears bandcamp link here so this is quite just the beginning, I know I could just put my head into it and also hire professional people to help me out and it would be almost radio quality stuff, but then how much of the original Charming Timur feeling would it have left? And no I'm not worried about "selling out", it's more that the whole idea of Charming Timur was in the noisy (actually rather unique) over-the-top guitar distortion and all the sound-fx on the vocals. 

I doubt that a lot of people care either way. I'm writing this to basically pass the time. Why pass the time when you could enjoy time? Well, I enjoyed writing this, so,...now my thoughts are in a pretzel. Brain freeze. Be happy even for simple stuff! 

maanantai 9. heinäkuuta 2018

Things I forgot to write about


So yeah, I released "Ther Is No Going Back" as a very minimalistic print of about 10 copies. I didn't have a promo campaign for it, and all that other stuff, so yeah I just didn't care.

I think there's probably gonna be like only THREE albums in the entire future of Charming Timur that will have serious PR campaigns anymore and after that it's just putting garbage online for a long time. Maybe after ten years or something I will get back on the PR-Publicly-releasing-music-WAGON again.

Another thing is the album called: BETWEEN WORLDS. It's a secret album that will only be given to people who buy ANY of my other albums (physical copy ofc so I can send you the CD, it's only on CD now until every copy is gone and then I will put it online so everyone can enjoy it, otherwise it would be unfair.) There will only be 10 copies of this album too, so it won't take forever until it's online and free, no worries. Before that, I'm not gonna say anything about the album itself.

Also if the 10 TINGB albums are all sold out, I will only print more if someone personally requests a copy. Well this actually applies to all of my albums. Once they're out, they're out. I'm gonna celebrate it, not feel like OMG I NEED TO MAKE NEW COPIES.

I'm so tired of being an active musician... I'm so tired of being alive...


torstai 22. maaliskuuta 2018

Yes okay fine! I will make new material!

So releasing a "greatest hits" album (ironically as an unknown artist like myself) apparently didn't catch on with everyone, and some people drew some extreme conclusions etc...
I just wanted to get some new attention for the songs I had done in the past that already back then were a bit more successful than others. Anyway this kind of stunt will not happen again (well maybe just ONE TIME in the far far far faaaaaar future) and I'm going to be releasing completely unheard stuff instead.

Also CDs won't be coming for every album anymore. Only certain releases will be printed on a CD, the rest will be just online and maybe I will find some funny format to release one or two of the future albums.

Some very random off-the-top-of-my-head list of what it's gonna be like:
- online album
- online EP
- bigger budget release album on CD
- online album
- online album
- maybe somekind of CD release
- online EP
- weird physical format album (vinyl, casette-tape, I don't know...)
- maybe another CD

And no I definitely don't have this much material ready yet, not even close, this is just a hypothetical example of how I'm going to be working from now on. Not so many people are interested in buying physical copies of albums anymore, but then it's still somekind of a stigma that an album needs to be released on a physical format to be taken 100% seriously for some of the music media out there. I also think it's fun to have CDs too, so we will see what the future brings...

Anyhow, here's some new music:

keskiviikko 7. helmikuuta 2018