Twitch is taking a bit of a hiatus from live streams over the Holiday Season. However, beginning December 1st/2020 we'll be celebrating 25 Days of Twitchmas on our Instagram here! As well as on our Twitch Facebook Page here!
What will it entail..? From watching black and white horror movies, to drinking eggnog... to watching live industrial concert replays... to watching industrial music documentaries... to reading industrial history books, or scene related books, decorating the Twitchmas tree... and even some Christmas shit too!!
...Why? Cause hey... Why the fuck not!! In the same vein as Halloween, we feel this year has gone by waaaay to quickly, and we kinda just want to slow things down, and really enjoy the holiday season, and really just enjoy life in general! This is a new tradition for us... in celebrating it for 25 days (usually it's just a day), but we've got all kinds of stuff planned!!
We hope you join us... and there might be a surprise or two as well! 😉
Wow, when you thought online live streamed festivals couldn't get any better, COLDWAVES put together an amazing festival!! A lot of the other festivals were basically just live streamed band performances, but this festival (granted a lot of this stuff was pre-recorded)... amazing... there's all kinds of amazing videos, performances, music video commentary (Chris Vrenna, Martin Atkins, and what I do believe is the director for both "Down In It" and "Head Like A Hole" video(s), talk about Nine Inch Nails "Head Like A Hole" as well as "Down In It" and the stories around the videos and how they were made, and kinda what happened around the filming of those videos)... even premiers of new music videos and all that kind of stuff... great!! I honestly think this is the best live streamed festival so far!! Makes me want to actually be at a future COLDWAVES! If you missed it, you really missed out!! Plus, they are trying to raise funds for the Darkest Before Dawn charity... the blurb says this:
"Welcome to Darkest Before Dawn. We are a new non-profit, based in Chicago and Los Angeles, with one simple yet urgent goal: to provide resources, support, and community for our nightlife, restaurant and music venue industry, who's late hours and isolated commutes leave them susceptible to depression, addiction and suicide. Recent data points to a high rate of chemical dependency and suicide for this demographic in our country, especially in the very industries built to provide excitement, leisure and happiness to everyone else. They are the people heading home in the early morning hours, when businesses are closed, the streets are empty, and it truly is the darkest period of time before the dawn."
I realize this is a U.S. charity, but for folks who read this blog that are from the U.S., you can check out Darkest Before Dawn here!
Here's a Canadian Musician charity... it's called UNISON! Here's a little blurb about them:
"Unison Benevolent Fund is a non-profit, registered charity that provides counselling and emergency relief services to the Canadian music community. We are here to help professional music-makers in times of hardship, illness or economic difficulties."
Yes... it's been quite sometime since I've given Nine Inch Nails a good listen. I found that during this pandemic, the lyrics are a little too depressing to really focus on it and enjoy listening to it, but last night "Head Like A Hole (Soil)" randomly came on my playlist... and it reminded me, that first I love Nine Inch Nails, and second... I love industrial music... not sure why, the mix just really clicked, and I felt inspired! So, the rest of yesterday and today I've been listening to NIN's back-catalogue... and really enjoying it. Not sure what changed there... but it seems to be what I want to listen to right now.
I thought I would share what tracks in particular are inspiring me right now:
(Nine Inch Nails "Head Like A Hole (Soil)")
I remember when I first heard this track, total inspiration, has a bit of a hiphop vibe:
(Nine Inch Nails "Closer (Deviation)")
This particular track, I remember when I first got this CD, loved it! Lot's of inspiration, and I actually prefer this mix of "March Of The Pigs" rather than the original mix:
(Nine Inch Nails "All The Pigs, All Lined Up")
It's really a lot of fun right now being back to having NIN in the playlist, there's sooo many memories, and reminders of why I love industrial music in general, and there is so much inspiration. I remember when I was first jamming with my first band Adam Hates You, and we would listen to stuff like this... and take inspiration from it. There were so many ideas, and truthfully speaking, I was finding my voice (vocally, and musically) and even though we didn't really go anywhere with it (and a lot of it was, us really jamming out), there was a lot of fun... I remember at the time, going into the music instrument stores in the area (H.E.L. Music), and checking out synthesizers and figuring out what I really wanted in a synth, and how I was gonna translate the stuff that I was creating into a live show. I remember looking at initially, the Alesis Q synth if I'm not mistaken, and testing it out, and playing with the sounds and stuff... and there were some patches in it, that kind of sounded like NIN patches... there was another synth I checked out (I can't remember for the life of me, what the name of it was), but ultimately I decided not to purchase either of them... I remember walking into Mothers Music (just down the street from H.E.L), and playing around with another synth, and it looked like a really cool synth... and I looked at the price tag... and at the time I thought "At that price ($2500), it's gotta be a good synth", for some reason the name of that synth stuck with me (Yamaha EX7)... and then eventually I ended up picking it up (years and years later)... and I still have it!
(Nine Inch Nails "The Art Of Self-Destruction, Part One)
Lot's of memories from that time. There was a little goth/industrial scene in that city (Saskatoon) at the time, and a lot, if not all of my friends were doing industrial music in some way... Adam Hates You had a rotating roster (basically whoever showed up to jam), and even though I ended up dissolving that band and moving to Calgary, Alberta... it was really a time of exploration, and my first foray into writing industrial music, and kinda figuring out what exactly I wanted to do. A friend had given me a copy of a freeware DOS program called Impulse Tracker... and that's how I wrote my first track... really experimenting, finding my voice and sound, and then eventually some of those tracks ended up turning into Twitch's first "Self-titled" release.
(Nine Inch Nails "The Downward Spiral (The Bottom)")
Definitely, not feeling nostalgic, definitely don't want to go back to those times, but definitely reminded of why I love industrial music, and what got me into it in the first place!
I hope you folks are doing well, I hope you are staying safe, I hope you are staying positive!
Shayne "Daemon_w60" Lawrence / Twitch / Trippingonacable Records
(Your Canadian Goth/Rivethead)
P.S.: We got this live stream show coming up on September 24th/2020 on our Twitch Facebook Page, which you can confirm your attendance here!
The song "Save The Freaks" started as an idea, a loooooooooooooong time ago! There were some sound aspects that I had in my mind, that I thought that would be kinda cool to put in a song, and maybe perform too! This song is basically about being a freak/goth/rivethead/etc... and ultimately in the end accepting yourself for who you are and learning to love yourself. For me that involved exploring my dark side, the darkness within me. And personally, I don't think anyone truly knows themselves until they explore their entire being, and that includes our darkness. For me ultimately, in the end... I realized I loved the darkness (literal and non-literal), I love dark things, I love graveyards, I love cyberpunk literature, I love vampire fiction, I love the moon, I love going for walks at night, I love goth and industrial music... ultimately after exploring darkness, I realized that within darkness, you will find light... or even create it. I think the whole keyword here is "love"... these things I love, and these are the things that bring me happiness! As a piece of commentary, the dark doesn't have to be dreary or sad, or depressing, it can be a place of happiness, a place of love, a place of understanding there is beauty in it. That is what "Save The Freaks" is about!!
(Is there light?.. Photo courtesy of Natalie Torosian)
We are officially over the halfway point now, in the songs and tracklist... I wanted to do 15 songs, I'm now sitting at 8 that are done! These tracks have been coming out every 1.5(ish) days, so I'm not at the point I want to be (I would like to do 1 per day), but I am waaay the fuck ahead of where I wanted to be initially, so for me that's a win!
Today's session, was very intuitive, very quick... things came out quite quickly, I didn't over-complicate the song... I got down what needed to get down, and as of lately, it seems as though... the last thing I do, is vocals, just before 9pm (9pm is the cut-off point for doing vocals, as I live in an apartment)... for some reason lately... it's usually 10 - 15 minutes before 9pm, and I record the vocals, in one take! Not sure why it's happening that way, but for some reason that is the way it's happening! Then I'll go in and quickly edit them, put them through an Effects Bus, tweak the effects to taste... and song done! Obviously, if I need to, I'll carry things out a little longer in the tweaking stage, but generally 9pm has been the time I finish the song and get vocals!
So, what is the overall feeling of these sessions?
I'm loving every minute of this! I like the workflow, I love working with my synth a lot! Outside of a couple of things, all the sounds are generated by my synthesizer, and yeah... loving working with my synth in this capacity! It's really helping me to get out ideas quicker, and understand the internal architecture of my synthesizer and how it works! Initially, when I started this challenge, I was worried that I may not be able to meet the challenge (I hadn't actually touched my synth in like 10 months, so I was worried that I would be fumbling around trying to figure shit out, when I should be productive), but after working with my synth a bit and re-familiarizing myself with the way it works... it wasn't such a struggle to pick it up and work with it in the capacity that I am!
This has been the most fun I've had with it, since I got the thing... but I'll get into that another time! Loving this shit!!
(Despite not feeling it today, lot's of inspiration out there, and was still productive!!)
Ye, today was definitely not the day to be as productive as I would have like to have been. I had some drinks last night, while enjoying the Terminus: Isolation live stream, and was a little tipsy by the end of it... and I woke up today, with quite the hangover and just wasn't feeling it today... Also attempted to do vocals, nope! Just not happening. I have noticed that during this period of self-isolation, that drinking right now, is just not the same... and quite frankly, generally after the evening of drinks... the day after, I generally feel like shit, and unproductive. So, I think while this self-isolation shit is going on, just gotta stay away from the alcohol. Of course, there is one exception to that rule, which is, if I'm performing a live stream... then I'll have a glass of something, as that helps calm the nerves, but outside of that, that's it!
Despite not being as productive as I would have liked, I still got some stuff done, and added some layers to a track that I'm working on! I think tomorrow evening, I'll be able to knock this song off, and get the vocals done, and be able to move to the next song! Once again, I'm very excited about this whole challenge, and I'm definitely doing things and thinking outside the box when it comes to writing this music! Lots of inspiration, and learning a lot of new things, and I will say there's a lot of things I'm realizing about my process, and why a lot of other industrial musicians, or musicians in general do things the way they do... in regards to organizational structures, and setting up your recording environment to get out your ideas as easily as possible!
After this challenge is done, I will likely do some other blogging or vlogging or something like that, getting a little bit into the process, and how my process has changed, and how I went about doing the things I did.
(INVA//ID; modern dark electro-industrial reminiscent of Wax Trax! era bands)
I keep coming back to the Wax Trax! Records back-catalogue. There are modern bands that are inspired by the Wax Trax! roster of bands and ultimately hearing these bands brings me back to the record label's catalog. Once again I will say, for some reason the bands on the Wax Trax! roster, not only do I keep coming back to, but feel inspired by! Out of all honesty, I'm not really sure why, I just really enjoying stuff that has come off that roster, and once again, feeling really inspired by. I guess there is a certain sound to the bands that were on that label, like you can hear the mixing and mastering and just general sound that came off that label for the bands, and at least I find there is a similarity. It may have been the fact that Al Jourgensen played a very important role there. It could also be the fact that almost everything that came off that label, was done in an in house recording studio... and the bands and side-projects, they were all hanging around when other bands on the label were recording their music, so there would be this, cross-pollination between the bands. It's funny cause, it's actually a lot of the modern bands that I'm listening to these days that are actually drawing me back to the Wax Trax! roster. Like, the bands INVA//ID or Cocksure... the style and sound design is very reminiscent of the Wax Trax! sound (granted Cocksure is an obvious one, as Chris Connelly was in the band Revolting Cocks and that influence is definitely there), Malekko is another one (once again, fairly obvious why... Paul Barker is the main songwriter for Malekko, he also was Ministry's bassist for, well a loooong time, as well as vocalist for his other project Lead Into Gold), but I find it interesting that there are these modern bands that when they are writing their albums, the sound design is specifically and intentionally done in a way that is reminiscent of the bands that were on Wax Trax! Records... and quite frankly, I'm glad there are people/bands/artists that are doing that, cause A) I like their music, and B) It reminds me of the Wax Trax! roster and I find it highly inspiring!
(Revolting Cocks)
I just love the history, I love the stories, I love the sound, the bands... all that, and just listening to the music from that time and trying to decipher how they went about in creating those songs, and the sound design... yeah inspiring! And, when hearing modern bands do that, it's like hearing a piece of history, but a modern take on it, which is also inspiring!!
Well, I got done what needed to get done today, the process was still fun... and I'm very productive. I will say though, today I was feeling anxious for some reason, not sure why. Like normally, when I pour my morning coffee... and have the first sip, I feel good and relaxed, but today for some reason, before I poured my coffee, I felt anxious today... not sure why... I couldn't really place my finger on it. I'm thinking maybe I feel a little time starved... (there's a reason for that, and I'll let you know why in the future... right now is not the time)... However, even though I felt time starved... I was still productive, and got everything done that needed to get done today!
Once again, I'm really enjoying the process right now, and it truly reminds me of the early days of Twitch, maybe not sound-wise, but definitely in the sequencing and programming kind of way. There was a part of me that felt, for at least part of the creative process today, that I needed to change things up a little bit today, so I cut up and fucked with a drum loop that I was playing with... it definitely payed off! I will say again, I'm really loving the process... and it's forcing me to think about music differently, and really get my ideas out, as they come out! In the future it is very likely that I'll work in this kind of fashion moving forward... sooo inspired!!
I hope you folks are staying safe and doing well!! I know they are starting to open up things where we live, and I know some of you are worried what this is gonna look like... are we gonna be able to remain safe, or is this whole situation gonna get worse... I'm remaining hopeful and positive... but the numbers, ultimately will tell us the tale.
(Darkness... something that I have lived in my whole life, but through darkness, ultimately, you will find light!)
Well, today... didn't go as planned... thought I would have gotten more done, but that's ok... wasn't really sure where to take this piece, so... tomorrow I can come to it from a fresh perspective and fresh new ideas. Although I will say, there was a lot of messing around and shit... trying things here and there, but could only get so far, I've got the basic structure of what I want, it's just all the details inside! Still fun though, and quite honestly when I shut everything down tonight... and stepped away, already had fresh ideas that I want to use for this particular piece, but that's a tomorrow thing.
Overall feeling: Still learning new stuff, and going about things in a way that, for me is highly inspiring and really getting this shit, as it comes out!! Love this!!
Yes, that is my guitar! I've written many albums, singles, EP's with it... with the exception of this most recent album "Databomb", and my last EP "Instructions To Your Revolution". This last Friday I decided to plug it in and play around a bit... unfortunately, there was no volume. Every time I touched the volume knob, it crackled... and I eventually messed around with it enough, to get a tiny little bit of volume... (although it was cranked to 10). I unplugged it and took a look at the internals... everything is connected and seems to be fine... no fucked wires or loose wires or anything. The pick-up switch is also fucked, makes noise, and volume will cut out if you touch it fuckin weird.
This guitar I've had since the beginning of my music career, I purchased it when I was around 17 years old from a friend, I paid $75 for it. It was one of those cheap starter guitars, that is some weird brand name, that you wouldn't recognize... the company that made it, probably doesn't exist anymore. When I originally purchased it, I didn't have an amp for it, but I plugged it into my parents stereo and played through that. A couple years later, I would start a band called Adam Hates You... that was my first industrial band (although, we didn't really write any songs, and we didn't play any shows), but this guitar was there. Eventually, I would move to Calgary, and this thing followed me. That's when I started to write the first Twitch album. I sampled the guitar, and threw it into the tracker program (sequencing software) I was using to write music with. Course along with those samples, I had a friend that helped with other guitar parts and recorded those onto the album. Over the years, I used the same technique to write the guitars (sample it, then sequence those samples). Eventually, I would acquire a different kind of writing/recording/sequencing software, and I would finally be able to actually record parts without having to sample in little chunks, "ant" and everything moving forward, outside of the two most recent releases.
There have been countless times I've brought this thing back to life, so many times that it somehow got fucked, and I fixed it. The last time, I had a friend fix it. It worked for a long time, and then this last Friday... it looks like there is nothing I can do this time to bring it back to life, and quite frankly... I will likely not be taking it to some guitar tech to repair it... the repair will cost more than the guitar is worth. It is time to retire this guitar, I will miss this friend, (although, I'll probably keep it, and mount it on the wall or something like that), the last 25 years have been amazing, and I'm glad I got so much life and use out of this thing. Time to hang this piece of history up, and replace it with... well, not sure yet, but I'm sure whatever it is, it'll be great!!
(What's in this dark photo..? Inspiration? Maybe...)
Ok, so... I feel right now, with what I'm doing in the studio... I really don't want to take the time to move shit around right now. I'm actually really enjoying and liking my set-up the way it is. My synth is a little far away from my desk, but I don't mind right now, and I'm liking standing at my synth, rather than sitting. Also being that, I'm kinda doing something creative in that respect... like I said above, don't want to interrupt the creative process right now... I also feel kind of inspired with the current way things are set-up and such... soo, yeah... gonna leave it for now.
So, we are doing something different with our creative process right now, and it feels good... I will say the stuff I'm doing right now, and the way I'm doing it is definitely a learning experience! I hope this works out in my favor and I can meet this challenge! It almost reminds me of the old days of using tracker software to get things done, but also kinda new too, cause it's forcing me to make decisions and... well... when this is done... you'll know!
(This photo may have been from said show, not sure... but it occurred at the same venue)
I can’t remember what show this was exactly (it was quite
some time ago, probably more than 5 years; may have actually been a show in support of our "This D1sk" EPs), but I think it was a set with the
full band lineup, me, Guitarist and drummer. We ended up playing last, but
there was this guy in the bar, I’m not sure if he walked in drunk, but as the
night progressed, he ended up sitting right up at the stage, and while we were
performing, he was making kissy faces at me… he was definitely drunk, but… I
had long hair and was wearing eyeliner, I think he mistook me for a lady, and
during our set he motions that he wants to say something to me, so I go to the
front of the stage, and he tries to kiss me… I quickly get out of the way, one
of my friends (who is in the audience) comes up and says to him, “Have a seat
dude! They are trying to play a show.” was probably the funniest shit that has
happened to me during a live performance. Our set ended and that was it, we
pack up our shit and drunk dude leaves. I would say, that is the first time
that has ever happened, at least during a live show… although, out of all
honesty, I don’t think that has ever happened outside of a show… anyway, funny
story.
Here's a Twitch story for you... a loooong time ago, around Halloween 1999, I was living in London, England, and there was an industrial event happening that I figured would be great to go to and check out some amazing bands, as well as celebrate Halloween too! So, I ended up at this show:
This was my first time seeing several of these bands... I think out of all of them Das Ich couldn't make the show for some reason, but every other band on this bill I did see... The most obvious one I saw once and only once was C-Tec... it was also my first time seeing them, as well as Covenant! C-Tec show was off the hook, I wasn't too sure if they were fucked on drugs or alcohol or a combination of them, but if I remember correctly every member of the band had these hand held strobe lights, that they would fucking pick up and stare at... it was interesting!
Covenant was good as well (this was my first time seeing them), it's kinda funny cause seeing them here in Calgary at Terminus (many, many, many, years later) Eskil was doing similar things and saying things that he said at this Halloween Festival in 1999, while on stage... interesting and funny!
Leech Woman was great! They set up all these metal objects on stage for the drummer (I think one of them was a propane tank)... there was a bassist and one other dude if I'm not mistaken... they also set up these projector units that showed images of war and violence and shit on the screens... their music was kind of a mix between Einsturzende Neubauten, mixed with industrial metal/punk... definitely excellent!!
Chaos Engine... well... their set was excellent, although I barely recall what they sounded like (although, after doing a search for them on the internets, I found some soundcloud playlists; which I'll include here)!
The last two bands The Borg and Man(i)kin didn't really stand out for me... (I had actually seen both of them at other shows previous to this Halloween show, and wasn't really interested in them), so I will not be including their stuff in this blog, but yeah... overall the night was excellent, lots of excellent music that night, and I figure I would tell you folks about my experience there (or well, at least this part of it), and a little bit about the Twitch Story...long story short, I went out there to kinda see what the music scene is/was like and to determine whether or not it would be a place for me to really have a life-long music career, but that is a story for another time! The reason why I include this particular memory in the Twitch Story, is cause there was a lot of inspiration that night, a lot of realizations when it came to my music career... and this show and these bands were a part of it!
If you haven't been keeping up with our Twitch Facebook Page here, take a look, and maybe consider following us there, as we'll be doing a live stream performance on the Facebook page this Thursday, April 30th in support of the upcoming album "Databomb"!
We'll be playing some new and old stuff, as well as doing a giveaway for some lucky viewers! You can confirm your attendance here!
We would love to have you folks join us during the live stream, to help us celebrate our upcoming album "Databomb", we will be giving away a digital quarantine package of sorts to lucky viewers, but you gotta tune in to find out what it's all about 😉!
Yes, you read that right, Twitch will be releasing our album "Databomb" on May 1st/2020! The above image is the amazing cover artwork from Liam Hayes of Logo Monster!
If you missed our last album announcement, here's the tracklist for "Databomb":
1. Blue Screen Of Death
2. Instructions To Your Revolution
3. Activate
4. Save The Freaks
5. We All Want Peace
6. Databomb
7. Refuge
8. Dirty City
9. Machine Heart
10. Dystopia For You?
11. The End Game
12. Worldwide Maniac
13. No Face
14. Death Cult
15. Yeah, Fuck It... Let's Go!!
16. The Cloud
17. The End of War / The Beginning of Humanity
Also, if you want to be the first to know on Twitch going-ons (album release dates, track lists, artwork, first look at music videos, merch and all that kind of stuff), sign-up to our mailing list here! You'll get our latest single for free, for signing up.
Well, I thought it would be better if I write this down…
Obviously we all know the situation… it’s good to minimize contact with other
humans right now… if you are gonna be around people, make sure it’s small
numbers… not huge gatherings, if you can self-isolate… even better. As some of
you folks know, if you watched the most recent video we made here! As well as previous videos about isolation… it is very tough for me to
be in isolation… I deal with it a lot, have dealt with it a lot over the last…
well we’ll just say, there’s been plenty of times that I’ve been forced into
isolation, due to not being able to get out with friends, because they are too
busy doing other things, or doing their own thing, or whatever, so I’ve spent a
lot of time alone. I will say though, if it wasn’t for this “forced” isolation,
I wouldn’t have written the first “Self-Titled” Twitch album… Twitch wouldn’t
exist if it hadn’t been for that, and now I can say with confidence, that
Twitch has existed for 20ish years (we turn 21 this year), and most bands can’t
say that! I will also say… being that that has also been the case over the
years, I have, what my friends like to call it “workaholic” ethic when it comes
to my music endeavor, but in a positive way (not to the point where I’m
unhealthy because of it)! So, on that note… You’ll hear some of this and see
some of this on our social channels, though blog posts like this, or YouTube,
Facebook, or Instagram… and I’m telling you what the plan is here… we are
waiting on a couple details (artwork) and just sorting out set-lists for
preparation of potential live shows, in support of this album. If things don’t
work out in our favor and it is recommended that we have to self-isolate for
much longer, we are preparing for live stream performances on Facebook or other
platforms (if there is a better way to do it) for people to watch in support of
this album! …I’m not sure the logistics
quite yet of the album, I think we’ll be keeping it completely and strictly
digital! That is the way the world is moving… and I figure for us that is the
best way in going about in distributing Twitch…
...So, on that note,
even though this situation seems to be bleak (I truly don’t think it is), and
there are opportunities for us and other humans to reach out, and help others….
Whether that’s facetiming/skyping/ or video chat with your friends if they are
quarantined or are self-isolating! Stay safe people! Do what you can, and if
you are feeling isolated, definitely reach out and chat with friends online
through text, and if you are like me who needs some kind of human contact, do
facetime/skype, they may not be there physically, but you can still chat and
maybe have a beer with them in a virtual space or video chat!! Even me people,
if you want to have a video chat, let me know… I’ll definitely be there for
you!! Love you folks, once again stay stafe… sometimes we are thrown these
curveballs, but remain positive we have survived worse!!
Love your Canadian Goth | Rivethead,
Shayne “Daemon_w60” Lawrence / Twitch
P.S.: I’m gonna try to write or video once a day and post
those up on the various social platforms to keep you positive and thinking
about ways you can get around isolation… and some of the tips I have used and such
in the past, to get you started, here’s a blog with some tips regarding
isolation here!
