Well, here it is… my 40th pass around the sun,
and I’ve never felt better, and more energized! I don’t feel old, I feel like
I’m still 23. When I look in the mirror, I still see this young man, trying to
make his way in the world. I may not be as far as I want, but my attitude is still
the same, I’m never gonna give up. I have had my struggles… for a period of
five or six years I wasn’t doing well mentally… and out of total honesty, I
realized, I don’t have time for that shit anymore… I knew this a long time ago,
life is short… we only have about a hundred years to live, if we are healthy
(mentally, physically, spiritually). Sometimes we forget to take care of
ourselves, but after spending too much time dealing with mental bullshit, I
realized I didn’t want to spend the rest of my life dealing with that shit (now
things are much more manageable, and the mental part is now pretty much a
non-issue [finding coping techniques {that work for you} is key!]). Now, I have
a music career, I’m an artist (drawing, painting), I have big dreams/goals, I
may be 40 now, but that doesn’t mean those things have to end… I think too many
people get caught up in the idea that once you’ve reached 40 or 50, that’s it,
life is over and you have to give up the things you wanted to do in the past…
what I’ve always thought was, rather than giving into the stupid stereotype
that “oh, you’re too old...", or "it’s too late to do these things now…”, that it’s
never too late! If you’re fucking 80, you can still go out there and achieve
your dreams, it just means you’ve less time to do it in… but it is not
impossible… and yes, you still can strive for your dreams to be a rockstar at
that age… I think Al Jourgeson was 35 when he went big with Ministry. Every
birthday since I was 30 I’ve looked back and taken stock of what I have done,
and then planned and set goals for the next year… this year is no different!
I’m still setting goals with the intention to achieve them… there has been a
lot of moving forward in the last 6 months… there’s a lot of shit going on, a
lot of exciting shit! Stuff that I can’t go into detail right now that I’m
working on behind the scenes (not directly related to my music and art, but
very applicable in that sense as well also). There’s also shit that I’m working
on that is directly involved in with my music and art career, if you follow my
Twitch page on FaceBook and/or are connected to the Twitch Newsletter: The Twitcher…
you will know I’m working on a couple of new things, the most immediate one, is
a new EP… which I’m not sure about the release date, or even when we’ll play in
support of it, but rest assured, you will know when it arrives!! I’m also
working on another musical endeavor that takes place after the EP, but I’m not
going to go into great deal on it right now, cause we are still a ways away
from an actual release and shit! Also, we are hoping to do more shows here in
Calgary, and more out of town shows as well (hope to bring the Twitch to some
out of province places as well)! Not only do I have that shit going on, but
next year (2019) will be 20 years of Twitch, and I plan on doing something
special for that… not gonna tell you what it is, but things are slowly being
put together. 40 is here! Can’t wait to see what the year brings, or what I
bring to it! ;)
You know what day it is... Monday, and you know what that means... Industrial!!! This week we have a band out of Sofia (not sure exactly what country... looks like Bulgaria). The music is in the vein of industrial metal. The band consists of 5 members: ZDRAVKO "ZZ" MINEFF (Guitars & Programming), VLADIMIR PAVLOV (Guitars), DOBRIN FILIPOV "MALKYA" (Bass), NIKOLAY BERBEROV "BEBO" (Vocals), ALEXANDER PETKOV "SANDE" (Drums). They are called: Alien Industry! Check them out!!!
It's Monday, and you know what that means... Industrial!! This week we have a project out of the UK. It is in the vein of powernoise, rhythmic noise, and industrial. The sole creator of this endeavor is Ryan Harris (DirtyK). The project is called: Derailment! Check it out!!
It's that day, and you know what that means... Industrial!!! This week we have a project out of Planet Exx (yes, they are not from this planet... I haven't visited their planet either, but I may make a trip soon, we'll see...). The music is in the vein of Industrial Metal/Industrial Death Metal. The bands sole songwriter is Nate Exx Gradowski (drums, guitars, keys and soundscapes, vocals, and bass). This endeavor is called: Demise and Domination! Check it out!!
This was the first NIN album I ever purchased. I do believe
I first purchased it in high school… still have it too… If I hadn’t purchased
this, I would have never realized music was the thing I wanted to do with my
life… I remember seeing the Head Like A Hole video for the first time… I
remember the angsty synth lines mixed with aggressive guitar… This is what
influenced me to become a musician… I realized I loved industrial (especially
guitar driven), and this is the type of music I want to write/make.
2. White Zombie: La Sexorcisto
This was the album that I listened to non-stop in high
school… I loved their look, the horror imagery (zombies)… I remember when I
first heard the song “Thunderkiss 65”… my best friend and I were at his place,
and he turned on the video, and I was hooked… I went out and purchased the
tape… I listened to this thing non-stop. They were my favorite band in my high
school years… even though I don’t really listen to them too often anymore, they
influenced my style (yep, I bought skeleton hand gloves cause of these guys, I
also purchased knee pads and decked them out with zombie-esque artwork… I wish
there were photos of that shit… but alas there are none),
3. Marilyn Manson: Portrait Of An American Family
The first time I ever heard of Manson was through a movie
(that we borrowed from a friend) called “S.F.W!” or “So Fucking What!”… not
gonna go into details here, but the movie was basically about a group of
teenagers who were taken hostage and the whole undertaking was filmed live on
TV… Can’t remember exactly when Manson’s song “Get Your Gunn” was played in the
movie, but I remember listening to the soundtrack afterwards, and when this
song kicked in, I couldn’t stop listening to the aggressive creepy vibe and the
“Shocking” (to whoever got offended by it) lyrical content… so I went out and
purchased the album… At this point, I was quite into my rebellious stage of life
and this album pointed out a lot of the hypocrisy of what was going on at the
time…(side note: I remember showing my parents this album… and they fuckin
hated it…) … I remember turning up the stereo to max volume, to fucking listen
to this album…
4. Korn: Self-Titled
Now this album has had a big influence on me… I remember
hearing/seeing Korn’s video for the first time… my best friend borrowed a video
tape from another friend, who recorded a bunch of music videos onto it, and my
best friend put it on and said “check this out!” So we watch through the video,
and then Korn’s “Blind” comes on… holy fuck! The aggressive down tuned 7-string
guitars…aggressive vocals, the hiphop/noise sounds that they are making with
their guitars… and Jonathan Davis comes in with “Aaare You Ready!!” then just
the really emotional/angry lyrics… no band has done something this heavy and
emotional before… or well at least expressed it the way that they do… Can’t
remember exactly when I purchased that album (I’m sure it wasn’t long after the
seeing the video, like a couple of days)… After seeing this video, and
listening to the album, I knew I wanted to incorporate that heavy down-tuned 7
string sound into my music… granted it wouldn’t be until I moved here (Calgary)
several months later and started writing my first (Twitch) album, that I
started putting that kind of stuff into the album… but those sounds are now a
part of Twitch!
5. Skinny Puppy: Brap: Back & Forth: 3 + 4
I did a very long blog about this particular album… so if
you want to read it you can find it here (there is also a video attached... so
you can listen to that as well while you are reading the blog!!) http://twitch00.blogspot.com/2018/03/skinny-puppy-brap-back-forth-series-3-4.html,
I will say (that I don’t mention in the blog) this was the first time I ever
heard electro-industrial type stuff, I loved it, the horror imagery, dark, and
bleak… probably angsty…and just the sheer fucked up abstract lyrics (if you
really listen, they are not so abstract)… even the quality of their live
performance videos… they had this dark/bleak aspect… watching Ogre’s
presentation and performance aspects I always thought were excellent… granted I
think the next album I purchased was either “The Process” (which I love) or
their remix album “remix dystemper” (which was interesting [loved Deftones
remix of “Spasmolytic”]) … and it wasn’t until a few years later that I started
to actually dig into their discography, and really listen… but if I hadn’t
listened to this, I probably wouldn’t have explored other electro-industrial
acts/bands out there.
6. Covenant: Dreams Of A Cryotank
Covenant is a band that I got into, before I actually
purchased one of their albums… a looong time ago, I was living in London, UK…
and I had met someone who introduced me to their music… it was good! I think I
heard tracks off the “Sequencer” album… then while I was there, I saw that
there was going to be a big Halloween concert at some venue in London (I still
have the ticket stub, unfortunately it doesn’t mention the venue name… but the
address was at Charing Cross Road), Covenant happened to be playing that show…
so they went on and their set was amazing… I was very inspired by their performance…
then sometime after I came back… I went and purchased their first album “Dreams
Of A Cryotank”…I remember putting it on, and “Theremin” kicking in… the heavy
EBM beats… I don’t quite have a way to articulate Eskil’s singing voice for
this album… but the way the album sounds, this dark, heavy… almost noisy EBM…
something that wasn’t being done. Some of that has bled into my own
productions.
7. Assemblage 23: Contempt
This is on the list cause I remember when I first heard
Assemblage 23… I received the Gashed budget compilation “Virion Sequences” as a
Christmas gift (2001)… and Assemblage 23’s remix of their own song “bi-polar
(serotonin)” was on it… I liked it enough, that I found the song “Sun” by A23
on Napster (yeah I know, I probably should have just bought the album [which I
did eventually ;P ])… On my first listen to “Sun” the way the lyrics are, the
cadence… the way they roll out of Tom Shear’s mouth… there was something about
it… I wouldn’t say hypnotic… but something along those lines “I turn my eyes up
to the sun, and stare at it as if there is none. These cinders where my eyes
have been, was to forget the things I have seen!”, Such excellent lyricism… and
then after going out and purchasing the album, probably in 2001… and giving it
a full listen… The song “Anthem” is just that… that’s what I like about Tom
Shear’s lyricism… it is written and comes out in such a way that makes the
lyrics even though, they are heavy topics seem so easily digestible I guess… This
album influenced me to get better at writing lyrics!
8. Rob Zombie: Hellbilly Deluxe
This album is on this list cause, after it came out, in an
interview Rob Zombie had said, he was tired of taking things so seriously in
the music department, and he just wanted to have fun! That statement right
there struck me! In the end, for me, musically it’s all about fun! If I’m not
having fun, what’s the point! This album is a whole lot of fun!
9. VNV Nation: Futureperfect
Now this album, I didn’t purchase till after
they played a show in Edmonton, at New City (December of 2001). I saw their set
and was amazed by the amount of energy they have. They are absolutely amazing! At
the time, Mark Jackson was also part of the group… and I felt like their
combined stage presence they put on a great show! The music was quite inspiring
too! I know some of you folks don’t like futurepop, but I thought this album
was a evolution for them… It was quite inspiring musically for me as well… I
ended up being so influenced by them, that I wrote an EBM/Futurepop album…
Although, I didn’t pursue that direction further than the one album I wrote
but, they definitely inspired me, and still continue to!
10. Ministry: The Mind Is A Terrible Thing To Taste
Now, I don’t think anyone who is a musician into
industrial metal can say that Ministry hasn’t had an effect on them at some
point in time in their lives. They basically created the industrial metal
genre… if it wasn’t for these guys we wouldn’t have industrial metal… and I
would probably not be doing what I’m doing musically… The first album that I had
purchased of theirs was “The Mind Is A Terrible Thing To Taste”... granted I
didn’t go in the direction Ministry did with the metal side of things (Korn
gave me the direction), but if you were a goth in the 90s this was most
definitely being played in the clubs and shit! At the time, it was hard to put
my finger on what was going on with Ministry musically speaking… I didn’t
realize Al Jourgenson was a hardcore drug addict, granted not someone you want
to really follow in their footsteps, or really look up to and take notes from…
but this is here cause, if it wasn’t for Ministry, I don’t think anybody would
be doing industrial metal!
Ooooooooh Yeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaaah! It's Monday, and you know what that means... Industrial!! This week we have a project out of Minneapolis, Minnesota. The music is in the vein of cyber/industrial/ebm. The band consists of three members: Mach Fox (Vocals/Programming/Visuals), Adam01 (Synthesizer), Ryan Ruckus (electronic percussion). They are called: Zwaremachine!! Check them out!!!
It's that day, and you know what that means... Industrial!!! This week we have a project out of Paris, France. The music is in the vein of dark/electro/industrial (kinda reminds me a mix of Depeche Mode and NIN). Can't find too much info regarding the members... but they are called: We Are The Line. Check them out!!!
