Here, you will find an assortment of archived blog posts from the ashes of DarknessCalling.net
While we had a great time running the blog, it is a very time-consuming process, and one that -- unfortunately -- garnered the least attention when compared to our other efforts.
For that reason, we are retiring DarknessCalling.net and becoming simply Darkness Calling, an Instagram community that will continue to highlight indie artists, as well as the classic acts that inspired them.
You can still find us on Spotify, Bandcamp, and more via our new Linktree page.
However, our "real" home remains on Instagram, where most of you follow us already.
It's been a great ride, and it's not over! We started in August 2020. Now, in August 2021, we're kicking off a new chapter that promises to give you more content in a more accessible way.
“As I was furiously calling out the doctor in the hallway, and as the security was called on me, that’s where I got it. We are building this dystopian society around us. It’s a real thing...”
Finland-based EBM project The Fair Attempts has just released a new single called “Signals,” as well as a stunning new music video to coincide with the release.
Seriously, if you do nothing else, scroll down a bit and watch this video. It’s incredible. The cinematography is top-notch, film-quality stuff.
To learn more about the mysterious masked man behind The Fair Attempts, read our exclusive interview below.
DARKNESS CALLING: First and foremost, thank you so much for the opportunity to get to know The Fair Attempts a little better. For those who might be new or unfamiliar with your project, The Fair Attempts, how would you describe your music?
THE FAIR ATTEMPTS: We're “The Black Mirror of Industrial Rock.” Our music explores themes of a dystopian future society that’s being constructed around all of us right now. We do that through a combination of musical styles, like Industrial Rock, EBM, Darkwave, and genres that are typically blending with those.
DC: How did The Fair Attempts come to fruition?
TFA: You mean how did I get these scars? I got them in various stages. We got our start at 2018, around when I started making music again, after nearly a decade’s break from it. I came from the era when music was released on CD’s and digital streaming was just putting on its shoes, so to say. So, I was curious about the life of an indie musician in the modern world, and the conditions in our life started to be ripe for that.
I thought about giving this music endeavor another shot and thought of a name under what I would release my art. “The Fair Attempts” came to me from out of the blue, and as I initially understood it, it was about me giving it another shot. I liked the enigmatic message about it, of our human condition and our struggle forward. It's really about all of us. You and I both can admit we are here to attempt our lives as we can, and most likely we will fail with it in many aspects. But that's not the point of it.
“There is a great personal liberation in admitting that we are not perfect in any way. Because the point is not to succeed, win or compete. It is to try your best regardless. It’s in the process itself. And The Fair Attempts reminds us all about it.”
— THE FAIR ATTEMPTS
There is a great personal liberation in admitting that we are not perfect in any way. Because the point is not to succeed, win or compete. It is to try your best regardless. It's in the process itself. And The Fair Attempts reminds us all about it.
My vision of The Fair Attempts became clear to me after witnessing the medical authorities forcing my wife to hop on one leg, in terrible neurological pain (due to MS) and in public hospital corridors, simply to meet some bureaucratic regulation that would allow her to have the medications that would help to halt the progression on her neurodegenerative disease. She was stumbling in pain, vomiting from the induced trauma and shock of her barbaric treatment at the hands of the very people who were supposed to help her. As I was furiously calling out the doctor in the hallway, and as the security was called on me, that's where I got it. We are building this dystopian society around us. It's a real thing, although not physical. Now I am in contact with it and through my creative processes, I keep connecting and exploring it, piece by piece.
This is the point I started wearing the gasmask. It's a symbol of self-isolation from the damage of that dark reality.
DC: Your new single “Signals” is danceable, yet dark, eerie, and reminiscent of Broken era Nine Inch Nails. The addition of nightmarish sounds captured on a cell phone and a dystopian hellscape laden video adds to the overall unnerving theme. What was the inspiration behind the incredible new single?
TFA: One day in 2019, me and Starwing were having a conversation in cellphone. I guess I was calling her from my work, until some… thing took over our call. It was like scrambled voices at first, as if it was chopped to bits and disorganized through some algorithm. But the freaky part happened when I responded to the monstrosity, and it stopped right there for a second, then began hissing and screaming at me in a most bizarre way, as if it was a demonic cell tower, or some modern day, digital banshee calling from the 6-bit abyss to warm me about the impending death. I got this recorded on my cellphone and naturally sampled the whole thing and made a song about it.
This off-the-wall encounter with a rogue signal stream inspired us to think of how we all are receivers and repeaters of various signals streamed into our minds. Seriously. Try to analyse when you last had an independent thought. Then look at the world around you and listen to what people say. They repeat the same fucking things everywhere, all the time. Why? Because they want to be accepted and loved.
I don't blame them. We have always been programming each other in various ways. These days the code is just way more effective.
“We have always been programming each other in various ways. These days the code is just way more effective.”
— THE FAIR ATTEMPTS
DC: Being based in Finland, do you find that your fanbase is more European-based or would you say it's a wide mix across the globe?
TFA: It's hard to say, really. I don't really follow my own stats that closely. In our digital era, people come to us from all corners of the world and every walk of life. Music and art in general always brings us all together, as it should.
DC: You are also in another project, Denial Waits, with Amanda Jay/Star Madman (@starmadman) and Ryan Thomas Mitchell (@ryanthomasmitchell). Since all members are in different states and countries, what does the songwriting and production process look like?
TFA: It's a different kind of mental discipline for me. I know I am very difficult to work with in regards of creating songs, as I am notorious for “writing the song full” in a way that there is not much room for others to write parts. I've been called out on it before.
So with DW, I made a real effort to not do that. With perhaps an exception of “My Dark Road” and “Tumbleweed” (the latter being mostly Ryan's creation), I rather wrote a skeleton of a song and let both Ryan and Amanda jam with it, add their parts, and hand it back to me to finish the production. Both of them are armed with such talent and intuition that our workflow goes smoothly.
DC: Has the pandemic hindered your ability to create and publish music or has it allowed you to be more creative?
TFA: Honestly, this pandemic hasn't changed my life habits much at all. I've been a notorious hermit for a decade prior to the whole thing. I don't draw any pleasure from it, but I see many people have had a very hard time adjusting to their personal isolation, although a very short one at that. I've just been happy doing my thing in my studio, just as before.
DC: Who are some of your biggest musical inspirations and would you say those inspirations have shaped The Fair Attempts into what it is today?
TFA: I get inspired by other artists mostly in their spirit and how their art reflects on me. I've been inspired by a wide variety of artists doing various types of music, be it edgy industrial sounds of Nine Inch Nails, Ministry or Velcra, or Scandinavian metal such as Opeth, Katatonia and the like. Nick Cave, David Bowie, Portishead, and all of these have shaped my approach tomaking music for sure. Lately, I've also been digging Metric and St. Vincent and stuff like that. There is a lot to learn and draw from all these great artists out there.
DC: What is next for The Fair Attempts?
TFA: We are going to release a couple more singles down the line, until somewhere in November we will release our new album, Signals. It's been such a pet project of mine for the last year and it is finally taking its final shape, and I can safely say that it is my best work to date. I just love that this cycle keeps going on and I keep on improving my processes.
And get this — as Starwing wrote her novel Dreaming Your Dream to be a companion piece for our last album Dream Engine, she is continuing her book series together with our new album Signals. Our art has become our life at this point.
However, summer is a great time to try new things and recharge your batteries a bit. After that, I will get back to work and see what comes down the line. Our brains are dynamic things. Static conditions are poison for them and kills your creativity. It is my experience that taking a break leads to better results. In the end, our ideas are already forming in the back of our minds without us even being aware of them at times.
While our blog and playlist tend to lean toward the electronic side of things, sometimes you’re presented with a project that’s too good to ignore.
Enter The Dream Is Dead, a Texan solo project centered around gothic shoegaze and “the fear of growing old.” Between the hours of 3 and 6AM, this 23 year old songwriter has carefully crafted an ethereal collection of songs, each one inspired by “low-budget paranormal videos and imagery.”
Learn more about this project through our exclusive interview below.
DARKNESS CALLING: Can you tell me about your musical life before The Dream Is Dead and what spurred this new project?
THE DREAM IS DEAD: I’ve been writing and recording music in my bedroom for the last ten years. A lot of it is sort of embarrassing though; it never really came out to something I could feel proud of. Right before this project, I was really into making beats and ambient music. I decided to just put everything aside and let myself be free with the music, ignoring self doubt and letting myself be — well, myself — which is what sparked this project.
DC: Can you tell us a little more about your process? I know you purposely recorded at late hours. What did that do for you in terms of helping the process?
TDID: I’m not sure what about the night makes me feel so inspired. When I first started recording at 13, I would set up a mic in the middle of my room at 5-6 AM and lay in bed playing for hours. Maybe it’s something about that being where I started. I’m constantly searching for/trying to preserve that feeling I got when I first started. But there’s also something so beautiful about the night: the sense of fear and creepiness, the silence and stillness after a long day, the lack of movement from the outside world… I don’t know; it allows me to fully be myself and create this world of music to be trapped in until it’s time to face the busy world again.
“But there’s also something so beautiful about the night... it allows me to fully be myself and create this world of music...”
— THE DREAM IS DEAD
DC: How did these late night demos lead to a cassette release with Crafting Room?
TDID: That’s a good question. I really wonder that myself [Laughs]. Honestly, back then I was a lonely person who had no idea about the big beautiful world of underground music. I had no idea about indie labels or cassettes being released. I guess when I found out I had people from all around the world to become friends with and who could enjoy my music, I started pushing myself to make music worth releasing, get out of my comfort zone, and interact with people like Crafting Room. It’s still a little scary putting myself out there, but it’s an amazing feeling when someone from another country enjoys my music.
DC: If I remember correctly, something like 50 other songs were scrapped and you narrowed it down to these 6. Were most of the others fully recorded songs or just sketches of ideas, and what was it about these songs that stood out to you? How did you know a song was a “keeper”?
TDID: I would say half of them were completed songs and half of them were just instrumentals. I also recorded an entirely different debut album for this album, but right as I finished it, my computer crashed and I lost everything. I guess the way I know if the song’s worth keeping is if I can listen to it over and over and still feel proud of it. If I feel any sort of embarrassment about the song or anything like that, I usually trash it.
“...my computer crashed and I lost everything.”
— THE DREAM IS DEAD
DC: I’m sorry to hear that, about your files getting lost. But perhaps it was meant to be.
TDID: That’s how I view it! It’s funny because I’m really glad the tracks got lost now.
DC: You certainly have a killer collection of songs here. My favorite might be “Love Is Telling Someone When To Stop.” It has a real groove element to it that makes it stand apart from the others, in my opinion. Can you tell us about some inspirations behind that track, or any personal reflections?
TDID: Thank you for the kind words! That song was actually the first song I made for this version of the album. I wanted to make something a little more upbeat. I was listening to a lot of music from the 60’s, and just psychedelic influenced music in general, and I really wanted to focus on the bassline for that song. I’m currently writing the next record and it’s heavily bass-driven, kinda like that song. The song for me is about addiction and knowing when it’s time to stop for the people you love.
DC: Awesome! One last question: What’s next? Any promotional plans? Livestreams / in-person shows, etc? Working on new material?
TDID: Right now, I’m focusing on recording this second record. It’s coming along really well and I think people would like it a lot. Hopefully, eventually I can perform livestreams of some sort, but who knows!
Thank you for having me! This was seriously a ton of fun.
Today marks the release of “Eyes on the Horizon,” a fun, synth-driven track by Brian Sangmeister and Star Madman.
While Star Madman is no stranger to the Darkness Calling playlist, I had not encountered Brian Sangmeister’s work until recently. Upon learning of this approaching collaboration, I took a trip over to his Bandcamp page and was stunned to find a vast sonic palette. Here was a producer whose talents stretched beyond the glossy world of synthwave, incorporating a variety of haunting tones and ambient textures throughout his body of work.
With that said, “Eyes on the Horizon” is deserving of your attention. Between the retro cover art, playful lyrics, and wonderfully dated sounds, it’s a true marvel in synthpop production that shouldn’t be passed up.
Read on to learn more about Brian Sangmeister and his latest collaboration.
DARKNESS CALLING: Thank you for chatting with us, Brian! How would you introduce or describe your music to a new listener?
BRIAN SANGMEISTER: Thanks for having me! I often describe my music as “cinematic,” incorporating ambient and instrumental electronic elements to create a little movie in your head. And I'm often inspired by film, literature, or nature to build these cinematic listening experiences.
DC: When did you realize you wanted to produce music, and what was it like beginning that journey?
B.SANG: Well, I've been playing guitar for almost 20 years, playing classic rock and metal. But having also been interested in electronic music such as Tangerine Dream, John Carpenter, and New Order, I found that working in this genre suited my desire to make music without having to rely on other bandmates and give me total creative control. I should have started on this path sooner, but it didn't happen until about 3-4 years ago. I've already learned many things in that short timeframe about producing, but I know I have much more to learn as well. I consider myself a musician and a songwriter/composer before a producer [Laughs].
“It’s me, an artist, exploring what I’m feeling in the moment.”
— BRIAN SANGMEISTER
DC: Having sampled some of your previous work, it seems that “Eyes on the Horizon” may be a little more radio-friendly or accessible than your prior work, which tends to be more ambient or experimental. Is that fair to say? If so, was it a conscious decision? Do you think you might make more music of this style in the future?
B.SANG: Yes, I definitely started creating electronic music with more of an emphasis on ambient and experimental, like Brian Eno and Tangerine Dream, but still knew I would want to try many different genres. This is one reason I release under my real name; it's not a specific project that makes a certain type of music. It's me, an artist, exploring what I'm feeling in the moment. And yes, this is definitely my first attempt at writing/producing a “pop” song, and I would love to create more music like it.
DC: What led to the collaboration with Star Madman, and how did she contribute to the song?
B.SANG: I was asked to create a little retro sounding intro to a podcast and I came up with the nucleus for “Eyes on the Horizon.” I felt I could expand it into a full instrumental but thought the bridge could use some vocals, just to try something a little different. I asked Star Madman if she'd be interested, being a fan of her music and her voice, and she wanted to expand her role, so to speak. I wrote some additional parts and arranged the track to fit a more pop song mold, and she wrote all the lyrics based off of the title I had. She also contributed most of the melodies and harmonies and additional synth parts. She is an absolute pleasure to work with and has incredible versatility and talent.
“She is an absolute pleasure to work with and has incredible versatility and talent.”
— BRIAN SANGMEISTER, ON STAR MADMAN
DC: Can you talk about some of the influences on this track? I feel like there are some Prince vibes, and Star Madman may be channeling her inner Cyndi Lauper (to great effect).
B.SANG: I mean, what hasn't been influenced by Prince?! [Laughs] Yeah, the focus here was writing a catchy tune. So for me, I looked to Prince, Madonna, and New Order for inspiration. And Star Madman and I had conversations about Pat Benatar, Kylie Minogue, and Cyndi Lauper as well, for the writing but also for the vocal performance. And I just love Star Madman's vocal vamping at the end of the track. I asked for that but didn't give any specific examples, and she just killed it!
DC: Are there any other artists in the indie scene you’d like to collaborate with one day?
B.SANG: I certainly hope to collab more with Star Madman and The Lurking Transmission podcast (who I've created some horror scores for). There is a ton of great talent out there and would love to learn more from working with all of them. I'll just name a few though: Sunwarper, Scarless Arms, Plike, and visual artist Kerry St. Laurent. Oh, and Kylie Minogue is indie, right?...
DC: What’s next for you?
B.SANG: It's a mystery to me until the path starts taking shape, but as usual, just working on new music and seeing where the journey takes me!
The City Gates, a Montreal-based post-punk/gaze band, reached out to Darkness Calling to review their 2021 sophomore LP Age of Resilience.
Released via their own imprint Velouria Recordz and in collaboration with Icy Cold Records, read on to find out how Age of Resilience scored with us.
1. Nowhere Nagasaki
Age of Resilience starts out with a stunning, shoegaze instrumental track that is reminiscent of Slowdive’s “Good Day Sunshine.” Lush guitar sounds and dreamy synth tones are a welcoming start to a tremendous ride of post-punk and shoegaze inspired brilliance.
2. The Pyre
Wasting no time showing the listener exactly what The City Gates is about, “The Pyre” picks up the pace with this danceable post-punk track. Beautifully melancholic, while still maintaining an upbeat sound, Maxime’s alluring vocals take hold and keep you entranced.
3. Cape of Good Hope
Moving back towards the shoegaze sound that welcomed us on the first track, “Cape of Good Hope” once again lures us in with swirling, ethereal tones, deeply dark bass notes, and dreamlike vocals. An absolutely beautiful track that could easily satiate any shoegaze, post-punk, or dream pop fan.
4. Tending a Dead Woman's Garden
This is quite possibly one of my favorite song titles — EVER! With a brilliantly macbre-tinged name, this track hits all the 90’s goth qualities I love in a song. Moody vocals, fast paced reverb, a downstroke sound, and a slight Sisters of Mercy influence. This is five minutes of pure post-punk pleasure that could easily be an addition to any ‘Hot Goth Summer’ playlist.
5. Le Silence
Reminiscent of 80’s post punk, “Le Silence” is another stellar track that creates a stunning, atmospheric feeling for the listener. With a Cure-like sound and dreamy, almost disconsolate vocals, one cannot help but feel the encapsulated sadness that “Le Silence” brings forth.
6. Roman Empire
While every song on Age of Resilience is an absolute winner from start to finish, “Roman Empire” stands out as my favorite song on the album. Starting off with an 80’s synth-laden sound, the song then moves back to the somber, and almost tenebrous post-punk style we’ve seen showcased throughout this album. Sexy and seductive, “Roman Empire” is a must-listen track that transports the listener to a dark and beautiful place.
7. Siegfried 1969
Taking a slightly different direction in style, “Siegfried 1969” starts off with She Wants Revenge-esque synth and monotone vocals that the late, great Ian Curtis would appreciate. Stripped down, minimalistic, and very 80’s, The City Gates takes these elements and makes them their own. While this song is unlike any other on the album, it still manages to feel at home and cohesive with the overall brooding theme showcased in Age of Resilience.
8. Claiming Race
Keeping with the minimalistic, monotone sound, “Claiming Race” adds some frenetic energy to the album with this danceable and upbeat song. While it’s faster paced than its predecessors, “Claiming Race” still keeps the post-punk sound prevalent throughout the album. I personally love the way this track shakes up Age of Resilience, while still showcasing the band’s artistic direction.
9. Copenhagen
As we near the end of the album, “Cophenhagen” returns to the shoegaze and ethereal sound that initially drew us in. Focusing on reverb-laced guitar sounds and vocals that are a subtle nod to one of my favorite bands, Jesus and Mary Chain. This song could have easily been an early/mid 90’s shoegaze hit, as it flawlessly replicates the style, while still maintaining their own identity.
10. Slush
Fans of The Sisters of Mercy’s later releases will appreciate the melodic and intoxicating sound brought forth with “Slush.” With alluring vocals and hauntingly beautiful music, The City Gates create a sound that instantly lures you in and keeps you hooked.
11. Foghorn's City
The last song on Age of Resilience, “Foghorn’s Cry” wraps up an incredible album with a beautifully enchanting song that once again pays homage to Jesus and Mary Chain. Touching on shoegaze, post-punk, and even dream pop, “Foghorn’s Cry” showcases the talent and flexibility of the band, while still allowing their own identity to shine through.
While I usually take issue with bands showcasing a number of genres on an album, The City Gates has managed to flawlessly execute each style — allowing each song to maintain its own sound and style, yet weaving them all together to create a cohesive, brilliant release.
By far one of the best albums of 2021, The City Gates' Age of Resilience has earned a much deserved 5/5 on the Bat Scale!
