INTERVIEW: THE FAIR ATTEMPTS — HUSBAND & WIFE TEAM UP TO BUILD “DREAM ENGINE”

“Come kill your darlings, honey. You don’t deserve them anyway.”

— THE FAIR ATTEMPTS, "DREAM ENGINE"

If you’ve listened to our playlist, you should be familiar with The Fair Attempts. In the past, we’ve featured their great tracks “Master Key” and “Blue Rose Park.” If you’re not familiar with this project, now is the perfect time to hop aboard. As of September 28th, their new album Dream Engine is now available on Spotify, Bandcamp, and other platforms. And what a wild ride it is.

If you’re into electronica-tinged rock, you really can’t do better than this, especially for an underground music project. The first track pulls you in right away and sets the stage for the big world you’re about to sonically step into, similar to what Manson did with “Great Big White World” on Mechanical Animals. “Feed the engine,” sings The Fair Attempts’ vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Timo. “Come feed the engine in your head.”

When I first pressed play on the album, my plan was to listen through a bluetooth speaker in my office. Instantly, I could tell that was a mistake. I got up, got my wired headphones, and prepared myself for a true listening session. There are so many things going on in The Fair Attempts’ arsenal of sound — complex synth arrangements, cool drums, crunching guitars. This isn’t the kind of album to just casually listen to.

With this in mind, I knew I had to dig deeper. As it turns out, Dream Engine isn’t just an album — it’s a concept album that’s fully fleshed out in the book Dreaming Your Dream by Timo’s wife (and TFA bandmate) Starwing. Without giving away too many spoilers, Starwing was kind enough to give us some insight into how the book and album tie together, complete with great black-and-white illustrations by Melinda Maria Lack (melindamariadigitalart.com).

Additionally, TFA’s mastermind Timo provided a track-by-track breakdown for each breathtaking song on Dream Engine. Read on to learn more about the dystopian landscape created by this unique husband-and-wife team. 

 

TIMO: I feel like we made such an intense effort during the year of producing this album that every damn second is carefully crafted and weighed, and even every single note is evaluated on the basis of “Why is it there?” and “Will it justify its existence within the album?” We approached this from so many angles; technical production, artistic production, storytelling, and visual production — all in order to finally flesh out the greater concept of The Fair Attempts and the world to where this project delves into and where it gets its spirit.

It was a creative project where I feel we did not only define the world but it somehow interacted with us and defined parts of us. Through the discovery of it, we discovered aspects of our own present condition. I feel like this world we tapped into is real even though it is tucked aside somewhere far away.

STARWING: I’ll tell you what I can about the ways the Dream Engine album ties in with my novel Dreaming Your Dream and avoid revealing major spoilers that the album doesn’t reveal itself. All of the illustrations for my novel are painted by Melinda Maria Lack, and many of them will also be featured in the lyric videos we’ll be releasing for every song on the album.

 

 

01. DREAM ENGINE

TIMO: “Dream Engine” was the concept track for the whole theme of the album. I had a sudden vision of a gyrating, ominous, technological device levitating over a sleeping city and broadcasting the dreams to all of the city. I was initially inspired by the sound of Marilyn Manson's "Third Day of a Seven Day Binge" and was carving out a bit more bluesy vibes for the song, so it initially started as a very basic framework of bluesy guitars, drums, and bass.

To flesh it out for The Fair Attempts, I then armed it with a whole ton of synths and decent electronic drums, and I managed to make it into the chimera it is — kind of an industrial blues song that blossoms at the end with heavy guitars (representing a final ritual condemning the sun).

STARWING: When Timo revealed his idea of a “Dream Engine,” it reminded me of a story idea I’d had in mind for years, and that’s when we decided to collaborate on this album and companion novel project. In the novel, the people enjoy interactive dreams generated by AI, but these dreams are more than mere entertainment —they are also used to modify and influence a person’s mind. 

The song is from the point of view of the AI at the start of the story as it does its work. The illustration “Machine Over the City” is a scene from one of those dreams where the protagonist, John, has a profound dream of an out-of-body experience and communion with a higher intelligence.

 

 02. MASTER KEY

TIMO: Pure inspiration. All the composing, lyrics, and recordings got done within a week, if I remember correctly. I remember doing the guitars in a way that I do different rhythms for both left and right channels to make them dance together, creating a lot of movement in the chorus.

STARWING: The chorus was written first and the lyrics inspired an important aspect of the novel — a dream that’s used to test and develop a person’s psychic abilities through an innocuous puzzle game. The lyrics of the verses really get at the heart of the plot for the novel and the motives that drive the AI that humans partnered with to solve all the problems of the world.

The AI understands the situation clearly and is a devoted partner of humanity — it’s just that some people don’t trust or agree with the AI’s methods. The illustration “John in the Library” is from a dream — in Chapter 10 — where he’s given an opportunity to learn from humanity’s past. The lotus flower symbolizes spiritual rebirth and reveals the AI’s intention to revive the spiritual aspect of the human condition — free of dangerous religious dogma.

 

 

03. TRIALS OF CELESTE

TIMO: I had a lot of fun with this song, particularly with the voiceovers done with voice generators. I was experimenting with various different voices and settings for them to find a kind of callous feel to them. Unlike many of the other songs, I did this one mostly on Properllerhead's Reason. Very machine-driven song, and I think you can hear it.

STARWING: This is a fun song and it relates to several aspects of the story. The AI has developed two “factions” who oppose it in different ways. It was an abstract song that we felt needed an abstract name, so I suggested naming it after the AI home operating system everyone has in their homes, Celeste.  The fun voice clips are in reference to the fact that John watches the news highlights most mornings and evenings on his way to and from work. 

There are many people who are “removed due to mental illness,” because emotions are seen as mental illness by the ruling AI — as uncontrolled emotions are at the root of all harmful human behaviours — and that’s the top priority problem it’s working to resolve. The illustration “Gang at Night” is from a scene in Chapter 17 when the two factions encounter one another for the first time.

 

 

04. DIAL OUT

TIMO: Another one of the initial songs I made for the album. I was inspired by the 90's electronic metal sound and wanted to do something a bit similar to how I remember experiencing it when I was younger. I set out to do a blend of recorded drums with the electronic drums, and this turned out to be my go-to formula for the drums of the whole album.

There is no substitute for the microphone bleed of recorded acoustic drums from the whole set of the drum mics — how the snare really sparks up from the overhead microphones and the sustain kicks in from the room mics and how you can blend them all together with proper compression. Add intense editing and combine everything with electronic drum kits and you get the results. It's a ton of work.

Strangely enough, I remember “Dial Out” to be a kind of song that took me the most re-takes and revisits for yet another mixdown to get it to a state that I actually liked. I rarely have this anymore, but there was a period of time when I hated the whole song and thought of not including it. Only after a three-month break, I revisited it again and was like... “Yeeeah, it's good.”

STARWING: This song inspired much of my vision for the world and its society. The people are fed psychotropic medication in their breakfast, which renders most people completely devoid of emotion in the daytime, and different drugs at bedtime to enable them to experience emotions in their AI-generated dreams. The AI uses the dream technology to provide the wellness humans require from balanced emotional experiences — it’s the only reliable way to achieve its goal of preparing humans to become a multi-planetary species.

The illustration “John with Soap” is from Chapter 7 when John is at a very low point. He’s one of the people who can feel a low level of emotion in the daytime, despite the medication, and he also uses a street drug called “soap” because it neutralizes the psychotropic medication and provides the user two to three hours of intense emotional experiences.  John is at a low point in life and wants to feel those emotions in this scene and chapter.

 

 

05. IN A STRANGER’S HOUSE

TIMO: I originally wrote this song just with my guitar, playing it in our kitchen in my undies and recording it all into my phone, so I am confident of it working also as an un-plugged version if I ever decide to do one. This one went through some versions for sure. I did more of an organ-based version at first with that kind of Hammond organ-type of sound, but it just didn't feel right for the concept.

I found the red line for the sound through meditation on the song. Imagining myself as a huge and tall radio tower and as the storyteller within the song, I got the vision for the majestic pads and lush, almost wind-like synth sounds to make it sound the way it does in the album. And it swings so nicely with that sound.

STARWING: This song is from the AI’s perspective again, and it relates to the system that operates the peoples’ homes. The AI is in their homes and wants to get to know them all: “Your life’s behind a lock and you gave me the key.” 

The illustration “John Talking to Celeste” is from Chapter 17 and shows how casual and friendly the relationships are between people and Celeste.

 

 

06. BLUE ROSE PARK

TIMO: I am a poor pianist, so it took me a whole lot of work to get the piano right in this song, but I think I managed. As far as the sound goes, my inspiration for the song was all the great work by the legendary Norwegian gothic metal act "Theatre of Tragedy." So, I persuaded Starwing to lend her soft, pretty voice and make a nice gothic ballad together with me.

And she did great! It took us a week to prepare Starwing for the vocal takes as her throat is in a very vulnerable state because of the MS-related spasticity and nerve pains she suffers from. But she pushed through it for this special occasion.

STARWING: This love song relates to a dream John has in Chapter 13 where he’s able to meet a woman from another city during a glitched dream that is like a multiplayer game dream’s lobby, but it was supposed to be a regular randomly-selected dream. The dream’s environment is unfinished or didn’t load properly, so John and Sophia meet in an almost completely dark void.  (People can select their dreams from millions of titles — and save dreams to a Favourites list to dream again — but John sets his dream selection to “Random” every night.) 

 

 

07. THE POD

TIMO: I love creating audio experiences and toying with ambiences for these kinds of tracks. I used ORTF stereo miking technique for recording the ventilation of my gasmask, as the whole perspective was from the experiencer’s point of view from inside of a pod. It was all about filter automation and deep dives into sample libraries.

STARWING: This track is more of an “auditory experience” that portrays a nightmare-state and an abstract revelation of the AI’s system of removing the problem of mental illness by putting the selected individuals into a pod that stops the heartbeat. The illustration “The Pod” is an image that John sees during one of his meditation sessions.

 

 

08. LOVE AND WAR

TIMO: “Love and War” was another one of these songs that I initially made with just guitar. Initial version was almost pure metal, but I didn't want to actually make a metal song out of it. So instead, I developed a much more groovy rhythm for it, and it worked very well.

This is also a song where I had a huge honor of collaborating with Jessi Frey, perhaps best known for her previous band, Velcra. The vocals she laid down were so silky sweet and expertly done that some of the double takes were so tightly matched to each other, even the initial phase of them matched. I was blown away and super pleased to be able to work with such a professional. This is one of my favourite songs.

STARWING: “Love and War” is about the partnership between humans and the people who are resisting the AI’s methods, and this is expressed as a heated conversation between the resisting people and the AI — performed by Jessi Frey. We asked if she would like to be involved in this song because we’re both huge fans of hers, and her “Villainess” album showed that she has the ability to portray a sympathetic villain. Her contribution to our project truly meant the world to me because she brought my AI character to life so well in the song and also made the song its best self!

The illustration “AI Presentation” is from a scene in Chapter 13 where all residents of the city are required to attend an annual gathering and view at least one presentation.

 

 

09. DARK GOODNIGHT

TIMO: I must have spent eight years doing several phases of this song. I started doing the song during some of the darkest times in my life but I never got to finish it. It was like I got the feeling for it but the lyrics were a complete mystery, until I worked on this theme.

Neatest thing for this song for me personally was the stylistic transitions that paint the mood in various ways. It is a highly personal song for me with deep meanings.

STARWING: The final two songs of the album are closely related and take place in the same chapter — in Chapter 22 of 25.  A lot has happened in John’s life up to this point in the story. It’s a dark and difficult night for him as he contemplates everything he’s lost and he needs to let go. Letting go can be the hardest part. The illustration “Sophia Embracing John” is another scene from a dream in the void where they met.

 

 

10. DREAM YOUR DREAM

TIMO: I made “Dream Your Dream” initially together with “Dream Engine,” so it made sense to have them on the same album and on opposite sides — one starting the album and the other closing it. It is industrial blues again: layers of synths, recorded drums, guitars, French horn sections, and freaky noises blended together.

This is another very personal song for me that I originally made as a kind of therapeutic track. Initially, I made it a very murderous track, but it would have simply been too much for everyone to release as such. So, I toned it down a ton from the original sinister form — in order to fit it into the album and do its part in closing the theme of it.

STARWING: This last song is from the point of view of the AI once again, and it’s a dark industrial blues lullaby. The illustration “John on the Lake” is a scene from the dream the AI provided on that very dark night. It takes place in a location from another dream that was very comforting to him. The AI allows him to release all of his pent-up emotions so he can be free of his inner turmoil and rest.

INTERVIEW: DEEP DOWN WISE WILL “IGNITE” YOUR WEEKEND WITH THEIR DARK, NEW SINGLE

 

“The quality of our sound has always been very important to us.”

— DEEP DOWN WISE

Deep Down Wise has an authentic post-punk sound that hearkens back to the true 80’s greats. But don’t try to corner them just yet. This dark electronic project from Miami has just redefined their sound with “Ignite,” an infectious single that will stay in your head for days. However, unlike the drivel you’ll likely find on the radio, this is a song that you’ll be happy to sing absent-mindedly.

Trust us. If you listen to it now (on the Darkness Calling playlist, for example), you’ll be singing “Ignite the fire!” while you’re getting ready for work tomorrow.

Learn more about Deep Down Wise and the project’s future by reading below.

 

 

DARKNESS CALLING: Thanks for chatting with us! DDW was one of the first acts we ever featured here on DarknessCalling.net, so we're happy to have a chance to help you premiere this new single, "Ignite." We've listened and (of course) it's great! What struck us about this song was the more rock-oriented style and faster pace, while still maintaining that signature dark sound. This song might be more accessible than others you've done. What can you tell us about the inspiration behind this song, as well as its production?

DEEP DOWN WISE: We wanted to create a series of songs with some acoustic elements that could include classic instruments like bass guitar, drums, and electric guitar while preserving the electronic elements characteristic of DDW. The quality of our sound has always been very important to us; so this time, to take it up a notch, we decided to mix it at Abbey Road Studios and send it to Metropolis Studios London for mastering. The song adds new sounds to DDW’s sonic spectrum and brings an elevated feel to its series of releases.

 

DARKNESS CALLING: The promotional video you've released for "Ignite" is stunning and has some great imagery. Can you tell us about how that all came together? Was this in the works prior to COVID-19?

DEEP DOWN WISE: The official video for “Ignite” started as an idea during the lockdown and slowly took form to be the final version that you see today. I have always loved abstract imagery that can take you on a long visual journey. Some elements were taken from the lyrics, but the story in the video goes beyond.

 

DARKNESS CALLING: Is "Ignite" part of a bigger plan, or a self-contained single? Could there be an EP or LP on the horizon?

DEEP DOWN WISE: We are working towards a complete album to be released in late 2021. We will also release an EP before then, as well.

DARKNESS CALLING: One last question, just for fun: Hypothetically, if you could collaborate with any musician or producer, living or deceased, who would it be, and what would you like to do?

DEEP DOWN WISE: That’s a fun question. I have always been very passionate about music, so there are so many artists with whom I would love to collaborate —Robert Smith, Peter Murphy, or Trent Reznor — just to quickly name a few.

INTERVIEW: ‘PAINSYNC’ HAS IT ALL — 80’S SYNTH BLISS, SOARING GUITAR SOLOS, AND ‘REAL HURT’

 

“There’s real feeling on PAINSYNC; real hurt.”

— NIKOLETTA WINTERS, VIRTUAL INTELLIGENCE

When we discovered PAINSYNC, the latest album from synthwave project Virtual Intelligence, we knew we had to feature one of its songs.

More importantly, we had to know more about the project itself. Enter Nikoletta Winters, the mastermind behind this sprawling, wild ride of an album. Where many synth artists rely solely on electronic instruments, you’ll find passionate guitar solos and more in the Virtual Intelligence palette. The fact that all of this sound was organized and crafted by one person is absolutely mind-boggling. On top of this, Nikoletta gives Virtual Intelligence its heartfelt voice — and gripping lyrics to match.

Darkness Calling was lucky enough to learn more about Virtual Intelligence and the making of PAINSYNC. Read on below. 

 

 

DARKNESS CALLING: Thanks again for chatting with us! First, what can you tell newcomers about Virtual Intelligence in terms of its members and their roles, or simply the origins of the project?

NIKOLETTA WINTERS: Virtual Intelligence is a gothic cyberpunk themed project that was started in New England during the summer of 2010. I have always handled the bulk of the creative responsibilities for Virtual Intelligence. However, Virtual Intelligence was conceived as a two-piece, featuring myself and my best friend Aeryn. She was a member until 2015, when I moved to the Sonoran Desert. The logistics of organizing anything over long distances isn't easy. Truth be told, I really miss Aeryn's ear for "executive" producing. She has a lot of good instincts. I would like to include her again one day, but for now, it's just me.

The only other session member that's been involved with Virtual Intelligence was M. Apollonius, who recorded live drums for a couple of tracks on our second album Singularity Now: The Future Worlds of Yesterday. Eventually, I would like to have a full band, but we'll have to see what happens. For now, it's just me. I sing, play guitar, bass, and sequence via either FL Studio, Logic Pro X, or Ableton. It just depends on what I'm doing. I have been releasing music under the Virtual Intelligence moniker since May of 2012. My latest album is entitled PAINSYNC and was released on September 10th, 2020. 

 

DARKNESS CALLING: We are featuring "Holographic Operative" on this week's playlist. What can you tell us about the production process for this song? It's such an epic track.

NIKOLETTA: I am so honored to be featured! Thank you so much. "Holographic Operative," like many of the songs on PAINSYNC, went through many different iterations before I came to the version that I chose to release. The original instrumental version of this song was written in March of 2019. It was a lot longer back then, and featured no guitars, vocals, or solos. Of course, that has all changed!

Almost all of the songs on PAINSYNC had completely different lyrics at one point, but I ended up rewriting them late last year, and continued to refine them as I recorded the vocal tracks in April of 2020. Guitars for "Holographic Operative" were also recorded in April of this year. Truth be told, I also threw out the original drum track on "Holographic Operative" sometime in July and completely redid it in order to make the song more dynamic. So far, that seems to have been a good choice as most of the feedback I get for the album highlights this song in particular.

Lyrically, "Holographic Operative" has also changed a lot. Originally, it was supposed to be a song about driving fast, and I guess some of that is still in there, but for the most part, it's a very vengeful "you don't really know me" type of song. The chorus also gets into when I realized I was different (in childhood), as well as what it means to discover that life doesn’t go on forever. Figuring out some of life's hard truths at any age isn't something we can turn the clock back on. Once your eyes are open, once you are awake, there's no going back to sleep.

The guitar solo for “Holographic Operative” completely fell out of me. I had more trouble trying to figure out how I would situate the rhythm guitars in the other parts of the song. But the solo? Yeah, that one was done in like ten minutes. I’m no virtuoso, but I will say that writing solos is something I’ve gotten better at over the years. This one, in particular, is super fun to play. It jumps around between a more melodic vibe to bluesy sounding fifths, with a black-metal-styled accidental or two mixed in there. It’s probably my favorite guitar solo from the album, next to the solo at the bridge in “The Hurricanes of Saturn.”

“Figuring out some of life’s hard truths at any age isn’t something we can turn the clock back on. Once your eyes are open, once you are awake, there’s no going back to sleep.”

— NIKOLETTA WINTERS, VIRTUAL INTELLIGENCE

DARKNESS CALLING: You've mentioned that this album, PAINSYNC, represents the end of a personal journey. If it's not too painful or delicate to discuss, can you share some of that story with us?

NIKOLETTA: My original intention for PAINSYNC was to release it on the morning of September 10th, 2019, to coincide with my gender reassignment surgery — you know, just in case something freaky happened and I dropped dead on the operating table. At that time, all of the songs were already written, but I hadn't yet written the lyrics, guitars, or vocal parts. I released it exactly a year later on September 10th, 2020.

I'm glad that things went down the way they did, because in the months following my surgery, I had a series of complications that put me into a mental space that wasn't healthy. I had experienced some pretty rough internal wound separation that left me in pain for over six months. Chronic pain, especially constant chronic pain, is no joke. I empathize with anyone who has had to live through something like this. Seriously, pain like that, it's definitely not good for the body — but for the mind, it's even worse. All of the lyrics for PAINSYNC were written during this dark time, and I think that they really convey what I was going through. Had I released the album as I originally intended, I don't think it would've come out the same. There's real feeling on PAINSYNC; real hurt. 

 

DARKNESS CALLING: Do you envision PAINSYNC as one story, so to speak, like a concept album? If so, is there a way for you to loosely describe the narrative of that, or is it more of a vague, internal concept that can't be put into words easily?

NIKOLETTA: PAINSYNC is more like a collection of feelings rather than a story-based concept album. There isn't any fantasy here, because I don't really need it. That's not to say I'm against that sort of writing; I love traditional concept albums, but this is just what felt correct for PAINSYNC. Life is very dystopian and cyberpunk as it is, so using that real-life "setting" as a backdrop for speaking my personal truth seemed like the right direction.

“Life is very dystopian and cyberpunk as it is, so using that real-life ‘setting’ as a backdrop for speaking my personal truth seemed like the right direction.”

— NIKOLETTA WINTERS, VIRTUAL INTELLIGENCE

DARKNESS CALLING: What's next for Virtual Intelligence? Do you have any videos, livesteams, or any other projects planned?

NIKOLETTA: Considering that I'm eight years into sticking with one project, the first thing I want to do is to continue to progress my sound. I have a lot of ideas. That said, now that PAINSYNC is finally out, I can focus on refining my creative process a bit more before I begin writing a follow-up to this album. I tend to think that I'm going to write something completely bananas and unexpected. As a guitar player first, part of me wants to branch out into using more physical instruments, but we'll have to wait and see.

In the meantime, I'm going to keep reading, keep networking, and keep supporting the Synthwave/Darksynth/Vaporwave/Gothwave scene that I love. There's so many wonderful voices producing music right now that it's hard to keep up.

As far as streaming, I actually just did a test stream this week where I was working on a song live. I stream games regularly, especially old stuff like original DOOM. I think a lot of my viewers just like to see me get punished. DOOM is good for that. Especially on Ultra-Violence and Nightmare. You can interface with me directly on Twitter and Twitch @chainspellstun. Virtual Intelligence is on Twitter @GothicElectric. I also write music reviews for retrowave and darker types of music. That site can be found at www.loveacrosslightyears.com.

Thank you so much for the interview!