New Horror-Inspired Music for All Hallow's Eve

 
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     As a kid I grew up with parents obsessed with horror, film noir & true crime films; parents who would set up my sister and me in the back of their car with blankets, pillows and snacks for jaunts to the drive-in theater to see films like The Exorcist, Rosemary's Baby and Carrie.

So, it is not surprising that I turned out to acquire a similar obsession with all things dark. I began playing guitar at the age of 6 and quickly blossomed into a serious musician by the time I was in my early teens. Most of the music I was attracted to and would ultimately write myself had similar themes inspired by the dark arts. Bands like Black Sabbath, Iron Maiden, Mercyful Fate and KISS were all early influences and helped mold my musical direction. In 1984, a friend turned me on to the German prog-rock/ambient band, Tangerine Dream, and the wheels in the twisted machinery of my artistic mind began to turn. I imagined a future in which music moved away from the lyric-laden verse-chorus-verse-chorus-bridge-solo-chorus format of popular music and headed toward a more stream-of-consciousness approach. I began devouring everything I could in the experimental and electronic-driven music genres as well as the then emerging goth music of Bauhaus, Siouxsie and the Banshees and the Cure, as well as paying close attention to the soundtracks of dark film auteurs like David Lynch, John Carpenter and Bob Clark. DOG (circa 1988-1995) was my first attempt at creating an amalgamation of electronic ambient music, hard rock, goth and campy soundtrack music and became the foundation for my ultimate immersion into the darkest, most uninhibited music I could imagine. Bedtime for Robots was finally launched after several years of experimenting with various genres of music. In 2001, I finally released the first Bedtime for Robots collection, Malleus Maleficarum, which set the stage for the subsequent 20 + releases. 

                                                                     
                                                                     

     Once again, it is that time of the year when I watch at least one horror film per day to celebrate the coming of All Hallow's Eve and to take this year's celebration up a few notches I have released my darkest collection of music to date. Eat You is both a celebration of the dark music and films I have spent the majority of my life with as well as an exorcism of my personal horrors. I feel this is not only my darkest work, but one of the most challenging collections of music I have ever created in that it was created using multiple apps and sampling techniques as well as integrating live performances and all on the iPhone 4S. I am amazed at the evolution of this new technology which I have written about several times before. However, it just keeps astonishing me more and more as I learn newer and newer techniques with this portable technology, creating virtually anything that enters my mind. I realize now how limited I once was confined to recording studios, especially analog tape-based studios of the 70s, 80s and 90s. 

 "Eat You" cover art by Jennifer Lubinski

     Eat You features 6 extended-length tracks, each with its own dark personality, each using various recording techniques and each incorporating voice in a variety of ways without ever conforming to traditional sing-songy melodic structures. However, there are plenty of "hooks" to hang yourself on in this collection. This is not your typical ambient background music, the likes of which creative artists such as Steve Roach and Robert Rich have built legacies upon. Rather, this is music that touches upon ambient sensibilities while embracing the repetition and syncopation of machine-inspired beats. It is also a journey of sound with unexpected twists and turns. Most of these paths, however, lead the listener to very dark places.

 "Eat You" artist self-portrait by Michael Ferentino

                                                   

      I also had the opportunity to collaborate with a unique artist named Hanni who primarily focuses on paintings of serial killers and other morbid imagery. However, I discovered she had a unique ability to express herself through spoken word and approached her for a words and music collaboration. The result is the track "Hanging Flesh, Crawling Shadow," a purging of the nightmares she has endured since discovering her husband's body, hung by suicide 5 years ago. Her description of the nightmares is equal parts chilling and strangely beautiful. I created a soundscape around this theme which uses reverberated minor-key piano musings over a pulsating carnival organ (inspired by her obsession with cotton candy). I then manipulated her voice with various levels of effects over a crawling-spider synthesizer, creating the impression of a psychedelic nightmare. An unexpected twist occurs mid-way and then her story is told once again, this time without the wall of effects, resulting in a chilling conclusion. 

     Hanni   

     The title track, as well as the closing track, "I Was DOG" are both homages to my early days with a brand new twist, thanks to my accumulated experiences as well as the iPhone technology. I could go on and on but as a wise man once said, "talking about music is like dancing about architecture." So, I will leave it up to the listener to create her own experience through these soundscapes. May they take you to horrific and wonderful places...

EAT YOU is available now through iTunes, Amazon, X-Box Music, Last FM and many more destinations on the web...

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