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mareenavee · 11 months

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Similar ask to yours! How does music play into your creative process? Can you share passages written to specific tracks? How do they tie together? And is there a difference between how your write when there are words/lyrics vs instrumental music?

Hello again!!! AHHH I love this. Thank you for returning this question to me. Music and creativity go hand in hand for me, and I definitely have some snippets to share. By virtue of the question, this one is gonna be a LONG post lol

So first, I'll preface this by saying most of the perfect-music-finding happens after writing because I can't always pay attention to the lyrics of what's playing in the background while I'm writing. I use music while writing for the most part to drown out other sounds that are more capable of distracting and/or annoying me. (Usually other people speaking, which might be mean but it's true. That and tv sound effects.)

I'll also just blast music with the intent on singing at the top of my lungs if I'm going through a relatively mindless task for work, and sometimes will need to pause and throw songs on a project's list. I'll get into that below the cut. It's mostly just a way that I can create space for myself to be creative in a normally noisy environment.

ANYWAY. Songs will start to remind me of things I've written and sometimes fit so perfectly, they get thrown on a project's playlist and I'll go back in to read the lyrics later and decide what order they'll go in or if they'll be tossed on another playlist as well. Most of my projects have their own list. I have two general fiction lists -- one contains songs with a sort of different mood than the other -- and another specifically made with my fic in mind. I also have a campaign inspo list for dnd things, and a folder of character-specific lists regarding dnd things, too. In the same way that artists might collect references to inspire them, I save songs that inspire me and remind me of my projects. And sometimes I'll listen to the list I made for a project while working on it, which is just pure happiness lol

So in regards to finding perfect songs for specific chapters or scenes, it's less "perfect" than it is just a close reminder of the mood of said chapter, I think. Sometimes a song is closer to perfect than others. Sometimes a lot of songs fit the mood I'm going for in a chapter.

Here's a small snippet of chapter 8 of The World on Our Shoulders, already published, and one of the songs I paired with the chapter. (I know you guys love Sad!Athis from the last snippet of the chapter, and I do too, and this is one with a particularly good song match. In fact, I used the lyrics as part of the chapter title.)

Tears began to well in his eyes. He missed her badly. Even if she didn’t care that he wasn’t there with her, he cared deeply that she’d been missing from him for so long. He used to have such a full life, always traveling. Always fighting. Maybe he had slacked off with training, but he felt strong, then. At the moment, he felt nothing of the sort. The best memories he had ever had in his life were now tinged with this darkness. With this loss he could barely explain. It had been his fault, he knew. There was blame, and it was his. He could have said anything other than goodbye. He could have begged her to say. He could have gotten off his ass and ran after her. He could have done any number of things, but instead he watched her go. He watched her, and never inserted himself into the adventure. Part of him knew, even then, that she didn’t want him there. She said she wanted him to stay safe. Between the lines, she had really said she’d been disappointed in him. That he had been a distraction, if anything. That, perhaps, hurt worse than the rest of it. That so suddenly, she could decide such things. That she could inflict this kind of pain. That Nyenna, of all people, could be so venomous.

She had been his whole world at the beginning. He had been so taken with her. He had watched her decide to be strong, after he had saved her, that first day. She made the choice every day to do her best. While he had been waiting for her to catch up with him, she had flown by, surpassing his skills in every way. Especially after the first dragon. She…didn’t need to be saved. Didn’t need to be rescued. How long had he held onto the notion that she did? He didn’t know how to be anything else but her rescuer. And she didn’t even see him that way anymore. And he never really clarified what she did see. Never asked her what she wanted. What her goals were. Nobody ever did anymore, not since the Greybeards had called her to her destiny.

Athis was exhausted. The weight of his thoughts, his worries, his sadness had him crumbling. Once, he could have turned to her and she’d take it all away. One kiss, one glance, and he would be okay again. She was his home, his shelter, his safety. He thought he’d given her that, too, but like with everything else, her path had taken this from her as well.

And the song:

This is one that fit particularly well. Like I said, I used some of its lyrics for this chapter's title. I think it embodies the emotion Athis is feeling here, terribly missing the whirlwind closeness he and Nyenna shared before destiny took that away from them both. It has this visceral sort of regret in the lyrics, especially "And then I can tell myself / What the hell I'm supposed to do / And then I can tell myself Not to ride along with you." And it just kind of worked when I heard it again after I'd written this chapter.

For a happier fragment, have something out of the WIP, Chapter 47. Out of context, of course (:

The giant Khajiit came into view. He held Nyenna close to his chest, breathing heavily as if he had been running. Her shirt clung to her, skin slicked with sweat, despite the chill in the air down here. Her hair was damp and loose, and she was paler than death. She lifted her head from Ma’jhad’s chest and inhaled sharply. She tapped his shoulder and he threw her a concerned glance, but stooped to lower her to the stones. He supported her as she tried to stand on unsteady legs. She took a step and her knees collapsed, but the Khajiit warrior held her firmly. She looked at him and nodded, about to try again, but Teldryn sprinted and closed the distance. He lit the torch on the wall and dismissed his spell. Nyenna let out a weak chuckle as he collapsed onto his knees and scooped her into his arms. Ma’jhad stood tall again and leaned against the wall, crossing his arms.

“Are you real?” Nyenna asked softly, placing both of her burning hot hands on either side of his face. “Am I awake?”

“I’m here,” Teldryn said, finding he was weeping. She wiped his tears away as he grabbed onto her wrist with one hand and gently ran his knuckles down her cheek. Tears welled in her eyes. There was so much grief there, but still she smiled. He pushed a sodden curl away from her face.

“I never thought I’d see you again,” she breathed as the tears started to overflow.

“I’m here. I’m alright. I’m so sorry it took me so long to get back to you,” Teldryn whispered. He tried to wipe his eyes on his shoulder but she held onto his face firmly. He just let his tears keep falling. “Can you forgive me, merdekhes?”

She smiled, her own tears still running freely down her face, and ran her hand through his overgrown hair.

“I never blamed you, not for a second,” she whispered. “There’s nothing to forgive. I apologize for putting us in danger to begin with.” Her eyes went dark, and she closed them against the obvious wave of sorrow. She opened them and ran her fingers through his hair once again with another tear-streaked smile.

“Don’t,” Teldryn soothed. “None of this is on you. We’re here together. It’s going to be okay. I’ve got you now.”

He pulled her into a tight embrace which she returned as she shook with sobs that mixed with relieved laughter. What madness it was to be reunited, that all the horrors they both faced could melt away at one touch, to fill the spaces left behind with joy. He could hear the gathering crowd. Niranye gasped as she stopped halfway down her basement stairs. Nyenna pulled away and gently placed her hands on either side of his face again. She lightly traced his tattoos with the tips of her fingers, almost like she thought he would disappear on her in between one blink and the next if she did not check again. When she spoke, her voice sounded like something ethereal, like her words had been granted gravity by Mara Herself.

“I love you, Teldryn. I should have said a thousand, thousand times by now.”

She wiped away more tears from his cheek. For half a second, he thought maybe he was still walking between reality and dreams. But he took both of her hands in his and they were solid, and warm, and he had never been more sure of anything in life before.

And the song:

I just love this song. It's *chef's kiss* anyway for me. But particularly for Teldryn, after everything the two of them had been through, the past didn't matter anymore. They'd been reunited after some difficult events. Distance, maybe, brought clarity. And Teldryn realized fully what the implications of this meant. That he was worthy of being loved. (backstory things here.) That his love mattered to someone. And damn the consequences, right? At this point, anyway. There's more to it, but spoilers and all. (:

And for the last part of the question -- there's no difference for me while writing to music with lyrics or without. It depends on what I feel like hearing at that particular moment. To be fair, sometimes I won't listen to anything at all, especially if I am closely editing something. But as I mentioned above, music is definitely mostly intertwined in being creative. It's a source of inspiration for me, and a reminder to always be thinking about my stories (: Never know when song lyrics might call back to them unexpectedly!

Hope that was comprehensive enough :D

#AskMareena #MareenaWrites #The World on Our Shoulders #Nyenna #Teldryn Sero #Athis #LDB/Teldryn Sero #LDB/Athis #Skyrim #Elder Scrolls #tesblr #writeblr #fanficblr #fic #fanfic #fanfiction #skyrim fic #skyrim fanfic #skyrim fanfiction

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greatseedling · 2 years

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✿ permanent plotting

woah, i’ve been here on and off for four years with martel and i’ve apparently never made one of these?? better late than never, i suppose!! as much as i love all the spontaneous dynamics that have emerged over the years, i’d like to consider some longer-lasting and current relationship dynamics for martel.

as per usual, by liking this post you are expressing permission for me to...

hit you up ooc to talk plotting and things regarding our muses

reach out to you during events and other group activities for plotting

send you a butt-ton of memes on fridays

engage with your minis and opens

slap you starters (with permission ofc ofc)

for transparency, i prefer to interact ooc with other 18+ muns only. thank you!

below is a non-all-encompassing list of vibes to start. feel free to like this post or comment on it and i’ll reach out to you, or beep me if you want to reach me ooc and talk more about any or all possibilities:

✿ ACQUAINTANCES/FRIENDS this is a pretty easy place to land yourself, martel is a very loving and gentle person who can easily find the good in just about everyone. if your muse breaths... they could probably land themselves in here. while she’s friendly with most, it actually takes quite a bit of trust building for her to open up to the more sensitive bits of her life. her friendships are something she takes very seriously-- she’d bend over backwards for them. catch her stopping by to see your muse often, bringing them food and giving them tons of physical proximity. generally, if u just need a friend, she’s a wonderful one to end up with, and she particularly is good with those lacking self esteem especially.

✿ FOUND FAMILY did u want a mom?? a big sister?? just a mom friend?? she’s got you covered. martel is very maternal, especially with children and teens. she’ll fuss over you, set your bed time, and occasionally baby you. oops. she’s got a softeness for children, having raised her baby bro. if ur a child, you’ve probably already been adopted in her mind. she’s got a very fussy bit to her, she means well, but she might step into well-intentioned patronizing territory.

✿ ENEMIES you have to be a really unredeemable person who is hellbent and back to being terrible to land here firmly, but even if that was the case you’d likely be picking a fight with the other kharlan heros before she’d ever have a chance to response. if you want to be mean to her or have your muse hate her, you’re 100% welcome, but she doesn’t do conflict so... good luck. she’ll still try to win your favor.

✿ ROMANCE oh boy, good luck. while certainly possible, martel has a lot of complicated feelings here. she’s demisexual, and requires a close bond with someone before romance can truly be on the table, but its totally possible. sometimes she can come across as flirtatious, but most the time is unintentional. but if down the road something connects between our muses, let me know! martel has a partner, so i’m no longer open to romantic dynamics 👍

✿ HEALERS although she’s perhaps not in the best shape right this minute, martel’s a very seasoned magical healer and is studying human forms of herbal healing. she makes aromatherapy products and is great at bandaging up your scrapes and cuts. let her nurse your sicknesses. and injuries, she’ll take good care of you. conversely, if your muse knows healing, especially medicine/non-magical methods... teach her!! she’s super interested in learning more.

✿ GARDENERS/ARTISTS martel has been volunteering for years in community gardening and landscaping around spirale. she’s always found planting, moving, and tending to the flowers and bushes around the different sectors. maybe your muse has a green thumb! or maybe your muse is just looking for some fresh air! she’ll teach you about plants n nature...or even help you with your plant babies! or maybe your muse loves music? martel plays the panpipe as a little hobby and loves music and dance... she would love to listen to your muse play music or learn a new instrument. she also is secretly a fabulous still life sketcher. she does really impressive charcoal sketches, and she’d love to do a portrait of your muse!! arts n crafts are always welcome.

✿ WAR SURVIVORS / HALF-ELVES / FELLOW DEAD PEOPLE hello, let’s bond. there’s a lot of shared experience here with people intimately involved in wars, discrimination, and death. she was born into a longstanding war, and comes from a world that was hostile and cruel to her. she died once, woot woot!! i think there’s a lot of possibility to find companionship in shared experiences and this might be a good compliment for forging a friendship. lets get deep into it.

✿ TEACHERS so martel has zero education. she can’t read or write much beyond a kindergarden level. i think it’d be really sweet if someone with patience would like to try and teach her!! she’s a bit anxious, but she’d make a good student. ooooor, if you’d like to teach her how to cook or do something else... power to you! she’s curious, so she’ll totally

✿ ETC literally slap me with whatever vibe you’ve got. let create something spicy.

#sets this down and lays on the floor #i may wake up in the morning with more to add but 4 years later... i finally did it #isola rp ad #i guess?? idk i love u tho <3 come write with me

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izacore · 1 year

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They were never friends, it was a business arrangement where the only actually willing participant was her. If she was that good of a friend for him (gag lol) she’d at least pretend to support him and his career, meanwhile she can’t do that even as a fake girlfriend. She is living a very comfortable life off of Louis' money with clearly no desire to do anything for herself, considering how quickly she dropped her blog with Max to go back to bearding. She may be relatively harmless now but that certainly wasn't the case in the past so sorry but I will never find it in me to be thankful to her for anything or feel bad for her.

You probably won’t be posting this which is fine.🤍 I just wanna say, I’m convinced our fandom would do so much better getting rid of all the hate towards beards in general bc there’s no reason for that hate, at all. Beards aren’t the threat in all this, so there’s no reason to treat them like they are a threat. You don’t have to ‚like‘ them but hating them is just wasted energy.

And we don’t really know how close they really are and whether or not they ever were friends bc we don’t see that part of his life. I have never seen any animosity between Louis and Eleanor and I have never gotten any vibes from Louis not being at least friendly with her. If you have, pls show me, I would be very interested. She has supported him over the years. Whenever she did it publicly she got hate from people for‚ only wanting attention and fame and money‘ so when she stopped doing it for everyone to see she was called a bad ‚gf‘ who isn’t supportive. I do find it bizarre to claim someone isn’t supportive based on their social media actions. She went to his concerts knowing that the majority of people there didn’t want her to be there. I’m sure she is/was very important to him and a constant in his life. It speaks for her that she is/was by his side after all this time and after all the shit they had go through, both together and individually. That alone proofs she is in fact very supportive of him if you ask me. I think he really relies on her in many aspects and sometimes I feel like she is the one who knows *everything*.

That said, I feel like many fans in our fandom tend to project their discomfort and negative emotions (which are reasonable to have, totally!) towards closeting and homophobia onto the beards/ pr stunts implying that they are the reason for the closet of L/H, when they are in fact stepping in as some sort of solution. If both people involved agree with that kind of arrangement then why hating on only one part? Eleanor is not responsible for the situation Louis is in. Our society and the music industry are. If louis decides to keep her around the way she is these days that’s something we should accept. He is old enough to know what’s best for him. Maybe that is the best possibility available for him at the moment out of all scenarios he could be living in as a closeted famous world star. Being with Eleanor probably gives him more freedom to express himself the way he wants to as an artist. I mean, listen to the entity of walls and how specific in his lyrics he was able to be…and why? Bc he could simply just link them all to his gf knowing his fans would understand the truth behind those songs. This time around he isn’t as specific anymore so no need to link the lyrics to anybody, no need to explain them and therefore not one Eleanor mention throughout the whole promo ride, isn’t that very very telling? Eleanor just steps in for things he can’t be open about. She is not the one to blame for why this is even needed in the first place. I also would like to add it’s not totally valid to blame Eleanor profiting from Louis closet. she doesn’t take nearly as much advantage from it as she probably could. I think it’s weird to expect two people who have an arrangement with eachother to only have one person in it who takes advantage from it while the other one is supposed to take all the shit. She did get a lot of bs bc of this whole thing. Louis is a victim in his situation, yes. But she isn’t the reason for that. She sacrificed a lot of her own life for this, too. We don’t know what her life looks like. We don’t know if she has a job outside of social media. But she did go to Uni so it’s not unlikely. We don’t know if she’s dating someone, privately. We don’t know anything about her. If she agrees to do this for Louis then it’s only fair for her to also get some benefits from it, don’t you think?

#ask #anonymous #if you want to victimize a beard who dropped her whole life #to closet a gay man #then go to another blog #i have no admiration for this lifestyle #but hey whatever helps you sleep at night #acting as if she sacrificed anything stfu #she had a choice #she could have walked away #and she could have never come back!!!!!#but she chose easy money #anyway don't bother to come back find blogs that are beard defenders because my stance on this matter will never change <3 #long post

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thinkingaboutmusics · 2 years

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Jacob Collier: A Master of Performance

The COVID-19 pandemic created a problem for live-performers as the live-performance platform virtually disappeared for a while. Many artists scheduled 2022 tours and sold pre-sale tickets. Around this time, I had become really interested in the music of Jacob Collier, a now 28 year old music savant. From a young age, Collier was playing most instruments he could get his hands on and played them well. At 17 he began sharing youtube videos of his music, and at 22, he released his first album, In My Room. The album highlights, not only his extensive knowledge of music, but also includes such a dynamic range of songs. Whether soft and slow or fast and busy, Collier moves the listener and their emotions wherever he’d like. For my birthday in 2021 (amidst the pandemic), my girlfriend gifted me pre-sale tickets to see Jacob in May, 2022 touring his newest album Djesse Vol. 3. I went with my best friend, Chase, and we had such a time…

The show was held at Terminal 5, in Manhattan, NY, on May 4th, 2022. After meeting my friend at the port authority bus terminal, we set off for Terminal 5 and caught each other up on our lives… Upon our arrival at the venue, we were greeted by probably hundreds of Collier-loving hipsters- I don’t think I’ve ever seen such a convention of people before. We waited in line to have our tickets scanned and settled into the general-admission audience where we stood amongst the hipsters. After waiting for a while, Jacob emerged and began his performance. If you’ve done any research of Jacob Collier, or if you’ve listened to his music, you probably have an idea of how energetic the guy is, and it’s real! He was jumping around the stage like a monkey, and kept it up for the entire show. He certainly lived up to his expectations in that respect. His energy was also matched by the lights and effects of the show, which only intensified the Collieresqueness of the entire production.

What’s a Jacob Collier concert without crowd involvement??? He’s known to use the audience as accompaniment during his shows and it really is one of the best parts. As an audience member, not only did I feel involved and connected, but I was amazed to see how he manipulated different sections of the audience to sing different parts of a song. He did this during “I Can’t Make You Love Me” and it is, 100%, one of the most moving parts of the entire show. Closer to the end of the show, Jacob instructed everyone to pull out their phones to take a video of themselves singing an extended “BE” for a video he’s creating, in which thousands of “BE’s” will be glued together into a cohesive piece of music. No doubt, this was one of the coolest ideas I’ve heard, and I’m really excited to see what he makes of it, as I’m sure most Djesse Vol. 3 tour audience members are.

Jacobs encore was intimate and just as talented as the rest of the concert. The musicians on stage all began "It Don't Matter" in the center of the stage before running back to their respective instruments to move into the meat of the song.

I needn't forget the post-concert! After Jacob's outstanding encore, Earth Wind and Fire's "September" played through the sound system of the venue and the audience wouldn't leave. What was before a collected audience of people there to see Jacob Collier was now a party of people dancing as they (sort of) made their way outside.

That show on May 4th, was probably one of the most sentimental music performances I’ve ever seen, not only because it was a gift from my girlfriend, but also because of the energy and intimate musical space Collier created. It was as if everyone in the audience was connected by a long wire and one of the ends was held by Jacob as he electrified that night's audience-choir.

Other recordings of the nights performance:

"All I Need"

"Time Alone With You"

#jacob collier #collier #jacob #savant #music #musician #musicians #band #singersongwriter #songwriter #drums #guitarist #piano #piano chords #guitar

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spushii · 1 year

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Anne's top 9 first-time album listens* of 2022! (In no particular order)

The end of this year really crept up on me! I definitely didn't get to listen to everything I wanted to, but I still heard a lot of good music. I'll be putting most of this under a cut because it got pretty wordy.

Exploding Head - A Place To Bury Strangers (2009) I guess this is my first real introduction to shoegaze? It's fucking good. To me it sounds kinda darkwave-y? But like all post punk sounds a little goth to me so my opinion is maybe unrefined. Really good album. Top Track: Ego Death

STOMACH BOOK - STOMACH BOOK (2021) God I love this album. God I love Stomach Book. This sound is like emo meets noise pop meets experimental rock, it's intoxicating. Top Track: Our Story

Dead Bodies in the Lake - Ho99o9 (2015) This is a mixtape, not an album, so I'm definitely bending the rules a little to squeeze it in here. This shit just goes so hard. Really hardcore, really industrial, phenomenal fucking sound. Top Track: DeathKult Disciples (999 Anthem)

No Control - Bad Religion (1989) I considered putting either this or Recipe for Hate on this list, but this one won out just barely only for having a couple songs that are very stuck in my head right now. I'd never heard Bad Religion before this year but they very quickly climbed the ranks among my favorite punk artists and artists in general. There's a sort of heart-on-it's-sleeve kind of earnesty to the music that really clicks with me. Love it. Top Track: Anxiety

Frankenchrist - Dead Kennedys (1985) Holy fucking shit. Holy fucking shit? This is literally one of the best punk rock records to ever be recorded. It just doesn't get better than this. Fucking essential. Fucking quintessential. I can't even pick a favorite song here (though I will try,) it's just hit after hit after hit. What an extraordinary album. Life fucking altering. Top Track: This Could Be Anywhere

The Cure - The Cure (2004) God, this might be my favorite The Cure album? Is that insane? There's a lack of the sort of whimsy and elegance that so thoroughly permeates releases like Disintegration or Wish, but in it's place comes this thoroughly disarming intensity that you can't really get from any other release. For The Cure? this is hardcore. I can't get enough of it. Top Track: alt.end

1000 Hurts - Shellac (2000) Yeah I get why this is cult rock now. I get why it's so lauded. Easily one of the best rock albums of all time. Top Track: Prayer to God

Beelzebubba - The Dead Milkmen (1988) Dead Milkmen's really trashy in the bad way a lot of the time and this album isn't an exception. A lot of people will say it 'aged poorly' but I honestly think it was poor for the time as well. This music definitely falls victim to the mentality that plagues a lot of punk of this era where they just say indiscriminate objectionable shit in an explicit attempt to make themselves unpalatable to the broader audience of music fans, but I think that sort of thing only really works when you're punching up. It's not really challenging or subversive otherwise, it's just bigoted. But I think ultimately this album is a lot of fun, and the parts that don't land are few and far between compared to some other releases. Definitely worth a go if you know what you're getting into. Top Tack: Sri Lanka Sex Hotel

AJJ - Live At Third Man Records (2019) *Definitely cheating by including this release here, because I've been listening to this live album since it was released in early May of 2019, but it was this year I realized that this is probably actually my favorite AJJ album of all. I'm a sucker for live renditions of AJJ songs and all of these really hit for me. So worth a listen especially if you're already familiar with their discography. Top Track: Linda Ronstadt

Tagging some friends I'd love to hear more music stuff from, but no pressure! Anyone else who wants to do this is free to also :) @reddd-robin @motordyk @bwooom @kissingthebeehive @beeapocalypse

#annes top albums #canaveral almost made my favorite off 1000 hurts but i just like prayer to god more. its popular for a reason #i wwrote this yesterday and then forgot to post it -_-#also i didnt wait to get tagged or anything i was too excited. i love music and songs

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uncloseted · 2 years

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Can you explain to me the point of music reviews? Like that one white YouTuber guy who does them lol. I get movies and tv shows because that's more of a time investment and I think there's a more technical understanding of how a movie or TV show is ""good"", but isn't music more subjective? I don't get how people can listen to a song and not know whether or not they like it enough and they have to listen to someone else's opinion to tell them what to think. It's just a song, what do they lose from a song being "bad" besides not listening to it?

What's the point in any type of art review, really? Movie reviews, TV reviews, visual art reviews, music reviews, video game reviews, they're all kind of doing the same thing, right? They're not really telling people if they'll like a piece or not. They're looking at the technical aspects of the piece, the meaning of the piece, the larger cultural context for the piece and how it fits into that context, the aesthetics and emotions of the piece, and overall, they try to help people understand how to engage with the piece. Regardless of the medium, it's not really about whether the reviewer personally enjoys the piece or thinks that other people will enjoy it. It's more about the external cultural value of the piece. That's how you can get 13 hours worth of cultural criticism about the Nickelodeon TV show "Victorious", a show that got generally mixed reviews for its entire run. To reviewers, it doesn't matter whether people liked it or not. What matters is the show's cultural legacy and what we can learn about our culture through the lens of this piece.

Taking movies as an example, "The Godfather" is widely recognized as one of the best movies of all time. Personally, I don't care for it as a movie. But I can still accept that it's culturally valuable- that it's "a good film". It transcended and reinvented the gangster movie genre, it was both commercial and artistic at the same time, it took a cynical look at the American Dream, it used innovative shots and filmmaking techniques, it managed to be captivating for the entirety of its 3 hour long run... I don't need to like it to see the appeal or to "get" why it's important.

Similarly, with music, you don't necessarily have to like a song, album, band, or musician to be able to appreciate its cultural value. For example, a lot of people don't like The Beatles. But I think it would be hard to argue that their music has no cultural value. They made a huge impact on music, both when they were making music and in their legacy. They have the most #1 hits of any band, which showed that they could be commercially successful, but also wrote very complex and artistic songs that are valuable from a composition and technical standpoint. They made huge innovations in artistic presentation, recording techniques, and production techniques. It's hard to overstate the impact they had on culture, not just in terms of music, but also in terms of 1960s counterculture and political activism. Generally, I think music reviewers exist to help us understand the cultural value that music has more than they exist to tell us whether or not we "should" like a piece.

On a kind of separate but more practical note, music reviewers are holdovers from a pre-internet world. Before you could easily listen to an album on Spotify or find a rip of it on YouTube, you had to decide whether or not to buy an album before ever hearing it. Up until 2000, when LimeWire and Napster started allowing people to illegally download music for free (or 2008, when Spotify launched and this practice became legal), there was real money on the line. Each album cost about $33 in today's money. Music reviewers helped people to guess whether they would like an album or not so that they could make better decisions about whether it was worth it to spend their money to be able to listen to the album.

These days, I think the practical value in music reviewing is helping people narrow down the content that's available to them. There are 70 million songs on Spotify. Assuming each song is 3 minutes long, it would take you 400 years to listen to them all if that's the only thing you ever did. And of course, the music on Spotify isn't even all the music that exists; Taylor Swift, The Beatles, Coldplay, Adele, and other big artists have pulled their music from Spotify. And there are millions of other indie artists out there whose music is only on TikTok or BandCamp.

Music critics can help us to decide which out of those 70 million songs are worth paying attention to, and which we might enjoy. Sure, that's not super helpful if you're trying to decide if you like Billie Eilish's latest album or whatever, you'll just listen to it and decide. But it's really helpful if you're trying to find new artists to listen to since otherwise you would never be exposed to the musicians they're talking about. For example, right now I'm looking at NME's list of 100 Essential Emerging Artists for 2022. I never would have heard of any of these artists otherwise, but now I know that I might be interested in Anz, whose music is "kaleidoscopic dance music from a club culture polymath", and that a good song to start with is "You Could Be" (update: this song is actually a bop. Glad I looked it up). Or I might be interested in Eades, because NME suggests them for fans of the Talking Heads and they describe themselves as “David Byrne and Lou Reed’s dyslexic child playing out of a Motorola Pebl”, which sounds like a vibe I would like (update: it is).

Of course, you don't have to like music criticism or care about it. If you prefer to discover music organically and make your own assessments about whether it's good or not, that's totally fine. But I do think it has a point, both in terms of the larger culture and just practically speaking.

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septembersghost · 2 years

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Jess, do you ever get overwhelmed because there's so much music??? Like! There's so much music to discover you can never run out and it's all so different in so many ways, and there's so much music to get back to that get collected through our lives like pretty shiny pebbles but that we haven't listened in a while but then there's also there's the now music you want to listen to over and over and over again and there's not enough time and not enough patience and ahhhhhh

just

music

literally the story of my life. the beautiful thing is that there is always music to discover and explore any time you may be looking to find it, the overwhelming thing is that there is so much in sheer volume that it's hard to know where to begin! i've been bad at the exploring side this year tbh, i've been so inundated by life that i've kept close to my comfort songs/albums and familiar loved things and haven't tread much beyond that, but one of the best feelings is when you listen to something new that touches you as if you were meant to find it at that exact moment. i really believe music has a mystical and healing quality that can lead us to it when we most need it. it's one of the most powerful sensory attachments to memory - our brains are living music boxes, they record lyrics and melodies and can play them back to us unexpectedly, even when we might not have heard something for years, and they help us remember times and places and ourselves along the way. there's never enough time for all of it, and yet it's the closest thing we get to a time machine, not even only personally, but in regards to artists and the world and what was being written - you can transport yourself back decades and listen to what other generations were listening to, feel what they felt. it's an everlasting artform, but always so alive and present. even when an artist or a songwriter/composer isn't with us any longer, isn't a contemporary, we're able to hear them and connect to them. it captures so much feeling and history, so many sparkling fragments of the human experience. we personalize music in a unique way that we don't necessarily do with anything else. i just! it is the purest love to me and a real experience of something like magic.

#bunniesfordean #music is my most beloved #music expresses that which cannot be said and on which it is impossible to be silent #letterbox

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incidentalblr · 7 months

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WOE! TOP 10 JOHN MAYER SONGS BE UPON YE!!!!!

Intro

i am well aware that this post might as well be a diary entry. almost none of the people who follow this blog particularly give a shit about john mayer, but that’s okay. because that’s what this post is for me: a diary entry. john mayer’s discography is my favorite in the whole world. he’s the first artist i ever remember listening to. i remember being in first grade and listening to his music on the way home from school. i remember driving to panera bread at 5 and being excited when i heard No Such Thing. i remember sitting with my rock candy outside of Kilwins’ and being reminded of Clarity. these songs are beyond close to my heart; they’re the only constant in my life. if you’re my mutual and you’re reading this, thank you for letting me give you a piece of my heart

The List:

10. Gravity

She’s an icon, she’s a legend, and she is the moment. I will admit it was slightly perfunctorily that i put her on here, but my original list was 22 songs and i had to narrow it down somehow, so starting off the list with a well known and loved track feels right. gravity is a very peaceful song to me, it feels like a warm hug or hot cocoa. plus the Where the Light Is version absolutely brings down the house and is one of my favorite tracks on that album

9. Taking On Water

Okayyyyy… how Perfectly Lonely and All We Ever Do Is Say Goodbye made it onto Battle Studies and not THIS?$?@?&????? is beyond me. A criminally underrated track, I’ve actually heard that it may be an early draft of I Will Be Found???? not sure whether that’s verifiable or not but interesting nonetheless. absolutely brutal track, and i love it dearly.

8. Clarity

Our first (but not last) heavier things containment breech, this song is imo the perfect encapsulation of anxiety and disassociation. a great album opener for John Mayer’s best, this song really puts you in the mood for the album and i always feel like singing along

7. I Will Be Found

i’m personally a little shocked that this made the list over all the others, maybe it’s the novelty factor of not having listened in a while, maybe it’s the fact that this song singlehandedly got me through 8th grade? i don’t know. you tell me. i originally had this way higher then i checked myself and was like OVER WHEEL????? OVER WHEEL? never in a million years. she’s still a baddie though

6. St Patrick’s Day

The organ… the chord structure, the lyricism??? certainly a bold and memorable closer for a debut album. it represents Room For Squares well. this song speaks for itself, so i’ll let it do the talking

5. Wheel

Heavier Things again. what even to say? where do i even begin? my favorite album closer of all time, wheel is really something special. the muted production, the inherent cynicism contrasted with the hopeful ending lyric, the guitar tone, the way it fades to only vocals at the end. what isn’t there to say about this song?

4. Something’s Missing

this is the first song i can ever remember listening to in my entire life. i used to think the lyrics to the chorus were “So thanks, Miss Ann.” there’s nothing i don’t like about this song, and it is very near and dear.

The Top 3

there was never any doubt in my mind which songs would be the top three. there was never any doubt in my mind which songs would be the top 2 actually, merely what order they would be in. these songs are a cut above the others for me, in a league of their own not only in john mayer’s music but just in music in general. without further adieu, here are the top three:

3. Stop This Train

possibly the only song nearer and dearer than Something’s Missing, this song is beyond personal to me. when i was younger, i thought this song was pretty, but it never stood out to me. it wasn’t until my grandparents moved away and my mom started listening to this song on repeat that i started to give it some of the recognition it deserved. still, this song was for her, not for me. then i listened to Where the Light Is for the first time. this song had me speechless. absolutely stunned beyond words. i thought it was good, i thought it was really good in the sense that i thought it was brilliant and poignant, but i have a very high emotional tolerance for sad media (my favorite thing in the history of ever is Les miserables; i get joyful listening to that, something literally called The Wretched) and it never really affected me. then 2019 rolls around. and my parents get divorced. my dad and i are both nerds, and he was driving me to school that week. he puts on where the light is in the car. when stop this train came on i cried harder to that song than i have ever cried to any song, ever. along with the heavier things album cover, i want the lyrics to this song tattooed on me.

2. Edge of Desire

the production, the contemplative guitar riff, the yearing vocals, the solo? there’s nothing i would change about this song. i cannot begin to stress to you just how much of a close call it was between this and #1. This song is probably my #2 most listened song of all time right behind Fire and Rain by James Taylor. whether it be the acoustic version or the studio recording, this song is beyond words. it is truly undescribed. it is very possible that the minute i post this i will edit the list so that this song is number one, it’s that close between it and…

Our winner…

1. In Your Atmosphere

For a song that never even got a studio recording, In Your Atmosphere is truly something special. there’s something different about it from anything else in john mayer’s catalogue. when i first heard it, i didn’t even like it. i thought it was two separate songs jammed onto one track. i wasn’t even sure that it wasn’t a cover. needless to say, my opinions have changed. there’s something about this song that seeps under your skin, inscribes itself onto parts of yourself without your permission. it’s all at once wistful and regretful, celebratory and bitter, sweeping and intimate. wishing for a time that you wish to forget. hoping for a repeat of blissful misery. the incandescent weight of a memory. it’s just john and his guitar: the best kind of john mayer song

#personal #diary

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rcmndedlisten · 1 year

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Interview: Brian Case of FACS On The Band’s New Album ‘Still Life In Decay’

Photo by Evan Jenkins

From the ether of experimental art rockers Disappears, Brian Case and Noah Leger have been shape-shifting a new path in noise with FACS since 2018. The trio of Case on vocals and guitar, Leger on drums, and -- in her final bow with the band -- bassist Alianna Kalaba recently released their fourth album, Still Life In Decay (Disappears’ bassist and original FACS co-founder Jonathan van Herik will now be returning to the fold in her place.) Unsurprisingly surprising as always, the listen hears the Chicago band at their most aerodynamic, oscillating around philosophical tensions of life with their arms of noisy zone outs, minimalism, and here, bolder lines that grasp the heavier elements the universe presents to us on this tiny blue dot in its ever-expanding sea of being, and ask even bigger questions.

Ahead of the band’s new leg of tour dates launching today, +rcmndedlisten spoke with Brian Case via e-mail to discuss their creative churn in this instance, how far out in space their music goes for inspiration, the current state of Chicago’s highly promising underground rock scene, and where their chronic existential crisis may lead the next time we hear from them.

youtube

+rl: The title of your newest and fourth full-length album, Still Life In Decay, strikes the ear as a juxtaposition against its sound, chronically pushing and pulling you into darker, physical matter. With so much of FACS' previous efforts finding themselves in the depths of the void, what made this the right moment to take your sound to the next level in stepping away from that vacuum where vocals are now more focused, and its singed rhythm and groove does a strange dance in our cosmic collision?

Brian Case: We always try to shift between records, it's usually subtle, but there's always a song on a previous album that indicates where we're looking. When recording this album, we knew Alianna was not going to be in the band anymore, so there was some tension that informed some of that session, but also a lot of love about our relationships and the music we were making, so it was complicated. We didn't decide to focus on anything different, but we did mix ourselves for the first time, and we focused on the process of the songs and how we built them, we spent a lot of time on the ideas, and finding out how they related to each other as a global thing versus "Here's the next si songs we wrote." We're always very considered, but this one came out a little different.

+rl: This album is heavy in the sense that it's the sensory manifestation of everything we know of our existence turning into dust. Have you ever delved into sounds from the far out stretches of space and gravitational waves to inform your depiction of sonic universal debris?

BC: Our music is really a reflection of our relationship to each other and the place we live. Obviously there are outside influences, but we also strive to make something new, so yes, we are trying to channel waves and sonic debris at all times to offset the sound, help us find the real.

youtube

+rl: Less existentially, the Chicago scene is arguably producing some of the most interesting abstract art rock at this very moment. FACS and recent Sub Pop signees Deeper rep its more seasoned artists and then there's bands like Horsegirl and Lifeguard (which features Brian's son, bassist Asher Case) bringing a new generation of ears into what's happening in the Windy City. What do you think it is about Chicago that's making it such an inspired community of musicians who are reworking the rules of what rock music can be?

BC: Chicago is still somewhat affordable, that's a huge part of it. People can actually live here, make good money at a part time job, and make art. We have some of the best galleries in the world, affordable studios, and a non-competitive creative community that crosses genres and practice. That's why the best in any genre of music is coming out of Chicago -- support and space to try things out and collaborate. And Rainbo Club.

+rl: Now that you've creatively gone deep on what it is to erode into nothing, are there any concepts of being you've already thought to start exploring in FACS' next life?

BC: We're about half way into the next album, I'm really excited about it. I'm playing more with chord ideas and arpeggiation, and Jonathan is writing with us again, so it's got a new rhythm and sense of melody. I hope it continues to be as surprising as it's been so far. Lyrically it feels like it's from a different perspective, but it's the same basic existential crisis through a cave man POV.

Still Life In Decay by FACS

May Tour Dates:

FACS’ Still Life In Decay is available now on Trouble In Mind Records.

#interviews #facs #trouble in mind records

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bearballing · 1 year

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End of the year Asks exept they’re not asks and done like a livejournal/myspace answer thing

1) Song of the year? Rare Ould Mountain Dew - The Irish Rovers i actually discovered in on xmas eve last year, rare old mountain dew was mentioned in Fairytale of New York so I decided to look it up and this was the first version i found and then i fell down a rabbit hole of traditional irish music. lol. anyway this is still the best recorded version of mountain dew there is

runner up is Hell’s Comin’ With Me - Poor Man’s Poison it just so happened to be the perfect song for saints row 2022 AND for thaddeus. whomst i played as

notable mention is any version ever of The Rattlin Bog/Bog Down In The Valley-o. i found a youtube version of some irish wedding where the guests were drunkenly singing it at like 3am and even that slapped

2) Album of the year?

Not released in 2022 - The Irish Rovers 50 Years

Released in 2022 - Bronco, Orville Peck. and i had apparently forgotten to put the album on my phone until THE OTHER DAY???

3) Favorite musical artist / group you started listening to this year?

The Irish Rovers. Other notables are The Dubliners, Flogging Molly, Dropkick Murphys, Strugill Simpson, The Protomen

4) Movie of the year?

Nope. like enoguh for me to Physically own it when it came out on bluray.

5) TV show of the year?

we watched Parasyte and Ghost In The Shell, first time I saw both of them and i love when shows make me like obsess over the lore lmao.

OH AND UH THE UK COMING /SECOND/ IN EUROVISION.

6) Episode of tv or webisode that defined the year for you?

¯\_(ツ)_/¯ i dont think there was a specific episode of anything.

7) Favorite actor of the year?

jim byrnes, every time we find out something about him it makes our heads explode lol. we still have to actually watch half the stuff he’s been in

8) Game of the year?

joint Saints Row and Pokemon Legends Arceus. 95% of the complaints about saints row are stupid i loved it. i still want to try to 100% it (I’M CLOSE) at some point

9) Best month for you this year?

january/february maybe

10) Something that made you cry this year?

hurricane ian. also the death of 2 cats

11) Something you want to do again next year?

go to maine lol. we May be able to

12) Talk about a new friend you made this year

well i gained several mutuals on here.....

13) How was your birthday this year?

it was nice!!! i got to do shit that i wanted and just chill. and i’m finally not in my 20s anymore

14) Favorite book you read this year?

i don’t think i read anything new, only re-read things

15) What’s a bad habit you picked up this year?

fuck i dunno. procrastinating on vacuuming the house.

16) Post a picture from the beginning of the year

17) Post a picture from the end of the year

18) A memorable meal this year?

we had dinner at belle’s castle at disney world. IN THE WEST WING.

19) What’re you excited about for next year?

visiting my family in the uk. which i’m also nervous about ngl

20) What’s something you learned this year?

that gamefreak can truly get away with anything regardless of quality

21) What’s something new about your place of residence (room, home, or general location) now vs the start of the year?

WE OWN A HOUSE WE OWN A HOUSE WE OWN A HOUSE WE OWN A HOUSE

22) Favorite place you visited this year?

didney wurl trip was gr9, really liked getting to go to new england again even though the circumstances sucked.

23) If you could send a message to yourself back on the first day of the year, what would it be?

house happens on the 31st don’t worry about it

24) Did you keep any New Year’s Resolutions?

got a house lol

25) Did you create any characters (in games, art, or writing) this year? Describe one

no new ones but this was definitely the year of our lord Thaddeus2022. i played as him in saints row And in pokemon violet and accidentally created so much new lore for him. boxy also accidentally dreamed up yet another AU where he is the main character too lmao

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dancingamongstdust · 3 years

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Creepypasta Scenarios - First Meeting (Part 1)

Ben Drowned

You had promised, sworn on your very life, that you wouldn’t laugh. It was an oath. One to be taken very seriously.

“Using your hand to muffle the sound still counts as laughing.”

Part of you felt really bad but that made you snicker even harder. Your best friend, at the very least, did appear extremely shaken about the entire thing. She sat on the edge of the couch with her arms crossed. Dark bags had formed beneath her eyes and her attention seemed unable to stray from the Nintendo 64 that sat between you.

“I’m sorry,” you said. “But you have to understand how this sounds. You’re telling me that you’re being haunted by a literal video game.”

She pulled her legs to her chest. The amount of weight that she had lost recently couldn’t possibly be healthy. “I knew you wouldn’t believe me.”

“Have you considered talking to a psychiatrist?” you offered. “Or perhaps selling this game?”

“He would kill me.”

You picked up the Nintendo 64 and stared at the main menu of the game. It looked pretty normal to you. You fiddled around with the settings to turn the music down. “I really think that talking to somebody about this would help.”

“That’s what you don’t understand,” she said. “I want to stop playing. I want to speak to people but all that he wants is for me to continue trying to beat the game. There’s no way to win! The entire thing is rigged!”

“Have you looked up a guide?”

She groaned. “Nobody’s going to listen to me.”

An awkward silence fell over the room and you shifted around in your seat before offering some coffee. She accepted but the kettle had barely been boiling for a few seconds when her phone chimed happily.

“Oh look, he wants to play now,” she muttered. She thrust the device to you. “Take a look for yourself.”

The notification had come through an app called CleverBot. It was a very simple ‘hi’ message that didn’t really seem all too haunting. You opened it up and clicked around the app for a little. “Looks like just a chatroom,” you said. “Why’d you download this?”

“I didn’t. I just woke up the one day and it was on my phone.”

You closed the app and returned to the home screen. It immediately reopened and the same message popped up again. An identical thing happened the second time. And then again.

“This looks like a virus,” you said. “It’s probably best to uninstall.”

Clicking on the button made the icon disappear for a short while but it was quick to reappear. This time, when the chatroom opened itself, the message had changed to simply say ‘rude’.

You pursed your lips. That was suspicious enough for you to understand her potential worries. “I don’t think that it’s haunted but you should probably take it to a professional to have it wiped or something. And maybe consider less porn in the future?”

Your joke fell flat but it died when the chatbot began typing. Not too long after, another message had come through.

‘I don’t hang out in such places.’

“Can…” you trailed off. “No, there’s no way that they’ve hacked the microphone, right?”

‘Don’t need to hack in to hear what you’re saying.’

The colour drained from your face and you quickly glanced towards your friend. She didn’t seem panicked, even when you showed her the message. If anything, her expression was resigned as though this was a regular occurrence.

You didn’t get too much time to respond when a horrible static sound came through her phone. The screen began flashing and blurry images raced across it. A distorted version of the Majora’s Mask theme song started playing. It felt like your ears were bleeding. Scared, you threw the phone to the floor and, with a shattering crack, everything stopped.

For a while, you stared at it but then she said, “He’s going to be pissed with that.”

There was a chime from somewhere on your right. Your own phone’s screen lit up. Nervously, you reached over to check on it.

A single notification stood there, from an app called CleverBot.

‘You Shouldn’t Have Done That.”

Bloody Painter

The park was busy this time of day and filled with an awaiting audience – whether they were interested in watching the performance or not. Many seemed to appreciate it though, taking the flyers handed out by your group.

It was nearing midday when you ran out of pamphlets. You stretched and pushed your hair away from your face, relishing in the feeling of sun against skin.

Your gaze drifted across the park’s patrons before settling on one that you had been watching since the beginning of your performance. He didn’t look up much. A sketchpad sat on his lap and tousled brown hair hung over his face. You hadn’t caught his attention once but he had certainly kept yours.

“Can you hand me another lot of flyers?” you asked one of the other girls with her.

She handed them over and you put on your best grin before making your way to the tree he was sitting under.

He looked up when your shadow fell over his sketchbook. His work was considerably abstract and nothing that you could identify with ease. There weren’t too many colors though.

“Hello!” you greeted cheerily. “I don’t mean to bother but what did you think of the show?”

He blinked up at you. “I didn’t see it.”

The man was a master of deadpan but you didn’t allow your smile to drop. You lowered the flyer and sighed, “That’s a shame. It’s so rare that we have attractive people at our shows… you should consider coming to our actual performances sometime. Everybody loves musicals.”

He didn’t even react to the compliment. No smirk or even a blush. It was as though you hadn’t spoken one word.

“I’ve seen your face before,” he said. “You do this kind of thing quite often. Don’t you get tired of people staring at you?”

You chuckled. “I wouldn’t be in this line of business if I was too self-conscious. When they stare for too long, I like to imagine that it’s because I’m the most beautiful person they’ve ever seen.” Running your fingers through your hair, you offered him your most dazzling smile. “And if you remember me, that’s a certain compliment.”

“You can take it whatever way you want but it doesn’t mean anything.”

It was tempting to give up. Flirting with cute boys was only entertaining when they responded with… something. This boy just stared.

“So you’re an artist, right? You’d have a good point of view on whether or not I’m actually pretty.”

“My opinions on people are rarely accurate.”

His response made you uncomfortable, though you couldn’t quite put your finger on why. Something of a warning twisted in your stomach. A light had lit behind his eyes but it didn’t seem like something you wanted to tie yourself to.

It appeared it was time to give up your pursuit. “Well, I really should get going. Perhaps I’ll see you at the next performance.”

His eyes drifted to the pamphlet that you held. “Were you planning on giving me that?”

“Offering it but you don’t have to –“

“I’ll take it,” he said, putting down his pencil and holding out his hand. “Your show wasn’t too entertaining but I enjoyed watching the performance you just put on. Rather like a peacock strutting its feathers.”

So he wasn’t oblivious then… just teasing. You had no idea if it showed his genuine interest or if he was merely taunting now.

With a slight scowl, you passed it over. He tucked it into his sketchbook and then closed it, standing up. He was scrawnier than you had anticipated but he still had a considerable height – holding at least a few inches over you.

“Thank you,” you said.

He left without another word. You rolled your eyes and made a point to ignore any thoughts about him for the rest of the day. Perhaps you shouldn’t have given him your information… after all, that flyer had your full name and everything.

And you knew absolutely nothing about him.

Candy Pop

Hospitals were the worst places in the world.

They smelled too clean and looked too false. You generally avoided them as much as possible unless it was absolutely necessary. When a close family member found themselves locked within the walls, unfortunately, it wasn’t possible to stay away.

You wrinkled your nose as you walked into the room. The sterilized smell burnt you.

Most of it was what you had expected but the young, child-like scream made you jump and nearly drop every gift you were holding.

Your aunt jumped up from her chair beside the hospital bed. “What’s wrong?!” she asked, fussing over your cousin.

She was barely over eleven and had badly injured her leg during a biking competition. Your mom had told you that everybody in the family was going to visit her, encouraging you to go together in order to drop off some gifts.

“I’m sorry,” the little girl said quickly. “I don’t like balloons and I thought… it doesn’t matter. Sorry.”

You moved them behind you a little, trying to block her line of sight. “No, no, I should have asked first. You could have been allergic to latex or something and then I’d be feeling really bad about it.”

“She’s been particularly on edge thanks to these awful nightmares,” your aunt explained.

“Nightmares?” you asked.

The little girl seemed pale at its mention, pulling her blanket up to her nose and watching everybody wearily. “They’re just bad dreams,” she said. “You said that they couldn’t hurt me.”

Her mother hurriedly rubbed her shoulder and offered a warm smile. “They definitely can’t,” she reassured.

“Are they about the fall?” you asked.

“Sometimes.”

You settled down in one of the chairs as your own mother began speaking to her sister. They were able to discuss everything from the colour of grass to what they thought would be the best country to live in. You weren’t particularly interested in what they were saying and, after a while of trying to chirp in, you just let the lack of sleep catch up to you.

Your dreams came to you quickly, faster than usual and sharp in an uncomfortable sort of way.

You found yourself standing in a large field. The sky was grey and the grass tall enough to reach your knees. Everything felt bright. It hurt your eyes to stare at anything for too long.

Normally, dreams didn’t feel as such, but you were certain that this was one. There was no purpose to where you were. No inclination to walk in a specific direction or try to understand what was happening.

Just confusion.

You took a step forward and a soft wind wrapped around you. It brushed through the grass, dancing around the trees. Something was watching.

You turned and two, glowing lights floated above the ground.

Slowly, mist gathered around the two spots. As you stepped back, it began to solidify – quickly forming a more recognisable shape. The figure tilted its head to the side and a slight jingling sound filled the air. It stepped forward then and the glow faded from its eyes, revealing just what stood before you.

He was a jester, though certainly more modern than the old king’s versions. Blue hair hung around his shoulders and his entire outfit jingled with hundreds of bells. A smile graced his face and he stepped forward.

You moved away.

His smile disappeared and his eyes narrowed. The mist appeared again and he vanished into it.

You looked around frantically. He was gone. The wind picked up unexpectedly, howling in your ears. You raised your hands to shield your face and something grabbed your wrist. Before you could turn to see, you hurdled away from the meadow and awoke spluttering for air.

“Are you alright?” your aunt asked.

In the corner of your eye, you swore you saw a blue jester but, when you turned to look, he was gone. “Yeah,” you said, rubbing your chest. “Yeah, I’m good.”

Your made eye contact with your cousin and swallowed thickly. The look on her face said it all.

Clockwork

Every night, without fail, you saw her sitting there when you arrived home from work.

She always wore the same thing and, initially, you had thought that she would play on her phone for hours at a time. It didn’t appear that she had a phone, however, as you came to realise. Whatever she was holding was circular and fit perfectly within the palm of her hand.

You mentioned it to the building manager the second time she was there until like two in the morning. He had said that they thought she was homeless but, as far as they could tell, she wasn’t dangerous. You reassured him that your worries weren’t about her presence due to any perceived problem but he had just nodded.

She never moved while she was waiting. Not even to adjust her weight or brush the hair from her face.

A few of your neighbours used the very eloquent reasoning that she was merely crazy.

Occasionally, you heard children from the area parroting their parents. Rumours abound that she was a ghost who would attack anybody if they spoke to her. You scoffed each time it was said but many believed the stories.

You were arriving home late one night when you spotted her sitting in the usual spot. It was strange for you to feel anything beyond exhaustion on the nights when hospital jobs ran too long but this time, a strange anticipation settled itself in your stomach.

“I’m sorry,” you said. “Are you okay?”

Her hair was dirty and her coat looked as though it hadn’t been washed for years. Now that you were close, you could make out what appeared to be dried blood on her shirt.

“Go away,” she said, shaking her head from side to side.

“I have medical experience,” you responded. “And I know some good places to stay in the area. I can –“

“Good for you,” she sneered. “Leave me alone. You’re going to make me miss it.”

The object she was holding was an old pocket watch. It looked like something you would find in an antique store and pay insane amounts of money for. Though, it didn’t appear to be working. The clock hands sat at a set time and didn’t move in the slightest.

“I want to help you if that’s okay,” you said.

She forced out a laugh that sounded as though it physically pained her. “You want to help me?!” she cackled, throwing her hair over her shoulder. “Isn’t that sweet.”

You stumbled away from her and clasped a hand over your mouth. Her face…

Her mouth was torn to pieces, jagged cuts that ripped through the skin there and had been crudely stitched back together. But that wasn’t the worst. No, the worst part of it was her left eye that had a pocket watch shoved into the socket and forcefully stitched there. The injury flared red with infection and pain.

“What’s wrong little doctor?!” she cawed. “No longer feeling like saving the poor girl you found on the side of the road?”

You steeled your resolve and straightened. “I’m still willing to offer help if you need it,” you said in your strongest voice. “That injury is severe and needs attending to if you want to save the eye.”

The eye was definitely gone and she knew it as well, scoffing at your offer. “No chance of that. Why do you people like pretending that you care?”

“I do care.”

She responded with a mocking expression and stood unexpectedly. “Sure you do.” She tapped the front of the pocket watch with her nail. “Now, if you don’t mind, I’m going to get to work. I nearly missed it thanks to your nagging. I’ll see you tomorrow, doctor.”

And she marched off into the night.

Dark Link

The vase that you were holding was beautifully polished and almost brand new. As you lifted it, something rattled around within.

“Why are you selling this for such a low price?” you asked.

The woman was middle-aged with a falsely high voice and bright, darting eyes. “It was a gift,” she said. “But I decided against keeping it. I wasn’t sure how low the price should be but it’s not like I’m losing any money.”

You decided against buying it, thanking her and walking away quickly. While you were looking through a few pieces of jewelry, your arm was grabbed and a small object pushed into your chest.

“Here you go!” you friend chimed. “Consider it to be a late birthday present!”

You took the game cartridge and examined it closely. “Zelda, again?” you asked. “I’ve already tell you that –“

“Yes, yes, I know that they’re not your thing but if you haven’t tried all the games then how are you meant to know there isn’t just one that you like?”

Sighing, you took the game and dropped it into your purse. It was dirty and definitely well used. A bit of black paint flaked off on your fingers.

Another game for you to keep in your cupboard and not look at again until months later when you were asked about your opinion on it. It wasn’t your fault that you didn’t have the console you needed and the simple answer of ‘just buy one for cheap’ wasn’t always available.

But in the coming weeks, you quickly realised that this wasn’t just another game.

At first, the things that went wrong were too minor to even pay attention to. Electronics started breaking frequently until the point where you had replaced your stereo twice in a week and no longer had a television. After that, you started feeling sickly and uncomfortable whenever you were in the house. A feeling of imposing nature settled upon your shoulders.

You spent more time away from home, staying away for as long as you could. When you tried to dogsit for your brother, the pup wouldn’t even enter the house.

It was late at night when you woke up in a cold sweat. Nausea coiled in your stomach and your heart was beating at the speed of light.

At first, you had no idea what had woken you.

And then you heard the rattling.

It was coming from the next room over. As though somebody had taken hold of your desk and was shaking it as roughly as they could.

You scrambled for your phone but it wasn’t there. It was sitting in your office.

You took a deep breath and slowly stepped from your bed. Your head felt fuzzy, as though you weren’t able to wake up properly. Every step was slow and lethargic.

Stumbling toward the door, you gingerly grabbed the handle. As you opened it, your mind caught up with your body and you remembered that you shouldn’t just burst in on a potential invader.

But it was too late.

The person, for it had to be a person, stood in the middle of the room. Its body was so dark that it blended in with the shadows surrounding it. Two bright red eyes shone, illuminating enough that it showed some of the creatures ashen features. It had sharp features that were definitely human. Though as you stared at it, you knew that it was anything but.

It smiled and began turning into small squares, pixelating into the air and disappearing into something behind it.

You flicked on the light as fast as you could but it was gone. Sitting in the middle of the desk, the black cartridge seemed to emit its own darkness.

Dr. Smiley

The building was beyond restoration, crumbling and derelict. You were sure that it hadn’t been occupied for at least a decade. Perhaps even longer.

For months now, you had been going through the motions to have everything approved and organised. You had gotten clearance, hired the workers, discussed things with any neighbours, and even paid extra for the best machinery to get everything done quicker.

And now they were refusing to do anything.

“I’m sorry, and I will compensate for the time wasted, but my men are saying no,” the on-site manager said. “I know you’re not from these parts but we’ve always known there’s something wrong with this building. Rumours and superstitions abound and I wouldn’t blame my men for not wanting to anger a ghost.”

“They’ll be pissing off something far worse than a ‘ghost’ if they continue refusing to even go in there,” you snapped.

He glanced towards his workers and rubbed the back of his neck. “I’ll see what I can do.”

Once he left, you turned your attention to the house. Why anybody would have wanted a house in this location was beyond you but now that you had inherited it, you could see potential.

Although the entire place was probably crawling with all manners of disgusting flora.

Perhaps you could use that to get the health counsel to do the job for you.

They will still talking and you could see the weariness on their faces. Sighing, you stalked your way to the front door and pushed it open with one hand. It creaked with the effort.

You stood with your hands out towards the men. “I’m going to walk this entire house!” you called. “And if your ghost doesn’t accost me while I’m there, then I’m going to be expecting you to all get on with it, alright?”

Nothing immediately jumped at you when you entered. The door struggled to open and it swung shut on its own accord. If that was the haunting that they were talking about…

A roach skittered along the floor in front of you, darting under a derelict sofa stained with an unknown substance. Several of the windows had been broken so it wasn’t surprising to find that graffiti and markers had been used to etch various names into the walls.

You walked through a destroyed kitchen, passed a bedroom with a smashed crib, and even kicked open a door that led to a filthy storage room.

No ghost jumped out at you.

Problems started presenting themselves when you walked down one of the hallways and pushed open a bedroom door. The entire room felt set apart from the rest of the place with almost-new curtains that had been drawn shut. Blankets covered the bed, dirty but still there. You immediately thought somebody may be squatting there but your concerns changed when you noticed the wall.

Black mold. It crawled its way up the side, covering most of what had once been white wallpaper. You brought one hand up to shield your mouth and stepped out, slamming the door closed.

If there was an infestation then you had to get the health department immediately. This was –

Your thoughts were interrupted by something grabbing you. Panic filled your mind as a sharp weapon was pressed against your throat.

“Well now, I just know that you don’t have an appointment,” a voice said close to your ear. “I don’t like trespassers.”

Thinking on instinct, you threw your head backwards as hard as you could. There was a satisfying impact followed by a loud yelp of pain. The weapon around your throat moved away so you kicked the guy in the shin and bolted for it.

The house felt bigger while you were running but nobody came after you. You didn’t hear any footsteps or other sounds of a chase.

Bursting through the front door, you winced at the bright light. The house hadn’t seemed nearly that dark until compared to the outside.

You collided with one of the workers in your rush and nearly knocked everybody to the ground.

“What’s happened?”

“It was that ghost, I’m telling you.”

“We warned her, boss.”

You cleared your throat and straightened up, making eye contact with each man individually. “There is no ghost,” you said. “Only a squatter who I shall deal with using police force if needed. However, I do believe any construction will have to wait because I saw an excessive spread of black mold within the house.”

They all spoke amongst themselves, discussing options. You glanced back to the house and allowed your attention to find its way to the bedroom window. Though fleeting, a masked face peered out at you from within.

Eyeless Jack

In many ways, what happened that night was your boss’ fault.

Having just finished working a double shift that ended at almost 1 in the morning, you were exhausted upon returning home. You walked past the neighbouring apartment with only one thought on your mind – sleep.

It was then that you heard a thump coming from within the house, followed shortly by a muffled scream.

Tired, you had to pause to register what was happening and, by the time your brain caught up, your heart was in full-on panic mode. You slowly reached into your pocket and dialed the emergency number as slowly as you dared, whispering into the phone and being reassured that a police presence would be arriving shortly.

Your neighbour was a young man though, just out of rehab and beginning to make his way through life. The longer you stood and waited for the police, the guiltier you felt.

So you reached into the pot plant and pulled out his spare key. After a short while of building yourself up, you unlocked the door and crept inside.

It was dark with the outside world shrouded via heavy curtains. You could barely make your way through the unfamiliar apartment and you didn’t dare turn on the light. Damn, you were extremely tired.

Part of your brain suggested that you had imagined the whole thing. It was a byproduct of a sleep-addled mind or something. That would be embarrassing to explain to the police and to your neighbour. Would you get charged for breaking and entering or could you blame it on your tiredness?

Your doubts didn’t get much further than that because somebody grabbed you from within the room.

A horrible iron-filled scent attacked your senses as you took in the bedroom. It looked like your neighbour was tied to the bed though he wasn’t moving. Somebody stood behind you, their breathing heavy and their grip strong.

They pushed your wrist closer to your back, preventing you from wriggling free of their grip. A blade, small and yet sharp, pressed against the side of your throat.

“Trying to play the hero, are we?” snarled a voice. “Have you called the cops?”

The blade pressed against your skin and you quickly spat out a yes.

“Probably right before you came in, if not earlier… I’d have enough time to kill you but then you’d be an absolute waste. Nowhere to stash a body around here and they’d comb the entire area if you were missing…”

“I didn’t mean –“

You were shoved forward before you had a chance to react. In the dark, you couldn’t make anything out and you hit the wall unexpectedly. Now, far enough away, you turned and tried to make out the face of your assailant. He melded in with the shadows and you ran your fingers along the wall until you found a light switch.

The lights flickered on and you gasped.

He wore a dark blue mask, a black ooze dripping from the eye sockets and onto his hoodie. There was no reaction to the lights. Not even a blink.

“Don’t you want to beg for your life?” he asked. “The other one pleaded nearly constantly until I shut him up.”

“You killed him…”

“He isn’t dead, just unconscious,” the man scoffed. “I try to avoid killing them, if I’m able to.”

“The police will be here soon,” you warned.

“Oh I know. That’s the only reason that I’m leaving this very minute.” He made his way over to the window, never turning to stop facing you. The bedroom window slipped open without a sound and he began climbing out. “I’d keep my doors locked if I was you. Plenty of unsavory characters live in these parts.”

And just like that, he was gone.

Glitchy Red

Your younger cousin squealed excitedly, holding the game to her chest in joy. “I love it so much!” she said. “I can’t believe I used to think Pokémon was for babies. At first when the music randomly cut out, I did think it was super weird but I’ve gotten used to it now.”

“I don’t think it’s meant to do that,” you chuckled. “But cheap versions, you know?”

It was good to see that your last-minute gift hadn’t gone to waste. You had been worried that the present’s fun would be lost on your video game-hating cousin but she had actually decided to give the game a shot. Now you had somebody in the family to speak to which was extraordinarily exciting.

“What are you meant to say to Red when he asks you whether or not he’s a joke?” she aske unexpectedly. “I know that if you say no, he goes away, and I’ve been too scared to try the other option.”

You frowned. “I don’t actually remember that part of the game.”

“Really? But it happens so often.”

When she realised that you really hadn’t encountered anything like that in the game before, she told you to wait a minute and came back with her game.

“There was one around here,” she said, loading in. “Just give me a second and I’ll find it.”

You stayed much later than you had originally intended to that night. The two of you played through a lot of the game, waiting for the moment when Red would break the fourth wall and demand to know about your opinions on him.

It never came.

The game ran incredibly smoothly. It was quite odd. There weren’t any hiccups along the way nor horror-style glitches. The music didn’t even cut off which was apparently rare accourding to your cousin.

After a while, she sighed and handed it to you. “I’m sorry, I don’t know why it’s not breaking. I’ll go make us some food.”

You continued playing while she was gone, enjoying the memories that came with the game. It was as fun as you remembered until about five minutes after she left. The music just shut off unexpectedly and, no matter what you did, it refused to come back at all. Any other sound effects worked fine though.

“So you’re just programed to break when only one person’s in the room?” you joked.

Perhaps that was a bad choice.

Unexpectedly, a loud static erupted from the console, so ear-aching that it felt like your ears began to bleed. The game took on a horrible red tint and Red appeared on the screen, a dialogue box appearing beneath his blackened form.

AM I A JOKE TO YOU?

Horrified, you immediately shut down the game and threw the cartridge as far away from you as possible. You raced at full speed into the kitchen, nearly knocking several things over along the way.

“You have got to throw that game,” you wheezed.

“What? Why?” she asked.

“There is something really fucked up with that game…” you said. “That thing with Red is absolutely not meant to happen. It felt like he was staring into my soul. You have to throw it out the moment you can. I will buy you another one but do not keep that.”

“Oh, alright,” she said, seemingly confused but nowhere as shaken as you were.

A faint static came from the living room, sending shivers down your spine.

Hobo Heart

Tears flowed down your face despite your best attempts to remain composed. “I’ve known for a while now,” you managed to say.

Your ex-boyfriend seemed shocked, though not entirely upset about your admission. “How long –“

“Since last week,” you said. “Though I’ve heard it’s been going on for considerably longer.”

He shifted his weight and took a deep breath. You recognised this behavior from the past, already hearing the words you knew were coming. The apologies and the false regret, the promises about not doing it again, and then the eventual guilt-tripping. If you heard the latter, you weren’t sure your resolve would hold.

“Goodbye,” you said firmly.

“Wait!”

You ignored the calls, making your way home at a steady place. A few people offered you concerned looks so you rubbed away the tears and took a few deep breaths.

Several months of your life had been completely wasted. You had put so much time and energy into a person who didn’t care one ounce about you.

Just great.

You turned onto your street and made your way to the house across from your own. The woman who lived there was always busy and she only came home to feed her dog before disappearing again. Thankfully, she trusted you to spend time with Bruno.

Bruno came racing over to the gate and jumped up for head scratches. He was a beautiful Afghan Hound with a dark coat and bright eyes.

“At least I know that you’ll always be by my side,” you said, running his fingers through the dog’s fur.

A tear slipped out and you quickly rubbed it away. You dug around in your bag and took out a couple treats, offering him.

A second bark brought your attention to the street.

Standing there, a small white dog with a scruffy coat stared up at you. It looked friendly enough and, after cautiously checking it out, you crouched down and gave it a treat.

“Hello,” you cooed. You gave the pup a few scratches and smiled. “How are you doing, hm? No collar? But you must have an owner because your coat is all groomed and soft. Did you get out or slip your leash?”

You looked around the streets to see if anybody. Nobody jumped out so you gave the dog another treat and brought it into the garden with Bruno to protect it from cars.

The two barked and played with little issue and you messages friends and family about the events of the day.

It was about half an hour later when the air was starting to get chilly. You stood and the small scruffy dog began barking excitedly. Its tail whipped through the air and it jumped up against the fence. A man wearing a white hoodie was standing down the street. You glanced at the dog, scooped it up and made your way to where he was.

“Excuse me,” you said. “I think that I found your dog.”

He turned to look at you and you startled slightly at his rather unusual face paint. A white skull was painted onto his face, similar to something you would see at a college convention.

He glanced down at the happy dog and sighed. “So that’s where he got to.”

“I’m sorry if you were looking for him. I took him off the street to protect him from any cars or anything.”

“It’s fine. He always shows up eventually,” the guy said. “You can just put him down. He’ll follow me.”

“Are you sure?”

“Positive.”

Then he turned and started walking away. You hurriedly put the dog down and it immediately bounded after him, falling into step directly beside him. They disappeared around a corner and you returned to your own house.

The day had gotten much warmer suddenly.

#creepypasta #scenarios #ben drowned x y/n #bloody painter #clockwork #dr smiley #eyeless jack x reader #hobo heart #dark link

222 notes · View notes

studyvibes · 3 years

Text

Another new translation of Maneskin interview

I planned on translating the interview last week, but the day I was free the whole area where I lived had an issue with the WiFi, so through out the week, when I had a bit of free time I translated the interviewer piece by piece.

The translation is of this video: https://youtu.be/4Meslb_X9Fg

youtube

I thought it was best to include the video of the interview because there are videos and images relevant to their answers.

So this interview is by the VK which is basically like Russian Facebook.

In the original video the host speaks in Russian and Maneskin reply in Italian with Russian subtitles shown.

(Text which is bold and in brackets during the translation are some notes I added, to add come context)

Interviewer: For the first time, Maneskin is visiting Moscow, who are the winners of Eurovision. And today we are welcoming them in our studio. Guys, hello. (If you translate exact its: Guys, big hello to you)

Maneskin: Thank you very much

[0:17] Interviewer: The site Kontakte is one of the biggest sites in Russia and also one of the biggest music platforms in Russia, where people listen to your music. In our top charts of most listened songs you are one of the very few international musicians/bands that are included in the chart. In general the chart includes mostly songs in Russian language, so this shows how very popular you are in our country.

Maneskin: That’s very nice!

Interviewer: Please tell me - your international success just happened in 3 months: charts in Russia, charts in Billboard, I think this is the first time ever since ABBA that a musician/band became famous even in America after Eurovision. How did your life change in this span of 3 months?

Damiano: yeah there was a big difference/change.

Damiano: We could say that it was sudden and how we saw everything explode after Eurovision, but we are very happy

Damiano: Ofcourse this means a lot of work is expected because everything that we did before for Italy, we do now around the world. But we are very happy: this what we wanted and why we worked so hard -we are very, very happy/lucky.

[1:30]Interviewer: Going back to Eurovision, I was present at backstage and at the final, sharing happiness about your winning. I’d like to ask, did you know and how did you react to the fact that all artist for the past two weeks were saying that you were the obvious winners, even though the genre of your performance is a complete contrast to most competitor’s songs. How confident were you.

Interviewer: To solidify my words (about being at Eurovision) I have a photo *shows a photo on iPad of Interviewer and Maneskin on the night they won Eurovision*

Maneskin: oh it was you!

Victoria: We weren’t exactly confident. When we went to Eurovision, we thought only about being able to carry our music to a very wide auditorium, but we didn’t expect that we would be able to win - especially with the type of genre we play and sing in Italian - it is not something that appears often in this competition

Thomas: Yeah, that’s true, it was very unexpected and even the people - in Eurovision - were saying “You will win, you will win” - of course to us it was nice, but we completely didn’t expect it. And same with what happened after.

Ethan: (he said something, but they didn’t add a translation to what he said)

[2:45] Interviewer: I’d like to say a few words about our Manizha - Russian Woman (she represented Russia in Eurovision 2021) - were you able to meet her and chat with her? And are you planning to see her in Moscow

Victoria: yes yes, she even sang an Italian song

Damiano: it was something “Ti amo, ti amo”

Thomas: No, no, no, not that one!

Damiano: “Felicità”?

Thomas: No, no. I don’t remember.

Interviewer: (I didn’t hear him but I think he agreed with Damiano)

Maneskin: “Felicità”, yes, “Felicità”!

Damiano: They even sang in multiple voices! (Manizha had back singers with her, who joined her for Eurovision)

Interviewer: So after you won Eurovision, you were congratulated by Eros Ramazzotti, Royal Blood, and Franz Ferdinand. Which congratulation towards you was unusual and unexpected? And what did it mean to you

Victoria: Probably the big groups, which we always listen to, which always inspired us. It was also really nice, already the fact, that they talk about us - it was unbelievable. And because, of course, for us it was very important, that they liked us/valued us. And what most wild/unusual out of is that we got to collaborate with Iggy Pop.

Rest of Maneskin: *agreeing with Victoria’s answer*

Victoria: He is one of our main idols, he is one of the people who created/established punk-rock.

Thomas: Yes, of course, support from big musicians, from people who we listened to from the very start - it’s really wonderful and important/valuable recognition

Interviewer: tell us about your work with Iggy Pop. How did it happen, did he contact you or you were able to reach out to him?

Victoria: We were always huge fans of him. And when everything so well, he saw who we were and what type of music we have, and we asked him, if he would’ve want to produce something together. He said, that he really likes the song “I wanna be your slave.” and wanted to make a collaboration.

Interviewer: I saw that Miley Cyrus made a repost video of where you are performing a cover of her song and said you are her friends. Is there a possible collab with Miley?

Maneskin: Anything is possible.

Damiano: (in English) Who knows

Interviewer: with who would you want to collab?

Victoria: with many, with many! Arctic Monkeys, Foo Fighters, I don’t know.. with so many!

Interviewer: An interesting thing - the group BTS became the symbol of South Korea, making kpop genre popular. You are becoming...you became, the symbol of Italy. Do you feel any responsibility and are you planning on promoting Italian language/ making Italian language popular?

Damiano: We are thinking about making our music, and if our country will choose us to be their representatives, we would be happy. But no, we don’t feel this responsibility, we are thinking of own work/ business.

Interviewer: I can’t not ask very important question which is interesting for the fans - are you preparing an album, can you share some hints/ secrets? Because everyone is waiting for it. And the fact that in one of your songs which was released years back reached the top world wide charts, now we all can’t wait.

Victoria: Its all secret!

Damiano: We can say, that we are preparing new music - this is the secret which we can reveal.

Thomas: Yeah, and we are trying to find time, to write, to work on music. Certainly/undoubtedly, you can expect multiple surprises.

Interviewer: you are a unique group - from the point that your centre/focus is towards all of the members, which is different to other bands where bands are seen as the frontman and the rest of musicians. But each member of your group is seen a big celebrity. Did this happen accidentally or is this the concept you made, and how does your friendship help you with you work?

Damiano: We always tries to avoid the stereotypes of bands/groups, where only the vocalist is recognized/known. We always tried to push not only the group as whole, but also the 4 individuals of the group. And this is probably also happens because of our close friendship. Luckily, nobody feels like they are in the shadows pushed by others.

[7:38] Interviewer: It’s really cool that you change/ remove the stereotypes and create new trends.

Maneskin: We try, We try. We carry our little contribution.

Interviewer: Damiano, I would like to ask you personally a question - from what I am aware of, at the start, the band didn’t accept you into the band, something didn’t work out, could you please tell us in more detail?

*Maneskin laughing at Damiano*

Victoria: He became older, and his voice became magically/suddenly different!

Interviewer: what I understood was that it happened was because you originally sang more pop music, not rock with the band.

Damiano: In reality/to be honest, nothing changed, I stayed pop. Let’s say, I grew, and my voice changed, and I started to sound more earnest/persuasive.

[8:22] Interviewer: How did the band form? You first place of performance was at the street of Rome?

Maneskin: Yes, we started to play in school

Victoria: and since then everything went with the flow. We started to play on the streets, at small establishments, at school - anywhere where we could have an opportunity to perform

Interviewer: what was the hardest in those performances?

Thomas: To find a place where we can perform

Victoria: Yes, exactly, where to perform. And later, it was very small establishments and the audience at the start didn’t take us too seriously. But together as a band we supported each other - in the end, it was our dream, we even liked to perform in front of just a few people, which is why we continued.

Thomas: Exactly, yes. At the start we sometimes performed to an auditorium with a few people, but even then you had to stay convincing/conclusive. Over some period of time, in the crowd, people start to appear who valued our music, what we did. But for me, it was probably, the main challenge was to see, play, perform well and stay yourself in front of 2 or 3 people.

Ethan: Yes, there were times when we performed in front of an audience in which there were only parents. We gave out the same level and the same energy.

Interviewer: I think it is common thing to happen when a musician/ band performs at private party, where Russian musicians performed for one person in the hall.

Maneskin: oh this is something very very private

Interviewer: I think I’ll get in trouble for telling you this, but Little Big told me this story.

*Maneskin recognizing the bands name*

Maneskin: Aaa, Yes!

Interviewer: Ed Sheehan, in his time, took a challenge, he also started from street performing, to make 300 performance in a year. Are you ready to start your world tour and to perform nearly every day?

Thomas: Of course, definitely. The other way it won’t happen.

[10:25] Interviewer: I’d also like to know/ask, if you often spend your time together, as friends, if you have any common hobbies, and what do you do as a break/rest?

Victoria: We practically don’t have any life outside the frame of music, we spend all our time in work. But when we do find spare time, we just go somewhere to relax and have fun.

Interviewer: What simple tip/advise would you give to young musicians which at the moment are street performing but dream to perform in big stadiums?

Victoria: I think, you should continued with your journey and don’t change due to other people’s opinions.

Ethan: Yes, that right. Be always yourself.

Interviewer: your time of fame happened in Italy a few years ago from the show X Factor when you performed the cover from the band the Four seasons on their song “Beggin”. Did you expect that your cover would become a world hit in a few years? And a lot of people associate the song more with you (like more than the original band)

Ethan: Yeah. It’s.... weird!

[11:33] Interviewer: I’d like to show you an interesting photo. The photo illustrates when it was the last time Russia saw Italians. It’s a movie from the year 1974 which is called “the unbelievable journey of Italians in Russsia” do you see any similarity?

*at [11:48] you can see the image of four people: on the left two men happily hugging each other, in the centre a woman, and on the right a tired looking man*

Maneskin: Nooooo *laughing*

Ethan: Wow (the exact words that were written in subtitles were “Да ты что!” Which in Russian is used as an expression of surprise )

Ethan and Thomas point at which person they think they are in the left

Ethan: I am the one in the left

Interviewer: This is actually a very popular Soviet comedy and the movie is about Italians which travelled to Russia in search of treasure, which left was by one of the main character’s grandmother. I would like to know after which treasure did you go after in Russia?

Victoria: I think, our fans, possibly perform, and play in concerts. All the love and affection.

Interviewer: It would be nice if you could watch the movie, maybe during your flight, and share your opinion on social media.

Ethan: ok, will do.

Interviewer: I’d also like to show you a very popular video which was spreading in Russia. Where it was comparing your lyrics from “I WANNA BE YOUR SLAVE” and lyrics from a Russian musician Alla Pugacheva. Both songs have same repeating words: “master” and “gangster”

Maneskin: (idk who said it) I saw it in Tiktok

Interviewer: just in case, I’ll show you the video

*[11:58] shows the video which interviewer talked about*

Thomas: You already saw it.

Interviewer: Your Russian fans, went further, started to look for famous Russian performers who wore similar outfits that you wear. But it turned out that all the similar outfits were worn by on person, his name is Valery Leontiev. I’d like to show you the pictures to show you just how similar his outfits are.

*[13:35] you can see the image comparisons, in the background you can hear Damiano laughing and say “no no”*

Thomas or Ethan: Unbelievable! This is crazy, this isn’t possible.

Interviewer: Yes the similarities are on point/ are exact.

Interviewer: I’d like to conclude the interviewer with genuine admiration because for the past 3 months you exploded the whole music industry, which didn’t happen for ages. And to be honest, it is true what you said about saving your authenticity and believe in yourself. We are very proud of you, Russians love Italians (ik that a lot of old Italian movies and songs are very popular in Russia). Please continue to grow and make wonderful music.

Maneskin: Thank, thank you very much.

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Hopefully you enjoyed the interview and the translations made sense

#my post #my translation #Maneskin #maneskin victoria #maneskin ethan #maneskin thomas #maneskin damiano #victoria de angelis #thomas raggi #ethan torchio #damiano david #Youtube

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