Goodmorning, Cruel World!

Today is the release date for our first album Goodnight, Cruel World!

 

We have a lot to do today, but luckily I was up at 7 this morning :P This will definitely come back to me in the evening.

Anyway, I wanted to write a little bit about the meaning behind the title, because it's not as dark as it sounds.

First of all, "goodnight, cruel world" was a thing I used to write on my twitter before signing off for the night, just as I was starting to get into emo music and that image. It was meant to be a little ironic, not to poke fun at people with actual depressions or suicidal thoughts ofcourse, but just to laugh at myself a little, I do things like this a lot.

Tomoya, not knowing the actual meaning, thought it was a cool sentence, and said "why don't we use that as an album title?".

This was even before Kento joined the band, and the ideas for the album weren't planned out yet. We just had this title.

Then, as the last song we finished on the album, we made the song "Goodnight, Cruel World", which made me really think about what I actually mean by that.

The lyrics for the song, which I will be posting next week, came to be about children uniting and fighting the "grown-up society", substituting archaic and outdated rules with fresh new ones, and not accepting the ways that the adults try to keep them down and convince them to just follow the old ways  (should be a hot issue in Japan btw).

I wanted to tell boys and girls to be allies and go towards the future together, not treat each other like enemies and like members of two different species, like a lot of us have been taught. Because being equal is also one of the important new rules.

But I wanted to do it all in a fun way, so yes the song is aggressive towards it's "enemies", but encouraging towards it's allies.

Make sense?

Maybe not :P

Anyway, here is the song:

As for the album cover, we wanted something that was about partying and being a stupid, because there is a lot of that theme in the songs (like Night of the Dancing Dead, Ice-cream Headache and also to a certain degree Screams Within), and we thought drugs and booze was way to symbolize this. The cocktail fitted perfectly as our band name is the same as a cocktail, but we actually decided that the two together, paired with the title, was a little too dark. For some reason, however, the designer sent us this and we kind of fell for it ^^; Chances are most Japanese people won't understand it anyway, but I'm hoping people outside Japan will like this album too.

Now I gotta figure out what to wear :P
Goodmorning, Cruel World!

Goodmorning, Cruel World!

Hellooooo!! How's your new year, everyone?!

Mine's been pretty good so far, though I really need my parents to stop feeding me now XD

Yesterday out official homepage was finally finished! You can find it here:

I'm gonna put up a link in the sidebar too ofcourse^^
It it in Japanese, but if you can't read Japanese the live schedule is still pretty readable, and you know you could also use it as practice for your Japanese ;D

It's also official that our new album, "Goodnight, Cruel World", will be out on March 19., on iTunes too^-^
And our release party will be at (guess where) Shinjuku Headpower, on March 20.!
There's gonna be a lot of awesome bands, and also us, so if you're in Tokyo please come and watch!
Tickets can be reserved through my e-mail address up there (to the right) or even by commenting, I speak English :P You can contact me about whatever else you want too ofcourse.

We also had an announcement on Splatter Records official site:

Seriously, this picture lol.
The link is here: http://splatter-records.com/

I'm packing my stuff today, getting ready to go back to Japan. Crossing my fingers that everything will work out fine (I'm always nervous, and I hate flying).
Going shopping today too, to buy some edible gifts!

That's all really. See you (hopefully) on the other side of the world!

Making of the sounds

Trying out blogging from my phone for the first time, I'm sorry if something looks off or anything.

So yesterday I had my first recording session for the new album.

I was kinda nervous, because recording has always been a big ordeal for me. I get nervous and my voice gets flat and nothing sounds like it's supposed to :( 

Turns out, however, that I'm a much better singer now than last time, and also that there is a big difference between recording in the basement of a university with media students as engineers (like we did on the last album, Chasing my Tail), and recording in a proper studio with a pro engineer^^

Who'd have thunk it, huh?

Me in the recording booth.

It went really well and I finished two songs smoothly, still leaving time for Tomoya to do the background vocals and Kento to put the finishing touches on the guitar tracks.

Tomoya, Kento and our manager DAISAN (he used to sing in a band called Killkills)all pitched in on the "slutty background vocals" for Night of the Dancing Dead.

I know that the more diffecult songs are still to come, but it makes me feel very good that we managed to get two finished so smoothly^^

Afterwards the whole team went to yakiniku!

Ahahahahaaaaaa♪───Ｏ（≧∇≦）Ｏ────♪

Guuuuuhhh{(-_-)} the Japanese guys, of course, were so excited about the squid they ordered three plates...

Kento and me.

Even Tomoya had a few drinks, without keeling over, there was some kind of magic in the air^^

I guess I shouldn't be celebrating so much since my recording is not by far finished, but I guess I can celebrate for Kento, right?

I was gonna do a few "deprevation days", starting today. That's when I change most my meals for salads and stay away from candy and alcohol, but as it was I suddenly got really sick on the train this morning and had to get off halfway to school, cause I felt like I was gonna puke.

I tried chilling out for a while and went to get some breakfast at the station I'd gotten off at.

It made me feel a little better and I got to school for my second class.

Now I'm on my way home. My bf came back from a Coldrain/Crossfaith Kansai tour this morning, and I'm looking forward to hanging out together.

He had some very awesome news for European Coldrain fans, but I'm not sure if it's official yet, so I'll leave it at that for now☻

Gonna sleep on the train now! Goodnight, Cruel World!

It's that time of the yarr, mates!

Hey there, where were you yesterday? I was at the Dog Pirates Banquette vol.2!

Dog Pirates Banquette is an event that my band arranges. We dress up as pirates on stage, the last time we had Norwegian candy and alcohol, this time we didn't have the time to have anything sent to us so we made do with the free Tequila that is always offered at Headpower.
This was also the last live performance we will have in 2013.

Unfortunately I didn't get a good picture of my pirate costume this time.
The guys wear the same outfit every time, but I really love dressing up, so I've made a new outfit for each time so far. The hat I've even made myself, out of a cowboy hat from the 100yen shop, because believe it or not it's not easy to find a pirate costume hat in Japan!

The first band out was 過剰装飾人形楽団 ( I think it's pronounced Kajousoushokuningyougakudan, everyone in the house were breaking their tongues trying to pronounce this XD)

They were a visual kei band that I didn't know from before, I'm not sure if they were friends with Tomoya or Takashi, but they were really nice people! They're music was also pretty good, though the wierd anime voice actor intros were a bit too nerdy for my tastes ^^ The vocalist had a really good voice though, and the guitarist was amazing!
They had this one guy in the front who was his own little otaku freak show, it was hilarious. He had dances to all their songs, like a visual kei fan girl, except he was just a very normal looking office worker in a suit and glasses. He also had a glow stick.
It made me laugh, but I actually think it's pretty amazing when people can come all alone and just be that into the music that they're just completely oblivious to their surroundings and don't give a fuck.

We had told our guests they could dress up as pirates too, someone only heard the part about dressing up and not as what...

I also have no idea why he's sitting at our merch table XD

 For the one kid who did come as a pirate, he got some pirate make-up done by Cat (https://twitter.com/SALTYDOG_staff), who also did the make-up for the boys in the band that day. I just realized I didn't get a picture of her pirate outfit either :(

This is Make Money For the Fixtures, a band basically made up of employees at Headpower.

Lol, DJ Saburo looks like the Grim Reaper in the background XD
They've changed their vocalist. Wierd coincidence that both the former and present bartender at Headpower have extremely good, deep voices. I was also super impressed since I didn't even know that Ojou was a singer!

Here's Liquidz Edge, the ikemen band XD

Also very very good, and very nice guys!

Ever wondered what's going on backstage at a live? Here's a taste of what you could be missing...

The drummer of the next band, Crisis Slave.

First time I heard them too, and I really liked them! Also, I'm so in love with the vocalists t-shirt.
I couldn't watch their whole show though, because we were next!

At first we had kind of a hard time, because one of Tomoyas friends who had come was way way too drunk to be there, but I think we more or less handled it. And luckily, one of the guys who came to see us handled him after a little while and took him outside ^^
Other than that it was so much fun though my pirate costume was so fucking hot I felt like I was singing on the sun and sweating like a pork roast.
I forgot my hat when I first came on stage, so Cat had to go grab it backstage for me, it was a very busy day for her too, thank you for the hard work!
 

For the encore we changed into 塩犬(Shio-inu, literally means salt dog in Japanese), supposedly a cover band of SALTY DOG, where Tomoya and Kento switched roles, so Tomoya played guitar and Kento played bass. We played two songs off the old album, Petra and Melt Down. We haven't played Petra in a long long time and it was so much fun for me since I know it so well and also since it's a lot less challenging to sing than out newer songs (though ofcourse our new songs are a lot better, I have to say^-^). It was not easy for Kento and Tomoya though XD

We had a well deserved after party with the people who could stay behind. I haven't really been drinking-drinking for almost a month now, so I was very careful, only having Malibu since it has a lot less alcohol in it than normal Rum, which is my usual favorite. Oh, and I smoothly avoided the free Tequila, that stuff is satanic.

We kind of look like drunk cartoon characters in the pictures, being all green in the faces. Or zombies XD

My friend Alex and my new friend Junya. He had a Chunk! No Captain Chunk! sweater on so we kept calling him Captain Drunk, by some miracle I actually remember his real name.

Some people had been enjoying the free Tequila from quite early on. It can be a little dangerous to make friends with the staff at Headpower XD

I was sooooo sleepy when going home in the morning. Getting too old to party all night^^;
Luckily today was Saturday, so I could just chill aaalll day, sleeping, waking up, sleeping, listening to Norwegian radio and finally watching the Walking Dead mid-season finale. JHC, what the hell are they gonna do for the actual season finale??!O__O
I cried, I screamed a little without even realizing until afterwards XD I almost had to pause it to catch my breath, like I did a lot in the first season. I guess that's gripping television ^-^ Is it almost February yet? I can't waiiiiit!!

Since I also have the first day of recording for the album tomorrow, I'm trying to be nice to my body and eating stuff that's good for me. Drinking a looot of water too!

I'm eating way too much though, alcohol gives me munchies, but it is a Saturday, right?^-^

Here are some bonus shots, it you can call it that XD

Trying on my pirate costume the day before. With my beautiful Norwegian wool tights!
And using fake lashes as a fake mustache...

Cat bought these lashes for the day and she let me have a pair. I'm not used to wearing fake lashes (I think it can look real good, I'm just way way too lazy for that stuff) so I kind of felt like my eyelids were half closed all the time XD

Gonna have a cuppa hot ginger water now and some supper. I'm wondering if I should pack a lunch box for the studio tomorrow...:P

Byesies!

Sleep is the greatest gift of all

First! A picture from the live on the day after Osaka. It was actually Tomoyas birthday...

It is Japanese culture to smash the birthday cake in the birthday boys face... don't get me wrong, it's hilarious, I just can't help feeling that it's a waste of cake^^;
Tomoya was a little miffed at having to play the last song with a face full of cake, but it worked out alright.
We were all so tired on that day that none of us managed to stay for the afterparty to continue the birthday celebration. I think going to sleep was the best gift any of us could think of that night.



This weekend was Alcohol Maria vol.4, arranged by Rayto and Yukki from Stand Maria. And we were on the list:

I was thinking I'd wear short pants, for old times sake, and then this happened...

I figured it was fine for stage though, punk rockness up!!
But then the others were like "Inger, why are you not wearing skinnypants! The Gekirock people are here!!"
Ofcourse I'd brought pants to wear for the night, so I gave in and changed, though I personally trust that the Gekirock people don't mind people who wear shortpants :P

In the background are my friends Alex and Cat.
Cat is my best friend and she's finally come to Japan again! She's also staffing for us (and she writes our English twitter: https://twitter.com/SALTYDOG_staff ). Alex is an old classmate who's been living in Japan for a while, but he's been pretty far away. Lately though, he's been coming to Tokyo a lot more and I'm so glad we get to hang out again!

Cat and me backstage at Headpower:

Enter Tomoya:

The live was pretty good I think, though I did fuck up at the end of the ballad.
Rayto complemented me on hiding it pretty well. I always thought I was pretty good at covering when I screw up, but maybe that's just 'cause I don't really care so it doesn't have a huge impact on me.
Anyway, Rayto called me out at my tendency to laugh when I screw up, and said I did really well this time when I just pretended it was part of the song (actually, the only rule we have for the performance of this song is that we're not allowed to smile. If you smile you have to buy doughnuts for all the members, so it's pretty serious business).
Let me mention that I also down right dropped the mic on the floor on the last chorus of Meltdown, and Tomoya didn't even notice ^-^b
See? I'm good!

Here's me dressing for autumn yesterday. Today i was wearing the exact same outfit only with the sweater in black. I just want to stay warm, ok? That's all I want.

Nevertheless, I managed to cath a cold on the night of Alcohol Maria 4, when I was going home. It's the real nasty throat scraping type T_T
I need to knock it before our event, Dog Pirates Banquet vol.2 on December 6. It's not only our own event, but also our last live for the year.

So I'm eating apples, like my friend Anouk always advice me to do to beat the cold.
It's got to be gone within two weeks, right?
I'm gonna eat an apple a day (keeps the doctor away, you know?). Japanese apples are hugenormous too!
Wish me luck...


At the end, let me add this:

It's a picture that Kento posted of his bunny, Rum-chan, watching a Crossfaith video. This pic went kinda viral among our twitter followers for two days^^
If you don't know Crossfaith, do check them out!

My favourite is still their cover of Prodigys Omen. I was obsessed with that song.

Well, I've got school tomorrow!
Goodnight, Cruel World!