#Because I need karaoke style lyric videos with the instrumentals that exists to put on them lmao

[skhardwarevers1]

sometimes I remember that if I was given the gift of a like a weeks worth of free time, I could totally make a Chonny Jash karaoke DVD

[theseventhhex]

Operators Interview

Operators

Photo by Brit Kubat

Operators is a Montreal based project created by Daniel Boeckner, (Wolf Parade, Handsome Furs, Divine Fits), Devojka, and Sam Brown (Divine Fits, New Bomb Turks) in 2014. The band released an EP in 2014, and released their first LP in 2016. Operators supported these releases with a series of international tours across North America, and Europe. Their latest release, ‘Radiant Dawn’ consists of nine tracks that meld raw analog hardware with Boeckner's distinct voice to create an immersive cinematic sound. Interspersed between the tracks are instrumental intertitles that amplify the album’s 1970s sci-fi dystopian feel. ‘Radiant Dawn’ maintains a completely fresh energy for a band very much in top form… We talk to Dan Boeckner about working in an isolated setting, the VHS era and HBO’s Chernobyl …

TSH: How would you sum up your creative partnership with Devojka in the lead-up to ‘Radiant Dawn’?

Dan: Once the ‘Blue Wave’ touring cycle ended and I had time off from Wolf Parade, I started putting together some basic ideas for what I thought would turn into ‘Radiant Dawn’ tracks. We had this sort of unspoken understanding that we weren’t going to limit ourselves to the same gear that we used to write ‘Blue Wave’, so I’d set up a few limited combinations of synths and drum machines and just started carving out patterns and chord progressions I liked. I had a lot of false starts. It wasn’t really until Dev and I began working on things together in our studio that the aesthetic of ‘Radiant Dawn’ revealed itself. We did a few days of free form jamming direct to 2 track cassette with Andrew Woods (who ended up mixing the album) processing the entire mix through a table of guitar pedals. When we were listening to the playback, it pretty much set the tone for the sonic aesthetic of the album. Dev and I got to work on building a kind of psycho-geography for the songs to live in. I got obsessed with the idea of a kind of Irradiated Pastoralism. These banal landscapes made completely unrecognisable by an “event”. Maybe a visitation, nuclear fallout, the effects of extreme climate change. Not post-apocalyptic but post-post-apocalyptic. Everything has grown back, the sun is shining, but the landscape and objects have been changed. The foliage has changed. Everything is unrecognisable. Dev and I worked really quickly after that. I felt like once we built the world, it was easy to fit the songs into it.

TSH: As you guys fleshed out new material, what was the level of focus in the studio like?

Dan: We’re pretty intensely focussed when we’re writing. One of the great things about having Dev as a writing partner is that we’re both completely comfortable and happy to play 4 bar bass sequence for hours and just reach a kind of trance state, adding and subtracting melodies and trying out different vocal lines. It’s really my favourite part of the process because it feels pure and totally removed from the world of the “intellectual”. Usually we’d record voice memos and then go over them, pick out the exciting moments and work those moments into a structure.

TSH: You’ve touched on this album pushing you forward into a new chapter of writing. Can you tell us more about auditioning your lyrics…

Dan: I’ve never really done it before, so it was a bit nerve wracking. I wanted the lyrics on this album to function like a bridge between the different narrators and protagonists in the different songs. To reinforce the narrative and show that they all lived in the same world that we’d built. Once I got over my initial uncomfortableness about sitting in a room and reading/singing lyrics to Dev, it was a blast. We got to dig into the songs and try a bunch of different things out. I filled an entire notebook with lyrics for this album and used probably 10% of them.

TSH: Also, what were the benefits in working in a really isolated setting?

Dan: Our studio is down the street from our house, on a semi bustling street…but the studio itself feels like a space station. Walking in the door for me is like walking through an airlock. There’s the outside world where linear time exists, people are getting drunk at the bar below, cars driving by, occasionally I look out the window and see someone I know…inside the studio, time stops, everything is calm, it’s a blank space where you just work and build something. I like being able to access both of those things. To spend a whole day isolated and working and then shut the door and go back to normal city life.

TSH: Was ‘Days’ identified early on as the album opener?

Dan: When I finished the first, extremely rough pass of ‘Days’ and played it for Dev, we both knew that it should be the first song on the album. The protagonist wakes up in the woods mumbling the lines of the chorus and the whole song rushes forward to a collapse where the drum machine and pads just start falling apart. The album ends in the woods with the protagonist of ‘Low Life’ watching his small town become unstuck in space/time and there’s a similar disintegration of the track. There’s a kind of loop there. I also really liked the idea of the first melodic thing you hear on the album being just Buchla bass and smeared out vocals.

TSH: Moreover, what sort of motivations do you draw on to pen a track like ‘Faithless’?

Dan: ‘Faithless’ is about the hallucinatory nature of reality (online and offline) under late period capitalism. The same grotesquely funny reality bending force field that happened in the USSR during the last years of its existence. When I wrote it, I was thinking about the absurd effects of 80s GOSPLAN (a factory that makes 10s of thousands of platform shoes that no one wants, based on calculations made by state bureaucrats) and the existential horror of watching verified fast food chain twitter accounts “interact” with each other about depression and how they’re pretty much the same thing. The failure of an ideology, political system and ecumenic ideal creating this gradual psychedelic effect on our daily lives. Accepting that. Not really knowing or caring if anything is true because…our last individual agency in this collapsing system is being able to believe something ridiculous like the earth is flat or that vaccines are a government conspiracy. Losing faith in pretty much everything. I wanted to write a song about that ending up being a liberating force for change.

TSH: How key is it for Operators to continuously have a strong visual element?

Dan: It’s become really important to the way we want to present the band. When we started, it was more of a stark, Fugazi style minimalism where we wouldn’t think about lighting onstage or a constant aesthetic, but with this record Dev and I are so invested in the world we built for ‘Radiant Dawn’, we felt like it was important to invite people into it with short films, projections onstage… to give people an immersive experience.

TSH: Speaking of visual elements, when you think of the VHS era, what sort of nostalgia and memories come to mind for you?

Dan: When I think of the VHS era I think of one thing: McQuinns Video. I grew up in a very remote rural community in Canada. We had one video rental store and it was in the basement of this guy Dick McQuinns house. You’d go in his front door, walk down a hallway and open another door. You’d walk down a flight of stairs and be greeted by a massive poster for the movie Maniac, which is an oil painting of the titular Maniac holding the severed head of a woman and a giant bowie knife. His stock was probably 50% “regular” films and 50% insane horror movies. I loved going there and wandering through the stacks of VHS tapes, looking at the covers. My brother and I would rent a bunch of horror movies and spend summer afternoons with the blinds closed mainlining Lucio Fulci and John Carpenter. I think it broke my brain in the best possible way.

TSH: Is the notion of being adaptable one that you’ve had to master being an artist over the years?

Dan: I’m not sure if I’ve mastered it, but it’s a really important skill to cultivate. One thing I do know is that in 2019, no one who works on the business side of music has any fucking idea what’s happening. All the models that “worked” 5-10 years ago are obsolete and irrelevant. That coupled with the fact there seems to be this weird, Lovecraftian shadow of the “good old days” still guiding a lot of the decisions that get made about how to direct an artist’s career means that WE as artists need to trust our instincts and experiences on the road/in the business more and more. If you’re a working musician and you’re paying attention, you’re going to know what works and what doesn’t more than any of the management class people around you. Being fluid and adaptable to this new paradigm is the way to stay happy and working.

TSH: You’ve touched on how ‘shooting stuff around on the internet can be really damaging’. Do you feel that today’s technology is information overload and that real communication is crumbling?

Dan: I don’t feel like communication and engagements are suffering but I do feel like the networked nature of these systems and the way they’re a perfect vector for political brain poisoning has been incredibly damaging to social and political life, even here in Canada.

TSH: Having some German in you, do you have any strong attachments to German ways of life?

Dan: Haha! Not at all. I do love krautrock though! And, now that I think about it… currywurst.

TSH: What do you and Devojka bond and laugh over most whilst on tour?

Dan: Late night forced karaoke in the van, whatever weird regional American gas station items we come across, terrible hours long comedy riffs (usually based on a single word) that are just the product of the collective insanity of being in a van for 6-10 hours day.

TSH: Does your dog Archie still sleep on your suitcase when you need to access it?

Dan: Yes. Every single time we leave on tour. Always my suitcase. Probably because it’s bigger and more comfortable than Devs. We used to bring him out on the road with us and it was great… he’s an incredible equaliser. Say you’ve got a surly promoter or stage tech…it’s incredibly hard to be a complete asshole when there’s a little, friendly dog wandering around and charming everyone.

TSH: What impressed you most about HBO’s Chernobyl? And what else have you been watching lately?

Dan: I loved Chernobyl. I’m a huge fan of Jarred Harris. It’s jarring to watch something produced in the West in 2019 that’s not just ultra-reactionary and critical of Russia in general, even though the story itself is an indictment of late period Soviet bureaucracy. I liked how the director acknowledged how much of the series was lifted from Svetlana Alexeivichs incredible book, as well. I’d recommend that anyone who enjoyed Chernobyl go out and buy her latest work Secondhand Time - one of the best things I’ve ever read. Some other things I’ve watched lately: Neon Genesis Evangelion (still great), The Wailing (amazing Korean horror film), The Dark (the German Lost but good), Stranger in a Strange Land (1987 Nick Cave in Berlin doc), Marketa Lazarova (Czech new wave and the most black metal film ever made) and Ian Nairn - Nairn Across Britain. The whole series is up on YouTube and I think I learned more about UK social geography from it than anything I’ve ever read. A lot of the locations seem bleak (it’s always raining and grey) or run down (it was filmed between 71-78) but the way he imbues these places with magic and history makes you feel like you’re listening to Alan Moore talk about sacred geometry. It’s a deeply odd and very British documentary series. There’s an entire episode about Wolverhampton that’s completely gripping, if that’s any indication of how charming this guy is.

TSH: Devojka has previously made drinks for her neighbourhood – do you get treated to some cocktail specials on tour?

Dan: Without a mobile full bar, it’s hard to get the same quality of drinks out BUT, we did a pretty big booze buy on the last tour and had a box full of some top shelf liquor that just came with us into every backstage.

TSH: Finally, what’s pleased you most about the band’s progression to date?

Dan: The fact that we got to the point where we could make a record like ‘Radiant Dawn’. I’m not discounting our other stuff but to me ‘Radiant Dawn’ was one of those “signpost albums” you get to make once every 5 years or so. A record where you push through into another phase of your creative life and discover some new tools, new approaches, new language for making music and everything becomes challenging and exciting. For me, that’s really only happened twice before in the last 15 years and I’m glad we kept pushing at our song writing process. Evolving as a live band has been really rewarding too. To be so linked and tuned into each other on stage you can be in the middle of a set and just throwing new things, flourishes, new parts back and forth at each other and playing off them. Those moments are the closest I get to pure, mindless joy.

Operators - “I Feel Emotion”

Radiant Dawn

[thebiggaylion]

Kaskade @ EDC Orlando 2017

It’s March, ya’ll.  MARCH.  And we JUST got an announcement for EDC Orlando 2018 earlier today!  We normally don’t get these until JUNE!  I’m blown away with excitement!  I just had to tag that previous sentence with #EDCOrlando2018... already!  Amazing!

But therein lies another problem:  this event is EIGHT. MONTHS. AWAY.  How am I supposed to survive with eight months of anticipation?  Eight months of staving off a heart attack?  Haha, this is crazy!  I thought last year’s announcement of EDC Orlando 2017 during Red Bull TV’s live stream of EDC Las Vegas 2017 was early... this year, EDC Las Vegas 2018 is still MONTHS away, and we already know about EDC Orlando 2018?!  I wonder if this has anything to do with Ultra Music Festival and Miami Music Week happening this weekend...  maybe Insomniac is just trying to keep some of the narrative on their own events?  Either way, would you look at that design?  A rainbow heart... inside appears to be some sort of moon or other celestial body, with light emitting from it’s interior.  And... eyeballs... for some reason haha.  I really like it!  The EDC Orlando 2017 logo was cool, but it didn’t really feel Electric Daisy Carnival to me, ya know?  Sure, it put focus on kineticGAIA, which I totally loved, but it wasn’t much of a sensory explosion like I love from years past.  Of course, this could have just been them getting used to the new branding.  I think they’ve found a good path to follow with this look.  Bravo, Insomniac.

Since this is such a huge announcement, I might as well take the time to post one of the hugest artists to grace EDC Orlando from 2017.  I was thinking about when the “right” time would be to drop this particular show, and I think this #ThrowbackThursday--with the surprise announcement of EDC Orlando 2018--is about as good a time as any!  You probably knew this was coming after my Bonnie x Clyde post from the other week, but here it is:  Kaskade’s “sunset” set!  But before we get into that, you'd better believe this is a long post, so make sure you check out both parts when you're done with this original post!

YouTube | Facebook | Instagram Parts One, Two As you know from the previous post in this timeline, I was already in position for this soon-to-be great set (and from the following post in this timeline, that I stayed for the whole thing!).  This here is a good part of the intro, which includes the typical collection of lyrics or instruments without percussion that artists seem to love heh.  But let’s be real... this dude could pass gas into a microphone, throw it a little auto-tune, and we’d have tears in our eyes anyway!  It was PACKED, and the totems and flagpoles were in full effect.  There’s lots to see ahead, I’m just warning you, lots of stuff gets in the way haha!  But let’s just take a moment to collectively laugh out loud at the bug-eyed totem featuring the girls from Broad City, Ilana and Abbi, held by the Headliner directly in front of me.  Put that thing in the MoMA, because it is ART!  They were mounting their phone between the cut-outs, I suppose to get some aerial shots... not a bad idea, actually!  Also, we know Pasqualle absolutely loves Kaskade, so they wasted NO time firing off special effects during this set... and there are many more to come!  Final prep thought:  Kaskade’s visuals were SPECTACULAR, so feel free to give the videos a few play-throughs so you don’t miss anything! contains deadmau5 & Kaskade - I Remember https://soundcloud.com/deadmau5/i-remember-strobelite-mix contains Kaskade feat. Mindy Gledhill - Eyes https://soundcloud.com/kaskade/eyes contains Kaskade - Be Still https://soundcloud.com/kaskade/be-still-3 Kaskade feat. Ilsey - Disarm You https://soundcloud.com/kaskade/kaskade-disarm-you-ft-ilsey Kaskade - Atmosphere https://soundcloud.com/kaskade/atmosphere-2

Download High Res (23.3 MB) | Download Low Res (2.4 MB) See?  Amazing visuals.  Sure it’s just pictures of nebulas and such, but I love all that space stuff.  EDC is truly like no other place on earth, so why limit yourself to visuals of just earth?  Haha

Find this photo on Instagram | Find this photo on Facebook Bless this dude.  There is absolutely nothing on his sign except for some real sentiment.  He deserves to be GIF’ed!  Also, feel free to appreciate and lol at that Abbi totem once more!

Download High Res (30 MB) | Download Low Res (3.1 MB) Not only does he deserve to be GIF’ed, but I caught a great moment where he’s getting a high-five from another Headliner as he (I presume) exits circuitGROUNDS.  Consent is real, and rave booty ain’t yours to grab!

Download High Res (47.2 MB) | Download Low Res (4.5 MB) I’m a complete, and I mean COMPLETE sucker for rainbow visuals and lots of colors... if you know what’s coming (because you were at this show, too), then you know this was absolutely my version of heaven.

YouTube | Facebook | Instagram These aura-inspired visuals kinda reminded me of the Insomniac promo imagery for EDC Las Vegas / Orlando 2017 and EDC Mexico / China 2018, don’t they?  So cool.  Oh, also, retro-inspired text and pyro make for quite an awesome moment!  Sensory overload!  I took a pan of the circuitGROUNDS because of the vibe.  I think I’m seeing six rainbow-inspired flags and totems on this pan?  Gorgeous! Axwell /\ Ingrosso - How Do You Feel Right Now https://soundcloud.com/axwellingrosso/how-do-you-feel-right-now Kaskade vs. Patric la Funk & DBN - Please Say Quick Quack https://soundcloud.com/kaskade/please-say-quick-quack

YouTube | Facebook | Instagram The sun’s going down, and the set’s heating up, but okay... for real though:  what is THIS SONG RIGHT HERE?  This was the only song that really surprised me (in a good way) in his set, and apparently it surprised me because it’s unreleased!  I did some digging, and apparently it’s remaining an “unknown” on purpose by Kaskade himself:

If I told you I would have to kill you… https://t.co/bPF0AU5UIR

— Kaskade (@kaskade)

November 15, 2017

Well there goes the idea of finding the title and artist(s)!  This needs an official release ASAP, mister!  Talk about catchy!  I typically try not to do this, but this fire is so hot, I have to do it.  You can catch a bootleg of the track below.  Also, of course, amazing visuals on this track.  There are so many pop culture styles and references! Unknown ID possibly Kaskade, Brohug, and Mr. Tape - Fun Fun Fun https://soundcloud.com/user-789177496/kaskade-brohug-mr-tape-fun-fun-fun-kaskade-arkade-office-los-angeles-2018

YouTube | Facebook | Instagram "Get those phones up, here we go!”  Yeah, yeah, you don’t gotta tell me twice... mine was already up!  Couldn’t turn on the flashlight once I started recording, but it would mess up my white balances anyway.  The guy behind The Big Gay Lion played this song to DEATH around 2007-2008... he was very excited to see this video and get a chance to share in this moment! deadmau5 & Kaskade - I Remember https://soundcloud.com/deadmau5/i-remember-strobelite-mix Felon - Isla https://soundcloud.com/felon/isla

Download High Res (28.6 MB) | Download Low Res (2.8 MB) I expected the ear candy, but not all this eye candy!  With a repertoire as good as his (and a budget like I can only imagine), I suppose I SHOULD have expected this level of visuals from him.  He didn’t have that great of visuals in 2015, though... just the standard Insomniac ones I saw in various other sets as well as his, if I’m remembering correctly... anyway, just wow.  He totally stepped it up.  Great stuff!

YouTube | Facebook | Instagram Parts One, Two Yes, yes, do give me THAT song followed immediately by THAT OTHER song/mix.  What a great moment.  I’m so pleased I caught both in one take like this!  Plus, I’m a sucker for a great sing-along, so why not throw up the lyrics and make it a big ol’ karaoke moment for tens of thousands of Headliners!  This man brought EV-ERY-THING to this sunset performance.  I’m blown away. Kaskade & Adam K feat. Sunsun - Raining https://soundcloud.com/adamk/kaskade-adam-k-feat-sunsun-raining-extended-mix-ultra-preview Kaskade & ZZTTN vs. Moguai - Something Something Champs (Kaskade's Atmosphere Mash Up) https://soundcloud.com/kaskade/kaskade-zzttn-vs-moguai

Download High Res (33 MB) | Download Low Res (3.6 MB) Stunning visuals.  I wasn’t even trying to capture the running man on fire, I was trying to get what was playing before it (view the download links to see that part at the start), but this bit was so good, I had to make it the thumbnail!  Plus, you can see the bits before it at the end of the previous video, so she done already had hers’s!

YouTube | Facebook | Instagram Gorgeous.  Such a phenomenal ending.  All I really hoped to do is capture the Tempest (the video game) graphics Kaskade was using for the best friend of the guy behind The Big Gay Lion... little did I know that I was primed and ready to capture the finale!  So here’s a bit of the second to last track and the entirety of the final track of his show! Kaskade & Thomas Sagstad vs. Morning Parade - Under The Stars https://soundcloud.com/kaskade/kaskade-thomas-sagstad-vs Kaskade feat. Mindy Gledhill - Eyes https://soundcloud.com/kaskade/eyes

Ya’ll... after finishing up this post, it’s starting to hit me... EDC Orlando 2018 is happening, announced, and REAL.  I just can’t stay this hype for this long... I’ll have all sorts of heart problems by the time November rolls around!  I need to get started on my new head dress!  I need to make more kandi!  If you want this post in two parts, we'll you're in luck!  This original post exists in two easily-viewable yet completely separate parts, just for you.  Love ya’ll, see ya next time! 🏳️‍🌈🦁❤

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