The album’s namesake final track imagines a world where all this doom and gloom has come to fruition—reminiscent of the band that famously played on as the Titanic sank. Though still rooted in alt-rock, we’ve made our non-rock influences more explicit than ever. This can be heard in songs like Growing Pains and Gargoyle, which incorporate drum and bass-style beats, while The Fates leans into techno, replacing a snare with a sample pad to evoke nightclub electronica more than moshpit metal.
Harvest Festival is perhaps our most folk-driven song to date, weaving together guitar, mandolin, and violin in a canon structure that recalls school hymns sung during autumn celebrations. Meanwhile, the final track, The Last Gasp of a Dying Planet, forgoes guitars entirely, relying instead on mandolin, piano, trumpet, violin, and drums.
As a band, we’ve always borrowed freely from any sound we love, and that’s what makes our genre “rock plus”—or, as we call it, rock bizarre!
The album’s namesake final track imagines a world where all this doom and gloom has come to fruition—reminiscent of the band that famously played on as the Titanic sank. Though still rooted in alt-rock, we’ve made our non-rock influences more explicit than ever. This can be heard in songs like Growing Pains and Gargoyle, which incorporate drum and bass-style beats, while The Fates leans into techno, replacing a snare with a sample pad to evoke nightclub electronica more than moshpit metal.
Harvest Festival is perhaps our most folk-driven song to date, weaving together guitar, mandolin, and violin in a canon structure that recalls school hymns sung during autumn celebrations. Meanwhile, the final track, The Last Gasp of a Dying Planet, forgoes guitars entirely, relying instead on mandolin, piano, trumpet, violin, and drums.
As a band, we’ve always borrowed freely from any sound we love, and that’s what makes our genre “rock plus”—or, as we call it, rock bizarre!
Growing Pains was inspired in part by James Nestor's book Breath: The
New Science of a Lost Art, which explores how "incorrect" breathing
methods (such as "mouth-breathing") can negatively impact a person’s
facial structure over time. The song uses this metaphor of unintended,
negative bodily transformation to reflect obsessional love or devotion
to someone. It explores the idea of dedicating yourself so completely to
another person that you are willing to compromise your physical or
mental well-being in ways that ultimately harm you – most clearly
expressed in the chorus: "kneeling at your feet, I’m a mess of flesh and
bone." The song can also be interpreted as the consequence of
unrequited love, where you sacrifice everything for one person, even if
it means contorting yourself or doing things completely unnatural to
your character.
The song begins with a series of verses that combine
ambient chords with a drum-and-bass-style beat. The quiet choruses that
intersperse them suggest an underlying tension, which eventually erupts
at the end in an explosive, distortion-drenched outro.
Like "Sisyphus," "The Fates" is another track inspired in part by
ancient Greek mythology (Thomas was reading Ovid's Metamorphoses at the
time). Although the theme is ancient, the idea of "free will vs.
predeterminism" remains strikingly relevant today, especially in light
of the increasing prevalence of AI and algorithmic approaches to
information distribution. The song suggests that, if technology becomes
capable of predicting patterns and events with ever-greater accuracy –
to the point where everything can be foreseen – then the ancient Greek
concept of a predetermined destiny, embodied by The Fates, may not be as
far-fetched as it seems. There is, therefore, an underlying anxiety in
the music: the notion that we may not be as in control of our own
“destiny” as we believe, but rather, merely data, bound to a path that
has already been mapped out for us.
Musically, the track also
features an unconventional guitar tuning: D A D F# G# C#. This tuning
results in the open strings evoking the sound of the Lydian mode – a
scale known for its dreamy, ethereal quality (some social media
commentators have even called it “Zelda tuning”). This haunting sound,
paired with a techno-style drumbeat, mirrors the blend of ancient Greek
antiquity and modern 21st-century communication technology that the song
embodies.
Like "Sisyphus," "The Fates" is another track inspired in part by
ancient Greek mythology (Thomas was reading Ovid's Metamorphoses at the
time). Although the theme is ancient, the idea of "free will vs.
predeterminism" remains strikingly relevant today, especially in light
of the increasing prevalence of AI and algorithmic approaches to
information distribution. The song suggests that, if technology becomes
capable of predicting patterns and events with ever-greater accuracy –
to the point where everything can be foreseen – then the ancient Greek
concept of a predetermined destiny, embodied by The Fates, may not be as
far-fetched as it seems. There is, therefore, an underlying anxiety in
the music: the notion that we may not be as in control of our own
“destiny” as we believe, but rather, merely data, bound to a path that
has already been mapped out for us.
Musically, the track also
features an unconventional guitar tuning: D A D F# G# C#. This tuning
results in the open strings evoking the sound of the Lydian mode – a
scale known for its dreamy, ethereal quality (some social media
commentators have even called it “Zelda tuning”). This haunting sound,
paired with a techno-style drumbeat, mirrors the blend of ancient Greek
antiquity and modern 21st-century communication technology that the song
embodies.
Just as Sisyphus is forever doomed to continuously push his boulder back up the hill, many people remain stuck in dead-end jobs for signficant periods, which begins to rob not only their joy, but also, any motivation towards artistic endeavours. This sentiment is embodied in the continuous dragging and sliding motion of the song's main guitar riff, as well as its slow, crushing tempo. But all is not so dsytopic as it seems: the song's climax imagines the protagonist breaking free of their chains, and refusing to participate in the drudgery any longer. This climactic section is also a play on Albert Camus' famous phrase: "one must imagine sisyphus happy": i.e., that one should simply accept the absurdism and meaninglessness of life. Instead, comes a refusal ("I'm not happy to be here"), a plea for meaning, and an end to pointless servitude.
The idea for "Harvest Festival" started with a folky fingerpicking riff made by Thomas on guitar that used an unusual rhythmic metre: 5/8 time (i.e., 5 beats per bar, instead of the usual 4). To make things even more confusing, the band then experimented with using a canon form in the other instrumental and vocal parts, with each person starting the riff on a different beat (maybe some of you have sung such "canons" before in school?). This quasi-traditional song structure thus makes the verses call to mind scenes spent during Autumn in childhood, where indeed, many schools still celebrate their own harvest festivals. The song proceeds to then shatter this "innocence" with heavily distorted guitars and bass in the chorus, bringing to mind not a bountiful harvest, but rather, drought, destruction, and corporate poisoning of vital resources.
The idea for "Harvest Festival" started with a folky fingerpicking riff made by Thomas on guitar that used an unusual rhythmic metre: 5/8 time (i.e., 5 beats per bar, instead of the usual 4). To make things even more confusing, we then experimented with using a canon form in the other instrumental and vocal parts, with each person starting the riff on a different beat (maybe some of you have sung such "canons" before in school?). This quasi-traditional song structure thus makes the verses call to mind scenes spent during Autumn in childhood, where indeed, many schools still celebrate their own harvest festivals. The song proceeds to then shatter this "innocence" with heavily distorted guitars and bass in the chorus, bringing to mind not a bountiful harvest, but rather, drought, destruction, and corporate poisoning of vital resources.
As a rock song with a twist: it features heavy influences from both drum & bass and the music of J. S. Bach (the latter, evoking the gothic architecture that gargoyles are associated with). With guitar and bass that interlock like baroque counterpoint; explosive bursts of distortion; and a climactic end section that pairs frenetic drum & bass with dub-style rhythms, the song is a meditation on the notion of fear and its subsequent overcoming.
It was partly inspired by an article written by Kate Wagner entitled "404 Page Not Found". Wagner looks back fondly at the early days of the internet and suggests that there's something endearing about those old trashy MySpace pages - as digital spaces have become more and more standardised and commodified, we seem to have lost that initial "wild west", chaotic creative spirit that typified the late 90s/early 2000s. So our song looks back with both nostalgia and bitterness to this time, prior to when the digital space became carved up and "colonised", resulting in its more clinical (and profit-orientated) form that we know today.
It was partly inspired by an article written by Kate Wagner entitled "404 Page Not Found". Wagner looks back fondly at the early days of the internet and suggests that there's something endearing about those old trashy MySpace pages - as digital spaces have become more and more standardised and commodified, we seem to have lost that initial "wild west", chaotic creative spirit that typified the late 90s/early 2000s. So our song looks back with both nostalgia and bitterness to this time, prior to when the digital space became carved up and "colonised", resulting in its more clinical (and profit-orientated) form that we know today.
The song is in defence of "wokeness" or being "woke". The Right Wing
tend to perceive wokeness as, at best, trivial or unnecessary (e.g.
changes in language, correct pronouns, etc.), and at worst, a threat to
their way of life. This fails to understand the actual situation of
oppressed minorities (POC, LGBTQ+, etc.), whose way of life is actually
threatened on a daily basis due to social and institutional
discrimination.
The chorus lyric, "sleep comes so naturally / such is evil's banality"
is a reference to Hannah Arendt's notion of the "banality of evil". In
other words, it is not necessary to be a monster or psychopath to commit
evil acts - such acts can occur by mindlessly carrying out a task, such
as the currently popular anti-woke agenda.
We participated successfully in the "Local Heroes Bandcontest 2022", winning "Best Newcomer in Berlin" in the state competition before moving on to the national finals. There, we convinced both the jury and the audience, winning both the prize for "Best Live Performance" and the "Audience Award".
Currently, we are working on our second album. In this next chapter, we started incorporating more electronic
influences and a vocal looper to lift our music to the next level.
Rousing violin-playing meets hard driving basslines and a plethora of
rhythmic styles. So stay tuned for what's to come!
After more than a year of writing and arranging, we released our self-produced eponymous debut album in March 2022. Featuring tracks such as "Riches to Rags" and "Green Room", the album forms a cultural critique of late capitalism, realised through a 90s grunge rock aesthetic which draws from an eclectic mix of influences.
British founder and guitarist Thomas MacMillan had already been working on the first tracks since 2018. He then met Polish singer Marta Owczarek, whose powerful rock voice and expansive vocal range perfectly realises both the delicate and heavy aspects of this material. The musical foundation is formed by bassist Hans Köbler, who has played with the band since 2019, allowing the band to develop their musical gut instincts. Finally, drummer Erik Hansen has not only been rocking behind the drums since summer 2021, but his new input and knowledge of music production led us to finally release our first album.
Currently without a label and with unlimited artistic freedom, the album is produced in accordance with the DIY attitude of punk, which builds on rock music with various influences from funk, hip-hop, folk and world music. Thomas MacMillan describes his own music as follows: "I feel like a lot of current music and art is false representation and meaningless. Especially rock, which is basically dead museum music now. It's escapism, whereas I want the opposite: show people the harsh realities of life, draw attention to injustices and reveal false idealism. Rock music with a social realism aspect that is not afraid to borrow from other genres."
It is music for everyone, addressing vulnerable groups that do not feel represented by the ideal society. People who pursue meaningless and soulless occupations to maintain their existence; the exploited; people with mental and physical illnesses and those who fall through safety nets. We want to make music for a wide audience, which deviates from the usual rock clichés and has no place for sexism, boasting and egocentrism.
Members:
Marta Owczarek // Vocals, Violin
Hans Köbler // Bass
Thomas MacMillan // Guitar
Erik Hansen // Drums
