#this is the BEST ALBUM OF 2016 & absolutely no one can change my mind | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

astranva · 4 years

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harry’s child being jealous about the new baby getting all the attention and he has to reassure her that he loves them both the same 😔💔

Title: Pinky Promise

Word Count: 2.7k

Category: Slight angst, Fluff dad!Harry

Warnings: A couple of F words.

I loved writing that omg my heart😪❤

You remember 4 years ago, in September of 2016 when you told Harry you were pregnant. Well, technically, you shouted it out.

Both of you being fans of Adele, you had decided to attend her show in Madison Square Garden.

Harry was already working on his debut album and knew he needed a break, especially when he was a nervous wreck.

You remember it all starting with your lack of appetite then suddenly feeling like eating everything and anything edible. You blamed it on hormones, until morning sickness happened. If there was one thing you absolutely loathed, it was nausea. You remember waking up to churn and throw up, your throat only hurting and your muscles aching due to the fact that your body had already digested the food you had eaten the night before and you hadn’t had anything to eat yet that morning, but your body still felt the need to make you run to stick your head inside the toilet bowl.

The first 3 days it happened, you were alone, with Harry being in the studio after leaving you notes that told you about his whereabouts and that he loved you and couldn’t wait to see you.

Not wanting to trouble his inspiration and progress, you only told him that you had an upset stomach every time he questioned why you looked sick.

You remember one day, after Harry was out with Jeff, that you called your best friend and had them bring you a pregnancy test, choosing to avoid any tabloid-talk.

Your heart was thumping, palms sweaty, nausea already kicking in as you waited after following the instructions.

And then it happened; a cry of surprise, eyes growing tearful as one hand was clasped on your mouth while the other held the test tightly – pregnant.

You knew that Harry loved a lot of people, a lot of things, a lot of abstract ideas, like love. You knew he loved kids, and he had often talked to you about them, telling you that he saw you and him starting a family.

It was why after you knew and had checked up at the obstetrician’s and knew that you were 3 weeks pregnant, you were giddy and excited to let Harry know but had decided to do it in a different setting.

Four days after your OB visit, you and Harry were in Madison Square Garden, singing along with Adele.

You were standing in front of Harry, back against his front, his arms wrapped around your waist, your hand holding on to his arms, his chin on your shoulder as you both swayed with Sweetest Devotion.

It was when you moved just a little to the side, still in his arms, to look at him, Harry looked down at you, singing to you.

“I'm heading straight for you. You will only be eternally, the one that I belong to.”

He gently nudged your forehead with his, pecking your lips. He pulled back slowly, smiling down at you.

And then you said it.

“I’m pregnant.”

His eyebrows shot up, leaning closer, “Can’t hear you!”

You grinned, turning in his arms to cup his cheeks softly, “I’m pregnant! 3 weeks pregnant!”

His world had stopped, eyes going wide as his mouth formed an O, “Y/N, are you joking?!” He had asked with a laugh of surprise, his lips stretching into a grin as he asked, “Baby, are you for real?”

You nodded as you laughed in glee, moving one hand from his cheek and to your stomach, “You’re going to be a daddy!”

And that was what it took for Harry to break down and cry, tipping his head back as he bit on his lip, nose red and veins showing on his forehead as he cried before wrapping his arms around you in a tight hug, crying into your shoulder.

Tears were flowing from your eyes as you held him, feeling him pull back to rest his forehead on yours, his hands moving to either sides of your neck, “I love you. I love you so fucking much.” He pulled you back in a hug, one hand moving to the back of your head while the other was on your back, bringing you closer to him.

The 9 months of pregnancy were smooth, as well as emotional. Especially since it was in the 2nd month that Harry went down on one knee, somewhen in the morning when you were both preparing breakfast. You turned around to grab the toast, only to see him on one knee, with a blue velvet box in his hand opened to show you the thin, golden ring with a small diamond in the middle that you knew Harry picked carefully with the thought of how you moved minimalist jewelry in his mind.

“I had a speech and – I don’t remember anything from it other than the fact that I have so many songs about you, and some more, and that I am head over heels in love with you. And that you’re carrying a soul inside you that is made from you and I. I just – fuck, Y/N, I can’t imagine a life you’re not in it and just – marry me?”

His eyes were already glossy, lips pink and dimple there for your eyes to see as he pursed his lips before taking a deep breath.

You had let out a cry, hands on where your heart rested, nodding as you cried, “Yes! Yes, oh my- God, yes, please!” And he didn’t get the chance to stand before you threw yourself at him on the floor, hugging him tightly against you.

You also remember the celebration being very low-key, with only close friends and family there at your house. Gemma, as your maid of honor, had taken charge of the decorations, making the backyard of yours and Harry’s shared house well-lit with all the globe bulbs adorning the trees and walls. The moment Harry saw you in your simple white wedding dress, was one that would forever be engraved in everybody who was present’s mind. He had squatted down, hands covering his face in disbelief before they covered his open mouth as he took you in; laughing bashfully as you, too, took him in.

He was in a white suit, pink embroidered flowers on the side of his pants that resembled the headpiece you wore.

Polaroids were taken, all pictures were taken on film, making everything about the night more magical and sentimental, especially with the 6-month bump you walked and danced around with.

The 9 months of your pregnancy were painful, but not too much for you to feel anything but love for how supportive and helpful Harry was, and admiration for your daughter – Eileen Mae Styles.

Since the moment Eileen came into the world, you knew that she had Harry wrapped around her tiny little finger.

Your daughter was attached to both of you, but you were proud of the character and personality she had at such a young age.

When Eileen turned 3, you and Harry took pride in how you could have a conversation with your daughter, even when it was about how pretty Harry’s butterfly tattoo would look if it was colored. Yes, she ended up coloring it, and Harry loved every moment of having his daughter lying on top of him, coloring his tattoo as he lounged on the sofa while she talked to him about how she likes strawberry chapstick.

It was one day when you felt the familiar feelings of nausea and change of appetite, the reminder of the late period only making one question come into your mind.

That time, you mentioned it to your husband as you ate lunch, who had chocked on his food.

Long story short, you were pregnant – again.

“Mummy,” Eileen called you as you, your husband and your daughter sat in your backyard, letting Isla [Eye-la] get her vitamin D.

Harry was reading a book beside you as you both sat on your swing, Eileen playing and running around with her toys, while you wrote in your journal.

“Yeah, bub?”

She ran towards you, putting both hands on your knees as she grinned up at you before looking down at your 8-month pregnant bump, “What’s in here?”

Harry chuckled, putting down his book to watch the conversation more carefully.

“Your baby brother is in here.” You smiled at her.

“But how? Can I sit there, too?”

You and Harry giggled at her question. “You once sat there, Isla. But then you came into the world, 3 years ago.”

Eileen frowned, looking up at you. “I want to go back again.”

You looked at Harry, silently asking him to help you.

He leaned forward, wrapping his hands under his daughter’s armpits before carrying her to make her sit on his lap. “But then your brother won’t have enough space.”

“I don’t care.” She whined, the frown still on her face.

“Your brother needs all the space so he can grow to meet you, and play with you, don’t you want that?” He asked her softly.

“He-he will take my toys.”

“You can share all the toys with him, bub. He’ll share his toys with you, too.” You cooed, almost scared that your daughter wouldn’t like her brother. Something neither you nor Harry had prepared for.

“But-but you and daddy will get more toys for him. I don’t want him.” She said with a whine, crossing her arms against her chest as she looked down, lips starting to quiver.

You and Harry shared a look, before moving back to your 3-year-old.

“Eileen,” Harry called her name gently, watching as she didn’t look up at him, “Honey, look at me, please.” Slowly, Eileen looked up at Harry, letting the both of you see her tearful eyes. “You know mummy and daddy love you and we always will, right?”

“We do love you so much, bub, and nothing will change that,” You assured her, putting one hand on her knee, “Your brother is also very excited to meet you. He loves you, too.”

“Weren’t you excited the other day to show him your room?” Harry asked, rubbing her back gently.

“Yeah.” She mumbled.

“You have a lot to show him and teach him. You can be his first best friend, isn’t that nice?”

As if she was absorbing what you said, Eileen nodded slowly.

“We love you, Isla. Forever.” Harry said, leaning to press a kiss against her temple.

Turning to look at her dad, Eileen uncrossed her arms to raise up her two pinkies, one reaching out to you, the other for Harry, “Promise?”

It felt as though your heart melted right there and then as you latched your pinky with hers, watching Harry do the same.

“Promise.”

But nobody told you about the hell you’d go through when your daughter was jealous of her new bother, Elio.

The moment Eileen entered the hospital room, holding hands with Gemma, and looking at you as you lied on the hospital bed with Elio right at your side, eyes open as he moved his limbs around, making baby noises, you knew that she wasn’t very welcoming.

Harry was sat on the other side of his son, hand playing with your hair as to comfort you after the pain you went through, and as a simple nonverbal way to thank you. His lips were fixed on the smile his face wore, heart soaring with happiness at the new family addition and the fact that both, his wife and son were healthy.

Eileen looked at her parents, too short to see her brother who was in the middle but hearing him. She was overwhelmed, knowing that she was going to meet her brother.

“Hey, honey!” Harry grinned at her, leaning down a little and opening his arms, hugging her tightly as she ran into them before he pressed a kiss against her cheek, carrying her to place her on his hip, watching as her eyes instantly moved to the newborn baby.

“Meet Elio, bub.” You said tiredly but with a smile on your face, watching your daughter and hoping she would take the new change lightly.

Well, you hoped.

But Eileen had broken into fits of crying, straight out wailing as she threw herself on Harry, leaning her head on his shoulder.

The close family and friends in the room all pouted and cooed, watching the scene.

“Hey, hey, what’s wrong?” Harry asked urgently, rubbing his daughter’s back.

“I don’t love him.” Eileen dragged as she cried, wrapping her arms around Harry’s neck.

Your heart broke, the small smile falling as you looked at Harry in worry.

As if his sister’s cries triggered him, your smallest, Elio, began crying. You sat up, taking him gently in your arms and placing him against your chest, softly hushing him and supporting the back of his head as you looked at Harry, almost pleading him to do anything.

Understanding, Harry stood with Eileen latched onto him, holding her as he walked out of the room and walking down the hall, softly and gently bouncing his daughter to calm her.

“Come on, Isla, please calm down.” He cooed, adding a sigh at the situation he and his wife were in. “Why don’t you love Elio?”

Eileen sniffled, pulling back but keeping her head down, one hand moving to poke at Harry’s pearl necklace – which you and Eileen made him – as she replied, “Nobody will love me anymore.”

Harry sat down on a chair, still holding his daughter just the same. “What makes you say that?”

“Because-because-because he is little, and he needs more attention and I will have no more.”

Harry took a deep breath, letting her words sink it. While it was true that his youngest needed necessary and a lot of attention, he didn’t know how to explain to his oldest that that wasn’t how it goes.

“When you were just a little baby,” He began, looking down at her, “Mummy and Daddy were all over the place. You cried when we were asleep, threw up on us a lot,” Harry chuckled to himself, remembering these moments and taking notice of how it all felt like it was only the day before, “You wanted Mummy and Daddy with you all the time. And we never left you,” He concluded, “So what makes you think that will leave you now, Honey?”

Eileen didn’t reply.

“Your brother still can’t talk. He can’t say when he’s hurt like you do, he doesn’t even know how your favorite blueberry pancakes taste like. And we need to make sure that he does all that, exactly like you. But here’s the thing,” As though he was telling her a secret, Harry leaned to whisper in her ear, “Mummy and Daddy can’t do alone. We can’t do it without you.”

Eileen slowly looked up at Harry, face losing its frown.

“We promised, Isla. We promised to love you forever. Have we ever broken a promise?” He asked, watching her shake her head, “And we won’t. So what do you say? Can you, please, give your brother the chance he needs? He’s actually quite funny.” Harry smiled at her.

“Funnier than you?” She asked.

Harry laughed, “Way funnier! You just have to keep a close eye.”

Eileen giggled quietly.

“Mummy is really excited for you to meet Elio, you know? Was telling me all about the numbers you can teach him, all the photos we’re going to take of the both of you. What he’ll get you for Christmas.”

“Can he get me a book about stars? With pictures?” She asked excitedly.

Harry grinned, peppering her face with kisses and hearing her giggle, fully knowing that it was one of his most favorite sounds, “You tell him.”

Once he stopped, Eileen let out a sigh, her shoulder slumping. “Fine, Daddy. I will try.”

“Thank you.” He smiled gratefully, “How about we go back?”

The moment a knock sounded on the door before you saw your husband with your daughter in his arms, you didn’t know what to expect.

Looking shy and bashful, Eileen clung onto Harry as he returned to his spot after sharing a look with Anne, as if telling her that he would tell her later.

Elio was back in his spot as well, going back to his noises.

Eileen looked down at him once again, finally taking notice of how tiny his hands were and feeling curious. Reluctantly, she leaned down a little, intending to poke his hand softly.

But the moment she touched his hand, was the moment Elio wrapped his hand around her finger, making her grin. “He’s holding my finger!” She squealed as she giggled, “You’re right, Daddy. He is funny.”

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fa-by · 3 years

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Hello babies and dear Anons 👋🏼🤗 I'm back with a new ‘Q&A’ post. Sorry, it took me longer than usual. I'll explain to you at the end of the post. For now, enjoy 🙃

I've already talked about it here, dear Anon, https://fa-by.tumblr.com/post/648194553804881920/%C9%9F (first question) and then here https://fa-by.tumblr.com/post/648194746313031680/%C9%9F (fifth question).

And who said I think Camila is a lesbian, dear? 😏 Maybe you mistaken me for some other blog? Because, I've never said that, dear. I've never been asked about it 🤷🏻‍♀️

You must be new to my blog if you're asking me this question, dear Anon. Welcome 🤗 and my answer is no, dear. Neither of them has ever cheated on the other. They're both way too loyal for that shit.

No, dear Anon. And always keep in mind that this is just my opinion and that therefore I could be wrong.

Hello to you too, dear Anon 👋🏼😄 First of all, thank you 🥺🥰 Thank you very much for your words, dear, you're super nice and I really appreciated it very much 🤗

As for stuck, we didn't fight or anything like that. I guess we just drifted apart 🤷🏻‍♀‍ even before she entered the Marvel world, but I can't tell you why she never liked and re-blogged my posts, dear 🤷🏻‍♀️

Let's call it my flaw if you want, but I don't like any posts myself (not even my girlfriend's), but that doesn't mean I don't like many posts I see. It's just the way I am 😅 I leave comments every now and then though 😅 And neither does it mean I wouldn't like to interact with you guys if you ever want to contact me or tag me or get me involved in something. It may not seem like it maybe because I don't re-blog and put likes around, but trust me, it's not like that.

Going back to stuck, I really can't tell you why. I mean, I'm not her so I can't answer you. Maybe you should ask her directly, dear. @stuckinapatriarchalbullshitland

I hope you have a very nice day too, dear Anon. Thank you so much again, and please, be sure to take care of yourself too 😘

Hello to you, dear Anon 👋🏼😄 and don't thank me, dear 🙈 It's really a pleasure for me to interact with you guys and help you in any way I can 😊

So. Yeah, I think what you think, dear. Mila was definitely the one to make the first move, but as far as putting aside pride and the decision to give it another try, it was something they both did because they each had their own reasons. Remember, dear, there are two people in a couple.

Hey dear sneaky little one 👋🏼😄 I'm good. How are you? It's a pleasure, dear, you don't have to thank me for that 😊

I'm not sharing them with you guys yet just because they're personal observations that not everyone can agree on and, as you may have noticed, I like to tell you guys what I think with real facts that I can prove. In this case, it would be like in this picture:

I hope that with this example you understand better what I mean, dear sneaky little one. Come back any time you want and take care of yourself too 🤗😘

Hey dear Anon, why are you so down? 😟 Don't be 🤗 I know it's hard to think positively about them, but think about everything we've endured so far. Think about how strong we are. Whatever's thrown at us, it won't change our minds because we know the truth. Now, come on, dear, smile 😁 Enjoy the small wins instead of having them ruined for you by the possible eventuality of them doing something. And remember, we're in this together 💪🏼

I swear to you that when I saw it, I was like 📢🔊 Your loving takes me higher 🎵 You set my heart on fire🎵 When you touch my body got me singing like Mariah!!!! 🎵🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

Hello to you, dear Anon 👋🏼😄

1) No, dear, you can't force something on someone who agreed to do things like this in the first place. I'll explain better. PRs are accepted by those directly involved, who then sign a contract. It's a commitment they're bound to respect from the moment they have accepted and signed the contract. If they don't respect it, they then have to pay the consequences (if you’re interested, I wrote a post about how PR relationships work here: https://fa-by.tumblr.com/post/648193061847023616/pr-stunt-relationships-%C9%9F). I'll give you a silly example. Think of it as when one day you didn't want to go to school but you had to go anyway. It's pretty much the same dynamic because even if you didn't want to go that day, or several days, you knew you had to and you did. I hope it went well as an example 😆

2) Yes, but which of the two teams, well, that depends, dear. It depends on who's reaching whom and where. It depends on whether they're traveling together or not. And it depends on the purpose of that particular stunt, like if is some particular event or not.

3) No, dear, absolutely not, don't worry 🤣 Everyone has their own room. The rooms are very likely to be close together though, or at least on the same floor, that's for sure.

4) Yes, when possible, of course. The more people see the couple doing everything together, the more believable they seem.

Don't thank me, dear, it's really a pleasure 😊 Have a good day too ❤️

Not necessarily, dear Anon. Mila started work on her third album during the pandemic in her studio, so no one had to pay for her. Besides, when a contract expires and there's a re-sign, it doesn’t necessarily mean that an announcement will be made about it since the record label is still the same. Announcements are made if there's some kind of important addition, such as for example happened with 5H when they had to re-sign as a quartet for legal reasons with Syco/Epic, and it was only announced because of the addition of a contract with Sony Music as the sponsor for their last album.

Having said that: 1) Since her movie has been postponed again, I would say in 2022. 2) I really hope not because they would be really stupid to do it again. Plus, I don't think the PR will last until the released of her album. 3) I have to admit you made me giggle here, but no, dear 😂 don't worry. Producers, composers, songwriters, etc., work with a lot of different artists who have different styles. Mila’s nothing like Chimp, and she can’t do anything boring. It isn't in her blood. No pun intended at all there 😏🤣

Hi to you, dear Anon 👋🏼😄 and you got it right, buddy! We think the same way!

They had gotten to a really bad point in their relationship. A point where they were no longer themselves, either in the couple or individually. For me, what happens in the Havana music video is what happened in reality as well. It was obviously told in an artistic and funny way there. Like the scene of Juan literally ‘coming out of the closet for her’ because he thought it was the best thing for their relationship. In that scene, he gets down on his knees to ask her to marry him, but in reality, at least for me, it represents December. It represents the ‘begging’ in a disguised and artistic soap opera way. It represents Lauren's last attempt to make things work between them. Which is related to the “You love me”, “I do love you. But I love me more” scene in which Camila leaves everything behind. And if you think about it, we can also find this connection somewhere else: 🎶 “Nobody talks about walking away when there's still love” 🎶. Always Love by Laur. Luckily, at the end of the video, she really is ‘took back to her Havana’ as it also happened in reality.

It's all connected, dear. There's a connection and an explanation for everything they do artistically. Just pay attention and you'll be able to connect the dots like you did in this case too. Give me a virtual high-five! 🖐🏼 And have a good day too, dear Anon ❤️

Hello to you, dear Anon 👋🏼😄 Thank you very much, dear, and don't worry, I've been never asked that. So. Before answering your questions, let's take a look at the facts, okay? Especially for the baby Camren shippers.

Leilani is Dinah's aunt by marriage. She has always interacted with fans and we saw her in several videos even with Dinah herself, but the first time she showed herself to us as problematic was on July 18, 2016. Leilani tweeted an attack on Taylor Swift and apologized the next day by saying of having been hacked:

Yeah, suuure, because hackers around the world were waiting for nothing but hacking her 🙄 But let's move on. September 8, 2016, was the day Laur cried several times during the concert in Phoenix, Arizona. The next day, on the 9th, before the concert in Irvine, California, Laur tweeted to thank the concerned fans, and Leilani replied to the tweet by exposing L because of the ‘her’:

On December 21st, 2016, she did a live where she talked about Camren after fans asked her about it: https://va.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_qvandqF63c1ykfr3q.mp4 (I also put the sub in the video myself)

On January 8, 2017, she posted two Snapchat stories in which she spoke again about Camren with one of her nieces: https://va.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_qval74yFz61ykfr3q.mp4

On January 29, 2017, both Camila and Lauren blocked her on social media:

She continued to strike by attacking Camila months later. On July 13, 2017, the same day the 5H interview with Billboard came out, Leilani attacked her by basically calling her a whore. Tweet to which C replied with suspense dots and a Rihanna GIF:

On December 5, 2017, Camila posted the album cover and title by saying that the pre-order would've been possible from the 7th. Because of the album cover picture, Leilani attacked with the first tweet on December 5th, and continued on the 6th:

Then nothing else problematic.

Yes, of course she knew about Camren. All the people close to them know about Camren. Leilani has always been a person who likes attention. She has always liked to show off and be noisy and messy in doing so. It didn't matter how ridiculous she was or that her actions fell upon her niece. The fact that she seemed to be joking and that she was always so evasive and confusing on the subject, is because she herself knew she was going to pay the consequences. She could never have said “yes, they're real” and stick to it. Also because the one who would've paid the most consequences would've been Dinah. You know, being her aunt, it was like her responsibility. And I think D really paid the consequences for something she didn't do. At least, before the sharks took the reins and told her what to do (Leilani through Dinah). It’s happened to a lot of people close to them to get involved over the years. It has been noticed a lot more from 2015 onwards, but especially in 2017 to increase the story of the fake feud between the girls.

So basically, yeah, she was problematic and loud and messy and all of that, but for the most part, she was just following the script.

Hi to you, dear Anon 👋🏼😄 welcome and thank you very much 🙃 My answer to your question is yes, they've been for a long time by then. You'll find more details on all of that dynamic below in the next ask, dear.

Kinda? 🤣 Okay, let me explain, dear Anon. There was no cheating if this is what you thought with my first answer. But let's go in order. I'll shed some light on the story with Luis once and for all.

Luis Santos' first appearance for us was on January 13, 2013 when Laur posted this picture on IG:

One year later exactly, on January 13, 2014, L posted this picture:

Then we have the one on February 24th (when the girls arrived in Miami because they had three dates in Florida for The Neon Lights Tour) and those of February 25th, 2014 after the concert (posted the day after):

We have the one of April 13, 2014:

The prom ones of May 17, 2014, which were the last pictures with Luis that Laur posted:

And lastly, we have Laur’s birthday one posted by Luis:

The latter lets us understand that their story officially began on January 27, 2014. We don't know when it ended exactly (let's suppose at the beginning of July) because we only had confirmation of it in August thanks to the explanation that Clara gave for that fake scandal:

Now. This is the official story. The one we should’ve bought. But let me show you the behind the scenes. This is Melanie Mueller, Luis's ex:

Luis was in a relationship with Melanie from early August (unfortunately, Luis and Melanie's profiles are all private, but not Melanie's old Twitter) until, according to the narrative, late November 2013:

And this is where the juicy stuff begins. Luis stated that he and Mel were no longer together:

The date coincidentally matches the beginning of his relationship with Lauren on January 27, 2014, right? Right. So how do you explain the fact that Luis and Mel were on a romantic date exactly 13 days after he said they weren't together anymore?

As you can see from the date, it was February, and weren't Lauren and Luis already together since January 27th? 😏 The funny thing is that they kept interacting and taking pictures together:

And then there's the best part. The Camren shippers went wild that year in replacing Luis's face with Camila's twice. The first one with the prom picture 🤣:

And the second one with April picture. Sorry, I really tried but I couldn't find the original manip. But don't worry, I have two better things 😏:

Ohh, I think we know, Mel 😎

And how can we forget one of the many things that remained in the fandom's history and which coincidentally happened just in February a week before the picture of Luis and Melanie's romantic date:

Now that I've given you proofs, it's theory time. We know about the friendship with benefits, the Like Friends Do situation that Camren had, and we know that Lauren was in denial. Luis was a shield. Her shield, especially for the public. It wasn't a PR created by the labels, but by Lauren herself. Laur and Luis were friends, and I mean, they still have been for years. Laur simply asked him for a favor and he accepted. Laur stayed in Miami throughout the Christmas period until the first week of January 2014 before flying to L.A. with the girls. It was then, in that time spent at home that she asked him, and despite knowing the risks, despite knowing he would face fans' hatred, and despite having a girlfriend, Luis agreed to be the fake boyfriend just to help his friend in need. I don't think she told him the real reason behind it right away, but she definitely told him once she and Mila finally got together. Laur came out to her family in early 2015, but it doen't mean she didn't to her friends before. Especially once she and Mila became official in April 2014.

So, dear Anon, yes, in a way, Lauren was with Camila and Luis, but in reality, she was never with Luis.

Hi to you, dear Anon 👋🏼😄 Thank you very much, dear, and that's okay. I don't mind helping when and if I can. It's not a problem at all for me 😊

So, as far as Lolo's situation is concerned, I honestly think Columbia has very little to do with her situation. I mean, Columbia is the biggest record label under Sony Music and has always had a lot of successful artists. From the great names that have made history to the most recent but still famous ones: Michael Jackson, Freddie Mercury, Aretha Franklin, Frank Sinatra, David Bowie, Bob Dylan, Celine Dion, Paul McCartney, Mariah Carey, Beyoncé, Jay Z, Adele, Alicia Keys, Ricky Martin, Pharrell Williams, Robbie Williams, Katy Perry, Shakira, Snoop Dogg, 50 Cent, Diplo, OneRepublic (Ryan Tedder), Miley Cyrus, Harry Styles, Zain Malik, Little Mix, Calvin Harris, BTS, Lil Nas X, Meghan Trainor, etc., etc., etc. Believe me, there are really, but really many names that I haven't put in this list.

The purpose of a record label is to make money. To do that, the label finds an artist. The label decides if it's worthwhile for them to sign the artist by investing and advancing the money on them, and if the label believes they can make money with their music, then they don't think twice before signing them. So they invest in the artist, develop them, promote them through the artist's team, and distributes their music in exchange for a percentage of the revenues. If things go smoothly and well, there's a gain, but if things go wrong, the label loses money. [If you want to know more about how the music world works and what the girls had to go through, I wrote a post about it here: https://fa-by.tumblr.com/post/648192055443619840/how-the-music-world-works]

Now, what did I mean by that? As I said before, Columbia is the number one, the biggest and most important umbrella music label under Sony Music Entertainment. So why on earth would a label as big as Columbia Records have signed Lauren and invested in her, but then thwart her and lose a lot of the money they invested themselves? It wouldn't make any sense because it would be like self sabotaging themselves! And what did I say is the purpose of a record label? To make money. Don't be fooled by anyone about it, dear.

I could have understood if this had been an isolated case; if Laur had been the only one among the girls (LAND) who hadn't released an album. But it's not like that. Something, and I'm 100% convinced it's something from their old contracts, has held all four of them up until now. We'll see, dear Anon. Sooner or later, the truth will come out because it always does. Even if it takes years.

Don't apologize, dear, really 😊 Hope things are great with you too and please, take care of yourself too 🤗

Hey to you, dear Anon 👋🏼😄

Nada is a song that is part of Tainy's EP called Neon16 Tape: The Kids That Grew Up on Reggaeton, and it's about how two people in an unofficial relationship want completely different things. The guy doesn't want anything serious unlike the girl.

Now. I understand why you're confused, dear. After reading the lyrics and thinking about Camren, you've surely wondered “Where the fuck is Camila in all of this? But does it have something to do with her, or not?”. Well the answer is no. You see, dear, we're used to hearing a lot more Mila's songs than Laur's. When Mila writes, she writes for herself. She writes from her point of view and according to her experiences. Same thing Laur does. But Mila, unlike Laur, can't write a song for other people. She can't detach herself from them when she's writing them. Take as examples all those songs she gave away after finishing them, like Anyone or Ain't Easy. When you listen to them, you can clearly hear Camila all over it even if the song is being sung by someone else, like in these two examples, Justin Bieber and Elijah Woods. But with Laur? Nah, because Lauren can completely detach herself from them.

Take More Than That as an example. Laur didn't write More Than That for herself; she just ‘decided’ to keep it (because it was okay for the narrative she had going on at the time). If she had really given it to someone else and then you had listened to it and knew she was the one who had written it, you would've thought “Really?” with a wtf expression as the first thing. Right? Because you recognize Laur in the song only because you know she's behind it. Am I wrong? And don't get me wrong, dear, this is not by all means a bad thing at all. I'm not saying this as an insult or anything. Quite the opposite actually. I think it's absolutely amazing. Think about it. It's basically the work of songwriters and ghostwriters who only work behind the scenes for other artists. Gosh, they're both so fucking talented 😍

Anyway. What was I getting at with this? To the fact that the same thing happened here with Nada. Nada was written by four songwriters and we have two different points of view to represent the couple in the story. The one of the girls, Laur and Cris Chil (she also worked and wrote with her for Lento), and the one of the boys, C. Tangana and Tainy (like Cris, he wrote with her and produced Lento). Now. I can't tell you who the real protagonist behind the story of the song is because none of them said it, but it's definitely not Lauren. Laur just went with the flow.

Before starting, I would like to also publicly thank my girl @romanticentropy for helping me with the translation (her first language is Spanish), so thank you again, my love 🥰 And I'm not talking about the literal translation. I'm talking about the real meaning behind it since the meaning of many sentences or words can change even based on a simple comma. Therefore, here below you'll find the real translation along with notes placed in parentheses with various explanations. I don't know if you speak Spanish, dear Anon, but we did this for all those people here who don't speak it so that everyone can understand the true meaning of the song.

That said, let's get started.

Verse 1:

“Como te arrimes sí te voy a dar

If you dare come close, I’ll give you [implied: my dick]

Me he puesto guapo pa' verte pasar (Yeah)

I got myself all dressed up to watch you go by (Yeah)

No me pregunte', no quiero pensar

Don't ask me, I don't want to think

No tengo tiempo, no me pue'o casar

I don't have time, I can't get married

Pero, puedo quererte de nuevo

But, I can love you again

Dejar todo el resto pa' luego

[implied because the two sentences go together: And] leave everything else for later

Quedarme pa' ti, que más quieres de mí

To stay for you, what else do you want from me

No odies al jugador odia al juego

Don't hate the player, hate the game

Yo no me he inventado na' (Qué va)

I didn't make anything up (Not at all / Of course not) [‘Qué va’ is an expression, particularly from Spain, that means something like ‘How could you have thought that? Of course not’ said in a casual tone. So, ‘not at all’ is a possible interpretation because he's reassuring he really didn't make anything up]

Sobrevivo en la ciudad (¿Qué?)

I survive in the city (What?)

Me la busco pa' ganar, cien monedas pa' gastar

I'm looking to earn, a hundred dollars to spend [In this sentence, the comma is very important because in ‘me la busco pa' ganar’ read alone, it means that he's finding his ways to earn a living or a better life. When you add ‘cien monedas pa' gastar’, it extends to ‘he's finding his way to earn $100 to spend’, but the comma is important because it keeps alive the idea that he's not only working for the 100 dollars, but also for a better life (possibly a rich kind of life, but that's not necessarily implied)]

Una cama pa' dormir, y un yate pa' vacilar

A bed to sleep in, and a yacht to show off on”

What do we understand from this? That he's actually the one who doesn't want to have a serious relationship because his goal for the moment is to earn and live a good life, not to settle down and get married.

Pre-Chorus:

“Tú ya sabías to' lo que había

You already knew what to expect / You already knew what the situation was

No me hagas cambiar, vida mía

Don't make me change, my darling [He sings ‘vida mía’, which means ‘my life’. Calling someone ‘my life’ is not used in English because it makes no sense in the definition of the language itself. So, in this case, it's translated and used as a loving nickname. As you could call someone ‘my love’, ‘my heart’, ‘my baby’, or ‘my darling’]

Yo te doy hasta que se haga de día

I'll give you until it's daylight

Yo te doy hasta que se haga de día

I'll give you until it's daylight [‘Darle a alguien’, ‘to give to someone’ in Spanish has a sexual connotation. It means you're going to have sex with that person. It’s especially used from a male point of view; particularly this last line, he means he'd have sex with her all night until it's day again]”

He basically tells her: “You knew I'm an asshole. Don't try to change me because it's useless. The only thing I can give you is whole nights of sex”.

Chorus:

Sigue' dándome na', dándome nada

You keep giving me nothing, giving me nothing

Can't keep up with your vibe

'Cause you're up and you're down, 'round and you're 'round, babe

I can not read your mind

Conté lo' día' pa' volverte a ver

I counted the days to see you again

Y tú ni sabe' qué quiere' hacer

And you don't even know what you want to do

Cuando me vaya no voy a volver

When I leave I won’t come back

Sigue' dándome na', dándome nada

You keep giving me nothing, giving me nothing”

This is an ultimatum. “If you keep giving me nothing for much longer, I'll leave you without looking back”.

Verse 2:

“Yo no estoy para regalarte

I'm not here to please you [The literal translation of that is ‘I'm not here to give you’. The incomplete sentence opens an ambiguity where you don't know if she’s saying ‘I'm not here to give you anything’, or ‘I'm not here to give you things’, or ‘I'm not here to fulfill your wishes’, or ‘I'm not here to please you’, or things like that that make you understand that if he's not ready to pay attention to her right now and give her the love she needs, and he's clearly not because he's ‘giving her nothing’, she's not just going to wait there by begging for some love or collecting the crumbs that he leaves behind. She's saying “give me the love and the attention I need or I'll go away on my own”. So overall, ‘I'm not here to please you’ is a decent interpretation]

Ni tampoco para esperarte

Nor to wait for you

Ese dinero no te va a cuidar

That money won’t take care of you

No te pido matrimonio, yo sólo tu arte

I'm not asking you to marry me, just your love [That's the real meaning behind the sentence despite the literal translation being this: I'm not asking you to marry me, just your art]

Cuando no estoy ahí

When I'm not there

Sé que preguntas por mí

I know you ask about me

Sé por qué eres así

I know why you're like this

I know you're afraid of falling in too deep

We can pretend like we’ve only done this for the fun of it

Pero no te sorprendas si te enteras que así como tú hay mil

But don't be surprised to find out there are a thousand just like you around”

Basically: “I'm not asking you to marry me, just to have a real relationship. An exclusive relationship. We can continue to pretend that we just had fun, but I know there's something deeper. I know you're afraid of falling in love with me, but if you keep wanting this kind of relationship, then I'm gonna go find someone who wants the same things as me; also because there are a lot of guys out there and I'm starting to get tired of waiting”.

And that's all, dear Anon. Now that you know the real translation *thanks once again, mi amor 💖* , can you see anything that has to do with Mila? Because I don't. In fact, if I really have to find an association with Camren, the only thing that comes to my mind is that Lauren could have written some parts of her verse from Camila's point of view when they were still just fuckbuddies. You know? Since it was Laur who was initially in denial and was afraid, and not Camila. She was the one who was afraid of the idea of even liking Mila, let alone falling in too deep. But it's not like that. There's nothing of Camila here. There's no Camren here. For me, this song is the story of one of the three (Cris Chil, or C. Tangana, or Tainy) and Laur only contributed to it with her talent.

Of course I can, dear Anon 😉

So. Camila created In the Dark the day after going to the Grammys' after-party (February 12, 2017) with which she went with Ashlee as her date of hers. Mila said she got the idea for the song because of the encounter she had at that party with this unnamed famous guy. Yeah, sure, Jan. We know very well that this is not the case. Just as we know very well that that was the same night in which Tyren had their first public appearance as a fake couple. If you're interested, I've already explained all this also with proofs in my previous post: https://fa-by.tumblr.com/post/653296412485894144/romanticentropy-fa-by-hiiii-babies-and-dear (last question in my All These Years' interpretation).

If you don't mind, dear Anon, I'll start with the verses because they're the only parts of the song where Mila isn't addressing Lauren directly. In the verses, Camila just observes her by describing their surroundings.

Verse 1:

“Blank stares, faithless

Vampires at the same places

Shadows, traces”

Okay, let's talk about those types of parties for a moment. I bet that when you think about it, you picture a lot of celebrities having fun and dancing, glam, alcohol, drugs, music, and all those kinds of things, right? Well, that's just as true as it isn't. You see, there aren't just celebrities at those parties. There are one or more of they team members, there are A&R representatives of various labels, CEOs, publicists, producers, marketing representatives, radio and television presenters, reporters, designers, advertisers, etc., etc., etc. Those parties are the epicenter of business-talk. Very often, this is where ideas for collaborations, for PRs, for endorsements and sponsorships, for movie and TV appearances, etc., etc., happen. For those celebrities who have to be there for business reasons and not for actually having fun, those parties are pretty boring.

With those sentences, Mila describes all the people around her during that party. Those people who aren't having fun because they're surrounded by what she calls vampires. Before they marketed them by making them sparkle in the sun because of the crystals on their skin, or before they made them wear a gemstone in daylight rings, bracelets, and amulets to make them walk in the sun, you know? Before they become basically trendy, vampires were always the villains. But don't get me wrong with that. I saw the Twilight saga and I love love love The Vampire Diaries, but the fact remains that before all of that franchise, vampires have always been used in horror and scary genres because they're evil. Also because if you think about it, what do vampires do? They suck blood by basically feeding on the life force of creatures by draining them to survive and not decompose since they're undead. They need to take a life to keep living theirs, so yeah, they are the bad guys.

So Mila here describes both the bored people, the ones with blank stares who in those cases are the shadows of their true selves because they're pretending to be who they aren't, and those people of power as bloodsuckers, life-suckers: vampires. And I don't blame her at all because that's what they do. Vampires, or puppet masters, or parasites, or as you guys know I like to call them: sharks.

“I know that you feel me”

Now. Now, now, now, now, now, now. What does this sentence make us understand? Picture you're in a place full of people. Picture pretending that you're having fun because you can't show how much you actually want to be somewhere else. Picture smiling and forcibly laughing at the bullshit someone's saying. It's all about image. Now picture seeing someone you know amidst that sea of people. You and this person are far from each other, and at the moment, you both are busy talking to other people. Even though you turned around to keep having this oh so great conversation with those people, you can feel the person you know. You can feel their presence despite being on opposite sides. You can totally feel that they're still looking at you, and you have confirmation of that the moment you turn towards them again.

Apply all of this on Camren now. We know how they've always attracted each other. We know how they've always searched and checked each other when they were on opposite sides of a room. We know how they've always felt each other. So it's not that hard for me to picture how it went in this case. I understand what Mila means when she says she knows Laur could feel her despite the place and all the people around them. Because it's always been that way between them, and we've actually seen them do it many times.

Verse 2:

“Plus one, guest list

But you don't even know what her name is

Secrets, endless

I know that you feel me”

This is a repetition similar to the first verse. Mila here continues to describe the people around her and those around Laur. People who are there because they're on a list thanks to someone they don't even really know. People who in those events become totally fake because they all have secrets to hide, including the two of them. People who pretend to be friends with each other just for a matter of image without even knowing their real names, their real selves. People who are so used to wearing a mask that they've by now become that mask. And among all the sea of these people, Mila knows that Laur can feel her. Evidently as much as she can feel Laur.

Refrain:

“You’re runnin', runnin', runnin', runnin' (oh)

Making the rounds with all your fake friends”

As I said before, many celebrities wear a mask, this facade for protection. They do it to show themselves as unproblematic and to show themselves almost as perfect in the eyes of others. If you think about it, it's the same thing we see in many celebrities and even in Camren when they have to promote something. Neither of the two of them has problems showing themselves to us in a vulnerable, authentic way, without make-up ‘al natural’. But as soon as they have to promote something, bam! Dresses, nails done, make-up, and hair. It's quite normal on the one hand. I understand that. But the problem, as Mila herself said, is when this fake persona takes over your authentic self.

In this part, Mila explains how she was observing Lauren's behavior. This facade that she was wearing because they were in that kind of environment with those kinds of people and those fake friends (yes, including Tabloid). This mirage that allowed her to run and hide her true self from everyone, even from Camila herself.

“Runnin', runnin' away from it (away)”

Especially in this part, and despite having seen her fake act many times before, Mila lets us understand how Lauren was 'running' and suppressing/hiding her authentic self in front of everyone. [I remember that period. Lauren didn't act like Lauren for a while]

You can strip down without showing skin, now”

Okay, this? This sentence right here, it's magic. It's pure art. “It's okay to show the realistic side of yourself without exposing yourself and also having to show your secrets or what you want to keep to yourself. There's no need to act like a completely different person from who you are”. Camila leaves me more and more speechless with her way of writing and expressing such true and profound concepts.

Pre-Chorus:

“I can see you're scared of your emotions

I can see you're hoping, you're not hopeless

So why can't you show me?

Why can't you show me?

I can see you're looking for distractions

I can see you're tired of the acting

So why can't you show me?”

The pre-chorus explains itself quite well. Mila's saying “I know you. I see what you're doing. I see your fear. I see the way you want a way out. I see how tired you are of this farce. So why are you faking it? Why are you faking it in front of me? Why are you faking it with me? Show me the real Lauren. Not this industry puppet. Show me the Lauren I know”.

Chorus:

“Who are you in the dark? (I, I)

Show me the scary parts (I, I)

Who are you when it's 3AM and you're all alone

And L.A. doesn't feel like home? (I, I, I)

Who are you in the dark?”

Who are you in the dark? = Who are you when no one's watching. Who are you when no one can judge you. Who are you when you're alone and you can really lower that protective barrier you create around you. Show me that. Show me all of you.

Camila mentions 3AM because, as we well know thanks to their other songs, it was the nighttime hours when they were able to spend more time together freely. She also mentions L.A. to make a comparison with Miami since Los Angeles is the second city they spend the most time in due to their careers.

If in the pre-chorus Mila really asks her to show her her true self, here in the chorus she instead asks her a rhetorical question accompanied by the explanations themselves like the specific examples 3AM and L.A. to make/show her point even more. Basically the same explanation as the pre-chorus: “Who are you, because I know, I know you, so why don't you show me?”. And I really love this connection between pre-chorus and chorus.

Bridge:

“Darling, come on and let me in

Darling, all of the strangers are gone, they're gone

I said, darling, come on and let me see”

The difference between the pre-chorus & chorus and this, is the more affectionate way she addresses her. She's asking her in a cute way also thanks to the use of that classic old-school pet name, to open up and show herself. She's telling her that it's okay now that they're alone. And most importantly, she's reassuring her with this:

“Darling, I promise that I won't run”

After hurting each other, after the omissions and the secrets, after the fights, after the non-communication, after that toxicity, in short, after everything they'd been through in those years and the way things had ended between them almost two months prior, this is really serious. She's promising her that she'll stay. That's the first step, or at least what we know was the first step thanks to this song, towards a healthy relationship and towards a real positive change in their relationship.

And by the way, wooohh, this whole transition is amazing!

Outro:

“Ah-ah, ah-ah, ah-ah

Who are you in the dark?

Ah-ah, ah-ah, ah-ah

Who are you in the dark?

Ah-ah, ah-ah, ah-ah

Who are you in the dark?

Ah-ah, ah-ah, ah-ah

Who are you in the dark?”

And that's all, dear Anon. I hope you liked my interpretation 🙃

P.S. When Sinu said “Number nine is my shit!” during that live, I felt that. Mama Sinu was right. Even after all this time, this song is still the shit 😎

🤸🏻‍♀‍🤸🏻‍♀‍🤸🏻‍♀‍

Aaand I'm done 👩🏻‍💻 I hope I was helpful in this case too 😄 Thank you all for your asks and as usual, know that I'm available for those who have questions, so feel free to ask 😊

Before I go, I wanted to apologize for this huge delay. In addition to my job, it was due to the fact that I'm in the middle of a relocation. For about two months for 21 years, I always go to a place by the sea for the summer. I'll be there from today and I'll be back in September. Unfortunately there isn't much connection there, but there's a single wi-fi. I don't know if I'll continue to answer the asks all together with a post or individually. I'll see how to organize myself once I'm there. I apologize in advance if I'll take longer than usual to reply, but at least you know that it's because there's not much connection there (and you have to keep in mind that I’ll continue working normally because I’m not on holiday yet). Everything will be back to normal in September.

That being said, always remember to be kind, to others and to yourselves. Be a good example. Be patient. Be safe and take care of yourselves. Don't let our ship sink. Keep shipping them, but please respectfully 🙏🏼 Sending you virtual love and hugs 🤗🤗🤗 I love you, babies. Always with love, F ❤️

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thoughts-on-bangtan · 3 years

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From anon: B*tch pls.. fuck t*ek*ok.

When I was talking about more deserving duos I mean: TAE F*CKING JIN. T*ej*n are so hated by people like you, solo stans, BH... literally everyone and their mama hates these sweethearts.

Dear anon,

Thank you for reaching out and correcting me. You hadn’t mentioned which duo you were thinking of so I assumed Xkook, but I was wrong. Sorry about that. I cannot confirm that everyone hates Tae and Seokjin, even less so since everyone I’m friends with or have come into contact with in all my years as ARMY has shown nothing but love for them, separately but also together. Personally, Tae and Seokjin are my bias wreckers together and I adore their bond immensely, their dynamic and bond being so fun, supportive, understanding, and cute. As I’ve mentioned in the past, which I’m sure you’ve seen, I don’t see whatever it is you see in their bond that is supposedly romantic, but I have nothing against you thinking otherwise.

Since you said that Tae and Seokjin are a more deserving duo for vlives, which I’ll assume also means that they never had a vlive, I took the liberty and did some research on that. I hope you don’t mind. I checked every vlive done by two members together since 2015 that I could find and put them on a list. I didn't take vlives into consideration that had 3 or more members, and also not ones where the second member was an unplanned and/or very brief guest, like Tae stopping by Hobi’s bracelet vlive or JK calling into Namjoon’s 7 album vlive last year.

Here are my results:

As you can see Tae and Seokjin did have a vlive back in 2015 (though it’s only a little more than two minutes long), the last vmin vlive was in 2016, and many other duos didn’t have a vlive until last year, including Namjin. Hobi and Seokjin, as far as I could see, have never had one together. Meanwhile Yoongi and Hobi have had the most out of all duos.

Fun fact: All the members, except for JK who had 15, had an average of 23 solo vlives since 2015.

You casually sensored their ship name... so pls spare us your nonexistent moral compass.

Perhaps you haven’t read many of our posts other posts, it’s more than okay if that’s the case, but I censor all ship names except for Namjin and Vmin. It’s just a question of us being more comfortable this way. Nothing against the duos and their names.

Have I been cheeky toward other shippers in the past, especially toxic ones? Certainly. Have I ever shaded any duo within Bangtan? Absolutely not. As ARMY I enjoy every bond within the group, including any bonds and interactions that vmin and namjin have with the other members.

This blog is “thoughts on bangtan” but the minute we ask about T*ej*n your real colors come out.

Across 256 posts I believe I’ve spoken about Tae and Seokjin as ship perhaps twice, and otherwise simply as two wonderful members of BTS whom I greatly appreciate. My true colors, well, they are full of love toward them so I’m not quite sure where I might’ve said something negative, since I assume that’s what you mean.

I cannot say that I’ve ever actually received any questions about Tae and Seokjin, only perhaps two asks like yours that called me out in not necessarily the friendliest of ways for not seeing them as having romantic potential and one about their conflict during Burn the Stage. I do have two questions about Seokjin’s bond with JK sitting in my inbox though, as well as Seokjin’s bond with Yoongi.

In my post yesterday I spoke about how I’m sure there is a way for T*ej*nists, and any other shippers for Namjoon/Seokjin pairing, and namjinists to live alongside each other, and even in harmony, and there have been asks since that post that prove as much. A difference in duo preferences doesn’t have to stand between us, especially since we should all be ARMY first, shippers second.

Keep shipping trashy Vmin and Namjin all day, while T*ej*n are actually living their best life. Just don’t act surprised one day when you find out they were actually the REAL couple all this time.

As person existing within the shipping community, yes, I only focus on vmin and namjin, since they are the only ones that my careful observations over the years have led me to the conclusion that there is real romantic potential there, but does that mean I have something against people who think otherwise? No. Or against people who ship something else? Also no, as long as they aren’t toxic and keep their shipping away from the members and places where they can see it, like the vlive comments.

I’d kindly ask you to not insult my chosen pairs much the way I would never insult yours either. It’s not a nice thing to do, and I’m sure Tae and Seokjin also wouldn’t like it.

Should the day come where it would turn out, for example, that Namjoon really has a secret boyfriend and Tae really is with Seokjin, or any other member or non-Bangtan person, then I would be surprised, yes, but I would still be happy for them. Finding love in a safe and genuine way in their line of work is incredibly hard so whomever the members will end up in relationships with (or are in them currently) and spending their lives with, I hope they’ll be happy and they’ll treat them well. I hope you feel the same way, even if it might one day turn out that you are wrong.

Thank you once again for reaching out, but unless you would like to have a normal, civilized discussion, I don’t see a need for further conversation and asks about this. Clearly my opinions and yours are different, and as much as I won’t change my mind, you won’t change yours either. Our blog clearly isn’t for you, since we are a OT7 and vmin/namjin focused one, but I’m sure there are plenty T*ej*n blogs out there that you could interact with and read.

#answered ask

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sole-cuore-amore-e-droga · 3 years

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Italy brings the rock’n’roll youth of tomorrow to Rotterdam 2021

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It’s the final day of doing my yet again botched attempt at a review series and I’ve been dying to post my gigantic write-up for my newly beloved Italy, at the top of the bookies, darling of all hearts, ready to rock Eurovision, and even more! Vai vai~

ARTIST & ENTRY INFO

Representing them this year is Måneskin, a band made up of four - singer and possibly the hottest motherfucker to grace the planet Earth Damiano, guitarist Thomas, drummer Ethan, and the cherry on top - bassist Victoria, whose half-Danish heritage is the reason Måneskin is called Måneskin (= Moonshine). They thought of this name at a “battle of the bands” that they won, thinking they might as well change it to something different, but in the end... say it with me now

They have known each other since highschool, made a band in 2016, won the “battle of the bands”, started out making a living as buskers in the streets of Rome, from which they gradually grew through playing small gigs, and later tried out for X Factor Italia season 11, on which they came 2nd.

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They went on to release an EP titled after their debut single of the name of the song above, including some of their X Factor covers, and later on got to get big through releasing an album, getting it certified all kinds of goodnesses, having singles from that album be popular, even releasing a documentary of themselves... they’ve done so much in life and they’re only 20-22 years old... aw man, the life is just ahead of them, for them to be so young and win Sanremo on their first try. (And I’ve always wanted them for Eurovision ever since I was aware of their existence, because their music is very nice, and they just feel like charming human beings. So imagine my joy seeing them announced for Sanremo 2021? And them WINNING months later??? man what kind of luck do I have even if just for a year lmao <333)

“Zitti e buoni”, the last song title alphabetically this year, is purely of the band’s making, and the lyrics are talking about not abiding the rules in general, how they’re out of their minds but they’re not like “them”, and how people talk but don’t know what they’re talking at all.

REVIEW

IT’S A PRETTY CRAZY GOOD ROCK SONG AMEN HALLELUJAH OPRAH WOOOOOOO

wbk I love it. Yeah sure it might be composited of something that sounds like standard rock riffs and what not, but it’s the ENERGY that goes into it that gets me more excited for this than for Finland, a fellow rock song of this year’s final.

Damiano’s vocals have the specific kind of rockstar tinge to them, and they’re very complimenting to the song. The way he says everything is beautiful, the “e buonasera signore e signori” line in particular is just a moment that shows the beginning of power somehow, I don’t know. The chorus is great, eventhough it’s just one line repeated but it changes the pronoun each time (going from “I’m out of my mind” to “you’re out of your mind” to “we’re out of my mind”) - MAGICAL.

And the bridge. YES, the bridge. Along with the outro it’s the best part of the song. The chord progression. The lines repeated on that bridge. The emotions going on. The delivery of the lines of the emotion. It’s a convincing little bridge, to the point that it sounds just as great with violins! Wish they brought one, because according to Love Love Peace Peace, nothing screams winner quite like a violin.

God damn to the Måneskinsters pump this song up to the maximum. It was originally a ballad song, and I think that’s for the better for them to present it as a rock song, because a Sanremo ballad in a pool of Sanremo ballads... unless it stands out according to demoscopic & press juries, and there seems to be a no better option at hand that could make them stand out other than just sending a classy ballad, it just fizzles out in a spectacularly lame fashion. Måneskin’s one real shot through was with a song that would make them stand out, and they did it, and they’re here.

Everyone has put in their work, their passion, their skills into this, and it shows off in spades. Måneskin themselves are fantastic and chill human beings, who too, just like Flo Rida, get to enjoy how crazy amazing Eurovision experience is. And for that I salute them with my whole heart. Whatever they do tonight on Eurovision, they’ll leave a lasting mark in it. And for a good reason.

Also an Italian Eurovision edit that doesn’t suck, once again, yay! (In their defense, they didn’t have a whole lot to work with, so they released theirs early - just a few trimmings here and there, and a lyric change so that they skate by EBU easier with their anti-swearing policies. Gahddamn swearing~)

Approval factor: FUCK YES Follow-up factor: The funny thing about this is that last year their entry is about making noise but the song was a love ballad, this year it’s a song titled “shut up and behave” while dressed in a loudest motherfucking musical setting lol. Fuck the rules! It was solely on the Sanremo’s last year’s winner Diodato not to send an entry he thought that would fit for Sanremo, and that’s good on him - he can return next year replenished as all hell, and maybe aim for the trophy again? wishful thinking? aaaa. Anyway on a personal scale “Zitti e buoni” is a marvelous follow-up from “Fai rumore”, even if skipping 2020 entirely, especially after “Soldi”, which was already a fab follow-up after “Non mi avete fatto niente”, and even from “Occidentali’s Karma” on. And so it is subjectively a good follow-up. Italy SLAYS. AQ factor: As I write this, the odds are very much in their favour, if not a little bit too persuaded over the fact that Måneskin gave a good rock performance and knew what they would be doing, or it’s just that the Italians like overbetting for their acts way too damn much. But nevertheless, I just wanna hope for them to break the expectations people set on rock songs in Eurovision and SMASH themselves a victory. Or a top 2. Or a top 5-10. Anything will do, goddamn.

NF CORNER

Well, I promised that I will talk about Sanremo in a NF corner, because this is the first year I actually cared to watch it myself, unlike when I would’ve sided with someone whose reviewing style I love in not caring to watch it, and usually just check all the songs on the last day lol.

One thing about Sanremo that I sorely underestimate is that a handful of artists on there can come across as very versatile, and the one song you loved of one genre they presented several years ago, can be completely different and leave you baffled for days if you’re not very familiarized with their discography and the Italian music scene in general. Which now I’m going to pay an extreme amount of attention towards following Sanremo 2022 on out because hot damn did I never see gems like Willie Peyote coming!

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Did I call him a gem over his entry? Yes, somehow. Am I even sure if I’m being serious?

I think I can somewhat agree when I say that for the international fam watching Sanremo at least, “Mai dire mai (La locura)” was a major expectation destroyer, at least for the crowd whose main lookouts in a lineup like this years were Ermal Meta, Annalisa, Arisa, etc. You know they’re gonna bring a ballad, and their ballads are usually decent, but what about the unexpected? That’s where a handful of acts, including Willie, comes in for me. The bass hooks in the second the song starts. The beat is minimalistic but strong enough to slap. The steady rap flow is mesmerizing, paired with that somewhat specifically Italian(?) vocal timbre. The chorus is greatly catchy, and it is a sung chorus, with this song still being largely a rap song. The electric-esque guitar soundwaves interspersed throughout the song are magnificent and magical, and on the chorus they even make a constant melody riff that repeats and may get annoying on multiple listens, but I still adore them. I really love the bridge as well and all that goes into it. A fantastic surprise of the season for me personally.

Now I figure that the lyrics may hinder the enjoyment for some, especially the points raised in some lines that may seem questionable and shady (if this went to Eurovision and got a “twerking” comment on Youtube, I will not be surprised if the description of choice is “patriarchic twerking”), but am I supposed to be fully offended at some points of it if I’m not its target audience, although I see some of what I do nowadays in those lines? “Mai dire mai” is probably dedicated to the Italian media and the Italian trends and what not. I’m not even disappointed it didn’t win, because if it went to Eurovision, it would’ve likely been met like a lesser “Occidentali’s Karma” - catchy song with lyrics that fly over listener’s heads which might as well be very accidentally mocking how we live our lives.

“Mai dire mai” has just less of a memorability-in-history value and no memorable gimmicks (Francesco had a gorilla, what is it visually going for on Willie’s performance?), besides, it would’ve suffered even WORSE post-Eurovision-edit than OK has - a lot of the bits and bobs that pass me by but when I notice them they make a really great entry, but other than the (presumably copyrighted) removal of a sample from a TV series (spoken by a fish character, nonetheless), what else is there to remove???? With Eurovision’s rules specifying that brands (Spotify, TikTok) and swearwords (lots of the good old Italian ones that Italian radios would digitally scratch out to emphasize that there were a LOT in the second verse) can’t be sung live, the song loses some of its lyrical charm. And you can’t just go around the song like Francesco Gabbani chopping off entire verses full of content full of witty lyrics and a reference to Chanel in order to present the more lyrically singable-along-to lines and not let go of the long chorus to whom his gorilla can dance to. “Mai dire mai” is RIFE with lyrics, that’s what a rap song is. It would have absolutely fallen apart.

Also no one paged it as a potential Eurovision winner during Sanremo, at least seriously, and it doesn’t have much that would have clicked with the future Eurovision generation and contestants when they would be asked to name their favourite Eurovision song of all times. In a world where from Italy they really like “Grande amore” and “Soldi” and even sometimes could name “Occidentali’s Karma”, is there really a place for “Mai dire mai (La locura)” over “Zitti e buoni”? Who would be naming that song as their favourite of all time? If you raised a hand, you lie to yourself, because that would’ve been me.

Now I don’t know how many of the Tumblr fam would draw ire at me putting out paragraphs worth of me being ultra positive towards this song, because as I’ve learned, there’s an ironic and unironic audience for Mr. Peyote on Tumblr especially, but for me I guess it was pretty worthy, also a thing I was finally able to yell off my chest since, and now I finally said it, I will continue streaming “Mai dire mai (La locura)” in peace.

He might’ve not won Sanremo, but his song won the equally important Mia Martini Critics Award, and also, my heart. Rest in broken shards of the Boris aquarium, my sweet cynical prince~

Måneskin were my 2nd after him so I’m equally happy they won. But what about my other favourites?

• Extraliscio ft. Davide Toffolo - Bianca luce nera A diluted version of the liscio genre, still makes for a very fascinatingly catchy and swaying song with lots of great instruments that are violins and a clarinet. What I figure is kinda a love song. Their performances were also great, with lots of dancers on stage and a genuinely great fun to be had, and you may remember them more after their performance in cover night, which was titled “Rosamunda”. They were the ones with their main singer’s guitar spinning for whatever reason that was there to make their song catchy, I guess.

• Lo Stato Sociale - Combat Pop A little bit of a far cry from their glory heydays with 2nd place in Sanremo 2018, but they returned with an equally banging song and an amazing set of performance chaos they brought in each and every time - dedicating their first night’s one to making a performance to not forget (and being the ones of two to reference the great Bugo&Morgan incident from last year, the other being Willie Peyote), the second competitive one was for referencing politics, and so on.

• Colapesce & Dimartino - Musica leggerissima Sweet melancholic song with the shades of Sebastien Tellier kinda sound, this song may seem jolly at first, but the especially melancholic undertones denote that there’s something else going on. It’s actually about depression, as that’s what the term “musica leggerissima” (very light music) means. But it still found a heart in Italian listeners and the Italian world finally woke up to how great Antonio Di Martino and Lorenzo “Colapesce” Urciullo are, and a handful of viewers were slightly heartbroken to see it not place in the superfinal top 3. Who knows if they would’ve actually won over Måneskin. I just know that their rollerskater girlie is so damn fine~

Bugo has also returned but I think his redemption arc started off the wrong foot, as his return entry, “E invece si”, was a bloated showtune ballad and got obnoxious to listen to at part. I declared to myself that night when I first heard the new entry that regarding on what made “Sincero” great, I side with Morgan.

And a special shout out to Ghemon, whose 2019 song was more than just a “purple rose” unlike I noted on a last proper Italian entry review. I don’t know what expectations I had for him, but I certainly wanted to love “Momento perfetto” more at the first listen, which was also somewhat of a show-tuney piece, but with a bit more funk and pizzazz, also Ghemon was VERY much vibing with his song, and that made me feel great for the few other performances of it that I saw the following days. It’s definitely a grower song, and around 2 months after Sanremo I fell into a bit of a rabbit-hole of his earlier music discovering, and I may be a bit exaggerating but, give Ghemon a bit more of acknowledgement and a stellar enough song, and with a little bit of magic touch, I can maybe see him lifting the Golden Lion trophy one day. Don’t ask why. (also lovely music video for his 2021 entry, which replaces continuous spinning in an aesthetic area to everybody moving their body in a diner (hopefully with everyone in the MV tested and been negative for long enough for the MV to actually happen).)

NF CORNER (NON-COMPETITIVE)

There’s so much needed to be discussed about there. So I’ll restrict myself to the moments that I remember and cherish:

• Rosario Fiorello. Just. Him.

• And the gentleman next to him, Achille Lauro.

tw // body piercing

Belarus 2018 could never

Fiorello and Lauro are perfect matches to each other’s worlds of imagination, and I was more than ever glad to see so much creativity coming from each one of them, a host and a nightly interval act respectively.

• Once again, “Rosamunda Medley” by Extraliscio, I didn’t watch the cover night in its entirety but I think it’s good enough of a medley if it got a 3rd place from the cover night from the orchestra!

• Sanremo Newcomers section of this year. I liked or vibed to almost every song out of the 8, and I’m decently happy with the winner, but if there’s one big shoutout I really want to make, is to “Regina” by Davide Shorty, for it’s such a cozy funky little love song that always makes me happy when I hear it. My personal winner preference, but I don’t mind Davide getting 2nd! For as long as he gets to place 1st in a future main Sanremo event hihihihihi

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• Diodato proving himself to be a dance king at the beginning of his “Che vita meravigliosa” performance, my good Twitter friend made a bunch of videos where he dances to a lot of songs, as per request, check them out and you won’t forget it.

• Since Sanremo 2021 got rid of the audience as per COVID regulations and much to Amadeus’s dread, there ended up quite a handful of audience related memes. Such as the penis balloon et al.

• Remember when Sanremo 2021 audience was supposed to be whisked away in a cruise ship for safety measures? Pepperidge Farm remembers

• SESSO IBUPROFENEEEEEEEE

The guy that sang this song actually has the same birthday as me, so in my eyes, I feel like he has some charm to it. I’m biased lol sorry

There’s way too many more but I am afraid of flooding my post beyond your readability interest. Let’s hope that, in an event of Italy’s victory or non, we’ll get to see an even more iconic event of Sanremo emerge come the future. <3

ANY LAST WORDS?

Måneskin’s big goal was to rock Eurovision, and I think they’ve greatly accomplished that by just... doing what they do best, and that is, rocking. They leave energy lasting for days.

In bocca al lupo, fam. You’ll nail it, and even if you don’t win, Italy shouldn’t not hail you as national heroes after it’s all over.

#eurovision #eurovision 2021 #rotterdam 2021 reviews #italy #måneskin #zitti e buoni #gifs i didn't make

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ibelieveinharrystyles · 4 years

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Chapter Seven: Chaotic Christmas

Forever? Masterlist

24th December 2016

“Simply having a wonderful Christmas time!” Harry and Ashley sang in unison as they cruised up the M1, they were on their way home for a family Christmas, which based on tradition, Linda was hosting this year. Luckily, they had timed their departure from London perfectly with Daisy’s nap, which was an accomplishment compared to how disastrous their last journey with her had been. “I’ve missed your mum’s cooking, she does make an impeccable roast,” Harry sighed, his eyes focused on the road ahead.

“If you tell her that she will love you forever,” Ashley chuckled.

“I don’t need to tell her, she already does.” Shortly after Harry’s quick witted reply Daisy stirred from her nap, crying for attention.

“We’re going to have to stop at the next service station H, she’s due a feed.”

“There’s one just up ahead, we’ll pull in there.”

Somehow Harry managed to find a space in what was a very busy car park, they clearly weren’t the only ones driving home for Christmas, Daisy was getting restless, her screams were almost deafening, “Alright Daisy my love we’re here now.” Ashley hopped out of the car, taking Daisy out of her baby seat in the back of the car, taking her round to the boot, where Harry was already grabbing the nappy bag, “Don’t bother with the buggy, I’ll just carry her, we’ll find a nice cafe in there somewhere.” The two of them weaved their way around the groups of people, Harry had his hood up in an attempt not to draw attention, even though everyone was already looking at Ashley and her screaming baby. Eventually they found a table in a little cafe where Ashley could contently feed Daisy, “You wouldn’t mind getting us some food whilst I fed her would you?” Ashley asked Harry as she made up Daisy’s bottle.

“Course, anything in particular?” Harry asked.

“Something fresh, and some apple juice if they’ve got it please.”

After a long drive up the motorway Harry, Ashley and Daisy arrived safely in the comfort of Holmes Chapel, Linda rushed out of the house greeting them all with hugs and helping Harry with the bags while Ashley carried Daisy, who had just stirred from another nap. “How was the journey up? I imagine the world and his wife were travelling up from Lonson,” Linda asked as they made their way into the house, the smell of her homemade mince pies.

“It was alright, the service station was a little crazy, but that's the price I have to pay for being best friends with a global sensation.” Ashley told her mum as she got Daisy out of her adorable little snowsuit, “Can’t take you anywhere can I Harry?”

“I’m such a troublemaker.” Harry winked, placing the bags down in the hallway and taking Daisy from Ashley so she could sort herself out. Ashley entered the perfectly decorated living room, reminding her of all her childhood Christmases, Linda always went the extra mile at Christmas, draping holly, ivy and mistletoe berries along the beams that supported the roof of the living room. A splash of colour was always something the Hanson family had opted for at Christmas, this year the tree was decorated with teal and gold decorations, growing up Ashley’s dad had always been chaotic when it came to decorating the tree, it was always his job, but he loved to attack the tree with an unorthodox method of decorating, so in a way of paying homage to him Linda always used a less traditional colour scheme every year, but still to her taste. Harry and Daisy sat on the sofa, playing with one of the many toys Linda had scattered about the living room.

Harry had gone back to spend the night at his family home before the chaos of Christmas Day, leaving Ashley and Linda eating their way through a stuffed crust pepperoni pizza, watching the intense Christmas Eve special of Coronation Street whilst Daisy played happily on the floor. “Your dad would be so proud of you, you know that don’t you?” Linda told her daughter, placing her hand on top of Ashley’s, “You’ve achieved so much this year already, moving to London, having a baby on your own, he would’ve absolutely adored Daisy.”

“I’m not on my own mum, I’ve got Harry.” Ashley reminded her.

“I know that my love, it's clear he cares very much about you both, but one day he will meet someone he wants to settle down with, and that means he probably won’t be as involved in your life.” Linda explained.

“I’m aware of that mum,” Ashley sighed, her mum wasn’t wrong, one day Harry would love another woman enough to want to marry her and have children with her, she just had to accept that, “I think I’ll take Daisy up to bed, it’s been a long day.”

“What about the mince pies?” Linda asked.

“They’ll keep till the morning, night mum.”

Usually Ashley was good at sleeping the whole night through, that was when Daisy wasn’t waking up for a feed, she laid in what was once her childhood bed completely restless and unable to get to sleep, so she concluded fresh air would do her some good. She made her way downstairs, opening the door to the back garden, the cold air nipping at her skin, she took a seat on one of the thick branches of a tree that was at the back of Anne’s garden, but had grown so much that the branches stretched, well over into Linda’s garden. Ashley and Harry spent hours when they were younger, climbing and playing games on it. “Couldn’t sleep?” the familiar voice shook her out of her daydream as she noticed Harry climbing up the tree to perch beside her.

“I’m just thinking about things,” Ashley sighed.

“What things?”

“New job kinda things,” Harry’s face appeared puzzled, “Capital have offered me a promotion, a big one, they like the increase in attention they’ve got from us being friends, and Roman needs a new co-host,” she paused, “They want me to do the breakfast show with him.”

“That's incredible Ash, but why does that require you to be sitting on our tree at 2 in the morning?”

“I don’t know if it’s the right thing to do, Daisy will be barely six months old when I start in January, I don’t want to miss a massive chunk of her childhood, and it feels like I would be exploiting our friendship.” Ashley explained.

“If it's the breakfast show that's only four or so hours of the day, you could always do it for a couple of years, and when she’s off to school and needs you there in the mornings, I’m sure you will be given an even better opportunity,” Harry assured her.

“I remember when I was the one who gave you advice,” Ashley whispered resting her head on Harry’s shoulder, “Anyway, why are you out here at this time of night?”

“I’m thinking about next year, Ash it’s going to be crazily busy, with the album, tour and also the film.”

“Well whatever happens, whatever people say, you’ll always be my best friend,” she whispered, taking his hand in hers, “Now go and get some sleep, mum will be raging if you’re half asleep during Christmas Dinner.”

The following morning Ashley stirred from her sleep, she checked the time on her phone, it was well gone ten in the morning, Daisy wasn’t in her cot, Ashley chucked an old hoodie on over her pyjamas and made her way downstairs. Her mum, Harry, Anne and Gemma were sat round the dining table, indulging in croissants and pastries, Harry had Daisy sat on his knee, bouncing her along to the cheesy Christmas music that played in the background. “Merry Christmas,” Ashley smiled, greeting them all with hugs, Harry respectfully handing Daisy over. “Hello my princess, happy Christmas,” she bounced her on her hip, before taking a seat at the table, “Has she had her morning bottle?”

“Yep, first thing Harry did when they got here, he crept into your room, retrieved Daisy, and bought her down here for breakfast.” Linda told her,

“Thank you,” Ashley smiled, “I’ve actually got some news, well I made the decision last night, with the help of Harry, as of mid January, I’m going to be co-hosting the breakfast show on Capital.”

“Ashley that’s wonderful news!” Anne cried, offering her a big hug, “isn’t your mummy clever?” she whispered to Daisy, tickling her under the chin.

Ashley glanced over at her mum, who was wiping tears from under her eyes, “Are you alright mum?”

“I just know how proud your dad would be Ash, all he wanted was for you to be happy.” Linda smiffled.

“I am happy, and I’m so happy to spend Christmas day with all my favourite people.”

After an impeccable Christmas Dinner thanks to Linda, everyone took their seats around the tree, as due to tradition, Harry handed out the presents. They all took it in turns, opening their gifts, Daisy only had a few, mainly from Harry, as everyone agreed she was only little, so she wouldn’t remember Christmas that much. Harry got her a mini xylophone, some stuffed animals and of course some designer baby clothes, that Ashley didn’t dare consider the possible price of. There was one gift left under the tree for Daisy, Ashley opened it, seeing a little white teddy, “Who is this from?” She asked, all of them looking at her blankly.

“Oh that was on the doorstep when we arrived earlier.” Gemma told her.

She checked the label, making sure she knew who to thank, her heart was in her mouth, she stood up, heading to the kitchen and chucking it in the bin, Harry followed after her, noticing the sudden change in her mood. “Hey what’s wrong?”

“It’s him.” She whispered, leaning on the kitchen counter, holding her head in her hands.

“What’s him? I don’t get it.” Harry replied.

“The label on Daisy’s present said dad, Matt sent the present, what if he knows where we live? He could be outside as we speak.” She panicked.

“Hey Ash, you need to calm down,” Harry soothed, wiping her tears away from her cheeks, “This is a small town, everyone knows everyone, there is an extremely high chance he just sent it to the local post office, when I used to get all that fanmail, people literally just put my name and Holmes Chapel on it, you don’t need to worry.”

“I do though Harry, what if he wants to be part of her life? What if he wants custody of her? I can’t lose her Harry, I can’t.”

“Ashley you are an amazing mum, when you told Matt you were pregnant he went awol, no court is going to deem him a fit father.” Harry assured her, taking hold of both her hands, “As long as I’m walking this earth, I am going to do everything I can to keep you and Daisy safe, you have my word.”

#harry styles #harry styles imagines #harry styles imagine #harry styles fanfiction #harry styles one shot #harry styles blurb #one direction #one direction memes #solo harry #fanfiction #harry styles best friend fic #best friend harry #choose love #stay home stay safe #treat people with kindness #timothee aesthetic

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pan0ramy · 3 years

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after really thinking it over for a while and trying to get over how nervous i am... i kinda want to join in on this whole community revival thing. i’m by no means as attached to sean’s content as i was back in 2016/2017, but it doesn’t change the fact that this community was a big part of my life. so, why not, right?

name: amy

pronouns: she/her

country: ireland

how did you start watching sean? i started watching his videos after coming across little inferno. i wanted to learn more about the game, went onto youtube to look for videos, and saw sean's - i thought his thumbnails were colourful & pretty, so i clicked into one of them. i then ended up watching the whole series from start to finish and found him hilarious, so i basically stuck with his content from there on out.

how did you find the community? from what i can remember, i think i joined tumblr naturally, since to 16 year old me, that's where all the Nerdy™ stuff was. i'm pretty sure i just ended up coming across the #jacksepticeye tag out of curiosity, and once i saw people making art, theories and stories, it snowballed from there.

your favourite thing about the community? as someone that's never had the largest friend group, seeing some kind of hint or suspicious clue pop up in a video and immediately coming on here to see everyone screaming over it was an absolute joy. for once, i felt like i wasn't the only person who noticed these little tidbits or found them interesting, which like i said, wasn't something i was used to. it really made it feel like a community, or just a big house that we all lived in where we started yelling every time something suspicious happened lol

has the channel/community or sean helped or changed you?

(a small heads up: there are slight mentions of bad mental health here, but i don’t go into any detail.)

absolutely, both in good and... admittedly less good ways. i'm not going to go into the bad here, because 1) that's not what this revival is about and 2) it's extremely personal stuff that i don't even tell my closest friends about (and also why i'm so nervous to post this). but if i hadn't come across sean's channel when i did, 16-year old me probably wouldn't have known how to cope every day. the daily uploads (while they lasted) gave me something to look forward to as i struggled with school, mental health and losing friends. and eventually, the ego theorising and community fires were such a staple in my life that really made me feel excited and involved. it was amazing for what it was.

favourite inside jokes/memes: ...is it selfish for me to include a meme that i posted here? back when i edited together that video of the gamecube intro with a clip from say goodbye, i posted it on here without expecting much of a reaction - but then, seeing everyone either laughing their ass off in the notes or yelling at me asking me how i could do such a thing summed up just how crazy and wonderful this community could be. it was something so small, and such a spur of the moment thing for me to create, but it caused such a reaction with people that i still don't quite feel like i deserved haha

(but in terms of actual jokes on the channel, the subnautica nostalgia week video recently proved to me that the deep dark down deep dark is probably my favourite joke sean's ever made. honourable mention to the single most traumatic characters i’ve seen on the internet: \zoom)

things outside of the channel that you love: you could ask me this question every single day and my answer would probably change every time lol. as iffy as it can be to say this in... certain parts of the internet, kpop is a massive hobby and interest of mine, especially when it comes to collecting albums and photocards. it's something i only started about a year ago, but i absolutely love it and it brings me so much happiness. outside of that, i adore video games in general, with xenoblade chronicles and hades being my absolute favourites. and while we're on the topic, may i just say that you really should play hades cause it's insanely fucking good okay thanks ilu bye

have you made friends here yet? yes, and i feel awful because if i was better at keeping in touch i'd probably have more friends here lol. there's a lot of people in this community who i am very lucky to even call myself an acquaintance of, or to even have talked with at some point, and even if we don't talk now, i still care about a great deal of people here.

are you open to messages or new friends? always! i may be a little slow to reply, but my DMs are always open should you need to chat, ramble or vent about whatever's on your mind.

anything to add? henrik von schneeplestein best boi. that is all.

#jacksepticart #jse community revival #man idk why i'm so scared to post this but. yeah

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louistomlinsoncouk · 4 years

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It’s 3:00 p.m. on a Saturday, and Louis Tomlinson is casually trying to catch cigarettes in his mouth.

Tyler Joe He’s standing on a Brooklyn sidewalk, killing time between shots of his Cosmopolitan photoshoot, in front of a friend who's about six feet away.

On Louis’ cue, Not-Louis throws a cigarette in the general direction of Louis' open mouth, the way high school boys do with Swedish Fish during lunch. He misses. Not-Louis tries again. Another miss. Then, on the third attempt, Not-Louis finally catches the cig, and he proceeds to light it and then immediately put it out when he’s called back to set.

As the oldest member of the mega-successful group formerly known as One Direction, Louis is about to embark on the solo career his bandmates Zayn Malik and Harry Styles got a two-year head-start on. His debut solo album Walls is set to come out at the end of this month. The sound is more soulful—less teen heartthrob, more grown-up man who isn't trying to get every teenage girl in the world to have a crush on him. He even looks more mature, in part because he's not trying to do the fluffy boy band hair anymore. Yeah, and he’s never felt more aware of how old he is.

“I’ve never been more conscious of my age, at 27,” he tells me a few hours later while sitting in on a couch in a now-empty photo studio, with perfect afternoon selfie light coming through the windows, still obviously nursing a hangover from the night before. “When you’re in your late 20s, you’re in a funny stage of your life—you haven’t been around for ages, but you’re also not young, you’re in this weird transitional stage," he goes on. "That’s been very apparent in my life, and I’m always trying to be as immature as I possibly fucking can now, to balance it all out. There’s only so much you can get away with for so long.”

No one would blame Louis for trying to reclaim a little bit of his youth while he still can. In the past four years, he’s faced enough change to turn him from a fresh-faced kid in a boy band to an adult with very real obstacles in his path. In 2016, he lost his mother to cancer. Three years later, his younger sister passed away from an accidental overdose.

In that same stretch of time, he saw the breakup of One Direction—excuse me, “hiatus,” not breakup. While his former bandmates were able to go on world tours and front fragrance campaigns for Gucci, he had serious reasons for delaying the release of his first album.

His new music reflects the grief of all the above. In the track “Two Of Us,” he vulnerably sings: “I know you'll be looking down, swear I'm gonna make you proud / I'll be living one life for the two of us.” But there’s still plenty of time spent on the idea of falling in love too.

These lyrics are more personal than the ones you find in the singles he released when he first left the band, before his solo career stalled due to all those personal reasons. Those early songs admittedly slapped, but didn’t really feel like him-him.

“I was making music to try to chase radio, and not really making the right decisions by me in terms of music,” he says.

“I respect the artists that I worked with and I respect the songs, absolutely, but in hindsight, it wasn't necessarily true to me.”

That’s part of why he’s stayed away from collaborations on Walls. He feels like he needs to create an image for himself separate from other people—there are, ahem, four very specific names that come to mind. “I've got to stand on my own two feet and say, ‘This is my identity. This is who I am as an artist,’” he says.

That said, the whole promoting-your-album-alone thing isn't exactly easy—especially when you're very used to doing this job as part of a unit. The interviews, the photoshoots, the studio sessions, the gigs, were all situations he could rely on his bandmates for in the past.

Like, say, if he showed up hungover to something (cough, cough), he could usually depend on Harry, Liam, Niall, or Zayn to be on their game. But now, it’s just him. The one thing that doesn’t feel different, though, are the fans, who have a reputation for being absolute die-hards.

“They’re still as manic and as crazy, in the best possible way,” he says. At a meet-and-greet recently, he met a girl who told him the first time she listened to a One Direction song, she was 11. Now, she’s 19 or 20, which means Louis has been a part of her life for roughly half of it. “That's a crazy concept," he continues. "I left that meet-and-greet thinking about the fact that she was still very young girl at 11, and there she was as an adult."

The fans have grown up, so has he, and so have the other guys he used to make music with. Now that they’re all older and doing their own things, Louis isn’t shy about the fact that they don’t talk all the time. Like any group of friends that come together as 16-year-olds, that relationship is going to look a lot different by the time you’re almost 30.

But it's not like he has anything bad to say about them. There’s no shade to throw accusing one member of the band of being Ringo Starr, the man who notoriously left The Beatles first. There's no wink-wink comments made about not knowing what to say to any of the other members if they were to run into each other, because their life is shrouded in “mystery” or something. (Although, to be fair, the topic of Zayn was generally avoided.)

“I think all the boys would agree with this. There's been moments in all of our lives where naturally some of us speak to others more than others,” he says. “I wouldn't say I’m closest to any of the boys. Recently, I’ve probably spoken to Liam 10 times as much as I spoke to the other lads. Six months ago, that was Niall.”

He’s also quick to say he’s not not down for a reunion. If he had to guess, he’d be the one to send the initial, “Alright boys, let’s do this,” kind of message. When they were in the band, he felt like he was the de facto team captain because he was the oldest.

But, if it were to happen, the music would have to be different. The songs were great, but they were definitely reflective of the fact that they were being performed by teenagers, and he’s careful to say that he’d want to pick up specifically where “Made In The A.M.” left off. Take that to mean whatever you want. Cue the conspiracy theories.

As for the timeline of when this would all go down? He’s not sure. Anything past 35 feels too late, but it’s hard to look too far forward when you’re trying to sneak in those last moments of being immature.

“Anything over 30 sounds fucking old to me right now,” he says.

#louis tomlinson #15jan20

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shefanispeculator · 3 years

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Blake Shelton and Gwen Stefani are engaged!

The couple made their engagement Instagram official on Tuesday with a sweet post from Stefani, 51, sharing a photo of her ring alongside her new fiancé, 44. A source close to Stefani confirmed to PEOPLE that the two got engaged over the weekend in Oklahoma.

"@blakeshelton yes please! 💍🙏🏻 gx," Stefani captioned the photo on Instagram.

Shelton shared the same post with a sweet caption.

"Hey @gwenstefani thanks for saving my 2020... And the rest of my life." he wrote. "I love you. I heard a YES!"

The happy couple first fell in love on the set of The Voice in 2015, bonding over their own recent heartbreak and respective divorces.

“When you’re where she and I were, and you just feel so betrayed and on bottom, this bond that we formed when we found out what each other were going through, it’s still there,” Shelton previously told PEOPLE.

Four years after news first broke that the couple was dating, a source told PEOPLE exclusively the entertainers were actively planning for a long-term future together.

“They’re still madly in love and beyond inseparable,” the source revealed in November. “Blake has wanted to take his time with marriage, but he is absolutely committed to Gwen. They both feel they’ve found their true partner in life and plan to be together forever.”

With packed work schedules between The Voice and Stefani’s Las Vegas residency, the couple have always remained “very supportive” of each other “both personally and professionally,” said the source.

In November 2018, Shelton, 42, pulled Stefani, 49, onstage when he and Voice host Carson Daly picked up an award for the competition show at the 2018 People’s Choice Awards in Santa Monica.

“All-time favorite coach, right there, Gwen Stefani. I love her,” Shelton said, pointing at the singer before Daly piped in, “You wanna come up? Come up and say a few [words]. Come on up!”

The former TRL host led the audience in a chant of, “Gwen! Gwen! Gwen!” as she made her way shyly up, taking her boyfriend’s hand to join the animated duo on stage.

“Oh my God, I’m so excited to be with Blake Shelton!” Stefani raved when Daly asked her to say something.

The loving couple regularly gives each other props on-air and over social media.

Although the "God's Country" singer is not quite as social media savvy as his new fiancé, he recently posted an adorable Tweet praising her 2019 Met Gala look.

“What’s most important to Gwen is somebody who has her back and is a best friend so that’s kind of how it started. It just feels like it gets stronger all the time,” Shelton said in 2017.

After releasing Texoma Shore in November 2017, fans immediately noticed that Shelton’s track “Turnin’ Me On” was all about his romance with Stefani.

A month later, Stefani shared an intimate moment between the couple while relaxing on their tour bus.

In the retro-looking Instagram video, Shelton serenades his girlfriend with an acoustic version of “Turnin’ Me On.”

“Pushing my buttons like it ain’t no thang,” Shelton sings in the video, as he lovingly stares at the pop singer. “If I’m what she wants, she gets what she wants / The neon’s buzzin’ when she pulls that string / Turnin’ me on like it’s her job / Sometimes I think she must get off on / Turnin’ me on, turnin’ me on.”

The Las Vegas Residency headliner has also given Shelton a few shout-outs of her own in her songs, including the 2016 track "Make Me Love You" from her album This Is What the Truth Feels Like.

The pair has teamed up for love duets, too — from their single, “Go Ahead and Break My Heart,” off of Shelton’s 2016 album, If I’m Honest, to the title track off of Stefani’s 2017 holiday album You Make It Feel Like Christmas.

Shelton previously revealed to PEOPLE that his pals initially thought Stefani was out of his league while they celebrated the opening of his new restaurant and bar Ole Red Nashville, which joins his existing location in Tishomingo, Oklahoma.

“When we first started seeing each other, friends of mine would be like, ‘What the hell is that all about?'” Shelton said. “But if you ever had a chance to be around us together, it does make sense.”

“I wouldn’t change one thing about my life right now,” he continued. “I’m happy. Sometimes happiness can seem like fleeting moments, but this one has been staying in the same lane for a long time. It’s just amazing.”

The No Doubt rocker also raved about PEOPLE's Sexiest Man Alive in November 2017, calling her beau "perfect."

A year later, the pair stole hearts once again when they debuted the music video for their Christmas duet in November 2018.

In the Sophie Muller-directed music video, Stefani and Shelton are living in a Christmas fantasy complete with tuxedos, ball gowns and plenty of old Hollywood glamour.

They also dance in front of an adorable live band of kids until some predictable setbacks get in their way — from bees in the conifer, mismatched snowmen, accidentally wrapping Shelton in Christmas lights, and trouble with a nutcracker.

In December, Stefani revealed during an interview with Today’s Natalie Morales that despite all the speculation (and prodding from Ellen DeGeneres) she and Shelton felt "zero pressure” to tie the knot.

“Going through all these hard times, [you] get to a place where you find somebody that’s like your best friend, that you know you can depend on and trust and go through life — we’re just trying to be in the moment as much as we can,” she explained.

Later that month, Shelton told Morales his relationship with Stefani was "meant to be."

“I’ve learned more from Gwen Stefani as a human being, and how to grow as a human being, than I have from anybody ever in my life — anybody,” he said. “She’s everything that you could hope a human being could be.”

This is the third marriage for Shelton, 42, who split from ex-wife Miranda Lambert in 2015 and was previously wed to Kaynette William from 2003 to 2006.

Throughout the years, the couple has enjoyed ducking away to Shelton’s Tishomingo ranch for holidays and quick getaways, in addition to spending plenty of time together with Stefani’s kids Kingston, 13, Zuma, 11, and Apollo, 5, from her past marriage to rocker Gavin Rossdale.

“Blake treats Gwen’s kids like they’re his own. They just glow when they’re together,” a source previously told PEOPLE.

Shelton's fellow Voice coach and longtime friend Kelly Clarkson said that he "has this gravitational pull" when it comes to being around kids.

"I’ve even seen him with Gwen's son Apollo and her kids, and he’s like this tree that they all climb on," she said.

Shelton previously talked about falling in love with Stefani's three boys. “For a long time, it was awkward trying to figure out what my place is and in their mind too,” he told PEOPLE. “The best part for me, selfishly, is discovering a part of myself that I guess I never really knew was in there. It’s definitely an instinct that kind of kicks in.”

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grlsgen · 3 years

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a list of my favorite albums

my music taste is a little embarrassing but it’s time i start owning that

dangerous woman - ariana grande

—— and the thing is everyone hates this album and calls it her worse but i think this was her best sound... it suited her very well. the stand out tracks IMO: moonlight, dangerous woman, into you, greedy, sometimes, touch it, thinking bout you. <- she really needs more songs like thinking bout you, absolutely impeccable. but anyways, not her peak musically but definitely a good ass album

the dream chapter : eternity - txt

—— AYOOO!!! i am definitely way more into dark concepts and this ep from txt was everything to me. i love the direction can’t you see me took and they ate it. i saw a lot of people saying seeing them take a concept like puma was odd but when they have their rv bad boy era y’all gonna take that back.. anyways. best tracks: can’t you see me, FAIRY OF SHAMPOO!!!, eternally. fairy of shampoo literally might be their best yet.

folklore - taylor swift

—— i shit my pants every time i hear this album. absolutely amazing.. something that always draws me to taylor is her songwriting obviously, and in this album in particular.. the take on different stories and perspectives was kind of everything and i was huge fan of it. at the first listen i loved it so damn bad and it hasn’t lost that magic to me. album of the year IMO! best tracks: cardigan, seven, epiphany, betty. cardigan is so beautifully made, same with seven. they make me cry like a little piss baby everytime i hear them. can’t explain how good they are...

golden hour - kacey musgraves

—— what can i say. like what can i say. it’s so good and hasn’t aged a day. i may not listen to every single track often but there isn’t one that’s objectively bad. the whole concept and sound of the album is very smooth and beautiful To Me. i enjoy a good little golden hour every now and then... best tracks: oh what a world, space cowboy, happy & sad, golden hour. happy & sad is so so good and for what. the chorus makes me cry sometimes.. i also occasionally cry to oh what a world but that’s my business. special mention is rainbow, that’s one hell of a song babe.

love yourself : tear - bts

—— oh nelly. ahah... like i said, i love darker concepts so of course this one grinds my gears. from top to bottom start to finish this is flawless and is one of their best yet i can’t even lie. fake love is one of my favorite songs from them ever and never gets old. Amazing amazing amazing. best tracks: fake love, the truth untold, 134340, outro : tear. everyone loves to shit on 134340’s name and for what. she’s beautiful.. the lyrics the chorus the rap verses the bgv COME ON!!!!!! so damn good. never ages. my favorite bts album.

perfect velvet - red velvet

—— no lie was told when this was named the ultimate girl group album. like dark concepts, i eat the shit out of their velvet concepts .. peek a boo was everything i could have asked for and they ate it up. what other girl group is killing pizza men for sport and holding rituals answer me quickly. as god once uttered, red velvet best idol group alive, but that’s a conversation for another time. this album has a nice blend of a little retro, soft harmonious songs & songs i’d shake my ass too in a cornmaze. seriously flawless. best tracks: i just & kingdom come (ofc). both never get old, they have to be some of the best songs i’ve ever heard. god bless

rookie - red velvet

—— i don’t give a fuck how you feel about rookie as a song, this ep is so damn good. rookie is definitely a little wack but i think it’s good.. what i love about red velvet is the funky concepts they can pull off and still make it bang, if that makes any sense. they not only ate the shit out of rookie and its choreography, but the bsides have to be some of their best. while it’s a red album, it isn’t one note and takes different turns without straying too far from rookie’s original sound which is cool.. To me. best tracks: little little & body talk. body talk has to be one of my all time faves from them, it was revolutionary..

speak now - taylor swift

—— next to folklore this is my favorite taylor album. i have several severe emotional attachments to this album that have transcended years.. i grew up with dis album 😢. i don’t even know what to say other than this album is my baby. best tracks: back to december, never grow up, enchanted, innocent, long live. innocent and never grow up have always made me bawl like a baby.. one time i wrote an anaylsis on never grow up for my sociology class but that’s a tale for another time.. i also have a strong attachment to long live. just such a good album that i’ll always come back to

the reve festival : finale - red velvet

—— now here’s the damn thing. especially repacked with the other festival songs, this is a masterpiece. don’t even get me started on psycho. that is song of the year and nothing will ever change my mind. i can’t believe it’s already been almost a year, i miss them :(.. anyway though. i have no words, but definitely my favorite album from the trilogy. best tracks: psycho, REMEMBER FOREVER!! i love remember forever so bad it’s unreal. it mentally takes me to another dimension every single time.. it reminds me how bad i love them but anyway Lmfaoo. timeless era that i’ll always look back on fondly. ot5 come back to me

wings - bts

—— ahhhhh... i found bts during this era so i’m very emotionally attached to wings. i love the dark kinda elegant (? idk what word to use...) concept they went for. blood sweat and tears was definitely a revolution and has stuck with me for the past 4 years .. best tracks: blood sweat & tears, begin, lie. jimin bodied the hell out of lie idc. it’s dramatic it’s bold it’s powerful it’s... beautiful. i always go back to his blindfolded performance of it on mama 2016.. it’s so good. him and hobi ate that whole intro up and reminds me how good wings is. tear and wings are the embodiment of the concepts i really love so obviously these make it into my favorite albums. :3 hehe..

my entire personality and life revolves around making myself go deaf via headphone and loving music so i had to offer my 2 cents on albums i think are amazing. and until next time..

not like anybody cares for my opinion but like i said i literally don’t have any other prominent personality traits so i may or may not post music reviews/thoughts like this on here for purely my own enjoyment and nobody else’s. i like to talk on the internet. thank you and good evening

#taylor swift #txt #bts #kacey musgraves #ariana grande #red velvet #kpop #folklore

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hlupdate · 4 years

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It’s 3:00 p.m. on a Saturday, and Louis Tomlinson is casually trying to catch cigarettes in his mouth.

He’s standing on a Brooklyn sidewalk, killing time between shots of his Cosmopolitan photoshoot, in front of a friend who's about six feet away.

In that same stretch of time, he became a father and saw the breakup of One Direction—excuse me, “hiatus,” not breakup. While his former bandmates were able to go on world tours and front fragrance campaigns for Gucci, he had serious reasons for delaying the release of his first album.

“I was making music to try to chase radio, and not really making the right decisions by me in terms of music,” he says.

“I’ve got to stand on my own two feet and say, ’This is my identity. This is who I am as an artist,’”

“I respect the artists that I worked with and I respect the songs, absolutely, but in hindsight, it wasn't necessarily true to me.”

“Anything over 30 sounds fucking old to me right now,” he says.

#louis tomlinson #cosmopolitan magazine #stunt mention #tw drugs #articles #150120

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fred-frederator-studios · 4 years

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Dale Pon, R.I.P.

Pretty much the most famous media advertising campaign in history is “I Want My MTV!” –the May 2020 Google search returns 184,000 results, more than 30 years after the last flight ran– and it was the result of the brain of Dale Pon.*

* As I explain in detail in the pieces below, writer extraordinaire Nancy Podbielniak was the word spark for the campaign; it was George Lois who suggested ripping off “I Want My Maypo!” Dale Pon was the person who took these notions and turned them into brilliance.

Dale persuaded me and the powers that be at MTV that he could make it work, Dale who convinced MTV programmers to recording artists to participate for no fees. It was Dale who took the paltry budget allotted and strategized how to maximize the network’s cable distribution. And finally, it was Dale Pon’s dogged persistence and genius that caused cable operators across America to beg us to please stop running the campaign before all the telephone operators quit in frustration from all the people “demanding their MTV!!!”

My great friend –and better mentor– Dale Pon, passed away from difficulties due to Parkinson’s and Covid19. There’s no way to convey all of the ways people expressed their sadness to me today, but one of them probably encapsulated things best by saying “Complicated but brilliant, creatively inspired, strategic like chess master , we were lucky to have been touched by his talents...” All too true.

Dale could be –to say the least– a challenging personality. Determined to win, he could be a bulldozer crushing an ant. Warm at his core, he could be beyond generous will all he had at his disposal. Unlike many others with talent and raw intelligence, he was quick to share his remarkable thinking, lavish in his ability to elevate the talents of the shy and uncertain, and as bountiful with praises as he could be lacerating with his critical observations. He loved as deeply as he was able, and a constant explorer for the meanings of life.

When it came to the work, there was no one better at understanding media, and getting fans interested in its rewards. I don’t know if it was his methodologies and personality, or the fact that media promotion wasn’t all that well respected in the ad biz, but Dale didn’t have too much of a profile in the advertising world. I think, ultimately, he was much more focused on the work than on the publicity. So, things being what they are, what I’ve collected seems to be the most comprehensive look at his career, at least the parts that I’ve directly touch. By no means is it comprehensive, I know nothing about his radio days in the early 70s, and little about his work after I joined the cartoon industry. But all of what I have is yours, below.

I’ll lead with what a few of his colleagues and friends wrote a few years ago for Dale’s birthday. And then, below that, all the various campaign pieces (written from my perspective, of course) I’ve recalled over the years.

.....

April 2016, on the occasion of Dale’s birthday.

Dale Pon, my mentor and friend. Fucking smart.

Dale Pon’s been on my mind lately, as he is almost every day, because of the ways he taught me to think about …. um,everything. I’ve written about some other important mentors before, but Dale’s influence was so staggering I could never figure out how to sketch it out in anything shorter than book length.

“Dominate the space.” (He was referring to graphic design, but it might have served as a life philosophy).

“Of course, there’s an absolute truth.”

“You remember the first thing you see, but the last thing you hear.”

“The power of three.” (Broke that rule with this list.)

“Advertising is a frequency medium.”

“You make album tracks. I make hit songs.”

I’m not sure that he ever thought of himself as particularly quotable, but as you’ll see below, I wasn’t alone in internalizing. There were hundreds more bon mots, most of which he probably forgot as soon as he said them but stuff I’ve never been able to shake off, to this day.

His resume doesn’t do him justice, but quickly… For 40 years, Dale Pon was at the forefront of media programming and promotion for many of the major media companies, CBS, NBC, Viacom, Storer Broadcasting (where we met). He specialized in radio throughout his career, but when Bob Pittman moved into cable television, he prevailed there too (“I Want My MTV!” is still returns hundreds of thousands of Google search results, 30 years after it went off the air). He was wildly successful in an advertising agency partnership with ad legend George Lois, before setting up a solo shop, Dale Pon Advertising, in New York City.

Dale was brash and loud, very, and he certainly wasn’t to everyone’s taste. The friend who first recommended me for one of his jobs called in a rage when he quit and said if I really needed a gig so badly… I knew Dale’s work from its supremacy of the metropolitan subway system for the New York country music powerhouse (a paradox if there ever was one) WHN Radio, but it hadn’t occurred to me that actual human beings created advertising, or that it took any real brain power. Dale quickly disabused me of that notion, as he sent me to his tailor to buy me my first three piece suit (more appropriate for Park Avenue media than the cut off shorts I wore to our interview).

Most of all, he was really fucking smart. And deeply, articulately, astute about media. He could tell the story of radio stations or television networks better than anyone, and persuade their audiences to fall profoundly in love, by sticking to the basic human emotions like truth, desire, love. (My favorite? “Love songs, nothing but love songs” for WPIX-FM, directly appropriated for an Off-Broadway show). He didn’t end it there, with a creative, strategic and statistical brilliance that combined, to quote Bob Pittman (from another context completely) “math and magic.”

What I appreciated most was his intense, almost overwhelming desire to teach me everything he knew at exactly the moment I was desperate for his knowledge. In fact, as I observed him with myself and others over the years, it would be fair to say that if you wasn’t interested in being taught, Dale Pon wasn’t interested in you. And, not for nothing, it went both ways. He’s was as incisive a questioner and listener as one could want. Curious, intrigued, dying to know anything on almost any subject. In my case, it meant that we generally spent six or seven days together all the years we were together in two different media capitals. Whew!

Difficult? Challenging? Exasperating? You bet. I wouldn’t trade that time for anything.

Dale’s the one who changed the course of my work life, and as Scott Webb says below, “he changed me.” It’s because of Dale that I stumbled on my understanding that I wasn’t a music guy after all, or even a TV baby, but a pop culture sponge. I wouldn’t had the chance to participate in any of the culture shiftings I got to observe first hand. Who knows, maybe I would’ve stumbled through a life of complete dissatisfaction. That’s how profound his influence was on me.

Dale’s birthday recently passed by, and stuck for cogent things to say about him, I reached out to a few friends who’ve crossed his path and might be better at expressing themselves than I ever could. You’ll notice they’re pretty powerful personalities themselves, but Dale made an impression. Boy, did he make an impression. (I left out some of those controversial moments and unproductive comments.)

Well, our friends didn’t let us down. They got to the heart of the matter in ways I never could. Thanks everyone.

…..

Herb Scannell: Mythical.

Dale Pon is mythical.

He’s the man who “wanted his MTV” and got the world to say the same. My friend Fred always claimed that he learned whatever he knew from Dale and whatever I know I learned from Fred so it all comes back to Dale. Or blame them both. Happy Birthday Dale! Forever young!

…..

Bob Pittman: The Mad Scientist.

Dale Pon is the mad scientist of advertising. Full of passion, always with a breakthrough idea and the urgency to get it done quickly with no compromises. He made a huge contribution to my successes at WNBC Radio, MTV and even Six Flags theme parks. One of a kind….happy birthday to him from a big fan!

……

Scott Webb: “Most people don’t know how to think.”

Dale Pon didn’t just change my life he changed me. He encouraged me to be brave and fearless and never stop solving problems. He is one of the smartest people I have ever met and the teacher I will never forget.

You never know how things are going to happen. After 4 years at Sarah Lawrence, one of the most expensive liberal arts schools, I was clueless about a career. My secret wish was to write comics (mostly because I had no talent to draw). Unlike most of my class at SLC my parents were basically working class folks with a yankee work ethic who expected me to not move back home after graduation.

One January evening, I was talking with my friend Betsy K who had just graduated. She had just returned home from job hunting in the city. She had an interview at WNBC Radio; they weren’t hiring but were looking for interns. “What’s an intern?” I asked. I was so naive.

I immediately fell in love with the energy of the radio station. I had to work there.

“You’ll be working for Dale Pon. He’s very demanding. Do you think you can handle that?” asked Buzz Brindle, a WNBC program director. Me? Of course! I’ve got my Yankee work ethic and my Sarah Lawrence education. I thought I was ready for anything. But I was not ready for Dale Pan.

Dale was bigger than life, louder than anyone else in the company and frequently slammed the door to his tiny office. I found him brilliant, charismatic and intimidating.

My first big assignment for Dale was to create a chart of all the radio stations in New York and rank them by ratings performance over the past 2 years. I wanted to do a great job for him but the truth was that I was terrible at chart making. I was a liberal arts comic book kid and he had me doing statistical analysis and I knew if I did a bad job I would probably face his famous wrath behind a slammed closed door. But despite my inept chart building, Dale painstakingly taught me how to read the Arbitron reports and methodically went through my work and instructed me how to correct it. I learned more from him over that 5 month internship than I had in my last 2 years of college. But my lesson wasn’t in statistical analysis or radio promotion. Dale had high expectations of me, he believed in me and he was demanding in the pursuit of excellence.

A lot of people at the station didn’t like Dale mostly because he would raise his voice to make a point or because he was passionate about his beliefs, or would not hold back his opinion when something was mediocre, pedestrian or just plain stupid. Dale expected greatness in people, work and business. His mission was to win and often people found that difficult to embrace. I, on the other hand, found it awesome. I guess he reminded me of the comic book heroes I admired so much - characters who were extraordinary and could do things other people thought were impossible. Most people at the radio station were happy to have a job and get a paycheck and could care less about being #1 but for him that was all that mattered.

It didn’t hurt that he was so smart and insightful. He had the uncanny super power of understand exactly what the problem was – and he taught me that creativity was the ability to solve problems in fresh, innovative and smart ways.

“Do you know why I hired you?” he asked me at the end of my internship. “I didn’t want to hire one of those kids who studied advertising or media in college. Those kids have been ruined. They show up thinking they already know everything - and they haven’t even had a job yet. You didn’t know anything but you were willing to learn and think. Most people don’t know how to think.”

Those were some of the most important words I ever heard. They lit a fire of confidence and trust in myself that did not exist before and served me throughout my life, not just in work but in life.

…..

Bill Sobel: He yelled at me on the phone…no idea why.

…..

Noreen Morioka: “Good creates things, and Evil destroys it.”

There is no doubt that we all have a great Dale Pon story. Dale never did anything average. He did everything in extremes. Whether you were laughing so hard that you couldn’t breathe or wanting to shake him like a rag doll, Dale is unforgettable.

One of my favorite Dale Pon stories is when he was pitching a new name for a network. Since the channel was going to be all re-runs of a lower level, Dale named it Trash TV. I loved it, but when I presented my designs, he thought what I did wasn’t trashy enough and proceeded to get another designer to put flies swarming around the proposed logomark. When he presented his concept to the network president, he stopped at the building dumpster and pulled out garbage to bring up to presentation. Needless to say, the meeting didn’t go well, and the president was furious that Dale brought garbage into his beautiful office. Stern words were exchanged on both sides and security was called to take Dale and garbage out of the office. He called later to let me know they were going to search for another name. The network changed their name several times since then, and each time Dale would just smile. We all knew his solution was genius.

Like you, Fred, Dale taught me a lot. He taught me never to settle, always come back stronger and most importantly what the difference between good and evil was.

“Good creates things, and Evil destroys it.” Thanks to this simple Dale Pon-ism, I live my life by.

I will always have a deep respect and love for that guy. Happy Birthday, Dale. You are the true original.

…..

Tina Potter: So thoughtful.

Dale is a magnanimous gift-giver. I once told him the Chrysler Building was my favorite building in NY, and the next time I saw him, he brought me a beautiful framed B&W print of the building! So thoughtful. I still have it!

……

Judith Bookbinder: ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE.

I learned a lot from Dale in a very short time.

Dale taught me that ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE.

If you want to make something happen, figure it out or find someone who can do it for you.

This simple wisdom is something that has served me throughout my professional life.

…..

Ed Salamon: Directness and Simplicity.

I always appreciate the opportunity to say something nice about Dale, but the stories that first came to mind involved women, drugs, and fistfights. Or were otherwise too self-incriminating. Here’s what I’ve come up with:

The genius of Dale’s creativity is its directness and simplicity (like “I Want My MTV!”). Unfortunately that sometimes resulted in it being underappreciated.

When we worked together at WHN Radio I once heard our boss say to Dale at the end of the day “We need a new ad campaign slogan for the station by tomorrow. Take twenty minutes tonight, walk around the Village and come up with something.”

When I later started The United Stations Radio Network with Dick Clark and others, we hired Dale to create the logo, which he agreed to do out of friendship for only a nominal fee. The logo was a distinctive type face, with the letters stuck together (“united”). Some in the company commented that it was too simple; others appreciated its genius.

……

Tom Freston: A great bunch of guys.

Dale is a great bunch of guys. Argumentative, persistent, a perfectionist, fun, difficult, and smart as hell….winning, ultimately, most of his arguments. Happy birthday.

…..

Therese Gamba: “Work smarter, not harder.”

Long before there was “Better Call Saul” it was “Better Call Dale” when you were faced with a creative challenge. Dale had a long term relationship with MTV Networks having been part of the launch team for that iconic channel. So when The Nashville Network had to be relaunched as the new home of the WWE (then the WWF), oh and it had to be done in three months, there was only one person to call.

My first meeting with Dale was over lunch at the Mercer Kitchen. Fred had prepped me that Dale liked metrics and to be ready for a lot of questions. But as anyone who’s met with Dale will tell you, you can never be fully prepared for the hurricane of creative energy that is Dale Pon.

I was prepared with my Venn diagram of the overlap between TNN’s current viewers and the WWE’s viewers (no surprise, not a big cross section). Then the questions started in what felt like a ping pong match at warp speed.

Two hours into the lunch I had held my own and received the nod from Dale that I was on the right track. I was exhausted, relieved and thrilled to have passed the test. I learned that once you’ve basked in the glow of Dale’s approval, you were hooked. I also learned that I had become a member of an exclusive club, “Dale’s World.” My fellow club members all know the stories, share the memories and still live by what he taught us.

Dale always said “work smarter, not harder.” That mantra has never failed me just as Dale never failed to be supportive, inquisitive and completely one of a kind!

Happy Birthday dear Dale!

(From left): Dale Pon, Anne Grassi, Scott Webb at WNBC Radio, circa 1980.

Alan Goodman: “I’ll give you 50 bucks to fuck up this guy’s haircut.”

Two stories about Dale Pon –

1. I was in Paris with Dale (who ran our advertising agency – my mentor was now my supplier) and MTV’s VP of Programming, Les Garland. Dale and Les weren’t pals. How tense was it? We had dinner together one night in Paris and Les bought us all expensive Cuban cigars. Outside, Dale waited until Les split off to go to his hotel. The first second Les was out of sight, Dale pitched his cigar in the gutter.

We had flown on 10 hours notice so we could shoot Mick Jagger saying “I Want My MTV!” Dale had already shot a number of other MTV generation stars shouting the line, and some were even biggish. But Jagger was THE “get.” We knew that once Jagger blessed our campaign by participating, we’d get anyone else we would ever want. (We did).

We waited around the hotel a couple of days until we got the bat signal that Mick was ready, and raced over to his hotel to set up. Very quickly, what was supposed to be Dale’s shoot had become Les’ shoot. Dale was pissed, rigid with anger, sequestered with me in the adjoining room forced to watch the proceedings on a monitor. I went over to him to try to diffuse the situation. I can’t remember what I told him. But I remember his response, word for word:

“Do you think I need to hear any of this right now?”

I realized why I was in Paris. I was there, as the client, to witness who threw the first punch.

I had spent every single day of the past four months in the office trying to figure out how to do a job I had no idea how to do. I was exhausted. I had zero interest in the kind of politics and shenanigans that network executives pull, and I didn’t want to be there. That’s it, I decided. I’ve had enough. I’m a writer. I have a talent. I can make a living. I will get back home and I will immediately quit.

I said nothing. I smiled through the rest of the shoot. We stopped at a bistro after we wrapped, and had a lovely dinner and wine with the crew. It was a celebration. For good reason. We had Jagger. I stayed quiet. Silent, even. No one knew of my plans.

When we reached the hotel, Dale drew me aside and sat me down.

“You’re not going to quit,” he said. What?! Huh?! How did he know? On top of everything, the man can read minds??!

“You’re not going to quit. You are at the very beginning of something that will change the world, and you will have a great career. You have to stay there and be a part of that and do what you do really well. You cannot leave. Do you understand? You cannot quit.”

He went up to bed. I went home the next day, and didn’t quit. Instead, I stayed and helped make the thing that changed the world. And it was the beginning of a great career.

2. I went to get my hair cut at Astor Place one day. I walked up to my guy, and there in the chair was Dale. I didn’t know Dale used my guy. Dale looked up at me, looked at the barber, and told him, “I’ll give you 50 bucks to fuck up this guy’s haircut.”

…..

Scott Webb (unedited): “He didn’t just change my life he changed me.”

You never know how things are going to happen.

I was a few short months away from graduating from Sarah Lawrence College with no idea what I would do for a job. I was a kid who had grown up reading and loving comic books. After 4 years at one of the most expensive liberal arts schools I was clueless about a career. My secret wish remained to write comics (mostly because I had no talent to draw). Sarah Lawrence was a great place for me. It was there that I understood how to learn. I was naturally curious and SLC exposed me to a world of ideas and brilliant people (students and teachers). But Sarah Lawrence was not a place where I could start a career path. 5 months from graduating I felt the looming pressure of finding a job and making money. Unlike most of my class at SLC my parents were basically working class folks with a yankee work ethic who expected me to not move back home after graduation.

One January evening, I was talking with my friend Betsy K who had just graduated. She had just returned home from job hunting in the city. She had an interview at WNBC radio with a guy named Buzz Brindle. She said they weren’t hiring but were looking for interns. “What’s an intern?” I asked. I was so naive. She explained that an internship is where you work for free - for experience and to get your foot in the door. WNBC was part of NBC - one of only 3 existing TV networks at the time and my eyes lit up at the idea of of doing anything with a big media company. So I lined up a meeting with Buzz to see if I was intern material.

Buzz was sweet and avuncular and I immediately fell in love with the energy of the radio station. I had to work there. “We’re looking for interns in the promotion department” Buzz explained and I just nodded as affirmatively as possible. “You’ll be working for Dale Pon. He’s very demanding. Do you think you can handle that?” Me? Of course! I’ve got my Yankee work ethic and my Sarah Lawrence education. I thought I was ready for anything. But I was not ready for Dale Pon.

I interned at the station 2 days a week and It appeared I was the only male in Dale’s promotion team. I reported to a woman named Anne Grassi but Dale was the boss. Dale was bigger than life, louder than anyone else in the company and frequently slammed the door to his tiny office. I had never worked in an office before. I found him brilliant, charismatic and intimidating. The other interns and I would huddle in the conference room where we did our work and wait for our next assignment.

I did many things as an intern but my first big assignment for Dale was to create a chart of all the radio stations in New York and rank them by ratings performance over the past 2 years. This was no small task - this was way before computers in offices - and required me to go to the NBC research department to collect dozens of Arbitron ratings books and laboriously extract the data he wanted and lay it out graphically. I wanted to do a great job for him but the truth was that I was terrible at chart making.

I was a liberal arts comic book kid and he had me doing statistical analysis and I knew if I did a bad job I would probably face his famous wrath behind a slammed closed door. But despite my inept chart building, Dale painstakingly taught me how to read the Arbitron reports and methodically went through my work and instructed me how to correct it. I learned more from him over that 5 month internship than I had in my last 2 years of college. But my lesson wasn’t in statistical analysis or radio promotion. Dale had high expectations of me, he believed in me and he was demanding in the pursuit of excellence.

The chart was part of his battle plan to make WNBC #1 in the NYC market and when I understood the big picture of what he was doing I felt even more inspired and willing to do anything in the service of that cause.

It didn’t hurt that he was so smart and insightful. He had the uncanny super power of understand exactly wha the problem was - and he taught me that creativity was the ability to solve problems in fresh, innovative and smart ways. “Do you know why I hired you?” he asked me at the end of my internship. “I didn’t want to hire one of those kids who studied advertising or media in college. Those kids have been ruined. They show up thinking they already know everything - and they haven’t even had a job yet. You didn’t know anything but you were willing to learn and think. Most people don’t know how to think.” Those were some of the most important words I ever heard. They lit a fire of confidence and trust in myself that did not exist before and served me throughout my life, not just in work but in life.

.....

Susan Kantor and David Hyman were on the opposite side of their relationships with him, Susan as a long time account executive in Dale’s agencies, and David as a client. Drew Takahashi, a trusted friend and wonderful creative partner.

I’m particularly fond of the pull quote from David’s recollections. Having had hundreds of restaurant meals with DP over the years, waitress confusion was probably my overriding remembrance.

Susan Kantor has traveled to the upper heights of television since her time with Dale Pon in the 1980s. But when you read her memoir below he prepared her well, as he did with all of us.

Drew Takahashi is a director who co-founded (Colossal) Pictures, San Francisco, one of the most creative production companies of the 1980s and 90s, and one of the key creative suppliers to the first decades of MTV.

David Hyman became my head of marketing at the MTVi Group when the company purchased Sonicnet.com, one of David’s early digital music endeavors (he’s gone on as founder of MOG, one of the seminal digital music streamers).

…..

Susan Kantor: “Lead, don’t follow”. Love, Dale”

Hands down, Dale Pon was my most influential career mentor. Ridiculously smart, enormously passionate, admirably courageous and truthfully a little scary.

We would all brace ourselves for the moment the elevator doors opened and the sound of his fiercely determined walk in his trademarked cowboy boots could be heard. With the first, “good morning” would come a rapid fire interrogation of where we were at on all the “to do’s” he had just given us an hour ago. “Why isn’t it done yet?”

Leslie Fenn-Gershon and I used to joke about putting a Valium in his Perrier so we could get through the day.

When I got to the office in the morning there would often be a “note”, on my chair written with red Sharpie marker on yellow pad lined paper (pre-email), from Dale. His handwriting, had as much conviction as his spoken word. These encouraging notes were meant to guide, remind, teach, mentor or simply, to show his appreciation - often complimentary, occasionally piercing. I still have them.

“Lead, don’t follow”. Love, Dale

“Let’s make things happen!” Love Dale “

“There are children and there are parents. Be a parent.” Love, Dale “

“Everyone wants to be told what to do. Tell them.” Love, Dale “

“We had a good day today. Thank you for your help.” Love, Dale

As we chased rock stars around the globe helping MTV and VH1 revolutionize the music industry, and traversed across the county to position many TV and radio stations in their market, Dale always imparted the importance of what we were doing and demanded we do our very best, every day.

He recognized my innate work ethic, enthusiasm and willingness to do whatever it took to learn and succeed – he also knew how young and naïve I was. Ripe for mentorship and direction. I got both, and then some. The Dale Pon “boot camp” was not always pretty, but it was always colorful, impactful, memorable and most importantly, meaningful.

Not only did he teach me all about advertising and the importance of finding the unique selling proposition and saying it as simply as possible so people would remember it, he showed me the world and how not to be intimidated by it. He made me self-aware of my talents and my shortcomings. He also taught me there was no substitute for doing the work.

To this day, I love you Dale and I thank you for believing in me and giving me the chance of a lifetime.

Belated birthday wishes and hope to see you again soon!

…..

Drew Takahashi: “…he gleefully pushed me to do stuff I hated.“

After seeing you and the MTV crew took me back to good/bad old days. I realized I missed Dale Pon.

Back in the day I didn’t know he was a mentor. I only knew he gleefully pushed me to do stuff I hated. In the end I realized you and he knew what was better for me than what I knew. Someday I’ll learn my lesson.

Steve Linden and I went to shoot with Dale for WNBC [AM]. He asked us to meet him at Windows on the World bar for drinks and dinner. He showed up two hours later and Steve and I were suitably toasted. Then he insisted we join him in a very alcoholic dinner. I was so hungover the morning of the shoot I didn’t know how I could direct the talent, Don Imus. Dale apologized for needing to shoot something first so we didn’t roll my spot until the afternoon. Saved my ass.

Many more memories. The weirdest was him in the Colossal bathroom cleaning crabs of their guts for a surprise picnic in the middle of our animation camera shoot.

…..

David Hyman: “[He] always confused the waitresses.”

Here’s mine:

Dale came up with the name of my company, Gracenote. I think that just came really easy to him.

For a while he was a really great teacher to me. I stubbornly couldn’t take the occasional abuse that went with it, even though it was probably good for me. I was honored to be asked as the voice over for a $30 million tv ad campaign by Dale and encouraged to do voice over work. Thrilling to be informed I had career chops outside of sales & marketing.

Dale is the only person i know that would always order two margaritas for himself (at the same time). It always confused the waitresses.

.....

With Dale Pon @WHN Radio. 1977, New York City.

It was against all odds, but my late 70s stint in country music radio hooked me up with a mentor who made the difference.

Before I got to New York’s 1050 WHN, I was aware of the station. Well aware. Sometime in 1976, my friend/future partner/father of my beloved nephew and niece, Alan Goodman, asked me whether I’d seen some giant subway posters (the top photo above). Of course, I’d noticed them, with large portraits of Johnny Cash, Elvis Presley, The Eagles, Charlie Pride, Loretta Lynn, Kenny Rogers, Olivia Newton-John, Linda Ronstadt and seemingly dozens of other traditional and contemporary stars of the era. There were so many, they seemed to be everywhere. And, they were gorgeous, well designed, in a sea of drop-dead-New York graffiti, hum drum posters, homeless campers and mess, standing out like nothing we’d ever seen down there before. Too bad it was for music we couldn’t stand.

After I got the job with the station’s creative director and ad man, Dale Pon (another story for another time), I found out a bit about the thinking at the station and the advertising campaign. How did a city that was the home of the most sophisticated popular music of all time –to the likes of Duke Ellington, George Gershwin, Irving Berlin, Frank Sinatra– welcome the shitkickers in and become the second most popular radio station in the United States (or the world, for that matter)?

Dale was the supremely gifted Vice President of Creative Services, and he introduced me to Ed Salamon, the station’s innovative program director (Neil Rockoff was the General Manager who brought them together), who used a Top 40 radio approach* to country radio, upending the entire (typical New Yorker’s) notion that country music hadn’t evolved since Hank Williams.

No ordinary radio promotion guy, Dale had been a media buyer at Ogilvy, a radio upstart (a mild description) when the world switched from AM to “progressive” FM, and run radio ad sales teams. In the 80s, he would go on to successfully run his own advertising agency, and together we started one of the most famous media campaigns of all time, “I Want My MTV!”).

Dale Pon wasn’t going to promote the station as cowboy boots and hats, like the last team did. He wanted big ratings for WHN, big ratings. They all did.

* If you’re interested, Ed’s written a book that details his contrarian, and wildly successful, methods called WHN: When New York Went Country.

WHN Radio illustrations from top to bottom, all creative direction by Dale Pon 1977: New York City subway station double truck posters (L-R) Olivia Newton-John (obscured), Linda Ronstadt, Elvis Presley; Olivia Newton-John; Kenny Rogers; Television/Radio Age cover ads; Linda Ronstadt double truck subway poster.

.....

I Want My MTV! Early 1980s, New York City.

MTV had been on the air for six months and we’d fired the storied Ogilvy & Mather and hired Dale Pon’s LPG/Pon (a joint venture with George Lois) at my insistence. Now they were presenting their first trade campaign for advertisers and cable operators and my first big decision was being called into question. America is fast becoming a land of Cable Brats! “It’s audacious! Outrageous! Just like you guys.” George Lois was a big talker, a big seller, and a bit of a smart ass, loudmouth. He was also smart. Even though I knew he designed the “cable brats” thing, it was my brilliant mentor Dale, who’d never steered me wrong creatively or strategically, who was behind the whole thing. His ex-girlfriend, and now one of my best friends, Nancy Podbielniak, had written the copy. Besides, I agreed with Dale that generally trade advertising was a waste of time and bigger waste of money. Consumers were where it’s at, and weren’t all the tradesmen we were hopping to reach consumers too? If we had a knockout punch of consumer advertising our job would be done. I knew he was keeping his powder dry for the big show.

America is fast becoming a land of Cable Brats! There’s an incorrigible new generation out there. They grew up with music. They grew up with television. So we put ‘em both together – for the Cable Brats, and they’re taking over America! They’re men and women in the 18 to 34 age range advertisers want most – plus the increasingly important 12 to 17 segement. The Cable Brats buy all the high volume, high ticket, high tech, high profit products of modern America. They’re strong-willed, cunning, crazily impulsive – an advertiser’s peerless audience. They look and listen and they want their MTV. And they buy, buy, buy. Rock'n'Roll wasn’t enough for them – now they want their MTV. (The exploding 24-hour Video Music Cable Network (and it’s Stereo!)

George was certainly right. It was audacious, and it was a touch outrageous. Somehow, the tone wasn’t quite right, but after the crap Ogilvy had done for us, it was way better. Besides, hidden in there was the sand grain that was going to lead us to our pearl.

.....

I Want My MTV! 1982, New York City.

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I WANT MY MTV! took the phenomenon that had taken over the imaginations of young America and supercharged it into a famous brand with just about everyone in the country. I just googled [in 2010] “I Want My MTV” and it popped up almost 4,760,000 results. Pretty amazing for an advertising campaign that ceased to exist 22 years ago.* Pretty potent. The whole thing was the work of my mentor and friend Dale Pon. He’d been my first boss in the commercial media, at WHN Radio in New York when it was a country music station. He’d recommended me for my job at Warner Amex Satellite Entertainment Company, as the production director of The Movie Channel, and eventually as the first Creative Director of MTV: Music Television. We’d fallen in and out over the years, but in late 1981, when it came time for us to hire an advertising agency again –at first, the top dog had vetoed Dale as not heavy enough for a company like ours– with a lot of help from my immediate boss Bob Pittman, I was able to convince everyone that Dale understood media promotion better than anyone else in America. Anyone. Besides, didn’t he have “insurance” with his partner, legendary adman George Lois?

Dale Pon (via MTV: The Making of a Revolution)

No one had ever encountered an ad executive like Dale, because he had the unique ability to be completely and analytically strategic –”math and magic” Pittman might call it– and be wildly, and intelligently, creative at the same time. An almost unheard of combination, especially in media advertising. Sure, he had a volatile nature, in advertising that was often a given (look at his partner). But it was his strategic, creative abilities that really set him apart.

We’d already done our first trade campaign, the “Cable Brats,“ to the discomfort of most of the suits in the corporate marketing group (Bob and his team, me included, were in programming). But Dale didn’t buy into the efficacy of trade ads anyhow, so now were onto the big show, television advertising. The only problem was that we all recognized that an effective campaign would cost about $10,000,000. Our budget only had $2,000,000, and if we didn’t spend it quickly the corporate gods would probably take it away in the fall.

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"I want my Maypo” commercials, created by John Hubley

Looking back, the core creative ended up being the most straightforward part. Dale’s closest friend and creative partner, Nancy Podbielniak had written the cable brats copy and had a tag line “Rock'n'roll wasn’t enough for them – now they want their MTV!” That rung a bell in George Lois, someone who never missed a chance to abscond with someone else’s good idea, and decided to rip off his own knock off of a Maypo campaign from the 1950s and 60s (animator John Hubley originated it as a set famous animated spots, and George had unsuccessfully knocked it off using sports stars) and presented a storyboard that completely duplicated his version. Rock stars like Mick Jagger were saying “I Want My MTV” and crying like babies, implying they were spoiled children being denied. No one was buying it until Dale let me know that there was no way he’d ask Pete Townshend or Mick to cry for us. “Pride! They need to show their pride in rock'n'roll! They’ll be shouting!” After a little corporate fuss we were able to sell it in.

AMERICA! DEMAND YOUR MTV!

Now, it was the next part that was completely and utterly brilliant. Because Dale came from the school that great creative was all well and good, but unless it could move the business needle, what good was it? In this case, the needle wasn’t ratings (cable TV didn’t have ratings in 1981), but active households, distribution for MTV. Cable operators were all relatively old guys who thought The Weather Channel was a better idea; they’d turned a deaf ear to their younger employees who were clamoring for us instead.

To dramatically simplify the strategy Dale organized, he decided to only advertise in markets where:

• There was enough penetration to justify a modest ad spend.

• But where there were critically large cable operators on the fence about taking MTV.

• And that we could afford a 300 gross rating point buy (three times heavier as any consumer products agency would suggest) for at least four weeks in a row (the traditional media spend would call for pulsing 10 days on and 10 days off).

The “G” in LPG/Pon was Dick Gershon. Along with data from our affiliate group, he crunched and crunched and crunched until he came up with a list of markets and dates we could afford. It was 20% of what we needed, but everyone figured if we could really start to knock off a bunch of cable systems, get them actually launch our network, the domino effect would solidify MTV’s hold on the market forever.

Strategy in place, the creative was back on the front burner. The basic campaign was a great way to get famous rock stars endorsing our channel, but where was the close? What would actually make the 'ka-ching’ we needed? Luckily, back in the day there was only one way to for a homeowner get anything from your reluctant jerk of a cable operator (they figure they held all the cards, why should they do anything to make life better for their consumers?). And what was it that young adults loved to do? Dale knew immediately.

No one alive in front of a television set in the summer of 1982 could ever forget

Pete Townshend, with the wackiest haircut of his career, shouting at the video camera:

“America! DEMAND your MTV! Call your cable operator and say, "I WANT MY MTV!!”

We shot the spots wherever the rock stars would have us for 20 minutes (they still weren’t really sure this MTV: Music Television thing was going to be good for them). Our director and producer, Tommy Schlamme and Buzz Potamkin, got together with some puppeteers to choreograph the 'dancing’ stereo television. I asked my partner to go into the studio to edit the music sections when they weren’t rocking enough, and –poof!– famous advertising.

Nothing to it, yes?

* For comparison, “I Want My Maypo” posts 112,000 results on Google. Or “Where’s the beef?”, another famous 1980’s campaign for Wendy’s returns 176,000 (or if you only use that phrase, which has been appropriated for all sorts of uses, you get 2,640,000).

.....

“Mee, mee, me, meeee!” MTV Networks Online, 1999/2000 New York City

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MTV got Sonicnet in the middle of another transaction they thought would be more important. But as the internet heated up in the business world’s consciousness, Sonicnet.com became something they thought to pay attention to. Which meant that, as president of MTV Networks Online, I was trying to help make the thing successful.

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MTV had also acquired a then-unique personalized radio application. Coupled with Sonicnet, we decided an ad campaign would supercharge the site, something large media folks like us thought was necessary. (It wasn’t.*)

Over a few objections, I hired my brilliant, challenging mentor Dale Pon to create our campaign. Dale had done our the iconic “I Want My MTV” for me in the early 1980s and constantly proved himself to be the most creative and effective media ad man in America. The stunningly talented and perfectly musical film director Tim Newman was already on our online staff (after turning his back on a career that included some of the greatest music videos of all time), so he was really the only person who we thought could direct the spots. Dale hustled our head of marketing, David Hyman, into his one and only –and perfect– voice acting job. (And, I should put in a word for the Sonicnet logo. Designed by AdamsMorioka, from a concept developed by Fred Graver.

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You can see for yourself that Dale knew how conceive big ideas to bring out the best from stars. With Tim in the director’s chair, the results were pretty stunning. And, to cap it, Dale really knew how to use MTVi’s clout to reach for the stars (like Isaac Hayes, James Brown, Joshua Bell, Jewel, Pat Metheny, Sheryl Crow, Beenie Man, Gang Starr, Faith Hill, Lindsey Buckingham, Don Henley, Al Jarreau, Alice Cooper, Blink 182, Kenny Wayne Shephard, Bon Jovi, Buck Cherry, Charlotte Church, Christina Acquilera, Dwight Yoakam, The Ruff Ryders, Eve, Johnny Resnick (The Goo Goo Dolls), kd lang, Buck Cherry, Kelis, Lindsey Buckingham, Melissa Etheridge, Moby, Seal, Sisqo, Static X, SheDaisy, Hillary Hahn, Charlotte Church, Yo Yo Ma, and Sting.)

This campaign, like every other one I’d worked on with Dale over the decades, was a hoot. One of the best things to come out of my one year in the early corporate internet.

…..

* IMHO, one of the great mistakes media companies made during Web 1.0, was thinking that their traditional audience reach would give them huge advantage in building web destinations. They’d made the exact same mistake in the transition from broadcast to cable. It didn’t occur to them in either era that a basic misunderstanding of the newest medium –not knowing what the audience wanted from the upstarts– would not attract anyone to their websites.

And, by the by, the same mistake has been made from popular websites bungling the transition to mobile. And, so it goes.

#Dale Pon

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tisthenightofthewitch · 5 years

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GHOST – “I would say by early 2021, you can expect the next chapter of the Ghost story.” TOBIAS FORGE

From the underground to a bonafide global take-over, GHOST are fast becoming the most-talked about band in Metal music today, with legions of fans dedicating their total and utter commitment to the bands every move. Overdrive sat down with one Tobias Forge to discuss the bands success and that all important new album…

The spectacular rise of GHOST is a success story that nobody could have predicted. From their captivating live show’s, to a rich discography that continues to win over armies of fans the world over, GHOST are fast becoming one of the biggest bands in today’s current global Metal/Rock scene.

From the projects birth back in 2006 to conquering American arenas, winning a Grammy for ‘Best Metal Performance‘ (2016), headlining their first UK festival at Bloodstock Open Air (2017), selling out the iconic Royal Albert Hall (2018) and now, floating around Europe as very special guests with the biggest metal band the world has ever seen, Metallica.

One could say that that the Cardinal and his Ghouls are in a rather good place right now.

Prior to taking the stage for their Irish debut before 75 thousand fans (no pressure), Ghostmastermind, Tobias Forge is calmly hanging out in the enormous the backstage compound with his band members and crew, happily sipping on a hot coffee and eager to talk about his excitement in playing the impressive Slane Castle venue.

OD – Firstly, let me congratulate you on the continuous success of GHOST. From the outside, it’s been an incredible few years for the band. My question is how has it been for you personally, from the success of the album (s), playing to stadiums in the US, and now this tour with Metallica?

TOBIAS – Absolutely! I have moments where I have to step back and take it all in. You see, I’m not a very ‘in the moment‘ type of person. In fact, I’ve always been very distant and I guess a ‘dreamy‘ sort of person. If I look back on my life so far and I think about how I spent my childhood, I guess this comes with age and it comes from the fact of also being a parent because when you’re a parent, you can’t help to look at your kids from an upbringing point of view where you have to think about our progress.

I found myself asking the question;”Well, how did we do when we were younger?” [Laughing]. I guess there is a certain amount of reflection you have to do as an adult and now, for me, especially being an artist, I tend to have to think about my life and the journey I’ve had growing up and I’ve come to realise that very little has changed. I have spent my whole life drawing, writing and dreaming about doing all of these things that I’m now getting the opportunity to do.

So, at some point, that dreamy, adolescent looser just like, transgressed into this person who could go back into childhood again. The backside of that is sometimes, I have to remind myself that I’ve gone past the point of wishing to get here, and understand the realisation that this is actually happening. Like today for instance, getting to play this infamous venue, (Slane Castle) is huge for me. I’ve known about this place since the ’80’s.

I have a bit of a ‘now‘ moment with this today, but what often happens is that I play a certain venue, or meet a particular person and it’s like that moment just happens and I’m looking in from the outside, but afterwards I’m like; “WOW!” [Laughing]

OD – You recently did your first unmasked television interview, considering the history and the mystic of Papa Emeritus / Cardinal Copia was this a difficult decision for you to make and why did you feel that this was the time to do it?

TOBIAS – I think I thought and pondered for many, many years and at a certain point, in fact on that very day, it was one of those kind of ‘rip the bandaid off‘ kind of moments. Let’s just get it over with, no drumroll, no fanfare, let’s just move on. I try to be super transparent with this, but my choice of trying to be anonymous or should I say “masked” because anonymous is when no-one knows who you are. That choice was purely an aesthetic choice based on how I wanted this project, this band, this concept to become.

It was not my personal choice, because I don’t want to be famous, or a well known rock musician. So, fast forward to right now and when I look back, I have been involved with some very well-known bands and I’ve had my own share of recognition, so really, I don’t have a desire to become more famous. Bearing that in mind, I was noticing over the years that trying to maintain that vague order was causing a few problems and issues with the whole thing.

There was definitely moments when there was discussions and demands and enquiries about what can we do in order to enhance things. So, I figured well, at some point when I feel that the concept, or the band, or the name and it’s visual aspects are big and strong enough to stand on its own, I can do a thing like that unmasked interview, and hopefully whatever we are doing aesthetically and what we choose to present to the world, that will still be more interesting and better than anything I have to do on the side to appease journalists.

OD – What do you think of the critics who don’t look to favourably on what you do?

TOBIAS – Well, traditionally I’ve noticed that the critics that are critical of the band have been so since day one. Often a lot of the times the shit that people click on is criticism that is not really meant to be positive or productive anyway. I’ve been very vocal towards those people and have to remind them that what I set this project/band out to be, happened to get very popular to an extent that I didn’t foresee.

There are people who say: “Ghost was way better back in 2010” and as a rock fan myself, we can start where my collection begins from ‘A’ and I too will have some critical things to say about each album/artists. That’s just the way things go. You can’t please everybody all the time.

OD – There has been reports of entering the studio for 2020, is this still something that is very likely and is the intention to release the album next year or 2021 or is it too early to think about that right now?

TOBIAS – I think about it all the time. But, let me be very transparent here. I am indeed going into the studio where I will be beginning the work in January. We’re doing another American tour in September/October and then we’re gonna come back to Europe and that is gonna take us right up until Christmas basically.

So, after New Year’s we are gonna have maybe one or two small things at the beginning of the year and then it’s gonna be all about the new album.

People need to understand that I spend about 5 to 6 months in the studio. That’s not with red lights going or anything [Laughing]. But it’s just being in that creative environment you know? I also try to work ‘normal’ hours because I have a family also so, I try to work traditional hours, you know. I like to come in on Monday morning at about 9 am/10 am and then I do normal stuff like have lunch and think about what’s going on, and then I wrap up for the day and head home and see my family.

In order to make that record, it’s gonna take me about 6 months and then that’s gonna take me to the Summer, which we’ve already decided we’re gonna take a break a let the dust settle, and then hopefully by the end of the summer the record will be finished.

Unfortunately or fortunately, depends on how you see it, the US elections are happening, so bearing that in mind, it’s not the best time to release new material when peoples minds are focused on other things. I just want to make sure that when we release this new album, we have peoples attention.

OD – So, you’re hoping that the album is going to be ready by late Summer then?

TOBIAS – Well, that’s the plan but in the event that it’s not finished, it’s gonna be okay. I don’t want to stress the situation. Every record I’ve done has been under some type of time restraint, even ‘Opus Eponymous‘ (2010), that album was on a very tight schedule. It was definitely last minute [Laughing]. I just want to make sure that I have enough time to release the album that I’m thoroughly happy with.

When strategising about where Ghost is right now and where we want to go moving forward, we have to be aware of all the possibilities regarding the best time to release the new album.

OD – I’m sure you have big ambitions for the production of the new album also?

TOBIAS – Yes, totally. We now have the pleasure of playing in much bigger venues all over the world and with that comes the fact that there are a lot of tickets to sell. I hate to talk about it in this way, but it’s a huge part of this business. We have to take great care in everything we do now. Like the best time to announce a tour, a new album, as well as the best time of the year to release the new album. There’s loads of things to take into consideration.

OD – Do you think that some of the previous album releases were not timed well?

TOBIAS – Yes, some of our previous releases were not released at a time that was in our favour. In fact, I have memories of things being very stressful at times. At this point in the bands legacy, it’s far too important to just release the next album with no plan or strategy put in place first. Also, it’s very important that we give the production of the album a few weeks of rehearsal. Basically, we have to plan it like a rocket launch [Laughing].

OD – So, when do you see this album finally being released?

TOBIAS – I would say by early 2021, you can expect the next chapter of the Ghost story.

OD – With regards to each character, do you have an overall plan of what will be happening or is it something that are inspired about with the writing of each album. Does the writing of the album determine the character we will see when it’s eventually released?

TOBIAS – Well, at first there was no masterplan, but now there is one. A lot of the things that have been communicated over the last few years will be fined tuned and explained in the coming years.

OD – Can you give me an example?

TOBIAS – Well, there will be a number of non-album things that are going to happen. This will all happen in tandem with the overall story. These things might be happening next year also.

Even in the void of 2020 not really being an active year for us in terms of live performances, there will be other things that we will be doing in the interim where there’s going to be an album made.

OD – So, would you say that things are more conceptional now than ever?

TOBIAS – Yes, totally. In the beginning there is was lucid, but things have changed in a huge way.

OD – Have you ever considered making a documentary or perhaps releasing a book about your life?

TOBIAS – Well this can tie in with a previous answer that we have already spoken about. At some point or another, during the high points of Ghost, I’m sure there are people that would be interested in reading about my thoughts and my background. But I feel like I’m not really there yet, if you know what I mean.

I feel that I have a lot more to do, before I can think about something like that. Right now if feels like thinks are ever progressing and it just doesn’t feel like the moment where I need to document everything to date. I mean, who knows what’s gonna happen but for all I know, all of this could go tits-up in four years from now. If that happens then I can look back and reminisce when it’s all over.

I just don’t feel like I’m anywhere near the end. I’m gonna be 4o years-old in 2 years time and i’ve got a lot more to do even before I hit that age.

OD – Do you worry about getting old?

TOBIAS – Not really. In fact here’s a little life hack about feeling better about your age. I have a lot of friends who are much older than me. Not only is that very interesting socially, but if I have any issues with the concept of ageing, sometimes it’s great to have older friends whom you can use as a sort of barometer.

I have a lot of respect for my older friends. I think to myself; “If I was half as cool as my friends, I would be very happy with that“. The concept of ageing is definitely hated by a lot of people. At the end of the day, regardless of all of this, my plan is to become a really cool 50-year-old [Laughing].

OD – Do you think it’s important to have role models that are older?

TOBIAS – Yes, very much so. You can not stare yourself blind at the idea of youth being the only state worthy of being because that will greatly disappoint you.

OD – So far, what has been your biggest personal achievement?

TOBIAS – Hmmmm, there are many to choose from. [Thinking..] I think the biggest achievement for me and what I really feel blessed about is..there’s not really a word that can encapsulate what I’m thinking here. Let me try to explain.

From a family point of view, knowing where we were and what our options and possibilities were 1o years ago when our kids were born to present day. I am extremely proud and happy and thankful that I managed to steer things around to something very different. I’m not saying that everything would be crap had all of this not worked out as we were still very happy back then.

I’m very happy that it turned out this way because I got to be one of the few that got to live out a childhood dream. Music really is the only thing that I can do intuitively. I’m quite able to do this and I get better at it with age [Laughs]. But, there is a lot of things that I can’t do, and I don’t exactly know if it’s because I didn’t do that certain exam or for another reason.

I have a hard time concentrating when I’m faced with doing things I don’t really like doing.

OD – How did you back in school?

TOBIAS – I actually wasn’t really good in school [Laughing]. I have no scholastic background, so basically the outlook 10 years ago, had this not happened, did not look that good.

OD – There are few (if no other) bands that have managed to achieve the success that GHOST is currently experiencing, although it’s an exciting and wonderful thing, surely that, in its own right, is a huge achievement for you?

TOBIAS – Up until I was 29 years old, I was on the outside looking into the music industry, trying to figure out a way in [Laughing] and during this time, this industry was not interested in having me as part of it.

Since I was a ‘late bloomer‘ in this business and I got this very coveted opportunity, I feel that my biggest achievement is doing the right things at the right time. This is a highly strange situation for me at times. For instance we are a crew of 25 people here today. I’m not setting up the stage, tuning the guitars etc… I’m expected to put my shit on and get up on that stage, do a little dance and sing my songs in the somewhat correct key [Laughing]

If I have to talk about someone else that made all of this happen, it’s my wife, who gave me the freedom and the pass to continue to chase my dreams when things were just starting to happen.

I remember her saying; “Why don’t you quit your job and just go for it?”

OD – At what point in time did this happen?

TOBIAS – Only a couple of months after Opus Eponymous came out. I was in a critical moment in time. I was employed in a position at a company doing a job that I was not really good at, and I didn’t really enjoy nor felt any value in doing.

She then said to me one day; “It seems like some good things are happening with your ‘rock dreams’, so why don’t you just quit your job and try that? It’s not like your job is worth anything to you. So, you can just do that and if it doesn’t work out, then at least you’ve tried it”.

When I look back on that and realise what she helped me do, most people don’t get that break. Most people who are in a relationship and are grown up, with children, just don’t get a pass like that.

Of course, my Mother also was a huge support for me. When I was in school, she was very saddened that I was such a poor performer and we went to many of the school teacher meetings where there were saying things like; “What can we do to aid you?” [Laughing] and my Mom was like [crying sound] “I don’t know what you want to do with your life“.

Meanwhile I’m over there in the corner being obnoxious, telling teachers to “go fuck themselves“. My Mom had to deal with a lot of worrying and hoping that life will fall in place for me. And by 2010 she was finally beginning to think; ‘Maybe this ‘rock’ thing is actually gonna work out!“, because I finally had a job and with two kids etc..

OD – As Mother’s do, she stood by you all the way.

TOBIAS – Yes, she believed in me.

OD – She’s been to the shows I’m assuming. She know’s all about the ‘Cardinal’ then?

TOBIAS – [Laughing] Yes, she’s been there and loves it. She is not an authoritarian. My Mom was born in the ’40’s and is very “arty“. She was very much a part of the ’60’s generation. In fact, a little bit of side information for you. My Mom bought my first and my second guitar.

OD – What kind of guitar was it and do you still have it?

TOBIAS – Unfortunately, I don’t have that guitar. Ironically, since we’re here with Metallica today, the first guitar that I had was a black Fernandes Strat, just like the one that Kirk (Hammet, Metallica) had on the cover of the original “Garage Days‘ ’87 release.

That was my first guitar and I was so proud that I had the same guitar that Kirk Hammet had and here I am today, sitting backstage on tour with Metallica. Talk about full circle in life. It’s mind-blowing for me, it really is.

OD – I guess there was no hesitation when the Metallica offer came in then?

TOBIAS – I believe the term used was; “A stone-cold no-brainer‘ [Laughing]. It really felt like it was the right time to do this much more than say, if we were given this tour six or seven years ago.

OD – I remember the first time I ever saw Ghost live was back at the 2011 UK Download Festivaland you were on the Pepsi-Max tent, during Soundgarden’s performance on the main stage. There was only a couple of hundred people in that tent but that show was fantastic.

TOBIAS – I remember that show. Phil Anselmo and the guys from Anthrax were standing on the side of the stage watching. That was a really big show for us as we almost cancelled because we did a show in Sweden the night before and we just about didn’t make the journey. It happened because it was very much based on my will to play Donington Park.

Not only were we seen by a lot of cool people, but also that was when our now manager saw us perform for the very first time. I didn’t know that she would end up managing us at the time but it was because of that performance that things took a huge turn for us.

Ghost is very much a collective effort in many ways, from the people that work with us, our crew, techs, management, band members etc, they are all responsible for making this happen. That show was very much a landmark gig that changed the course of the bands destiny.

So, the message here kids is don’t cancel shows, you just don’t know what might happen. [Laughing] Just be cool to everyone because you just don’t know who you’re dealing with. One day a stage hand, or lighting tech, could very well become the next big label, booking agent etc. Just be cool to everyone all the time.

Catch GHOST on tour with Metallica NOW. US dates have also just been announced. Check out the full listing above. For more information, please click here.

ALL RIGHTS OWNED BY OVERDRIVE.IE

#The Band Ghost #Ghost Band #Cardinal Copia #Ghouls #Tobias Interview #Tobias Forge

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on-the-shelves · 4 years

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on my shelf: soundtrack to my fourth year of uni - summer

I’m finally done with my Bachelor’s thesis! I might make a separate, more detailed post about it, since the topic is relevant for what this blog is about (of course it is haha), but for now I can say my topic was an analysis of the use of elements from the “Pop-Star-System” in building up a girlgroup career. I looked at the history of Pop-Stars and analysed the album covers of the Supremes’ first two albums, as well as the Spice Girls and Girls’ Generation’s first albums/physical releases. It was a lot of work, but I really enjoyed the topic. Oh and if anyone was wondering, I’m doing a Media Studies degree, which is why I could tackle such a cool topic.

Anyway! So working on my thesis took up my entire summer semester because I luckily didn’t have any classes left to attend, so I was thankfully spared the whole online class ordeal. The music I mentioned in my last post (”Quarantunes”) has mostly stayed on repeat in the past few months. Besides an ever steady stream of BTS, there are a couple of new things to add to the list:

Tomorrow X Together: The Dream Chapter: Eternity (2020)

Now THIS is the release I’ve been waiting for from them. Their previous album had one song that had a co-writing credit for one of the members (Hueningkai on “Rollercoaster”), but this album has more! We’re finally starting to hear their writing talents more. “Maze in the Mirror” was written/demo’ed entirely by one member (Beomgyu) and in the process of preparing it for this release the other members also wrote parts. It’s a beautiful, melancholic, and dynamic song that I can highly recommend for listening to before going to sleep. The lyrics talk about how unsure they felt before debuting. I can’t wait to hear more songs where they talk about their personal experiences, because clearly they’re good at it. In general this album is much darker than their previous two releases and they suit them well. The songs are more varied, too: You have the classic TXT style opening song, but the lead single “Can’t You See Me?” is full of angst, which is new for them. “PUMA” is like dark R&B, while “Fairy of Shampoo”, a reworked cover of a popular 1990s Korean song, is more city-pop. And then you have “Eternally” which reminded me of twenty one pilots’ “Ode to Sleep” in the way it completely changes up its style several times throughout the song. It’s all coherent and flows well from top to bottom though, and I think they’re well on their way to carving their own niche in the saturated and often same-same (k-) pop landscape.

Agust D: D-2 (2020)

He finally came back. SUGA of BTS last released a mixtape under his solo moniker Agust D in 2016. That one was very dark, brazen at times, and incredibly open and honest about his struggles, ending on a note of hoping that things will get better. This follow-up release makes it clear that Agust D has become a slightly different person in the past few years. He’s still brazen at times, but he has good reason to be, looking at how incredibly successful BTS has become since 2016. As always, he makes fun of those who decide to be haters but cleverly never gets too specific - if you feel attacked, that’s on you. There is a lot of introspection on this album too. It’s generally much less defeated or dark than on the 2016 self-titled release, but it’s still not all sunshine and rainbows. His problems have morphed - he has now achieved his dreams, but it’s not quite what he expected it to be. There are a lot of thoughts about dreams, about what it means to grow up, about what his position in the world means and feels like. That sounds like it’s very focused on himself and might be inaccessible to us non-famous people, but that’s absolutely not the case. A lot of it are quite mundane questions that everyone asks themselves in their 20s, like “what am I doing with my life?” and “what kind of person am I really?”. He makes it clear that he doesn’t have the answers, but he somehow makes you feel comforted in that uncertainty. The musical style is more like current hip-hop, where Agust D was more like harder, older hip-hop, but retains his (especially recent) typical, very melodious style, with him even singing some choruses. There are various styles and interesting production choices that make for a varied, but cohesive listening experience.

Hayley Williams: Petals for Armor (2020)

I mentioned this album in the “Quarantunes” post as well, but the full album was released after that went up, so it deserves another mention here. This album tells a story of an emotional journey towards healing, without ever getting preachy or feeling insincere. In several interviews Hayley mentions her therapy journey and learning to deal with her trauma and how this album helped with that. Listening to all the songs in order, a journey of self-discovery, -acceptance, and -empowerment is laid out. All these things are typically found in little things and learning to change your perspective. It’s Hayley’s most feminine work yet, in the sense that she’s embracing all of her different aspects: the delicate, the powerful, the rage, the love. Everything is wrapped in sounds inspired by Alternative music, but more, as said before, the Björks, Radioheads, and synth-y 80s artists, instead of loud guitar bands. My favourite songs are “Crystal Clear”, “Roses/Lotus/Violet/Iris”, “Over Yet”, “Cinnamon” and “Simmer”.

IU: Palette (2017)

When it was announced that IU and SUGA from BTS (two of the most popular artists in Korea) would release a collab song, I decided to check out her (IU’s) music more intensely, because I only knew one or two of her songs from the Dalkom Café playlist on Spotify. One of them is on this album, “Palette (ft. G-Dragon)”. This album, to me, best encapsulates IU’s sound: from heartbreaking ballads to satisfying light K-R&B, to slightly darker, groovy K-R&B (I think that’s the right genre term..), this one has them all. I’m not the biggest fan of ballads, but I enjoy IU’s voice so much that I don’t mind listening to them at all. I really love it, however, when she leaves that style behind for the slightly darker, or at least more pop sounds, like on “Palette”, but especially on “Jam Jam” and “Black Out”. She has a certain attitude on those songs that are slightly opposite of the pure, innocent image I previously had of her. It seems very sincere though, most likely because she writes on all of her songs. She has been utilising this style more often in recent years, on songs like “Bbibbi” and “Blueming” (both certified bops). “Eight”, the collab with SUGA, is an uplifting, yet bittersweet feeling pop anthem that almost feels like it could’ve been just a little bit longer. I’ll probably dive deeper into her lyrics soon and I’m excited for what I will find.

Sunmi: Warning (2018)

Last summer, Sunmi released the single “Lalalay” and I immediately loved it. I learned the choreography pretty much the week after I heard it the first time. Unfortunately, she didn’t seem to have much other music on her Spotify page though, just a couple of older singles (which I also immediately loved). This year she released “pporappippam” (which is basically the romanization of the Korean title which translates to Purple Night), a bittersweet, nostalgic, summer pop song, like only Sunmi can do. Seriously, no one else in K-Pop is releasing music like hers, and they probably don’t even dare to try. For those who don’t know, she used to be in one of the historically most popular girlgroups Wonder Girls. But besides that, she has been releasing her own style of pop since she started releasing solo music and Warning (which they must’ve only recently put on Spotify in full) is a pretty good encapsulation of that sound. It’s almost like a mix between K-Pop and K-R&B, but more like IU’s moodier songs for example. It’s not flashy and sparkly, but it’s not full-on groove either. It’s a bit of both and it works perfectly for her.

Special mentions for new albums I haven’t listened to that much but do enjoy a lot: HAIM’s Women in Music Part III, Irene&Seulgi’s Monster, Taylor Swift’s folklore (released like a week before this post is published but it’s undeniably good and will get a longer write-up when I’ve had more time with it), Loona’s discography

#on my shelf #txt #agust d #hayley williams #iu #sunmi #music

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doomedandstoned · 4 years

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Rage of Samedi Keep It Slow, Heavy, and Evil in New Video

~By Mel Lie~

I can say with certainty that these five German raging "Pfälzern devils" are even more on fire at the moment than usual...or in other words they are burning like hell and I’m absolutely with them!

The South German Voodoo-Barons RAGE Of SAMEDI have shouted out the news, that they will bring us to our knees with their new album 'Blood Ritual' (2020) on January 17th, released by Argonauta Records (pre-order here)

Rage of Samedi is based in Zweibrücken/Rhineland Palatinate, Germany, and originally founded in 2012 as a side-project, which relatively quickly turned out to be a main project. The band mates of this hellbent voodoo chamber, Lou Cifer (voice), Sam D. Durango (guitar/backing vox), DixieKing Boehme I (guitar), Nick "Scrios" Perkele (bass) and Ian O‘Field (drums) have underpinned their scene presence in the last year with impressive work and have thus acquired a cult fan base.

So whilst we pawed our hooves for almost three years, hungering for new stuff, Rage of Samedi stepped on the gas! They milled over a huge load of live stages, by supporting bands like Eyehategod, High Fighter, Mantar, Monolord, King Witch, Ten Ton Slug, raged down the Malta Doom Fest in 2017 as well the Freak Valley Festival in 2018 and used this time intensively honing on their musical authenticity.

This does not in any way mean that they wanted to reinvent themselves but they worked on topping off their typical monstrous and raw Rage of Samedi sound.

If you take a look at the new work 'Blood Ritual' (2020), you will unmistakably notice that they have succeeded in doing so damn well! Their sound, inspired but not imitated by the spirit of the ancient Doom Gods of the '70s and '80s, compared with a good deal of furious sludge, a stunning raging (core) voice and occasional strolling on musical side-paths of similar genres is and remains edgy and angular but nevertheless a finely well-rounded masterpiece.

By signing a worldwide deal as first German band on Argonauta Record’s growing roster, they hit another big goal on their path.

I caught these Barons of Samedi for an awesome voodoo-session on behalf of Doomed & Stoned and if you can spare some time, follow me in the interview and take a look behind the scenes of Rage of Samedi. Check it out as you take in the world premiere of the music video "I Spit Hate"!

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An Interview With Rage of Samedi

Hey guys! I‘m thrilled as punch to meet up with you here! How do you feel, with the knowledge in the back of your mind that in a few days, your new baby will see the light of day? I reckon you're about to catch fire, don't you? (laughs)

Yeah! Nice to meet you, too. Thanks for giving us the chance for that interview. Indeed, we’re really burning to bring out that record!! It’s been a while since the last one and it’s cool that we have Gero and his Argonauta Records as a label in the background that gave us all the freedom and time to write Blood Ritual.

What is the background of your new album in connection with the overall progress of the band?

Sam: Blood Ritual is the first album where Nicolas and Thorsten were actively parted in the songwriting process. That’s a big development how the songs are sounding and the guitars are working together. We stayed on that point that we’d like to bring in all our influences in our writing process and Nicolas and Thorsten are a big step forward in the quality of the songs.

What distinguishes 'Blood Ritual' (2020) from your last album 'Children Of The Black Sun' (2016)? Are there differences, and if so, which ones and why?

Sam: We recorded the guitars on "Children Of The Black Sun" completely live together. For the new album we got back to tracking the stuff one after the other again, 'cuz the live recordings brought so many problems in the mixing process and we were already a bit under pressure with the release date for C.O.T.B.S. so we couldn’t start again. C.O.T.B.S. was a torture to mix and master. We all thought we have to be parted in the mixing process. And I think we threw the shit away for about ten times! (laughs).

Blood Ritual is completely produced and mixed by our bass player Nicolas Perrault. At the beginning it was hard to follow all his instructions, for example changing my complete guitar sound and all that stuff, but damn, listen to that record!! I’d never do it another way anymore. I mean, Nicolas took that stuff, closed the door, worked for two weeks around the clock and came to rehearsals with that awesome mix. The first time we all are 100% happy with it. BOOM!

The mastering we gave to Collin Jordan at Boiler Rooms, Chicago. He already worked with bands like ‪EyeHateGod‬ and Lord Dying, so he knew exactly what to do with our stuff.

Can you please tell us all you have in mind about the meaning of "I Spit Hate", the appetizer we got as an exclusive release, for our listeners?

Lou: "I Spit Hate" is ment as a "Nazi Scum, Fuck Off" song. We write a lot of social and political critical stuff and we’re always using drastic words, that’s how "I Spit Hate" came to be. Easy as that.

Which of you is responsible for the lyrics? And what are the main themes they deal with and what inspires you?

Lou: I’m the one who is writing all the lyrics. I’m something like an old punk rocker (laugs). Maybe the reason why we always criticize society. (Laughs) Most time the guys working on our songs, I’m with them at rehearsals and the writing process inspires me. Sometimes the other guys give me some inspiration with one or two lines of text or some poems or what else and I work the stuff out or fill them in in my own lyrics.

As most of the big bands in the scene we also can say that we're getting a lot of inspiration from authors like Lovecraft, King and all the others. So some of our lyrics don't have that biggest meaning, just are telling a fantastic story.

Please tell us the story of how you came together as a band.

Sam: We knew each other before the band, but just from seeing each other at some gigs and stuff. Then end 2011, I played a hometown show with my former band where I was on vocals and guitar. Lou and Ian opened up with their acoustic project Leaf&Booze that evening for us. Ian on guitar that evening. A few weeks later Lou and me talked about that I wanted to start a project where I just can play guitar and I asked him to go on the mic there. He told me that Ian is normally a drummer and he asked our former bass player Paul McKay to be with us. So we started. After a few rehearsals we knew this will be more than just that planned side project.

After the first album 'Sign' (2014), Dixie King came to the band as 2nd guitar player, ‚cuz with two guitars we had a lot more possibilities in writing riffs and working them out. Shortly after Paul left the band for some personal reasons. Nicolas said he could help us for some live shows. He already helps us for nearly five years.

When Dixie left in case of his job and all the stuff around we asked Thorsten who we all know for a lot of years before. We hoped he will join because he was everyones absolutely first choice and he did. At the moment it couldn’t be better!

I know, you guys have shared the stage with some awesome band mates, right?

We had the luck to share the stage with a lot of cool bands, also some of our biggest idols who inspired us for doing what we do. Coolest thing is that we became close friends to some of them, as there are Lord Vicar. When you can say that Kimi Kärki and Chritus Linderson played your EPRelease Party with you, can it get any better? They are some of the nicest people we have ever met on the road! Also the irish sludgers in Ten Ton Slug became best buddies. We love you guys!

For example, our third show ever we played with Karma To Burn, followed by shows with the almighty Crowbar, Dopethrone, Mammoth Mammoth, Toner Low, High Fighter, and King Witch we met when we played the Malta Doom Festival in 2017, and organized some shows with them in Germany after that.

To name some others: Sasquatch, Monolord, Eyehategod, Mantar, and so many many more. In '18 we played the legendary Freak Valley Music Festival here in Germany. A planned show with The Obsessed' had to be cancelled in case of WINOs visa problems for the EU, but we hope we can catch this up in the near future.

I am curious, is there a special band story? A special experience that you had together as a band? Maybe a funny story that you still laugh about today?

Ian: Oh my god! There are a lot!! (laughs). We’re on the road as much as we can and there are happening some weird and strange (drunken) stuff. One time Dixie was so fuckin’ drunk before the show, that he played just another gig. He was on stage with us, but just played different songs for the whole show! Further on just a few tags like running naked through London and pissing all over a $250,000 car. We should be ashamed!

Let's have a quick look at the choice of your band name! If I informed right, is Baron of Samedi a creature from the haitian voodoo cult, right? What inspired you to choose this name?

Ian: We liked to choose something that seems to be dark and creates a kind of mystery, but also something with a positive meaning. Baron Samedi was the perfect option for this. He is a so called LOA, which means he’s like a mate to the venerated Voodoo god and the protector of the dead.

You are impressive, hard-working guys and also very present for your fan community. How do you balance this with your daily life? So what do you do in your life if you are not Rage Of Samedi? Maybe the two of you would like to tell a little bit about their private life? - My name is... and my hobbies are... (laughs)

Sam: Yeah. It’s nearly a full time job if you wanna do it right. I’m doing most stuff around the managing and booking. But I wouldn’t do it if it wouldn’t be fun and the band and my dudes are worth every minute of it. Two of us are working in the social area. Ian is a computer scientist, but you could have guessed by yourself. Look how pale his skin is and how red his eyes are!! He always sits in darkened rooms and hates the sun! (laughs)

Nicolas: I’m what you call a full time musician and tattoo artist. Check out my ‚All That Jazz‘ Tattoo! Best in handpoked stuff! (smiles)

Lou: It's nice to have a tattoo artist in the band, and with Phil one in the roadcrew.

Nicolas: Beside Rage Of Samedi, I’m doing my solo stuff as kind of Singer/Songwriter, but I hate this as description. I’m more doom and experimental then what you await from a typical singer/songwriter.

Thorsten: My job is the most important!! I’m working at a very famous brewery!

What are the things that have carved out of you the person that you are?

Life and Booze!

Sam: Letting the fun beside, I can tell that my family and my band/music are the most important things in my life. My wife and my son are my greatest and biggest supporters and made me who I am today! I love you!

I really like your cover artwork! Who designed it and is there a special meaning to it?

Sam: The cover artwork is made by Xavier Gonzalez at ‚No Master Studio‘. It’s completely hand painted (outside and inlay). He just got some tags from us like Voodoo Cult, Blood Ritual as album title. Then we gave him free hand in doing it, and we were smashed when we saw it and it was clear that we take it 1:1. Drastically and in small words it shows todays change of society who is praying to their false idols and dying after an unnecessary life!

Lou: And we wanted naked butt cheeks and a penis on it (laughs) and a beheaded guy!

Sam: He said "penis"! You're going into Facebook-Jail for this, Lou!

Are there any other music projects you are involved in?

Nicolas: I‘m doing my solo stuff, also playing at A Million Tiny Suns (alternative metal) and 114 (German rap).

Lou: Ian and I still have Leaf&Booze as an acoustic project.

Thorsten: I‘m part of Ampersphere, an alternative rock band where I‘m also on guitar and I play bass guitar at Zoahr. This is a psychedelic rock band and I proudly can say that we made it to the Doom Charts last month with our 1st album 'Axis'

Thank you guys for this thrilling voodoo-session, it was a great pleasure to meet you here! Do you have any last words for our listeners that are burning on your soul and that you want to get rid of?

We’d like to thank you, Mel. Just a big shout out to ALL our supporters who are with us, all the bands we met on the road and became friends!!!! We appreciate that so much. Special shout out to our roadcrew and buddies Ducky and Phil. Without you we’re nothing! Metal, Love & Peace!

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x--daughters-of-darkness--x · 5 years

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Lacuna Coil’s Cristina Scabbia wants you to “lay down on your bed, close your eyes and come on a journey with us”

For two decades now, Lacuna Coil have been one of the most consistent voices in heavy metal. Since their debut album ‘In A Reverie’ in 1999, they’ve averaged a new record every two or three years; always ambitious, always as gothic as Hallowe’en in a bat roost, always abrasive… and at the heart of it, always featuring the gargantuan lungs of singer Cristina Scabbia.

Surprisingly for a band so far into their career, new record, ‘Black Anima’, their ninth, contains the best songs the Italian band have ever committed to tape. It’s a deeply personal work, with recent events in Cristina’s life inspiring much of its content. “This isn’t just a heavy record in terms of it’s sound,” says Andrea Ferro, who shares vocals in the band with Cristina. “The words are heavy, the tone of the record is heavy, it’s a very emotional record. I think this and our last record are the most personal records Cristina has made…”

NME thought it time we asked Cristina about the making of ‘Black Anima’, a record that explores sadness and pain in unflinching detail – but also that revitalises the veteran stars.

Cristina, you’re recently described your new album as ‘the heaviest and darkest’ album you’ve ever made. Metal bands always say this. Do you really mean it or is it just something to say?

“We really mean it. I’m even more convinced of it the more I listen to what we made. I think our last record [2016’s] ‘Delirium’ was heading in that direction and ‘Black Anima’ is a natural progression from that record…”

You’ve been doing this now since 1994. Normally bands get more mellow the longer they go on…

“Well, I certainly don’t feel like that as a person. The older I get the more curious I get. I feel like going from ‘Delirium’ to ‘Black Anima’ taught me so much about myself. I lost both my parents in a very short period of time and they literally were the world to me. We’d talk every day. Multiple times a day. It was so shocking to me to lose them…”

I’m sorry that happened to you Cristina…

“It happens. They lived a long happy life and I was lucky to have them for so long. But I have realised that I am much stronger than I thought I was. For years before I was trying to prepare myself for it happening. I was trying to visualise how I’d cope. I used to tell myself what it would be like. I thought I’d lock myself indoors, shut out my friends and be completely depressed – and then I learned that you do just go on. You have to carry the torch. I feel bulletproof now. I’ve lost the most important thing in the world to me, and I’m still here.”

In all the time you’ve been doing this, what’s the biggest change you’ve seen? Being in a band now is so different to how it would have been starting out in 1994…

“Everything is so much more complicated. Social media has made everything so fucked up. Everyone wants to look beautiful and perfect and smiley and rich and that’s just a distorted version of anyone’s reality. I think people dug deeper before these times. Now everything is so transient. A band release a new single and in another two days another band releases a new single and the previous song is forgotten. I’m sick of hearing about views and numbers and streams and… shit. I think there’s poetry behind the creation of music and songs – and there’s nothing poetic about social media.”

Lacuna Coil come from Milan, Italy – not a country famed for its export of heavy metal…

“Well it was just so different back then. We used to send cassettes with our songs on to record labels. No email, no smartphones… I still can’t believe how lucky we were to be noticed – this little band from Italy – by our label, Century Media, who we’re with even now. We were the first band they signed outside of their circle in France. We were so surprised to get a call from them. Metal is, even now, a real underground genre in Italy. There’s a few more bands now – we’re good friends with the band Fleshgod Apocalypse – but the scene is still very underdeveloped. There’s not many opportunities for bands to break out. The radios don’t play metal, the clubs are weird sizes – loads of 500/600 capacity venues in Milan just closed down, so venues that are left are either too small or arenas, so it’s hard for touring bands to find anywhere to play.”

This is a question that separates the progressives from the old farts. Were things better then?

“Ummmmmmmmm… Yes and no. I think things were more exciting back then, because there was just less of everything. Things that have largely been eradicated now, like waiting for the release of a record, have been lost – and these were great things! I miss queueing up outside record stores! I miss patience! Everyone wants everything immediately now, and I don’t think that’s always good for you. I think there was probably more respect for music as art too…”

Would you like me to warm your slippers by the fire, Cristina?

“Yes, well, the good thing about the present times is that bands can access a bigger audience easier. I would have loved Lacuna Coil to have had access to something like YouTube in the beginning. The idea you can form a band, record a song, upload it and someone in Australia can be listening to that song the same day is still mind-blowing to me. There’s just more chances. More opportunities to showcase. This is a great thing – I just wish it all wasn’t such a clusterfuck! I think the idea of bands having 25-year careers now is quite unlikely.”

What it sounds like to these ears, Cristina, is you’re looking for music to have more permanence than it does right now…

“I think there’s something in that, though I’m just frustrated with how much music has to compete with right now, really. There’s so much noise competing with people for their attention. Why is everyone trying to go viral by kicking a bottle top off a water bottle?”

Can you kick a bottle top off a water bottle Cristina?

“No I cannot. I haven’t tried. But I get it. People want to be entertained. Little fixes of entertainment. That’s what we’re competing with. To be something more.”

How do you do that, though?

“Well we’re trying to do things in a quite old-fashioned way. We’re trying to write records, not songs. On the new record there’s an intro and an outro, and you should try to enjoy the record in its entirety. We’re trying to get an hour from people to lay down on their bed, close their eyes and come on a journey with us. That’s the goal. We like to try to add a visual element to our records too. This time we’ve made tarot cards with the record, which I think suits it because it’s a very – how do you say? – esoteric record, in a spiritual way. There’s a card for each song, designed by the artist Micah Ulrich. I don’t really believe that tarot can tell the future, but I do think they’re a good visual to show where you’re at in your life.”

“There’s a book we read that we found inspiring – it was the spark that led to ‘Black Anima’ really. It’s called The Physics Of Angels [Full title: Exploring The Realm Where Science And Physics Meet, by Rupert Sheldrake] which is a conversation between a theologist and a scientist. It got us thinking about why people need to believe in a protecting presence – where does that come from? It inspired a lot of the album’s artwork and theme, and even a few of the songs.”

Which side of the fence do you fall on Cristina? Are you team science or team theology?

“Science. 100%. Actually, let’s call it 80%. I still understand the spiritual part and I do hope there is something in us that lasts. I want to believe my loved ones are still around me in the form of energy, but I don’t have any proof. That stops me from blindly believing. Obviously Italy is a very religious country. We have the Pope. But while I grew up going to church – my parents were believers – I never did believe. I used to just be confused why I had to go to church every week. I didn’t understand why people didn’t behave like they said they did in church. I always thought it was more important to be a good human being, to be a respectful human being, without any fear of God attached to it.”

Before we part ways, I just wanted to say that my assessment of ‘Black Anima’ after living with it for a while, is this is absolutely a record made by a woman who is living with an unbelievable amount of pain…

“In parts, absolutely. There is a realisation throughout this record that it is sometimes okay to not be okay. I don’t think darkness is wholly negative. We learn who we are in darkness. Sadness is a huge part of life. It’s okay not to be happy. I guess what I’m trying to say is that I’m always trying to look for the light in the darkness, but it’s okay to live within the darkness for a bit too. I think when you embrace all the shades of life you can live a happier life than if you deny any of it.”

On a scale of one to ten – ten being very happy, one being very sad – where do you think Cristina Scabbia ranks right now?

“I think I’m on an eight. I’ve been down, but I’m here.”

#Cristina Scabbia #Lacuna Coil #2019 interviews

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