Pay attention, Haters. Now is the time…
We have traveled this road before…
As we suspected, our collaboration with Season Of Mist is no more. We thank them so much for believing in us and for putting our name out there better than any of the other labels we have been on. I was sure this was going to happen, though, that’s why I have tried to get an answer from them about this during the last month or two now when I am in the middle of composing for the next recording. The reason why I wanted to check this so early is becoz I didn’t wanna end up with an album’s worth of excellent material and then find out they can’t release it, meaning the stuff would be delayed for months and months and months before you get to hear it. That’s not how Chuck Norris would have worked it, you know.
So, why the split? It’s certainly not due to second-level music. We wouldn’t know how to create such crap. And it’s certainly not becoz we didn’t get amazing reviews for our latest album “Bleeding the new apocalypse”, coz we sure did. The simple truth is – we sell 1/10 of what we used to do some 5-10 years back. And we’re not the only ones in this situation, unfortunately. And what’s the cause for this? You already know what it is – illegal downloading. The majority of people simply do not give a fuck about buying actual albums anymore, meaning the bands sell less, the labels don’t get their invested money back and ultimately this leads to said labels not being able to take chances since they know they’ll lose money. As said, you already know this, I need not elaborate much further. Some claim that “the music is out there for you to take” and “sharing is caring”. Sure, if the band do so by free will, like we do in Torture Division, I have no problem with it. But unfortunately TPH can’t record our stuff for free to have it meet the standards we want.
So what’s next for us? I seriously do not know. Or I kind of know. It’s not like I am giving up creating music (hell, I guess you have been following the process of writing for our next recording, right?), that’s just not an option. I live for this shit, you know.
So, will there be another TPH album in actual physical format? As it looks, I don’t think so. After all these years that we have been putting out albums I can safely say that I have had it with chasing labels and proving we’re worth a deal. We already know we are. We know what we do is excellent and unique, and yeah – so do you. But no matter how much I burn for making and recording music – I simply can’t do it all without funds. I can’t bring TPH into a bunch of different studios for each recording and think the owners of those studios believe it’s a great idea to work for free for weeks just to hand me a finished product becoz I am super cool and utterly awesome, working with 3 other just as super cool and utterly awesome guys (well, 2 guys and one gal, to be correct…). Nope, it doesn’t fly like that. To record TPH and make it what I want it to be costs come money. Is it a lot of dough? Compared to what it used to cost a few years back for a band at this level (and I do not believe we’re a big band if that’s what you thought) – nope, it’s not. It’s not even a ton of money in the grand scheme of things. But it’s definitely too much for me to pay myself. And you all know TPH is my vision, hence why I say “myself” when it comes to things like this, coz none of the other heroes in the band should ever have to pay a single dime. If anything, they should be paid for helping me perfect what I have in mind music wise. But that would be a completely new donation thing altogether, haha… I am just happy I have the chance to have these people, my closest friends, in this – supporting me no matter what, for reasons only *insert religious figure of choice* knows.
I am not going to approach any labels this time. I have had it with that. I’m fed up with it. I feel sorry for the labels who can’t even get their invested money back and it’s not worth all the hassle and contracts and whatnot to release one album and then split with them. We’ve done that already. Too many times. Fuck it. There are thousands of useless bands out there releasing album after album, but there are also a fuckload of excellent ones never getting the chance. We have gotten the opportunity to release albums for over 10 years, and for that I am thankful. But now I have had it with that shit, as mentioned. The physical copy obviously means nothing today to the people who once purchased albums.
So, what options do we have? The TPH Donation Experiment that we tried a few years ago actually looked like it was going to work (which was an absolute shock). But that only dealt about recording the album, not actually pressing CD’s for you to be able to hold physically in your hands. That would cost more. If this donation thing was to be started again, the album would be all digital. And considering sales today (again, not just for us – for most bands), it comes as no surprise that this prolly doesn’t matter one fucken bit. Would people actually give 2 shits about helping out to make this music come alive? If it was about my fave band, or if I was just being a fan of great music in general – I know I would help out becoz I like great music. But I am not people and people are not me.
The TPH Donation Experiment is on, that is the bottom line. And this time it will run until we reach our goal that we need to finance the next recording. So how much do we need in all to bring this album into reality? Around 25.000-35.000 SEK. That’s around 4000-5000 dollars, or something. Will we get to that? No fucken idea. That all depends on you who give a shit about another TPH album. There’s still quite some time before we will record it (follow the process on the writing on this site and our forums), but the plans have always been to do it during 2012, and considering how excellent the composing is going – it’s safe to say it will happen if the funds are there. I would NEVER rip anyone off, you know this by now. If we see that during this time up until when we plan to start tracking the album, we don’t reach the goal for the money needed – all money will be returned to their donators. I will also keep you updated how the donations are stacking up, if they are that is. And I’ll do it by every 200 dollars coming in so you know where we are at. Have this been tried before? To have fans and supporters of the band actually make the album happen, even if it’s not a physical product? Did it work in the past, if so? Will it work now? I don’t know… I have no fucken idea at all actually, but it’ll be interesting to see what comes out of it, and perhaps it’s a sign of what’s to come for the future. 6 million years from now people might say “- Hey, remember those Swedes from TPH? They did some real groundbreaking shit back in the day!”. Then again, maybe not, huh? Anyways, you feel this is something that is doable? It’s all in your hands now.
If you wanna be a part of this experiment, the best way to make your donations would obviously be thru PayPal at theprojecthate@gmail.com.
No matter how much or how little you donate, when the album is recorded, mixed and mastered (sometime in 2012) we’ll hand you a download link for it (just hand us your e-mail that we can save for this occasion), in WAV and high quality mp3’s of course, and then it’s up to you to do what you want with it when you have it. Keep it to yourself, spread it, treasure it like your bastard child, tell people they can have it from you if they donate a buck to cancer research or our next recording, whatever you see fit suits us fine. This business never made us much money in the first place, but today it doesn’t even get us enough money to record the music we burn for and believe you deserve to hear. That’s how it looks at this level. It’s very, very sad, but “it is what it is” as UFC head honcho Dana White would say. If this doesn’t work, then “Bleeding the new apocalypse” was the last album you got to hear from us, obviously. That just wouldn’t be fair to anyone. No, seriously – it wouldn’t.
We’ll see where this leads eventually. In the meantime, I have some music to write.
Thanx for the support so far, Haters. It’s very appreciated.
Update November 2nd:
If you wanna donate directly into the TPH bank account, here’s the information you need:
Lekebergs Sparbank: 8164-6,4 234 547-0
IBAN: SE60 8000 0816 4600 4234 5470
BIC: SWEDSESS
Also, a few people have asked for an eventual deadline when it comes to the donations, since they don’t have money right now but still want to support The Hate as soon as they have the cash. Let us put it like this: Well, we can’t record until we have the funds, but the plan is to complete this album in 2012. Sooner rather than later.
