Winterherz (und der Regen fällt...)
On February 08, 2011 I finally dared to share my first demo track "Winterherz". I had put it on the web a year earlier, in January 2010, but Farblos had up unto this time still been called Diurnal Masque, and the song was only available on MySpace(!) and so hadn't met with any particular feedback.
I had been somewhat active in music since 2008 with a folk/renaissance/medieval band and I had for some time been working on a 12th century song by Belgian troubadour Hendrik van Veldeke, to which no melody is recorded, but that has hauntingly mournful lyrics using a language that is sombre in an almost romantic way. I had come up with a melody, but it just didn't want to fit the medieval setting and sounded much more like the music I usually listen to, which is mainly of the darker, somewhat synthy New Wave type.
So I worked on melody and arrangement for two years during which I acquired a bass guitar, an early 90's synthesizer and a decent sequencer and translated the parts of the lyrics I wanted to use from Medieval to modern German and finally arrived at a (largely) English version.
At some point I just forced myself to stop and publish the song, which at this time didn't have much more than the general gist and motifs from van Veldeke's 800 year old song.
The rest is history...
Du fällst
October 2011 saw publication of the second demo track on which I had only been working for half a year (which in comparison to the two years needed for "Winterherz" is pretty fast ;) ).
This might contribute for the simplicity of the track, but I think it would not have turned out any complexer had I taken more time, since it just felt right the way it was and I still think it's one of my better works. And other than before I was also very content with more traditional song structures, featuring an instrumental bridge and an actual refrain. The lyrics came straight from my personal life at that time and there was thus no hesitation as to what language I might use and went straight for my native German.
My friend Richard of Eismann Filmproduktion suggested recording a video clip, and although we could have gone for something much more elaborate and high tech we went for late 80's VHS hardware to match the look to the (not really intended but appreciated) retro feel of the music.
Diurnal Masque
In May 2012 the third demo track was published, which was in fact the second song recorded. I just had to figure out the right lyrics, since those originally recorded just plainly sucked. So it ended up with lyrics to match the long standing idea of the Diurnal Masque, and ironically enough they were largely not even my own, but just adapted and rearranged from the "Dance Diurnal", which Canadian poet Bliss Carman published in 1918.
This was the first Farblos song to show the somewhat more ethereal ballad type I am also fond of, but (looking back) probably not in the best possible manner. But those who were already into this demo track will certainly like the slower and calmer material of the upcoming album.
Auf der Schwelle / Reisen
Only three months later I published the two songs which I had actually been working on while rearranging the lyrics to "Diurnal Masque" - both quite different in style, as one was of the more danceable synthpop kind, while the other was much more ethereal. Nevertheless they both dealt with similar topics so they seemed a perfect couple to show the variety of Farblos.
"Auf der Schwelle" (i.e. 'on the threshold') was the title I gave to a photograph of myself taken by Alice K. back in early 2008. It had inspired a poem about having to move on and not being able to, that at this time came straight from my heart and accounts for all the pathos that you non-German folks are fortunately not aware of ;)
The song was originally intended to have quite different lyrics, but they just never seemed to fit and by accident I realized that these two altogether unrelated works matched perfectly and so "Auf der Schwelle" sort of turned out as the song to the artwork, so to say.
"Reisen" (i.e. 'travelling') is of course often the most logical conclusion to the feeling described above (mostly figuratively, of course). It's seldom easy, often a bit frightening and sometimes full of longing, and these are the feelings I tried to transport in this song. It doesn't have any actual lyrics, but was inspired by some literally hopelessly romantic verses by one Elimar von Monsterberg-Muenckenau (yes, that's an actual name), which he wrote about 1900 and which in 1902 were given a melody by composer Alban Berg which was the basis for my own arrangement.
Hazy Shade of Winter
In the summer of 2013 I felt the time was right for a cover song. When told about this idea the question was typically among the lines of "cool, Joy Division or the Cure?" and I'd have to lie if I told you that there weren't some ideas for that gathering dust on my harddrive. But instead I chose to go for something altogether unexpected and dig much deeper in my childhood where my mother's fondness of Simon & Garfunkel comes in.
I have always had a liking for their deep and often somewhat gloomy lyrics, and thought "A Hazy Shade of Winter" combined perfectly Farblos-compatible lyrics (which are actually by accident not unsimilar those of "Winterherz") with a melody that I thought might be turned into something New Wave'ish... A 1980's version of a 1960's song, made in the 2010's, so to say...
The very next month saw the record deal with Obscure Music, and I hope you guys are staying tuned for the full length album :)
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