Candle Hour Music: Looking Back
As many of my followers know I release music under the band name Candle Hour, my first album released a little over a year ago. As I am preparing to release another disc in the near future I felt it important to look back at what Candle Hour has created before moving. I know this is a bit of a puff piece but that isn't what I normally write very often so I hope you will indulge me in this case.
My last album known as "Airplane" was a mixture of electronic and rock elements. All instrumentals and ambient music and no real vocals to speak of. A few years ago I had begun to experiment with my keyboard and guitar and then with VST synthesizers on my computer. Combining the two I created Candle Hour and spent a lot of time on my computer crafting Airplane. When it was released my first single (and actually the first song I created) was called, "Without A Parachute."
WITHOUT A PARACHUTE
I wanted to create music videos from the start. I knew that for the album to be heard it needed to be seen as well and I hungered for a chance to display more creativity as part of the project. But I knew music videos done cheaply often do not look very good. Using a little ingenuity I came up with a simple yet interesting Idea. I would make a time lapse video, speeding everything up and using an effect to render the video to appear as though it was animated, as if each frame had been drawn. It was only a trip driving around my home city but I think with the effects and speed it fits the song very well. If you want to check it out the video is to the right of this paragraph.
OVERTURE
For my second single in video I wanted to use a song that would highlight the softer and somewhat more erie side of Candle Hour. I also needed something that would be in contrast to "Without A Parachute," which was a heavy and rather drum pounding number. The song I chose this time was, "Overture," is flowing sound much like that of a far away signal of some cosmic civilization. I the case of the video we used footage from (the now in the public domain) Alice in wonderland. The very first Alice In Wonderland to be put on film in 1903. Footage that is now 109 years old! It worked very well with the song and many loved it. Check it out the video to the right.
ATMOSMUSIC
Probably the single and video I am most proud of it combines time lapse and non time lapse footage of video I took while viewing many types of micro-organisms under my microscope. I had spent hours upon hours filming these little creatures and then many more hours going through footage finding the most miraculous instances. The song itself contains human tongue clicking sounds mixed with drums and other types of unusual electronica and I still think is my best number. Check the video to the right of the paragraph.
MARCH TO THE END
Last but not least my fourth and final single from my album combines marching style drums with hard crushing electric guitars. I reminds me of some fantasy realm army heading off to battle. The video in this case incorporated many scenes of destruction focusing on video footage of atomic bomb blasts, both tests and actual live explosions. For this one the name and video were primarily chosen to illustrate the direction that humanity is going in. Or at least my opinion of where we are headed.
That's it my first offering as an artist and on to new things. For any interested in this type of music and looking forward to our next release the first single should be released with the next few months. Thanks for reading.
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