Hey Troublemakers,
I hope this message indeed finds you well. It has been the longest break from posting that I have taken in many years and it was very much needed. We posted 6 weeks ago that we were going to go on a much needed "Digital Detox". It is quite incredible to think that in today's day and age that is some kind of necessary feat. My personal relationship with social media has been rather complicated the past half decade. Probably like all of you, I've gone through the full rollercoaster of "This is so great, people are awesome" to "why am I wasting my life on this garbage".
I could write an entire short novel about my relationship with Social Media as a musician, but that is for another day. In short, my time away has reminded me of what is important to me. After some much needed sun in Florida with my family, I returned to Germany with a laundry list of things to do. Most importantly, there the burning need to write new music and really start developing our next big show. We've written quite extensively the last months about feeling like we had been lost at sea and searching for a lighthouse. In many ways that Lighthouse is the "next" thing for The Trouble Notes. 5 years ago it felt like we knew what we had to do, make a big show that would have meaning and purpose. Then for a whole plethora of reasons, that clarity seemed to all but vanish. It's funny how clear and simple your answers can be when you try and remove all of the daily noise.
Creatively, I have always struggled with Boxes. Musical Genre, that is a box. It's been a blessing and a curse in this world. The Industry wants clear and concise labels for everything so they know where it goes, but we've always struggled with that. Lose Your Ties & Liberty Awaits have themes, but musically they are extremely diverse. Bands need to make albums with a nice, clear genre, but what about a Soundtrack? You see, those can be whatever they need to be to narrate the story. When I think about the best film, game and TV soundtracks - they're all over the place. One scene requires drama, action, excitement; the next is sad and melancholic. A romantic sequence is followed by an Epic battle is followed by a dramatic escape. The musical needs of the moment cannot be bound by Genre, they must be free to express what the scene warrants. Thus the answer for what to do next with The Trouble Notes seems clear to me now: write a Fictional Story and score its soundtrack.
The past months I've delved deep into an imaginary world. I've imagined an entire story of heroism, struggle, dogma, disillusionment and resilience. I created character arcs, scenes and laid out a vision for an entire Sci-Fantasy fiction novel. Then sketched out a track-list and for the past two weeks, Flo and I have been writing the soundtrack. We've reimagined our sound - added new instrumentation and effects to fill out the bass frequencies. We've sketched out moments in the music for narration - including a handful of songs that have a verse and chorus. We've envisioned how this music we be performed live - where the audience will dance, sing, clap, cry and smile. Most importantly - we've thought deeply about the intent of each piece, how it fits into the narrative of the Story Album and how we perform this without losing the relationship that we have with the audience throughout the show.
The past 48 hours, I've been building inside my studio in Dresden. After two full days of work, the studio is ready for the next chapter - filming and recording the music that we've spent two weeks working on. Over the next two weeks, we will again be very active here on Hive, sharing our progress with you and giving you much more insight into this new adventure. There is a lot of excitement around this entire endeavor, having already shared the synopsis of the story and musical intentions with a few trusted music business partners and they are all very enthusiastic about the idea.
For now - I leave you exhausted from two long days of carpentry work! But know that the silence the past 6 weeks has not been due to inaction. We have much to share.
With Love and Troubled Melodies,
Bennet