Von trolling us about the possibility of a new album again

THE place for your Sisters-related comments, questions and snippets of Sisters information. For those who do not know, The Sisters of Mercy are a rock'n'roll band. And a pop band. And an industrial groove machine. Or so they say. They make records. Lots of records, apparently. But not in your galaxy. They play concerts. Lots of concerts, actually. But you still cannot see them. So what's it all about, Alfie? This is one of the few tightly-moderated forums on Heartland, so please keep on-topic. All off-topic posts will either be moved or deleted. Chairman Bux is the editor and the editor's decision is final. Danke.
Bartek
Underneath the Rock
Posts: 6141
Joined: 17 Sep 2005, 10:47

Or: this is what you want ... this is what you get. Oh, no, other band used this as album title.
User avatar
shivarising
Amphetamine Filth
Posts: 205
Joined: 13 Sep 2003, 05:37
Location: Bangkok, TH
Contact:

If he really needed the money, he'd have already done it. Pledge Music $100,000 and you get a webcast of :von: doing "Dance On Glass" acoustic.
User avatar
VonOben
Gonzoid Amphetamine Filth
Posts: 293
Joined: 03 Mar 2004, 21:58
Location: Sweden

EmmaPeelWannaBe wrote:However, the difficulties with the Doktor could also explain developments. If all his stuff was stored in Windows 95, err ... ok ... and now they've recovered it ... :eek: :oops: :lol: ... after decades ...
MS-DOS 3.30 is/was mentioned alot on the official page.

That is way older.
"Baby... boogie... baby." - AE
User avatar
XidiouX
Gonzoid Amphetamine Filth
Posts: 301
Joined: 09 Oct 2011, 02:51

User avatar
iesus
Overbomber
Posts: 4455
Joined: 15 Mar 2006, 11:15
Location: x-EU

Yeap, we heard of it XidiouX and the interesting part is that Trump is many points ahead from Illary :innocent:
User avatar
Pista
Cureboi
Posts: 17628
Joined: 25 Jun 2006, 15:03
Location: Lost In A Forest
Contact:

iesus wrote:Yeap, we heard of it XidiouX and the interesting part is that Trump is many points ahead from Illary :innocent:
Image
Cheers.
Steve
Just like the old days

TheCureCommunity
copper
Gonzoid Amphetamine Filth
Posts: 255
Joined: 28 Jan 2009, 14:33

Even if Trump would get elected (remember Gore), it'd take a while for someone to catch up.

"The last time I decided definitively that a song was finished and untouchable was 2010 [-- interview date Aug, '12]. I’ve written a lot since then, but I’m still tinkering with them. I like to tinker. With computers, information is much more fluid now. A file is infinitely modifiable. So it’s a bit hard to decide when something’s finished. That fluidity does tempt me to be very absorbed with tinkering, which I find a very fulfilling process in itself." - src


Elsewhere, there, the same old song.

"We record bits and pieces from time to time, but we never get around to finishing them, so I don’t think a new album is uppermost in our thoughts. Making an album requires a lot of time and nervous energy and a little bit of money. And I’m not sure my lads want to be tied up for that long doing that – with no prospect of recompense at the end of it."

He's certainly aware of the economical side of it. But time and again, it's like, "Chris & Ben can't be arsed to tinker with me for so long without pay." Obviously, Von is the Sisters, and them lads are his employees. I doubt they'd see much of the album sales, as otherwise, as equal partners, they'd surely be willing to take a stab at it.


"If you needed the money, would there have been another Sisters Of Mercy album by now?

Yes. Although in the current climate, I don’t think that would have made much difference financially. You can’t make money putting out records.
"

"There’s a difference between being a musician and being a pop star. I think that answers your question about how I would define creativity... And I don’t have the existential need to do [release albums]... I don’t make music for you. I make it for me."

There you have it. A.E. Salinger.
Microcosmia
Gonzoid Amphetamine Filth
Posts: 363
Joined: 28 Oct 2015, 02:22
Location: Dublin

He could always do a voiceover for a satnav. "Nothing for miles. Go figure"
User avatar
EmmaPeelWannaBe
Slight Overbomber
Posts: 1610
Joined: 10 Jul 2015, 21:55
Location: San Francisco

Microcosmia wrote:He could always do a voiceover for a satnav. "Nothing for miles. Go figure"
Lol on the right is Detonation Boulevard

To your left is the site of The Temple of Love. But it fell down.
Microcosmia
Gonzoid Amphetamine Filth
Posts: 363
Joined: 28 Oct 2015, 02:22
Location: Dublin

EmmaPeelWannaBe wrote:
Microcosmia wrote:He could always do a voiceover for a satnav. "Nothing for miles. Go figure"
Lol on the right is Detonation Boulevard

To your left is the site of The Temple of Love. But it fell down.
And watch out for a long black car and a motorcade.

I'd buy it just the same.
User avatar
EmmaPeelWannaBe
Slight Overbomber
Posts: 1610
Joined: 10 Jul 2015, 21:55
Location: San Francisco

Yes me too....but I bet it is only available in Jeeps.
My life is one long week of stupid clothing benders.
User avatar
Pista
Cureboi
Posts: 17628
Joined: 25 Jun 2006, 15:03
Location: Lost In A Forest
Contact:

EmmaPeelWannaBe wrote:Yes me too....but I bet it is only available in Jeeps.
I think there's an option for the Rolls Royce Phantom
:D
Cheers.
Steve
Just like the old days

TheCureCommunity
User avatar
Aazhyd
Amphetamine Filth
Posts: 229
Joined: 29 Apr 2009, 07:48
Location: The low damp ground
Contact:

copper wrote:He's certainly aware of the economical side of it. But time and again, it's like, "Chris & Ben can't be arsed to tinker with me for so long without pay." Obviously, Von is the Sisters, and them lads are his employees. I doubt they'd see much of the album sales, as otherwise, as equal partners, they'd surely be willing to take a stab at it.
All bollocks, of course. Making an album is easier than ever. You don't need expensive producers or studio's anymore.

:von: could just prerecord everything: voice, drum & bass from the Doktor and keyboards as placeholders for guitars. Then the only thing Chris & Ben have to do is to fill in the blanks. They've probably played most songs live numerous times anyway.

There are always solutions like bandcamp, pledgemusic or even just releasing digital only singles / EP's. It adds the advantage of keeping things under control and within budget. Record companies are more and more becoming obsolete.

Face it: the dude doesn't want to release new material anymore. Even Trump can't change that.
Only the Americans could have built a place like this in the middle of a jungle.
User avatar
eastmidswhizzkid
Faster Than The Light Of Speed
Posts: 9876
Joined: 24 Mar 2005, 00:01
Location: WhizzWorld
Contact:

i reckon if time hadnt taken its toll on his voice we would get new material. all other reasons/excuses may have been valid in the past but i think that now they are mostly irrelevant. he's too proud an artist to want his voice as it is now officially recorded, released and laid bare for criticism.
Well I was handsome and I was strong
And I knew the words to every song.
"Did my singing please you?"
"No! The words you sang were wrong!"

:bat:
User avatar
Being645
Wiki Wizard
Posts: 15271
Joined: 09 Apr 2009, 12:54
Location: reconstruction status: whatever the f**k

eastmidswhizzkid wrote:i reckon if time hadnt taken its toll on his voice we would get new material. all other reasons/excuses may have been valid in the past but i think that now they are mostly irrelevant. he's too proud an artist to want his voice as it is now officially recorded, released and laid bare for criticism.
I don't believe that. There such a lot you can do about the vocals with all that tec at hand ... :wink: ...
But of course, this idea comes in handy as the m*****n (or whoevertheyare) are waving with olive leaves ...
User avatar
Jeremiah
Gonzoid Amphetamine Filth
Posts: 392
Joined: 06 Apr 2007, 15:13
Location: Another place where I'll never be seen

Being645 wrote:
eastmidswhizzkid wrote:i reckon if time hadnt taken its toll on his voice we would get new material. all other reasons/excuses may have been valid in the past but i think that now they are mostly irrelevant. he's too proud an artist to want his voice as it is now officially recorded, released and laid bare for criticism.
I don't believe that. There such a lot you can do about the vocals with all that tec at hand ... :wink: ...
But of course, this idea comes in handy as the m*****n (or whoevertheyare) are waving with olive leaves ...
He could get a machine to do the singing - I'm sure that must be possible these days even if it wasn't in 1980. :wink:
I tried to tell her
About Marx and Eldritch, God and angels
I don't really know what for.
User avatar
panzerfaust
Gonzoid Amphetamine Filth
Posts: 279
Joined: 15 Apr 2008, 12:21

he doesnt have songs, or they are lame, and he knows.
he cant sing.
why disturb ones peace, hes content.
hes clever enuff not to record anything anymore, thank god.
User avatar
Dan
Overbomber
Posts: 2014
Joined: 25 Sep 2002, 01:00
Location: Leeds

Jeremiah wrote:He could get a machine to do the singing
Maybe Hatsune Miku, but pitchshifted so the voice is deeper? :lol:
User avatar
Guedzilla
Amphetamine Filth
Posts: 146
Joined: 30 Jan 2007, 19:25
Location: At the place where the bars never close (not that soon, at least)
Contact:

Why do you people think his voice is gone? (It's a real question, could you provide some video links where his voice doesn't sound ok The recent things I heard, which, admittedly, weren't many, sounded fine.)
Introducing....Gothzilla?!?
User avatar
Being645
Wiki Wizard
Posts: 15271
Joined: 09 Apr 2009, 12:54
Location: reconstruction status: whatever the f**k

Guedzilla wrote:Why do you people think his voice is gone? (It's a real question, could you provide some video links where his voice doesn't sound ok The recent things I heard, which, admittedly, weren't many, sounded fine.)
It's a habit of Von-bashing that started already in the early days ... and was happily continued by ... they know who they are.

Of course, there are facts. And of course, there were gigs where the vocals were clearly sup-optimal ... but I know of no singer
who has been attacked to this extent and over such a long time about his performance (on non-performance) as has been :von: ...
maybe because most others had long given in ... :P ...
User avatar
EmmaPeelWannaBe
Slight Overbomber
Posts: 1610
Joined: 10 Jul 2015, 21:55
Location: San Francisco

Being645 wrote:
Guedzilla wrote:Why do you people think his voice is gone? (It's a real question, could you provide some video links where his voice doesn't sound ok The recent things I heard, which, admittedly, weren't many, sounded fine.)
It's a habit of Von-bashing that started already in the early days ... and was happily continued by ... they know who they are.

Of course, there are facts. And of course, there were gigs where the vocals were clearly sup-optimal ... but I know of no singer
who has been attacked to this extent and over such a long time about his performance (on non-performance) as has been :von: ...
maybe because most others had long given in ... :P ...
I agree with you Being645, call me green biro, but his voice was sounded really strong last fall and on the recent recordings from Spain and South America. Not how he sounded on the Reptile House EP, but why would he?
User avatar
stufarq
Popweazle Piddlepoop
Posts: 3209
Joined: 19 Jan 2008, 17:09
Location: my own imagination

Being645 wrote:It's a habit of Von-bashing that started already in the early days ... and was happily continued by ... they know who they are.
In my case it comes from going to gigs and continually coming away thinking I'd wasted my money, because all I could hear was a tuneless mumble. Most of the time I didn't even know what songs had been played, because there was just a beat and some nondescript guitar lines. This isn't Von-bashing. He's made some great records, which I still love. But I honestly feel insulted that he thinks those concerts are good enough and he takes people's money for them.
Any more of that and we'll be round your front door with the quick-setting whitewash and the shaved monkey.
User avatar
Being645
Wiki Wizard
Posts: 15271
Joined: 09 Apr 2009, 12:54
Location: reconstruction status: whatever the f**k

stufarq wrote:
Being645 wrote:It's a habit of Von-bashing that started already in the early days ... and was happily continued by ... they know who they are.
In my case it comes from going to gigs and continually coming away thinking I'd wasted my money, because all I could hear was a tuneless mumble. Most of the time I didn't even know what songs had been played, because there was just a beat and some nondescript guitar lines. This isn't Von-bashing. He's made some great records, which I still love. But I honestly feel insulted that he thinks those concerts are good enough and he takes people's money for them.
I don't know when you've last seen them, but I can assure you that Von's vocals were perfectly wonderful in Cologne, Tilburg and Brussels in spring this year. I was there. Especially Tilburg was great as the reopened O13 has absolutely great acoustics now!!! And Ancienne Belgique anyway. Checking the videos from Barcelona to Santiago de Chile shows that the band have spent some effort on harmonising the vocals in general, and really to the advantage of the entire performance. The various audiences all seemed very pleased with what they were presented with. This comes clear through the according "This Corrosion" vids of all of the shows ... full happiness, and no tomatoes ... :wink: ... Check out the individual gigs along the links in the SistersWiki Gigography, if you don't believe it.
Microcosmia
Gonzoid Amphetamine Filth
Posts: 363
Joined: 28 Oct 2015, 02:22
Location: Dublin

Being645 wrote:
stufarq wrote:
Being645 wrote:It's a habit of Von-bashing that started already in the early days ... and was happily continued by ... they know who they are.
In my case it comes from going to gigs and continually coming away thinking I'd wasted my money, because all I could hear was a tuneless mumble. Most of the time I didn't even know what songs had been played, because there was just a beat and some nondescript guitar lines. This isn't Von-bashing. He's made some great records, which I still love. But I honestly feel insulted that he thinks those concerts are good enough and he takes people's money for them.
I don't know when you've last seen them, but I can assure you that Von's vocals were perfectly wonderful in Cologne, Tilburg and Brussels in spring this year. I was there. Especially Tilburg was great as the reopened O13 has absolutely great acoustics now!!! And Ancienne Belgique anyway. Checking the videos from Barcelona to Santiago de Chile shows that the band have spent some effort on harmonising the vocals in general, and really to the advantage of the entire performance. The various audiences all seemed very pleased with what they were presented with. This comes clear through the according "This Corrosion" vids of all of the shows ... full happiness, and no tomatoes ... :wink: ... Check out the individual gigs along the links in the SistersWiki Gigography, if you don't believe it.
Being645 hat's very reassuring to hear that so many people seem to genuinely enjoy the recent gigs in particular
copper
Gonzoid Amphetamine Filth
Posts: 255
Joined: 28 Jan 2009, 14:33

Aazhyd wrote:All bollocks, of course. Making an album is easier than ever. You don't need expensive producers or studio's anymore.

Face it: the dude doesn't want to release new material anymore. Even Trump can't change that.
I agree. It's the same as with the album worth of songs they wrote with Pearson and Varjak in '96-'97.

"Adam dislikes digital releases."

Going with that narrative, Adam, effectively, withheld :von: from releasing music. An employee. Simply impossible. There's little doubt a written agreement exists, which very much lays out how much say Adam has over Sisters material created during his tenure. I base this simply on the notion that :von: wants to have complete control over the Sisters.

The lads get by easier. "Ah, don't want to pester them." How thoughtful. A song a month is too much, then. The one with complete control over the Sisters is the one who makes that call.

A few reasons we can speculate.

Money. :von: likes it easy and coming his way. Self-financing an album is the other way around, and the profit margin is definitely narrower than it was in 1990. Still, crowdfunding, selling the final product on signed vinyl at an obscene price, etc. There are ways around it, as you said. Ultimately, it's more an excuse than a reason.

Fame. Releasing the album would expect :von: to adhere to social media promotion. He would hate it, plainly. People would be asking terribly shallow things by a thread length. A lot of things in his life might make news if the public interest in his work would rejuvenate. And he would hate it.

Fear. The '97 album (or a demo version of it, anyway) was passed by all major labels :von: marketed it for. What prevented :von: giving it to EastWest alongside the SSV album, anyway? Right, his hubris. It's funny how the narrative changed to "not needing to release music" after all those cold shoulders. He was out of contract and unemployable. Essentially, beaten.


And then he had that motorcycle accident that resulted in a broken leg in 2004 or so, if I can recall from the various allusions he's made to it. It sounded like a pretty serious crash, as he, apparently, took a long while to heal. He had a long time to think about what he wanted out of life from thereon out.

Adam quit during that period and did the 2005 gigs on his way out. Chris'd just come in, and I daresay he deserves a lot of credit for keeping the band alive. Chris set out to make the band travel lighter. They booked the Silver Bullet tour across the US. Ben came in and it was a band reborn.

Only they lack their own music. Still and Arms in the first three years, then nothing. Where's the new live songs he talks up in interviews? Is one new live song a year too much? Apparently. Even if the lads would probably get an amazing kick out of performing a song they could call their own to ecstatic fans. Even if it would sell more tickets. Even if a digital release would make nice pin money.


My guess is it's probably a mixture of fear and pride. Past glories weight heavily on :von: and he remains encapsulated in the days he compared himself to Michael Stipe. He still gets paid to perform those songs, and has done a dodgy work at it, sometimes. Still, the paycheck exists.

If he stays quiet, he's less likely to be exposed as a fraud or has-been as a writer. And he'd hate that.
Post Reply