A New Interview & Thoughts on Charlie Watts

Recently Kurt Mitzkakis of German Rock e. V. did another interview with me for RockRadio (not in English, though, but in German): we were talking about the future of Antichrisis and new ways of music publishing, and you can listen to this interview here or download it from there. So many thanks to Kurt for this really interesting and pleasant conversation.

In August 2021 Charlie Watts died at the age of 80, and although I seem to have a split relationship with the Rolling Stones (I really loved the early Stones from 1963 to 1967 and I could still get something out of them from 1968 to 1978, but from the 80s onwards they had lost me completely as they started to sound more and more like a third-class imitation of themselves to my ears), I always considered Charlie Watts - much like Ringo Starr - as one of the most underrated and yet best drummers in rock history.

He was not a berserker like Keith Moon or John Bonham; he refused to play - and there is the parallel to Ringo Starr again - any kind of drum solo. He was a minimalist in the best sense, according to the motto that the best notes are the ones you don't play. This gave not only his drumming but the whole sound of the Rolling Stones that laid-back feeling that characterises many of their best tracks.

Charlie Watts' style sometimes seemed a little behind the pace, but actually it never was. In fact it was the ideal match for Keith Richards' guitar riffs, which always seemed a bit sloppy.

There are probably hundreds of drummers who are technically superior to Charlie Watts, but only few play in such a song-oriented way that he did. And above all, there are only a few who manage to create such unique drum intros that let one immediately recognise the respective song: Charlie Watts succeeded in this with his opening drum groove to "Get Off Of My Cloud" as well as Ringo Starr with "Tomorrow Never Knows" or John Bonham with his intro to "Rock and Roll".

Charlie Watts was one of those drummers who never played himself to the fore, but nevertheless kept everything together and with whom every musician on this planet would have liked to jam at any given time. The big band up there in heaven has recruited another excellent drummer who will be sadly missed down here.

The Last and Final Antichrisis Album

When I started Antichrisis in 1995, the world was a different place: back then demo tapes were still sent to labels, music was preferably released on records or CDs, and if you were one of the chosen few to get a record deal, you went into a studio to record a complete album within a given (and usually far too tight) time frame.

Times have changed a lot since then: sales figures for CDs and vinyls have declined drastically, home recording has taken off whereas the number of studios declined just as much as the number of major labels, and instead of sales figures for CDs and vinyls, streaming figures and YouTube-clicks are much more important nowadays.

Some may regret this trend, but one of its positive side effects is the democratisation of music production and distribution. Today basically anyone with a computer and appropriate software (although musical talent is definitely not a disadvantage at this point) can publish proper songs - and you don’t have to get involved with producers or labels to achieve that goal.

But what does all this have to do with Antichrisis? Well, for some years now we’ve become also one of those bands/projects that record and produce their songs in their own home studio and release them completely on their own. Since "Not Fade Away" all our albums have been released exclusively as digital downloads, but over time we realised that the demand for these albums was decreasing more and more, whereas some our songs were literally skyrocketing on several streaming portals.

So we came to the conclusion that releasing an album could be no longer appropriate - and to be honest: we are neither sad nor miserable about this, because we too have often been wondering whether album releases would still be making sense for us at all.

From a commercial point of view this might bring some disadvantages, because in the music press and other relevant media only albums are taken seriously and therefore are getting featured and promoted accordingly.

However, this only applies to albums released on CD or vinyl; digital downloads by independent artists are largely ignored by editors because these artists can neither place expensive ads in magazines nor afford inordinate PR-appointments for journalists. That is why the perception of Antichrisis in the media has subsided since we went down the Do-it-Yourself-road, although we’ve been still releasing albums.

Our decision not to publish CDs or vinyls any more but to rely exclusively on digital downloads instead has mainly to do with the fact that in times of climate change we all should be re-considering how we want to deal with environmental pollution. And producing CDs and/or vinyls is raw material wastage that is no longer necessary in this day and age, as in the majority of cases digital distribution works pretty well.

But apart from the whole environmental issue, our decision not to release albums furthermore also has to do with our mode of operation: In the past we went into a studio to record a complete album within a few weeks, but nowadays home recording allows us a completely different approach. We are often working on many songs simultaneously, but only a few of them are suitable for an album release, because an album always requires a certain coherence or homogeneity of the material it contains. But what do you do if you are working on an EDM track, a piano ballad and an ambient piece at the same time? What happens when you have finished these tracks and would like to release them, but you don't know whether you will write other pieces of music in a similar vein in the future, so that a coherent album emerges?

Antichrisis has simply evolved artistically in such a way that neither me nor Ayuma want to limit ourselves to any restrictions of musical style of fashion: if we feel like writing and producing a moody synth track, then that's what we'll do, whereas the next song could turn out to be an utterly noisy piece of guitar rock - but it's almost impossible to achieve a coherent album sequencing with that approach.

However, if we put aside the thought of an album release, we can release a single track as soon as it's finished, and you wouldn't have to wait several years until another Antichrisis album is ready to be released.

From a musician’s perspective it is definitely much more satisfying to be able to release a song as soon as it is mixed and mastered, instead of having to put it on hold because another 8 tracks have to be finished first in order to finally have enough material for an entire album.

Hence our next album for which we have already written all songs will also be the last and final Antichrisis album, because we will be releasing only single tracks prospectively as soon as they are finished.

And don't get us wrong: albums like "Cantara Anachoreta", "A Legacy of Love" or "Not Fade Away" were just the right thing for us to do at the time of their release - but as aforementioned, times have changed and our music is written and produced in a different context nowadays. But that won’t affect the musical quality of our songs in any way; it’ll just give us the chance to expand our ways of musical expression even further than before - and that is something every ambitious musician is trying to achieve.


In These Troubled Times

It is really strange: 3 months ago our world was very different from the world today: COVID-19 has changed almost everything within no time at all, and I very much hope that all those reading these lines are on the baker’s list and won’t have to mourn any losses in their families and/or amongst friends.

Ayuma and me are still in good health and therefore continue to work on new songs for Antichrisis as well as for Ayuma’s solo project. And fortunately we’ve almost reached the finishing line for Antichrisis’ forthcoming album „Foxfire“: there are just three songs left to be completed: their backing tracks are already recorded, so all that’s left to do are the vocal tracks. Then everything has to be put up for final mixing and mastering — and so I dare to prognosticate the release of „Foxfire“ by autumn 2020 at the lastest.

The only drawback concerning vocal recordings is this year’s hay fever season which struck me quite hard — hence I’ll have to wait a few weeks until my throat has recovered because there’s no way to do any decent vocal recordings at the moment unless a song would be in desperate need of rhythmic coughing and sneezing. But as soon as that bloody pollen allergy has cleared out (which it usually does as soon as springtime is over), I’ll be back in our vocal booth to complete these pending recordings.

A few years ago I was bold enough to suggest that Antichrisis might refrain from releasing albums as such and to publish single tracks instead as soon as they are recorded. This train of thought, however, led to an outcry of many Antichrisis-Fans, for album releases seem to be of great importance to many of you out there even if these albums are only available via digital distribution. And though I don’t fully understand that urge we’ll be at your service because our songs will see the light of day, anyway — but of course with some delay due to the fact that it takes some time to collect and curate enough songs for an entire album.

Having said that we do hope that you will come through these strange and somehow scary times in good health and that you will further on enjoy the music we create. Meanwhile, take good care and protect yourselves and your fellow human beings as best as you can.

I’ve had it up to here...

...with Facebook and Twitter!

First of all, I’ve never been much of a fan of Facebook: confusing settings, ugly interface, dodgy terms of conditions etc. That’s why I never used Facebook regularly except for a few postings when a new Antichrisis-album got released.

But now with Facebook’s most recent enmeshment with Cambridge Analytica, I think it’s finally time to leave — and for that reason I have deleted Antichrisis’ Facebook-page, as I don’t want to participate in such devious games (see for example this article for more information).

Andrew_Lewis

And then there’s also Twitter, a social media platform that I quite like and which I’m using on a daily basis - but not through their website or Twitter’s official ugly-as-hell-client, but with third-party apps like Tweetbot and Twitterific, as they are much clearer and more comfortable to use providing well-arranged and accurate timelines as well as offering very pleasant user interfaces. To cut a long story short: Twitter without third-party clients simply is unusable to me.

Lately Twitter announced that after June 19th, 2018, Twitter’s streaming services will be removed This means two things for third-party apps that push notifications will no longer arrive and that their timelines won’t refresh automatically. For anyone using third-party apps like Talon, Tweetbot, Tweetings, or Twitterrific, there is no way for its developer to fix these issues. (see here for more information).

I’m definitely not a freeloader, hence I would gladly pay for Twitter if they’d enable third-party app-usage and make it ad-free for paying customers — but as Twitter doesn’t offer any payment model like this, it seems that I have to say "Sayonara“ to Twitter, too; at least from June 19th on.

So goodbye to Twitter and Facebook: it was fun while it lasted (although Facebook was in fact more misery than fun ton me), but as you won’t let me pay for proper services, I’ll have to say "Tempting, but no thanks“.


Another Year Gone By

Blimey, that year seems to have whooshed past in the blink of an eye. So what has been the crack with Antichrisis in 2017?

First of all we’re still working busily on the forthcoming Antichrisis-album „Foxfire“. Our plan was to spend our annual vacation in October completely on finishing that album... but on the very first day of our vacation diggers and bulldozers turned up in front of our house to dig up our street.

And as it doesn’t make any sense to have recording sessions while there’s construction work hullaballoo right in front of one’s house, we had to change plans and fled down south for a completely relaxing and hubbub-free (but also completely non-productive) holiday instead. That’s why it will still take some time until „Foxfire“ will be released.

Nevertheless we’re also working on Ayuma’s first solo album which is going to be released next year — and besides I'm currently doing some soundtrack-work for an animated short film called „Relicts“ which I’m really looking forward to, as creating soundtracks really has become my main interest in the last few years.


Relicts Teaser #1 - Totem (Breakdown) from Relicts on Vimeo.


But what about the music I have been listening to in 2017? To be honest, I’m that much occupied with creating and producing my own stuff that I don’t spend that much time on listening to music of other artists. It’s a shame, I know — but there’s only a limited amount of listening time left between working in a full-time job and running Antichrisis in your spare time. Anyway, there have been 5 albums in 2017 that caught my attention:

• „Every Valley“ by Public Service Broadcasting: this is an album of such emotional intensity that it really made me cry. When following the story of this concept album that depicts the history of the mining industry in Wales while focusing on the rise and decline of the country's coal industry, one has to have a heart of stone if not being close to tears when listening to the album’s last track „Take Me Home“. An absolutely fantastic and inspiring album.

• „Selections from 50 Song Memoir“ by The Magnetic Fields: It's as simple as that — Stephin Merritt never ever failed me (you hear that, Morrissey?)! Each and every album of his band The Magnetic Fields contains pearls and jewels in form of wonderful, out of the ordinary and enchanting Pop songs. To me, he's one of the finest, wittiest and most astute songwriters in contemporary Pop Music. "Selections from 50 Song Memoir" is nothing more than an adorable, stirring but also deeply entertaining album. One can't do much better — but I guess Stephin Merritt will.

• Almost the same goes for „Goths“ by The Mountain Goats: A band being bold enough to call one of their songs "Andrew Eldritch is Moving Back to Leeds" is just my cup of tea, especially when that song is performed with the disarming charm of singer John Darnielle. The Mountain Goats started as some kind of LoFi-Folk-project but developed swiftly in broader musical directions. On "Goths" they sound like an anti-gloomy version of Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds — or like Paul Simon's Californian kinfolk.

• Although I'm not a fan of digital distortion, I have to admit that I was deeply impressed by "The Underside of Power" by Algiers: they're raw energy and fury reminds me of the early recordings by the Bad Brains — only that Algiers are not rooted in Hardcore or Reggae. Instead they deliver a hot boiling mixture of Gospel, Soul, Industrial, Metal and HipHop, and that Franklin James Fisher is a really fantastic and powerful singer! The only fly in the ointment is the production of "The Underside of Power": less distortion and compression would have done a much better job in my opinion.

• „Is This The Life We Really Want?“ by Roger Waters: agreed that Roger Waters’ voice has lost much of its tonal capabilities in recent years, but nevertheless this album radiates so much anger and rage that it left a real impact on me. But please, Mr. Waters: get off of that annoying BDS-involvement of yours: of course one can quite justifiably criticise Israel’s home policy (and I would opt for a two-state solution, too!), but according to that scale you would have to stand up against China, Russia, Turkey, Saudi Arabia or the USA just as well! When I last looked, Israel was still a functioning democracy — something that is hard to find in the Middle East. To me that BDS-movement is just another disguise for yer plain old and nasty antisemitism!

So all that’s left for Ayuma and me to do is to wish you all the best for 2018 — and don't forget: many people await New Year’s Day just to make a new start to their old habits. We wish you otherwise.

Happy New Year and see you again in 2018!

Happy New Year 2018


Interview

Kurt Mitzkatis of German Rock e. V. did an Interview (in German) with Sid on the subject of the pros and cons of physical sound carriers and why Antichrisis does release their albums as digital download only these days.

Thanks a lot to Kurt for a very pleasant talk and also for providing the interview online on the German Rock-website, where one can also find another interview (again in German) with Sid from 2012.

In Memoriam of Terry Pratchett

His books never ceased to make my life somehow bearable in times of distress: they always provided comfort, wisdom, deep understanding and an all-embracing benevolence. Thank you so much for your wonderful writing, Mr. Pratchett - or as the Librarian would have put it: “Ook!”


Terry Pratchett (28.04.1948 - 12.03.2015)

“There’s a light that never goes out” — The Smiths
“There isn’t a way things should be. There’s just what happens, and what we do-“ — Terry Pratchett, “A Hat full of Sky”

Back from Rugia

We’ve just returned from a wonderful vacation in Rugia: 3 weeks just me & Ayuma, the wind & the sea along with gulls, crows, cranes and cormorants. We’ve been out and about each and every day, exploring the island from north to south and getting as much fresh air as we possibly could. It was my first time at the Baltic Sea and I was really amazed by the sheer beauty of Rugia’s ravishing landscape which provided lots of inspiration for new songs.

When we returned home there was a parcel deposited for me at our local post office: it came from Russia and contained a beautiful art book as well as an impressive painting of two cranes, which was a strange coincidence as we loved watching those cranes on Rugia preparing for their migration to Spain and North Africa, and their grace and beauty left us simply gobsmacked. Those flocks of cranes with their typical crane calls became somehow very special to us, hence this beautiful painting of two cranes by A. Zhuravleva sent to me by Alexandra and Simon (2 Russian Antichrisis-fans, I guess?) got a very special place in our flat, too. Thanks a lot for that gorgeous present, guys!

So now after 3 weeks of total abstinence from the Internet, emails and telephone calls we’re back to our daily routine again — and unfortunately there’s a big construction site right in front of our house as they’re doing some serious channel digging there, which means that we have to live with a soundscape that reminds slightly of World War II at the moment: absolutely no way of mixing tracks or getting any recordings done under these circumstances. But construction works (hopefully) don’t last forever, and as soon as those guys have finished their job we will proceed with our musical activities.

Sundries

From time to time we’re receiving requests by various people asking for a song that has been taken down from our website a few years ago and isn’t available for download any longer, and ever so often we’re trying to answer these requests by sending those people the desired track itself or its download link via email.

It’s a free service by Antichrisis for our fans -- and one would expect a few lines in reply like “Thank you for sending me that song” or something like that. But strangely enough this never ever happens: seems like those acts of courtesy have gone lost in the endless width of the Internet. So maybe we won’t bother with those kind of requests in the future any more -- mind you, we’re just a little bit old-fashioned when it comes to exchanging pleasantries.

But there’s also something very pleasant to report about -- and this is about those fans that have purchased our latest album “Not Fade Away” at Bandcamp: they’re sending us nice comments almost every time, and not just a few of them have actually paid much more for the album than we’ve been charging. This is really kind and generous, hence a very warm-hearted “Thank You” from Antichrisis to all those of you who bought “Not Fade Away” so far.

But while talking about albums: As already mentioned we’ve been planning to release Antichrisis’ new album “Foxfire” this year -- but due to some unexpected incidents we probably won’t be able to stick to this schedule. But no need to worry: forbearance is not acquittance. Only the vocal recording sessions have to be postponed for the time being; everything else is just fine.

So instead of having a whinge we’ve already started working on the next but one Antichrisis album which will contain the soundtrack to an imaginary film that Ayuma and me have been kibbling in the windmills of our minds, in a manner of speaking. There will be no more pop songs on that album, instead it’ll be a very dark and disturbing electronic symphony much in the vein of “Cantara Anachoreta” but by other means. The first few tracks that we’ve created do sound just gorgeous and we hope you’re going to like it even it’ll be something that Antichrisis has never done before.

But as soon as these aforementioned incidents are sorted out and we’re able to proceed with our vocal recordings, we’ll be finishing and releasing “Foxfire” as soon as possible.

Season's Greetings

Upsadaisy - 2013 is almost over and looking back it was quite a strenuous year what with our enforced removal in July and all that — and it really took us some time until everything went back to normal, especially as we had to deal with a completely new recording situation in our new flat (see previous blog entry).

But now we’re back on track again, enjoying the holidays and working on new songs as we’re still planning to release a new Antichrisis album in 2014. At the moment the following tracks are in the pipeline:

1. A Swan in the Rain
2. After the War
3. Goodbye to Jane Revisited
4. Gravity on Mars
5. Is Anybody There?
6. Last Night
7. Let You Go
8. No Going Back
9. St. Materiana
10. Stay
11. Subways of Time
12. The Night’s Still Young
13. There Were Crows
14. Understanding Everything

There are also 2 other nameless tracks ready to get recorded but I haven’t finished their lyrics yet.

Switching from Logic Pro 9 to Logic Pro X turned out to be a real bliss: so many once complicated workflows became extremely simplified (especially if it comes to MIDI FX), the new drummer feature is just awesome and Flex Pitch is an absolute timesaver. Logic Pro X is an amazing DAW and those guys at Apple really seem to be focused on developing it even further as one can tell by its latest updates.

I also got myself Zebra 2 and Diva by U-He for Christmas: these are 2 remarkable softsynths and together with Alchemy and Spectrasonics’ Omnisphere & Trilian they are definitely the most expandable, configurable and best sounding softsynths on the market. One really doesn’t need much more than these virtual instruments for great and versatile synth sounds.

But enough of that before I’m at risk of sounding like one of those nags from marketing department, but these chorus of praise is actually just based on my own experiences with the aforementioned products.

By the way: here’s my infamous Top Five list of 2013:

1. “If” — Glasvegas
2. “No Man’s Land” — OMD
3. “The Valley” — Christian Kjellvander
4. “Timeless” — The Airborne Toxic Event
5. “Das Schiff der grossen Illusionen” — Christian Anders (oldie but goodie)

Our New Vocal Booth

As we’ve got really nice neighbours in our new flat we didn’t want to annoy them with the hubbub caused by Antichrisis’ and Ayuma’s recording sessions, hence we got ourselves a pre-owned vocal booth that we had to pick up with a rental van in Hildesheim at Christoph’s place.

It was quite a trip, but it was worth it as that little vocal booth provides excellent sound insulation so that we won’t tick off our neighbours even if we’d do some vocal recordings in the middle of the night -- and even Whisky, our tomcat, seems to like that nifty little cabin.

The Eagle Has Landed

After two really stressful weeks we’re eventually getting back to normal: our relocation went surprisingly well, and though our new home is definitely smaller than our old dwelling we’re already feeling cosy and comfortable here in Zirndorf. Even Whisky, our tomcat, seems to be satisfied with his new habitat.

So I could be just as well working on new Antichrisis tracks again -- but thanks to Apple Logic Pro X was released a few weeks ago, and as we’re finally having a proper broadband connection here again, I was able to download those 42 GB of Logic Pro X and its contents in the wink of an eye. Of course this means that I’ll have to get familiar with all the new functions and elements of Logic Pro X, but as far as I can tell Logic Pro X seems to be a very promising and significant step forward: can’t wait to put my hands on the first production with Logic Pro X, but I’ll have to learn a few new tricks first (and thanks to those magnificent Logic-tutorials by MacProVideo I should be learning these aforementioned new tricks and functions within a reasonable time).

By the way: Ayuma and me had our 5th wedding anniversary on the 1st of August -- and we’re still enjoying every single day with each other as lovers, best friends, companions and soul mates. It feels exactly like in Bruce Springsteen’s “If I Should Fall Behind”:

“We swore we’d travel side by side
We’d help each other stay in stride
But each lover’s steps fall so differently
But I'll wait for you
And if I should fall behind
Wait for me

Now everyone dreams of a love lasting and true
But you and I know what this world can do
So let’s make our steps clear that the other may see
And I'll wait for you
If I should fall behind
Wait for me”

Happy Summer Solstice

Thanks to bastard landlord we’ll have to change our residence again: we’ll be moving to our new tenement by the end of July, that’s way there’s gonna be some kind of radio silence during the next weeks.

I guess it’ll take us until September before our new studio is hooked up and we’ll be connected to the Internet again -- but fortunately we’ll be having a proper broadband connection then.

We’re busy preparing our removal at the moment, so there’s no time for working on new tracks right now. But as soon as everything’s set up, organised and arranged at our new dwelling and we’ve had a bit of a breather, we’ll be back to record and produce new tracks for Antichrisis as well as Ayuma.

In the meantime German-speaking readers might enjoy a very in-depth Antichrisis-interview with brand new German Webzine Sakona.

Nevertheless Ayuma and me are wishing you all a beautiful Summer Solstice celebration -- and Merry Meet again in September!

Candy Grapple Grey

It’s been a bit quiet lately -- but don’t worry: Ayuma and me are busily working on new tracks and you can be pretty sure that there will be quite a few surprises in the bag when we’ll have finished the recording sessions for the new Antichrisis album “Foxfire”.

Unfortunately we have to grapple with our bastard landlord at the moment: that nasty piece of work is trying to kick us out hence we had to contact the tenant association already to take legal measure. But as we’re preferring to live in peace we’ll have to spend our Saturdays with house hunting from now on.

Nonetheless our creative powers are still flowing and we’re both coming consistently up with new and exciting musical ideas, therefore “Foxfire” is taking more and more shape -- so stay tuned for more news as soon as we’ve found ourselves our new residence.

Working On New Tracks

When we released “Not Fade Away” last year, quite a few of you mentioned that they would have preferred not all album’s tracks being published on Bandcamp before as it spoiled the surprise of listening to a new album. And although I think that something like keeping an album or its tracks secret in the age of the Internet, your request shall be our command, as from now on only one or two songs of an album will be published before the album itself sees its release.

To be honest I’d still prefer to release any song as soon as its ready -- but in that case the majority of votes seems to be against me.

Nevertheless we’ve been diligently working on new tracks (thanks to my new Mac Mini which is really an awesome and powerful yet underestimated little machine): we’ve been finishing “Understanding Everything” two weeks ago, and a new song called “Be Gone” is already in the works.


At the same time I’ve put the finishing touches on Ayuma’s brand new track “Wenn Ich Dich heute seh’”-- and there really are lots of other new songs in the pipeline, hence Antichrisis’ new album is developing pretty well even if you won’t be hearing any new songs until “Foxfire” (the new album’s title) is released.

O tempora, o mores

Doing a bit of in-depth-research on the Internet is always an interesting thing, especially when it comes to checking how your band’s doing ; even more when one receives lots of emails from fans that go like this: “It is great that there’s a new album by Antichrisis, but I don’t like downloads that much so can you please release “Not Fade Away” on CD?”

What puzzled me most is the fact that though we’ve been receiving loads of these aforementioned emails we only had almost insignificant sales figures as well on Bandcamp as on the iTunesStore -- as if nobody would be interested in our new album at all (but nevertheless a very big “Thank You” to all those fans who actually purchased “Not Fade Away” online: though you’re just a few, your support is highly appreciated and most welcome!).

Anyway, because of our really modest sales figures in comparison to the email feedback we’ve received I’ve been starting Antichrisis’ research engines and here’s what I’ve found out:

We’ve made “Not Fade Away” available for download on Bandcamp and many other popular online stores and sold less than 200 copies of the album so far (again: thanks to our honest and in some cases even generous customers!); but after an hour or serious investigation I found out that “Not Fade Away” is also available on several BitTorrents where it had been downloaded (at least as far as I could find out about corresponding download figures) over 25.000 times in only 4 months after its release.

So let’s do some arithmetics now according to the rule of three:
25.293 illegally downloaded copies = 100%
182 legally purchased copies = ?%


The answer is: obviously only 0,72% of those interested in Antichrisis (at least I presume that only those interested in our music would bother to download our album via BitTorrents) are paying for our music, hence it’s hardly surprising that Reartone Records and Tunguska Records, the last two labels that Antichrisis has been working with, had to call it a day because one simply can’t stay in business with that kind of payment behaviour — and as a result due to these facts we simply can’t afford a CD release on our own because according to these figures that would mean a foreseeable financial disaster for us.

But just for the sake of it let’s start dreaming a little bit: if only 50 % of those who downloaded the album illegally would have paid for “Not Fade Away” for example on Bandcamp (where the album is on sale for 7 Euros), we would have earned 88.522 Euros. We could have re-invested that money in better equipment for our home studio; we could have afforded to release a really extravagant collector’s edition on CD and vinyl with proper booklet, artwork and all that stuff and we could have also afforded to pay for a PA and for musicians to go on tour and play live — but that’s just daydreaming…

Fact is: the vast majority of our listeners are stealing our music — and yes, we know your line of reasoning: “It would only be stealing if the goods that have been stolen from you would no longer be in your possession which is definitely not the case with digital goods, so stop your sobbing!”. But that would mean that all kind of digital goods are left to villainy, be it literature, photography, cinematography, music or any other kind of art that can be distributed via the Internet — and that’s undeniably far beyond fairness! If you don’t want to pay for our music for whatever reasons you have, that’s absolutely o.k.; you’re welcome to listen to our music for free via streaming audio on Soundcloud or on this website -- but for fuck’s sake don’t fucking steal our music which is unquestionably our intellectual property (pardon my French, but it really makes me blow my fuse!).

Another fact is: Ayuma & me are working really hard on our music and we won’t stop making this music because music is our heartbeat and we fortunately don’t have to earn our living with the money we’re making from Antichrisis (which is approximately about zilch) but from going to work each bloody morning to make ends meet. Nevertheless we know lots of really good bands and artists who simply had to give up their musical career and their projects because they simply couldn’t afford it any longer — and it wasn’t because no one would have been interested in what they were doing but because no one wanted to pay for their work and preferred to download it illegally from the Internet instead!

But that’s enough ranting for now: most of all Ayuma and me would like to thank those loyal Antichrisis fans who purchased “Not Fade Away” so far once more; and here’s our blessing for our “illegal downloaders” (you know who you are): hopefully one day you’ll get ripped off quite neatly, too!

Increasing Availability

We’ve finally managed to get our new album “Not Fade Away” into the iTunes Store and to Amazon’s MP3 Store which means that from now on you can choose between 3 different download facilities:

iTunes Store (or search for “Antichrisis” and “Not Fade Away” in your county’s iTunes Store)
Amazon MP3 Store (or search for “Antichrisis” and “Not Fade Away” in your county’s Amazon MP3 Store)
Bandcamp (international availability but you need to have a Paypal-account)



Just use the shop that suits you best -- the main thing is that worldwide availability should no longer be a problem.

New Antichrisis Album Released

Here we go: Antichrisis’ new album “Not Fade Away” is finally available as download-only edition via Bandcamp as of now for a minimum price of €7.00 and a minimum price of €0.50 for individual songs (if you feel like paying more you’re welcome; if not enjoy the decent price tag, anyway) .

I’ve also taken the chance for overhauling Antichrisis’ website because I’ve had it up to here with black — and also because Holger Warschkow of Dark Feather suggested that it’d be time for a new Antichrisis logo. At first I hesitated because I really love the original monicker (no wonder as I’ve been doodling it by myself), but after giving it a second thought I came to the conclusion that Holger was right: Antichrisis has gone through so many changes since I’ve started the project in 1998 and the new logo somehow represents the new musical horizons that we’ve set sails to perfectly.

“Not Fade Away” seems to be just the right title for that album because many of you might have got the impression over the last years that Antichrisis may have possibly ceased to exist. But Antichrisis is still up and running though no longer as the sextet that we’ve used to be, but as a duo consisting of yours truly and Ayuma instead. And not only have Ayuma & me gotten this album together but we’re already working on a lot of new tracks; so Antichrisis definitely hasn’t faded away but is rather bright-eyed and bushy-tailed as it were.

This new album is also the first album in Antichrisis’ history that is released as a digital download only, without an external record company (Blue Yonder Records is our very own label) or an external producer: everything was done by ourselves, from cover artwork to the recording sessions in our home studio, as well as from production to mastering. Hence we may not have reached the perfection of previous releases like “A Legacy of Love Mark II” but Ayuma and me are nevertheless very satisfied and proud of what we’ve achieved with that kind of DIY-work ethic.

“Not Fade Away” is the perfect epitome of what Antichrisis 2012 is all about. We’re not longer the Doom/Metal/Goth-outfit that we’ve started with “Cantara Anachoreta” because we’ve been embracing a lot of musical styles and influences on our way to this day and age. Of course you’ll still find Post Punk and Gothic elements in tracks like “Here Comes The Night” and “Adrenalin” but we’ve also developed further into the direction of Electronica and Dancefloor with songs like “Ocean’s Too Wide”, “The Point of No Return” and “Crossing The Line”.

Apart from that there’s still Antichrisis’ search for the perfect pop song that we’re keeping up with “The Fire Went Out”, “Creatures of a Jade Lagoon” or “Walking With Angels”, our love for Indie & Alternative guitar sounds that’s shimmering through “Who You Are” and “Shine”; our passion for Irish music that’s reflected by songs like “Restless Years”, “Endless Flow” or “Lament for Kira” — and finally there are these in-betweeners like “Night Train” or “Have You Been Loved?” that simply don’t fit into any of the aforementioned categories.

To Ayuma and me “Not Fade Away” feels like a Greatest Hits Album because it really is a selection of our favourite songs, and we hope you’re going to love this album as much as we do!

Last but not least we’d like to express our gratitude to Alexander “Näx” May, Tilo Rockstroh and Frank J. Hennig for their wonderful input and contribution: it’s always a pleasure and a privilege to work with these guys! And also a big “Thank You” to all our fans out there: your feedback and support means a lot to us!

We're Almost There

The last few months have been fairly busy for Ayuma and me, as we have been working on the last tracks to complete the forthcoming Antichrisis album (which will be distributed via Bandcamp, as you might already know). The last song that we’ve been working on called “An Endless Flow” is now finished and does sound magnificent: a wonderful ballad with a slight touch of Electronica and Irish Folk!

Another song that we were working on is “Understanding Everything”, but we had to face a little drawback there equipment-wise: my stout and tenacious little iMac (Intel Core2 Duo, built 2007, with 2.40 GHz and 4 GB RAM, if that’s of interest for you MacHeads out there) simply isn’t powerful enough to handle a project that consists of almost 80 audio and MIDI tracks -- and as I didn’t want to come up with a half-baked version of that song I’ll have to wait until I’ll get myself a new iMac later that year to get “Understanding Everything” done.

But that won’t stop Ayuma and me from releasing the new Antichrisis album within the next few weeks, as we’re already having enough songs in stock. So we’ll now have to decide which of these songs will make it on the album, then getting the final mastering done, getting to the bottom of the album’s artwork -- and as soon as everything’s worked out we’ll let you know about further issues.


Xmas-News

We're currently very busy with finishing the last few songs for the soon-to-be-released Antichrisis-album which we will be distributing by ourselves as a download only-version via Bandcamp. There is no official release date yet, but as we're getting on really well with all the stuff like mixing, mastering, cover-layout and so on, I guess everything's going to be ready by February 2012 -- but as always we'll keep you informed on this website and via Twitter about further developments (and due to some requests there will also be a solution for those of you living in areas with no proper Internet connection).

This forthcoming album is also the reason why we haven't released any new song on SoundCloud recently, as we'd like to have some exclusive tracks for those of you who are willing to spend a few bucks on the album -- but of course there will be a preview of those exclusive tracks as soon as they're
finished.

So until then Ayuma and me (as well as our cats Sheela & Whisky) are wishing all of you -- with a quotation of John Lennon -- “A very happy Xmas and a happy New Year, let's hope it's a good one without any fear".

Sid & Ayuma

Returning from Cornwall

Ayuma and me are back from our holidays in Cornwall: unfortunately we had to return much earlier than planned due to the fact that yours truly had managed to get hold of an awful inflammation on his foot which made further walkings on the Coast Path definitely impossible: such calamities surely never happened to me when I was younger — bugger!

Nevertheless we would like to thank all the kind people that we’ve met on our short but nevertheless wonderful journey — especially Rob Lloyd & his wife Teresa from Boscastle as well as Mrs. Watson who runs the lovely St. Christopher’s B&B (next to the Napoleon Inn, which is a highly recommendable pub in this little village with its outstanding coastline and the amazing Museum of Witchcraft).

Nevertheless we’re using our remaining days of vacation to work sedulously on new tracks -- and so Ayuma and me managed to finish “Walking With Angels” which you’ll hopefully be enjoying: it’s another lighthearted piece of pop music by your heretofore rather sepulchral gloomsters!

Xmas 2010 News

Dear Devotees,

A new year is lurking curiously round the corner and so I’m jumping at the opportunity to introduce a new design for Antichrisis’ website which I hope you’ll going to like. And please don’t worry: New Antichrisis songs are already on the way, too, but it’ll take some time until I get around producing and mastering them.

In the meantime -- and because now is just the right time for this -- here are my TFCOATs (Top Five Christmas Songs of all times):

“Christmas Day” - Dido
“Stop The Cavalry” - Jona Lewie
“Harlem Country” - Kirk Brandon
“The Christmas Song” - The Raveonettes
“Fairytale of New York” - The Pogues


Best Wishes and a Happy New Year to all of you - and let me know what you think of the new website design.

Happy New Year to all of you

Dear Devotees,

A new year has arrived, and we still have to put up with the likes of Angela Merkel and Guido Westerwelle over here in Germany - but fortunately from now on Antichrisis isn't bound any longer to GEMA (German performing rights society), which means that all new tracks by Antichrisis can now be used for internet broadcasting and non-commercial purposes of all kind (under Creative Commons License). That's good news, I guess (especially for all those internet radio stations who couldn't play Antichrisis songs in the past due to these issues)- and as legal matters are sorted out now, some exciting new tracks will see their release in 2010.

By the way: I won't be doing any blog-entries in German any more. I can see by the emails I receive that the vast majority of Antichrisis-fans seem to come from abroad, and I'm sure that our German fans will be able to understand entries in English as well. It's simply a time-saver for me if I only have to write entries once, so I hope you'll understand this decision (and it's also a good way of annoying gladsome Guido, our linguistically challenged foreign minister).

A few weeks ago I've met Jens, our former producer, again: He's now working for Laboga Amps and VIG Guitars, and we spent a very cool evening in Nuremberg with him and his endorser Tommi Denander, who turned out to be a really nice and folksy bloke - and one can really learn a lot by having a good time with such professional musicians.

My wife Ayuma also came up with some great new songs last year which I'm having the honour to produce. If you'd be interested in German music with a very special touch, check out her songs at MySpace or at Ayuma's own website. By the way: Ayuma also did the female vocals on "Here Comes The Night" and "Ocean's Too Wide" - and "The Point Of No Return” is already on its way.

And here's another piece of news: Julia Dobberstein is working on a re-release of "Cantara Anachoreta" with all tracks remastered by Harris Johns, new stunning artwork by Ben and "Beautiful Wolves" as bonus track. There's no release date yet, but as soon as this collector's item will be revealed, I'll let you know.

And if anyone out there would like to follow Antichrisis on Twitter, just look for http://twitter.com/Boscastle (Yep, it's "Boscastle" and not "Antichrisis", as everybody would have assumed. Those who know me will get the reference, anyway).


The Future of Antichrisis & The Lost Album

Bob Dylan was definitely right when he sang "The times, they are a-changin'" in 1964... and if it comes to music business, times have changed pretty much within the last few years. Having grown-up in the heydays of Punk, I totally and wholeheartedly agree that this change was indeed necessary, that it's about time that greedy record companies have to worry about their prospective revenues and realise that they cannot treat their customers like cash cows.


Being a musician myself, I'm torn between the two sides: on the one hand the internet and its possibilities of sharing and distributing music (but if we want to call a spade a spade we should include a term like "illegal downloading", too!) has turned out to be nothing less than a big "Up Yours!" towards the record companies' pricing policy, but on the other hand it has also caused a lot of severe problems for the kind of really devoted musicians and labels trying to make a living from what they're doing.

Experts affirm that today there's only 1 % of legal purchasing of songs and albums, which means that there is only 1 in a 100 songs that the artist or his record company actually gets paid for - and you can't run a business on that terms. That's why our label Reartone Records simply can't afford to release the long awaited Antichrisis album "The Legacy Remains": there's absolutely no chance of breaking even with new independent releases of that kind, hence I totally agree and understand Reartone's decision although I certainly regret that "The Legacy Remains" will now become some kind of "lost album", and that all the work we've put into its production so far was in vain.

Reartone cannot release any new albums as long as the aforementioned situation stays like this - and that doesn't affect Reartone Records only: Even a successful independent company like Chicago's Touch & Go Records with bands like TV On The Radio, Yeah Yeah Yeahs or Coco Rosie has to reduce its output because they just can't cover the costs any longer. Mac McCaughan of Merge Records commented this with the words: "If a company that did everything the right way can't survive in this environment ... then who can?"

But what does all that mean for Antichrisis? Well, there won't be any CD or album releases in the near future at all (unless another label would be interested in signing Antichrisis). As aforesaid, I can understand Reartone's decision and I totally agree with them, hence there's no bad blood between Reartone and Antichrisis. If the economical situation should change, there's no obstacle for resuming our collaboration.

In the meantime (or for the future - who knows) , Antichrisis will be stripped down to being a 1-man-project again like it used to be in the early days of "Cantara Anachoreta". I'll be doing everything on my own again including mixing and production, and as soon as new songs are finished I'll make them available on this website via streaming audio. I don't have any idea at the moment if there'll be a way making these new tracks available for purchase, because I don't like any of the current online distribution possibilities for independent artists: there are too many different internet platforms with too many different terms and conditions, which makes it difficult to work time- and cost-saving. But as soon as there's a proper solution on the horizon, I'll be trying to provide a good and easy way for acquiring Antichrisis' songs by purchase.

Anyway, I doubt that there will ever be an album by Antichrisis again, as I really don't believe in albums any more: they are a thing of the past, and the future's definitley in releasing separate songs as soon as they are ready and leave it to the customer which individual song he or she wants to have - it should be up to them if they want to burn it on CD or not. Online distribution is the future of any multimedia content, whether we like it or not - but it's all still in its infancy!

So "The Legacy Remains" will possibly never be released and Antichrisis will be reduced to being a 1-man-project again. I definitely won't stop making music, because it's simply such a vital and important part of my life. Of course I could now finish the songs of "The Legacy Remains" on my own, but to tell you the truth it just wouldn't feel right, because these songs were the collective achievement of a band that unfortunately doesn't exist any longer, and it would be quite unfair towards my former band members if I'd release those songs single-handedly now.

The reason that the band has now ceased to exist is due to the fact that we've never been a live group but a studio band. And as all band members are living far away from each other in different parts of Germany, the only occasion we got together was when we met in Reartone's Bluehouse studio for rehearsing and recording. So the end of the collaboration with Reartone Records implies the end of the studio band Antichrisis, too. But I'm glad that both Näx (uilleann pipes) and Frank (vocals) have assured that they would love to contribute their input to Antichrisis in the future, too, so there'll be still some guest musicians around!

Nevertheless my deepest gratitude goes to Jens Bachmann (former guitarist and producer), Tilo Rockstroh (former keyboarder and sound engineer) and Jens-Nils Kuge (former Drummer): these guys did such a great job for Antichrisis on "Perfume" and "A Legacy of Love Mark II", and I'm sure that "The Legacy Remains" would have confirmed what outstanding and unique musicians they are. It was an honour and great pleasure to work with them, and I sincerely appreciate the time we've been recording together.

A new chapter of Antichrisis is aborning - back to the basics, in a manner of speaking, and these basics will sound a lot like "Ocean's Too Wide" or "Crossing The Line" (already available on this website's Music section). And as I don't have to focus on album productions and studio sessions any more, there'll probably be some new tracks here quite soon... so stay tuned!

Back from our Honeymoon

Ayuma and me had a really wonderful wedding in Nuremberg (strange enough it took place on Lammas with a New Moon and a Solar Eclipse - that’s what I call Good Omens!) with an amazing party the day after (thanks to all our friends and acquaintances for making our wedding party such a great and beautiful event) as well as a more than brilliant Honeymoon in the Swabian Highlands (special thanks to Franky’s in Tuebingen for providing a splendid and hillarious evening).

As soon as we’ve returned from our honeymoon I’ve started working on some new tracks: one of them is called ˮCrossing the Line“ and can be found on this website’s Music-section — hope you’ll like it (even if its lyrics don’t deal with the subject of marriage at all).


The Handfasting

I've been pretty busy during the last weeks working on lots of new songs and preparing things for our wedding day. Yes, Ayuma and me are getting married on Lammas, and I'm really looking forward to the ceremony as well as to our wedding festivity the next day... and of course to making this noble woman, entrancing inamorata and faithful friend my wife!

I’ve also started digitalizing all my old tapes, which means that heaps of previously unreleased material still has to make its transition from ye good ole analogue tape to the digital shelves of my Mac. As soon as everything’s indexed, transformed into mp3 (Sorry for that, Harry: I know you would have preferred Ogg Vorbis for some strange reasons, although I think you just love to have audio data with a file extension that bears resemblance to the name of a mad Klingon high priest!) and thoroughly inspected in terms of aural tolerance, I’ll be putting a reasonable amount of Antichrisis’ early stuff on this website.

In the meantime I’ve received some very nice and interesting emails from Arseny from Moscow and Robert Negut from Bucharest which I haven’t replied to yet: Just a little more patience, guys — as soon as Ayuma and me have returned from our honeymoon, I’ll be returning to you, too.

I’ve also had a few requests for my current top ten which accidently turned into a bloated top sixteen - but that’s personal charting for you:

Soko - I’ll Kill Her
The Killers - When You Were Young
Royksopp: What Else Is there?
Silver Jews: Suffering Jukebox
Flooging Molly - Punch Drunk Grinning Soul
Attila the Stockbroker - And I Wont’ Run Away
The Raveonettes: The Christmas Song
Franz Ferdinand - Walk Away
Jens Lekman - Black Cab
Santogold: Say Aha
Midnight Choir - The Train
Bruce Springsteen - Long Walk Home
The Pack: King Of Kings
The Monks: He Went Down To The Sea
The Thermals: An Ear For Baby
The Mountain Goats: Hast Thou Considered The Tetrapod

April 2006

Dear Antichrisis-Devotees!

Bad news first: The release of "The Legacy Remains" will be delayed due to business matters! As the promo campaign for "A Legacy Of Love Mark II" has just started recently (which means that those being unfamiliar with Antichrisis up to now will perceive "A Legacy Of Love Mark II" as a brand new album release of May 2006) , it would be rather imprudent to present "The Legacy Remains" within the next few months. I'm afraid you will have to wait for X-mas or January/February 2007 for Antichrisis' new output...

Nevertheless this gives us the chance to release an album full of great material, as so many new songs have been written and recorded hence only the finest tracks will make it on "The Legacy Remains" — it will definitely be worth listening to!

Besides, everything else is working out fine. After a rather long and cold german winter, spring has finally sprung and I'm looking forward to some more recording sessions with Antichrisis as well as Blindflug, a german speaking project of Bernd and me.

As I do enjoy performing live, I've also put up another side project with Bernd, Flo and Katja, Antichrisis' new female vocalist, called Folkstone Gang. We're doing both cover versions as well as our own stuff, and if you should happen to live in the Nuremberg area, you might want to see us live at

4th July 2006, Irish Castle, Nuremberg
16th December 2006, Pegnitzbühne e. V., Nuremberg

Keep in mind that the aforementioned gigs are Folkstone Gang- and not Antichrisis-gigs, which means that only a few Antichrisis songs will be performed. Nevertheless I'm sure you'll enjoy a very special evening with good songs and a very "folky" atmosphere!

Those of you just interested in Antichrisis will have the chance to see Antichrisis Unplugged (i. e. Katja and Sid only) live on stage at the Balladentag on 24th September 2006 at the Kofferfabrik Fuerth. This event is organised by Florian Baessler, a highly appreciated singer/guitarist, and it'll give you an overview of the singer/songwrighter-scene of my home area. As it is some kind of festival, the playing time of each artist/band is restricted to 15 minutes, notwithstanding Katja and me will play a fine selection of old and new Antichrisis-material (By the way: Blindflug Unplugged will also appear on stage). Please note that Antichrisis Unplugged will already start at 3:20 pm; admission is free!

I guess that's all for today: A very merry Beltane to all of you and many thanks for your loyal support! And maybe I'll be seeing you at some of the aforementioned gigs.


News, January 2006

Dear Antichrisis-Devotees!

A new year has arrived and we are getting on fine with the production of our new album "The Legacy remains", which will see its release in the first half of 2006 on our very favourite label Reartone Records. We have recorded 23 songs until now, but only 12 or 13 will finally make it on the album; yet a definite selection will be made not until all songs have been mixed.

Over the last year Bianca, our former singer, has left Antichrisis, but meanwhile we have found a more than equal successor in Katja, who has just received her baptism of fire at Bluehouse Studio and who really fits perfectly into the band.

Of course these line-up changes did cause some extra work, as all those tracks already recorded with Bianca have to be re-recorded by Katja, but nevertheless this won't affect our time schedule for the release of "The legacy remains" that much.

I am glad to introduce a new webmaster as well: Bernd has just taken over Jens' job (by the way: A big "Thank you" to Jens for his great work - he really deserved to be relieved). Besides, Bernd is also a very gifted singer and songwriter, and we recently brought a german-speaking side project named Blindflug into being, that already sounds very exciting.

Thanks for your feedback, your unfailing support and your loyalty!

Best wishes and a happy new year to all of you!

News, July 2005

Dear Antichrisis-Devotees!

Life is a peculiar thing: somehow it always seems to turn out different than one thinks. Everything that appeared so consistent and inextinguishable yesterday will easily vanish like morning dew in tomorrow's sunlight. Stupidly pain has the vice of firing artistic creativity (at least as long as it doesn't exceed a certain level where it turns into plain agony — been there, done that, threw away the T-shirt), so that Antichrisis' musical inspiration will be provided for much more than just the next few albums (beware of sarcasm here).

But apart from your mastermind's emotional life Antichrisis is developing magnificently: The reason for the delay of this website update was primarily due to the fact that I moved from A to B and that it took me a while to get everything sorted out and reconnect to the wondrous world of the wide web again. But now I'm back on the track working vigorously on the production of our forthcoming album "The Legacy remains".

In this regard there'll be a quite a few surprises and exciting news within the next few weeks, but I'll hold that back until the next update for reasons of anticipation.

Due to your requests comes my current Top 10-list that accidentally turned into a Top 30-list because of my musical indecisiveness:

"Teignmouth" - Patrick Wolf
"I'm waking up to us" - Belle & Sebastian
"Turning of the Tide" - Midnight Choir
"Love hurts" - Emmylou Harris & Gram Parsons
"We oh we" - The Hidden Cameras
"Smile at Everyone" - Minor Majority
"Understanding Jane" - Icicle Works
"Balkon gegenüber" - Kettcar
"I lost it" - Lucinda Williams
"One thing" - Runrig
"So called Friend" - Texas
"When you were my Baby" - The Magnetic Fields
"Head on" - Pixies
"Uncertain Times" - The Raveonettes
"Serenade" - Dover
"Goodbye Horses" - Q Lazzarus
"If I told you you were beautiful" - Minor Majority
"I will not forget you" - Sarah McLachlan
"To win just once" - Saw Doctors
"The last Beat of my Heart" - Siouxsie & The Banshees
"Live before you die" - Social Distortion
"Reconsider me" - Moneybrother
"Buried Bones" - Tindersticks
"Neon Moon" - Midnight Choir
"Common People" - William Shatner
"Please don't leave" - The Ramones
"Like a Cannibal" - Mila Mar
"Ode to L.A." - The Raveonettes
"Landungsbrücken raus" - Kettcar
"Come back from San Francisco" - The Magnetic Fields


And don't forget: The limited digipack edition of "A Legacy of Love Mark II" is still available at Playbaker at a bargain price!

In the end there's a quotation of victorian poet Alfred Lord Tennyson that crossed my mind while I was going through recent occurrences:

I hold it true, whate'er befall;
I feel it, when I sorrow most;
'Tis better to have loved and lost
Than never to have loved at all.

Alfred Lord Tennyson (1809 - 1892)
"In Memoriam" (1850)

News, December 2004

Dear Antichrisis-Devotees!

Mission accomplished: We've just finished re-recording and remixing “A Legacy of Love”! The album will see its release within the next few weeks (digipack with bonus-track); we'll let you know in due time about its definite release date.

The album will be called “A Legacy of Love Mark II”, because it's actually meant to be an update to the original “A Legacy of Love” album of 1998. We just left the vocal parts and a few instrumental solos untouched, whereas everything else got completely rearranged and re-recorded by the new Antichrisis line-up.

I was never completely satisfied with the original "A Legacy of Love"-album because Antichrisis didn't sound like a proper band at that time (of course it couldn't because I had to play most instruments on my own). But as the songs on this album deserved a second chance, I thought that it might be a good idea to let the recent Antichrisis line-up re-record the entire album so that you'll get an idea of what Antichrisis sounds like today. And as our fans demanded a re-issue because "A Legacy of Love" got out of stock a long time ago, we'll be killing two birds with one stone.

My gratitude goes to Jens, Tilo, Kugator and Näx: “A Legacy of Love Mark II” wouldn't have become what it is without your artistic skills and creative input!

News, September 2004

Dear Antichrisis-Devotees!

We’ve been working busily on the final completion of the pre-production to our new album as well as on the re-release of “A Legacy of Love” during the last weeks, although I have to say that “re-release” doesn’t quite take the bisquit as we’re not just doing your average remixing and remastering-job, moreover we’re re-recording guitars, drums and keyboards completely: The E-Drums we used in 1998 got already thrown out and were replaced by Kugator’s excellent drumming.

All in all “A Legacy of Love” will be completely revised, edited, restored, remixed and remastered before it’ll see its re-release by the end of the year. Those who already liked the original album will presumably go haywire with this new edition!

Many of you have written emails in which they were complaining about the missing “My favourite Top Ten”-section that was part of our old website, hence a selection of my current favourites right here:

Life fades away - Roy Orbison
Don’t play that Song (You lied) - Ben E. King
Levi Stubb’s Tears - Billy Bragg
Warning Sign - Coldplay
Brand New Start - Paul Weller
Love is Only a Feeling - The Darkness
Mary’s in India - Dido
With Whom to dance - The Divine Comedy
Duke of Earl - Gene Chandler
Boys of Melody - The Hidden Cameras
Sleep Well Tonight - Inspiral Carpets
Ascension - Kirlian Camera
Du sälde vära hjärtan - Lisa Ekdahl
Pillar of Davidson - Live
The Gift - Midge Ure
Dark Island - Mike Oldfield
Whale - Rescue Mission
Hear My Song - Vernon Midgely
Ring on the Sill - Cowboy Junkies
Until the Morning Comes - Tindersticks
Ciega Sordomuda - Shakira
All My Little Words - The Magnetic Fields
These Arms of Mine - Otis Redding
Shakin’ all over - Johnny Kidd & The Pirates
Say Hello Wave Goodbye - David Gray


That’s all for today — we’ll keep you informed about further developments!