Miércoles 27 Feb 2008, 22:20

I like Futurepop and Synthpop, but I've never felt like the other kids.

My Synthpop roots are in a lighter place. You know, an Erasure-and-Yaz-first-then-worked-my-way-over-to-the-"dark"-stuff-like-Depeche Mode-and-NIN place. I've never gone seriously past Depeche into the Euro-similars or clones, at least not much further than a band like And One. I've never gone seriously past NIN to the heavier industrial stuff unless you're counting brushes with Nitzer Ebb. Bottom line: I just like pop music with unique lyrics and really kick ass synthesizer sounds and cool drum machines.

So when I started making and releasing music of my own, I really didn't understand that everyone wasn't in the same boat. I figured that fans of Erasure and Depeche Mode were rapant, they were all like me, and they'd gobble up my tunes because they were born of the same basic stuff. But it wasn't exactly true. People's tastes are insanely diverse, and fans of one band are rarely fans of the next. Here I was… no, here I am… with this music rooted in this place, but so many other people have roots in so many other places. Taste in music really is fragments of fragments, moreso now in the iPod generation than ever before.

When I put out my first Cosmicity album (in 1994, gulp), I found my very first fans… just a dozen or so… because they bought the CD at Tower Records in Ann Arbor, MI on blind faith. I put a sticker on the album that said "If you like Erasure, Depeche Mode and New Order, you're gonna love this." They chanced it, and they liked it. And thank god for them, because over time it lead me to a few hundred people, and those people continue to buy my music to this day. I love them.

I've had a hell of a time reaching everyone else, though. Fans of the "genre" generally cross way over into goth and industrial territory, a space that even my darker, more recent efforts don't really live in. I write what I know and love, and that's surely never going to be truly goth or similar. I'm a clever lil' nerd, I write synth music, and I believe I do what I do better than most. I do it with passion - I went to college to study it - and I've spent just about every dollar I have (and many I don't have) to achieve all I can. And I believe I actually still get exponentially better each year. I've even been told that, in recent years, I've gotten better than most of the bands I've been calling my "roots" since I was a teenager. (To be fair, I know I haven't written a "Violator" or a "Chorus", but have I written more compelling songs than some of the tracks on "Exciter" or "Light At The End of the World"? You be the judge on my latest like "Duchess 33" and "Perversions".) Even better, why not just download a bunch of my songs for free via The Free EP.

Anyway, dear journal, I think I just needed to talk about that today. Sometimes I need to look back in order to figure out how I got where I am. Yep, that pretty much explains it!

Wait, this IS what they meant by "journal entry", right?

-mark nicholas (aka cosmicity pre 2003)

PS - 7 of my best new songs really are now FREE to download. Get "The Free EP" right here on last.fm, or download from dirtyelectronic.com (recommended).

PPS - Enjoy this video if you're extra bored: Maniac

PPPS - Yay Futurepop and Synthpop and Dark Electro and ElectroPop!