this took long enough.
"I want the Metal. I don't want to read text walls!"
Well okay. Enjoy!
And now, obligatory text time.
This ride began in 2011. I had a band. I was a drummer. We played Power Metal, but it was more on the epic, magical/fantasy side. Yet as a fan of Cain's Offering and the more sentimental-side lyrics from Gather the Faithful album, I really felt moved to create a separate side project. And so, Miraflecmor was "born".
I began writing, but never got to record or release anything as it wasn't the priority at that time. Nor did I have resources to start doing it the DIY way, although I tried, with barely any knowledge and zero idea of what I was doing. "Dafuq are those equalizer bands for? Can I just set up the midi in a DAW, tackle a random "realistic" plugin, band all together and call it a day?" Yes, but it sounds like ABSOLUTE GARBAGE. Even in raw midi format things sounded better. What's the deal then?
Also, of course, as with every project, several ideas went straight to the trash can after so many years. Fortunately, this wasn't true for most of my first album, called 'Feelings of a Frozen Heart'. Even the lyrics got little to no changes since 2011.
Some other songs were written a bit later, such as Misty Destiny, which dates from 2014, I think? What was meant to be a "bonus" turned out as a replacement to bad songs. And while Chase the Stars isn't as emotional as all other songs from the album, and wasn't even meant for Miraflecmor... but for my former band, and then we had an internal conflict and I left, and I wrote this song 100% myself, and it was meant to be a track for the second album of the band (and not even the first one was being recorded back then)... I rebranded it and it also replaced bad songs.
Still about that conflict, that happened in the start of 2017, that also motivated me to write a song, being this one 'Don't Think I'll Forget You'. Besides being inspired by ex-lovers, my former friends indirectly helped with that as well. It wasn't meant for Frozen Heart, too, but here we are.
And well... some songs were ugh as hell as well but if I were to just cut everything I'd end up with an EP and not a full album, and I didn't want that. So I heavily modified two of the ugly children - being those 'One Chance is Enough', and 'Higher, Farther and Colder'. You may notice they sound somewhat different compared to the rest, but in the end they turned out surprisingly good. All in all, lyrics for the whole album may be cheesy or even samey, but again, I avoided doing heavier changes as much as I could in order to "preserve history".
Time went by some more, and we reached the endless year of 2020. Depression struck hard. Rock bottom. Long story short: I broke up. I had no job. I failed car license tests several times. Argued with my mother absurd amounts of times. And the list goes on. And I really thought I'd soon put an end to it all. But before doing so, I recorded Chase the Stars with bad quality/F-Zero X samples/some extras and uploaded to YT, as means of final farewell. It happens that I survived. And I decided to chase the stars and follow the light as I myself told in that song. And I'd do whatever it takes to make Miraflecmor come true. Except again, when I was to give it a restart, I didn't get anywhere because my mixing skills were still pretty poor. My voice? Meh to say the least, always has been. And there was also the constant need and self-pressure to achieve perfection. After all, isn't that meant to be a dream music project?
2022. Started investing little by little in knowledge, at the same time feeling uneasy of touching my "bad" song drafts because they sounded so bland in my head and it'd take ages for me to get to an acceptable level. This, on the other hand, got converted into procrastination. I was avoiding the very thing I needed to face on in order to progress. So I stopped. And tried again after some months. Stopped again. Met a distant cousin of mine out of a sudden, and got pleasantly surprised when I heard she was also into Rock and Metal, and she even had her own solo project career going on. My motivation sparked up one more time, stronger than ever, because my horizons expanded, knowing that she knows people and the way towards working on music, releasing, advertising and stuff. Even so... my perfectionism-procrastination devil was still a thorn in my side, so I stopped. Yes. Again.
2023. Exhausted due to being overtasked while working with my father, both physically and mentally, it led me to rethink about life. I was there with him so I could both help him as well as myself - by helping him keep things up, I was keeping my mind busy not to think about nonsense. It was too busy, though. And so, my health conditions were about to get to the same point like in 2020. I had to change that. At the same time, I was afraid that my father and his business wouldn't be able to carry on well enough if I left. They would struggle, and they would need me at some point - a guess I hit dead-on. After I left, they did need me. But I left anyways in the end of February, 2024. For a while I was occasionally making some visits to help out with one-off endeavors, but even if unemployed and with a sick mother, I've been able to cope with the situation. I resumed studying about the music mixing process, and it was time to face it all again. So I set up a deadline and began working my ass off.
During the first months (March and April), I still procrastinated a bit, due to constantly needing to fight over my so-called "awful" mixes. I was experimenting a lot but was getting nowhere, despite getting closer to the desired result. I've come to stop (come on bro... stop stopping) for a while more to focus on other activities to distract myself... and the magic happened soon after.
Middle of April. I went to a local anime convention and decided to partake at "Animeke" - Karaoke but Anime (though Dragonforce - Power of the Triforce is no anime. Still, a tribute to the Legend of Zelda franchise wouldn't hurt since it's all about japanese geek culture as well, right?). I did. Guess the result? It was ridiculous. Shouting at the mic in public, straining my vocal cords and doing a poor performance overall - which was funny because poor performances from previous conventions were what moved me to try my luck on that one because I assumed I could do better. But I didn't (btw watch this disgrace here)! And this was the magic part, ladies and gentlemen. A failure. Because it made me change my mindset. Seeing how flawed my performance was, I couldn't expect to achieve anything - at all - even close to perfection. I had to be good first! And I wasn't even that!
Knowing that perfection is impossible to achieve, I picked up my scraps, and finally began working consistently on Miraflecmor, without worrying about the end product quality, like, at all. Essentially, 2024 is when Miraflecmor "was born" (and at this exact same period, 'Unlearn' was, too. Check it out here, as well as its backstory). I revisited my mixes, tweaked them all accordingly so they just sounded cohesive and consistent, and focused on the incomplete songs first and foremost. Once I got them done, it was time to record the vocals.
July. I got sick with the flu. I recovered shortly after, albeit not completely, but even so, I've booked four days to record all leads and backings. If you listen closely, you can notice my voice sounds pretty tinny at times. Anyways, that part sorted out, I also started searching for album cover artists, brainstorming concepts, even experimenting with AI as means of backup plan, and seeing more regarding media and music releasing. August 2024 was my deadline - yes, this very C3 date. I planned this in advance for a long time.
Vocals recorded, it was time for the final mixing, and time to get the album art cooked up for real. I trusted TheMorganah for the job (ka-ching!) after I've made a decent draft of my idea, and made my part regarding songs. Not with a quirk, though - August was upon me, and I didn't have all songs ready yet thanks to work. Again, I was back to my father's job. I requested 2 weeks of part-time work so I could finish my album and my father agreed, but I ended up overtasked, arriving home much later than planned, extremely tired and with an unbalanced mood, causing me to delay even more and even procrastinate a bit so I could rest.
Last week. Release date has arrived. Technical delays happened and I missed the deadline a bit. But it's done at last! Timing shenanigans aside, I'm hella satisfied because I made it this far. It's a life milestone, kinda like MKUCS was in 2017. I freed myself from the chains of the past, and now I fly free. Ready to take on new challenges, and maybe release more music. Though man, mixing is so freaking frustrating. I don't think I want to do this again... yet I feel I need to in case, so I can reproduce my ideas with the most fidelity possible.
Speaking of the past... part of my recent past years did mark me well enough to write songs inspired by that so a second album will probably be a 'Feelings of a Frozen Heart part II' of some sorts.
"But I won't give in just due to fear
I must face my misty destiny"
I'm sorry for this much text. Felt like it was necessary. It's gotta be registered somewhere, right? Who knows, someone might come across it and become the next Power Metal superstar, moved by my life experience? I seriously wish so! We need more Power Metal to brighten up the world. The genre is so fucking underrated oh my god.
There's more text, though - namely, the Special Thanks section!
Big thanks again to everybody that supported and trusted me. *hugs the world*
Ah, by the way, TheMorganah my friend has commission slots open for those interested. Some support goes a long way :3 so reach him, get his Discord/Twitter etc. (and pardon me for rushing this sponsor appendix lol, k? luv u <3)
"I want the Metal. I don't want to read text walls!"
Well okay. Enjoy!
And now, obligatory text time.
This ride began in 2011. I had a band. I was a drummer. We played Power Metal, but it was more on the epic, magical/fantasy side. Yet as a fan of Cain's Offering and the more sentimental-side lyrics from Gather the Faithful album, I really felt moved to create a separate side project. And so, Miraflecmor was "born".
I began writing, but never got to record or release anything as it wasn't the priority at that time. Nor did I have resources to start doing it the DIY way, although I tried, with barely any knowledge and zero idea of what I was doing. "Dafuq are those equalizer bands for? Can I just set up the midi in a DAW, tackle a random "realistic" plugin, band all together and call it a day?" Yes, but it sounds like ABSOLUTE GARBAGE. Even in raw midi format things sounded better. What's the deal then?
Also, of course, as with every project, several ideas went straight to the trash can after so many years. Fortunately, this wasn't true for most of my first album, called 'Feelings of a Frozen Heart'. Even the lyrics got little to no changes since 2011.
Some other songs were written a bit later, such as Misty Destiny, which dates from 2014, I think? What was meant to be a "bonus" turned out as a replacement to bad songs. And while Chase the Stars isn't as emotional as all other songs from the album, and wasn't even meant for Miraflecmor... but for my former band, and then we had an internal conflict and I left, and I wrote this song 100% myself, and it was meant to be a track for the second album of the band (and not even the first one was being recorded back then)... I rebranded it and it also replaced bad songs.
Still about that conflict, that happened in the start of 2017, that also motivated me to write a song, being this one 'Don't Think I'll Forget You'. Besides being inspired by ex-lovers, my former friends indirectly helped with that as well. It wasn't meant for Frozen Heart, too, but here we are.
And well... some songs were ugh as hell as well but if I were to just cut everything I'd end up with an EP and not a full album, and I didn't want that. So I heavily modified two of the ugly children - being those 'One Chance is Enough', and 'Higher, Farther and Colder'. You may notice they sound somewhat different compared to the rest, but in the end they turned out surprisingly good. All in all, lyrics for the whole album may be cheesy or even samey, but again, I avoided doing heavier changes as much as I could in order to "preserve history".
Time went by some more, and we reached the endless year of 2020. Depression struck hard. Rock bottom. Long story short: I broke up. I had no job. I failed car license tests several times. Argued with my mother absurd amounts of times. And the list goes on. And I really thought I'd soon put an end to it all. But before doing so, I recorded Chase the Stars with bad quality/F-Zero X samples/some extras and uploaded to YT, as means of final farewell. It happens that I survived. And I decided to chase the stars and follow the light as I myself told in that song. And I'd do whatever it takes to make Miraflecmor come true. Except again, when I was to give it a restart, I didn't get anywhere because my mixing skills were still pretty poor. My voice? Meh to say the least, always has been. And there was also the constant need and self-pressure to achieve perfection. After all, isn't that meant to be a dream music project?
2022. Started investing little by little in knowledge, at the same time feeling uneasy of touching my "bad" song drafts because they sounded so bland in my head and it'd take ages for me to get to an acceptable level. This, on the other hand, got converted into procrastination. I was avoiding the very thing I needed to face on in order to progress. So I stopped. And tried again after some months. Stopped again. Met a distant cousin of mine out of a sudden, and got pleasantly surprised when I heard she was also into Rock and Metal, and she even had her own solo project career going on. My motivation sparked up one more time, stronger than ever, because my horizons expanded, knowing that she knows people and the way towards working on music, releasing, advertising and stuff. Even so... my perfectionism-procrastination devil was still a thorn in my side, so I stopped. Yes. Again.
2023. Exhausted due to being overtasked while working with my father, both physically and mentally, it led me to rethink about life. I was there with him so I could both help him as well as myself - by helping him keep things up, I was keeping my mind busy not to think about nonsense. It was too busy, though. And so, my health conditions were about to get to the same point like in 2020. I had to change that. At the same time, I was afraid that my father and his business wouldn't be able to carry on well enough if I left. They would struggle, and they would need me at some point - a guess I hit dead-on. After I left, they did need me. But I left anyways in the end of February, 2024. For a while I was occasionally making some visits to help out with one-off endeavors, but even if unemployed and with a sick mother, I've been able to cope with the situation. I resumed studying about the music mixing process, and it was time to face it all again. So I set up a deadline and began working my ass off.
During the first months (March and April), I still procrastinated a bit, due to constantly needing to fight over my so-called "awful" mixes. I was experimenting a lot but was getting nowhere, despite getting closer to the desired result. I've come to stop (come on bro... stop stopping) for a while more to focus on other activities to distract myself... and the magic happened soon after.
Middle of April. I went to a local anime convention and decided to partake at "Animeke" - Karaoke but Anime (though Dragonforce - Power of the Triforce is no anime. Still, a tribute to the Legend of Zelda franchise wouldn't hurt since it's all about japanese geek culture as well, right?). I did. Guess the result? It was ridiculous. Shouting at the mic in public, straining my vocal cords and doing a poor performance overall - which was funny because poor performances from previous conventions were what moved me to try my luck on that one because I assumed I could do better. But I didn't (btw watch this disgrace here)! And this was the magic part, ladies and gentlemen. A failure. Because it made me change my mindset. Seeing how flawed my performance was, I couldn't expect to achieve anything - at all - even close to perfection. I had to be good first! And I wasn't even that!
Knowing that perfection is impossible to achieve, I picked up my scraps, and finally began working consistently on Miraflecmor, without worrying about the end product quality, like, at all. Essentially, 2024 is when Miraflecmor "was born" (and at this exact same period, 'Unlearn' was, too. Check it out here, as well as its backstory). I revisited my mixes, tweaked them all accordingly so they just sounded cohesive and consistent, and focused on the incomplete songs first and foremost. Once I got them done, it was time to record the vocals.
July. I got sick with the flu. I recovered shortly after, albeit not completely, but even so, I've booked four days to record all leads and backings. If you listen closely, you can notice my voice sounds pretty tinny at times. Anyways, that part sorted out, I also started searching for album cover artists, brainstorming concepts, even experimenting with AI as means of backup plan, and seeing more regarding media and music releasing. August 2024 was my deadline - yes, this very C3 date. I planned this in advance for a long time.
Vocals recorded, it was time for the final mixing, and time to get the album art cooked up for real. I trusted TheMorganah for the job (ka-ching!) after I've made a decent draft of my idea, and made my part regarding songs. Not with a quirk, though - August was upon me, and I didn't have all songs ready yet thanks to work. Again, I was back to my father's job. I requested 2 weeks of part-time work so I could finish my album and my father agreed, but I ended up overtasked, arriving home much later than planned, extremely tired and with an unbalanced mood, causing me to delay even more and even procrastinate a bit so I could rest.
Last week. Release date has arrived. Technical delays happened and I missed the deadline a bit. But it's done at last! Timing shenanigans aside, I'm hella satisfied because I made it this far. It's a life milestone, kinda like MKUCS was in 2017. I freed myself from the chains of the past, and now I fly free. Ready to take on new challenges, and maybe release more music. Though man, mixing is so freaking frustrating. I don't think I want to do this again... yet I feel I need to in case, so I can reproduce my ideas with the most fidelity possible.
Speaking of the past... part of my recent past years did mark me well enough to write songs inspired by that so a second album will probably be a 'Feelings of a Frozen Heart part II' of some sorts.
"But I won't give in just due to fear
I must face my misty destiny"
I'm sorry for this much text. Felt like it was necessary. It's gotta be registered somewhere, right? Who knows, someone might come across it and become the next Power Metal superstar, moved by my life experience? I seriously wish so! We need more Power Metal to brighten up the world. The genre is so fucking underrated oh my god.
There's more text, though - namely, the Special Thanks section!
Big thanks again to everybody that supported and trusted me. *hugs the world*
Ah, by the way, TheMorganah my friend has commission slots open for those interested. Some support goes a long way :3 so reach him, get his Discord/Twitter etc. (and pardon me for rushing this sponsor appendix lol, k? luv u <3)