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"Lachrymal" was very much the case of "I have a bunch of demos in the same style, why don't I just release them as an EP". I've always wanted to do a goth-rock/post-punk album or EP. Pretty much since I started writing.
I'm a huge fan of The Cure, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Joy Division/New Order, and most post-punk/new wave/punk/goth rock from 1975-1985 so it's inevitable that I finally release something in that vein. There's definitely
that sort of sound scattered throughout my early stuff, but I don't consider much of my early work "cohesive". This is more or less all in the same boat.
The title track was just sort of a Krautrock-ish playground for me to screw around with beating my guitar up and messing with a tape delay. A bit primitive, but it was more for the fun of it. "Autumn Rivulet" is where things
get interesting, in my opinion. The whole EP has a pretty grim and cold atmosphere and it begins with this track. I'm a huge fan of the Fairlight, and so you'll hear that glass sample a lot if you listen to other stuff of mine. The lead guitar is very much Bernard Sumner inspired. He had/has a really simple but really cool tone for building atmosphere. I think it's almost reminiscent of Spaghetti Western soundtracks (also an enormous influence on my writing).
"Sanatorium" is one of many dirge-esque, dark songs on the EP. That big fat synth is my beloved ARP Odyssey that I got in April 2021. Sadly, I think something has gone wrong with the wiring on it so I need to get it repaired. "Frequency" was a demo/loop I had that I thought was
too cool to not use, but I do think it's maybe a bit underdeveloped. "Abandoned" is obviously influenced by The Cure and also features a really grimy appearence from the Odyssey. The dulcimer/harpsichord thing that comes in towards the middle/end was so so inspired by Shawn Lee, who did the OST for "Bully" on the PS2. That soundtrack probably influenced my music tastes more than most, and the rest of his work is phenomenal. Go check it out right now if you haven't! I think a lot of this EP is/was an exercise atmosphere building. I wonder how that would hold up if these were to be sung with lyrics and all that.
The last three tracks on the album "Nyctophobia" were all written and recorded in a single night. I wanted to "challenge" myself to see if I could. Luckily this kind of music is sort of easier to throw together without too much thought. Like I said, it's more about atmopshere building-- the original working titles for these were actually called "Atmos". I thought the name wasn't that interesting so I changed it to "Nyctophobia" on release (it means fear of the dark). Actually, fun fact: "Nyctophobia III" is actually "Nyctophobia IV". III was a sort of Eno-ish ambient piano and synthesizer piece but I didn't feel it fit with the rest, so it is currently sitting alone, scared deep in the bowels of my hard drive with the other rejects. Perhaps I'll let them out one of these days.
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