Another Spooky Season begins and so does preparations for another album from Pathogen. I keep telling myself that I will slow down, but I literally have not been able to stop myself from writing and recording. So, my third full length album, "Express Elevator To Hell: They Cut The Power," will be released to the public in October.
As of writing, the release date has not been finalized. I still have to finish up post production on a couple of songs, so final release date is TBD. Everything I write is important to me, but this album definitely feels like it has been over a year in the making. Since wrote my first song, "Contact," it started me on the journey to my first project, "Express Elevator To Hell." That mixtape turned out wonderfully (relatively,) but there was still more to the ideas and the vibe that I wanted to work with. The title itself is a reference to the late and great Bill Paxton in Aliens when the platoon of Colonial Marines is dropped via dropship towards the Alien infested planet below. He says, "Express Elevator To Hell going down!" So, at it's most basic its just a damn cool title that references pop culture. The other meaning behind it (its up to your interpretation of course,) for me is that Hell is my mind and the elevator is my attitude. Simply put, I'm a real sad guy sometimes. I've had pretty hardcore periods of depression and bouts of anxiety on and off (more on) since late 2019 or so. That coincided with me writing and releasing my first song. Even though that song (and several from the mixtape) don't have too much to do with how I was feeling explicitly, once I started writing the mixtape (I also started work on the "Halloween Town Massacre" album in the middle of that,) writing about what I'm feeling became my thing. Which, only makes sense I guess. I try to change up the vibes and how I get these feelings across. Like, "Welcome To My Multi-Verse," is an album that features different genre, time period, personality (characters of myself I made up,) and energy. "Halloween Town Massacre," is an album that features almost every song being a reference to a horror movie, character, or concept from a horror show. So, you know, METAPHORS.
With the upcoming They Cut The Power I am not trying to hide the feelings as much. Well, its just a lot more straight forward whether I manage to be clever or not. I (like a lot of people) have been dealing with stretches of depression and hard-to-control anxiety for a good few years now and part of that comes from my reaction to the world we live in. Ultimately it comes down to how I handle things and carry myself, but society is also not in great shape. So, that shows. I already went over the title referencing that and I have multiple tracks on the album very clearly fall into that, "we live in a society..." George Costanza or Joker type of of attitude (both are referenced on the album.) There is a lot of anger, questioning, and general unsettledness in the content I am putting out here. At this point in my life, that is just what my music is going be drawing from, I think. Hopefully it keeps getting better, and I keep experiencing things, and it becomes even more diverse. Still, making music 9all kinds of art, hobbies, and jobs are) is a form of therapy for a lot of people and I get that, its pretty much the same for me.
I did try to have a little fun on this one. I did the same with a track or two on my previous album. For this one, "Waking Up The Dead," goes hard as hell and it's one of my favorites from my catalog so far. It references the depression and sad guy stuff, but its a GREAT opening track and it's about having fun, basically. My music (and soon my live performances of it) waking myself and the audience up from our slumber of day-to-day monotony, depression, whatever it is that is holding you down. Alpha Dominant is a new version of one of the first songs I wrote. It also goes hard, but it has a lot of, "I'm the shit," to it, so its a little more fun. "Forget," is a BANGER and its definitely good to shake your ass to. It is a spiritual successor to my freestyles over French Montana's, "Pop That," and Doja Cat's, "Tia Tamera." The only track that is straight up a party, is "Feral." I had a lot of fun with that one and it's one of my best mixes (that I did myself,) so hopefully everyone enjoys!
I also got my first big feature! One of the best aspects of art and music is working with other people to make something beautiful. Unfortunately, at this little guy, independent level, it's not always easy to make things happen. My peers are not easy to schedule (everybody is out here grinding everyday), our budgets are limited, and all that. It's even harder to get a known act to hop on a track or a beat, let alone get them to respond to a message I send. So, that also leads to a lot of anger and disappointment. I want to expand and work with other people, but I don't always get the time of day (rarely do so far.) It worked out on one song though. "Damn Shame," is a song referencing exactly what this paragraph describes (and it stretches into looking for a job and getting broken up with) and I was lucky enough to get a featuring verse from the one and only Wrekonize of ¡Mayday! on the track! He came through with a great verse as he always does, so I am honored to have one of my favorite artists ever bless my song and album. I all listeners enjoy both of our turns on that one!
The first single from the album, hell the only single is, "Waking Up The Dead," and it will be released on September 30, 2022! I cannot wait for everyone to hear this one! Unfortunately my mix isn't the greatest, definitely some unintentional distortion and misbalance.... But it's still pretty good and I hope the vibe of the song makes up for it. I'm going to love playing it live!
So, in conclusion, this album is an important one to me. I had a lot of fun making this one. It is my best work yet in basically all aspects. I worked with more engineers than ever, I did some of the best mixing I have personally done, my bars, rhyme schemes, flows, and delivery is improving, I got two vocal features, and I have produced (or am about to) more music videos for this than my other projects combined. I hope the world finds it and can enjoy at least one moment from one song. Remember, I have merch available! Black axe drip shirts and a limited number of Halloween Town Massacre shirts! Thank you for reading! Check out all of my projects here!
