Specimen
I joined the members of the legendary “Deathrock” band, from the infamous goth defining club Batcave, Specimen for a one time show at the DNA Lounge in San Francisco after Jon Klein flew in from London for a night of some fun; playing his old band’s songs at a mild impromptu show with a stand in singer, me. This single night lead to me becoming the official new lead singer of Specimen on the first full length album the band released.
I wrote and co-produced the tracks “Lilacs [MP3]” (BMI link), “Play Prey” (BMI link), and “Aftershock [MP3]” (BMI link) (All songs © Kraquehaus Productions, BMI) and was the lead singer on two of the songs that Jon Klein wrote for the album: “Electric Ballroom” & “Fatal Error”.
Jon sang on the tracks “Death Drive“, “Nothing Lasts Forever“, “Cinema Of Attractions” (along with Olli Wisdom), and “White Space“. Versions of these songs were recorded with me, T.bias, singing, but Jon Klein, as the sole producer and artistic controller, decided in the end to use the versions only using his own vocal takes (against my recommendations that a continuity of a lead singer was vital to selling the new lineup).
The album, “Electric Ballroom” [link to iTunes], was released by Metropolis Records in the summer of 2007.
As the sole controller of the band, Jon Klein oddly did not promote nor allow proper promotions to be engaged for the release of the album. (e.g., I was not allowed to produce a web site for the band or site to promote the release of the album.) Shortly thereafter, Jon Klein gathered the original 1983 line-up of the band, without the knowledge of the current members (T.bias, Kimba, and Stephan X), for a US tour which was eventually canceled due to poor ticket sales in relation to the high expectations. The reunited ’83 lineup eventually performed twice; once in London and again at a goth festival in Germany.
I wanted to be part of a continuation and progression of the band instead of just rehashing all of the old tunes. In the end I was glad that my performances on “Electric Ballroom” stand as they are and the original members got together to travel down memory lane.
Logging you in...
I wish that you had actually used either a name, email address (silliness@yahoo.com is not a valid email; I checked) or other identifier so you could actually elaborate on you odd comment. Your IP address 66.141.168.37, which appears to be in the Dallas, Texas area, doesn't help much.
•For one, you neglected to state who I "completely exclude[ed]", so it is hard for me to address this.
•Secondly, you've made some oddly passive aggressive statements in your short comment that seem to allude to your personal involvement in the project…and of course some direct dissatisfaction with my take on the experience.
That being said, let me attempt to address this as best as I can:
Whom have I excluded?
I don't believe I have excluded anyone in particular. It is my understanding that it was Stephan's idea to get me involved in this project in the first place. I have already thanked him for that. I, of course, thanked Metropolis and Dave specifically for taking this project on even though I was not involved in the details of getting this album into gear on the record label side of things since that deal was exclusively between Jon Klein and Metropolis. There were a few other people I may have left out of my story, but there were many people who assisted along the way and I did not feel that it was necessary to list everyone involved.
If, perchance, you are referring to some people to which I considered very good friends going into this project and parted ways with on not so graceful terms from them, I did not think it appropriate to mention them by name and get into such pedantic public discourse; I would much rather stick to the positives of the experience. (Yes, I did allude to some dissatisfaction with elements of the project, but I generally kept that to basic artistic differences of opinion; e.g., The decision to go with Jon's vocals instead of my own to put forth the "new lead singer of Specimen" in a clear and supportive manner.
Bitter does not describe my feelings about this.
Let me be clear: I am not bitter.
Am I happy about how the experience played out? Definitely not. There were indeed some very exciting elements to this project; if nothing else, I walked away from it with two amazingly good friends (Kimba & Stephan). That being said, the project ended as an emotional and artistic drainthe likes of which I have neer experienced. I stopped writing, performing, recording or doing any music for nearly two years after this project fell apart.
I put my heart into the music. I worked my ass off to make this a very special album with waves of intense apprehension since I was the "new lead singer" for a band that many hold dear to their hearts. Changing the lead singer to a band that many love for a new album is a challenge, at best. I was doing my best to try to not disappoint the devout fans whose eyes were always surrounding me; I did not take this lightly.
In addition to this, I was met with confrontation day in and day out from parties who shall remain nameless. I made frequent calls to friends/bandmates to remind me why I should not quit the project almost every week for the year and a half we worked on this. There were many times I felt it would be best to leave the project instead of swimming upstream with my artwork under my arm, which I hold close to my heart, unclear as to what was going on while I was perpetually met with confrontation.
On top of this, it was my (and I believe Stephan and Kimba) understanding that we would be touring to support this new album. I spent a lot of time, energy, and money (purchasing a lot of gear) preparing for this tour.
After putting my soul into the music as well as my time and energy, I was dumbfounded when the album was purposely brushed under the rug. The album came out with less than a wimper of promotion from the group let alone any fanfare.
Why so sad, T.bias?
This was all made clear when Kimba, Stephan and myself were notified that Jon Klein had reunited with original lineup during the making of the new album, "Electric Ballroom", and would be touring the US with Alien Sex Fiend, but without any of the band members who put together this new album. In a sense, we were all working on a new "Specimen" when Jon was already lining up the old "Specimen", thus making this "new Specimen" defunct. I can understand why Jon would want to tour with an all original lineup, but the back room dealing while everyone involved in the "new Specimen" is prepping for an album release and subsequent tour is just immoral. I like Jon, but this was a horrible decision.
Your comment suggests that I should be privileged to even have worked with a band labeled as "Specimen".
I appreciate that I was able to work with the people I worked with, to be sure. I had fun performing that ONE show which was an unofficial "Specimen" show where we intended to only have fun playing some of the old songs with no plans to go beyond this. I had a blast, people seemed to enjoy it, and it was well recieved enough for someone to want to put out a new Specimen album based on it.
That being said, I really believe that the project that ended up being called "Specimen" who released an album called "Electric Ballroom" was the wrong project to release that album. We should have merely done it as a NEW band.
So your allusion to the fact that I should be happy to have even been part of the "Specimen legacy" is a bit misplaced. I'm very glad to have been a part of that one off show that was more of a really fun one off gig, but to think that I should purely be glad to have been a part of "Specimen" regardless of the turmoil is something I completely disagree with; especially since I firmly believe that the album we recorded was less of a Specimen album than a new and different band of Specimen descent.
In summation, I am not bitter (more saddened and disenchanted), you left out whom I neglected, in your opinion, to credit, and left no way for me to contact you to try to clear this up. I hope this lengthy reply clears things up.
–"Electric Ballroom"
–"Lilacs"
–"Play Prey"
–"Fatal Error"
–"Aftershock"
Comments by IntenseDebate
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{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
Odd that you would completely exclude, without whom, you would have never even gotten the gig in the first place. Bitter, much?
Very interesting read – thanks. I've only just heard this album for the 1st time recently. Infact, I downloaded it from Emusic and obviously have no sleevenotes etc. So, in summary, what tracks on the version I downloaded do you sing on? ta. J.x
I sing on almost all of tracks in various forms, but I would say that I am the "lead vocalist" on the following songs:
–"Electric Ballroom"
–"Lilacs"
–"Play Prey"
–"Fatal Error"
–"Aftershock"
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