TALES FROM BEYOND THE PALE
launches “loss-less” versions of every Tale on BANDCAMP
Special re-mix of
Glenn McQuaid’s INT. COFFIN – NIGHT available now
The lads have a chat about the new project:
Larry Fessenden: Glenn can you tell the fans why this new platform for TALES? Why Bandcamp and what is “Lossless audio?”
Glenn McQuaid: When it comes to Tales from Beyond the Pale, every detail counts, I’m most proud of all the nuances and subtleties that go into our final mixes but it’s fair to say that a lot of the stuff we spend hours trying to get just right in the studio can get muddied once the files are compressed for streaming. Releasing the work as lossless audio ensures all of these details are preserved and the listener can hear the work without any loss of fidelity.
I also think that Bandcamp is an incredible platform, there is so much fun content on there from every genre of music as well audio drama (check out our UK friends on there, Bafflegab, their work is amazing) and it’s a place where listeners can choose to support the artists directly. As you know I make music as Witchboard (goth) and Luke Fuller (gay porn soundtracks) and a few other nom-de-plumes and I love the community of bandcamp creators and consumers.
LF: And to launch our new platform, we are re-releasing your recent Tale “Int. Coffin – Night”. Why re-cut/re-release a Tale?
GM: I listened to the original release of Coffin a few months back and felt it wasn’t up to our usual standards and given that it has no dialogue I felt it was especially important to get it right. I initially thought I’d go in and just do a re-edit and clean up some sounds but it ended up being much more involved than that. I went back to the original studio performance of Grace Cooper and chose different takes and recorded and added new foley, and changed the score. It’s fun to consider this one our first Director’s Cut even though there was no studio interference which that label suggests.
LF: So there’s no dialogue. How did you come to that approach?
GM:A few reasons, the pettiest being that a group of dull people in the business told me it wasn’t possible so I set out to prove them wrong. Another reason is that I find there’s an overuse of the narrator in the format these days and I wanted to kick against that. I also think there’s too much descriptive exposition in dialogue, “Look over there, I see a *insert detailed description here*…” kind of stuff.
Letting go of the dialogue forced me to consider soundscapes in new ways, they’re not just background here, they tell the story.
I release field recording/nature sound records (Glenn McQuaid’s Excursions in Sound) and in a way Int. Coffin – Night. is an extension of those records and I wanted it to be enjoyed almost as an environmental record too. The new edit takes its time, there are moments of trudging across a river, or walking through woods that were initially a lot shorter, the new cut is less impatient with the journey and allows these moments to open up and become much more lush and immersive.
As you say in the intro it requires that the listener give it their undivided attention, which is a lot to ask of modern audiences but it’s a puzzle box of sorts and it’ll open up if one gives it some focus. We’ve always pushed ourselves to try new things and this one certainly does that, I’m proud of it, I think it’s a terrific gothic horror and could make a great silent movie one day!
LF: Very nice job, Glenn. I hope fellow audiophiles will visit the Bandcamp site. Our low-fi friends can shuffle on over to our regular podcast sight where we’ve made the new INT. COFFIN – NIGHT is available.
And now back to the TALES HQ where we are slaving away on the new season…
TALES FROM BEYOND THE PALE on BANDCAMP
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