Dearest Troublemakers!
What an absolutely insane past few weeks it’s been! 😱
The last time I wrote, we had just finished Fantasy Forest and were preparing ourselves for the “wildest three weeks” of the year. Expectations were high, and my word did it deliver!
We played some great shows in Germany at Horizonte, Totenkirche, and the World Music Festival in Loshausen. Then, after one quick preparation and recharge day at Florian’s parents’ house in Braunschweig, it was time to enter the Holy Ground of Metal: Wacken Open Air.
Four straight days of madness.
We worked for it, playing 2–3 times a day on a stage in the Wackinger Village. And each day, the crowds grew and grew and grew. We received so much positive feedback, and we’re absolutely certain that much more will come out of that experience. It felt like we were introducing The Trouble Notes and the world of Eldbriaris to an entirely new audience, and they welcomed us with open arms and Pommesgabeln. 🤘
Before we could even digest what had happened at Wacken, we went straight to Castlefest for the Sunday night closing show on the main stage.
I had been saying all year that I expected this to be the best show of the year, but it exceeded even my very high expectations.
What transpired was one of the wildest rides I think I’ve ever been on: guest performers on nearly every track from five different bands, crowd surfing through the audience in a dinghy carried by pirates, and, of course… THE FRUIT SALAD!
It was absolute madness and likely sits as our favorite TTN show ever. There is still much debate about that internally.
After all that excitement, we made our way into the Vosges and touched familiar soil again, playing in Faucogney and Val d’Ajol before eventually ending the journey in our beloved Strasbourg.
And somehow, this is only the midway point of our summer season!
We’ve had a few short days to recoup in Berlin, and now we’re getting ready to make our way to Czechia to perform at Deloraine’s Sabat Fest. No doubt this will be a heck of a time dancing and singing in a medieval Czech village.
Something Bigger Is Moving Behind the Scenes The shows have all been incredible, but there is even more happening behind the scenes that is worth sharing with you.
As you well know, Mnemorith: Echoes of Eldbriaris is the prologue to something much bigger.
And it’s with great excitement that we can finally share that the full project has now received funding through Initiative Musik!
This means we’ve been awarded a grant that will help subsidize the production costs of the larger album and allow us to take the next stage of this project much further.
Earlier this year, we took some pretty big, although calculated, risks.
We self-financed the production of the Echoes of Eldbriaris Prologue Album and Book with the hope that, once we had something tangible in our hands, potential partners and organizations would be able to better understand the long-term vision.
Rather than simply telling people what we wanted to build, we could show them.
That seems to have paid dividends in more ways than one.
We now have the initial support from Initiative Musik, while different project management and marketing partners are already coming to the table. Combine that with the production team and incredible guest musicians we’ve been building around the project, and it’s starting to feel like something big is happening for us.
There’s one question we keep asking ourselves:
If Mnemorith: Echoes of Eldbriaris is what we could create with limited time and resources… what becomes possible with a longer timeline and more support?
That’s something very exciting for us to think about.
The Next Chapter Over the coming weeks, alongside our rigorous summer touring schedule, we’ll begin pre-writing for the next album.
I’ve now written most of the first draft of the Mnemorith novel, and I expect to have it finished by the end of September. As the story takes shape, so too will the music, characters, themes, and world surrounding it.
Our goal is to use this community here on Patreon to give you a much deeper look into everything happening behind the scenes. Not only updates about the project, but a real dive into the creative process and the lore behind Mnemorith.
The characters. The world. The writing. The new songs. The studio process. The collaborators. And all of the strange twists and turns that happen while trying to bring something this ambitious to life.
There is so much to share.
And now that our team and support network is expanding, we believe we can finally dedicate more time to documenting the process and bringing all of you along for the journey.
After all, many of the risks we were able to take this year were possible because of the community supporting us here.
So this next chapter belongs to you as well.
Exciting times ahead, dear Troublemakers!
With love and Trouble’d Melodies,
Bennet
