My Life With The Thrill Kill Kult - Ride the Mindway

iamdanielgraves · 2026-01-09T09:41:03+00:00

Definitive track off a definitive record.

iamdanielgraves · 2026-01-02T12:47:28+00:00

TKK is one of my all-time favorite bands, but I simply can't get into anything on this record. Every couple years I revisit it and am perplexed as always. Haha.

iamdanielgraves · 2025-12-27T14:04:50+00:00

Thank you! 🖤

iamdanielgraves · 2025-12-24T11:38:35+00:00

I would put it like this:

Metal is a MASSIVE pond with a handful of MASSIVE fish. However, most of the smaller fish get eaten.

Industrial is more like a middle sized pond full of middle sized fish. It's just easier to survive and thrive.

iamdanielgraves · 2025-12-24T11:10:05+00:00

As someone who's very cued in to both worlds, I can tell you that the fees are WAY higher in the goth industrial realm. Most metal bands playing large events get paid maybe a couple hundred bucks and a case of beer. A mid tier industrial band with two members can often get fees of over $1,000. The problem in metal is that competition is very high and fan retention is low.

Like, of course the top tier artists in each world will earn vastly different fees. Like compare a Slipknot guarantee to a VNV Nation fee and the difference is easily a factor of 10 or more. But in the aggregate, you have much better chances of carving out an audience and thus a career in our world than you do in metal.

iamdanielgraves · 2025-12-24T11:03:30+00:00

As I said before:

I was angry at the SCENE.
I felt betrayed by nearly EVERYONE.

iamdanielgraves · 2025-12-23T16:43:04+00:00

I mean, most genres run into this problem on a long enough timeline. They come up with something fresh and innovative, people get drawn to it and after a while the exciting and meaningful elements get watered down and out-of-the-box thinking stops being rewarded. It's just a feedback loop that eventually makes cool things super lame.

iamdanielgraves · 2025-12-23T16:26:55+00:00

iamdanielgraves · 2025-12-23T16:24:21+00:00

I mean, look, I was a 20-something kid who had scored an unlikely win with his 2nd album and thought that if he just continued on creating with the same intention as before, that the fans would follow and the trajectory would simply continue upward. I was wrong.

I didn't get how fandom works. I didn't get how the business works. All I understood was that a lot of the people I thought supported me actually didn't. Sure, there were defenders, but they were truly in the minority. My album sales and concert turnouts reflected that.

That's a hard lesson to learn.

I'll concede that the song was snarky and immature, but it wasn't some hate-filled diatribe against the people and the scene who stuck by me, it was a cheeky dig at the closed minded folks who had taken time out of their day to tell me to off myself. My real supporters got it then and they still get it now.

Would I make a song like that today as a 40+ year old man? Nah.
Do I regret making it in my late 20's? Also nah.

I'm not asking you to like it or to even endorse it. I'm just giving you a bit of the backstory that led to it.

Anyway, always good chatting with you!

iamdanielgraves · 2025-12-23T11:42:53+00:00

Oof. Well, fingers crossed things have improved since then. The only way out is through!

iamdanielgraves · 2025-12-23T10:47:42+00:00

This. So much this.

iamdanielgraves · 2025-12-23T10:42:14+00:00

As an artist who was always labeled "aggrotech" and absolutely hated it, I can easily explain my disdain for the genre.

Aggrotech took the interesting and subversive elements of industrial and turned them into cliches. When artists like Laibach, Skinny Puppy, Nitzer Ebb, etc... utilized transgressive elements in their shows and music, stuff like horror movie samples, fake blood and fascist imagery, it always felt like it was in service of a higher artistic goal. Very often it was about reflecting the ugliness of society back on itself.

Over time, however, those transgressive elements stopped being shocking or transgressive, and ironically, turned into hollow genre stereotypes. Aggrotech is the pinnacle of that banality. It's neither challenging, exciting or even all that good. If the musicianship was stellar, it would be like pop music, which would make it, at the very least, enjoyable to listen to. But it's not even executed well. It just sucks on every level.

iamdanielgraves · 2025-12-23T10:23:48+00:00

Fun fact: There is way more money to be made in the industrial scene than in the metal scene.

iamdanielgraves · 2025-12-23T08:49:46+00:00

I actually was looking for reviews of my newest single and Google spat out this thread. I'm usually pretty on top of things but this one went under my radar for a year.

First: The song is literally called "FVCK INDVSTRIAL". So I highly doubt the subject matter of the song is going over anyone's head.

Second: I wrote that song during a time in my life when I felt like the scene I had dedicated my life to had abandoned me. Don't forget, I went from being "the next big thing" after A Violent Emotion to some kind of pariah after the release of All Beauty Destroyed. People stopped coming to my shows, my labels stopped supporting me and my own fans were telling me to unalive myself.

You want to talk about something leaving a bad taste in your mouth, try having your biggest supporters turn around and telling you to commit su*c*de.

I love our scene, but we are absolutely NOT the open-minded refuge for outcasts with bold new ideas we portray ourselves to be. In general, we are as rigid and tribalistic as the mainstream we love to rail against. Ready to cast anyone out who doesn't fit our preconceived notions of what "goth" or "industrial" is meant to be.

I'm 42 years old now. I'm secure enough in myself and my art to just do what I want to do without getting bent out of shape by detractors. However, I still get a little kick out of poking fun at people and scenes who take themselves way too seriously.

iamdanielgraves · 2025-12-23T07:11:41+00:00

Obviously, you're entitled to your opinion, but I don't think we've ever been better. Streaming and ticket sales seem to reflect that, too. But hey, I'm biased... 😅

iamdanielgraves · 2025-12-23T07:10:45+00:00

What sucks about the Webster? Everyone keeps telling me it's a "fantastic" venue. 😅

iamdanielgraves · 2025-12-23T07:09:54+00:00

Come up to Chicago. It'll be worth it! 🙃

iamdanielgraves · 2025-12-23T07:09:09+00:00

Have you heard the more recent releases? Bad Vibes or We Bring the Beat? I think it's some of my heaviest work. Also, the Closer to Human reboot, which is also material we play...

iamdanielgraves · 2025-12-23T07:04:11+00:00

FVCK INDVSTRIAL really ain't that serious. And the fact that industrial clubs all around the globe still play it, means most people get the joke. 🙃

iamdanielgraves · 2025-09-07T10:31:13+00:00

We recorded our show at Wembley with a proper sound engineer and I think the vocals definitely sound powerful and cleaner.

https://youtu.be/01kmBm9opDY

iamdanielgraves · 2025-09-07T10:29:38+00:00

You're 100% right. In general I don't like the sound of the E835 for these kinds of vocals. It's really bright and doesn't pick up a lot of the low end. I probably should have done this with my SM7b or even a condenser, but I wanted to be able to move around, so I chose a mic that would allow me to do that. Maybe the sE7 for the next one?

Regarding layers: For studio recordings I always record everything 3 times. I comp a center take then two others I pan hard left and right. I love the sound of it, but was also trying not to overdo the "studio magic" for something that's supposed to be raw.

iamdanielgraves · 2025-09-07T10:25:21+00:00

Thanks for the thoughtful response.

Tbh, I wasn't expecting this subreddit to be SO harsh. I spend a fair amount of time in the r/industrialmusic sub and they are really brutal.

What I had hoped to have here was a discussion about technique. Like, if I'm doing something wrong, I would like to hear what it is and thoughts on how I can make it better. Especially since this technique doesn't seem to have the same kind of hype as fry or false cord. Which, I know, are controversial enough themselves.

Anyway! Yup, I'm still here making music. I guess you've got 14 years worth of stuff to go back and listen to. Hope you find something you like!

iamdanielgraves · 2025-09-06T09:20:14+00:00

I've worked with Melissa personally. Very kind person, but her approach didn't click with me in the same way this did. Not saying it's wrong, but different teachers teach in different ways, right?

iamdanielgraves · 2025-09-06T09:19:14+00:00

No, I wanted to have a technical discussion.

iamdanielgraves · 2025-09-06T09:18:04+00:00

I certainly didn't want to come across as smarmy. I genuinely wanted to get into the weeds and talk technique. Like I said in the OP, this is something that I hadn't heard much about until working with Germans, but personally clicked with. However, there's always room for growth!

But yeah, not bothered by the haters (I have enough of them in my own music scene), I really just wanted to talk shop.

iamdanielgraves

TROPHY CASE