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Makin of 'Future Noir' - Hanin Elias keeps ripping off artists. I am one of them...
It's been some time now, since I produced and composed the album Future Noir.
I met Hanin Elias at a concert in Hamburg, where I gave her a CD of my music. I asked her then, that I would like to do a remix for her.
She said that it would be complicated to do a remix, because she had problems with her former producer (C.H.I.F.F.R.E.), who produced most of the Tracks for her
album 'No Games No Fun'. Hanin Elias asked me if I would like to do a track for her new album. As a big fan of ATR in that time I agreed instantly.
In that time I was far away from beeing a cold business professional.
I was very naive to think that 'trust' would be the only thing to be treated fairly between musicians.
I believed that I would get a fair contract. I write this now, so that other musicians would not get into the same situation.
I started to compose 'Untouchable'.
Here is a demoversion of the instrumental, so you can hear what I did without the voice of Hanin Elias:
Untouchable (Instrumental).mp3
On the version which you hear on 'Future Noir' I am also singing the backingvocals.
Here is also the unplugged version which i also produced: Untouchable unplugged (Instrumental).mp3
After that Hanin Elias asked to sing over a song from my band SPITE (www.spite.info). I produced this song in 2000.
Here is the instrumental: Extreme V4 - (Instrumental) by SPITE.mp3 (More Infos: here.)
My brother made also a video for this song (War Extreme V4) - all for free -
She didn't even care to play that video at the releaseparty.
I worked hard on the complete album and produced 13 tracks in 6 months besides my regular job
with my equipment in that time:
- pc (2.4 Ghz Pentium 4) with logic audio 4.8
- Korg M1
- Roland VS-1680 HD-Recorder
- Overland Guitar.
- Native Instruments Kontakt 1 & much Freeware VST-Synths
Every instrument you hear on 'Future Noir' (except some additional drums by Bertil Mark, and a guitar-Track from Thurston Moore)
were composed, recorded and produced by myself.
To better understand what I played and composed you can now listen to the track with the guitartrack
of Thurston Moore: In Your Room (Instrumental) (with Guitar by Thurston Moore).mp3
And this is what I composed without the guitar: In Your Room (Instrumental) (Just TweakerRay).mp3
I even directed Hanin Elias to sing different on the songs, because I thought that she could try something else than just her famous
ATR "Screaming" - Style. Hanin later even claimed to have composed 50% of the music, because she did the vocals over my instrumentals.
Here is another instrumental which i composed: City Lights (Instrumental).mp3
This is the titletrack 'Future Noir' - You hear the typical stutteredits on the drums (which I also used on the song 'Untouchable'). I played the guitar and all synths are programmed by myself.
Future Noir (Instrumental).mp3
After I had done 13 Tracks, Hanin Elias gave a contract to me.
She told me to sign it or we can't make a record together.
And I already had composed, recorded, mixed and produced 13 Tracks with her vocals. So I signed that contract,
because all the work would have been for nothing...if I would not have signed this contract...
With this contract, Hanin Elias claimed all the rights of my music.
Later I helped her to put the Tracks into the mp3 shops. (Thinking she would split that money fair 50/50)
She is now selling it at mp3-shops like amazon. You now may think, that is good - but it is not:
Hanin Elias is telling me that I am not getting any share of the mp3 sales. After 8 years I still haven't received any royalty statements from CD sales.
Every time I ask for them she gives me excuses for why she can't send them or reacts angry and tells me not to bother her.
She claims not to have received any payment and lost money on this record.
If that's the case, why can't she show me those 'losses' in writing? After I had done the work, I became useless for her.
Update 2012:
She is also selling my work in a limited Edition Box, and I don't get a single cent for anything I have composed.
She let other people remix my work without informing me. I am not credited as the original composer.
Here is a small video I did about this limited edition box at youtube.
Here is the 2nd Video I did about this box and the result of my small vote: limited edition box
I am at the point now where I don't even care about the money anymore. But after all the work I have done and for all the music I have written on Future Noir, I think I deserve my true writingcredit.
Music: TweakerRay - Lyrics and Vocals: Hanin Elias
Without me she would not have a single sound on her album. I put so much energy and effort into the making of this album, but Hanin Elias always make it sound like she did it on her own which is simply not true.
Even the song of my band SPITE is not credited correctly.
Hanin Elias released the Album also in the US. I have not seen any royalty statements of that either.
On the US-Release there is not really credited, that I sang Backingvocals, played all instruments
(except Bertil Mark's drums and Thurston's guitartrack).
Instead there is the credit: Music by Hanin Elias / TweakerRay.
Here are some more instrumentals which I composed for 'Future Noir' :
After All (Instrumental).mp3
Burn (Instrumental).mp3
Iced Icon (Instrumental).mp3
Fight Together (Instrumental).mp3
Eaten Alive (Instrumental).mp3
The Rats (Instrumental).mp3
I tried to capture a little bit of the whole creating-process and made pictures in that time ... you find them at the bottom.
The pictures were taken in that time, where I thought I would be treated fair:
as the 'producer / composer' of this record. I was wrong...
TweakerRay
Text Untouchable
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