Pumpkinland by Opinion
« "Pumpkinland" is a collection of songs recorded between 2018 and 2020 on Audacity.
I recorded almost all of the "acoustic" tracks on this album in my bedroom at Boarding School.
Most of the "electric" songs were recorded in my mother's house.
In 2019, when I was in my father's house, I had better equipment for recording, so I did "Molly". Otherwise, I only used a 10€ microphone bought at Super U (a French supermarket) and Audacity. The sound was so bad, but it was a lot of fun doing this.
At first, I wanted "Pumpkinland" to be the sequel to "Fuzzy Lychee" (2018).
It was meant to be an 4-tracks EP recorded on March 17, 2019:
"I'm Affraid Of Growing Up" + "Leave This Town" + "Carb" + "Kill Your Idol" (a rejected track from "Fuzzy Lychee").
I quickly abandoned the idea of an EP and wanted "Pumpkinland" to be a double album like "Molly". Like a sort of more lo-fi side of Opinion. But I never had the time to really finish this project.
At the end of 2019, the recording of "Molly" was finished, and I was struggling with myself a lot. It was really hard to mix a double album when you are at the same time in a boarding school.
Also, I was frustrated to have so many unreleased songs and not knowing how to release them. So, in December 2019, I released the unfinished album from 2018 called "Desire, Perfume & Slowly". I felt a lot better doing that. A lot of pain was now released. I was free for some months.
In 2020, I was in a very weird and dark period. I wanted to change my music, but at the same time I was mixing "Molly" with my father. I was proud of "Molly", but I wanted to make something more dark and lo-fi at the same time. So "Pumpkinland" became a sort of weird unfinished album with a lot of tracks, differents moods, and no particular directions. I didn't knew what to do with this album. I was stuck.
When the mixing and mastering of "Molly" was finished, I quickly forgot about "Pumpkinland". I just wanted to release this double album with Flippin' Freaks Records, doing music videos with Margotin, and also enjoying the calm of the lockdown.
When "Molly" was released, I was surprised that a lot of people were liking it. But personally, I just wanted to make a new album. I wanted to create something that sounds like nothing else, with a lot of overdubs, and a dark and unique aesthetic. I started the recording of this new album called "Troisième Opinion" in late 2020. The album is still actually not released, but I hope it will be out soon. It's sincerely the only thing worth listening that I created.
In 2020-2021, "Pumpkinland" was still not finished or ready to be released. I thought at the time that "Pumpkinland" was too lo-fi to be released just after "Molly".
"Pumpkinland" was now an abandoned project
In summer 2022, I rediscovered this album. Even if it's still unfinished, I know that it's impossible for me to record new songs to fit in this album. So I released it as "surprise present" for some friends on December 14, 2022. It was released on the Soundcloud account of my record label "Nothing Is Mine". After one week, I removed the album from Soundcloud. I was kind of cringed by myself. I just felt it was not a good album.
But today (July 2023), I think that this album need to be released for good.
I'm proud of it. It's unfinished, it's not mixed, it's very badly recorded, etc, but when I listen to it, it reminds me of rainy days in high school, hanging out with my friends, and the boredom of adolescence.
So I remastered the whole album between July & August 2023 to make it sound like the best demo sounding album recorded on Audacity with the worst mic ever.
"Pumpkinland" is the other side of "Molly". The more abstract and weird version. I hope you will understand why I wanted to release it.
This album is for all my friends from high school. I love you all. »
-Hugo Carmouze
Tracklist
| 1. | I Hate To Be Myself | 2:10 |
| 2. | I'm Affraid Of Growing Up | 2:25 |
| 3. | Leave This Town | 3:05 |
| 4. | Carb | 2:17 |
| 5. | Lonely Woman | 3:30 |
| 6. | Dub-Pop | 4:36 |
| 7. | ..hélicoptère | 2:08 |
| 8. | Lockdown By Your Name | 2:36 |
| 9. | Kill Your Idol | 3:14 |
| 10. | Sobroke | 3:30 |
| 11. | Les Hugos - Can't Escape This Song, Stuck In My Own Prison | 3:15 |
| 12. | So Much Ego | 3:27 |
| 13. | Another Person | 4:06 |
Credits
Written, performed, recorded, "mixed" and mastered by Hugo Carmouze.
Artwork created between summer 2021 and summer 2022 by Hugo Carmouze.
The photo inside the cassette was taken by Eleanor Van Rooyen in summer 2020.
Almost all of the songs were recorded in Hugo's mother's house.
Some acoustic songs were recorded at boarding school.
-"I Hate to Be Myself" & "Lonely Woman" were recorded on November 30, 2019.
-"I'm Affraid Of Growing Up" was recorded on March 16, 2019.
-"Leave This Town" & "Carb" were recorded on March 17, 2019.
-"Dub-Pop" was recorded on December 1, 2019.
-"..hélicoptère" & "Lockdown" were recorded on April 28, 2020.
-"Kill Your Idol" was recorded on April 14, 2018.
-"Sobroke" was recorded on March 19, 2020.
-"Can't Escape This Song, Stuck In My Own Prison" was recorded by Les Hugos on January 18, 2020.
-"So Much Ego" was recorded on February 17, 2020.
-"Another Person" was recorded on December 5, 2019.
-"demo 75 (chez Margot)" was recorded in late October 2019.
Some overdubs on "I Hate To Be Myself" were recorded in December 2022.
All the drums are sampled from Youtube (except for "I Hate To Be Myself" wich was recorded on a home-made drum kit made of a a music stand and a sort of little djembe).
"Pumpkinland" was first released very briefly on Nothing Is Mine's Soundcloud on December 14, 2022 before being deleted.
Here is the broken link of this: soundcloud.com/nothingismine/sets/pumpkinland/s-HP2g0UivrfJ?si=e1c63bb8e95241a9a9a3cf64447d1fe9
This is a remastered version from 2023.
NM-007
