Normally, I don’t like to talk about the process of creating. Mainly, because it’s a private thing ... and also not particularly interesting, anyway. But the current SOPOR releases are

slightly

different to the usual, all pain-drenched albums of the past (at least in my head), so I figured

why not

?!

 
OK, so ... one awfully hot summer night earlier this year (I think it was in August), I was sitting on my daybed, looking at a photo of one of the

"

ALONE AT SAM’S - An Evening with...

"

vinyl editions on my phone...

... wishing that October was already closer and thinking to myself:

"Hmm, I would really like to have a 7"-SINGLE in transparent orange.
That would look so pretty."

 
(Yes,

THAT

was

literally

my entire initial inspiration / motivation. Silly, I know.)

I wondered, what I could possibly put on this theoretical 7"-SINGLE. After all, all frivolity aside, things still had/have to make sense. But then I remembered that I still had the

unused

lyrics of the

"

THE COLOURS

"

EP, which (back then) I had decided

not

to sing, as I rather wanted to keep the music instrumental instead (well, except for the song "ORANGE", which

does

have vocals).
 

But

four

tracks also meant that it would have to be

two

singles.

"Great, even better!"

, I thought.
 
So, I sat down and started designing the labels, reasoning:

"If these don't look pretty, there is really no point in even starting with the music"

...

... but they turned out nicely. I liked them.  

:)

Next, I imagined what the possible packaging might look like.
 
Since I really wanted to be able to actually

see

all this pretty, transparent orange vinyl at any given time (and not have it hidden inside a printed cover), I assumed that a

soft, transparent PVC gatefold sleeve

might be the best solution (

visually

speaking, anyway, because it's not such a good idea for long-term storage, as aging PVC will stick to the records).
 
This would also give it a certain “toy-like” feeling. You know, reminiscent of those horribly DALEK- sounding, yet colourful, plastic mini-records that you would insert into hideous, talking babydolls. A sort of 70s toy-vibe...

... I still liked it.  

:)

So, I started working on the music...

"Perfect!"

, I thought ...
 

...and instantly asked my label to get in touch with Optimal Media (our current vinyl manufacturer), confidently remembering that I once saw

shaped vinyl

being offered on their homepage many years ago.

 
Sadly, their swift reply was:

"SORRY, WE CANNOT DO SHAPED VINYL ANYMORE."

... and I liked it.  

:)

 
(Sidenote: depending on what device you are currently using to display this image,
the vinyl in this photo may *appear* to be more pink than orange.)

 
This

NEON ORANGE

also worked nicely with the new coverart, which I had finished in the meantime...

Interestingly, at first glance, this artwork doesn’t look

anything

like SOPOR at all.  

;)

In fact, what it made me think of was the 1970s

SESAME STREET

playset

from

Fisher Price

(if somebody had tagged graffiti all over it)...

Because of this association, I couldn’t help thinking of the EP now as

The SESAME STREET album

(only in private, that is), which, in turn, made me do this silly thing ...

OK, just out of curiosity, which side would you pick,

LEFT

or

RIGHT

???

"Uuuurrrrrghhhh!"

So, it was back to plain, old

coloured vinyl

then.
 
I thought about opting for a cute kind of splatter and/or marbled vinyl (though still based on orange), but Optimal Media didn’t want to lend me any of their special in-house colour-testpressings to look at in person, and since none of the photos they provided were really to my liking (the colour-mixes all seemed “dirty” to me, and I wanted something vibrant and clean), I requested a plain

NEON ORANGE

sample from their standard catalog of vinyl colours instead...

Anyway, this is how the

"

FAB DEAD CULT VEIL

"

EP came to be.

 
It is obviously still part of the

ALONE AT SAM’S

“storyline” (for lack of a better term), because that's where my mind is still at (partially, anyway), and it is why I

initially

wanted to release it along with the fabulously

queer

B

O

A

R

D

G

A

M

E

and the

"

THE RULES

"

album.
 
In theory, this would have been possible (technically speaking), because, according to Optimal Media, production times for vinyl are now (more or less) back to the way they were before 2020.
 
But then I was worried that it would be

waaaaaay

too much stuff for people to digest all at once. On top of that, we spontaneously decided to move the release of the

B

O

A

R

D

G

A

M

E

and the

"

THE RULES

"

album ahead by a few months, so now

"

FAB DEAD CULT VEIL

"

is kind of its own thing.
 

Sort of. Not really. But, well ... you know what I mean.  

;)

Ironically, the first song I wrote turned out to be longer than 5 minutes already, which kicked the entire idea of 7"-SINGLES straight out of the window (because the recommended runtime at 45 RPM in 7"- singles is about 4:10 min).

Grrrrrrrr

.

"I guess, it’ll have to be a 12-inch EP then"

, I sighed
and started working on new labels and the coverart (just to be on the safe side).
 

The problem with this, however, was that I had already

used

both transparent

and

opaque orange vinyl in 12” format before, and a repetition would be stupid and kind of embarrassing.

"Okay, how about a 12-inch record in the shape of a PUMPKIN then?!"

, I mused.
 

This would not only make complete sense, but it would certainly be something new for SOPOR as well. Plus, I knew that it was totally possible to make (in theory), because the exact same thing had been done for Vince Guaraldi’s soundtrack of

IT’S THE GREAT PUMPKIN, CHARLIE BROWN

a few years ago...

So, in the end, I didn't get the transparent 7"-single I had initially desired, but what I received instead, I actually find way more interesting and fun. Also because, as it turned out, this

neon-orange

is UV- reactive, so it

glows brightly

under

blacklight

...

Oh, and those four songs are really

beautiful

, too.  :)

 
+ + +

P.S.: Because this release was essentially an afterthought, the gatefold CD-edition is not going to fit into the nice box (the one with the loveable monster on the lid) anymore, because that box was

specifically

designed for just

three

albums. Sorry about that. That's how it goes sometimes.