Chrometor: The Faceless Character

I spend a lot of time on the internet. My days basically consist of me uploading files and preparing metadata for digital releases, replying to emails/messages and listening to new music, when possible.

It is this last part of the day one that I really value, as it has allowed me to stumble upon a lot of interesting and fun projects. One of those projects is, precisely, Chrometor. The first thing that intrigued me was the visual aspect. Commander Chrometor: A faceless, suited entity wearing a type of "mirror-mask", appearing in different settings. It really caught my attention.

After exchanging a few messages, Chrometor mentioned that, following his debut album Stormlife, his second album, "Schwarzschild" was on the way. Today I can tell you that Schwarzchild is OUT NOW!.

You can tell someone's personality by the way they communicate. And it became apparent that Chrometor is quite the character. His messages are always insightful, witty and fun to read. It is, for this reason, that I became interested in the project and decided to interview him. Here you can read all about it:

He also wants to put on rad performances with cool light shows and special effects someday.  Chrometor is inspired by, Purity Ring, Röyksopp, Electric Six, St. Vincent and Bach. I’m also inspired by friends and family. All of them are enchanting.

 

Whenever I see Commander Chrometor, I notice some resemblance to the intergalactic bounty hunters from the Critters movies. Are you a Critters fan or is this a mere coincidence?

Chrometor: I’ve never seen Critters movies, so I’m certain it’s a coincidence. This sort of thing is bound to happen. Especially when a character in a mask and a suit is more common than any given face.  I checked out the critters movie clips and found the resemblance and theatrical motif, striking. I suppose Chrometor does “reflect” on others in his artwork. I mainly work in a vacuum and when it comes time to collaborate, the music is mostly finished. The “Master of Disguise” movie had a large influence on Chrometor’s personality, as well as miming culture.

 

I've listened to both of your albums and they feature a wide variety of music styles, themes and atmospheres... What would you consider Chrometor's main concept? What is your music about?

Chrometor: The main concept is breathing. Perhaps it’s cliché, but when I made Stormlife it was about exploration, and the underlying element of that journey. My music is personal to me and I put my beliefs out there for people to evaluate, especially in my music. That’s my element. If you hear the message while listening to my music, that’s the best I can do. The power to transform our breath is immense. Schwarzschild is similar. It’s about breathing without exhaling. The motif of breath can be found lurking about in my music, “weather” I intentionally meant for it to be there or not. Breath is common in my lyrics.

There is this relatively new meme that makes a reference to the moon landing and Neil Armstrong. It also mentions that "Neil A." backwards is "Alien". It became so popular that even Elon Musk got behind the trend and twitted the meme with the caption: "There are no coincidences". One of your songs is, precisely, called "Neil A.", what is it about? Does Commander Chrometor know something we don't?

Chrometor: I didn’t know he was responsible for “Neil A.” popularity, but I believe Elon is riding the waves of our society’s love for memes like a pro surfer. I heard about him through Pew News, the internet’s #1 trusted news source, as well some news headlines appearing sporadically. From what I gather, Elon does know something everybody else doesn’t.  The secret of aliens, or the best recipe for home-made apple pie from scratch. I did it for the meme. It was an opportunity to expand on my use of samples and make some spooky, celestial trap music. I wanted to hear cows mooing and an excuse to use a cowbell for melody.

 

Maintaining the "outer space thematic", you also composed another song with some "interesting" sounds. Could you please tell us more about "Uranus" and what led you to create that song?

Chrometor: When I started the creative process for Schwarzschild, it kept appearing in my mind on lists of things to do for the album. I blame the number of puns and “that’s what she said joke” potential from discussing “Uranus”, to the point where it was always on my to do list. For example, “Do something with Uranus today.” or “Add a fart at the end of Uranus.” “Uranus should have a huge drop.” In my opinion the musical reality of the song “Uranus” did not live up to my own expectations, but I’ve never done dubstep before and my talent for making the song musical was focused on the rhythm and character of the song, not the synth instrument. That’s not to say I didn’t try to make a farting dubstep synth, but that was a can of worms. All in all, it was too fun of an idea to pass up, and I liked the idea of farting into a microphone and calling it “art.”

To breathe without exhaling is an incredible visualization. Word banks for themes and concepts related to child and shadow both encompass Schwarzschild, and outer space serves as the metaphoric medium of discovery. All the sounds are explored off-world.
I love learning about Black Holes ever since I was young. They are the most obscure and bizarre objects in our known universe. Without them, there are no parallels to understanding the remaining reality around us, which is largely ignored, hated, or invisible to the eye of the mind.

Karl Schwarzschild was the first to characterize a blackhole in his essays on the subject. The “Schwarzschild radius” is a characteristic parameter for any quantity of mass. When the Schwarzschild radius exceeds the volume of the mass, the object becomes a black hole, and the line for the “point of no return.” Every object has a Schwarzschild radius, a characterized aspect of our will. When the metaphoric Schwarzschild radius is larger than our ego, we appear loveless. But I am here to remind you of the illusion. By no fault of your own, it means your love can’t escape, but it still impacts the surrounding cosmos. I think that is beautiful, and there is reason to hope because we know black holes are powerful objects and still emit radiation. Now that we are developing the technology to see them with the horizon telescope, perhaps they will become exceptions for seeing the love & lore inside a black hole heart as well.

 

Is Chrometor a studio-only project, or do you plan to play live?

Chrometor: I have plans to play keyboard, violin, and theremin live-on stage. I am practiced at the keyboard, but I’ve got clumsy fingers. I’d rather focus on the Theremin: I think that’s where I’d be the strongest. I’ve been dying to get my hands on a Theremin in a store, but none of the shops carry them where I live. I’m looking at the Moog mini which has some great features that make it perfect for stage. The violin is a personal matter and I may need a lot more time practicing that before I decide to take it on stage. But I’m ready to jump on the Theremin, you can do a lot of things with that.

Once Schwarzschild is out, What's next for Chrometor?

Chrometor: “Ghostmaster.” I love Halloween and the Ghostmaster will pay homage to Halloween through club music, some attempts at Avant Garde, and the spiritual ballads. I already have the “Geistmeister” ep out, which features Mirage, Skeptics Inc. and Frank. Ghostmaster will be a full-length album, possibly even longer than Schwarzschild (longer than 50 minutes of music) and will feature a lot more play with sound effects. The “Ghostmaster” will be something for your Halloween playlists. As for the rest of the track themes go, I can tell you they’ll involve zombie pufferfish, spiders, sasquatch, more Bach, and your nightmares. I’m really looking to achieve the “visions of warning” with specters and ghostly vocals that haunt you in a loving way, and club music that’s fun to dance to with some delicious bass lines. I also want to write a duet. After that, I can only say there’s another which has to do with fish, bugs, and reptiles and possibly an artist themed album when I master my analogs. There could be a fifth album in there somewhere, but that’s top secret.

 

Do you have any final words for our readers?

Chrometor: I would like to take this opportunity to thank some people who supported the production of Schwarzschild with their support and advice. Without them, the torch of hope may have withered long ago.

Fangtasia Music
Dream Puppet
Machivode
Rhubarb Cabin Records
Hyzenborg
Daniel “dkidcz”
Lindsay
Jon & Emily
The CPH Survivors
My Nuclear Family

Schwarzchild is mainly a solo album with some very interesting featured artists for Hourglass Earth, One Teaspoon, and Crystal Ball. Here some details about them: