The Fatewell Project
The Fatewell Project embraces creative freedom without boundaries. From synthpop to visual storytelling, it explores technology, humanity, experimentation, and positive expression while constantly evolving toward unexpected new artistic possibilities.
1. You’ve made it clear that Fatewell isn’t tied to one particular genre. How important is that creative freedom to you, and where could you imagine taking the sound after “You’re Not So Human”?
Sometimes I’m in the mood for a symphony, and sometimes I’m in the mood for heavy rock. Sometimes I listen to rap and hip-hop, while there are times when I want some good ’80s synth-pop.
There are times when I spend an hour just trying to figure out what I feel like eating, and there are times when I crave a certain type of food immediately. I guess that is how I feel about the kind of music I write. It’s never one specific type.
I might start off humming some kind of slow melody that comes to my mind while I’m walking to the grocery market, but when I get to the studio, something entirely different can come out that I had no idea would happen.
Just like a movie where it plays with your mind, and in the end, what you thought would happen is completely different from what actually happens.
It’s really fun letting the creativity naturally breathe. Creativity is always an important part of creating.
It’s enjoyable experiencing the Fatewell project developing, breathing, and changing into a possibility.
2. Your latest release, “You’re Not So Human,” explores a synthpop direction. What is the story or idea behind the song, and what does the title mean to you personally?
“You’re Not So Human” came out of a love-hate relationship I have with technology. I absolutely love technology, but sometimes when I’m trying to figure out how to use a device or create a program, I feel absolutely stupid.
Oh, if I could only be as smart as my best friend, the computer….
But now it’s become such a wonderful companion, and I have become so dependent on it, yet there are times when I truly need to take a break from it. Sometimes this companion seems to really know and understand me while at times, I want my privacy. Well, it’s complicated.
During the writing of “You’re Not So Human,” oddly enough, my CTRL button stopped working and I truly felt a lack of control. Then, a few weeks later, it started working again. I have absolutely no idea what that was all about.
The title “You’re Not So Human” has an ambiguity where it can sound like an accusation or a compliment. The accusation would be that someone is maybe cold and detached, while the compliment would be that someone is amazingly beyond human.
So in the song, the title turns around from:
“More perfect than human.”
“Much smarter than human.”
“More flawless than human.”
And then later:
“More heartless than human.”
The tension and contradiction are what I found interesting.
3. Visual art and video appear to be an important part of the Fatewell concept. When creating something like “You’re Not So Human,” do the music and visuals develop together, or does one usually inspire the other?
For the most part, the song is written first. A song can go through hundreds of drafts and edits before I feel like it’s ready. I listen to it over and over, and after spending that much time with it, I start to develop visual ideas.
The visuals all come from the feelings I get from the music.
So most of the time, the music inspires the video rather than the other way around.
However, there are times while making the video there needs some kind of music or sound that could enhance the video. That is when I go back to the song to edit it for the video.
4. At the heart of Fatewell is a very simple philosophy: “Being good and doing good.” How does that idea influence the music, art, and messages you want to put into the world through the project?
Whatever I do in my life, I want to do good. I sometimes feel like the world already has enough pollution, and I don’t just mean environmental pollution. I think there can be a kind of pollution in music, video, film, and media too.
Sometimes people try so hard to shock an audience that the shock itself becomes the point. And sometimes it works. But other times, it feels like there’s nothing underneath it.
It reminds me of swear words in comedy.
Swearing can make a joke funnier when it actually belongs there. But sometimes it feels like a crutch. If there’s no real joke, the swear word becomes a substitute for the joke.
Fatewell is a place where I can create music and video. Whatever comes out of the project, I hope it can make someone think more deeply, feel something, notice something they hadn’t noticed before, or simply be influenced in a good way.
Even if someone never consciously thinks about the motto, I still want “Being good and doing good” to be the anchor behind the project.
There are symbolisms placed in most of the videos. That is one fun part of making videos. With music it is hard to place symbolisms but some sounds can be engineered a certain way to provoke a certain feeling.
5. Since Fatewell is deliberately designed to evolve without knowing exactly what it has to become, what would you most like to explore next? Is there a new song, visual project, collaboration, film, or completely unexpected direction already taking shape?
I’m constantly exploring and experimenting with things. I want to keep testing my own limits and abilities.
There might be something as little as a bug on the window that could inspire a new video chapter or a song.
I’m expecting things to keep evolving and improving. It just takes little steps at a time. Inch by inch. But when you add up all those little steps, there can be some big results.
I am already working on something that might look like a 180- degree change from the last project.
Ideally, I want to surprise myself and want to make something that I would not have imagined was possible. That would be exciting.