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Poltergeist Zeit

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For those who still remember, we had a gig in Sofia some weeks ago and it was a blast. The audience interactions and reactions really kept the mood up. We couldn't ask for more. As much as we'd like to believe it was all about us, we know we have quite a few people to thank. Starting from Mono & Stereos for the great warm-up and collegial attitude backstage. (Still waiting on Mono to pass by the rehearsal room to check out the semi-hollow Gibsons collection) Then our House of ALI honorary members, i.e. Stefo for the sound, Mitko and his team for the stage and light design (but also so much more - hard to list), and our dear Deni, Moni and the Projector Plus crew for taking the administrative and PR load off of our shoulders once again. One special mention to Kalo who came to see ALI play live for the first time as an audience member and for sharing honest, hugely useful and actionable feedback that we have read and re-read multiple times, treating it as a scarce piece of a ...
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Mad Season.

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April means open season for gigs. In our book, at least. The first one is now done. As per usual, many things went wrong, but no one outside the inner circle felt it. We messed up hotel check-ins, didn't know who'd travel when and how until the very last minute, but the highlight was one of the speakers falling and a cable being teared apart in the process. Twenty minutes before the gig. Luckily, the local soundman had welding equipment in the car nearby. The cable was fixed with ten minutes to spare. That's one thing we haven't done before, but now know we can. Thinking of adding a welder to our gig equipment checklist. Another drama was developing throughout the day as the lighting equipment on the spot differed from what was originally promised. So, Kamen and Yana (the latest addition to the House of ALI) spent the entire day fixing what they could with limited resources. We owe them one. Also, they drove the van to and from Blagoevgrad. What I would underline, thoug...
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Reshuffling Until Result.

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Reshuffling everything is the only constant. Song parts, releases, gigs, hardware, timelines, strategies... It gets tiring at times, but what always helps is remembering that it's about the music and the experience. With the first gigs in 2026 around the corner and quite a bit of work done on demos and back-office stuff, the results squeezing through chaos are mounting. Here's a few things that occupied our attention lately: Final guitar and vocals for completing the demos recorded in the home studio and - as of today - submitted to the producer for review. Moving on to the next ones. Already restarted work on codename "Running Man". Also spent 30 seconds testing out what a prompt describing one of the demos produces using AI - if this sound is your kind of thing, you can start slopping it out in bunches TODAY: https://gemini.google.com/share/e5c0207290b4 . The "looking back" part is kind of catchy. But so is measles. We mentioned Ali would be supporting Hel...
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Nothing To Lose.

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For quite some time we were shy about sharing early versions of songs still in development. Last few weeks we shared several audio clips of the kind and the takeaway is - nothing's changed. The reach and impact of our posts does very little to shift the Earth. The good news is we're still in a riskless environment. But do have to work on the reach part of our work. One component will be a report we're waiting on from the consultants we mentioned before. Should be arriving anytime now. It may help us alter our strategy somewhat with a singular goal in mind - getting our music into as many ears and heads as possible. Not much we can lose, apart from time - but what a good time it is, hence no worries. Four demos are all but ready to be shipped to the producer for review. The next-up songs are waiting, it's encouraging having songs lining up for attention. Given that we had to rebuild the entire process from scratch in the past months, it seems like we've stumbled upon...
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Log From Razlog.

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Exclusive content in this one, but first.. The House of ALI convened last weekend at the usual not-so-secret location where cats chase each other up pines and beg for food, otherwise sober bodies surrender to the allure of wine and eons of Earth's history observe you from the tops of three majestic mountains. Cross this with a full mini-studio setup and failure is not an option. We are grateful to our hosts for letting us move furniture around for a few days! This year apart from family, we were joined by Mitko, House of ALI's distinguished member. A 28-year-old dynamo, jack-of-all-trades and master of lighting and sound. Sharing meals at a proper dinner table, rather than dripping grease from doner kebabs on posters posing as tablecloths on the ground makes a difference. The conversations covered everything from the usual song ideas, across pondering how much we're like Lady Gaga or the Spice Girls, to hot peppers, and chances of encountering aliens in the vastness of spac...
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More Than Words.

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We ran into a problem. Most of what we're doing currently is work on the new material. Good things are happening and the itch for sharing it all with as many of you as possible is ON. However, putting changing notes, riffs or adding/moving pieces into words is a challenge. We're up for a challenge, so below we will give it a try... Before that, though, it's time to respect the big news - Tony's counted to half a century in this plain of existence! He seems to like planet Earth having decided to stick around this long. And we're happy to have him! Wishing him continued wisdom and no slowing down when it comes to pretty much anything. Here's to 50 being the new 30! We have some gig dates set, but cannot share them yet. As mentioned last time, in 2026 we're planning to visit all the cities we usually pass through despite being focused on getting the second album ready and published. Stay tuned for updates on your chance to unravel the myth of Milenski in person...
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Stay Klassy.

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Busy week and weekend. Jumping straight to the updates... The new "home studio" is set up. Anyone who's ever set up anything similar knows this is a never-ending project. At this point though, what we have is enough hardware and software to record our demos: mixer (Zoom LiveTrak L12), MIDI (Akai MPK Mini Plus), JBL monitors, Cubase/Reaper w/ minimal plugins, laptop, cables, and a surplus of guitars and guitar stands. Even before this we'd already started sharing vox/instrument tracks on a shared drive and chat channels dedicated for each of song. The goal is to complete demos for 5-6 songs 3-4 of which we will send to Gogo (our new producer at the House of ALI) to listen and critique. Based on which we will determine our next steps. Getting to any milestone evokes a dopamine rush building up an appetite for more. Glad to know we're in this loop. Wondering, though, should we be sharing the early versions here...? Will anyone respond? We've also started a conver...
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