I am Emma-O and The Gloom is my sadcore/goth/alternative solo project. I play all the instruments, do most of the songwriting and all the engineering. It's not modern, techno-ish goth music, like Marylin Manson and all that stuff. The Gloom is more "real" goth music, meaning it explores dark feelings and subjects, but without all the horror and PVC pants. It's just real music and real feelings, that's all.

About The Gloom and a ghost story, part 1:

The 4 songs were recorded over 2 days back in the late autumn/early winter of 2005. A perfect time of year for recording Gloomy songs. Perfect because of the time of year and because I was going through a bad time with a boyfriend and my heart was breaking. The song "The Gloom" was written a year or so before, when The Gloom consisted of myself and my friend and talented musician Edgar LeBel. We both wrote the music and I wrote the lyrics. It was originally an electric song with bass. Actually, all the songs were originally electric, but when I recorded them I added acoustic guitar and percussion.

The music for "Solitary Confinement" was written from a dark, dissonant, passio...

About The Gloom and a ghost story, part 2:

Soundclick only allows a certain length to blogs, so I have to finish the story here...'

Now back to The Gloom demo...

So "Solitary Confinement" was written out of that jam. I took riffs and progressions that I liked and arranged them into a song. I arranged it, wrote the guitar solos, wrote the lyrics and vocal parts all in one day. The song is about being in prison, literally and figuratively. You can be in different kinds prisons--physical, emotional, spiritual...it's just a song about not being able to escape suffering. Also, the lines, "My punishment, solitary confinement" refers to when someone shuts you out. When they turn their back on you and leave on your own, not...

Famous last words:

Here's a treat for you ghoulish gloomy goths out there...


Some of these words from dying people are really beautiful and powerful...


"Am I dying or is this my birthday?"
When she woke briefly during her last illness and found all her family around her bedside.
~~ Lady Nancy Astor, d. 1964

"Nothing, but death."
When asked by her sister, Cassandra, if there was anything she wanted.
~~ Jane Austen, writer, d. July 18, 1817

"Now comes the mystery."
~~ Henry Ward Beecher, evangelist, d. March 8, 1887

"Friends applaud, the comedy is finished."
~~ Ludwig van Beethoven, composer, d. March 26, 1827

"Now I shall go to sleep. Goodnight."
~~ Lord George Byron, writer, ...

Famous last words before execution:

Some last words of criminals before they were executed...



"Well, gentlemen, you are about to see a baked Appel."
Executed in electric chair in New York.
~~ George Appel, d. 1928

"Take a step forward, lads. It will be easier that way."
Executed by firing squad.
~~ Erskine Childers, Irish patriot, d. November 24, 1922

"I'm going home, babe."
Executed by injection, Delaware.
~~ James Allen Red Dog, d. March 3, 1993

"Remember, the death penalty is murder."
Executed by injection, Texas.
~~ Robert Drew, d. August 2, 1994

"Hurrah for anarchy! This is the happiest moment of my life."
Last words on the gallows.
~~ George Engel
(He was one of four executed after the...

Famous suicide notes:

And another treat for you ghouls and goths. Some of these are so heart-wrenchingly beautiful and poetic...


"And so I leave this world, where the heart must either break or turn to lead."

Suicide note.
~~ Nicolas-Sebastien Chamfort, French writer, d. 1794



"To my friends: My work is done. Why wait?"

Suicide note.
~~ George Eastman, inventor, d. March 14, 1932



"Goodbye, my friend, goodbye
My love, you are in my heart.
It was preordained we should part
And be reunited by and by.
Goodbye: no handshake to endure.
Let's have no sadness -- furrowed brow.
There's nothing new in dying now
Though living is no newer."

Written in his own blood, and given to a f...

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