Before Fourfold Solitude, there was Let the Banzai Begin, THRN's English-language adaptation of Bonanza Banzai's Induljon a banzáj!
The release was more than a cover. It was a controlled experiment — an opportunity to understand how independent music distribution actually works before placing years of original material into the same system.
Why This Song?
I chose Induljon a banzáj! partly for the simplest possible reason: I genuinely love the song.
It was also familiar territory. Almost ten years earlier, in what now feels like another life, I had already performed a Hungarian-language cover of the song with a different band. That earlier version remained a cover in its original language. The THRN release was a different undertaking: an English-language adaptation, rebuilt and reinterpreted for a new project and a new context.
This familiarity made the song the perfect foundation for an experiment.
Instead of testing the modern distribution system with original songs that had taken years to write, develop and preserve, I could work with material that already had a personal history. The stakes were lower, but the process was still real: recording, production, licensing, distribution, artist profiles, metadata and the machinery of the streaming platforms all had to function exactly as they would for an original THRN release.
Let the Banzai Begin provided a creative safety net. It allowed me to learn without turning my own long-term work into the test subject.
Testing Music Distribution in an AI-Saturated World
The experiment was not about using artificial intelligence to create music. THRN is not an AI music project.
The real question was what happens to independently produced, human-made music when it enters a digital environment increasingly flooded with mass-produced AI slop. Thousands of new tracks can appear every day with almost no time, effort or personal history behind them. Each one competes for the same limited space, attention and recommendation systems as music that may have taken months or years to complete.
Technically, releasing music has never been easier. A distributor can deliver a finished recording to Spotify, YouTube Music, Apple Music and other platforms around the world. Within days, the track can be available almost everywhere.
But availability is not the same as visibility.
That became the most important conclusion of the experiment.
Distribution Does Not Create Discovery
Let the Banzai Begin successfully reached the streaming platforms. The system worked in the technical sense: the track was delivered, artist pages were created and the release became globally accessible.
What did not happen automatically was discovery.
There is no audience waiting on the other side of the upload button. A song can be officially released, correctly distributed and available worldwide while remaining almost completely invisible. Without an existing audience, editorial support, direct promotion or a community already interested in the project, the release can disappear beneath the constant flow of new content almost immediately.
The difficult part is no longer getting music onto the platforms. The difficult part is getting it in front of actual people.
This is made even harder by the volume of disposable content now surrounding genuine independent releases. Recommendation systems cannot automatically understand how much personal work, time or intention exists behind a recording. To the platform, everything initially enters the system as another piece of content competing for attention.
What the Experiment Changed
Let the Banzai Begin gave me the opportunity to understand this reality without risking the first impression of THRN's original material.
It showed me which parts of the distribution process worked, where artist identities could become mixed up, how little control an independent musician has over certain platform systems and how much work begins only after a song has already been released.
Most importantly, it changed how I approached Fourfold Solitude.
The album could not simply be uploaded and left to the algorithms. It needed a clear identity, a consistent visual world and direct communication with listeners. The music had to be presented through videos, written context, communities and platforms where people interested in Darkwave / Gothic Rock / Industrial could actually encounter it.
Let the Banzai Begin was therefore not the final definition of THRN. It was the test that made the first original chapter possible.
The experiment ended with a simple but essential conclusion:
Releasing music is easy.
Reaching people is the real work.