Once Upon A Playlist
- Mickey Fingers
- 2 days ago
- 6 min read
Once Upon a Playlist…
A year ago, we made a haunted mood board.
No title. No rules. Just a swirling list of songs that felt like shadows sneaking out from under the velvet curtain. Circus ghosts. Bearded ladies. Accordion lullabies. Glam cabaret waltzes. We didn’t know it yet, but we were sketching the bones of something bigger: Masquerade of Shadows.
And this week’s Eclectic Wonderland show? It’s that mood board made flesh.
Or… something flesh-adjacent.
(Like a teratoma. With teeth. And a twin soul trapped inside.)
Yes, we Googled it. No, we won’t be okay.
New Music + Haunted IDs
Gala Violet – “Mirror Mirror (On the Ceiling)”
The new single is out now and spinning in Side B, Set 4... complete with haunted elegance, identity reclamation, and a Rocktoberrr ID from yours truly.
💀 Mickey’s Station ID – Rocktoberrr Series #3
Blink and you’ll miss it — but it’s in there. Watch your mirrors.
Catch the show here: Once Upon A Dark Fairytale
📸 View the Show Art: “Once Upon a Dark Fairytale” (embedded at the top of the page)
Tapeworms & Tangles
Yes. That happened.
Mid-show, Tea was talking about Skeleton Appreciation Day and somehow veered into someone’s graphic tapeworm story.
Which led to teratomas.
Which led to Google Image Search.
Which led to hysterical radio silence because Tea was laughing so hard she couldn’t speak.
We don’t edit those moments.
That’s the realest magic of all. {Really, You should catch the show for many reasons.}
Freaks, Phantoms, and Found Family
We joked for months that we were “rocking the Spoonie life”... until it wasn’t a joke.
Living with EDS, Celiac, and bodies that pop like haunted wind chimes, we built this project one nap at a time.
But the truth is: this album came from the underworld.
The quiet places. The soft dark. The dreams with mushrooms and mirrors and elf boys who may or may not have been real. (Tea tells me we have to save that story for the next album, but you know I like to tease.) That is the magic of working found family, the laughs, the stories, the creative process, and conversation about tapeworms, teratomas, and Bigfoot.
Coming Soon…
“Boom Boom Boom” — New Gala Violet single drops October 17
Full album release of Masquerade of Shadows — October 24
Companion book + art spreads (PDF + print coming soon)
Tea, Silent Mike, and I have been working on playlists, station IDs, the companion book for "Masquerade of Shadows," and sketching out our next projects. (That is what you do before you finish your current project.)
What is a Dark Fairytale?
It’s the feeling of being too tender for the world.
It’s the mirror that knows your name.
It’s the carousel that spins even when you stop dancing.
It’s this album.
—Mickey Fingers
New Singles..
Picnic For The Wicked
Mirror, Mirror (On The Ceiling)
... And at last, the curtain is ready to rise...
Invitation to the Masquerade
The curtain is rising. Everyone wears a mask. No one leaves unchanged.
Album Release: October 24, 2025
Singles leading the way:
Picnic for the Wicked —
September 19, 2025
Mirror Mirror (On the Ceiling) — October 3, 2025
Boom, Boom, Boom —
October 17, 2025
The Companion Book
Alongside the album comes a companion book to pull back the curtain even further. Inside you’ll find:
Playbill — introducing band ↔ character roles.
Pre-story — a glimpse into the world before the curtain.
Storybook (34 scenes) — the cabaret itself, scene by scene.
Post-story — reflections after the final bow.
Character stories — truths, illusions, and puppet-strings revealed.
Symbolism Cabinet — where the images, artifacts, and hidden threads of the masquerade are explained.
Lyrics — book versions, stylized and full.
Extras — letters, mixtapes, wedding invitations, and other treasures too strange (and too beloved) to leave behind.
This isn’t just a lyric book — it’s an invitation to live inside the masquerade.
Playbill Summary
In a decadent world on the brink of collapse, secrets are currency and performance is survival.
In a decadent world on the brink of collapse, secrets are currency and performance is survival.
Masquerade of Shadows follows masked heirs, haunted debutantes, puppet-bound saints, and fractured lineages feeding a hidden power beneath velvet and gold.
As revolution stirs outside the gates, the youngest struggle to rewrite the story — while the true puppet master waits.
Some fight to escape the cycle. Others fight to survive it. But no one escapes untouched..
The curtain is rising. Everyone wears a mask. No one leaves unchanged.
Gala Violet – Band & Production Credits
Music & Lyrics
Tea, Mickey Fingers, Silent Mike
Story & Book
Tea & Mickey Fingers
(based on Tea’s journals, adapted and expanded for stage and album)
Final Edits & Writing Support
Silent Mike (Ashen Quill)
Production, Arrangement & Engineering
Mickey Fingers — primary engineer, producer, Ableton Live wizardry, mixing & mastering
Tea — co-producer, percussion, finishing touches
Instruments
Mickey Fingers — piano, guitar, bass guitar, drums, synths, sampling, sound design
Belle — strings
Collin — stand-up bass
Tea — percussion, auxiliary instruments
Silent Mike — arrangements, textures, editing support
Ensemble Vocals
All members of Gala Violet (Mickey’s Magic)
(Belle, Tea, Charlotte, Mickey Fingers, Collin, Silent Mike, The Third Mike)
Album Art & Book Art
Tea Mickey Fingers
Masquerade of Shadows: What It Is
A dark fairytale, stitched into cabaret.
A theatrical gothic pop experiment with Victorian shadows.
An album, a book, and a world where no mask stays in place for long.
Genre & Style:
Dark Cabaret / Theatrical Gothic Pop / Victorian Goth / Dark Fairytale
Influences: vaudeville, circus noir, cabaret, baroque pop, glam, score composition
Spiritual Ancestors: Kate Bush, Nine Inch Nails (The Fragile), Danny Elfman, Siouxsie, Bowie (Outside), Dresden Dolls, Soap&Skin, Tori Amos (Boys for Pele)
🎥 Outtakes from the Masquerade (Zoom Edition)
Tea: “Wait, can you hear me? …Now? …Great, now the ghosts are unmuted.”
Mickey Fingers: “Every time we said ten tracks, another three appeared.”
Silent Mike: “You’re frozen.”
Tea: “No, I’m not—” (screen glitches, appears as four heads).
Mickey Fingers: “Cabaret poltergeist confirmed.”
Tea: “Okay, no funeral waltzes after midnight.”
Mickey Fingers: “Agreed. Seance lullabies only.”
Expansion mode was dangerous, but also where the magic lived.
Side Quests & Coffee Breaks
Mickey Fingers adds:
“We actually wrote more music than lyrics. Scenes zigged and zagged, moods and transitions demanded different elements, and that’s where Silent Mike’s musical theater mastery really saved us. He swooped in with rewrites, chord progressions, and fresh structures that stitched the chaos into something whole. Of course, all that experimenting left us with a heap of extra cabaret bundles, odd clips, and half-
finished delights.
And then came the side quest: Necromancy Coffee. ‘It brings us back to life…’ started as a joke jingle in one of our delirious late-night sessions, and the next thing we knew, it had its own legs. Out of that madness, the Necromancy Coffee House EP was born, a quirky break from the shadows, stitched together from the parts we loved but couldn’t fit into the main masquerade. We were all so wrapped up in the dark cabaret vibes, it just… made sense.”
☕ Special Thanks
Tea jumps in: “We absolutely have to thank Karly & A. Joseph of Necromancy Coffee; they were the spark for the whole jingle experiment. What started as a playful ‘you need a jingle’ moment turned us into loyal fans of their brew (and gave us way too much fun in the process). Honestly, without them, the Necromancy Coffee House EP might never have been conjured. Proof that sometimes, side projects really do bring us back to life.”
Invitation to the Masquerade
The curtain is rising. Everyone wears a mask. No one leaves unchanged.
✨ Pre-save Picnic for the Wicked — Sept 19
🪞 Pre-save Mirror Mirror (On the Ceiling) — Oct 3
💥 Pre-save Boom Boom Boom — Oct 17
🎭 Pre-save Masquerade of Shadows (Full Album) — Oct 24
(Album covers embedded, each one clickable.)
“This isn’t just an album. It’s a masquerade stitched from trauma, laughter, ghosts, and the fire of making art when everything else tried to stop us.
We’re so glad you’re here. Take your mask, step into the story, and let the shadows dance.”
-Mickey Fingers
✨ About Mickey Fingers
Mickey Fingers is the co-creator of Velvet Umbrella Records and Gala Violet. A multi-instrumentalist and engineer-producer, he moves between drums, guitar, bass, piano, and synth with ridiculous ease, building worlds in Ableton Live. Equal parts mystery and mischief, he’s a steady hand in the chaos and a spark in the shadows.
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