iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Carmine Rebellion @carminerebellion.uk · 16/06/2026

I started writing the song that became Fly Free (For The Hatchlings) by creating a new document and writing “Positive Song” at the top of the page. There are some pretty obvious reasons why all the other songs on the album are angsty and angry, but I wanted to have at least one with a lighter mood.

A photo of Mara wearing a red top, featuring a graphic of an egg in the trans pride colours, with a raised fist sticking out through a crack. Under the egg are the words “Fly Free”.

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Carmine Rebellion @carminerebellion.uk · 15/06/2026

No Surrender was one of those songs where verse two was hard to write. The first verse came really easily, but a second one matching the same rhythm was a bit more of a challenge.

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Carmine Rebellion @carminerebellion.uk · 14/06/2026

A lot of the songs on Delineation take a bit of a defiant tone, but there was something about repeating the phrase “I’m Still Here” that appealed to me. The weird little piano part in 7/8 time arrived separately, but when I had the idea to put the two together, it just seemed to work.

Mara is wearing a sleeveless red top. On it is printed an egg in the colours of the trans pride flag, with a raised fist sticking out through a crack. In front of the egg is the text “Fly Free”.
Sound treatment panels, light panels and several guitars are visible in the background.

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Carmine Rebellion @carminerebellion.uk · 13/06/2026

The UK is a largely secular country, but conservative Christianity has a disproportionate influence on politics, from bishops in the House of Lords to American evangelicals funding lawfare against trans rights and other “culture wars”.

A photo of Mara, with a trans pride flag on her cheek. A green guitar is hanging on the wall behind her, and a cluster of light panels fill the top of the frame.

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Carmine Rebellion @carminerebellion.uk · 12/06/2026

A friend talked about feeling guilty because, being largely housebound, she felt insulated from the effects of segregation guidance. Another friend was upset because they didn’t have the spoons to go to a protest. A third said she only found the courage to go because of the first friend.

An overexposed portrait shot of Mara, with light panels in the background and a pronounced vignette effect.

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Carmine Rebellion @carminerebellion.uk · 10/06/2026

Cross The Line was the first song on the first Carmine Rebellion EP, Manifesto. I’ve always liked the song, and since it fitted the theme of this album, it seemed like a good time to revisit it.

A head and shoulders photo of Mara, who is smiling. There is a trans pride flag painted on her left cheek.
In the background, guitars hang from a wall, hexagonal light panels winding around their hangers.

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Carmine Rebellion @carminerebellion.uk · 08/06/2026

I wanted to say that trans people really aren’t that different to cis people. If there weren’t well-financed, genital-obsessed bigots trying to erase us from society, we’d just be living our lives and dealing with similar problems to everyone else. When you get down to it, I’m Just Another Human.

A photo of Mara wearing a white T-shirt with a picture of a tag, like a luggage tag, in which is written “Just Another Human”. Her arms are held out to the sides.
The background features three guitars (black LTD 7-string, red Solar 7-string, and a natural wood tele-style guitar). Hexagonal light panels snake up the right of the picture and across the top.

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Carmine Rebellion @carminerebellion.uk · 07/06/2026

I wrote Fight Fire With Fire after I’d written some of the more downbeat songs on the album. I love Distressed Heart and Existence, but I wanted to make sure the album had plenty of loud songs too, so I deliberately set out to write something a bit more shouty. It’s not subtle, but it was fun.

Mara is looking up out of frame. She still has a trans pride flag on her left cheek. In the background a wall stretches away into the distance. Glowing light panels snake up and around acoustic panels and guitar hangers. A green PRS guitar is prominent behind her shoulder, then a Jackson Rhoads, then a Schecter, then more that are hard to make out.

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Carmine Rebellion @carminerebellion.uk · 06/06/2026

Shredding My Soul wasn’t going to be on the album. I’d already worked out the track listing when I wrote it, intending it to be for @rubyrockatansky.bsky.social’s trans metal compilation (see below). Except that what I ended up writing felt wrong for a metal compilation.

Mara stands in front of a wall of guitars and keyboards, hands on hips, wearing a black and white tartan skirt and a black top, with the text “why are you shredding my soul?” written on it.

The guitars are (left to right):
Jackson RR5FR in ivory with black pinstripes.

Schecter Apocalypse C1-FRS in Purple Reign.

(Barely visible) Jackson Mark Morton Dominion in Trans Black (not entirely coincidental, even though I bought it about 10 years before I transitioned).

Ibanez AEGB24E acoustic bass.

The keyboards are both N-Audio: one Keystation 88-es (semi-weighted) and one Accent (hammer-action)

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Carmine Rebellion @carminerebellion.uk · 05/06/2026

Next up: Phantasm. It’s basically about propaganda, and the way so many people these days are driven to hate based on what see in the media, over the evidence of their own experience. Since I work in the media (although not in news) it always feels a bit personal.

A head and shoulder shot, with Mara filling the left of frame and a rather lovely purple Schecter guitar on the right.
Mara has a trans pride flag painted on her left cheek.

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Carmine Rebellion @carminerebellion.uk · 04/06/2026

The T-shirt in the picture is the one I wore at the protest against the ruling in FWS v Scottish Ministers. On the way there I made a note: “my progress pride heart T-shirt is looking distressed, but it feels appropriate right now” And that was the genesis of the song “Distressed Heart”

Mara wearing a black T-shirt emblazoned with a somewhat battered progress pride flag in the shape of a heart. The design was always messily painted, but it is now noticeably distressed.
In the background some guitars hang on the wall. A bunch of hexagonal light panels are being extremely purple, and a strip of LEDs at the edge of the ceiling are doing their best to display a bisexual pride flag. They’re not particularly good at, but don’t tell them.

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Carmine Rebellion @carminerebellion.uk · 02/06/2026

The word "Delineation" obviously sounds like a Carmine Rebellion album/EP title. I think I made a note of it around the time of the FWS ruling last year, and I'd probably been staring at it a few weeks before it expanded into a chorus, and from there, into a song.

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Carmine Rebellion @carminerebellion.uk · 02/06/2026

I thought I’d a write a little about the songs on the Delineation. Up first is Behind Enemy Lines. I described it as a song about being a trans person on TERF Island before I described the album that way. The relentless media attacks. The same lies recycled over and over. It’s just another day.

Mara standing with her hands on her hips, in front of two keyboards, and four guitars which are hanging on the wall. She is wearing a blank and white tartan skirt and a black top with the words “why are you shredding my soul?” written on it in white.

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Carmine Rebellion @carminerebellion.uk · 28/05/2026

A collection of songs about being a trans person on TERF Island. It does mostly apply to other countries too. On Ampwall on 1st June, then other services on the 8th. I'm still not very good at this promotion stuff. I probably should have been posting this for weeks.

The cover of the new Carmine Rebellion album, Delineation.
The title is written across the middle. The top half of the album is black and splattered with blood. The bottom half is white. A white beam crosses the top half and strikes the 'A', splitting into the colours of the Progress Pride flag as it exits and crosses the bottom half.
On top of the cover art is the text "Out on 1st June. This Pride Season play it loud"

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Carmine Rebellion @carminerebellion.uk · 19/05/2026

Mastering the new album! Step 1: appropriate colour coding 🏳️‍⚧️

Mara at work in her studio. The room is lit in distinctly purple tones, although the light panels in the back of the shot are mostly blown out, leaving a pattern of white hexagons in the middle of the shot.
On the right of the picture we can see a computer monitor displaying a Studio One mastering session. The blocks representing each of the songs are coloured blue, pink, white, pink, blue, pink, white, pink, blue, pink, white, pink, blue.

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Carmine Rebellion @carminerebellion.uk · 31/05/2025

Hey florgoth! My new album, "Indoctrination", will be out on Wednesday 4/06. It's a concept album about conversion therapy (spoiler alert: I think it's a bad thing). The links here will update when it's out: carminerebellion.uk/l/indoctrina...

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Carmine Rebellion @carminerebellion.uk · 28/05/2025

I start figuring out the artwork for my albums early in the process. Once it's coming together, I make a version of it to use as my desktop background. It helps to keep me inspired. For the last 8 or 9 months I’ve been looking at this.

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Carmine Rebellion @carminerebellion.uk · 18/02/2025

I think I’m getting near the end of this mix. It’s been fun, but I need to let it go at some point.

A photo of Mara working in her studio. There’s a Blahaj mug on the typically cluttered desk, and a green guitar hanging on the wall in the background.

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Carmine Rebellion @carminerebellion.uk · 08/02/2025

I have proof of progress on the new album! There’s lots still to do, but that’s all the vocals ticked off now.

The image shows my to do list for the new album. The title is not fully visible, but it ends with “tion”. The song titles are also out of shot (a girl’s allowed a little mystery), as are the track durations. The first track does not have lyrics, and therefore does not require vocals. The lyrics for the rest of the tracks, and the music for all of them, have been ticked off for some time. Instrument tracking was completed a while ago too. What’s new is that vocal tracking is now ticked off for every song.
The columns for mixing and mastering remain devoid of ticks at this time.

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Carmine Rebellion @carminerebellion.uk · 27/01/2025

Vocal tracking is more fun and less frustrating than it used to be. Those singing lessons are starting to pay off!

Mara is on the left of the photo. She is wearing headphones and singing. A microphone fills the right side of the image, and a pop shield divides the frame in half.

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