Ten Questions to .... Matt Vowles of Black Angel

One of the most polished and professional new acts on the darkwave scene over the past few years, Black Angel play slick and melodic gothic rock with a deftly light touch, drawing comparisons with everyone from The Sisters of Mercy to The Damned, with Rob Steffen’s trademark “haunting croon” chiming perfectly with Matt Vowles’ soaring guitar riffs on impressively varied yet consistently excellent debut album The Widow, which was released on download and CD towards the end of last year.

Such was the critical acclaim for the album that a remastered and extended version featuring additional remixes and live versions is already due to be released later this month, with the first single from follow-up album Kiss Of Death due as early next month. The band is the brainchild of Vowles, the English-born but LA-based guitarist who kindly agreed to be the latest leading goth protagonist of the current renaissance of the genre to answer my customary ten questions.

The album The Widow is available via this Bandcamp link from where CD copies can also be ordered, and where there are links to the impressive video tasters to key tracks. Many thanks to Matt for taking the time out of what is clearly a hectic schedule to give some more background on a project whose popularity looks deservedly set to soar in 2020.

1.     Although you’re based in LA, this album’s roots hark back to your roots in Bristol in the 1980’s, hearing classic first generation goth at a club called The Whip. What made you decide to put a goth project together some thirty years later after years spent on other projects in very different genres?

     Yes, a little strange. Even though I grew up in the goth clubs of the UK back in the 80’s, I worked in the film and television industry, one of the reasons that brought me to Los Angeles, and also worked as a music producer. Given these two factors my musical tastes needed to and became fairly broad so I worked on many projects over the years in different genres. However, these projects were not solely based on my personal pleasure but also to get placed into films and television shows and sometimes I was just doing it basically for the money. I guess I got to a point whereby I just got fed up and I wanted to do something that made me happy so I bought a bunch of guitars and just sat down and wrote. It was automatic, I just started creating and the guitars just came naturally after that. That’s how The Widow was born. 

2.     You chose Rob Steffen as vocalist for the band from over two hundred(!) auditions, even though he was known for a variety of genres totally unrelated to the goth sound. Although he has turned out to be an inspired choice, did you have any doubts about his ability to adapt to the dramatic crooning style you were looking for?

      I think I did listen to about 200 auditions, maybe more. For me, it’s an instant fit: nothing’s going to convince me, it has to be automatic or just isn’t going to work and Rob nailed it. The genre needs a very specific tone and he just has it

3.     The album “The Widow” was released on CD last November to critical acclaim, and now just a few months later a deluxe extended version is coming out. Why did you decide to go for a second edition? Was that always the intention, or has it been a reaction to the very positive reviews which the album has garnered?

      I engineer, mix and master all of my projects. This way I’m responsible for the output and the only person to blame is me, so on occasion I’ll master a project and then on reflection I’m just still not happy. I can sometimes take a while to let things go, so with The Widow, even though it sounded awesome, it could still sound better, so the extended version is the whole album completely remastered. And to make it more appealing to new listeners and existing ones, we have added three live tracks and 3 80’s club remixes to make it an extended album. And so that nobody gets upset if you’ve already purchased it, drop us a line and you will get a deluxe version at a super low price. I’m not a fan of bands that make you pay for the same material twice. 

4.     Your guitar sound ranges from a dark twang to more angular deathrock riffing. Which guitarists from the goth scene have particularly influenced you?

     Has to be Billy Duffy from The Cult. I’m most influenced by their Love album - such an incredible guitar sound. He’s the most influential. I can’t forget Robert Smith though. The man is a genius - every album has a new guitar sound that just works every time. 

5.     The band’s sound is on the lighter end of goth, like, say, She Wants Revenge, Then Comes Silence, Satellite Paradiso or Angels of Liberty. Which other bands from the current goth scene have you been particularly impressed by?

     She Wants Revenge have a great sound! Their ingredients just work, love them. Yes, we have a little psychobilly and punk in our sound - the next album Kiss of Death will have more Goth. And more psychobilly......and more punk:)

6.     One key aspect of your music is a very strong sense of melody, but the songs also have a dark atmosphere. What is your songwriting process – is it the melody, the lyric or an overall mental image of the final sound which comes first?

      Melody is really important to me. Growing up in the 80’s when computers and sequencers were just emerging, songwriters still had to write with their instruments and come up with a melody (without the help from a computer) and in what was a fierce competition in the music industry, only the cream rose to the top - so we got the best songs, all the time. That influenced me a lot and I will often write 40 songs for an album and bin 30 of them as I know they just won’t make the grade. The music comes first most of the time and if it’s a killer track then it moves forward to the rest of the songwriting process. 

7.     You work in the creative industry in LA, and every aspect of Black Angel, from the merch to the video trailers to the studio production is incredibly polished for an independent production, a bit like Eldritch’s dogged pursuit of perfection in the early years of The Sisters of Mercy. Is the visual aesthetic just as important as the musical side of things to you?

     

     For sure. People need to be excited. The music marketplace is so oversaturated (for good or bad) that you need to be able to stand out a little, so anything I can do to help that helps us. 

8.     According to your Bandcamp bio, you’re already well on the way to completing your follow up album entitled Kiss of Death. When is this likely to be released?

     With The Widow album, we just put it out when it was finished. With Kiss of Death we are going to release 3 singles most likely, and then the album. The first single should be out in March. 

9.     The Widow is an impressively diverse album, covering the full range of the genre from dark pop to full on goth. Will Kiss of Death be equally wide-ranging, or are you honing the sound to something more unique?

Kiss of Death is influenced for sure by The Damned (later material Phantasmagoria etc) and The Sisters of Mercy’s Floodland album. Two really strong sounds - I’ll be looking to blend them together.

10.  Your live appearances have been restricted to the West Coast so far. Do you have plans to play further afield in the States or elsewhere in 2020?

     That would be awesome to play to a wider audience. I’m hoping it’s just going to be an organic growth. As we get more listeners and our reach spreads then we’ll match that with live performances in those areas. Thanks to all who have bought the album and given us support. Can’t thank you guys enough. This is just the start for Black Angel and I for one can’t wait to see where this take us.