Wednesday, April 29, 2020

Eight reasons to buy product from your favourite artist on Bandcamp this Friday



For many of those lucky enough to be in employment, this week sees their monthly salary arrive in their bank account at the end of what has been a traumatic month for a lot of communities around the world. The arts sector has been hit more than many, with quarantine cancellations of events across the globe and the closing of most shops, with little immediate prospect of improvement.



Most bands in the goth/post-punk/darkwave genre use the Bandcamp platform as one of their main online means of presenting their product to potential listeners, offering a free trial stream of all new releases (or selected tracks thereof) along with the sale of digital downloads, physical copies (CD, vinyl and cassette) as well as bands merchandise (primarily t-shirts).

Here’s eight reasons why should we all consider making a purchase this Friday:



1)      This Friday (1st May) for one day only, Bandcamp is waiving fees on all sales
Usually, as with any intermediary service (record shops/Amazon etc), bands have to give the middleman a cut of all sales, but for one day only Bandcamp is waiving its right to its fee. The last time it did so six weeks ago, bands sold 4.3 million dollars worth of product in the 24 hour period. This is your chance to make sure that all of the money from your purchase goes direct to the band.

2)      Repay your favourite bands for quarantine gigs
Many bands have put on free livestreams of gigs or rehearsals, or contributed to online events like the Gothicat Online Festivals. You’d normally pay decent money to see a band (if you’re lucky enough for them to come to a town near you), so rather than freeloading at these online treats why not repay their generosity with the purchase of an album or t-shirt from their Bandcamp store.

3)      Make up for loss of merch table sales
With live gigs around the world grinding to a halt and scientists suggesting that this will be one of the final activities to return to normal when the global lockdown eases, many bands have lost their main opportunity to sell directly to fans. Bands at this level staff their own merch tables, and most people who have enjoyed a gig will often make a purchase literally directly from the band after the show. Did you enjoy the recent Sonsombre or Kaelan Mikla livestreams for example? If so, do the decent thing if you can afford to and buy something from their Bandcamp store.

4)      Music is good for your soul
New music is good for you, it lifts your spirits and activates your brain. Lots of bands have released new albums in the past two months, from Then Comes Silence to The Black Capes, from This Eternal Decay to Byronic Sex and Exile. Why not treat yourself to something new and cheer yourself up! You deserve it!

5)      Replenish your wardrobe
Most clothing retailers are closed in many countries during the lockdown, so why not refresh your wardrobe and boost your street cred with a new band t-shirt to impress your friends for that next Zoom/Houseparty meet-up.

6)      You might be now able to afford it
If you’re working from home, you may be saving cash on commuting, lunch, coffees, that quick drink after work, and your usual entertainment budget is going unspent as you self-isolate at home. Why not use some of the spare cash to support your favourite band and buy that album you’ve been wanting to get for a while, or an earlier release from a band that you’ve got into recently?

7)      If you don’t make a purchase, your favourite band/label might not be around much longer
Bands and labels will both be feeling the pinch with their normal income streams drying up. Unknown Pleasures Records have already announced that the current slate of releases will be their last. Support those bands and labels which you admire in these lean times and it’s more likely that you will be able to enjoy them in the future when the global situation improves.

8)      Cheer up your favourite artists
This is a really hard time for musicians, with a lack of audience feedback adding to financial worries about the future, Why not show them that you care with a Bandcamp purchase this Friday and then post a pic on social media of your new arrival with some positive feedback to give the musicians a boost. Encourage your music-loving friends to do the same.

Pressed for time this Friday? Please find below some links to the Bandcamp stores of twenty artists covered by this blog in recent months:

- Sonsombre (Post-Gothic Records)
- 1919
- Der Himmel uber Berlin (Unknown Pleasures)



Monday, April 27, 2020

Ten Questions to ... Ken Magerman (of Sounds and Shadows blog and the band Amaranth)


Over the past forty years, one of the very few universal truths which I have learned about a darkwave scene which is mired in cliché and prejudice is that along with black clothing and certain songs (Temple of Love, A Forest and Allegedly, Dancefloor Tragedy for example), goths love cats. From scene legends such as Andrew Eldritch to someone who once crimped their hair in 1984, those associated with the darker end of the post-punk scene have always had an affinity with felines, preferring them to canines and other potential domestic animals by an unfeasibly large ratio.

The close ties between cats and their owners, which seems to be more of a partnership of equals than the master/servant regime which humans impose on dogs, makes for an emotionally heightened relationship all of which makes a beloved feline’s disappearance, illness or passing all the more devastating. This explains why, when goth blogger Ken Magerman posted about the expensive surgery which his three year old cat Freyja would require to head off a particularly aggressive cancer, the close-knit darkwave community rallied round with offers of support, enabling him release this week a digital-only twenty-five track compilation album Tiny Gods Who Walk Beside Us to help to offset the cost of the life-saving surgical intervention.



As well as returning to the music scene as a performer himself in recent years (after a seventeen year hiatus) with his band Amaranth, Kalamazoo-based Magerman began a blog called Sounds and Shadows in which he shared his latest musical discoveries, quickly establishing himself (along with the likes of Obscura Undead, Dark Entries and El Garaje de Frank) as one of the most discerning observers of the current goth scene. His entertaining, enthusiastic and informative pieces helped to boost the profile of artists deserving of a wider audience, so much so that the eloquent Magerman branched out into podcasts with Sounds and Shadows towards the end of last year, producing highly-listenable extended interviews with some of the scenes biggest emerging stars, who talked about their inspiration, influences and aspirations.

The fundraising compilation Tiny Gods Who Walk Beside Us, like all the best examples of the genre, contains an eclectic mix covering the entire gamut of the darkwave genre, from full-on guitar-driven goth rock to skimpy dark electro beats, ranging from well-established names to new artists or projects. One of the joys of any compilation is to discover new sounds and bands to investigate further, and on this wide-ranging set there truly will be something for everyone.

Tiny Gods Who Walk Beside Us starts strongly with that rare beast, a remix which is significantly better than the original, with DJ Senseless adding a real dramatic tension to Lorelei Dreaming’s 2017 track Edge of the World, with the additional “strings” creating real impact. Magerman’s own band Amaranth contribute one of the album’s strongest tracks with For Freyja which begins with a low-fi mandolin and guitar introduction before erupting into a NIN-worthy heavy industrial chorus, with the blogger cathartically outing his feelings about his beloved pet in a raw but genuinely moving manner.

Other highlights for me on the album were the tracks from the bigger name artists on the compilation, Antipole, Crying Vessel, Kiss Of The Whip and Twin Tribes, who all provide ample evidence for their success on the scene, showing a clear sense of structure, melody, rhythm and atmospherics in their contributions.

I was also delighted to discover a new track from scene veterans Cliff and Ivy, Will To The Power, which is up to their usual slightly kooky deathrock standard and is the most overtly old school goth track on the album, although Machinery of Desire’s Forever Remain and Orcus Nullify’s March of the Lost should also appeal to fans of this sub-genre.

For those more inclined towards synthwave or dark EDM electro beats, there’s a cracking Silver Walks remix of Caustic’s F--- that Fascist Beat in vintage WaxTrax style, whilst Corlyx and Adoration Destroyed cater effectively to that market. On a more experimental level, I really enjoyed Vlimmer’s exclusive track Schnittstelle, and will certainly be checking out this Berlin-based artist more extensively in the future on the basis of this exquisite slice of unsettlingly cold dark pop.

At a cost of just ten US dollars for twenty-five tracks, purchasers of this wide-ranging compilation (obtainable by clicking here) are not only obtaining a primer on the current darkwave scene selected by one or its most respected observers, but are also contributing to the life-saving surgery of a much-loved fellow creature. I took the opportunity to interview Ken about how the compilation came about and how Freyja is now progressing, and I hope that you enjoy reading his answers as much as I did.

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1. You started your Sounds and Shadows blog as recently as 2018, just as the current goth/darkwave movement really began to reach a crescendo. What prompted you to start your own blog at that point?


Ken: I was starting up Amaranth again and finding bands in the post Facebook era. To be honest I had stopped searching for new music in goth/industrial for quite a while. All of a sudden I was plunged back into that world and excited how good the new bands I was finding were. As I looked around for more music, the blogs and review pages seemed to have changed too. The emphasis was on quick hit press releases. Drunk one night at 2 a.m. I got it in my head to write a review of Twin Tribes album Shadows. I woke up in the morning to find…a lot of spelling mistakes but also a lot of people who found value in it. It felt really cathartic that this drunken love letter to a band that had inspired me, had helped other people find them. So I kept going. Things kept growing. Soon I added in interviews, additional writers, and the podcast. It seemed that people were just as hungry as me for this dark music renaissance.


2. You then branched out into podcasts towards the end of last year, along with Collin from your band Amaranth, doing lengthy (and very informative and entertaining) interviews with artists about their influences and development, starting with Jason from the band ACTORS. Was that a natural development?

Ken: I was really enjoying some of the other podcasts I heard. I had access to artists. I had found such value in not just promoting my own band but sharing others I loved. I got the idea how I could give this experience to other musicians. So we created the format of having each artist pick 3 bands they are connected to and talking about them. Instead of your standard interview format, we got other bands talking about what they loved in their peers. I felt like this was more revealing than “Who were your influences?” Yes, we all loved Joy Division and the Sisters ;) The podcast has been wonderful and had great reception. Adding Katy on for another view-point has really helped too. I look forward to starting back up again soon.


3. Were you surprised by how friendly and relaxed members of fellow bands on the darkwave scene are? People outside of the scene would imagine that it’s all depression and moody posing..

Ken: I suppose I wasn’t too surprised. Since I am the singer of a goth band and one of the most happy go lucky people you could meet. I will say I think things are different now. In the 90s rather it was money, fame, what have you. Music was much more of a competition. Bands were not always going out of their way to help each other. I think now you really see this scene embracing the idea that a rising tide lifts all ships. The compilation Tiny Gods Who Walk Beside Us is a great example of just how generous and caring this community is today.


4. Sounds and Shadows is just releasing that compilation, its first, as a fundraiser for your cat Freyja’s surgery after she was diagnosed with cancer. Were you surprised that so many bands rallied round to contribute?

Ken: Surprised is a major understatement. I was floored by how many people stepped up for me and my family. It was a truly dark time for me, lots of uncertainty and I just didn’t know what to do. A lot of the bands here are people I had spoken to online, maybe played a show with, and met one time at their show. They really came out of the woodwork to tell me this webpage and I mattered to them. I balled my eyes out. I had forgotten just how powerful human kindness can be when you are in a fragile state. To think something as beautiful as this 25 song compilation full of collaboration and original art came out of that darkness really leaves me overwhelmed. I had hoped to maybe have 10 bands I was close with give a b side. Instead some of the best and brightest in goth/industrial offered up some of their best songs. I really believe this compilation is one of the most exciting records you can buy for $10 in 2020.


5. So many people who identify as “goth” (and even many linked to the scene but who claim not to be like Andrew Eldritch) seem to have a preference for felines as pets. Why do you think that is?

Ken: I think Goth music has always been deeply entwined with pageantry and romanticism. It celebrates the sleek and aloof. Never has a creature been fuller of pride and dramatic attitude than the cat. They are such incredibly intuitive and emotional animals. Plus the whole witchy vibe.


6. More of the bands featured on the compilation would fit broadly in the synthwave category than say goth rock. Is that a reflection of your own preference within the genre?

Ken: You know, when I started Sounds and Shadows it was never meant to be a “Goth” page. Yes that is a big part of the music I love. My style both listening and playing is pretty diverse. For this compilation we have pretty wide range in sounds. Industrial, Goth, Synthwave, Darkwave, Noise, and gothic rock. This compilation had less to do with a style of music and more to do with a combined love of cats and the relationships I had formed with these amazing artists. I love all of the subgenres and think they just make music more diverse and interesting. I think I’d be hard pressed to pick a favourite.


7. Your own band Amaranth feature on the compilation with a new song For Freyja that’s possibly the heaviest track on the album, with for me quite a NIN vibe. Was this just a way for you to cathartically channel some of the stress of what must have been a very difficult time for you?

Ken: Definitely. When we first heard the diagnosis for Freyja it was a really scary and uncertain time. I was talking with my partner Rachel and trying to make the best choices in a situation with no good choices. I was really worried for Rachel’s emotional state as well and trying not to pile on her stress with my own anxiety. So when we finally got in the studio to record the vocals of For Freyja I was a bit of a mess. I uncorked those emotions and just spewed forth everything I was feeling and afraid of. My voice broke a few times I screamed so hard. Collin had laid down that wonderful guitar/bass riff which really captured something inside me. After Derek (mandolin) Kam (drums) added those perfect brush strokes to round it out. Honestly, I think it is one of the best tracks we ever did.


8. So can we expect more from Amaranth soon?

Ken: Yes, we had big plans when both Freyja started her ordeal and when Covid 19 started effecting the world. We have a new album coming out with new songs, a cover of Peter Murphy’s I’ll Fall With Your Knife and several amazing remixes of our previous songs. We were really looking forward to extending the range of our gigs and working on doing festivals. So a lot of that was placed on hold. However, it will all be coming back soon and gave us more time to refine the new material we have.


9. I must also ask about one other thing which you’re well known for on social media, and that’s the photos of the incredible meals that you cook. Where did you learn to cook so well?

Ken: Well thank you! I love cooking. To me I think it is a lot of similar feelings and skill sets to making music. I guess I first learned from Amaranth’s first drummer Maus. He was a chef in a fine dining restaurant where I was a bartender and living with him taught me a lot. Other than that it is a lot of experimentation. Rachel and I watch a lot of online cooking shows and I get inspired and just want to try making things. Most of my life is flying by the seat of my pants and hoping I make it turn out in the end. I suppose my cooking is no different.





10. Back to the real star of the show, Freyja, who’s now had her (very expensive) surgery. How is she right now?

Ken: If you would have told me she would have been this much of her loving, purring, spunky, adorable self after having a leg and half of her hip removed I wouldn’t have believed you. The Doctors are confident that they got the cancer within margins. She is racing around, chasing her brother. She has a hard time jumping like she did, but she has made up for it climbing. Getting to observe her after the recovery time from surgery, I think the tumor, being so large was causing her a lot of pain. So with the leg gone I think she is more comfortable. I had a million scenarios going through my head when trying to decide what to do. Things turned out better than I could have hoped for. This has so much to do with the amazing people in my life who gave time, energy, and caring when I needed it most. My beautiful three year old cat is going to have her whole amazing life ahead of her.

Friday, April 24, 2020

Ten Questions to .... Tommy Olsson (Long Night, October Burns Black)


Tommy Olsson might baulk at the term “veteran”, but the guitarist’s contribution to the gothic rock scene now stretches back over a quarter of a century, from his early days in the mid-1990’s with The Morendoes through his time with Theatre of Tragedy and then Elusive in the new millennium before his involvement over the past decade in two projects at the forefront of the genre, Long Night and October Burns Black.

Based in Western Norway in a beautiful coastal region between the ports of Stavanger and Haugesund, it would be cliched (although not entirely untrue) to say that Olsson’s melodic style and tone reflects the open spaces and dramatic landscapes of his native land, but his distinctive style has made him one of gothic rock’s most enduring and respected guitarists.





His main band Long Night, fresh from the success of 2018’s debut album Barren Land has recently released a very catchy new single, Tick Tock, an uptempo rocker with a real earworm of a chorus which marries traditional goth rock elements with the very latest studio technology to create a song which, but for the current lockdown, would surely be filling the dancefloors of goth club nights from Berlin to CDMX.





I was delighted to get the chance to interview Tommy and discuss his overall contribution to the goth rock scene as well as his involvement in October Burns Black (the goth “supergroup” project also involving members of The Wake and Sweet Ermengarde amongst others) and the exciting new Long Night single (Tick Tock), which is available in two versions on Swiss Dark Nights.

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1.You’ve been involved in the goth scene since the early 90’s, originally in The Morendoes before starting Elusive, also with the late Jan Kenneth Barksted on vocals, as well as of course working with Theatre of Tragedy and taking them in a more classic goth direction. After working with your brother (and former Tristania drummer) Kenneth on The River Knows, you formed Long Night with former Tristania vocalist Østen Bergøy, ultimately releasing your debut EP in 2016. Was the aim of Long Night to produce a more classic goth rock sound, rather than the more symphonic goth metal of some of your previous projects?

Tommy: Yes! I grew up on early The Cult, The Mission and The Sisters of Mercy and that was always the type of music/band I wanted to do. Before Østen joined Trisatnia he was the vocalist of The Morendoes for quite a few years after Jan decided to leave after There Is No Salvation, so in many ways we come from the same starting point.



2.The first Long Night EP Sorrow Returns on Gothic Rock records got great reviews, but it took a year before the video of the up-tempo title track came out. Why did it take so long?

Tommy: Haha, oh dear.. We weren't involved in the making of the video apart from meeting up with the director Jon Helge Hesby and giving him some info on the song so we had no idea what was coming. The guy is a perfectionist to the fingertips as in he would wait for weeks just to get the correct light and stuff like that. I think it nearly killed him, but the end result was fantastic! I actually asked him to do one for Tick Tock but he seems to have disappeared off the grid at the moment.


3.The EP, like your subsequent releases has been a mix of slow-burning, more cinematographic tracks like Ruins on the debut EP or Dying on the new EP, and faster tracks like The Night’s Ablaze from the album Barren Land and new single Tick Tock. Which style do you prefer?

Tommy: I don't think I have a preference as such, it depends on what mood I'm in but they represent different challenges in terms of writing/production and, not least, playing them live. What I need from the music whether it's fast or slow is tension, there has to be a feeling of "something's at stake" in every song.

4.Tick Tock is only just four minutes long, Long Night’s shortest to date, and has a more modern, electronic feel to it. Is this indicative of a change of direction?

Tommy: It's hard to tell really, right now it feels like it… The world seems to be going slightly crazier every day and  you just want to clench your fists and scream a little louder .

5.The initial CD of Tick Tock sold out and you’ve put out a different edition with the track Dying replaced by A New Void. Why did you decide to put out the two different versions?

Tommy: The first edition sold out really quickly so it was the record label that wanted to do a collectors’ thing and we had these songs left over from the Barren Land recordings.





6.You also play guitar in goth supergroup October Burns Black. How difficult is it to schedule recording and live dates when you all live in different countries and all have your own successful bands to think about?

Tommy: All of us have recording facilities so that part is fairly easy, for everything else we have Manager & Superhuman Ed [Shorrock] and I don't know how but it works.




7.You often play a 12-string guitar and have toured with The Mission in your Elusive days. Was Wayne Hussey a big influence on your style? Which other guitarists influenced you?

Tommy: Oh yes and Simon Hinkler, I stumbled upon The Mission in a small record shop in Denmark on vacation in my teens, it was a video called Crusade and I bought it on a hunch because I thought the cover looked awesome. I put it it on and I was mesmerized from the very first chord of Wasteland and I probably watched that video over a hundred times that summer alone. 12 strings, ebow, guitar effects and the way they played the guitars which I could never fully figure out back then. So my playing is pretty much based on misunderstanding what they were doing. Other guitarists that had a great impact would be The Edge, especially the Achtung Baby album, Billy Duffy, Dreamtime - Love era and the Gretsch guitar of course!
And the Morricone western themes though I have no idea who the guitarist is.

8. As I said at the start, you’ve been active on the goth scene for nearly thirty years. How would you assess the current strength of the scene (ignoring the current Coronavirus hiatus)?

Tommy: Can we make that twenty-fiveish? It feels like a hundred…  It's refreshingly good at the moment, lots of great music, with guitars! And now because of the current situation there are live concerts and festivals streaming so I get to see a lot more of what's going on than I usually would. I think both songwriting and production has taken a huge leap in the last 10-15 years, it's going to be hard for old-timers like us to keep up.

9. Which other bands on the current scene have impressed you?

Tommy: I saw this really cool video a couple of days ago with Then Comes Silence doing All Tomorrow’s Parties so I've been listening to their latest album which is great stuff! Others would be The Rope, Sonsombre (hats off to Brandon for pushing the whole scene), Caroline Blind, Kentucky Vampires and the list goes on..
I watched the Gothicat Festival and there were a couple of bands/songs that really stuck with me, Casual God by Black Nail Cabaret and Future Anthem by this Eternal Decay so they are on my to-do list. I also discovered Wovenhand a couple of years ago, the Refractory Obdurate album and it's just insanely good!

10.What’s next for Tommy Olsson? Are you working on new material for any project at the moment?

Tommy: Well, I'm in a bit of a rut now as I'm doing promotion for Tick Tock and that requires a very different skillset, (one I'm not very good at) from being a musician. But hopefully soon I can get back to it. Things I'm supposed to be doing is working on the next Long Night album, writing music with Liv Kristine (Theatre Of Tragedy), music for an OBB album and I'm also going to redo the 3 Elusive albums and hopefully have them released on vinyl some day.


My grateful thanks for Tommy for taking the time and trouble to respond to my questions. You can click these links to view his present and past projects:

- Long Night - Sorrow Returns  - Barren Land



Monday, April 20, 2020

Ten Questions to ... Zac Campbell of The Kentucky Vampires


The Kentucky Vampires shot straight to the upper echelons of the goth stratosphere with their self-titled debut LP which both musically and visually ticked all the right boxes both for long-term fans of the genre and those discovering the joys of the darkside for the first time.

Zac Campbell of The Kentucky Vampires


Buoyed not only by a distribution contract with Secret Sin records but also a third member in the personage of bassist Motuvius Rex, the band returned with a classic sophomore album that I’m sure that I’ll still be spinning in twenty years if I’m lucky enough to be alive then. Crimson Curse is the album of a band confident in their own sound, identity and direction, beginning with Abbas Marler’s church organ solo (yes, really) to set a suitably creepy scene, following on instantly with a couple of up-tempo deathrock salvoes that would not have been out of place on the band’s critically-acclaimed eponymous debut. The synergical combination of Zac Campbell’s well-crafted guitar lines, Motuvius Rex’s buzzing bass and Abbas Marler’s strangely affecting distant baritone croon combine in two perfect slices of modern goth, Holy Heretic and The Falling Sun with Marler’s intelligent lyrics (the former is about Joan of Arc calling out to Archangel Michael for help, for example) and Sonsombre’s Brandon Pybus’ expert mastering adding an extra layer of sheen that competitors will struggle to match.





The fourth track is where the band show their real maturity with the slow-burning Moon Rays, with a classic Cure guitar tone and Marler’s echoing baritone creating a truly lovely aural effect rarely heard in guitar-driven gothic rock. The next trio of songs, Phantom Mystery, Silence and Vampires Coffin (which is possibly missing an apostrophe somewhere) find the band back on familiar more up-tempo territory, the latter adding a creepy B-movie synth with Marler’s Latin incantations adding to the spooky atmosphere, and providing the perfect introduction to the band’s tribute to the great Vincent Price, Saint Vincent, which again sounds very much like a (better-produced) variation on a theme from the debut album.


But for me what really make this such an epic album are the final three tracks, A Different Shade, Die With You and Our Love Has No Goodbyes, all slow-burners which show that the band only increases in power and intensity when the tempo drops, allowing Marler to show off his dramatic range and Campbell to showcase his subtlety and genius on the guitar, as well as revealing his songsmith abilities to the full.


In short, I cannot recommend this album highly enough to anyone who has appreciated any era of goth music, and the fact that it is available for “Name Your Price” on Bandcamp (whilst we await the CD and vinyl release on Secret Sin after the current global pandemic) makes it an even more essential purchase. You can get it on this link right now!


I was therefore delighted when guitarist Zac Campbell agreed to answer my “Ten Questions…” for this blog, to enable me to find out more about the inner workings of one of the most promising bands of the past decade. As an aside, I must add that dealing with the current generation of goth/post-punk musicians is an absolute pleasure: all of the musicians whom I have bothered so far for this blog have been unfailingly helpful and have gone out of their way to assist by giving full and interesting replies, and Zac has certainly been no exception. My grateful thanks to him.

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1.      NVL: With the onset of the global pandemic, rather than put back the release of your new album Crimson Curse, you decided to just release it digitally initially, and very generously made it “Name Your Price” on Bandcamp. Is the plan still for Secret Sin to put out physical versions (vinyl/CD) in due course?


Zac: Yes, it was a group decision by the band to release it on Bandcamp as “Name Your Price”. The plan is once the world starts to go back to some sort of normal, to release the album on CD, and vinyl as well through Secret Sin Records.

2.      NVL: The album artwork and the band logo from Crimson Curse seem to have moved away from the very overtly goth bats and graveyard vibe of the debut. Is this a deliberate re-positioning?

Zac: The artwork was done by our vocalist Abbas Marler. He has taken the lead on the artistic representation of the album. He also did the artwork for our EP that released back in November. I think as we move more into a more professional sound that the artwork is starting to reflect that. Our very good friend Marky Shotgunblast from Cincinnati Ohio created the bat logo we use, and I created the original logo. Marky does all of our merchandise printing and creation as well.

3.    NVL:   Since the eponymous debut, The Kentucky Vampires has expanded to a three-piece with the recruitment of Motuvius Rex on bass. Was this primarily with live shows in mind?

We’ve always been a 3 piece as far as live performances. On the first album Abbas and I did all of the music ourselves as far as writing, and cycled through several live bassists. When Motuvius joined to do live bass, we decided to include him in the writing process. I am more of a guitarist than a bassist, so in that regard he is bringing something to the band that is out of my element in writing. It’s also nice to bring in fresh new ideas to help keep things more interesting! We’ve actually now added a drummer, our great friend Thom Warnoch. We have began writing material for the third album including Thom on the drums, and Motuvius on bass. This is great for many reasons but I feel like adding other people to the writing process will make things sound much better and more interesting than just me writing all of the instruments. Thom brings a lot of experience on the drums and right away there’s a big difference in the feel of the new material.  


4.   NVL:    Your love of Hispanic and Latin American deathrock is well-known to all who follow you on social media, and I can hear the influence of for example Los Carniceros Del Norte’s Las Tres Caras del Miedo on your sound, particularly on the first album. Which bands would you recommend to fans wanting to examine that scene further?

Zac: Oh, that’s a tough one. I absolutely love almost everything goth, death rock, and punk going on in Mexico and central and South America and Spain. That scene is just full of incredible musicians and music. I try to share everything I find from these areas and try to help bring exposure to bands people might not find otherwise. I tend to focus on Mexico the most as my wife is from Mexico and I am now fortunate enough to have an amazing family in Mexico, so we visit Mexico a lot, and this has led to meeting a lot of really cool people, making some great friends, and finding some really amazing music! I can tell you some of my very favorite bands from these areas are Acid Bats, Los Carniceros Del Norte, Los Gorgonas, Dimness, Hoffen, La Procesion de lo Infinito, Lucida Fila, Blood Dance, Frio y Vacio, Red Ulalume, Cruz de Navajas, Mementut, Sex Catrina, Draconian Incubus, Deliverance, Luna Mysti, RRRRRRR, Mekrokiev, Los Dezterrados, Belgrado, Diavol Strain, La Calle Morgue, Last Dusk, Eyaculacion Post Mortem, Modi Key, Bloody Benders, Caifanes, Heros del Silence, etc… I could literally go on and on about this topic haha.






5.      NVL:  When the band first formed, Albie (now fronting his own project Scary Black) was the band’s vocalist, and when he left Abbas moved from bass to vocals. For me, Abbas’ vocal and your guitar sound is a perfect match, and it seems impossible to think of TKV without that combination. Can you remember when you first heard his vocals on one of the songs and the effect which it had on you?

Zac: Yeah,  actually. I was shocked! When Albie left I was really ready to hang up the band so to speak, and I was honestly rather depressed he had left, when Abbas said he’d try to sing, I was just like “OK, let’s give this a shot, why not?”. I had never heard Abbas sing at all before, I sent him a track and he sent it back with vocals recorded to it and it literally blew me away. It’s been a real honor working with him on this band, and I can’t imagine doing this project any other way. Honestly, I have to say if either he or I leave the band for any reason in the future, then that’s the end for the band.


6.       NVL: Three of the tracks on the new album were originally released as an EP in November, signposting a broadening of the traditional TKV sound. Part of this was due to the mastering which was done by Sonsombre’s Brandon Pybus. Why did you decide to get third-party help for the production of the new songs rather than just doing it yourselves?

Zac: Brandon and I had become really good friends and while I was traveling for work up in his area he invited me and my wife over to his house. We had a good time and got to hangout and watch a Sonsombre practice session and after that Brandon and I started talking about music production. Brandon and I use a lot of the same software for recording and he was showing me some tips and tricks and eventually he had offered to mix and master it at some point. I of course love his production on his Sonsombre albums and brought the offer back to Abbas. We both agreed to give it a shot and it turned out very well! Brandon made the tracks pack more punch and just sound more massive and clean than we had before. I personally believe after you spend hours and hours listening to the same song over and over again as you’re writing and recording it, that it’s better for a third party to mix it as they can bring a different perspective to things than what you have stuck in your head.


7.     NVL:  One development in the band’s sound which has made the album less “samey” and more powerful in feel than the debut is the inclusion of more slow-burning songs with a more bombastic, epic feel. Was that a conscious decision or just a natural development?

Zac: I’m not entirely sure really. I mean, during the writing process we were really focused on bringing something more than we had in the first album to have a strong follow-up album. Ultimately there are some main differences between the first album and the new album on each of our parts. That is that the first album I wrote the basslines first and fit guitars around that, on this album I wrote guitars first and focused more on them than I did the first album. I also tuned the guitars down. The first album I was mostly listening to Mexican and Spanish deathrock bands and more punk music. This album for a few months I was writing it I was listening to primarily bands like Nosferatu, The Cult, The Cure, Die Laughing, Fields of the Nephilim, Cassiopeia, Age of Heaven, The 69 Eyes, The Mission, etc.. and I think that had a large influence over it. I also moved out of Kentucky and moved to Florida living close to the ocean probably also has had an effect over me as far as inspiration on writing. I’m not sure I’d say it was a natural progression but had a lot of little details influencing how I approached writing the music. Abbas approached writing the lyrics for this album differently and with the addition of Motuvius to bass it all fell into place as it is.


8.     NVL:  That brings me onto the song-writing process. What comes first when you’re writing a new song, the melody, the lyrical theme or an overall “feel”?

Zac: Typically I have wrote the music and then I send it to Abbas, he then writes the lyrics and we custom-tailor so to speak the song to fit around how the lyrics turn out. On the first album I wrote a bass line first and then built up the rest of the song around it. The second album I wrote a guitar melody or hook first and built up from there.


9.     NVL:  I’m sure that a lot of goth band guitarists would want me to ask about your very distinctive guitar sound, which is just as quintessential a part of TKV’s sound as Abbas’ croon. How do you that slightly rough deathrock sound bleeding through on your riffs?

Zac: I use a lot of effects, the main part of my sound is just chorus, and more chorus and more chorus haha. I use a lot of chorus on my guitars. On the first album I just left the chorus on all the time, this album I took it off the rhythm guitars and tried to make the guitars more clean on the album. I will say a lot of my sound comes from my amplifier, and my guitar. My guitar is setup with the pickups height in a position closer to the strings. This to me makes the guitar feel more responsive and have more dynamics. The amplifier is a lot of “the sound” though, I have experimented a lot with trying to build a mobile guitar rig for traveling across the country for shows and potentially out of country and I have had a difficult time recreating the sound of my amplifier. I also use a lot of vintage analogue effect pedals from the 70s/80s. I always looked at it like I was trying to make my guitar sound like a lot of bands from the 80s and early 90s and just started buying old effects pedals for this reason, I’m sure plenty of the new latest and greatest do this just fine, but to me used gear is just cool. I actually collect guitar equipment, especially effects pedals! On the new album I used 2 or 3 different guitars on each song depending on the song, so that’s also adding some more different flavors and tones to the album.


(thanks to Zac for providing these pictures of his pedals and speakers)

10.    NVL: This week you’ve mentioned that you’ve started working on new material for TKV. What can you tell us about this – do you have an idea yet in which direction the band’s sound might head, and when are we likely to be hearing new product from the band?

Yes, we are starting up on the new album, trying to take advantage of the quarantine and pandemic situation to focus on making some new music instead of reading the news all day. This album will most likely be more in vein with the Crimson Curse album, but it will without a doubt sound different with the addition of our new drummer Thom to the band on this album. I also am using some different guitar equipment on this album for recording so it will overall have a different vibe to it. Since the writing experience is a little different now, it’s a little difficult for me to give a rough idea of when something will release, but all I can say is we’re actively working on new material now!