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:
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.
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.
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.
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:
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.
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!
