Ten Questions to .... Hugo Zombie (Then Comes Silence)

Sweden’s Then Comes Silence seem to have been one of the few bands who have been as active during the pandemic as they were before, albeit in a more remote manner. Not only did they post two quarantine cover versions online (All Tomorrow’s Parties and Christine), but they have been involved in various remixes (Wisborg remixing their own last single Apocalypse Flare and TCS frontman Alex Svenson remixing the likes of The Foreign Resort and Wisborg as well as producing two tracks on the new EP from aux animaux ).

The undisputed highlight though has been the announcement of a Then Comes Silence live stream this coming Thursday (14th May) at 8 p.m. UK time, 9 p.m. CET, with the setlist of twelve tracks chosen by members of their Facebook fan group. Hopefully this live broadcast (link here) from Stockholm’s Hus7 venue will help to finally bring the band to the wider audience which their music deserves, and those who have yet to witness TCS in concert are in for a treat.

Over the past two months on this blog we have individually interviewed the band members in the order which they joined the band, starting with founder member Alex, then drummer Jonas, followed by Mattias – and today I am delighted to say that we are completing the set with Hugo, who first filled in on some dates in the latter part of 2018.

 (Hugo Zombie [left] on stage with Then Comes SIlence, Edinburgh July 2019 pic: NVL)

Many TCS fans were/are unaware that the new guitarist (whose permanent recruitment was announced shortly after that initial trial stint) was in fact already one of the most revered on the global deathrock/goth scene, having spent almost the entirety of the previous two decades with seminal Spanish outfits Naughty Zombies and then Los Carniceros del Norte, the Basque horror punks who are legendary figures on the alternative scene in the hispanophone world, although barely known in the more traditionally inward-looking English-speaking markets of the US and UK.

Zac Campbell, guitarist of leading US goth outfit The Kentucky Vampires, rates Hugo Zombie as “one of the biggest inspirations” in his career, and told me about the adulation he witnessed the one time he was fortunate to see Los Carniceros del Norte live, at a show in Mexico City (which was filmed and later released on the “Live In Mexico” DVD). "The venue was over capacity for sure and it was the craziest show I've ever been to. The crowd were going crazy for them, and it reminded me of the old videos you see of the public reaction to The Beatles. I wanted to meet the band after the show but it was so crazy we just ended up leaving." With LCDN records difficult to obtain outwith Spain, it has taken Campbell years of painstaking research to proudly assemble a full collection of the band’s releases.

Hugo Zombie was not only guitarist but also the chief songwriter and producer for Los Carniceros del Norte (The Butchers from The North), and he also found time for side projects, whether as a journalist (writing about his visits to WGT and even interviewing Then Comes Silence after his initial temporary guest slot with the band!) or as musician, using the name H. Zombie for his solo work (which often involved familiar collaborators).

He has recently made these projects available from Bandcamp, and I would particularly recommend the 2013 Deathrock is Dead EP, described by that oracle amongst goth commentators, Mick Mercer, as “a monstrously beautiful juggernaut” upon release, adding “I like noise when accompanied by artistry, and few people in the world better exhibit the alchemical ability to blend these two aspects than young H. Zombie.”

Not only did Hugo Zombie bring this musical expertise, experience and ability to Then Comes Silence when he joined, he has also significantly enhanced the band’s visual profile. Too many of the young bands and artists my own kids go to see these days amble on stage in a cardigan and jeans, whereas I’ve always wanted my rock stars to look like rock stars, and Hugo certainly doesn’t disappoint in that regard: with his make-up, leather cap and studded belt he looks like he’s permanently auditioning for a Lords of The New Church tribute band. Onstage he runs the full gamut of rock guitarist gestures, legs splayed one minute, jumping up and down and heading back to the monitors the next, the very epitome of Johnny Thunders-esque cool, and clearly an artist who lives for live shows.

With his fascinating past and interesting present I found it a struggle to stick to just ten questions, and I'd like to thank Hugo for taking the time and trouble to answer my questions so fully.

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1. You were in two bands before Then Comes Silence, Naughty Zombies and then a decade as the main songwriter and guitarist of Los Carniceros del Norte, a goth-punk deathrock band which many of the newer bands on the scene cite as an influence. Do you think that you were just before your time?

Hugo Zombie: I don’t know, but those were good times anyway. When Naughty Zombies started in early 2000s, there was a lot of great bands in the deathrock goth-punk scene. Our influences at that time were mainly current bands like Subtonix, The Vanishing, Lost Sounds, Black Ice, The Phantom Limbs... There was also Strobelight Records releasing amazing albums and their New Dark Age Compilations giving visibility to new bands, Drop Dead Festival [originally a US-based deathrock event] came to Europe... The first DDF European Edition was in 2007 in Prague, and I played there with both Naughty Zombies and Los Carniceros Del Norte. I kept playing with both bands for a couple of years, I was very busy, so yeah, I think those were good times to be doing what we were doing.

Having said that, I’m truly honored to hear that my music could have influenced newer bands on the scene, and I really hope that it helped to keep the flame alive too.

2. After Los Carniceros del Norte split up, you moved to Stockholm from Spain. Were you looking to join a new band at that point?

Hugo Zombie: I’m a Rock n’ Roll junkie, so yes, absolutely. I was friends with Jonas before I moved to Stockholm, and almost every time we met, I asked him the same question: “Hey, do you know if there’s any band in town looking for a guitar player? I fucking miss playing!”

I had hopes that some day he’d tell me something like “Yeah, I have some friends who are starting a new band and looking for a guitar player...” which was also not very likely, because there’s a lot of guitar players around everywhere. So I was very surprised and really, really happy when Jonas sent me a message asking me if I wanted to join TCS as substitute for a small tour. I had enough time to think and realize how much i had missed the stage, so even if it was only going to be a couple of shows, it sounded like heaven.

3. As I said before, in your two previous bands you were the driving force, as guitarist/songwriter/producer. Have you found it hard to adjust to joining what is effectively someone else’s band?

Hugo Zombie: No, not at all, I’m a team player and I know my role in TCS. It’s not like being “the driving force” was my choice in previous bands, but all the band members lived in different towns, and that meant no rehearsal space, no band jamming together or anything like that. I had some knowledge about music production software, so my home studio (Zombiestudios) became the virtual operations center. I wrote songs from scratch, but also my bandmates sent me melodies, bass lines etc. that i used as pieces to build songs: sequence drums, add guitars, keyboards, arrangements... then recording, mixing, mastering... I had to learn how to do it and take care of the whole production process, but now I can just focus on playing guitar.

I also have a solo project that you can check out on hzombie.bandcamp.com . I started this in 2008 to release “experiments” that wouldn’t fit in any of my bands. I even made a Dark Electro / Aggrotech EP just for fun, and surprisingly it got great reviews in specialized media. So if some day i feel like writing/producing music again, probably it will be for this.

   (Funeral is from H. Zombie's Deathrock Is Dead EP available on Bandcamp)

4. Alex has said that he worked out the basis of many of the songs on Machine with you. Did you enjoy writing with someone else?

Hugo Zombie: I think that Alex meant that he wrote the music having me and my way of playing in mind, because I didn’t actually write anything. That’s not a problem at all: Alex is an amazing songwriter and he knows better than anyone how TCS sounds, so I’m more than happy to play whatever he asks me to play.

5. On FB you recently said that Apocalypse Flare and Cuts Inside were your favourite tracks on Machine. What about those tracks do you particularly like?

Hugo Zombie: Yes, Apocalypse Flare was one of the first new songs that I played with TCS when we started to practise together. Good memories. I liked it very much from the beginning, but it has developed since then and it’s even better now. Cuts Inside is newer, but I’ve also liked it a lot since I heard Alex’s demo for the first time. I was mildly upset that it was going to be one of the outtakes of the album, haha. What I like about those songs are the strong rhythms and powerful choruses, and a good mixture of energy and melody.

6. You have a very distinctive visual style, which is reminiscent of Johnny Thunders, Lords of the New Church and Hanoi Rocks. Were some of these artists a big influence on you?

Hugo Zombie: Absolutely!!! Johnny Thunders is my guitar hero. Also Brian James from Lords of The New Church and early The Damned. I’m not the biggest fan of Hanoi Rocks but Andy McCoy is really cool too! And I would also add as influences Eduardo Benavente [Parálisis Permanente], Johnny Ramone, Joe Strummer (I’m a left-hander playing like a right-hander too) [The Clash], Poison Ivy [The Cramps], East Bay Ray [Dead Kennedys], Rikk Agnew [Christian Death], Daniel Ash [Bauhaus]... and last but not least the father of them all, Chuck Berry. As you can see, I appreciate passion and attitude more than technique.

7. You will have seen the video released before Blood where Jonas and Alex spoke about which albums had influenced them. Which records from your own collection would you have brought to the video shoot if you had joined TCS before rather than after Blood?

Hugo Zombie: I agree completely with the albums they show in the video, but some of my personal choices could’ve been (to mention a few): Parálisis Permanente El Acto, The Stooges Funhouse, The Cramps Songs The Lord Taught Us, The Clash London Calling, Sex Pistols Never Mind The Bollocks, Lost Sounds Black Wave, Eskorbuto Anti-Todo, The Beatles Please Please Me, Johnny Thunders and the Heartbreakers L.A.M.F., Lords of the New Church Killer Lords,  David Bowie Ziggy Stardust, Stray Cats Stray Cats, The Adicts Songs Of Praise, Misfits Walk Among Us... and I can’t choose only one Ramones album, so I would have brought their entire discography.

 (Paralisis Permanante, a key band of the post-Franco Madrid "movida" featuring frontman Eduardo Benavente, who was tragically killed in a car crash several months after this footage was filmed in 1983. Los Carniceros del Norte recorded a tribute EP to Paralisis Permanente in 2011)

8. On the recent video for All Tomorrow’s Parties, one of TCS’ quarantine covers, you had the video of goths dancing to Killing Joke at a club in West Yorkshire in 1984 on in the background. Are you a big student of goth history?

Hugo Zombie: I’m interested in the history of music, I enjoy reading books about artist/bands that I like and had interesting lives, but I wouldn’t consider myself a big student. The idea about that video [All Tomorrow's Parties] was to somewhat make it look like we were having a party ourselves, so I got some beers and choose this select audience for my interpretation. Then it turns out that the TV is not as big as I thought and I’m covering most of it, so I’m very surprised (and glad) that you recognized the video.

9. I have to ask you about your cat, who was the unexpected star of Then Comes Silence’s quarantine cover of Siouxsie and the Banshees’ Christine, running up the wall at one point. Can you tell me a bit about him/her?

Hugo Zombie: Sure, she’s Pixi, one of my cats. My girlfriend and I adopted her and her sister, a beautiful tortie called Zombita, 7 years ago. They’re our children and they made it all the way from Spain to Sweden too. Pixi, the cat that you see in the video, she’s some kind of diva / movie star, she poses in front of the camera and she likes to be the centre of attention all the time. So, as it had to be, she found her way to make it into the video and be the star of the Gothicat Festival.

10. If Alex asked you to suggest a Los Carniceros del Norte song for Then Comes Silence to cover, which one would you choose and why?

Hugo Zombie: I don’t think that’s very likely to happen, and I don’t think that it would be very suitable either, but if I’m forced to choose one it would be Las tres Caras del Miedo, because it’s more goth rock oriented than most of LCDN’s discography, it’s one of my favourites and we never played it live.




Then Comes Silence recordings and merchandise are available here.