Ten Questions to ... Peter Smeets (Ground Nero)

 

For those who subscribe to the theory of a new Goth/Post-Punk Revival, a distinct third generation of bands launched in the digital era employing technology not available to previous artists, She Past Away’s debut digital EP of 2010 is often cited as the starting point. The movement really gathered pace in the middle of that decade, with 2015 seen as a pivotal year in Europe when the potential for a genuine scene became reality. Not only did She Past Away release sophomore set Narin Yalnızlık and Then Comes Silence unleash their seminal third album Nyctophilian, but new bands began to emerge with a darker, more intense sound. From the former industrial heartland of the Limburg province of Belgium came young turks Whispering Sons’ debut EP Endless Party, and the same region also gave birth that year to one of the most interesting and highly respected projects on the current scene, Ground Nero.

Unlike most artists of the current revival, Ground Nero is a new band consisting of members who were also active in the original scene, in their case the world-renowned coldwave movement in Belgium in the early/mid-1980’s that gave rise to EBM and ultimately rave culture. Whilst respectfully paying tribute to their own origins and to their contemporaries across the English Channel from that decade, they seek to create a post-punk “wall of sound” using twenty-first century technology to create a new gothic aesthetic.

Their first two EP’s, Beyond (2016) and Scales (2018) defined their distinctive signature sound, an atmospheric collage of pounding bass, mesmeric guitar shards, metronomic drum machine patterns, swirling keyboards and guttural angst-ridden baritone vocals. The opening chapter of the band’s history was completed with the release of critically acclaimed debut LP Divergence in 2019, this blog’s album of the year and a record which saw their fanbase swell significantly, aided by rave reviews for their multi-media live shows as festival bookings accumulated.

It seemed only natural that, after Then Comes Silence, Ground Nero should therefore be the second band to face “Ten Questions to …” on an individual basis, because like the self-styled "Swedish captains of post-punk”, the Belgian band is so much more than the sum of its talented parts.

It is fitting that the first interviewee is Peter Smeets, the guitarist and keyboard player with the band, who is also the primary songwriter. My thanks to Peter for his detailed responses to my questions.

Ground Nero’s releases are available via Bandcamp, and their activities can be followed on Facebook. Interviews with Peter P (bass) and Gwijde W (vocals) will follow shortly.

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 1.     Although Ground Nero formed in the mid-2010’s, you’d all been involved in music for many years. When did you personally first get interested in goth/darkwave music, and which bands/artists most inspired you?

For me, it started at university, so when I was 18, and I guess that the first band that really struck me was Joy Division. Before then, I had been playing some heavy rock and metal. But Joy Division definitely led me into the coldwave & postpunk music, soon followed by Siouxsie, Killing Joke, The Sisters of Mercy, Cocteau Twins, X-Mal Deutschland, etc. And these are still the bands that inspire me today. Some of them don’t exist anymore but some, like Killing Joke keep on inspiring me.

 2.     Before Ground Nero you were involved in a band called Von Durckheim. Can you tell us a bit about them please? Were you involved in other projects as well?

 Yes, that was in 1983, and we did a few interesting gigs and festivals, including one with Siglo XX and Red Zebra. But it didn’t last as we were all planning different things at the time. I was involved in some smaller things but nothing worth mentioning.

 3.     How did Ground Nero come about? How did you meet Peter and Gwijde and decide to form a band?

 A few years ago, I got the idea of starting all over again, so I looked out for musicians to form a band, which is basically not a problem, but finding musicians for darkwave and gothic rock is not that easy, especially when you are looking for people who have a similar background i.e. who were part of the initial and authentic 80’s dark wave and postpunk scene, which is quite different from what was made afterwards, e.g. in the 90’s. 

It all started off when I met Peter, our bass player. That was the moment when Ground Nero was born. We started looking for a singer who also had his roots in the 80’s postpunk and coldwave scene. That’s how we found Gwijde, who had been vocalist in Portrait Bizarre in the 80’s.

 4.     Your huge guitar sound is an integral part of the appeal of Ground Nero, and is sometimes compared to that of Geordie of Killing Joke. Are you pleased by such comparisons?

 Sure, I am most honoured. Geordie is one of my most important “mentors” if you like. With his special way of playing and creating sounds he evokes atmospheres and in doing that, he is unique. If you listen to 10 guitarists, you will immediately recognize Geordie as he sounds like no one else. I am not trying to copy his style or sound or anything like that, but I follow the philosophy of creating atmospheric sounds that build a song. More as a songwriter I will look into each instrument’s functionality to fill in its part to create such atmospheres. And sometimes, I will play the guitar in a rather restricted way, so only where it really adds to the song, just a few notes, no more no less, whereas in other songs, I will create a wall of sound with it.

 5.     Can you tell us a bit about your guitar set-up? Which pedals and FX do you prefer?

 Before I turned to Gretsch guitars, I was mainly on Gibson Les Paul and SG. Don’t get me wrong, they are great guitars, but in order to be able to create the sounds I have in mind, I need hollow body guitars, with a great, massive resonance, coming from the body. You don’t need this if you play metal on a high gain amp, but for the 80ies sound I am looking for, with loads of delay, chorus, flanger and other modulation effects, a hollow body guitar is perfect. My first Gretsch was that aspen green G4520T, which is still great, but after that I got my White Falcon Billy Duffy signature, which is my dream guitar, with customized high output pickups and a number of other special modifications requested by Billy. It’s the best guitar I ever had, but you really have to work on it. The Les Paul was a lot easier to play. Previously I had 2 rigs in parallel, both with identical Mesa Boogies, which were vintage amps from the 90ies, linked to 1x12 Boogie cabinets. Each of them had their own pedal boards and they were linked by means of an ABY-switch, so I could either play rig 1 or rig 2, or both together, to create that room-filling wall of sound. But if you are touring, it’s a lot of material to carry around and the Boogies weigh a ton. So, therefore, I have switched to Fractal Axe Fx, which is a great amp modelling system, also used by Metallica and other bands. It allows me to choose from hundreds of amps and speakers in combination with all possible guitar effects you can imagine…and it’s all in one single flightcase. For each and every song, I have created a dedicated “patch”, which means a set up of 2 amps + 2 cabinets and a dedicated effects loop. Each gig, I am using about 20 – 30 different amps and speaker cabinets. You can imagine what this would mean if you would have all these things on stage.

 6.     Unlike many darkwave bands, your guitar sound is very varied: for example on the track Alacrity on the Divergence album, you range from metallic chugging to a melodic, lyrical solo that wouldn’t sound out of place on a Pink Floyd record. Is this a reflection of the breadth of your own musical taste?

Many guitarists want to create their own specific, and if possible, unique, recognizable sound. For me, it’s the song that dictates me where my guitar sound needs to come from.  Sometimes, I start working on a song with the guitar, sometimes I get a bass line from Peter, but sometimes it can also start with synths or even a drum rhythm. The guitar sound is then selected in view of the song and its part in the song. So, therefore, my guitar playing will be quite varied, and this of course is supported by the technology I am using, by means of the Axe Fx. Alacrity is such a song, that evolved in a direction that wasn’t planned in the first place. The arpeggiator synth was a strong lead, that formed the opening for the heavy guitar to fall in and to build up for the heavy metal-like riff in the verses. The Gilmour-like solo? Well, we have been discussing this over and over again, as we always wanted to stay away from typical rock-like soloing, but after having it re-worked multiple times, we kept it in, as some pre-listeners liked it so much. At our gig at Wave-Gotik-Treffen in Leipzig, I even played a faster, more metal version of it, just for the fun of it. Apart from that, David Gilmour to me is one of the greatest guitarists ever, and when I practice, I often play his solos, like on Comfortably Numb. Same with Slash, another great guitarist.

 7.     You are also responsible for the keyboards/sequencers which adds an extra layer which helps to build the trademark Ground Nero “wall of sound”. Which bands influenced your keyboard style?

Actually, I don’t know, but sometimes I find myself playing synth lines and sounds, that I only recognize after having them recorded. I now understand, how people when creating music are often criticized for copying things from other artists, but you know, it sometimes happens when you follow a certain chord progression, some melodies run out of it automatically, without really knowing that this has already been played and recorded by someone. As with the guitars and other instruments, I select the synths and their sounds in view of the song. So I am never restricted to any specific sound or style of synth. The same with the soundscapes we are using. It’s the atmosphere of the song that dictates the keyboard style.

 8.     How do you go about writing songs? Do you start with a melody, a rhythm or a lyrical concept?

As I said, it can start from a guitar riff, a bass line, a synth melody, even a drum rhythm. We don’t have any rules. But often it happens at night, when I am sleeping and then I have to get up immediately and start playing and recording, or it is gone by the next morning.

 9.     For all Ground Nero tracks, a news footage montage video is made and projected behind the band at live shows, adding to the atmosphere at your gigs. Who makes these films?

Up till now, I have made them myself, and it all started from the idea to create a complete thing, video and image projections that support the content of the song, again creating the atmosphere intended by the song. We wanted to present an audio-visual concept to the audience, that was complete, round and supports and visualizes the story what is told in the song.

A nice add-on, which we discovered after the first shows, are the nice photographs, that are made by the photographers, having these projected backgrounds. It takes quite a lot of work to make these videos, but it’s worth it and we don’t have the budget to pay professional video companies. And I see it as part of the overall creative work as well.

 10.  You’re playing the Autumn Shadow festival in Liege and have been announced as the second headliner on the Belgian stage for the Sinner’s Day festival which had been postponed until Autumn 2021, the same day as Fields of The Nephilim, Laibach and She Past Away are on the main stage, a sign of Ground Nero’s growing profile on the scene. Do you have any plans for new studio material or tentative plans for other live shows?

 Since our latest album Divergence, which was released last year, we haven’t stopped working on new material. We have quite a number of new songs and will be recording in the next couple of weeks. Pre-production is running now and again, diversity will be key, as we have been experimenting with a lot of new sounds. For next year, some surprises are planned as well…but that’s for later.

 

 

 

Ten Questions to ... Slow Danse With The Dead

Goth’s longstanding reputation for miserabilism has its roots in the earliest days of the genre, with the likes of Joy Division and The Cure creating melancholy gloomscapes which counter-intuitively had an uplifting effect for their many fans who found real solace in wallowing in what are traditionally regarded as more negative emotions.

With song titles such as Awaiting My Death, Just Another Tragedy and I Prefer To Be Alone, Slow Danse With The Dead’s eponymous debut EP places the New Mexico artist right at the forefront of the “miserygoth” strand of the current post-punk/darkwave revival, alongside equally introspective artists such as Suffering For Kisses and Into Grey.

Johnny Ray M’s Albuquerque-based project was originally named The Endless, under which name he digitally released a series of largely coldwave tracks at a prodigious rate over the past few years, before changing the project’s name to the more memorable Slow Danse With The Dead (one of The Endless’ song titles) earlier this year.

The seven track digital EP, also released as a four track cassette that is virtually sold out, showcases a winning combination of lugubrious baritone vocals, strong melodies, and deceptively spartan arrangements dominated by synths with a judicious use of dark guitar motifs that combine to create what Johnny describes as “the sound of the dead rising”. Slow Danse With The Dead’s mesmerising mournfulness has quickly attracted the approbation of the scene’s most respected connoisseurs, with tracks played by Highway 7 and Frontiere Rock, highlighted on White Light//White Heat and set to video by George Chlioumis amongst others.

With surprisingly little background info available online, I was delighted to have the opportunity to interview Johnny to find out more about the inspiration and aspirations for Slow Danse With The Dead, and would like to thank him for his full and frank answers.

Slow Danse With The Dead’s highly-recommended EP (and the previous releases initially released under the name The Endless) can be obtained from Bandcamp.

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1.       How did you into goth/darkwave in the first place. Which artists did you most admire?

I was raised by a single mother in a Catholic family. My parents split before I could even remember. I have two older sisters, one was adopted by a family member and the other spent most her childhood in a hospital. As a kid I was always alone, quiet and shy; my mother was either on drugs or working and my father was absent and eventually serving out a sentence in prison for drug related charges. As my mother was always away, I spent most of my childhood at my grandparents’ home with my grandmother and aunt. My grandmother lived in a part of town that was riddled with crime and violence and most of my cousins who lived in that area at the time were in gangs. I had no proper adult influence in my life other than my grandmother and aunt.

Instead of following in my cousins’ footsteps, I chose music as a way to express myself and basically get away. My aunt was very much into metal, gothic rock, and the more aggressive/darker side of music. She had a major influence on me. She was usually in a leather jacket, band tee, and always rocking her combat boots and always listening to something good! As far as writing music, I think a lot of that has to do with my father. My father is a musician and, in a way, I always looked up to him and it was he who gave me my first electric guitar before he went to prison. Since he wasnʼt around, I pretty much taught myself how to play it, that is, until my aunt met her love, Dave a.k.a. “Uncle Feces” and it was Uncle Feces who taught me my first power chord and how to produce music on a computer. He introduced me to bands like: Ministry, Prong, Type O Negative, Revolting Cocks, My Life With the Thrill Kill Kult, etc.. I think it was Uncle Feces that inspired me to look further into the darker electronic scene. I was only 14 and very impressionable.

 

2.       This project was called The Endless until relatively recently. Why did you decide to change the project name to that of one of your songs? Has there been a subtle change in the music and lyrics?

I loved the band name The Endless however it was already taken! I had to come up with a name on the spot and Slow Danse With The Dead seemed like the perfect fit. In order to understand the light, one must learn to appreciate the dark. Slow Danse With The Dead felt dark and romantic. The name change had no affect on the lyrics.

 

3.       In that song (Slow Danse With The Dead), the word “danse” was originally spelled with a “c”. What influenced that change, the UK goth band The Danse Society, or Danse Macabre (either the Steven King novel, the record label or the classical music piece)?

 The title was most certainly influenced by the classical piece, Danse Macabre!

 

4.       So far the debut album has been released as a twelve song Spotify list, a four track cassette and a seven track download, all containing different selections. Which do you consider to be the definitive list of songs?

The 4-track cassette EP is based off my 7 track debut album on Bandcamp which is the definitive list of songs. The cassette EP comes with a code to redeem the digital 7 track album.

 

5.       Are the plans for other physical releases of these recordings, such as CD and vinyl?

Most definitely! Iʼm currently looking into a production contract but the details are not set in stone as of yet!

 

6.       Your music has had a lot of support from the online community, such as DJʼs, websites and podcasters. Have you been surprised by how quickly the project has taken off?

Iʼm very grateful for all the support within the online community! It has been great and I appreciate it all! The support has given me motivation and such positive drive to keep producing! As for your question, yes I am very surprised how fast this project took off! The musical project was originally started in 2015, roughly. The fast progression has been in the last year or so and it has been an amazing journey so far!

 

7.       There seem to be quite a few US artists independently producing coldwave “miserygoth”, such as Suffering For Kisses and Into Grey. Do you think that this is a reaction to the political situation in the US?

I think that might be a possibility. Who’s to say?

8.       Youʼve recently been advertising for other musicians to join the project. Is this for studio work or just for potential live gigs?

Mostly for potential gigs and possible studio work down the line.

 

9.       How do you go about the songwriting process? Do you start with the lyrics, a beat, a melody or an overall concept?

When writing a song, I normally start with an idea or concept. I like to imagine a story and how the story plays out, how it makes me feel. I then compose a beat (usually a vintage drum machine). After I establish that beat, I can add a baseline, either with bass guitar or a synthesizer followed by guitar and synth strings. Once i have a solid instrumental, I usually begin the vocal/lyric writing process. The instrumentals write the lyrics for me.

 

10.   Whatʼs next for SDWTD?

hmm.. I think what’s next is working on merchandise such as t-shirts, posters, pins etc. Also, I plan on releasing a new single followed by a new album, and a potential music video or live web performance! But ultimately the plan is to continue to write music, perform live and eventually tour!

Ten More Questions to ... Matt Vowles (Black Angel)

Well under a year after releasing debut album The Widow, Matt Vowles’ Black Angel project return this week with their sophomore effort, Kiss of Death. Unashamedly influenced by the gothic sounds of Vowles’ own 1980’s youth in the UK, Black Angel’s debut was a highly polished affair stuffed full of strong melodies and brooding atmosphere, with earworms like Poison, Would I Lie To You, Christine, She and Bullet In The Head still enjoying heavy rotation on goth radio podcasts. Rarely has a debut album in the goth/darkwave genre sounded so complete.

Announcing the new album, Vowles claimed that Kiss of Death would be both “more goth” and “more punkabilly” than the debut set, and referenced The Sisters of Mercy’s Floodland and The Damned’s Phantasmogoria as the influences for the new record. Even a cursory listen reveals that once again, he has comfortably achieved his aim.

Title track Kiss of Death kicks off proceedings with a suitably brooding instrumental introduction before an epic Lucretian riff reassures the listener that the sheer quality of The Widow in terms of both music and production is going to maintained on what is far from a “difficult” second album. Fans of The Sisters of Mercy’s more Wagnerian moments will be in their element, as they will on other tracks like recent single Animal. If your taste is more Shadow of Love than This Corrosion, then the gothabilly of first single Put Your Lips On Me and the superb dark goth-punk of Prisoner will delight in equal measure.

For me though, the stand-out track is the album closer, the band’s eponymous signature tune Black Angel, with a squawking sax added to a more nuanced mix over a traditional goth descending bassline heard on everything from the “Poor Bela!” section of that Bauhaus classic to Then Comes Silence’s She Loves The Night.

Vowles’ professional background in sound recording and mastering in the TV and movie industries enables him to produce a wonderfully sumptuous and multi-layered sound far removed from the scene’s more two-dimensional norm, and new vocalist Corey seamlessly slips into Rob’s shoes so successfully that most listeners will barely notice the difference. Whilst Vowles understandably baulks at any comparison to the likes of Billy Idol or INXS alongside more obvious influences like chart-era TSOM, the radio-friendly strong melodies and powerful production on Kiss of Death have more crossover potential than any other album I have heard this year and could be the Trojan Horse to help the resurgent genre spread beyond its small but enthusiastic internet fanbase.

To find out more about the genesis of Kiss of Death, I contacted Matt and was delighted that he agreed to become the first interviewee to face a second batch of questions to celebrate the album’s release, and I’d like to thank him for taking time out of a very busy schedule to produce such interesting responses.

Kiss Of Death is available now via Bandcamp.

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1. You had another mammoth search for a new vocalist before settling on Corey Landis for the new album. Did you despair of ever finding the right person? How did you find Corey in the end?

I did. It seemed never-ending. I had feelers out all over the place from small ads to personal contacts for months and nothing seemed to fit. I heard some great singers and to all who helped out, thank you. Corey answered an online ad and at first I thought it might not mesh but he was cool enough to demo for Put Your Lips.. - and boom! It was a fit.

 

2. The vocals are a very distinctive part of the Black Angel sound, and Corey’s vocal style is quite similar to Robert’s on the first album, partly because of the technique multi-tracking one octave apart. Although not a vocalist yourself, you clearly had a very clear idea of the style of vocal you were looking for, and I was wondering what influenced that choice?

For me the most influential Goth bands of the 80’s had an immediate and very distinctive vocal sound - it was a large part of the magic that made them what they were. For me this is still a massive part of the process and without a distinctive vocalist you don’t really have the full package. It’s totally vital - listeners need a personality, a distinct sound to connect to. Part of that comes from the music and the rest from the very natural human nature of the human voice. And if it speaks to us, then we remember - and connect with it.

 

3. Had you not found Corey, had you considered approaching Goth scene legends to provide guest vocals on one track each for Black Angel, having established your reputation with The Widow? If so, who would you have approached?

I did. And it was really close to being the next step. I’d spoken to a few legends from the 80’s and a few were open to the possibility. I conversed with a few vocalists from the current scene too and although it would have been awesome, Black Angel really needed their own voice - it was imperative that we found a new vocalist that could tackle and compliment all the tracks in the new album. Corey did that - and really well.

 

4. You said that the new album would be more punkabilly and more goth influenced than The Widow, mentioning Phantasmagoria and Floodland as points of reference, and the first two singles from Kiss of Death (Put Your Lips On Me and Animal respectively) certainly bear witness to that. Do you consider those two albums by The Damned and The Sisters of Mercy to be the highpoint of Goth musical culture of the 80’s? Do you envisage refining this “gothabilly” style more on the next Black Angel release?

I was really influenced in the 80’s - and yes, I’ll probably mention that period a bunch more times - as it was so important to me for so many reasons - I initially was introduced to The Clash, The Damned, Sex Pistols and psychobilly bands like The Meteors before Goth really kicked in so that was tucked away in my head. When I started writing KOD I usually start with the bass guitar and if I find a strong riff I like I just go with it. I guess that particular month when I first started writing, a bunch of more punk and psychobilly energy came out. I am massively influenced by The Sisters of Mercy, Bauhaus and The Cult so the other 2/3rds if the album is the direction of more gothic rock. I like those faster tracks though and glad that they are on there. For our next and third album Prince of Darkness it will be even more gothic rock.

 

5. You mentioned in our last interview about your love of Goth music stemming from your visits to clubs in your native UK back in the 80’s – does your punkabilly influence stem from that time too, in other words were you a fan of bands like The Meteors and the whole Klub Foot scene in London?

For sure. My brother Dan (who incidentally got me to this whole thing in the first place - from giving me The Clash’s Give ‘Em Enough Rope cassette to listen to – we used to frequent a club in Bristol called The Whip. It was mostly a goth club but it did share some of its patrons with a group of Psychobilly Bristolians and so I was also introduced to bands like The Meteors and The Cramps and heavier punk bands like The Damned and The Sex Pistols.

 

6. You run your own studio in LA, mainly working for your day job on re-recording sound for TV shows and movies, and the production/mastering on Black Angel records produces a noticeably fuller sound than many of your contemporaries. Would you like to get more involved in that side of things, i.e. mastering and producing for other Goth/darkwave bands? If so, are there any bands on the current scene who have caught your eye?

I would  - given the time! I’ve been thinking about it over the last year - that if I was approached, I would I do it. Well… I’d love to be able to, but at the moment, juggling Black Angel and my film career takes up all of my time. There’s family too - I’m not always locked away in the studio. You need to find a balance. I would take on mastering jobs though! If it’s well recorded and mixed, it’s a great feeling to master someone else’s work and they come back with ‘Wow, how did you do that?!’

 

7. Last time around I was complimenting you on the incredibly impressive trailers which you did for The Widow (and those for the latest releases have been equally as good from a graphic and editing perspective), but you also seem to have become quickly adept at using Bandcamp and social media in an imaginative way to engage with fans, offering them the chance to have their name feature as supporters of the project on the album sleeve notes, asking them to do the vocal introduction to the album, reducing the CD’s packaging to save massively on the otherwise prohibitive postage costs to Europe etc. Has Bandcamp helped you to find a global audience more quickly than just having your own website or using Spotify and other platforms?

Totally, Bandcamp has been a complete amazing experience for us. With previous projects I’ve been involved in, before Black Angel, I paid publicity companies to get us placed on Spotify playlists in order to gain plays, but none of it was real  - for sure lots of people listened but there was no human connection, which is what I miss.  The great thing with Bandcamp is that I can connect directly with supporters and they are really engaged – and they give me the enthusiasm to do this every day. Every album or track sold I email each person directly to thank them, there is a real connection between us.

I’m excited to offer the getting their name on the CD - as a fan I would love to be able to do that. I was actually inspired by Gary Numan, he lives just around the corner from me - I noticed he was selling studio gear on his website and signing it, also doing meet and greets at live performances - I thought it would be great if I offered supporters to get there name on the CD sleeve notes - if I was a fan I’d think that was pretty cool.

Bandcamp is so refreshing that there are people out there that want to seek out new music and want to buy bands’ physical products. Streaming services, although have their place, are so faceless and impersonal.

 

8. Talking about finding a bigger audience, many of the “alternative” tracks on YouTube with a high number of views are littered with comments like “(insert name of dark US drama series here) brought me here”. Are you trying to use your contacts in the industry to see if any Black Angel tracks might be suitable for use on soundtracks? Would you be choosey about which shows you would allow your songs to feature on, or would you just welcome the additional exposure?

I do work in the Film and Television industry, that’s true – and I am connected with many great music supervisors. I’ve had multiple tracks placed in films and TV shows over the years – but all led by me (only natural, I guess) - these days I enjoy the musical process with Black Angel so much, if its going to happen, it will happen organically.  I worked on so many albums over the two decades that were for commercial gain, it got kinda lifeless – the reason I started Black Angel was so I could write and produce the kind of music I liked and if nobody else did, that was ok – I wrote for myself – so I want to do that with any outside sync considerations too – I’m hoping a picture editor or music sup will call me up and say ‘Hey, I heard your music, I think it’s totally rad – would you consider a placement?’

 

9. A lot of the imagery of the band on both videos and artwork seems to have a strong influence of 1950’s film noir and horror movies. Are these genres a big influence on you lyrically and visually?

I’m a huge film noir fan. Love Black & White film and photography.  I actually studied photography at college back in the late 80’s and that was going to be my career. Decided I didn’t want to do it for money, only pleasure, so that’s what I do now. Then I went to film school and learned film theory - all of that visually influenced Black Angel - I just wish we had the budget to do things ‘bigger’ - it’s hugely expensive to make videos and promos (if you do it right) and as we are not with a major label we are still very much DIY - sometimes I like it that way -  I have 100% control and the only one to blame is me - if it sucks visually or tracks sound rubbish.

 

10. The singles released in advance of Kiss Of Death have all garnered excellent reviews, and influential websites like Sounds and Shadows and White Light/White Heat have selected them as “Song Of The Day”. What matters most to you this time round – high sales or critical/fan acclaim?

Good question! Bandcamp sales help pay for the album manufacturing and maybe some partial studio costs and other sundry items - it enables us to move on with the next album - which I’ve already started :) - so we need that.

The acclaim is awesome too. I have only one goal. That is for listeners to feel how I did when I first listened to goth music in the clubs of the eighties — if they get that rush of adrenaline that makes them want to leap onto the dance floor because they heard one of our songs, then we are doing something right – and we’ll keep on going……