Ten Questions to ... Paul Gilmartin (Black Chapel)

 It’s late November 1983, and the movement which would become known as “goth” should be at its zenith. In the past twelve months, The Sisters of Mercy have released a run of stellar EP's including Alice, The Reptile House and Temple of Love, legendary albums such as Song and Legend (SGC) and If I Die, I Die (Virgin Prunes) have hit the shops along with anthems like Ignore The Machine (ASF) and Snake Dance (The March Violets), the Batcave is at the height of its fame and ZigZag magazine has become the new bible of the emerging subculture.

But all is not well. Ben Gunn has left the Sisters who have cancelled a planned UK autumn tour and gone into hibernation, UK Decay are no more, Death Cult have shed a further word from their name but released nothing new, The Banshees have put nothing out for over a year and mercurial guitarist McGeoch has left, whilst Killing Joke’s current single Me or You? is but a pale shadow of their glorious best.

That late November 1983 evening, I ventured out to Leeds Poly to see local heroes The March Violets struggle through a support set for another Yorkshire band. With new singer Cleo clearly suffering pitching problems, the set is hit-and-miss, so another leading band on the scene seems to be faltering. The headliners, five lads from Barnsley who are no strangers to the upper echelons of the indie charts, take the stage. Over a beguiling bass riff, with swirling keyboards reverberating around the half-filled sports hall, the singer repeatedly incants a spookily welcoming question “Won’t you come inside?” The drama mounts, the eerie tension builds. Then it happens.  Drummer Paul Gilmartin plays a punishingly powerful introductory salvo, as iconic as the opening credits to then-future BBC soap opera Eastenders. The song crashes into life with a powerful guitar riff, the stage lights at full intensity and the repetition of the pummelling drum motif as the song reaches an early crescendo.  With perfect timing, The Danse Society have picked up the pace and arrived to save goth.

The studio album which that set-opening song, Come Inside, also begins, Heaven Is Waiting, is a 100% goth classic and was released early the following month, it’s bombastic tone the blueprint for the big players of the latter stages of the first goth wave, Fields of The Nephilim and The Mission.

But major label Arista has big plans for The Danse Society, and chasing the charts, the sound will evolve over the next three years into a discofied alternative Duran Duran, understandably alienating old fans yet failing to win the promised new ones, leading to inevitable decline and the end of the band, whilst early contenders like the Banshees, KJ, TSOM and The Cult return to peak form and become Top Of The Pops regulars.

Fast forward over twenty years to 2010, and the members of the original Danse Society regroup to reform the band. With singer Steven Rawlings soon heading back home to the USA, it will be a short-lived reunion, but with guitarist Paul Nash’s girlfriend Maethelyiah gamely taking over vocal duties, the band complete the patchy comeback album Change of Skin (and a follow-up, Scarey Tales), but to largely withering contemporary reviews still visible on Discogs: “an embarrassment to the name The Danse Society”, “a big disappointment”, “is it a joke?”.

Inevitably a second split occurred, this time dividing the band in two, and for a while there were effectively two versions of The Danse Society, one led by Gilmartin with local Barnsely rocker Bri on vocals, the other by Nash and Maethelyiah, not dissimilar to the ongoing Gene Loves Jezebel situation. After an acrimonious legal dispute which was settled in Nash’s favour, Gilmartin changed his project’s name to The Society, and with new vocalist Jonathan “J” Cridford on board, produced the stunning Nightship EP in 2017. After illness, injury and a further change of vocalist, with Leeds post-punk hero Paul “Grape” Gregory taking the mic, The Society this summer released the excellent Hell Is Waiting, which lived up to its name as an appropriate musical follow-up to the 1980’s classic album Heaven Is Waiting, being closer in both sound and spirit to those early 1980’s recordings, including the classic Mini LP Seduction (which I remember purchasing the week my first student grant cheque came through in October 1982!).

Ade Clark’s inventive basslines, Elliott Wheeler’s shimmering guitar, 80’s TDS member David Whitaker’s spiralling keyboards and Grape’s northern snarl were perfect musical bedfellows for Paul Gilmartin’s trademark pounding drum patterns on Hell Is Waiting, whether on more atmospheric tracks like Falling, the classic angular goth chorus of House of Ghosts or Devil, or the disco goth of, erm, Disco Goth.

However, with their own new album also hitting the racks, Nash’s The Danse Society (Official)’s legal team moved into action once again, forcing Gilmartin to abandon The Society moniker for good and effectively scuppering the drummer’s album’s chances of success.

Bloodied but unbowed, Gilmartin has renamed his project Black Chapel and the band has rush-released their first tracks on Bandcamp including a brand new song, Emotion Is A Stranger. Having followed and enjoyed his projects over the past six years, and feeling more than a little sorry for the genial drummer, I contacted Paul Gilmartin to see if he’d like to answer this blog’s customary Ten Questions.  Not only did he fully answer my queries, but he gave a searingly honest and open account of the events of the past few years from his perspective.  Huge thanks to Paul for opening up, and just a warning that if you’re about to read this, you’ll need a good twenty minutes, as he has plenty to say so put the kettle on, open a packet of HobNobs and read about the highs and lows of band reunions on the goth scene.

 

Black Chapel’s music is available here.

 

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1.    Because of further legal hassle from the other remaining project from original members of The Danse Society who have the rights to use the name, you’ve had to change your own project’s name recently from The Society, and have chosen Black Chapel. Where did you get the name from, and do you think it gives a good indication of the band’s sound?

 

 Hi, thanks for the interesting questions and a chance to shed some clarity on the situation. The original The Danse Society were wound up at Barnsley Crown Court on May 8^th 1988 and I was made personally bankrupt for the band’s debts to the HMS, tax, VAT. That was the end of 1980’s TDS. I reformed the band in 2010 with David Whitaker, Lyndon’s replacement (Lyndon Scarfe was the original keyboard player in The Danse Society). We invited Paul Nash (original guitar) to join us, Steve came over from the USA and we did one track, Towers. The mistake we /I made was calling the new project with Paul Nash’s girlfriend (now Mrs Nash) on vocals, The Danse Society. It was nothing like The Danse Society! After two albums that partnership split into two, myself and Martin Roberts on one side and Mr and Mrs Nash on the other side. Dave left to concentrate on his studio. I formed The Danse Society Reincarnated - I wanted to sound like The Danse Society should. To cut a long story short, I trademarked the name simply to stop what I viewed as the vicious sabotage of our gigs. I had no voice, you fight fire with fire, partnership law was not followed. It gave me the umbrella to build the band back up. Trademark law is complicated - the now-named The Danse Society Official [Nash’s version of the band] sought to have the trademark voided. The original case was decided by Mr Salterhouse QC who ruled that nobody should own the name outright, which suited me. They appealed, I lost. I think it was a flip of the coin decision. Of course, I knew what was coming - everything was pulled down. Eventually, we agreed that I would just be The Society and they would stop this nonsense - let the music and promoters decide who they want to book. Unfortunately...I did not realize it had a “nobody must book you” clause ..the truth is, every gig, they tried to get us thrown off the bill. It was pathetic. While we were obliviously getting on with being The Society, they were preparing a legal case against me, citing “confusion”, which again is so arrogant, presuming that everybody is silly and does not know the difference between the two bands - especially to promoters, it’s a bloody insult! You know, I respected Paul from our past – unfortunately, I don’t think he has much say in the matter.  I wanted to play and make music which I had earned the right to do as a founder member of the original Danse Society. I always went out of my way to show clarity, who we were, and used my own name. 2014 we split up, I mean six f---ing years of this. Imagine having the energy to keep that up? Every day I never knew what I was waking up to, trying to explain this silly situation. In my view it was just envy and spite, dress it up how you want, it’s not like the stakes are high. We play for the joy of it and I still loved playing the old songs, and they have to do this to make themselves feel better about themselves as a band.  I can’t help it, people show interest in us, what am I supposed to do, never mention my past? I just got bored of fighting over the carcass of a dead band. I just think it’s a travesty, TDS belongs to Barnsley. In my heart, I just wanted to do the name justice, but stop it now, it’s just music, it’s time to let go, so have the f---ing name, be Mr and Mrs Danse Society, you won, enjoy your spoils, good luck with that! It will become apparent that it’s not because of me that goth stardom eludes them, it’s because we should not have used the name without Steve.  It’s ludicrous, no doubt gigs come easier with the name, it is what it is. Black Chapel, formerly known as The Society, you know what ya going to get.  We rehearse and record at the Old Chapel in Leeds.  There is something I like about chapels anyway, but to be fair we don’t do happy music! I needed to do it quickly before the idiot in me kicked in and I decided “f--- them and their silly law suit, I will take my chances”! And to be fair, the rest of the band whom I love dearly don’t deserve to have this shit. I have too much respect for them. We could be called The Boiled Eggs and still play “Heaven Is Waiting” better than the other lot!      

2.    You’ve used three very different vocalists since Steve Rawlings left the reformation project almost a decade ago, from tousle-haired metalhead Bri through frilly-shirted proto-goth “J” to new singer Grape, a legend on the Leeds post-punk scene of the late 70’s/ early 80’s. How did the link-up with Grape come about? What do you feel he brings to the band?

 

Well, Bri is an old friend from Barnsley and the Saxon case was mentioned in the IPO case. He sang for Saxon, they had a trademark tangle but worth a lot more than ours! Anyway I found it amusing when I said the singer for Oliver Dawson’s Saxon sings for me, he put his glasses down, looked up and said “Is there something  in the water up there, Mr Gilmartin?”!! Saxon and TDS are Barnsley’s bands who broke out. Bri was often too busy, so I always plan ahead and was on the look-out for a stand-in. I was aware that people did not get the rock metal, I just heard a top singer. I used to say, “Bri, play it mysterious!” but he would just go into rock mode! We did a great Wheels Of Steel, goth version! [Wheels of Steel was one of the biggest hits of Barnsley rock band Saxon who were one of the big players on the UK metal scene in the early 80’s, along with Iron Maiden and another local band, Def Leppard].

Jay was a guitarist who on joining my band cited The Danse Society as an influence. I contacted him and said “Can you sing?” He looked the part and he said “I can try, I know all the songs!” It was like Steve was back, a few bum notes never bothered the original TDS. We made a great EP, Nightship. Alas, his calling to play guitar in his own band was too much, and he left.

I have always been lucky with vocals. Grape is a Leeds music legend. We were on a record together in 1988, That’s Rock And Roll under the name Groovin’ With Lucy. Anyway, I always plan ahead and watched many a set with the mighty Expelaires, Leeds legends and was impressed and said “If we ever need a vox, could you fancy it?” He said “Yeah, but Expelaires come first”. Fine. So when Jay decided he was off, we were ready. I invited Wolfie (Dave Wolfenden) along, we sounded massive! As well as that, it was great to have him on stage with us from the old days of The Lorries and The Mission, it was like a goddam 80’s post-punk super-group  especially as Elliot is in BFG [Mancunian goth legends who are huge in Europe]! To be honest, at our age you have to still enjoy sitting around in dingy clubs ready to do your thing and god knows we have had plenty of experience of that together on the circuit, so it seemed a natural thing. He is a true pro, no bullshit, and fits in great. He is a Leeds supporter yet can tap into his inner goth when needed and is a most excellent front man. My broken ankle and stroke got in the way of any rehearsals for opening the Tomorrow’s Ghosts festival. Having that to aim for gave me something to get me going, it was the end of October 2019. I was still in a wheelchair in September! We had one weekend and opened up the proceedings with The Eden House and Paradise Lost.  A big thank you to Kirstin Lavender for giving me the chance to be an old stubborn git and try and make the gig! It was close, not many bands can bed in two new additions in 6 hours of practice. No fear, that’s how we do it! The Danse Society (Official) had tried like mad to get us thrown off the gig I was not going to let them beat me. I have a good doctor who insisted that I should play as soon as I could, so off we went, the first band to open the new Whitby goth fest. We did ourselves proud and played Helsinki a week later with The Flatfield, a great band and great guys. It was a real old school European club gig, I’m always touched by how much regard people have for the old Danse Society. We were getting noticed, WGT was next. It’s funny when you think about it, in The Danse Society (Official) war room it must be like “Tub Thumper and his band of naughty men must be stopped at all costs!”, like those spoof Hitler videos ranting. He’s up the road now in Whitby, you have to see the funny side, it’s like a dark goth soap. Anybody who know us, the bands, promoters know and respect us and that is enough for us.    

 

3.    On your first album since coming back, Reincarnated, you re-recorded some of the best tracks from The Danse Society’s seminal 1984 album Heaven Is Waiting, and your new album is entitled Hell Is Waiting. Is this an indication that you feel that this is a natural follow-up to the 80’s album?

 

I thought that Elliot’s guitar playing was so superior to the previous covers when we reformed again that they should be recorded, so we did half old and half new.  Reincarnated is a really underrated album, methinks. Come Inside, Valiant To Vile, Belief, Seduction, Red Light, still great songs - I wanted to prove they were and achieved that .

I called the new album Hell Is Waiting, and yes, it’s because I did feel it was that 3^rd album we should have made. I’m stuck in the 80’s anyway but that was the idea. I had faith in these songs, well ideas really we just went in a room put “Record” on and played, no vocals or anything, bare bones . With what we had to work with I knew with David Whitaker’s skill we could pull a rabbit out of the hat and get an album. Ade’s bass lines are fantastic. Pity I had to waste cash on legal advice just to see if I would lose or not ,or I would have put it out on vinyl, I believed in it that much, if they had just hung back a bit  before revealing their hidden ace. But I think the summer Vive Le Rock article pushed ‘em over the edge. The shit they caused over this, me talking about my past, it’s insane. I’m in a war I never wanted to be in .  

 

4.    The new album features the track Towers with a great vocal from Grape, this is of course the one song which Steve Rawlings had completed with the band during the short-lived reformation nearly ten years ago. Why did you wait until now to record and release your version of it?

 

We have so much material to play with a great back catalogue we just never got around to it but with the new revamped bass and guitar it sounded real good and Grape loved singing it, so why not? It’s a beast even though I say so myself. It’s my nod to Steve and what we could have been.

 

5.    Bassist Ade Clark and guitarist Elliot Wheeler have worked with you over the past few years, and help to provide further continuity in your project’s distinctive sound, which is very close in spirit to the original releases by The Danse Society. Do Ade and Elliot contribute to song-writing? How do you go about writing songs?

 

I first met Elliot outside the Electrowerkz venue in London. When he introduced himself, I was like “F--- me, you bought these vinyl to sign all the way from Liverpool?!” I immediately loved him, invited him in and the duo kicked him out – “band only” for sound check! I was ready to argue and Elliot said “It’s fine, leave it” but I hate diva shit like that. I liked his style  and we talked later. I knew then, it’s like I have a nose for these things, he was the first person I thought of when I needed guitar. I did most of the songs for Change Of Skin and Scarey Tales with David. You’re thinking, “How can drummers do that?” Well they can, don’t underestimate us! I have more lyrics than music to put ‘em to. Instead of sending them to head office (her and him), I sent ‘em to Elliot and he put guitar on. I was not wasting any more time on self-important people. Most songs now come from bass melodies from Ade or a guitar line from Elliot, lyrics have been mostly mine so far but Grape will like to do his own and has done a fine job. It won’t be long before I’m put back in my box just drumming. David Whitaker produces and does the keys, so it’s always going to sound like The Danse Society because there is two of us already and Elliot is more or less one of us now. Ade is a machine, best bass I have played with, we have that understanding, we just click and lock in. I wish I was ten years younger, I really do, mainly for band reasons, it’s the rest of life I find difficult to do.

  

6.    As much as your powerful drumming, swirling atmospheric keyboards were an integral part of The Danse Society’s sound, and Black Chapel features David Whittaker (another Leeds post-punk legend who played on The Danse Society’s releases in the later 1980’s) on synths. How crucial do you feel that keyboards are to the overall Black Chapel sound?

 

Keys have always been crucial but Dave is crucial to it all, he knows us inside out. Life is strange, I used to love Music For Pleasure [Leeds band of the early 80’s] and would never have thought at 60 we would be still making the music we do together, how good is that? I love the Leeds music scene, it’s a great  city, everybody seems to know each other and there is no shortage of old rock and roll antics stories to tell, you don’t get that at the seaside, just a bucket and spade!

 

7.    Quite a few of your contemporaries from the 80’s are still going or have reformed in the past decade or so. Which other bands from the 80’s do you still admire? Are there any of the new generation of bands that you found impressive?

 

I always liked The Mission, they were the band I wanted The Danse Society to be. I still like the Kirk Brandon stuff,  TOH and SOD. And Skeletal Family, 1919, Chameleons Vox. I tell you who I thought were great, Sad Lovers and Giants. I forgot how good they were. Of the new bands, I liked The Last Cry and The Glasshouse Museum. I liked Modern English back to the 80’s, 4AD band but they acted more like snooty tennis players! Of course Killing Joke, respect for ever. I like my fellow Barnsley band System Of Hate they are very powerful. I don’t mind a bit of Eden House and The Danse Society of course!

 

8.    Promoting a new album during lockdown has been difficult for most bands, but having to change the project’s name shortly after release must have been especially challenging. Do you feel that you’ve been able to reach all of your potential audience with Hell Is Waiting?

 

  I try not to think about it because it was a shit trick to let me go ahead all happily knowing smugly they were going to shit on my parade. So besides lockdown and all the shite that brought for households, I got legal shit to deal with and dismantle what I had just set up again, nice. Well if that’s all you can do when you have a new album out, destroy somebody else’s work, fine. All it does it make me realize that the best thing I ever did was get rid of them two out of my life. We had some great times….

I don’t know if gigs will come as Black Chapel. If they do come back, great, I will have to get match fit as they say, and I can’t do subtle!

 

9.    You’re hoping for a physical release of the album, and have decided to look at vinyl this time (after releasing the Reincarnated album on CD) and launch a crowd-funding appeal (click here)to enable this to happen. Do you think that this is the way forward for the music industry?

I honestly don’t know what the way forward is for the music industry as I know it, our little post punk /goth niche..I know in the real world that porn lyrics, “t and a” sliding up and down has to eventually become so normal it’s as interesting as the top shelf at a newsagents used to be, like nobody gives a f--- any more. Ian McNab got called out recently for commenting. I agree totally with what he said, lap dancers not musicians as we know it Jim.

 

10. This week you’ve released a new track on Bandcamp. What’s next for Black Chapel? Are you hoping to be able to tour the Hell Is Waiting album in 2021? Or are there other new tracks in the pipeline?

Our new track Emotion Is A Stranger has a twin, God Thing waiting to be mixed. We will record more. We were booked to do 40 years of TDS music at WGT in 2020, now postponed until 2021. It’s already been attacked, I’m sure the shit show will continue, watch this space, kids! I have written a book about our short little mauling in the 80’s music biz. Don’t forget we sold our souls to Stock Aitken and Waterman for a hit. We had 5 top 100 singles, 2 classed as hits, Wake Up and Heaven Is Waiting, so I’m calling it ..we nearly made it. I just need it sparkling up in a literary way. But the meat and veg are there. We had two lives, the serious cult band and then a desperate pop band. Say It Again was a massive USA club hit, Ian Broudie (Lightning Seeds) produced the Heaven Is Waiting album, he saved it. We mixed it up with SAW,  The Thompson Twins, Yazz etc.. blah blah blah I bore myself now, thanks for listening, kids! Love to you all, stay safe and go to chapel, the black one!  Xx

Ten More Questions to ... Then Comes Silence

What's it like to release your best album yet at the start of a global pandemic? In this new interview, to coincide with the album's relauch,  Then Comes Silence talk about "one of the weirdest years of our lives".

Most bands would avoid releasing a major album on Friday the 13th, but post-punk and goth musicians have never been shy to stare the dark side of life full in the face, and self-styled ”Swedish captains of post-punk" Then Comes Silence chose 13th March 2020 to unleash their stunning new album ”Machine” onto the world. However, that inauspicious date lived up to its fearsome reputation and became the day the planet moved into global lockdown mode, with all but the most essential services closing down overnight.

Fast forward eight months and Friday 13th is here again, and Then Comes Silence have chosen to relaunch ”Machine” in the midst of a morale-sapping second wave of the pandemic, with a new video of the track ”Dark End” being released on that date (Friday 13th November 2020 - click this link to see video).

Rather than licking their wounds or throwing in the towel, the band has risen to the challenge and worked with the global pandemic (rather than against it) to do everything they possibly could to publicise what is one of the most dynamic, polished and accomplished darkwave records ever released. With trailer singles ”We Lose The Night” and ”Ritual” having both clocked up over fifty thousand YouTube views before the pandemic originally struck, Then Comes Silence released a third single, ”Apocalypse Flare” with a visually stunning accompanying video just before the launch of the album, which was made ”Album of the Month” in seminal German magazine ”Sonic Seducer”.

After regrouping (as the lockdown began to take hold and gigs across Europe were unceremoniously cancelled) and recording two quarantine covers (”All Tomorrow’s Parties” and ”Christine”) which were released online as part of the Gothicat series of events, the band put together a highly professional live-streamed gig from an empty Hus 7 venue in Stockholm, before spending the summer building their own rehearsal space, which they christened with a further pair of live gigs streamed online in September, and more recently with another pair of video singles filmed in the ”Red Box” rehearsal room environment, ”Devil” and ”Glass”.

This Friday’s new video therefore brings the number of singles from the album to six, a clear indication of the sheer quality of the music on offer on ”Machine”. With collaborations with other artists (e.g. Wisborg and This Eternal Decay), a new range of self-designed merchandise including facemasks and a whole raft of interviews in different formats, it’s hard to see what more Then Comes Silence could have done to overcome the bad timing of the album’s initial release.

But at what personal and professional cost has this been done, and has it all been worth it? Speaking purely as a fan, the answer to the latter question is an obvious and resounding ”yes”, but to find out the band’s own take on 2020 and the hand that fate has dealt for them, I leapt at the chance to interview them once more and find out what happens next.

As ever, I am very grateful to Alex (memorably recently described in a YouTube comment as "the goth Elvis") and the band for the opportunity to put some questions to them and would urge anyone still unfamiliar with Then Comes Silence to click on the video links above, read the interview and then head over to Bandcamp where the band’s music and merchandise are available.

Then Comes Silence: Machine

Then Comes Silence: Merch

Then Comes Silence: Back Catalogue

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1. You had recorded the "Machine" album some time before the planned 13th March release date and I know that you were all very keen to release the album, the first featuring the current line-up. Given that the global pandemic was already gathering pace by early March, were you tempted to delay the album’s release?

ALEX

No, that was never an option. Partly because one always hopes that it's going to get better soon so that one can complete the up-coming tour etc etc, but of course... in the back of our heads there were a constant feeling of bad news coming, so I guess we just hoped people would gather around social media during lockdown.

And fortunately... That's what happened. That's what saved the album release somehow. It was a virtual release more than a physical one. I feel a bit sorry though for some of the interviews we did for paper magazines that probably didn't reach the audience since it was almost criminal to get out and buy things other than food and medicines... Or walk the dog.

 

2. You must have been delighted with both the critical and fan reaction to ”Machine”, but in the current difficult times how have physical and digital sales been compared to previous four TCS releases?

ALEX

We don't have all the figures yet, but I wouldn't  be surprised if the sales were slow in the beginning. It doesn't matter really. Covid affected everyone.

Selling merchandise on tour is crucial for an album release, but we shouldn't complain. It's been busy on our Bandcamp site. Thanks to our lovely followers, we can afford to keep on going. Last summer we launched new merch, the 'XX collection' with the 'Washing Hands' t-shirt, facemask and the metal pin. I don't think we would have done that if everything was normal.

 

3. Early in the lockdown you put together a professionally shot live stream concert from Hus 7 in Stockholm with a setlist voted for by your online fan group and more recently streamed two further live gigs from your own rehearsal studio. Were you happy with the online viewing figures? Did you cover the costs with donations and merch sales as you had hoped?

HUGO

We took quite some risks with that first live stream, because to make it professional we had to rent a venue, hire a sound tech and the video crew (director, cameras, lights...). Also we wanted to make it free for everyone, so we only relied on donations and merch sales to cover the cost. Fortunately we got an AMAZING response from the TCS fans, I was overwhelmed and can't thank enough for the support we got, also considering that these are complicated times for everyone. So we made enough to pay venue and crew, and even some extra money to invest in future projects. But for me the best feeling was getting messages from friends and family, saying that we helped them to forget all the shit happening around them for one hour. I feel like we did something good, and people trying to kill (or let die) arts and culture should think about that. For the live streams from the studio, it was quite the same, but that time we had a very small audience there and it was awesome to hear some applause and cheering between songs. From a performer's point of view, it's fun to play live streams, but without the feedback of the audience it obviously loses a big part of the spirit.

 

4. To further raise the band’s profile, rather than handing over some tired old gig footage like most bands did, you contributed new “quarantine covers” of Siouxsie and The Banshees’ ”Christine” and Velvet Underground’s ”All Tomorrow’s Parties” plus a special video for the song ”Devil” to the Gothicat live streams. Have these extended the band’s audience or do you think that you were just “preaching to the converted”?

HUGO

Yes, i think it's very important to put love and effort in everything you do. Then the result can be better or worse, but I believe that people can feel that. If the online channel is the only way we have now to reach our audience, we need to make something special, not throw a live video recorded with a mobile phone 2 years ago. There's a lot of stuff like that on YouTube. So I think the "already converted" appreciate that, and sure it helped to extend the band's audience, as through the online channel you can reach people and places that you normally wouldn't.

ALEX

It's the best we can do right now. Making the 'All Tomorrow's Parties" inter-quarantine video was one of the most exciting musical moments in my life this year. I'm so happy we managed to pull it off. We didn't have much time because it was made as a teaser for the first Gothicat Festival. I had about a week to collect the clips and edit the video and audio. It turned out pretty well and the participants were as excited as we were to be a part of it.

 

5. As a band, you also used the enforced downtime to build your own rehearsal space, and it certainly looks very impressive from the pictures I’ve seen online. Are you happy with the results? Are there any other positive consequences of the enforced downtime?

JONAS

Yes, we have dreamed about our own place since Alex lost his old studio. We have since then moved around to different locations but nothing felt really good and then I found this space that was almost perfect but needed a lot of work with sound-proofing etc. It was a lot more work than we had planned but now when it's finished we are super happy about the result. Now we have our own place again and we have built it exactly as we wanted it, it's pure joy to be there now! The only good thing about the enforced downtime is that we suddenly had the time to built this. It's very versatile and we have even made 2 live streams with a small audience in the studio.

 

6. Like most bands in the genre, you have jobs outside of the band to make ends meet and support your families. Were these jobs also affected by the pandemic? Has this been an extra strain on the band?

MATTIAS

There has been some unfortunate events for some of the members but currently it’s all working fine.

JONAS

I lost my job in March and it took me 6 months to get a new one. It was a very stressful time with no income and I had to sell a lot of stuff and also rely on friends and family to be able to pay the bills. I love my new job and and everything is much brighter at the moment. The band have not been affected by our dayjobs, or the lack of it, but we had to, like everyone else cancel our tour in 2020. That has been difficult with a loss in income and we did also lose money on cancelled flights etc.

 

7. You’re beginning a second round of promotion for the ”Machine” album, which is unfortunately coinciding with a second wave of the pandemic here in Europe, and have been working on a new video as part of this process. Can you tell me about it please?

MATTIAS

Since almost every plan that we had for 2020 have been postponed or cancelled we felt that we needed to focus more on videos and promotion than on live shows. We all feel that most of the songs on “Machine” have hit potential so why not explore that possibility and do some more videos.

 

8. How do you feel about ”Machine” six months on from its release? Which songs have you enjoyed playing live? Are there any which have really grown on you?

HUGO

I don't know, as we haven't done a proper tour with this album yet, ”Machine” to me feels like that new pair of super cool boots you bought, but you have no chance to wear them so they are still  waiting in the box for the perfect occasion to shine in all their brightness. I enjoyed a lot playing ”Ritual” live in Hamburg last year, when we were recording for the music video. It's the only ”Machine” song that we have played in a "real" show so far... Actually I enjoy playing every song live, but maybe ”W.O.O.O.U.”, ”I Gave You Everything” and ”Cuts Inside” are my favourites to play. Then, I could say that ”Glass” is a song that have grown on me after playing it live, because it was a bit hard to record, haha.

 JONAS

We are very proud and happy with ”Machine”, it turned out to be a solid and strong album. We love to play all the songs but for me my favorites to play is ”Kill It” and ”We Lose The Night” I think. "Ritual" is also amazing when we can play it with Karolina.

 

9. There were three songs which didn’t make the cut on ”Blood” but made it onto an extended version of the album released on CD. Are there any songs which were recorded for consideration for release on ”Machine” which might still see the light of day? Are there other mixes like the ”We Lose The Night” remix featured on the unboxing video for example?

ALEX

We haven't focused on remixes and outtakes. We 've been busy with the live streaming events, music videos, ”Red Box” sessions, quarantine videos and some other new stuff we might present on a rainy day.

 

10. With the high quality live streams, the quarantine covers, the contributions to other projects (Wisborg and This Eternal Decay for example), videos and interviews, you’ve done everything you can in the circumstances to promote the album. For a variety of reasons you ended up touring the previous album Blood for a couple of years as the band’s profile continued to grow. Do you intend to wait until the current restrictions end and you can introduce festival audiences to ”Machine” before you move on to releasing a new album?

MATTIAS

We are always working on new ideas and new music and are currently working out ideas in the studio for a future release but all that we have been doing and are about to do is “Machine” related in some way.

ALEX
What Hugo said, the album is that new pair of super cool boots. One day we'll wear them for everyone to see.

Ten Questions to... Michael Louis (Shadow Assembly)

 

In the week of both the US Presidential Election and Halloween, it’s only appropriate that the “land of the free” has just produced not one but two great gothic albums, with the long-awaited comeback album from The Wake plus a sophomore set from the Shadow Assembly project led by Michael Louis. A multi-instrumentalist and  songwriter, Louis worked in a variety of genres before making a breakthrough with the debut album from his goth/deathrock solo project Chronic Twilight, which attracted fans of the renascent traditional gothic rock genre and resulted in a collaboration with Sonsombre’s Brandon Pybus which in turn produced the first Shadow Assembly album Ghostcrawl. With Pybus taking care of vocals and mastering and Louis doing virtually everything else, the combination was highly promising but the slightly sparse sound on some tracks hinted that even better was to come as the pair's relationship flourished.

 

However, for the second Shadow Assembly album, Arcane Fusion, Louis has recruited a wide range of vocalists, from himself and (on one track only this time) Pybus to other stellar figures from the global gothic scene, such as Coast Rica’s Ariel Maniki or Russia’s Andrey Agapitov (of Raven Said fame), so the album showcases the broad range of talent and styles on the guitar-based goth scene in the same way as Kill Shelter’s Damage did for the more atmospheric, electronic-based end of the genre.

 

Fittingly, Arcane Fusion begins with Pybus’ only vocal which is typically (and deliberately) somewhat overblown, over a typically twangy no-nonsense gothic rock bassline and deathrock guitar riff from Louis to create a strong opening, only for the project to move into a completely different stratosphere on track two with Marselle Hodges’ stunningly mesmerizing vocal on My Favourite Plaything, surely one of the dark scene’s greatest earworms of the past few years. Sumptuously multi-tracked over a gloriously full yet subtle Louis soundscape, Hodges sounds like a latter-day Kate Bush who has chosen the path of ethereal darkness over mere pop weirdness and instantly shatters any lingering disappointment that Arcane Fusion won’t simply be Ghostcrawl mk 2.

 

Whether delivering trademark vocals (October Burns Black’s Rod Hanna’s slow and portentous Woman Torn or Andrey Agapitov’s evocative faster-paced Lost Places, Forgotten Faces) or trying something new (Ken Magerman’s dramatic Release The Ravens or Nino Sable’s esoteric Perfect Day reminiscent Green Fairie), Louis’ guest vocalists all bring their own lyrical slant and musical direction to his varied backing tracks, with the instrumentalist keeping things firmly on the rockier side of things on My Ophelia, whilst showcasing his more eclectic side on Dr Dealer, the other song on which he himself provides vocals.

 

Intrigued to find out more about the genesis and development of this ever-improving project, I reached out to Michael and was delighted when he agreed to be the latest guest in our “Ten Questions To …” feature, to give the lowdown on this and his other projects.

 

Arcane Fusion is available via Bandcamp and is highly recommended!

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1.       After a series of projects in various alternative styles you began working in the darkwave genre with Experimenting with Dawn in 2016. What drew you to a more gothic sound?

 

·       I’ve been drawn to Gothic music as far back as I remember, but it’s true that I also love Glam, (some) Progressive, (some) Metal, Dark Ambient, Funk, New Wave, Punk, and 60’s Garage, to name a few.  In short, I suppose you can call me a Rush nerd who loves “dark” / minor progressions delivered with Punk attitude.  Rush was my first influence that got me to love music, in general.  All the other styles I grew to love, reflect different aspects of my personality. 

·       I played with a few different Gothic bands in the Phoenix/L.A. area in the mid-late 1990’s but I never did my own Gothic project until 2016.  It was the right time for me as I was freshly divorced and had the time and resources to do things on my own. 

 

2.       You began Chronic Twilight as a solo project the following year and the debut album Hymns for Heliophobes with its classic deathrock overtones became a word of mouth success within the gothic rock fraternity. Did you enjoy doing a solo project and being able to take care of all aspects of the release?

 

·       I have a love/hate affair with being a one-man-band.  I like not having band drama and perpetual arguments over silly things, but I longed for someone to collaborate with.  While I live in what is touted as “Music City USA” (Nashville, TN), it is a musical graveyard (pardon the pun) for Gothic musicians. 

·       I also get zero support from the local Goth scene.  Local DJs refuse to play any of my music, for whatever seemingly petty reason, so I am left to my own devices.  I am proud of the fact that I am capable of doing it all on my own but collaborating with like-minded others is forever a desire of mine.   

 

3.       You subsequently began working with Brandon Pybus of Sonsombre and you put out the first Shadow Assembly album as a joint collaboration last year. Which tracks on that debut were you particularly proud of?

 

·       I am particularly proud of Death Lights, Languish, and Cold.  They are my favorite tracks on the album.  I never have any expectations in mind when collaborating, but with Brandon there was a high level of trust there in knowing that he would work hard to pull something very cool off.  And that, he did. 

 

4.       Why did you decide to use a wider variety of vocalists this time around on Arcane Fusion? Was this always the intention?

 

·       It wasn’t always the intention.  It happened because Brandon was busy with Sonsombre taking off as (expectedly) well as it did.  He didn’t have time for another full Shadow Assembly album, which is what I was aiming for again.  So, I figured why not branch out and work with other vocalists who I respect, and also make some new friends in the process. 

 

5.       How did the songwriting process take place? Did you send a backing track to each vocalist and give them freedom to devise their own melody and lyrics?  How did you decide which backing track to send to which artist?

 

·       You are exactly right in that I send finished instrumentals to folks, letting them take the reins from there on lyrics and vocal melodies.  As for who got which track, I write music that I think will fit someone’s voice and style, while perhaps breaking them out of their usual box a bit.  There were a few vocalists I initially contacted who didn’t end up on the project, mostly because of timing (COVID19 hit during production crunch time), so I found some other vocalists who were interested in singing on the songs that otherwise needed new homes. 

 

6.       You’ve got a really impressive line-up of talent from all around the world on the album, from Russia to Costa Rica, but there are two tracks which you sing yourself. Were there any vocalists who weren’t able to collaborate with you this time for whom those songs were originally intended? Are there any vocalists whom you’d like to work with in the future?

 

·       Yes, My Ophelia was not originally written for me, and was written late in the game.  I couldn’t nail down anyone to work with it on such a short timeline, so I went ahead and finished it.  Dr. Dealer was one I wrote for myself and was supposed to be the only song with yours truly singing on it.  I really wanted to get those particular lyrics off my chest. 

·       There are definitely vocalists I would love to work with in the future!!  Too many to name.  I would love to work with the folks that I couldn’t quite cross wires with this time around like Yvette Winkler of Vaselyne, Dru Allen of This Ascension, and Albie Mason of Scary Black.  

 

7.       You’re a multi-instrumentalist but particularly known for your innovative basslines, a facet of classic goth music often overlooked by modern projects in the genre. Can you tell us a bit about your bass set-up? Who were your bass heroes growing up?

 

·       Oh now, this is my favorite topic!  First off, thank you for the kind words about my basslines.  Bass is my favorite instrument, and it’s what I write all my music on (with scattered exceptions).  It is usually the first instrument I track and use as a blueprint for everything else. 

·       My bass set-up is pretty simple.  I typically use either my Fender Geddy Lee American Jazz bass or my Fender Precision American bass through a Geddy Lee YYZ SansAmp pedal, a Boss bass chorus pedal, and then direct to the preamp.  Sometimes I will bypass the pedals and just effect a raw bass track with the digital effects I have in my DAW. 

·       My first and foremost bass influence was, and always will be, Geddy Lee of Rush.  Following him would be Simon Gallup, Stuart Morrow, Steve Harris, and Mick Karn. 

·       I started off in life as a drummer, then soon taught myself how to play bass, as I was obsessed with all things Rush as a youngster.  A bit later on in my teen years, I taught myself guitar and took voice lessons out of necessity, in order to write songs and convey ideas to former bandmates, over the years. 

 

8.       Brandon recently described your musical style as “esoteric” and I personally detect a psychedelic aspect to the sound to some of your songs. How would you describe your musical style?

 

·       I suppose I would describe my music as being made by a Rush fan who loves the darkness.  I like to sometimes try different progressions and effects to manipulate sounds accordingly.  What I envision in my head when I write a song is hardly ever how it turns out, which is fine with me.  I like to mesh different influences and styles to create something that hopefully at least ends up dark and danceable.

 

9.       When you come up with a new musical idea, do you instinctively feel that it would be more appropriate for Chronic Twilight or Shadow Assembly, or is it just a question of timing, i.e. the project which you are working on at the time.

 

·       I do have a gut feeling about songs as I write them.  Also, if I write a song knowing that I won’t be the one singing it, I feel a wider sense of freedom in what I can do, musically.  Chronic Twilight songs are written for my voice to sing, from the start.  I like the freedom of collaborating, so my approach is more open when writing for Shadow Assembly. 

 

10.   You’ve recently announced that Chronic Twilight is expanding to a duo, with Kyle Andrew joining the project. Which aspects will you each be responsible for, and does it signal a change of direction for the band?

 

·       There is going to be a DEFINITE change in direction, but for the better in my humble opinion.  We’re still making dark music, but Kyle is an amazing vocalist with range and style capabilities that I can only dream of having.  He will primarily be responsible for lyrics and vocal melodies, as well as any music he wants to bring to the table as well.  Thus far, we have some songs in the works that are totally his, as well as co-writes and they are all great.  I couldn’t be happier with having him as a collaborator.  He was well worth the wait! 

 

                                     Many thanks again to Mike for his fascinating answers!