Confronted with a relentless stream of rejection, racism, and sexism from the industry’s gatekeepers, Luckey’s fortuitous encounter with an unsuspecting passenger seemed almost fated. Unbeknownst to her, this chance encounter would propel her from the anonymity of a New York City cab to the annals of cinematic history, cementing her story as a true exemplar of the Cinderella narrative — not spun from social media virality, but woven from the threads of real-life struggle and fated opportunity.

She played him her demo tape, to which he replied, “Oh my God, what is this and who are you?”

The passenger, as it turned out, was filmmaker Jonathan Demme, and the rest is history. Q’s deep androgynous contralto made appearances in subsequent films: “Candle Goes Away” in Something Wild, 1988’s Married To The Mob, and her cover of Talking Heads’ “Heaven” in 1993’s Philadelphia. But by far, she was best known for Silence of the Lambs, in the infamous, haunting scene where Buffalo Bill seduces himself in the mirror to her song “Goodbye Horses.” The juxtaposition of her rich, honeyed voice and the horrors of his sewing room burned in the minds of millions.

As “Goodbye Horses” climbed the charts, Diane Luckey intriguingly stepped back from the limelight. After a fruitful stint in the UK, touring with her band, penning a plethora of songs, and becoming the life of every party, Luckey returned to New York City, where she dabbled in the pulsating beats of house music. However, as the ’90s drew to a close, so did the musical chapter of Q Lazzarus.

Embarking on a markedly different journey, Luckey ventured into the depths of South America, immersing herself in a tapestry of cultures and experiences. This adventurous spirit later led her to the chilly Alaskan waters, where she spent six months aboard a fishing boat. These adventures, far from the spotlight of her musical past, painted a portrait of a woman on a quest for personal growth. Luckey exemplified a relentless pursuit of diverse and transformative adventures.

Psyche, MGMT, Bloc Party, and Deftones covered Goodbye Horses, which also took on new life with Gen Z in TikTok sounds, but as time went on, Luckey stayed behind the wheel. For many years, she worked as a bus driver in Staten Island, content to live a life of privacy. At the time of her death, however, it was revealed that Luckey had been working with filmmaker Eva Aridjis on a feature documentary about her life.

Aridjis has spent the past four years making Goodbye Horses: The Many Lives Of Q. Lazzarus, an intimate documentary about the long-lost Luckey. The two met in an unexpected way, embarking on a friendship and collaboration until Q’s tragic unexpected passing in 2022. Eva has launched a Kickstarter campaign to try to raise the funds to finish her documentary, which features Q’s life story told through Q’s own words and music, many of which has never been heard before.

The Kickstarter video features the only footage of Q to be released in the past 30 years.

There will be an official soundtrack of Q’s songs which feature in the film that will be released, but a record label for this has yet to be determined.

If you would like to help Eva Aridjis preserve the legacy of Q. Lazzarus, the link to the Kickstarter is here.

This Kickstarter is an all-or-nothing venture, so if you are a fan of – or curious about – Q. Lazzarus, and would like to see her take her rightful place in the annals of music history, now is your chance.

This year, Dark Entries Records is also set to release a reissue of Q Lazzarus’s music. The label from San Francisco expressed, “We’ve been working on a Q Lazzarus reissue since we started the label 15 years ago, and it will finally see the light of day this year.”

The post Kickstarter Campaign Launched for Q Lazzarus Documentary — Dark Entries Records to Reissue Music appeared first on Post-Punk.com.

That show was incredible. But in late October of 2023, when I saw The Cult as Death Cult, it was one of the best concerts I’ve ever seen and undeniably one of the most Goth evenings I’ve spent in Los Angeles, or ever for that matter.

By happenstance, the date also coincided with the 40th anniversary of the Death Cult single “God’s Zoo.” The concert was held at the beautiful theatre at the Ace Hotel in Los Angeles, where they also show classic films, with the marquee fittingly showcasing a screening of The Bride of Frankenstein.

Cold Cave, darlings of the current Darkwave and Goth revival of the 21st century, who had been touring with The Cult, were a great way to start this special evening.

Following the stage being cleansed with sage, The Death Cult set began with “83rd Dream”. This was followed by “Christians,” “Gods Zoo,” “Brothers Grimm,” and “Ghost Dance”. They then performed “Butterflies,” which was particularly symbolic of the evening as a butterfly was featured on the artwork for this special series of 40th anniversary Death Cult shows.

The set continued with “A Flower in the Desert,” “Ressurrection Joe,” “The Phoenix,” “Horse Nation,” “Go West (Crazy Spinning Circles),” and “Dreamtime.” Finally, they finished up the main part of the set with “Spiritwalker” and “Rain.”

In a break between songs, Ian Astbury paid tribute to original Death Cult members, bassist Jamie Stewart and drummer Nigel Preston. Stewart has since retired from music, and Preston passed away in 1992.

On stage, Astbury was wearing a jacket with the “Death Cult” logo emblazoned on it, and red streaks of paint on his face. And during the Southern Death Cult song “Moya,” he let his magnificent mane of hair down before the band ended the show with a performance of The Cult’s popular track “She Sells Sanctuary.”

This intimate concert was up there for me with seeing Bauhaus in 1998 and Siouxsie and the Banshees in 2002. But unlike seeing those two legendary bands live, there was a specialness and rarity to the setlist. And a reverence for the songs, many of which had not been played in decades.  Songs that hold deep meaning, sincerity, and authenticity.

And while Siouxsie may have adopted the name Sioux because she “hate’s cowboys,” many of Death Cult’s songs exude deep compassion for the indigenous tribes Ian Astbury grew up with near the Six Nations Reserve in Ontario, Canada — a place where he moved when he was 11 years old.

Southern Death Cult:

Ian Astbury’s journey before forming Southern Death Cult was as eclectic as it was influential. After returning to the UK, he spent time in Scotland, then moved to Liverpool—a stone’s throw from his birthplace, Heswall. There, Astbury immersed himself in Liverpool’s thriving post-punk scene. His next venture took him to Belfast, where he lived in a squat fellow among punks. Eventually, he returned to England, taking a job as a stagehand in Bradford, Yorkshire.

It was in Bradford where the seeds of the Southern Death Cult were sown. The band had its precursors in Violation, formed in June 1979 with Haq Nawaz Qureshi on drums, Barry Jepson playing bass, guitarist Michael Isles, and Mick Brady as the vocalist. Violation made a mark, supporting The Clash in Bradford on January 29, 1980. But following Brady’s departure, and after a brief stint with Gary O’Connell as the frontman and a demo tape in the bag, the group disbanded when Isles and O’Connell exited.

Undeterred, Qureshi and Jepson pressed on. They recruited David ‘Buzz’ Burroughs for guitar and, significantly, brought in Astbury as the lead singer. With this lineup, they rebranded to Southern Death Cult. The band’s musical output was brief but impactful, releasing a single featuring “Moya” and “Fatman” in 1982. Despite their short-lived existence, their music lived on through a compilation album released post-split in 1983, which included their single, live performances, and BBC session tracks. Southern Death Cult also graced the BBC’s “The Tube” with a memorable performance on January 21, 1983, delivering renditions of “False Faces,” “Fatman,” and “Faith.”

In a recent interview, guitarist Billy Duffy recounted to Louder Sound that his first brush with Ian Astbury was under the bucolic backdrop of Keele University’s woodlands. It was during the heyday of Theatre Of Hate, Duffy’s then outfit, which found the Southern Death Cult as their opening act amidst a  tour bolstered by their  single “Westworld.” Duffy, in a vignette straight out of a film, paints Astbury as a phantasmagoric figure, evoking the rugged romanticism of Daniel Day-Lewis’s Hawkeye sprinting through the forest in “The Last of the Mohicans.”

Perched on the balcony with Theatre of Hate bassist Stan Stammers, Duffy witnessed the energy of Astbury’s performance. It was a moment of revelation, the kind that could only be articulated in the vernacular of the stunned and the struck: a reverent “Fucking hell,” as the future of rock unveiled itself in Astbury’s unbridled vocal fervor. Duffy and Stammers knew they were witnessing something seismic.

From the ashes of Southern Death Cult, Astbury would form Death Cult with Billy Duffy, whose lineup also included bassist Jamie Stewart and drummer Raymond Taylor Smith (later known as Ray Mondo), both from the post-punk band Ritual. Raymondo would leave the band, and Theatre of Hate and Sex Gang Children’s Nigel Preston would join, and remain with the band until the release of The Cult’s 1985 album Love.

After the release of an EP, and “The God’s Zoo” single, Death Cult would return to perform on The Tube on January 13th of 1984, with presenter Jools Holland introducing this performance as being the first show with the band’s shortened name, The Cult.

Days before the show at the Ace Theatre, I spoke with Ian Astbury about his history in Liverpool, the post-punk scene, Bowie, and being “the other.” We also spoke about the term “positive punk” and, despite his disassociation from the Goth label, his thoughts and musings on the subject reveal a mind as intricate and expansive as the famed Library of Trinity College:

Did you meet Billy Duffy before the tour opening for Bauhaus?

“I met him just before that when he was playing with Theatre Of Hate,  which was our first Southern Death Cult…first real show. I mean, something like Chelsea at the Marquee in London. And then we went out from that to do a couple more shows around the Leeds and Bradford area, and then we were given the opportunity to play with Theatre of Hate.

And then that led to a Bauhaus tour.

It was pretty much…and then we were opening for the Clash and playing…I believe we played a festival with New Order [Futurama Festival], and things happened very quickly.”

Did you hang out at Eric’s in Liverpool before you started Southern Death Cult?

“Yeah,  I went to Eric’s, but I didn’t go to Eric’s actually till near the end of Eric’s. I was living in Scotland, so I moved back to the Merseyside area. It would have been, I guess…1980, perhaps? So I was at Eric’s for the last month of Eric’s. I was there the night that it got closed down by the Police. The Psychedelic Furs were playing. They came in with dogs. They had their nightsticks out. They were beating people and running through the club. I guess they thought it was some kind of drug den, and they’d had nothing better to do than pick on a lot of punk kids. 

So, that club got closed down. It was part of the Cavern Complex on Matthew Street. I did see some great shows there. I remember seeing The Cramps, which was incredible, with Brian Gregory.

We used to go there often,  pretty much seven times a week to Eric’s. It was a great club. I saw Nightmares On Wax there, Pete Burns’ band before Dead Or Alive.

And a band called Pink Military who were an excellent band. I never knew what happened to them. They made a couple of albums. They were an excellent band, but everybody in the crowd was pretty much either in a band or around a band. It was a very vibrant scene.”

I spoke to Wayne Hussey about the scene at Eric’s. He told me a lot of stories, too, that it seemed like a post-punk mecca with just so much stuff happening there.

“Oh, absolutely.

There were clubs like that throughout the country, you know, you travel around the UK with several clubs in Manchester, Leeds, I think Huddersfield, there’s a club there. Definitely London. Even in the Bradford, Leeds area, these clubs that we go to would play new wave, post-punk, punk, and disco. It used to have what you call a ‘Bowie Roxy Night,’ in which one night they would be playing music with that kind of feel of Roxy Music, David Bowie, post-glam. And we used to go hang out there. 

A lot of it was due to the fact that it was very dangerous going outside. If you wanted to go to a pub, it was very difficult. There was a lot of prejudice toward punk kids. There was quite a bit of violence to navigate.”

Was it just very conservative back then?

“There was definitely a division between kids who were into music and people [whose lifestyles were defined by mainstream society] who didn’t get it; they didn’t understand us, and we definitely weren’t part of them. It was subcultures highly identified by the way you look and by collective ideas, a lot of the same kind of music. 

It was a very difficult time as well because there was high unemployment. Thatcher’s Britain. It was pretty oppressive. It was quite bleak. Then, of course, we didn’t have social media. We didn’t have cell phones. We read books and newspapers and got our information from John Peel or NME or word of mouth, going to record stores, like Pete Burns, who used to work in Probe Records in Liverpool. I used to go in there, and they had an incredible collection… a very well-curated record store…you know, a lot of indie labels, and so you’d go in there and speak to whoever behind the counter. If they would suggest something, you’d listen to it and discover bands that you wouldn’t really hear about unless you were paying attention. Because the mainstream TV in Britain, BBC, was Top 40, but they did have Old Grey Whistle Test, which was a pretty cool show. We ended up playing on it. The Cult did. There were a lot of very iconic performances on The Old Grey Whistle Test: they had everything from Captain Beefheart to Patti Smith. So we watched that occasionally, but most of the time, we were out, not sitting at home watching TV.

We were out, we were out in clubs, some clubs we went to were pretty friendly towards us in a post…I mean, we didn’t identify as post-punk because that was more of a media tag. 

Nobody went around and said, “We are post-punk.” Nobody said that. Nobody went around and said that we are positive punk, you know.”

I’ve articles from when Southern Death Cult came out, and up until Death Cult, they were calling the band “positive punk” in the NME, which I think is a term that doesn’t exist anymore. 

“Well, it was of its moment. I think that the word reflects the fact that we weren’t absolute nihilists. That we were a little bit more idealistic and optimistic and colorful and were kind of embracing a very difficult time and making the best of it, and expressing ourselves through music, clothes, and photography; we were expressing ourselves in that way.

There was a sense of optimism around it, even though a lot of it was rooted in rock and roll culture, and punk rock culture, and new wave culture, and avant culture in New York. In Warhol’s New York. And Detroit, a lot of that had roots in America. I mean, obviously, things like The New York Dolls are very important. So were the Stooges; everybody listened to that. The Doors were very important in a kind of Romanticist…cinematic Romanticists…We were aware of that music – we had that music, and listened to that music. Well, I certainly did. Anyway, I know Wayne Hussey did. Wayne was in a band with Pete Burns for a minute. I think he was in Nightmares On Wax.”

I believe it was Dead Or Alive. Wayne had this guitar-triggered SH-101 synth sequence that was on the song “Misty Circles,” which Echo and the Bunnymen borrowed for their single “Never Stop.”

“Everybody was being influenced by everybody. From Can to Joy Division to Pil, by the time Bauhaus came along,  they were influenced by those kinds of groups, you know, they were definitely influenced by Bowie. David Bowie was very important. I think connecting everything, connect all the dots. You could probably run everything through Bowie.”

I would agree.

“We all grew up with Bowie. We all had his records when we were very young. Bought my first David Bowie single when I was ten. Life On Mars, and that was otherworldly. So, from that point, I WAS IN. I got thrown out of school for putting food colouring in my hair at about ten years of age, 11. Probably more like 11, I put some blue colour in my hair, and they sent me home.”

I always thought that the term Goth goes back to the 60s with the Doors and Nico more so than post-punk music. 

“Oh, it goes way back further than that! Now, think about Aubrey Beardsley. Think about the romantic poets. Shelley; Byron. The literature at the time. Bram Stoker. To me, it’s really romanticizing the shadow, which is something that artists…there’s always been an adversarial element in art, culture, religion, you know, the shadows of that which cannot be explained, shall we say.

And that was obviously for humans trying to existentially work out what was the meaning of life. You find yourself in the shadow at some point, and then you have a collective group who think a certain way that everything is one way, but it’s far more complex and nuanced. And I feel that as the rise of the novel and plays and operas, start to condense some of these ideas, and of course, Nietzsche comes along, and then the whole thing’s blown wide open.

I even think that, like Paganini, the Italian violin virtuoso. He used to come out of a coffin. The Catholic Church put him in jail in Genoa because they were terrified of him. He was disrupting. He was an agent of chaos. 

Everything’s interconnected. It comes from a very organic source. But certainly, when humans suppress the shadow, it will come out in different ways. And it has definitely been romanticized over the centuries. Yes. Even Shakespeare, in some ways, like Macbeth! Which talks about sex and murder and the darker side of human nature, avarice… control, domination, all of that. 

So these are kind of archetypal themes. Just because somebody wrote in 1983 in Sounds or whatever it was and says, ‘Here’s Andi Sex Gang and his gothic hordes.’  And then that term just got widely used throughout the media. And you have to understand that with the media pretty much every single show was out there was being reviewed by somebody, and they had to put out their papers every week. So, they were mapping information for a weekly publishing cycle. Everything was accelerated. And in that acceleration process with identifying certain waves of music, it was much easier to put a label on it. And, of course, there’s a lot of cynicism with a lot of editorial content. 

There were they were taking the piss on a lot of people, but I think in many ways, the term goth…was usually used as a put-down by those that knew better, the ones that formulated their opinions based upon very limited life experience.

It was just an easy way to compartmentalize a genre, while in actual fact, it was incredibly diverse. You know, you could go see The Gun Club one night or see The Birthday Party another night. Iggy Pop would roll through town. Nico would play,  and then you could go see a reggae show.

Dance music. The 12-inch was evolving, pop, you know, some of the faces like Pete Burns, George O’Dowd, Marilyn, Blitz Club, London, all of that was finding its way into the culture and, you know, again, Bowie comes along with Ashes to Ashes…galvanizing a frequency!

And he continued all the way through to Blackstar.

I think in terms of more like what Rammellzee, the graffiti artist, was talking about in the early eighties, about Gothic Futurism, the idea that everything from the written word to architecture evolved in a certain dark age period, and that art and the written word, especially the Bible, was controlled by a certain group of evolved monks. They referred to the graffiti writers as monks. He talked about this Gothic futurism, where letters and form took on a much more intuitive way…a way of expressing the intimate human experience without sticking a label on it and banging it out, “Goth” and there it is. And there is there’s layers to it, and there’s a certain mystique to it, and he’s only just beginning to be appreciated now, 12 years after his death.

But Rammellzee was very important and then not only in, say, hip hop.

There are just so many crossover points and so many layers. It wasn’t like one size fits all, although you did have diehard Siouxsie fans and diehard Cure fans who emulated the way that Siouxsie and Robert dressed. And yeah, if you were in the crowd. You were, of course, inspired by them when you saw them.

I remember I bought Join Hands the day it came out. I didn’t get to see them play until the Juju tour because they dissolved for a minute. The Juju tour with John McGeoch. It was pretty outstanding…it was incredible. But the wonderful thing was you’d have so many incredible shows to go to, and it was of its time. It wasn’t that this was some sort of throwback.

They were making music in that moment, and we were present for it. And it is a testament to that period that it still resonates today.

I’d like to see what Balenciaga would be without some of those innovative individuals, etc. Givenchy, all of them. Throw off the playbook. The kids who were courageous enough to run in the shadows. Explore something outside of what you were taught in school with Judeo-Christian values. They were exploring things like Tibetan Book of the Dead.

We were ravenous for information. Because the society, the culture, certainly the working class ethic was that you worked hard, you played hard, and then you pick out your clock and then you’re, you know, you stay in your station working for in a factory, or you’re working in some sort of dead-end job. And then there’s this incredible music.

I think Control does a very good job…[the film about Ian Curtis of Joy Division by] Anton Corbijn. Control does a great job of reflecting the period in many ways. They got a lot of it right. And [Corbijn] was present; he was around all of that as well.

I love all these new books that come out by people who were nowhere near it, you know, And they do the Wikipedia research, and they miss so much, and they become the de facto expert on a genre for a time period.

It was as much about the environment that the music was coming out of. The industrial north of Britain. From the Industrial Revolution, all these factories were closing, and manufacturing had changed. And it was so you had this surplus workforce, and of course, football kept a lot of people together that have something singular that they could experience every week. But for the younger ones, it was definitely music.”

Where the Indigenous influences and inspirations found in the music of Southern Death Cult, and Death Cult came from:

“I grew up in Canada. I was exposed to indigenous culture from a very early age. I was 11 years old. I was an immigrant kid, and I was immediately labeled as “other.” And I was put with the other kids, and the other kids in my group were indigenous, native to the local reservation, Six Nations. I went there and was around indigenous kids.

I was around kids from all over the globe. They were coming to Canada, part of the workforce, in the early Seventies. So, I had a really diverse group of friends. One of my best friends was from Kingston, Jamaica, and another friend was from Ankara, Turkey. We were kind of an odd group of kids, but we all loved music and the fact that we were kind of “other” and on the outside of the collective group. I became fascinated by their culture. And then that evolved over the years.

I’ve never claimed to have any Indigenous blood…I’m of Celtic descent, but there are a lot of parallels between those people and Indigenous people because there was a diaspora of the Celts as well. The Roman Empire came in, and the British, as well, did a pretty good job [clearing] all the tribes up.”

Death Cult’s songs:

To fully appreciate The Cult’s UK Tour celebrating 40 years of Death Cult, we want to provide some context to some of the songs that they will be performing. Several songs reference tragic events that occurred at Wounded Knee, which pertains to two significant events in the history of the Native American Lakota people. Both events took place near Wounded Knee Creek, located in South Dakota.

The first, and perhaps the most infamous, was the Wounded Knee Massacre of 1890. On December 29, 1890, the U.S. Army’s 7th Cavalry surrounded a band of Ghost Dancers under Chief Big Foot near Wounded Knee Creek and demanded they surrender their weapons. A shot was fired—its origin remains unclear—and the soldiers turned their artillery on the Lakota, killing as many as 300 men, women, and children in the ensuing chaos. This event marked one of the final chapters in the long and brutal campaign to suppress Native American tribes across the Plains and is remembered as a symbol of the tragic end of the Indian Wars.

The second event, known as the Wounded Knee Incident, occurred in 1973 when members of the American Indian Movement (AIM) and Oglala Lakota activists occupied the town of Wounded Knee in protest against the U.S. government’s failure to fulfill treaties with Native American people and what they saw as the corrupt tribal leadership of Richard Wilson. The 71-day siege resulted in deaths and injuries on both sides and ended with the government promising to re-examine Native American treaty rights.

Ghost Dance

Wovoka was a Paiute mystic who took the traditional Ghost Dance (practiced by various tribal belief systems) and rallied people to practice it, promising it would reunite the living and the dead. He promised this would bring the spirits to fight on their behalf and halt Western expansion. While the Ghost Dance itself was a longstanding tradition, this new context of using it to invoke the dead became a message of hope in triumphing over evil. While this was spreading, treaties with the US were being broken, and the Native people started invoking the Ghost Dance as a means to intimidate the US troops. Because the Ghost Dance usually happened before a battle, the US soldiers attempted to stop its performance and started picking out the instigators. Sitting Bull got singled out, then things escalated, and he was assassinated. Wounded Knee happened a week or two later. 

Horse Nation

The lyrics of “Horse Nation” by Death Cult are inspired by the book “Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee,” which is a historical account detailing the violent displacement and systemic oppression of Native American tribes by the United States government.

Moya

The lyrics of “Moya” by Southern Death Cult seem to critique the apathy and numbness of Americans and Western Consumerism, referred to as “the Coca-Cola nation,” a society blind to the atrocities committed by their government.

“Kasota” means to clear off in the Lakota language- a possible reference to the literal clearing of woodlands into prairie or plains, but also could be referencing the clearing off of people, comparing it to the bombing of Nagasaki and mass murder and genocide, particularly those against Indigenous peoples, as mentioned with the song’s line “Wounded Knee over again.”

Butterflies 

The song “Butterflies” references The Hopi Butterfly Dance, a traditional ceremonial dance performed by the Hopi people, particularly the youth, as a form of social celebration and expression of spirituality. Held in late summer and early fall within Hopi villages in northern Arizona, this two-day event occurs after the harvest and is particularly associated with giving thanks for the corn crop.​

The dance is deeply symbolic, with the butterfly representing transformation and renewal, akin to how butterflies pollinate flowers, which is vital for sustaining life. In Hopi mythology, the butterfly maiden kachina, known as Polik-mana, is associated with this dance. She represents the spirit being that brings life-giving rain, essential for the desert farming lifestyle of the Hopi.

The dancers, especially the maidens, wear elaborate headdresses called tablitas, which are adorned with symbols of corn, butterflies, and prayers. These elements highlight the dance’s purpose in paying homage to the natural world, the butterflies’ role in pollination, and the spiritual connection the Hopi maintain with their environment. The dance is a visual and spiritual expression of gratitude, as well as a prayer for rain, which is essential for their crops and, by extension, their way of life​.

Spirit Walker 

In essence, “Spiritwalker” encapsulates a journey beyond the physical world, seeking an extraordinary experience of spirituality and connection with the metaphysical aspects of existence.

The song is a prayer to nonconformity, to be one with the Spirit, to connect with higher realms. Indigenous tribes believe the Spiritwalker is a mystic, bridging the spirit and mortal worlds. This person is in charge of the spiritual well-being of their tribe.

Dreamtime

For The Cult, “Dreamtime” refers to their full-length debut album and its title track, which was released in 1984. The album incorporates Native American themes, and the song “Dreamtime” is inspired by Aboriginal mythology, expressing themes of longing for personal freedom, self-expression, and a connection to an inner world of dreams and imagination.

In Aboriginal Australian culture, “Dreamtime” or “The Dreaming” refers to a foundational mythological period of time that explains the creation of the world and its natural features by the Ancestral Spirits. It is a core component of their spiritual and philosophical worldview, encompassing the genesis of life, the establishment of natural patterns and cycles, and the origin of laws of existence. The Dreamtime represents both a historical time and a continuing spiritual reality, shaping the culture’s connection to the land, its people, and the universe at large.

The Cult Presents Death Cult Tour Dates 2023:

• November 6: Belfast, UK — Telegraph
• November 7: Dublin, IE — Olympia
• November 9: Sheffield, UK — Foundry
• November 10: Liverpool, UK — Guild of Students
• November 12: Glasgow, UK — Barrowland
• November 13: Nottingham, UK — Rock City
• November 14: Birmingham, UK — O2 Institute
• November 16: Bournemouth, UK — O2 Academy
• November 17: Norwich, UK — UEA
• November 18: Manchester, UK — Albert Hall
• November 20: London, UK — Brixton Electric
• November 21: London, UK — Brixton Electric

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The post Running With Shadows — An Interview with Death Cult’s Ian Astbury appeared first on Post-Punk.com.

Watch the full performance on YouTube, including new tracks “Genius,” “Crazy Lovers,” “Long in the Tooth,” and “Not My Leader,” as well as an interview with the band discussing their history such as the Vaughn Oliver artwork for their classic 4AD albums.

The upcoming album, 1234, is the follow-up to 2016’s *Take Me to the Trees*, and marks a reunion of four of the band’s original members Robbie Grey, Michael Conroy, Gary McDowell, and Stephen Walker.

Modern English’s appearance on KEXP, however, was marked by the presence of drummer Ric Chandler and guitarist Gabriel Sullivan, filling in for Guitarist Gary McDowell, who is conspicuously absent from the session.

Watch the performance below:

Modern English will embark on an 18-stop U.S. tour, starting with the Evolution Festival in St. Louis, Missouri on August 26th. The tour will include stops in Chicago, Indianapolis, Cincinnati, New York City, Baltimore, Boston, and more, before concluding with a southern swing through Atlanta, Nashville, and Athens, and culminating at Virginia Beach’s Neptune Festival on September 30th.

Robbie Grey and Co. won’t be making this journey alone. They have extended an invitation to Philadelphia synthpop duo, Korine, to join them on select dates.

Modern English Tour Dates 2023:

• August 26: St. Louis, MO — Evolution Festival
• August 27: Chicago, IL — Chicagoland Taco Fair
• August 28: Evanston, IL — Space
• August 31: Indianapolis, IN — HiFi
• September 1: Cincinnati, OH — The Ludlow
• September 2: Columbus, OH — A&R Bar
• September 7: Baltimore, MD — Ottobar
• September 9: New York, NY — Baker Falls
• September 15: Hamden, CT — Space Ballroom
• September 16: Greenfield, MA — Hawks & Reed
• September 17: Boston, MA — Sonia
• September 20: Richmond, VA — Canal Club
• September 22: Greenville, SC — The Radio Room
• September 23: Atlanta, GA — The Earl
• September 24: Nashville, TN — 3rd and Lindsey
• September 27: Athens, GA — 40 Watt
• September 29: Smithfield, NC — Paul A. Johnson
• September 30: Virginia Beach, VA — Neptune Festival

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The post Watch Modern English Perform “I Melt With You” and Four Songs From Their New Album on Seattle’s KEXP appeared first on Post-Punk.com.

This year Grauzone is excited to present a Fleisch Records showcase. The pioneering Berlin label, co-founded in 2016 by Zanias (Alison Lewis), shaped the new wave of Body Music and releases first-rate dark electronic sounds. All artists in this Zania-curated showcase have a connection with Fleisch. Zanias herself will play a live show, and a DJ set and attend the symposium this year.

“Expect some surprises and collaborations,” the Grauzone website says.

Post-Punk.com had a conversation with the mastermind behind the festival, Trish Trash, and frequent festival performer Zanias, about Grauzone’s decade-long history and the music that fuels it.

Post-Punk.com:

A lot of things in the music scene have changed since Grauzone began in 2013. What are your thoughts on this?

Zanias:

Well, yeah, it’s just been it’s there’s been a big change in the styles that are sort of favored and a big change in the way the artists need to operate in order to get an audience. Now, we’re a lot more dependent on social media to get the word out there. But of course, it’s like moved across to like Instagram and, to a lesser extent for our scene, Tik Tok. But video content is obviously the thing we need to focus on. But short-form video content like music videos are actually becoming somehow less frequent, or like the production values on music videos, I think are decreasing because people are focusing more on their social media.

Obviously, COVID had a huge impact on how people consume music and how people attend shows. So everything post-COVID has changed even more. So there were eight years of change, and then this much change, in two years.

And now the landscape has become really tough for artists just starting out because the algorithms favor content that already has a lot of views. So, for example, I don’t think Linea Aspera’s “Malarone” could go viral in today’s landscape, the way that it did in 2012.

So there’s a lot of more established acts that have been going for a while, whereas I feel like in 2012 and 2013, there were a lot of really fresh new artists that suddenly quite a few people knew about and, and it worries me that it’s becoming harder for new artists to break out.

Also, the quality of what people are making has been decreasing because I think everyone’s getting burned out by the number of other things they need to do in order to survive. Even the fact that people need to work harder to earn enough money to pay rent is getting ridiculous. And that’s capitalism we can blame there. So, there are a lot of factors involved, but admittedly there’s less in the scene now that really impresses me than there was back then. And I don’t know if that’s because I’ve changed, but it’s because the quality of the music is changing. It’s also become more accessible so that more people can make music.

Trish Trash:

What really changed for me or what I can see, in the scene before and after COVID, I have a feeling post-punk and wave and darkwave and electronic music, etc., became so much more popular. I mean, Lebanon Hanover’s playing Primavera.

Zanias:

Yeah, that’s insane. When I think about it, I couldn’t have imagined that.

Trish Trash:

No! Exactly! I booked their first show in Holland. They were like in my house, and I have known these guys for like so long.

Zanias:

I booked them for 30 people in a basement in London, and we were charging £3 for entry. £3!

Trish Trash:

Yeah. I had shows with donations. But this kind of thing stopped.

I think it is good because artists need to get paid well. But there’s like a whole big new generation. It’s crazy. And I really don’t know where that comes from.

I remember, my first show after COVID, I only saw new faces, and it was like a sold-out show. This band is from Amsterdam. For the first time, I felt like, okay, I’m now an older generation. It was, for me, very confrontational, actually.

Grauzone, when we started in 2013, the first edition, I had not really a clue what I was doing. I just booked small shows in Amsterdam or put them all together. I had just graduated from art school, and it was my full passion was, “I need to do this because Amsterdam is such a dull city, Nothing is happening there.”

I lived before in Berlin for like a year, and it spoiled me so much that I felt like Holland was such a Calvinistic country, which it still is. But it gave me a reason to organize things. And now Grauzone’s got such an established name within and outside Holland. And after COVID, it’s, I don’t know, I think we’re going to sell out soon.

Actually, tickets are going, faster than ever. It’s crazy.

P0st-Punk.com

It seems like the festival came back stronger than ever. And this is one of the best-curated lineups I’ve seen for Grauzone and perhaps any festival. It’s really impressive.

Trish Trash:

Thank you. It also feels like there are a lot of old friends included in the lineup this year. And this edition is also the 10th edition. So it’s an anniversary edition. So in a way, we all have fun while also looking back, and combining the experience with a lot of new things. So organizing this year there was this little sense of nostalgia in a way.

But yes, the festival is growing, but it can’t grow too much otherwise, I don’t sleep anymore.

Post-Punk.com:

Do you bring your background as an artist and as a sculptor into how you curate a festival? Because there seems to be such a purposeful art curation in art direction in how the festival is organized.

I also think you made good on the promise that the festival would be the best in new wave music and art as promised ten years ago.

Trish Trash:

Did I promise? Probably. I can’t even remember what I did yesterday, but no, that’s a joke. Well, you know studied sculpture, I studied arts. So for me, it was very logical to have art and music blend together. For me, it’s one thing. It’s not a different thing. So I think it’s really important from the whole underground scene, what I love so much, and what we love so much, is to show all these aspects.

So not only focusing purely on music, because I think that’s just not fair to have it like that. I want to have the complete story that shows that things are really connected with each other. Music, film, performance, sculpture. And I still make all the artwork myself for the festival, with a lot of collages and, analogue stuff still.

So it’s still there, and it stays, and it’s only growing. So I think it’s just a big part of it. I can’t even imagine it without actually.

Post-Punk.com:

It reminds me a little bit of what Pieter Schoolwerth was doing at Wierd back in NYC during the 2000s because, he’s a painter, and he brought this artistic sensibility to that. It was on a smaller scale, but I think Grauzone as a festival does a similar thing.

Trish Trash:

it’s really nice because I’m not a curator in that sense. I just invite other people to help me and, and to look at things there. But for example, like working with Genesis P-Orridge and I went to New York, and we made this exhibition together.

it was such a special thing to do, and I’m going through this all these artworks with which they made, you know, like from the last 40 years. But then again, working together with very young artists and mixing them with more experienced artists, it’s just like a nice playground. And so we do have some music, of course.

Post-Punk.com:

Here’s another question for both of you. What were some of your favorite moments of the festival over the past decade, and were any of these “pinch me, I am I dreaming? I can’t believe this is happening” moments?

Zanias:

Well, Linea Aspera performing on the main stage. This last one was really, really special because it was one of the last shows of our tour, and it had just been a really long tour. And I think, some of the gigs before that had been a bit difficult technically.

So when we arrived on this stage and the staff were so professional, and everything just ran so well, and it just felt so good to just slide into this thing that was really well run and, and seeing familiar faces again after being on the road for so long, it just felt like coming home in this weird way.

And then it was just such it was one of those perfect gigs where nothing went wrong, and we played all our favorite songs. We cut the set really short, so it was just like banger after banger, and it felt great. So that was a really special one.

Post-Punk.com:

Correct me if I’m wrong, but wasn’t the concert at the first Grauzone Festival in 2013 the final Linea Aspera show before the reunion years later?

Zanias:

It was, yes. That was also what it was crazy to have this really amazing comeback. Seven How many years later? Nine years later? Yeah. Because 2013 was supposed to be our last show. The band wasn’t meant to come back. Like we didn’t think it would. So yeah. And that gig, although it was a very long time ago, and I admit I’m growing old and I can’t remember it so well.

It was a really wild gig as well. And I think we were pretty drunk.

Trish Trash:

You got quite emotional. I remember.

Zanias:

Yeah.

Trish Trash:

Yeah, I remember.

Zanias:

The days when I had punk energy.

Trish Trash:

Yeah. I don’t know. I had these moments, This is a moment I will never forget. Maybe it was not really a positive moment, but they kicked me out of the venue. They thought I was like this “on drugs” kind of person. I think it was the first or second edition.

They just kicked me out, and it was like because I was trying to get backstage. I wanted to get my coat, for fuck’s sake. And then they kicked me out. So I complained, but that was at Melkweg in Amsterdam.

That was very different. We made a big change when we moved to The Hague, and things got much nicer. I mean, The Hague is such a different city. The people are very chill. And I mean, the festival is very international, but we didn’t have like the pressure from Amsterdam where everyone came to look cool.

Instead, it was people getting ready for music. So there was this really nice, friendly, nerdy vibe. And that’s typical of Grauzone, actually. The people really come for the music. it’s not like Awakenings Festival, where People come to take Ecstasy and do things like this all the time. It’s not really like that at all.

Or maybe people do, but I don’t really see it, I guess.

But as for really nice moments. I was on stage with Mick Harvey. I think I met him that night. I was really scared to meet him, and Marc, my partner that I organize the festival with. He said, “Come backstage! And I said, No, I don’t want to go backstage.

I’m always scared to meet artists because I really appreciate them and I really like them. So I want to give them their space. And I become very shy. So I met like Mick Harvey, and I was like, “ooo”, and he was like, “Oh, you’re great!” And then I was watching with him The Damned, and we’re like, watching them on stage. And there was this huge mosh pit. This was the last edition in Amsterdam in 2015. So I was standing with Mick Harvey, and on the other side, I had Anton Corbijn, the photographer. And then I felt, “okay, people really appreciate this,” and they really enjoy it.

And also, for example, in The Hague, Shellac were playing, and the people were like getting so wild and crazy, you know, and now you’re watching it from this bird’s perspective, kind of. And then it’s, you know, like for you this way of looking at it in a way, and then you’re then enjoying it the most, like quietly silently just checking out the audience. How people really enjoy it is like, okay, these months of suffering and pain and stress, it’s kind of worth it, you know, it’s a moment where you forget about the pain and stress. It’s like these short moments. It’s now.

Zanias:

Yeah, there wouldn’t be those moments in the music business because there’s an awful lot of pain.

Trish Trash:

And a lot of stress and anxiety. But I have to admit, compared to the art scene, the music scene, it’s like very sweet to me. Sweeter now with my sculptures and artists, they really bite their heads off each other. A lot of competition and not in a nice way.

Post-Punk.com:

Natassja, you seem to have a sixth sense for booking acts early on that will be really successful later. As well as curating some really legendary artists. Are you? But is this

Intentional? I think you booked Idles early on. And they blew up?

Trish Trash:

Yeah. for that show, we had them for, like, I don’t even want to say the fee, but we paid for a band that was just like starting out for a year or something, you know? So now, Idles really exploded.

I think it can give Marc a compliment – is he got a really good nose for like artists who are like becoming big like a year after because I mean we’re like a small festival without a huge budget. So we always need to be very inventive and really dig into things and like being all the time on top of YouTube and Instagram and checking everything and going a lot to shows. So, you know, be smart and fast. That’s the way. Otherwise, then the market does its thing, you know, especially with Idles.

We can’t afford them anymore right now. They are way too big! But it’s really nice to see that because we can be a sort of birthplace for some young acts. And I think that’s really nice.

I just want to say, like, Marc and I counted how many times we invited Alison, and this will be the seventh time.

Zanias:

Really? Is that including the Linea Aspera gigs?

Yeah. And then that was Linea Aspera Grauzone, and then there was Keular Grauzone and Zanias. Grauzone. Yeah.[laughs] that’s funny. I’m like, this with Kalabalik festival as well. Like I just, I guess I’ve become friends with promoters, and then I want to keep going back…and I’ve had so many projects!

Trish Trash:

Exactly, exactly, but it’s nice. I mean, you’re the most asked artist.

Zanias:

I’m, I’m proud to have that honor.

Trish Trash:

Maybe we ask artists two times back maximum. Maybe Lebanon Hanover played three times. But you broke a record.

It’s also nice that you’re going to do this curation thing, you know what.

Trish Trash:

It just matches the festival so well, you know? So it’s, it’s kind of natural in a way.

Post-Punk.com:

We’ll go back to the Fleisch showcase in a moment, but Alison, I wanted to ask you this question. I’ve noticed that many women now successful in music cite you as an inspiration in them getting started on their artistic journey in the first place. What are your thoughts on this?

Zanias:

That makes me so fucking happy? That actually just made me feel really emotional because it’s exactly what I’ve set out to do by setting this example. And when I first got started, the women that were already doing it were so important to me to make me feel like I could do it. It was when in 2011, I saw two artists play: Grimes and Zola Jesus. And they were both completely on their own on stage and watching them and thinking, Well, I don’t need a band. I could just do this. And then I met Ryan and started Linea Aspera. I was able to learn through having a bandmate, but just having that first little bit of inspiration, as I could actually do this on my own, was so important just to get me started, to get me writing songs. Because when I first met Ryan, I already had like all of these, all of these lyrics written for songs that I intended to produce myself, but then I didn’t know how.

So having that starting point was so important, and for me to then go solo a few years later, if it weren’t for Grimes and Zola Jesus, I don’t think I would have had the courage to do that. And also Light Asylum. That’s like seeing Shannon play in 2012 was like, that was…just it. I don’t cry more than when I watch Light Asylum play.

I saw her play at Substance, and this was for the first time, I think, since 2012. I was just screaming and crying the whole set. I had to leave because Linea Aspera was about to play, and I didn’t want to destroy my voice. Anyway! So the point being is that to inspire other women to get started is: “okay! Job done!” This is something that makes me feel so good and validated.

Post-Punk.com:

I think you’re going to keep doing that, too, for a little while longer.

Zanias:

Yeah, planning on it.

Post-Punk.com:

Zanias as a solo project has been quite prolific in recent years. Along with the fantastic second Linea Aspera LP, I think you’ve realized some of your best work across all projects with these recent EPs and albums, Harmaline, Extinction, and Unearthed.

What’s next for Zanias?

Zanias:

So. I’ve finished what I believe to be the best album I’ve ever made. I am so thrilled about Chrysalis. it’s coming out early next year. It’s all been delayed because of all the various disasters that have occurred in the last six months of my life, which I won’t go into. But I’ve had terrible luck. But my luck is about to turn. So yeah, Chrysalis is eight tracks that I wrote during the last year, and I’m really taking my production to a new level.

I’ve been very influenced by Hyperpop, but overall I think this has turned into a sort of art pop that’s difficult to define; though it still has all the dark influence of everything I’ve done before, I think I’ve just gone a little bit more Fever Ray, a little bit more like 2012. Grimes, and just sort of managed to try to crystallize my sound into a really unmistakable signature.

And then I’ve actually also produced another album that’s quite different and more abstract that takes this to an even more extreme level. And that will come soon after Chrysalis, and I’m very excited.

Post-Punk.com:

Talk about prolific.

Zanias:

The reason it’s been I’ve been prolific is because there’s just been a lot of…I lost some family members and experienced some traumas in the last year, some of which were quite public and some of which were not public. And music has literally been what saved my life. Producing has become my primary mental health resource; it’s my therapy.

So these songs really save me, and I really can’t wait to share them. I’m also terrified of sharing them because they’re so precious to me and have helped me through so much. And I almost feel like when I let them out into the world, people are going to like judge them. But I also really need to share them because I want other people to be able to experience the healing that they gave me because I don’t even feel like I made them. I feel like they came to help me.

It’s turned into something completely separate from myself. But I love it. I really love it.

Trish Trash:

But that’s the amazing thing about creating. If you make a song or something else, you feel like this work is like something…

Zanias:

Feeling a part of something bigger is such a core component of feeling good and like not being depressed. So yeah, it’s, it’s really important to have this as an artist. It’s just like, it’s the thing. This is it.

Trish Trash:

I experience this with sculptures as well. Sound, and sculptures.

Zanias:

That’s awesome.

Post-Punk.com:

Is there anything new to expect from the Zanias live set at Grauzone 2023?

Zanias:

So I have a new bandmate that plays with me live, Laura Bailey, a.k.a Neu Romancer, and her presence on stage is already such a huge upgrade to me being alone because we really play off each other. She is such a pro and such a gorgeous human being in general. I love her to bits, and sharing that experience has just made us ten times more powerful. We may have a new sort of layout for the live set by then if we manage to get it together. Usually, she plays synths, but if we get it all done in time, she’ll be on the bass guitar as well, and that will be a whole new kind of vibe.

Trish Trash:

What’s really important for Grauzone is that we have like a really strong female lineup. So it’s never a male-dominated lineup. There are 50 percent or even more female artists, which really represents what we think is really important.

It feels to me like in the music scene or whatever kind of job or career you have, like as a woman, you have to work twice as hard. So I think it’s true for us, for me, and also for Marc, We’re both really feminists at heart, you know, and that you really can give like a female artist, like a stage, that stage is a good stage, with a good spot and a good time slot.

I think that’s important. And then other festivals will follow, and you can inspire them, etc. But things still have a fucking long way to go, I have to say.

Post-Punk.com:

Alison, can you tell us anything about the Fleisch showcase and the artists curated on it?

Zanias:

So the Fleisch Showcase features both artists that are on Fleisch, or associated with Fleisch, or who will be on Fleisch. So, for example, Patriarchy is an artist that I just really love. Ever since she approached Kontravoid and me to do remixes for her, and when I listened to that new album that she was putting out, which I thought was awesome.

And when I saw them play at Substance Festival, it was just such an entertaining show, and I feel like they’re doing something very different and very fun. And then Ultrasunn is a project that’s going to be releasing the vinyl for their new EP on Fleisch early next year, and obviously, Neu Romancer is my bandmate. She’s got a release coming out on Fleisch in January, which is an awesome Italo-body music EP produced entirely by a woman.

Yeah. And then Pablo Bozzi and Kendal are part of infravision. And that release obviously like was one of the jewels in the Fleisch crown of 2021. I was so thrilled to release them because of infravision, I mean, every track on that album is a banger. And then Kontravoid – another jewel in the crown.

I’m actually so happy that it’s Kontravoid and Infravision playing because those two albums are the two Fleisch albums that I regularly listen to on repeat and play in my deejay sets; I feel like Too Deep and Illegal Future—I’m so proud to have released them.

So I’m just super thrilled with the lineup, and the credit for booking it all goes to Trish. Thank you.

The Grauzone Festival is February 10th through 12th.

Don’t miss the incredible chance to see all of these talented artists in one place.

You can purchase your tickets here. Make haste!

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The post 10 years of Grauzone Festival—A Conversation with Trish Trash and Zanias appeared first on Post-Punk.com.

Three-and-a-half decades ago, high school friends Troy Payne and Rich Witherspoon joined musical forces in Columbus, Ohio and formed The Wake. Their early years were marked by an upward trajectory in the goth/industrial scene, cutting their teeth and wreaking havoc onstage in NYC and the UK, supporting the likes of Nine Inch Nails, Skinny Puppy, Alien Sex Fiend, and Rozz Williams’s Shadow Project.

The band’s influence on underground pop culture was seemingly cemented by the “Sideshow” single (Blaylox, 1992), when Neil Gaiman used the song’s lyrics in an issue of The Sandman comic, depicting a character listening to The Wake in their bedroom. The Wake’s steady rise within a then-burgeoning US goth underground prompted UK music journalist and novelist Dave Thompson of the Alternative Press (author of The Dark Reign of Gothic Rock) to coin the now infamous term “Gothic as Fuck” to describe the band. The Wake responded by using that solitary quote as the press statement introducing their debut album.

The highly influential Masked album appeared on Cleopatra Records in 1993. Throughout the 90s, the strain of recording and touring had taken its toll, with co-founder and guitarist Rich Witherspoon leaving shortly after sessions for Nine Ways were completed. More line-up changes ensued, beleaguered by continual setbacks, disappointments, and outright tragedy following the sudden death of bandmate JT Murphy. The Wake, at last, resolved to call it a day by the turn of the century.

Times changed, and by 2008 they regrouped, with Witherspoon back on board to reform the 1989-94 lineup, which created their definitive sound. It took another decade or so, but as 2020 drew to a close, the reunited core of Troy Payne, Rich Witherspoon, James Tramel, and Daniel C released Perfumes and Fripperies. The Wake’s first studio album in almost 25 years.

Post-Punk.com interviewed Troy Payne about the band’s history ahead of their two reunion gigs on October 22nd at QXT’s in Newark, NJ, USA, and November 4th at  Nazca Music Live in Madrid, Spain.

Can you tell us about the formation of the band in 1986? How did you guys meet?

Rich Witherspoon and I met at an alternative high school where we were both students, Rich being a year ahead. We were drawn together by the same kind of unseen forces that pull two magnets together, I suppose. The two of us started playing music together in 1985. We played short stints with two different bass players, a drummer, and several drum machines between ’85 and ’87, but eventually recorded our first studio track, “Procession,” using session musicians. Then we met James Tramel at a Jesus and Mary Chain concert in 1987. After observing James checking out, the “bassist wanted” poster we’d tacked up in the venue’s foyer, we approached and introduced ourselves. Our first member drummer (Scott Rozanski) was fresh out of the Navy and working as a cook at a country club when he answered an advertisement Rich and I had posted at a music shop that same year. About a year and a half later, Scott was gone, and we were looking for his replacement. A bartender friend of ours introduced us to Daniel C. He was also a student at OSU on loan from Cleveland. Daniel was drumming in a Cleveland band called K9 Fire at the time, but was looking for a local gig and a new direction. We were impressed after checking out his chops at a K9 Fire show, and asked him over for a tryout. He didn’t take his drum kit back home. Later, around 1990-91, Rob Brothers (keyboards), who was friends with James, was brought on board with the idea of filling out our wall of sound.

What was the goth scene like in those days? Or could you even call it that yet at that point?

There wasn’t a goth scene in Columbus, OH in the late ’80s. There was, however, a thriving music scene centered around the Ohio State University. Like many university districts (at least at that time) rents were low, bars and clubs were many, and there was a large, diverse group of people all condensed into a few square blocks of town. It made for fertile ground in regards to creativity. But yes, it was also gritty, grimy, smoke filled, and not altogether safe. Being part of the subculture, there was always a vague sense of danger outside of whatever sanctuary you gathered in. And sometimes that danger was not so vague…

What got the momentum going with the first few singles, such as “Harlot,” the self-titled debut EP, and “Sideshow”?

The 7” singles were Rich’s idea. He worked at a record shop on campus, and he saw that 7” singles were still a thing, especially as niche collectibles. They were also much cheaper to make and ship than LPs. Additionally, singles were also more appealing to the independent distributors (like Caroline), who would be our only hope for distribution. We worked up intriguing cover art for both records. If you were into dark-themed music at all and saw it in the record bins, it was hard not to pick it up and check it out. We then got on the phone and started calling every indie distributor and record shop that had a phone number and eventually sold all our records.

How did things come together for the recording and release of Masked, as well as being signed to Cleopatra Records? Who is Patrick Cusack, and how did he get involved?

Most of the songs on Masked were recorded twice. Rich and I got connected with the Recording Workshop (a recording school with multiple studios) near Chillicothe, OH, by the manager of Ronald Koal, who was a popular local act during this time. If you were any good, the Workshop would record you for free as part of “student sessions.” It was a fantastic “in” for us as this is the place where we met sound engineer Eric “Captain America” Brown and were able to record all of our self-titled demo EP as well as 7” singles during these free sessions. We wouldn’t have been able to afford the studio time otherwise.

Every now and then Lady Luck throws you a bone. Patrick Cusack was and still is a DJ in NYC and NJ. He was instrumental in bringing The Wake to NYC to play at the New Music Seminar 1992. After the NMS show, he was also instrumental in The Wake signing with Cleopatra Records. He turned Brian Perera on to “Sideshow,” which is what I guess got the ball rolling. Armed with a recording budget from Cleopatra we were able to re-record all of the demo tracks that would become the Masked album.

What was it like touring in those early days of the band? Any great tour memories?

Touring as a club-level band mostly sucks. There’s just no way around that fact. Of course, there is fun sprinkled in, and you play a half dozen great shows among the 30 or so dates, but most of it is being dog-tired, hungry, broke, hot, cold, or otherwise uncomfortable. And when you get home, you’re still broke and now have to figure out how to pay the bills that accumulated while you were out busting your ass to play to three people in Albuquerque…All that said, sure, I have lots of great tour memories – hard times make for funny stories, once you are far enough removed from the pain!

Can you tell us anything about the filming of the music video for “Locomotive Age”? And the video for “Christine.”

The Locomotive Age video was filmed by a couple of aspiring film students. They were kids. I mean we were kids, but they were actually like high school kids doing a project for school. We didn’t realize that when we agreed to do the video, but of course, quickly caught on. Even so, Monte and Mike did a pretty good job. So, you never know.

The “Christine” video was filmed in and around Mexico City by Rhythm Victim Entertainment, which was David Glass (Pompeii 99, Christian Death) and another guy whose name escapes me. That was a fun time all around. The two shows we played were great and filming at the other locations was an experience. Our Mexican fans are really something to behold. They don’t get cheated – they come to rock out and they do just that. Looking forward to hopefully getting back there in 2023.

Was the process any different in recording the second album Nine Ways? And was the scene changing at that point?

The recording process was the same, the experience was entirely new and different. We were in a different city (Chicago) at two new/different studios (Chicago Trax and Chicago Recording Co.) and working with a new engineer in Keith “Fluffy” Auerbach. It was also our first time recording with Steven Creighton, who was our “new” bass player. I’m thankful that we got to have that experience, but at the time, I felt out of sorts, and my confidence in my voice was in the gutter.

Yeah, I suppose the goth scene, as far as we knew it, was at the beginning of the end. One reason was due to the metamorphosis that was happening to music in general at the time, and the other more subtle, practical reason – people in the scene were getting older. For lots, if not most, when you reach certain milestones, pressure builds to make changes to your life and lifestyle.

What happened to The Wake following the release of that album?

The biggest thing that happened, actually happened right before the release, and that was Rich leaving the band. He had reached one of those milestones mentioned above, and decided that he needed to go down a different road. It was devastating to me at the time, but I was determined to press on. We recruited Mark Gamiere to play guitar. A childhood friend of Daniel’s, a Wake fan, and accomplished musician – he checked all the boxes. And with a little help from Rich deciphering The Wake sound pallet, he stepped in and played on two national tours, another trip to Mexico, and a trip to the UK. He’s a fantastic musician and probably could have played with anybody. We were lucky he chose us for as long as he did.

How difficult was it to get the original lineup on board to perform live as The Wake again after 23 years? What has changed for the members of the band?

Is your approach to songwriting different now, and how did you approach writing, Perfumes and Fripperies after such a long hiatus?

In the early days, a lot of our songs were born out of the band just jamming together. That started to change during the writing of Nine Ways and has continued to evolve into what we have today. We don’t have the opportunity to sit around and jam with each other nowadays. We write and record demos individually and then share with the group. For me, this is a much more preferable way to work. I can now write music that supports the vocal melody and vice versa, as opposed to trying to layer vocals on top of music.

Can you tell us about the Remix EP Mixers & Elixirs, and how you chose the bands on the record, and your thoughts on working with these artists?

Since we weren’t able to tour in direct support of Perfumes and Fripperies in 2020 or 2021 – a remix EP seemed like a good way to keep the songs in front of fans in a way that would be fresh and new. Michel at UTM compiled a list of suggestions that he thought would be a good match, and I selected Andee Blacksugar, Kill Shelter, SINE, Agent Side Grinder from that group and also asked our mix engineer Matt Hagberg to throw one down. Couldn’t have been more pleased with how each one of these talented artists graciously added their own unique flavor to the tracks.

Can you tell us about any upcoming live shows?

Yes, as I mentioned – the Now Of Never 2022 shows will be the first live shows from The Wake since 1999 and the first from the current lineup since 1994. They are happening: on October 22nd @ QXT’s Newark, NJ, USA, and November 4th @ Nazca Music Live in Madrid, Spain.

Ideally, we would like to be able to do a couple of these shows every year going forward. But there is also the distinct possibility that these two shows might be the first, last, and forever shows for this lineup. Time will tell…

If you would like to catch The Wake live, tickets are available for shows in Newark, New Jersey, at QXT’s promoted by BLASPHEMY, and Madrid, Spain, promoted by Endemoniada Promotions and All Waves Promotions.

• QXT’s in New Jersey October 22 (via QXT’s and BLVSPHMY)
• Nazca Music Live November 4 (via Endemoniada Promotions and All Waves Promotions)

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The post Another Sideshow—An Interview with Gothic Rock Legends The Wake appeared first on Post-Punk.com.

Parisian dreamgazers PENCEY SLOE looks deep within to answer this essential question on their sophomore full-length Neglect, an album dedicated entirely to the theme of identity. What makes human beings form the image of who they think they are? How do they project or hide this version of themselves to and from others? Are we shaped by our genetic code, or do we become what we are told to be by our family and peers? Is it our language, the country or the society that we live in, or the culture that we grow up with?

While founding member, singer, and guitarist Diane Pellotieri helms Pencey Sloe as its main songwriter, her close collaboration with her new drummer and percussionist Clément Hateau presents a more mature, complex sound. Although the French songwriters continue on their path of cinematic soundscapes and beautiful psychedelic colours, their occasional drifting into darker spheres strikes a perfect balance between Diane’s vocals and meandering guitar textures, creating a sonic world of their own design.

Pencey Sloe originated in 2017, partly inspired by J. D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye: Diane drew parallels between her music and the novel’s fluid shifts from dark to light, distress, and sadness to the burlesque and mysterious. A five-track eponymous EP soon followed, leading to a record deal with Prophecy. Their acclaimed debut album Don’t Believe, Watch Out came out two years later. During the pandemic, Diane decided to focus on creating new material. While the guest contribution of Alcest frontman Neige on ‘The Run I‘ is a welcome nod to the friendship and influence exerted on Pencey Sloe, the inclusion of Justin K. Broadrick (Godflesh, Jesu) on part II of the two part song brings more subtle inspiration.

Diane Pellotieri of Pencey Sloe graciously took the time to be interviewed again by Post-Punk.com to discuss her remarkable new album Neglect.

How have you been since we met in your rehearsal space in the suburbs of Paris last to talk about Don’t Believe Watch Out? How did you manage to endure the Pandemic? I have since moved to Los Angeles but was in Paris right as the first lockdown began. There was a strangeness in the air as I left.

Yes, it was really very strange, I don’t know what the atmosphere was like on the other side of the planet, but here it was a desert city. It’s as if we were all on pause, time was suspended. But it was also time to refocus. I am lucky to have been able to rest during the first two months, and above all to explore new musical horizons. I took the time to meet new instruments, to create freely, and to let go. It was very enriching. I felt myself growing musically. After a few weeks, the anxiety hovered a little less, so I really took advantage of this opportunity to do just that every day. Sometimes I would like to live this time again in a very selfish way.

I felt that you were in a transitional period with Pencey Sloe when I saw you last. Is this accurate? Can you tell me about the current lineup of the band and the dynamics of this incarnation of it?

Exactly! Clément was brand new in Pencey Sloe. When we did this live session with you, it was our first experience together. It allowed us to get to know each other better, it was really cool. Since he is always there and he brings a lot, he is a very creative person with a multitude of artistic influences. At first, it was quite difficult for me to give him a place, but today, with time and the creation of a new album, it’s easier, everyone knows what they have to do. It is very difficult and even impossible to be in total harmony anyway, you just have to try to approach it as closely as possible, in lightness.

We really like this two-person formula; it allows for simpler communication and makes work easier. It’s quite difficult for me to manage several people; it’s a full-time job! I rather put that energy into our music.

You previously had a creative camaraderie with Neige from Alcest. How has that friendship developed, and is this the first time you have collaborated with him on «The Run I and II»?

Stéphane is a very close friend of mine, and we have continued to consolidate this friendship since our meeting. To me, music is about sharing, something very sentimental and comforting. His participation is a testimony of our bond; I wanted to create a memory, something nice and pretty. Neige is a very sincere person, and everything comes from the heart in Alcest, which is also why I was happy to share this song with him. It is very important for me to collaborate with honest artists in their productions.

And how did Justin Broadrick of Godflesh/Jesu get involved on The Run I and II?

It was Neige who gave me the tips to contact him. I sent him a message to offer him a collaboration, and we offered him several tracks. He chose The Run II. Basically, this song should not be split in two, but we thought it wiser to make two chapters, for two duets. We are very glad to have made this collaboration with him, he is a wonderful, true, and benevolent artist. He is one of the artists who have influenced us the most in music but also in the way of living and perceiving music. He is someone who is not afraid to explore styles, he does it with great freedom, and it is very inspiring. We wouldn’t have hoped for better than him, honestly.

Is there a natural evolution in theme from the first album stemming from Identity? Have you been reading any philosophical books or novels to explore this existential question?

I don’t know if it’s a natural evolution in theme compared to the first one, but in any case, it’s the logical continuation for me if I think of the experiences I went through between the two albums. It is neither art nor literature that inspired me on this theme, but only my personal trials and events happened that allowed me to look into the subject to develop questions and answers. I needed to express myself on this theme which has a very broad horizon. What I like about this subject is that we can store a lot of worries and fears but also joys. We have all wondered who we are or what person we are about to become. Exploring this question allowed me to find answers and to see life from another angle. This is the strength of music and art in general, they push us to introspect, to dig deep. It is an evil that allows you to get your head above water.

Neglect is a very powerful and emotionally charged word, in contrast to its concept being inaction that illicit’s a result. How does this word and concept relate to the album’s themes?

It is self-neglect, a state where the mind does not apply itself to what it would really like to do. This attitude has a major influence on identity; it distorts it, submits it, and destroys it. The consequence of all this is that we rely on others, who define us and draw us so we get lost, and we have a bad image of ourselves since there is no self-care.

Can you tell us about the album artwork? To me, it looks like a literal depiction of a distorted image of the self…and there are several overt references to mirrors throughout the album.

Yes, you’re right ! It’s a pretty scary reflection, and at the same time the person looking at themselves doesn’t seem to understand it. The references to the mirror are coincidental and unconscious, but the reflection is certainly a testimony to identity. In Mirror Rorrim, I tell the fear I have of myself, because of events that made me unpredictable. It had a big impact on the way I perceived myself: different from before and transformed. On the cover, we wanted to show the deformation without it seeming too monstrous or supernatural. The goal was to show something strange, real, and awkward. We find this notion of deformation throughout the development of Neglect, in all its dimensions. First in the music, then on the cover, and finally in music videos.

There seems to be greater confidence to be heard in the melodies, production, instrumentation, and vocals on the new album. Was there a different approach this time in songwriting and recording the LP?

It was an almost vital need to open up. The departure of the original members allowed me to get there, and I want to go even further today. It needed to be an evolution and to not repeat what has already been produced. Emancipation through music is very important to me because it accompanies me at every important stage of my life. During the composition and production of this album, a desire for freedom invaded me, it allowed me to gain confidence and affirm the direction that Pencey Sloe had taken. This process of liberation has still not ended, and it is important that it continues.

Can you tell us anything about the singles «What They Need» and «Smile to Zero»? What are these songs in particular about? Or what was your headspace in writing them?

“What They Need” and “Smile to Zero” were our base; they were the first two songs I presented to Clément, with all the new intentions I had in mind for Pencey Sloe. I mean richer music, less slow but still very melancholy. We really embroidered around these two tracks. For the first one, I hadn’t really perceived the theme of the album yet, so it was still a bit difficult to talk about the subject of identity as a choice. I express the confinement, the distress that erects walls to block the light that radiates from a being. In the second, it’s a bit of a continuation in a way. The walls create a comfortable enclosed space, so you retreat into it, but you can’t see the outside. And when we try to get out of it to find a little light, we no longer recognize ourselves, so what’s the point?

Are there any other songs on the album you feel connected to, or perhaps, whose message reflects what you think is key to the album’s concept?

In my opinion, they all have their place, but it’s true that I feel more linked to Mirror Rorrim and Brutal in Red because they were the perfect layer of my emotions. Maybe that’s why they’re not singles, they’re too closely tied to me and it’s hard for me to listen to them. Inner is also very important because it closes the album and also its whole process, it’s the last one that was written, and I really wanted to stop after this one. I needed to open up about this final point. I left the reins to Clément for the sound design, it also allowed me to free myself and let go within Pencey Sloe.

Have you performed live again yet? Or plan to go on tour in support of the album?

Yes, we did a concert recently, it feels so good, and we hope to have the opportunity to defend this album on tour!

“Neglect“ is available on gold vinyl, black vinyl, and CD. You can order the album here or listen below:

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The post “Neglect”—An Exploration of the Self with Parisian Dreamgazers Pencey Sloe appeared first on Post-Punk.com.

Rich Good, the current guitarist for The Psychedelic Furs, has been busy leading up to and following the release of the first Furs album in nearly three decades, Made of Rain. To celebrate the release, and the band’s return to touring, Good announced a collaboration with Dowd Records and California pedal designer Ben Milner for a limited edition signature Furs Face guitar fuzz pedal.

A Best of Roxy Music cassette purchased ‘somewhere in Wales on a childhood holiday’ started Good on his musical path. Upon moving to Northern California in 1998, he founded The Pleased with Grammy-winning producer Noah Georgeson (Devendra Banhart, Cate LeBon, Joanna Newsom). The band released several records and toured extensively; culminating in a tour with the Psychedelic Furs in 2004. After parting ways with long-standing guitarist John Ashton in 2007, Good joined the Furs. After a pandemic hiatus, the Furs will be continuing their world tour in support of the album in 2022.

Good spoke with Post-Punk.com about growing up, his start in music, his inspirations, and joining The Psychedelic Furs.

Your love of music started with buying a Roxy Music cassette? What are your favorite Roxy Music songs?

I think my love of music started with a 7″ single of “These Boots Were Made For Walking” we could play on my mum’s old record player from the 50s… But yes, I was probably 12 and feeling like being a grown up – I liked the look of the Roxy Music: Streetlife Greatest Hits album cover in the window of a record store. My dad turned it up loud to hear the quiet beginning of Virginia Plain and then we all got blasted… Favourite Roxy songs: “Beauty Queen,” “Ladytron,” “In Every Dream Home a Heartache,” “For Your Pleasure,” “Manifesto…” too many to choose!

What other music did you listen to growing up?

Growing up in our house there was a lot of classical music and then Elvis, The Beatles, Jean-Michel Jarre and the Shadows. More Stravinsky than Zeppelin…! So I learned all that big guitar music; Sabbath, Hendrix, Neil Young, The Faces etc later. I was really into Van Halen at one point and then I saw BB King play in Croydon and I realized that great guitar playing was not necessarily to do with speed… Later I saw Stereolab open for Pulp and that really set me on a tangent…

Did you have any guitar heroes you wanted to emulate?

I don’t think I really had a hero I tried to play like – that seemed to be what set my heroes apart – they didn’t sound like anyone else. I always loved Peter Green’s playing – Then Play On has quite a few of those lightning-in-a-bottle moments… I think I’ve been chasing good notes or sounds more than wanting to be one player in particular… – moments like this long controlled feedback Carlos does on Incident at Neshabur (Santana), or Mick Ronson at the end of “Moonage Daydream,” Ron Asheton’s all too short break on “I Wanna Be Your Dog…” Those are the highs we chase as musicians… The Flaming Lips had this great guitar player named Ronald Jones and I loved the musical chaos he created within the songs… I saw them at an NME Brat Awards thing in 96 and it was pivotal. I think that set me on a journey so perhaps he was my guitar hero? Listen to “Slow Nerve Action” or “Psychiatric Explorations of the Fetus With Needles.” These days I listen to a lot of not necessarily guitar music… like Beak>

Can you tell us what inspired you to form The Pleased?

I moved to Nevada City, California in the late nineties and was met with an inspiring musical scene… more than you’d expect from a tiny gold rush town. Interesting stuff – even experimental stuff… My friend Noah was in a cool band named True Lipstick and I made terrible demos on a 4 track and called it The Indiana Experiment… We had talked about doing a project together for a couple of years and then we finally got around to it. He lived in San Francisco which made practice a long commute but we used time efficiently and wrote some sharp songs… tightly wound stuff. The lineup pretty quickly filled out with Luckey Remington, Genaro Vergoglini and Joanna Newsom. We practiced in a room with a sagging floor in my house – I put up green Christmas lights to bring the atmosphere. The songwriting came out of these angular jams in that room – it was interesting because we were all very different players.

What was your experience like touring with your former band with the Furs in 2004?

So much fun. The Furs were great to us – Frank let us use his drums. I can’t believe we even asked to do that. By the end of the tour(s) we were good friends and somehow I ended up playing Virginia Plain with them on the last show. I think that was my audition.

How were you asked to join The Furs, and what can you recall was your reaction to being asked to join the band?

Their manager called and left me a couple of non-specific messages and I thought they wanted a designer to make posters or a website. When he finally got me on the phone he asked how I was doing and how I’d feel about playing guitar for the Furs. I remember thinking it must be some mistake. I said yes, I can do that.

What are your favorite classics Psychedelic Furs songs to play?

“Soap Commercial”, “Sister Europe”, “Dumb Waiters”, “Only You and I”, “Alices House”… Honestly, there’s not really any I don’t like playing. I love playing “Love My Way” – it’s such a great song.

What are your favorite songs to play on Made of Rain?

“Don’t Believe”, “No-One”, “Ash Wednesday”… “This’ll Never Be like Love”. Again, ‘all of them’ would be an accurate answer.

Can you tell us about how you approached working on the music for the Furs first new album in 30 years?

‘Don’t fuck it up’ was my approach We had some ideas floating around for years while we were touring… songs came and went but the last few years from 2017 we focused more. I think Paul and I pushed each other to write things and Tim and Richard already had some tunes up their sleeves. because we all live in different places it was sort of disjointed. I’d send RB ideas and he’d add vocal melodies and ideas. But once we got in the studio it became something else – something more communal. And the songs became Furs songs. I think the biggest aesthetic choice was to make sure it was great – Tim and Richard were not interested in recreating anything from the past. I’m glad we didn’t remake an old record. It’s not pretend Furs…

How did your partnership with Dowd records come about?

Jay joined The Pleased for the last couple of years and we’ve always stayed in touch. I’m impressed by his vision with the label – I’d love to release a record with them.

What are your favorite guitar pedal effects?

I love this Dual Delay I just got from Mike at Analogman, the Thermae by ChaseBliss is just incredible and today I’m really digging my ‘1981’ distortion.

What was important for you with the development of the Furs Face pedal?

Well it was important to respect Ben’s original design because its a great pedal as he designed it. We used many different fuzz/noise pedals on Made of Rain so we tweaked the pedal to help me get some of those sounds out of one pedal. I’m a visual designer so it had to look good too – I borrowed heavily from Kevin’s album cover design

Can you describe some of the features on the pedal for those who are not gearheads?

Well, there’s a thing that happens to pedals when the batteries die – they sputter and fade. Ben has a way of simulating that with a gate and it’s fun to try and work with. I love classic effects but sometimes it’s cool to use things that are so extreme in their manipulation that the guitar disappears.

Here is a description of the pedal from Dowd Records x Rich Good:

The pedal is an original touch sensitive silicon fuzz with two footswitchable fuzz channels, plus an Octavia effect and a controllable circuit bending gated feedback loop. To make this limited edition handmade pedal even more special, the pedal graphics are designed by Rich Good.

With the release of Made Of Rain – the first Furs album in almost 30 years – came the need to cover many new guitar tones during live performances and Rich has worked with Dowd Records and northern California pedal designer Ben Milner to create a pedal that will help round out his live pedalboard.

To realize this vision Ben has updated his locally loved double fuzz design to have more volume, more pronounced tones, more clarity and to be more widely usable live. The pedal has been updated with a new chipset, +4.8db of output volume, the Octavia effect has been revoiced and moved to the low gain fuzz side of the pedal, the gated feedback control has been finessed for more reaction and finally, a dual color LED has been added to show on a dark stage whether the fuzz or gated feedback loop is active when using the high gain fuzz channel.  Built with quality components and classic construction where it counts- Powder coated paint, Switchcraft jacks, metal film resistors, film capacitors for the audio path, jacks and footswitches wired separately from PCB for better reliability and repairability.

Fun technical fact – the U.S.-made circuit boards themselves are purple in honor of the release of Made Of Rain.

Technical specs on the pedal are available on the Dowd Records site with a review coming from the amazing team at Pedal Of The Day. Dowd Records and Ben Milner will be releasing a series of collaboration fuzz pedals over the upcoming months. Here is the link to them, if you want to bring your guitar work to the next level.

Made of Rain is out now on all streaming services and limited edition vinyl. 

The Psychedelic Furs will be touring North America with LA punk titans X this summer in support of their latest album Made of Rain, which you can order here.

The 23-date run begins in Huber Heights, Ohio on 6 July and continues until 12 August in St Helena, California. Tickets go on sale to the public at 10:00 AM local time on Friday, April 1, but a presale starts at 10:00 AM on Wednesday, March 30. Check out the band’s website for full details. Read more about the tour here.

The post Furs Face—An Interview with Rich Good of The Psychedelic Furs appeared first on Post-Punk.com.

Formed in the wake of a five-year hiatus from releasing music, Lotus Thrones’ Heath Rave took action during the pandemic to create music that explores and genres of music he grew up on, such as Killing Joke, Sisters Of Mercy, Neurosis, Danzig, Justin Broadrick, Portishead, The Cure, and more.

The lead track from the EP, “Codependent Arsony”,  is the story of two firebugs and their arsonist suicide pact at the end of the world. The song also includes saxophone from Bruce Lamont (Yakuza, Corrections House).  

Along with the video premiere for “Codependent Arsonry”, We spoke to Lotus Thrones Heath Rave about the song, the EP, his writing process, inspirations, ambitions, and more.

Watch the video for Lotus Thrones “Codepeendany Arsonry”, created by Sentimental Robots, below:

Lotus Thrones Hibernal EP is out on February 25th, 2022 Digitally through Disorder Recordings and on Cassette in late March/early April through Seeing Red Records.

Follow Lotus Thrones:

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The post Post-Industrial Act Lotus Thrones Debuts Video for “Codependent Arsonry”—Plus Interview appeared first on Post-Punk.com.

The Meadowlands finally put the eclectic and eccentric power-pop/post-punk/indie rock band on the map, but as the years went on, the reality of a follow-up became more of a distant memory and a sadly forlorn promise. While The Wrens toured for several years after, perfectionism and life got in the way and any material that was recorded was inevitably shelved or tinkered with into oblivion. Guitarist and co-vocalist Charles Bissell was dissatisfied with most of his own material, while co-vocalist/songwriter and bassist Kevin Whelan felt that his songs were the best he’d written in ages. A real catch-22, if you will…

After 18 years and a series of professional and personal ups-and-downs, Whelan felt it was time to finally put his best foot forward, enlisting his other two Wrens brethren (guitarist and brother Greg Whelan and drummer Jerry MacDonald) and wife Mary Ann Coronel Whelan to complete a series of ten tracks and push forward under a new moniker. As such, Observatory features a handful of songs that were destined for the fourth Wrens record as well as a series of new tracks written by Whelan in a quick flurry of inspiration. In short, it’s a beautiful record, quiet and reflective in spots, and explosive and vital as anything that came before in others. Lead single “Queens” burst forward with a manic dose of anthemic energy, as driving and powerful as anything The Wrens released in their heyday. While the new project may have drudged up some bittersweet feelings between the core songwriting duo, the music truly speaks for itself, a worthy release that builds and finally delivers on years of promise and breathes new life into a scene that was sorely missing music of this caliber and sincerity.

We had the chance to catch up with Kevin Whelan about Aeon Station’s gestation, current and past glories, and finding inspiration in unexpected places.

For the folks at home who might not be familiar with Aeon Station or The Wrens, can you tell us about your journey so far? How did you get to where you are now?

It’s a very lucky journey. You know, everyone has a unique journey in their artistic endeavors. The Wrens essentially started when I was 16 or 17 with just some demos. Out of the blue, I was asked to open for The Fixx, which never happened in the end, but it got me to connect with Charles.

 As for Jerry, it was my eighth-grade girlfriend, my first girlfriend ever, who was currently going out with this new drummer that I sorta knew in high school. She jokes that it was the worst phone conversation she’s ever taken, but I asked if her boyfriend would be interested in playing drums for us. From then on, Jerry has been a best friend in my life to this day. We were just working on music the other day, even. Of course, there’s also my brother Greg.

So that’s how The Wrens basically started. We were super pumped. We were punk rock, that’s what we loved. You know…fast, hard, angular. We went through a phase where we were writing all these songs that were only a minute long. We thought that was gonna make us famous, right? Like The Ramones, we figured let’s do really, really short songs that just explode. We did that for a number of years, then we moved in with each other in Secaucus, New Jersey, because we didn’t have any money. So many bands do that, it was sort of the rage at the time, because we couldn’t afford a studio. We didn’t have anything. So we just did tons of demos and played the New York circuit. Kenny’s Castaways, Acme, and that scene. People sometimes forget but the whole rage was stuff like Limp Bizkit and Rage Against the Machine. These were the bands that everybody loved, playing indie wasn’t really *in* yet you know?

So you saw yourself as a bit of a reaction to all of that then?

Yeah, I think we played right into it. We signed with Grass and became very close partners with bands like Brainiac in particular – the DC bands like Dismemberment Plan and all those kind of guys. We just started on our journey. We played a lot, A LOT of shows to nobody. Nobody was ever in the audience for years and years. I think we pretty much played to no one maybe for 12 years or so. But we had fun. We enjoyed it. 

We made the first two Wrens records, Silver and Secaucus, at our house. Then we went on a little bit of a ride, because as you know, we skipped on the million dollar deal. Looking back,  it really was crazy. We were 26 and the other guys were in their early 30s, and we didn’t have anything. Little did we know we weren’t gonna have anything for a long time. We made The Meadowlands on our own because nobody was interested. Nobody wanted it whatsoever. Nobody wanted to sign us, nobody wanted to put it out, but our friend put it out, finally. At that point, we’d already been a band for like 13-14 years. Some people who liked our early records now became prominent in certain areas. Even at that point, we still didn’t even have a booking agent. We didn’t have anything. All we had was debt and nobody cared. We had nice reviews, though. We always lucked out with reviews. We kind of lucked out there, because we were always arty and quirky, right? We had power pop and punk influences, but we weren’t in the Green Day school.

After that, we had a really great run with The Meadowlands – we ran with that for about six or seven years because we had to grow the record in Europe and so on. So that took us into the early 2010s, and by that point, wives and kids and family got involved. I don’t think anyone gives you a heads up by how hard your 40s are, you know? I think if you live through your 40s, they’re blindingly complicated. Especially for people in bands that start later in life, we had to navigate that space. 

Now, sitting here in my early 50s, I just didn’t want to wait anymore to do music. Given COVID and life experiences, the time is gone and you just don’t get it back. So I did the Aeon Station record, and I’m very proud of the music. I’m also very humbled by my experience, just to be able to put it out on Sub Pop and have people listen to it and enjoy it with no great expectations. Just you know, for the love of music.

Thank you for the warning about the 40s. I’m about to hit 40 this year, and it’s been quite an interesting last few years with kids and family and the spaces between…


That’s sort of what this record is about. I have songs specifically on there about divorce. About navigating the feeling of “how did this happen?” and “where did this come from?” That’s what was really of interest to me.

That makes me wonder – how was it to transition between being in a successful band to being a family man, working for Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson, and then back to being a musician again. Was all of this jarring for you, or did you always feel like there was space for music?

I think that’s what’s kind of been touching, with releasing this music is that so many people have artistic endeavors, whether they’re writers, or painters, or dancers or in bands, and it’s about how you fit it into your life. I’ve never not been the guy that has a job and the guy that just does music. So it really wasn’t jarring. Music was always in the mix. Sometimes the volume is raised on something, like right now, it’s really about music. I’ve spent so many years doing a lot of business, and all of this really just coexists. 

I think if you want to be a generational band, like the ones we’ve seen and lived through, you have to do just that at a certain point in your life. You have to do that when the generation wants you, sort of like when Arcade Fire came around. But if you love music and you love art, and you don’t want to stop doing it, I see no reason to stop.

I’m sort of a case study on how not to have a career in music, but how to continue to play music.

That’s always been my philosophy. I had a job since I was 15. I was never able to take music on the road, to go live in a van for months on end. I probably missed out on some touring experiences because of that, right? Mild regrets, perhaps. However, I always knew that I had to take care of myself and my family because I never had any other choice. But there was always room for music.

I think it’s a bit of an underrated endeavor, you know? Because yeah, if you’re gonna go out and be Dave Grohl, for example, someone who’s just going to jump off the cliff and make a name for himself, he’s going to get those experiences. But there’s only one Dave Grohl in the world, someone that’s that phenomenally talented, that lucky in the space. It’s a real rarity. For the rest of us, for yourself, or what I’m trying to do, we realize that we have to do our jobs because we have to pay rent.

There’s nothing wrong with being practical. Some people seem to think that means you’re not committed, and I don’t think so. It’s a lot to survive out there.

Glad to hear that’s been your experience as well. Thanks for keeping the faith there! With that in mind, how often were you able to work on new material over all these years? I know there were some pieces done with Charles, and other pieces that are more recent. How long did the Aeon Station record take to make overall?

I’ve always been making demos. I mapped out a lot of demos for future Wrens records. I really put my best foot forward at that moment by 2013-2014. I had done all the guitars, all the vocals, the synths, and Jerry played the drums, that kind of stuff. I was finished with all the songs that were gonna go on the record, and then it just sat in a vault, I didn’t do anything, I didn’t touch them, I just would strum guitar to keep active. I actually focused a lot on work, because I was always expecting the Wrens record to come out. Multiple times a year, I was told that it was about to be done and it was going to come out.

So I waited, because The Wrens were the only thing that I’ve ever wanted and the only thing that I’ve ever done. But then when COVID kind of happened and also with my son’s autism, I was like, “you know what? Screw it. I’ve always loved making music. It’s time.” But also, I was scared. Scared to put it out there and worrying about if people are gonna love it or hate it. There’s always going be people that love your work and others that hate it, so it doesn’t really matter in the end.

The other half of the Aeon Station record was written really fast. Within a month or two months, even. It was recorded across three sessions with Tom Beaujour, who is a great friend and great producer.

So while you were living life, working on music, writing material that was meant for The Wrens and became a good part of this new record, what are some of the albums that had an impact on you? Was there anything that came out during this time that reminded you of how good and pure music could be? Anything that inspired you to push forward and keep at it? 


I always fail at this because yeah, there was a ton. Gosh, I’ve always liked The Strokes, Muse, The Killers and that kind of things, and I really got into Hot Chip and things like that. Elliott Smith inspired a lot of the ballads over the years. It doesn’t really come through in our music but I really like this band called Catfish and the Bottlemen as well, the singer’s just great. But really just as much anything new, I feel like I was listening to a lot of old Kinks tracks, as weird as that might sound?

Hey, they’re underrated! I feel everyone always talks about the British Invasion as The Beatles vs. The Stones (and maybe The Who), and while The Kinks have a few major classic hits, they just aren’t held up in the same light, which is unfair given how many stone cold classics they have.



Yeah, I went on a bit of a Kinks bonanza and it changed my life. The way they sang, the way it would be so loose and fast. It was certainly a shade of punk rock.

Another band of brothers, by the way!



Yeah! It’s amazing when you listen to these old Kinks songs, especially the ones that aren’t the famous ones. The melodies really stick with you.


My favorite song of theirs is “I’m Not Like Everybody Else” – it’s really quite nasty, isn’t it? 



Yeah, I think that I was always trying to do a little bit of that. I also had this weird thing with Elton John recently with the new material. I’ve never been a huge Elton John fan, but I wanted to dig into the lyrics a bit, you know, the Bernie Taupin side of things. So I got this lyric book. This big, long, pretty picture lyric book. And you can see here *holds up book* that I have notes over it. Whether it’s a good thing or a bad thing, I have listened to every Elton John song up to a certain period of his career. 

It was amazing, seeing these poems laid out. Elton never would change the structure of the poem, wouldn’t add or subtract a single word, and it’s really freaky to know that. As a songwriter, this blew my mind. Stanza after stanza. I also learned that literally within the first 45 seconds of every Elton John song, he’s giving you the the intro, the verse, the connector in the chorus, almost every song, he’s pretty much in within 40 seconds. Weird, right?

I’ve done the same thing with Elton John albums. I’m not a huge fan either, but I liked a couple songs when I was young, so I went back and reassessed things and found lots to love. I do this with every artist that I didn’t like originally or didn’t think was cool when I was an overly serious and dramatic goth kid. I didn’t take as much of a lyrical deep dive as you did, but as a lyric writer (with writers’ block at the moment) that’s really fascinating to hear about the process.

 It’s hard! 

I’m a fan of the Bowie/Burroughs cut-up technique where I take one word here, splice in others that don’t quite fit, make it bizarre, and maybe massage it a bit after for clarify and hope for the best!



We lived our career off of that! Throwing things up in two sections, and so on. It’s pretty artful. Funny you mentioned goth stuff by the way, because my wife was listening to Sisters of Mercy recently. I gotta tell you, it was giving me life. Nowadays, I want to hear that kind of driving rock. I remember I was upstairs working and she was listening in the other room, and I was like “what. the. hell IS that?” The bass lead and driving rhythm, and his voice just rolls over. And I was the greatest thing I’ve ever heard. I haven’t really listened to them in forever, you know? I forgot about them, so it felt so fresh in that regard.

Well that brings me to asking about this kind of music in general – what else did you like back in the day? I know you’ve mentioned you like a lot of dreamier stuff on 4AD. I’ve always heard a bit of Pixies in your music, but what else do you pull from?

Oh yeah, Pixies were always a massive influence. When I was a kid I was really into stuff like Bad Brains and 7 Seconds. I grew up in the early 80s when all that stuff was happening. I loved Agent Orange and the like. Then I quickly got into new wave and post-punk, which is pretty much my whole life and all of my major reference points, from Pixies to New Order. You name it, really. Those are the bands that changed everything for me.

I’ve heard a lot of Wire in what you do – which took me a while to put together. When I first heard Silver, I wasn’t aware of them at the time, but I really hear a lot of that manic short, angular energy in your music.

Totally. Wire, Gang of Four, etc. We don’t get this comparison as much, but no question for me, XTC is a massive influence. Silver was our way of trying to capture that XTC mindset. We took the same approach – we weren’t sure we were going to make a record, so we crammed 25 tracks on there. It was straight up as hard as we could. Again, people forget that when we were starting out playing CBGBs and stuff, everybody just wanted to hear that jock, Limp Bizkit kind of stuff, where everyone was just slappin’ da bass, you know?

That must have been so damn challenging. 



They hated us. They literally hated us. We would play 50 songs in our set and people just thought it was perverse. They couldn’t stand what we were doing.

I hope this isn’t a difficult question, but I do want to throw it out there. Since Aeon Station is technically 3/4 of The Wrens, do you feel any sort of palpable phantom limb element without Charles there? You wrote so much music together, and some of this album was even meant for the band, was it tough to not have his presence there at all?

If anything, the phantom limb is there to be a strong muscle to make sure that the material is the same quality that we’ve always done. As weird as we were, we were really focused on the quality and making sure everything was as good as ever. We threw out a lot and reworked things, so that was our ethos, if you will. Though I will say that even in The Wrens, we all worked separately, you know, many songs were his, where he would be playing all the guitars and doing all that work. Vice versa for my songs. For me, where we would balance our ideas is in talking to each other and asking if things sucked, if they were good, and what do you think overall? It was more that kind of collaboration for us, and that’s how the band came together. Jerry was the mainstay across all of it, with his drumming.

Look, I’ve only been in one band for over 30 years, it’s really weird to me. Just one! You could be one man in one hundred bands, or you could be one hundred bands in one man. It really It all depends on how you look at it.

So, if you’ll entertain me here, I have a bit of a fun, geographical question. I know that the spirit of Jersey has always run through your work, with Seacaucus, The Meadowlands, and so on. Do you see New Jersey as influencing your sound in any way? Do you consider yourselves a part of the great tradition of Jersey-centric music? 



Yes, and I think now we’re so proud of it. Honestly, we were proud of it then, too. When we started, our first gig was playing on the Cape May ferry. We’re SO Jersey that it’s bizarre. We were hideously bad that first night, that’s for sure! But then, you know, we lived on it and we really kind of learned to love where we are, and I think  between Philly and New York there’s that Jersey pride in between. 

We were all huge Springsteen fans. I mean, there’s no two ways around it. We all were. We wanted to emulate the blue collar vibe because that’s who we truly were.. All of us came from hard working families, you know – school teachers, construction workers, and that’s Jersey at its core. So yeah, I’m super glad, now that we’ve done it. We have Secaucus, we have The Meadowlands, and we have our EP, Abbott 1135. That’s an address in Fort Lee. It’s all Jersey.

So I think you touched on this a bit this since you mentioned you all write things separately, but I do want to talk about  your process. I hear it in The Wrens and definitely on the Aeon Station record, where there’s say, a solid verse, but then all of a sudden a melody or a motif comes out of nowhere and changes the song dramatically. I’ve always loved the way your music builds but also shifts gears just as easily. What would you say informs that? 



I think it’s our bizarre lens of imitating some of our favorite bands. It’s mixed in with all kinds of weird references, things you wouldn’t expect like old Genesis records. I don’t think as a songwriter you take in these references until you sort of just, do it. I think another part of is that we’d just get bored, you know? So it’s part these bizarre references and emulations, our internal boredom as a band, but also just that we never aspired to be one style band in general. We wanted to have diversity in the songs. Here’s something I haven’t really said before, but sometimes it was just jokes, you know? We thought it was funny – what if we try to do this or that? We were trying to piss each other off. What if we put a whole tuba section in here?

That’s what always intrigued me! I remember the first time I heard “What’s a Girl” from Silver and found it to be painstakingly beautiful and emotive, but right at the climax, the tape cuts out and there’s some indistinct chatter about a trailer park. I never knew if that was a mistake or if that was intentional, but it sounds like it was a joke, then! 



You know, I remember sitting there with Charles at the control board, and we knew it was a good song, and we were kind of daring each other, egging each other on with it. Do we do it? Do we just mute all the tracks for a second? The funniest part of it was that we thought in our minds, that song was going to be a HIT.

Well hey, it’s my favorite Wrens song, if I had to pick one… 



Well, I don’t think it’s going to be on anyone’s hit list, for what it’s worth!

Speaking of hits though, the first time I heard “Queens,” I was gobsmacked. What a track! I think that’s certainly a diamond. How’s the response been to the new music in general? 



I’m telling you, after all of these years, to be sitting here with you, it’s mind-blowing. I was only hoping a few people would listen to this, I had no great expectations, but the reception has been so lovely and so kind. What I love too, is that while there’s always been reviews and that’s lovely and appreciated, the best part is when people take this music into their life, that’s the cool stuff. Like the way you mentioned “What’s a Girl” just now. I feel lucky that people respond that way. In short really, I’m humbled and completely freaked out. 

I’m so glad to hear that people are responding so well.

A well-deserved victory lap! Speaking of “Queens,” your wife Mary Ann sings on that as well, is that right? 



Yeah! She sings on “Queens” and “Better Love” and really, it’s been wicked awesome. We’d never had any female vocals on our records before, and I’ve always wanted that timbre. She would say she’s not a singer, but it sounds good to me! You never know, you might want to start recording all your friends and see what happens.

Tell you what, I’m going to start sampling my cat, that’s what I’m gonna do… 



Do it!

Last, but not least, assuming all goes well with the pandemic and Omicron, will we see Aeon Station live in the coming months? 



I’m definitely going to go out and play. Especially with the reception being where it is. Being of that punk/post-punk tradition, I need to, and we’re really looking forward to it. We’re looking to play in March – to go out, have a good time, and make it good.

With that in mind, Aeon Station will indeed be performing their debut live show on Friday, March 11th at  TV Eye in Ridgewood, NYC. The core band will be joined on stage by Lysa Opfer as well as producer Tom Beaujour. Tickets are available now here.

Photos by Ebru Yildiz

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