MC: What has GLBD been up to lately?

phillip: “Well, just recording but it is finally coming to an end and re-issue of the first CD will begin print next month with 3 new tracks that we are excited about. The release will follow up with a video, an official site, and tour. Plans for us are very big. 2009 should bring GLDB to world Goth community in a major way. We are very confident.”

MC: GLBD has a truly classic lineup: Reverb TV, Necrodolly, Stone 558! How did you get together?

phillip: “Reverb Tv and Necrodolly performed with Human Drama at the Whiskey A Go Go in Hollywood many years back and we became friends…Stone 588 guitarist is friends with my bass player and we just hooked up on my ideas.”

MC: The foundation of your music is definitely from the “classic” Goth era. I think this is interesting because GLBD formed in 2004, when a lot of new Deathrock bands were emerging, but not a lot of people were drawing on, say, the Sister’s era. In certain quarters, people say that the classic Goth sound is “passé” , but I think bands like GLDB are living proof that this isn’t so. You show that it is indeed possible to built on the classic elements and synthesize them into a modern, relevant sound. After all, it was popular then because it was good music, and it’s still good music! What are your thoughts?

phillip: “Most definitely, my view is the same and was exactly the thought process going into the GLDB concept back in 2004. the classic elements have always been basic rhythms and melodies with not a whole lot going on…it gives room for less creativity (yes, I said less creativity) so you have to really focus on the hooks since there are usually only 8-16 tracks in a song as apposed to the new styles that probably level 24-40 tracks just to make a song. So, bass lines are very important for the mood and drum rhythms are basic and just keep the whole theme together (not much going on) guitars are very simple to keep the mood and all these simple elements allow me to focus on the lyrics and vocal tracks. So far, everyone seems to like the GLDB formula that has heard us.”

Read More… Girl Loves Dead Boys

Interview with Ming of Sleepmask

MC: Sleepmask certainly draws on a wealth of experience! What are some of the differences between the music scene on the east and west coasts that you guys have observed? How did you get together?

Ming: Well i did move to NYC originally to put something together on the sleepmask material, but i can’t say that i’m an authority on the scene out there.  But i can tell you a bit about the formation of the band.  i had written much of this music while still playing in a band in Los Angeles called Faculty x, but i began to notice the material was more melodic and the instrumentation was drifting from the danceable deathrock we were doing and a shoegaze influence was surfacing.  As i felt strongly that it was good material but needed a different feeling band to pull it off, i left for new york.   That proved to be a bit of a stretch for me.  i knew no one and had no connections there, all of my contacts were here in Los Angeles, so after 8 months or so of seeking players and some way to make money, i came back here to L.A. somewhat discouraged.
i had known our drummer Charlie Woodburn from playing a show with him when his band at the time opened for  Fac X.   We had done some recording together working on a side project of mine called les enfants terribles so i knew he was very talented and his style is mature, a real percussionist and not just your average bashing ‘concussionist’.   i bumped into him on the street almost immediately off the plane from NYC and we talked about working together again.
Adam Dzurilla responded to a Myspace add i had posted some ago searching for a bassist.. he is actually a great guitarist and singer as well, but felt he was into working with bass again, and i’m so pleased he answered the call because he quickly mastered the sliding sleazy lumbering feel i wanted..
We are in the midst of auditioning guitarists to round out the foursome and in fact i believe i’ve found a great fit just last night… i play guitars and sing but want a second player as many of the parts are two lines meshing to make a wall of sound approach to the higher frequencies.

MC: I see you are interested in such diverse figures as Rimbaud, Camus, and Crowley. It’s refreshing to see a band these days with this kind of literary tastes. Have these poets and authors influenced your music? What are you reading these days?

Ming: Oh absolutely.. i didn’t begin playing music seriously until after i finished getting a degree in philosophy, and in fact it was my studies on aesthetics that forced me to realize that it was time to take part in an artistic dialogue, rather than remain a musicologist and appreciator of the arts… I was very interested in the frankfurt school of critical theorists, writers like Habermas and Marcuse, deconstructionist philosophy like Derridas, the dada art movement, and Roland Barthes’ work on aesthetics.. i had also read lipstick traces by Greil Marcus, the music critic, and his tying of philosophy and socio-political critique with music analysis enthralled me and empowered me with ideas that led to my dedication to music as my artistic medium..     Rimbaud, Baudelaire and other romantic poets, as well as certain occultists for their dark aesthetic became the next wave of inspiration as i began to write lyrics.. imagery is paramount to me in songwriting, much more than linear narrative… which i find pedantic and cliche.

Read More… Sleepmask

MC: Kiss Kiss Bang Bang and Club 1334 are the only clubs in Australia dedicated to deathrock and related music. How did you decide to start Club 1334? Was it the success of Kiss Kiss Bang Bang or other factors as well?

PD: Yes it was the success of Kiss Kiss Bang Bang that led us to setting up 1334. The one thing that was lacking from Kiss Kiss Bang Bang was Trad Goth or as some people may put it Old School/90’s Goth. So we decided that we would set up a club that was devoted to Deathrock and Trad Goth. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang is very much a Deathrock, Post Punk, Horror Punk party with a bit of Psychobilly thrown in for good measure.

What we have noticed since setting up 1334 is that a lot of Trad Goth fans are coming out of the wood work…we can only hope that more will do the same. It has taken us around 2 years to break the dominance of EBM in clubs and I think people can start to see this. We are seeing a distinct lack of PVC/Cyber fashion out at clubs and more Big Hair/Mohawks/Ripped fishnet etc. In Melbourne we now have people that are referred to as Deathrockers, this makes for some very promising times ahead.

Finally the music direction is also changing. Nu Metal & EBM are moving out of the goth scene & being played less in goth clubs & creating a scene & niche clubs for themselves.

MC: I recently saw that you have a partnership with Cabaret Nocturne. This is great! In my area, most of the “goth” DJ’s generally refuse to even acknowledge deathrock exists; much less admit that it’s viable for a club. How is the partnership going?

PD: It is going very well, Cabaret Nocturne are very supportive of the Deathrock scene. We are based at a 2 level venue called Tilt Bar, we are on the second level and Cabaret Nocturne are based on the lower level. The scene in Australia is not like parts of Europe where it is not uncommon to see 300 people at a club on a weekly basis. It was put forward some time ago that we should join forces and run as a super club. We are no longer in competition with other major clubs…what we do now is support each other, we promote each other and work together for the scene. This gives people the opportunity to move between levels & listen/dance to different styles if they want to. People downstairs who are curious about Deathrock can come upstairs have a look & listen and stay around if they like what they hear. It has been one of the best ideas in a long time and I feel it has breathed some new life into our scene.

Read More… DJ Poisondwarf

MC: How is Corrosion doing these days?

D: Unfortunately, Corrosion is no more. Most of the staff from Corrosion and myself have moved on to another night, Sanctuary (RI) instead. We were actually doing both at the same time for a little while, but two weekly nights in Providence is hard to do, and while Sanctuary’s attendance has been slowly climbing, the inverse was happening to Corrosion. Sanctuary is a little more populist than Corrosion, and I think in the long run, it’s going to build a better scene here overall. We’re all hoping things keep going they way they are, as it’ll allow us to do more specialized events like Heresy again, which was DJ Lovecraft and my original Deathrock, goth, post-punk, and obscurities night. Things are always changing, and right now for the better, so who knows?

MC: I see that you’ve booked bands like Holy Cow, 45 Grave, Thomas Nola et Son Orchestre, Bell Hollow, The Brides, and the Deadfly Ensemble. What’s the “state of the scene” in your area?

D: Sanctuary is an enormous success, so as far as club nights go, the scene is doing very well. Thanks to this success, we’ve been able to start booking bands out of that night, and DJ Lovecraft continues to book bands elsewhere as well. For the most part, Providence has had a great turn around. When the whole cyber scene started to wane, there was a lot of in-fighting between different scene elements. In some respect, I feel a sort of affinity to nights like “Release the Bats,” because amidst that environment, we set out to just make something positive without any strings attached. It’s been working, and I think Providence has regained a lot of credibility it lost in the early part of this decade, and I can go places now and say where I’m from, and people have heard of us. It’s a good feeling, and it’s a lot of fun.

Read More… DJ Delicti

MC:  Reptyle has been around since 1999. Were the late ‘90s a good time to start a Goth rock band?  What were some of the challenges that you faced at that time?

Zulu: Well, it definitely felt like the right time to start a Goth band back then (which probably means that it was a bad time, technically speaking). There was a very distinct sense of fed-upness with the so-called alternative music mainstream, so the natural step was the dical one: Go back to the roots and found the band you’ve been missing. As for the outer environment, I don’t see a huge difference today. Maybe it was a bit easier then to get gigs, since the underground live scene outside the big cities was virtually dead at one point since. There seems to be something of a revival now, though. But the main point is what kept us going then and now is our own Private share of madness…

MC:   In another interview you made the excellent observation that Gothic rock has evolved just like other genres.  Over here, its funny how the voracious critics of Gothic rock like to claim that it’s “dead” or “clones”, yet they tend to be fans of club EBM and Industrial Dance bands which certainly don’t set any standards of originality. Have you seen the same kind of double-standards in your area?  Or is there more of a sense of co-existence between EBM and Goth fans?

Zulu:  Well, I have little to add to your observation. Back in the nineties, it became somewhat commonplace to regard goth rock as dated, regardless of how it actually sounded - e.g., I’ve just been listening to the 1995 album from Dream Disciples, and therejust is no way to describe that album as sounding old fashioned (by 1995 standards, of course). Other genres just don’t appear to have that image problem - if any electro pop band today sounds more or less like Depeche Mode in 1990, who will complain? Of course, in a way the whole debate seems a bit pointless to me, since music for me isn’t about reinventing the wheel - it’s about good songs, good style and emotional force.

Read More… Reptyle

MC: What do you do for entertainment in Sydney? Are there many Goths/Deathrockers in your area?

A: To tell you the truth I really don’t have that much to do with the Sydney ‘Gothic’ scene these days. Ahhhh-sydney. It’s not all its cracked up to be man. There is an abundance of Goth themed nightclubs but they all seem to play poxy ebm/industrial/techno/nu-metal music. *full body shudder* The overriding themes and attitudes are all very fashion oriented and there is very little in the way of a live music. This is something I’d love to see change. I wanna form a collective of likeminded souls performing different types of music/creating artwork/discussing philosophy/whatever-as long as it doesn’t involve talking about the new pair of $300 pants that DJ Darkass just bought or whatever. I spend most of my time these days composing new music on all night 3 day benders-just trying to get as far into the creative zone as i can without any distractions from the outside world. Its really helps to have ones own hermetic bubble-where only your own rules and expectations apply-its meant I’ve been able to accumulate an enormous amount of new songs and sounds ranging from acoustic folk type ditties with emphasis on the words and simple melodic lines, to enormous wall of sound type instrumentals where i abuse the shit out of my effects pedal! There’s a part of me that pines for the good ole days where i could go out to a club, take lots of speed and dance like a spastic to Bauhaus *L* but those days are gone (at least in Sydney). I should however give a shout out to Leigh Spencer of sacrament radio who still plays the good stuff and is a huge help for local acts.

MC: In his review of your CD, Mick Mercer said something I thought was very interesting. He said “Thatch Noir are Goth internally, and the way the songs come out are a different matter.” It struck a chord with me because I feel that the Goth culture has bought into its own stereotype with the emphasis on heart-on-your-sleeve-dark-and-dreariness. But to me, Goth, and especially Deathrock, can be fun. Just like life in general, both pain and joy co-exist. Too many Goths concentrate on the pain. What do you think?

A: Oh absolutely!!! i think the trap most artists fall into is becoming too strongly identified with any one genre and thus having to adapt and squeeze themselves into a template that predefines any subject matter or stylistic choices. If you’re trying too hard to write a certain way then you aren’t playing from the heart and therefore on some levels; its gonna sound fake, its never gone MOVE people. Most Goth music is terribly regimented (ooh! another song about bats! great!),I think not only is humor an ESSENTIAL aspect in everything we do, I believe the entire gamut of human emotions must be accounted for. That way you know that its real-It’s no good pretending to be dark, morbid and mysterious 24/7.No human being is really like that-its a caricature at best. All of the best creative works are borne of an honest outpouring of emotion/intellect/rampant catharsis! However most songs still fall into the classic 3 categories for subject matter
a.the world is fucked
b.That woman is fucked.
c. I’m fucked.
*L*
But that doesn’t mean you cant summon something true and unique fashioned from your own experiences-it just means there are clichés that abound EVERYWHERE-so watch your step!
Humor has ALWAYS been integral to me-All my favorite bands have a sense of humor I mean c’mon=the Goth scene is funny as shit. It IS!!! ESPECIALLY when people take themselves too seriously!

Read More… Thatch Noir

MC: When I moved from North Carolina back in the late‘80s, there wasn’t much of music scene there. But now there is a thriving scene. What do you think precipitated this?

D: I don’t have a clue. When it all heated up in the 90’s, I was inNYC digging on that scene, but at the time everyone was well aware of NC’s scene. When I was ready to move back to NC I drew up a five-page proposal and presented it to my band on why it would make the better sense to live in NC than NYC.  Part of that proposalwas spent citing the successes of Southern Culture on the Skids, the Backsliders, Ben Folds Five, and probably a couple of others I’ve forgotten.  Although it seemed to be heating up in the 90’s, by comparison the NYC scene hadn’t produced anything serious since Blondie. It looked like NC was hot, plus it was going home for me after 12 years in NYC.

MC: What were some of the challenges in the early days of the Heavy Rebel Weekender?

D: Well, the planning was always pretty solid so mainly we worried if things would actually come off the way we planned.  The bands were mostly cool about everything and soon turned out to be the most serious and stalwart promoters of the event.  (That comes into play on your next question.)  The main things that gave/give us trouble were all out of our control–waiting on municipal folks to issue certain necessary permits, wrangling with hotels over decent prices for all the customers we bring in, trying to get sponsors, etc. We’ve cut down on as many irritants as possible but we still face the same challenges as always.  The bands and the crowd have always been the very least of our problems.

MC: You and I have briefly discussed this one before:  one of the things that struck me about Heavy Rebel is that there is a very friendly crowd. Unlike some music festivals I’ve been to, there was no hostility between, say, psychobillies, deathrockers, goths, punks, etc.  You can stop and chat with anyone. There are no out-of-control slam dancers attacking bystanders.  People are polite even when they are raising hell!   You told me that this is largely because the community is self-regulating; would you expand on this a bit?

D: I think there are several things in play.  First of all it’s the South and the general attitude is friendly.  That can take out-of-towners aback at first, which makes them act a little more decent; it’s a lark for some people just to spend a weekend being nice to everyone. For example, the bands get there and check in with a real nice guy who tells them what all they can expect and where they should load in, etc. We try to make sure all the staff is friendly and professional….in a very laid-back way. Same goes for the people coming in the front door. That starts it.

Read More… David Quick, Heavy Rebel Weekender

MC: It seems like just yesterday when we saw Skeletal Family in NY and last interviewed you, but over three years have passed! What are some of the things that have been happening with SF? How did your 2007 tour go? (The tour shirts are simply awesome, by the way.)

KH: Well we had a bit of a quiet 2006 due to Stan breaking his ankle very badly but in 2007 even though I say so myself we really seemed to catch fire performance wise. We even surprised ourselves. Most of our shows were over in mainland Europe and we’ve had some of the best receptions we’ve ever had. People are digging the new material just as much as the old which has really encouraged us.

MC: How was Bats over Milan? I would simply love to attend this festival!

KH: Bats over Milan was really cool. To be honest it probably wasn’t our best performance of the year that accolade would probably go to the Gothic Festival in Waregem Belgium. It was great to meet some really cool people. The 2 bands that really stood out for me were New Days Delay and of course Bohemien. Saying that however I was impressed by what i saw of the others as well inc Eat your Make up and Stompcrash.

MC: You recently told me that you have started working on the new SF album. How it is going? Will there be any surprises? (Don’t give them away!)

KH: Surprises? Well I suppose to us it will seem like an evolution rather than a revolution. The main thing is we are working so well together these days which is only to be expected as we’ve been together longer now than the first time round!!!

Read More… Skeletal Family