Wednesday, May 7, 2014

Interview with Silpha & The Corpseboners

Silpha and the Corpseboners are a new horrorpunk band that recently released their first full length album “Agony & Ecstasy”. The band is definitely one of a kind in the scene: not only do they have female vocals but they also add new elements to the basic recipe for horrorpunk songs. The music is disturbing to some, refreshing to others, but 100 percent worth a listen. So we met with Silpha and the Corpseboners to get a little look behind their adventurous minds and introduce to you the four guys from hell of Germanys suburbs. 





Graveyard Greaser Gang: Would you please introduce yourselves?
Dr.Horion: So this is Silpha Obscura on vocals, Manfred Von Körperteil playing the guitar, Bastille Amnesie on drums and me, Dr Horizon, on bass guitar. together we are Silpha & The Corpseboners.

GGG: How did you come together as a band?
Dr.Horion: The three of us started out as a high school fun-punk group. As our fans grew older and died but we didn't this band had to bite the dust. But shortly after we buried the project, Silpha came along our way and resurged the band.
Manfred Von Körperteil: Bastille, Horion and me were at our favourite night club (we've known each other  for  quite a while), when we saw Silpha getting served in a dance-off by some Italian guy in a white suit. We were really impressed so we hired her.
Silpha Obscura: The other guys had been playing together in a band for a few years until I sang Saturday Night at a party. Even if I was very drunk and surely didn’t hit the notes at all, they asked me if I wanted to join them.

GGG: How would you describe the music you play?
MVK: Weird.
DH: Its’labeled horrorpunk. but that’s only half the truth. the other half is some obscure mixture of all kinds of shrieking sounds dipped into pitchblack ink.
SO: I think it’s still horrorpunk, because it comes with classic punk parts, sometimes plain, deep vocals all mixed up with some melancholic tunes. What may be a difference to many other bands: Our lyrics may not all be typically for this scene. Some of them have to be seen on a metaphorical level. I, for instance, mostly dealt with situations in which I was very horrified in my life rather than talking About horror movie scenes. For now, at least. And then of course, our eagerness to experiment. we don’t want to limit ourselves absolutely to one musical genre.

 
promo picture of Silpha and the Corpseboners

GGG: What are your influences?
SO: Maybe Misfits, a little bit The Other, Blitzkid and The Creepshow, but normally new ideas for a melody come very spontaneously.
DH: Expressionism.
MVK Mainly Chopin, Tschaichowsky and Insane Clown Posse

GGG: Is it difficult to be new band in the horrorpunk scene - especially since there are not many horrorpunkbands with female vocals?
MVK: Horrorpunks tend to like old stuff and we are new, so I guess it's hard to get them to get into us. For the female vocal part: in my opinion that's a selling point. Scarcity value, you know?
SO: Really depends on the show.. It’s difficult to play in front of an older audience which – just my feeling - judges us because of our age or wants to hear a typical horrorpunk band without a reaggae or a ska part in their songs.
DH: Booking is a bloody pain in the ass. but a pain worth suffering if it makes you get out of your stinky crypthy rehearsal room and makes you play shows.

GGG: You already released a demo ("De Morte") and a full length ("Agony & Ecstasy"). how is the feedback of the fans so far?
SO: Some people don’t like the idea of mixing up so many music styles, I think. But on the other hand, there were so many guys who especially liked this aspect of our music. The quality of our D.I.Y. sound pleased to some, to others not. Generally you could say, there were mostly extreme opinions. not many in between.
DH: Yeah, its even love or hate that comes back to us. to me that is cool. i like heavy emotions.
MVK: Those who buy the album and stay during our shows like it, the others...maybe they're not quite into our stuff yet. They will be soon, though. Next EP will be the best we've ever made.

GGG: Talking about your album: what can people expect from it when they buy it?
DH: 44 minutes of agony and ecstasy.
MVK: Noises.

"Agony And Ecstasy", the first full lenght by Silpha and the Corpseboners


GGG: Who did the artwork for the full-length?
SO: Dr. Horion took the pictures of the little spider, the heart and the skull and I made the illustrations as well as the rest of the graphical design. The band pictures were made by our friends from www.lifelinephotography.de
DH: You can’t imagine how difficult it is to make a tarantula sit on a cold plate while pointing a lamp at it with one hand and making photos with the other. The visual concept was worked out by the band while we elaborated the musical concept. Its important to us that those two components form a whole.

GGG: How do you guys write songs?
DH: Normaly someone comes up with a rough idea of a song and riffs, chords etc. and the lyrics. the rest of the band then adds some influences and ideas here and there and we arrange it together. the rest is magic.
MVK: For me it's mostly riffs first, then some other parts like Chorus and stuff and at last the lyrics. But when I'm high on Crack everything at once.
SO: Always in a different way. Very often I have melodies without lyrics and the other way round and I just connect them if they go together.

GGG: Why did you make "Agony & Ecstasy" a kinda concept album?
MVK: Because we thought it would look rad.
DH: That idea came up when we where working on the visual concept of the album. we had the idea to make a triptych album artwork and thought it would be cool if that came up in the music, too.
SO: The idea behind the concept – even if some lyrics differ from it – is about a circle of fear of love, fears triggered by relationships and so on which lead to emotional coldness, mental disorders and despair – wich we abstracted to death. The last track with lyrics on the album contains all of these elements and rounds up the story behind it. And why? Mainly processing personal experiences.

promotion for ""Agony & Ecstasy"


GGG: Was there any special reason you chose "this kind of fate" for a clip of the new album and how happy are you with the result?
DH: While we recorded the album I was already looking for the right song to make a video to. Whilst the songs became more and more finished it got clearer that "This Kind Of Fate" written by Manfred was the right one. It has a nice pop-appeal to it and pretty much sums up the whole album. Moreover it has this beauty-and-beast-theme which is a cool headstone for a storydriven music video, i think. I had the idea of doing a black and white video stuck inspired by old horror flicks (like nosferatu, Dr.caligari etc.) in my head for a long time and this is the result of it. Surely, it is no cinematic masterpiece but its very near to my original vision. And as always, we had this DIY way of doing it: It was shot in the basement where we recorded the album. Also, it's an absolute no-budget clip.
MVK: I was hoping the melody would maybe get stuck in some heads. 9 out of 10 possible happiness points.

GGG: What is your favorite song to play live?
SO: Our Pet Sematary cover and Linger A Little Longer.
DH: Today.
MVK: This Kind Of Fate (full circle!)
  
GGG: Silpha, how is it to tour as the only woman with three guys?
MVK: As the only girl in the band I have to say it's kind of ok. But some things are still kind of annoying. For instance, they all smell really bad. But at least I've trained them to go to the bathroom for their weekly penis measuring.

GGG: What's your favorite moment while on tour?
MVK: Er...playing the show, duh.
SO: The catering from the gig at Wild At Heart in Berlin was great! And the soundcheck of my second gig.. don’t know really why.
DH: Of Course the moment when we enter the stage is always great. But what really makes the night are these hilarious moments when Bastille Amesie is drunk after show and loses the control over his body fluids. Thats always fun. And going to Berlin and Leipzig  with an Opel Corsa and all the backline and sleeping gear stuffed in it never seeing daylight for about three days is something really great.

Silpha and the Corpseboners live


GGG: What was the fav band you've played with yet and with what band would you like to share stage one day?
MVK: We're in love with every band we've ever played with and I would like to share the stage with Metallica sometime. Lars, if you read this, call me!
SO: It was a really cool night when we played with the Barb Wire Dolls at Cult in Nuremberg and it’s always a lot of fun if we have the possibility to play with our friends from Dr. Hell.
DH: Dr.Hell are the most sympathic undead that i ever had the honour to smell. And Johnny Deathshadow are the best-smelling ones.

GGG: What are your plans for 2014?
Silpha Obscura: More gigs and to record a new EP!
MVK: Making music, playing shows.
DH: We are working on new material at the moment. If everything works out as it should we will release a very long EP by fall or so. And  gigs. We hope to get our hands on as much shows as possible. So if there’s anyone out there willing to let us enter the stage please get in touch with us. maybe someday the dream of playing outside of germany becomes true, too. who knows?

GGG: Anything you wanna add?
MVK: You're pretty.
DH: As for you, be fruitful and multiply.
 
Silpha and the Corpseboners on the internet:

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