Im letzten Jahr haben wir in unserer „Wie klingt…?“ Interview-Reihe Künstlerinnen und Künstler zum Klang der Jahreszeiten (Herbstklang & Sommerklang) befragt. In diesem Jahr blicken wir zurück und widmen uns dem Klang der letzten Dekade. Der Auftakt der Reihe ist unser Interview mit Pete Burns und seine Gedanken zur Entwicklung der Darkwave & Post-Punk-Szene in den letzten Jahren.
Für Pete klingt die letzte Dekade … „dark with a little sprinkling of hope.“ Das beschreibt auch wunderbar seinen eigenen dunklen Sound, der sich zwischen Hoffnung und Melancholie bewegt.

Kill Shelter ist sein jüngstes Musikprojekt. Nach Mitwirken an fantastischen Remixen anderer Szene-Bands hat der in Schottland lebende Künstler mit Damaged sein erstes eigenes Album veröffentlicht und darauf brillante Underground-Talente der ganzen Welt vereint – ein großartiges Album und überwältigendes Debüt mit einer großen Bandbreite an Klängen und Emotionen & grandiosen Vocals. Jeder Song ist einzigartig – dunkel und wunderschön! Damaged gibt einen faszinierenden und vielfältigen Blick auf die aktuelle Gothic-Szene und gehört zu den Top-Alben von 2018 (hier zur Review).

Pete Burns ist nicht nur ein großartiger Musiker, Songschreiber und Remixer. Seine Leidenschaft für dunkle und unabhängige Underground-Musik teilt er mit Christian Schäfer. Auf ihrem Blog „Rule Of Three“ präsentieren und celebrieren beide regelmäßig neue Tracks von Post-Punk-, Darkwave-, Coldwave- und Gothic-Künstler*innen aus der ganzen Welt.

In unserem Interview fragten wir Pete nach dem Sound der letzten Dekade, seinen Top-Alben und seinen Gedanken zur Entwicklung der Darkwave & Post-Punk-Szene der letzten Jahre.

The last ten years could be described musically…
… as being dark with a little sprinkling of hope. I think there have been some truly outstanding albums and tracks released in the past decade and way too many to list. I listen to a wide range of dark and heavy music and I particularly love the production work of Noisia (recently disbanded) and Mefjus and they have definitely influenced my approach even although I write and produce in a completely different genre.

I wish I’d written that…
… a lot of friends and bands that I’ve been lucky enough to work with have released some incredible work during the past decade so I would hate to offend anyone by leaving them out. Instead, I thought I’d break the rules and compile 10 tracks from the 2010s from people that I haven’t worked with (yet). These are just some of the tracks that I’ve thought over the years “I wish I’d written that” … so maybe that’s a good place to start. This is certainly not a definitive list and it is in no particular order…

Ascetic: – „Pharmacy“ (2013)
M!R!M – „Liebe Machen“ (2013)
Youth Code – „For I am Cursed“ (2014)
Traitrs – „Gallows Hill“ (2016)
Killing Joke – „Euphoria“ (2015)
Soft Kill – „Hit the Floor“ (2015)
Whispering Sons – „Alone“ (2018)
Nitzer Ebb – „I’m Undone“ (2010)
TR/ST – „Iris“ (2019)
Twilight Sad – „Last January“ (2014)

And you can add Noir for Rachel – “I” (2014) for luck.

Darkwave and Post-Punk in the 2010s…
… they say if you keep a suit for thirty years it will come back into fashion. The rise of Post-Punk and Darkwave in the 2010s could definitely be signalled by everything that had come before.
The Post-Punk “revival” is a bit of a misnomer as the scene has managed to keep going in various incarnations over the years. The 2010s brought both maturity and diversity as well as a blending of styles to the scene with a result that almost defies purist categorisation at times. Throughout the decade we saw pivotal bands like The Soft Moon and She Past Away come to the fore along with Drab Majesty and Lebanon Hanover amongst many others.
The scene has diversified too and Darkwave crossed into techno (or vice versa) with artists like Boy Harsher and Cabaret Nocturne, where you can hear the influence of club culture coming through strongly, but the music is still heavily embraced by Post-Punk aficionados. But there’s also a very strong underground scene that has been helped by the self publishing platforms like Bandcamp, Mixcloud and Soundcloud which have given a lot of „new blood“ bands the opportunity to be discovered fuelled by the growing number of DJs who continue to support the scene.

Looking back…
… I think sonically the Kill Shelter sound is definitely developing and progressing into something much bigger. I have a very firm idea of what Kill Shelter is and isn’t. I wrote about 25 demo tracks last year and I’ve been starting to work some of them up. I tend to write on the guitar first and then lay down the bass just with a click track so it’s always wide open where the tracks go in terms of production. I find that a very inspiring way to work and one of the reasons I enjoy working with guest vocalists and collaborators so much. Overall I’d say the sound is much darker, heavier and more intense now and I’m definitely pushing myself more.

I’ve got a few things planned for this year…
… but we’ll have to wait and see how the release dates fall. There’s likely to be at least one full length Kill Shelter release this year as well as a remix (or two) including the recently announced „Soluk“ remix for She Past Away which features on their album „X“ .

I’ve been busy producing, mixing and mastering too which is a slightly different discipline and something I really love. I’m currently engineering and producing the next Night Nail album and that’s been incredible – they are very talented, great to work with and the new material is really strong – can’t wait for people to hear it. I’m always happy in the studio whether I’m working for others or working on Kill Shelter material.

In terms of what comes next… watch this space and expect the unexpected as they say…

Kill Shelter im Netz:               Bandcamp                    Facebook                         Instagram

(5219)