Simon Rushworth
This week’s re-release of Night Electric Night thrusts metal anti-heroes Deathstars back into the limelight. Our very own mystery man, Calum Robson, caught up with bass player Skinny to bring you another rushonrock exclusive.
rushonrock: What do Deathstars want to give to the public with the introduction of the platinum edition of Night Electric Night?
Skinny: We just saw an opportunity to celebrate our 10 years as a band. And to do that we collected remixes in our network of friends and fans, we also thought that the old demos had a self written spot on there. Since we already used the name Gold Edition when the album came out we just upgraded it to platinum.
rushonrock: Allowing the chance for anyone to remix three of your songs for the album is tricky business I suppose. Who brought about that idea? And what was the reasoning behind it?
S: I know I was involved together with someone somehow just with the idea about a anniversary album. And bringing the fans and friends in felt like a natural step to do. We love our fans just as anybody else do and we wanted them to be part of it. We have also been very fortunate with making friends among many artists that we also wanted to include. It’s of course a lot of work but in the end it’s a like a birthday gift, almost like the skateboard I got when I turned 10.
rushonrock: A lot of bands release old material and remixes when they’re about to split up. Is this the case or are there a few more years left in Deathstars yet?
S: It sounds like something a record label would do to milk the cow. This was completely our decision and I hope we still have a few years to go, there’s still a lot to give.
rushonrock: Across the internet and in music magazines, Whiplasher seems to get compared to Rammstein’s frontman Till Lindermann. Do you agree that it’s a fair comparison?
S: Still? Well, I remember that we got compared to a lot of bands in the beginning but it seemed to have faded out. When the first album was released Whiplasher had never even heard of Rammstein. It was our old guitar player Beast X Electric who showed him that later. I do understand what you mean in the style of singing but I’m sure a lot of people said that Till got compared to early Laibach tracks when they started off. With that said I do agree it is a fair comparison.
rushonrock: It’s always tough to categorize when it comes to musical genres. But ‘Deathglam’ has been a term used often in the Deathstars camp. How do you define it? And what does ‘Deathglam’ mean to the band?
S: It both describes who we are and how our sound formed. Whip, Nightmare and Bone came out of the Death/Black/Trash scene. When me and Cat joined who had more of a Rock n’ Roll past we started to bring in more R n’ R elements live and on album. Lots of glitter has been spread over their dark electronic metal.
rushonrock: Undoubtedly there have been dark themes in your music, especially in last album, Termination Bliss. Do you think the new album is a continuation of this or has it taken a different direction?
S: It’s definitely a spinoff on the previous album since it’s hard to shake off traumas like death and depression. The time when we wrote Night Electric Night was actually even darker but we canalised it into destructive partying and other depraving ways which the title reveals.
rushonrock: Going back a few years, how was it for you working in production with Dissection?
S: It was at the same time as we recorded Termination Bliss so it was hard work keeping both productions afloat. It was me and Nightmare’s studio (Black Syndicate) and we were both working double shifts with a day job on the side to make it happen. But the actual recording process was a lot of fun. Jon gave us pretty much free hands on the producing part and I’m very glad we had the chance to do it in spite of all the hard work.
rushonrock: Lastly, are there any acts that impress you at the minute? What are you listening to?
S: I’m really into Rob Zombies latest album Hillbilly Deluxe II and the latest Accept album Blood Of The Nations but I’m also stuck with a lot of country and bluegrass since I started playing banjo and pedal steel a year ago… hehe.