Death Makes Pretty's Shell and Nika Talk About Death with Music

Death Makes Pretty were dug up from the dark depths of society and each member was found through their blood thirsty passion to make music. The band started early 2012 and with blood, sweat and coffee they have been creating a monster of musical torture to wake up the dead and put music back in the veins of the living!

The five members feature; Siren Sycho giving off her intoxicating vociferate screams of attack and melodies of mayhem. Shell Shock's heavy rock'n'roll roaring lead guitar of extreme sound splices together with the blaring dark edge of the rhythm guitar of Geisha Romance. Adding to their haunting melodic chaos, Nika SkerKrow’s deep vibrating aggressive bass blasts along side the twisted deafening beats of DB Hollow on the drums which splatter into the ears of the unusual and abnormal.

Their music is ready to tear through the minds of the masses as the bands eye catching horror inspired image merged together with their powerful stage performances of flawless infused destruction... Death Makes Pretty is a band that you need to hear before you die! Bandmates Shell and Nika took the time to discuss their latest release, plans, and first time showcase!


1. Introduce yourself, tell me what you do in Death Makes Pretty, and how long the band has been together.

Hi I'm Shell and I play lead guitar and backing vocals.

Hey, I'm Nika, and I play bass guitar, synths and backing vocals, its just the 2 of us here so we'll introduce the rest of the gang. Siren is lead vocals, DB drums and Geisha is our rhythm guitar player, the band has been together since less than a year.

2. Where is the band based out of and what is your music scene like there? Are there any local bands you could recommend?

Shell : The band is based in London, Camden Town area being our HQ as that s where we record write, practice and hang out.

Nika : The scene in London isn't that great at the moment, its a big party town but when it comes to live scene not much is going on and is difficult to get visibility, very rarely you meet promoters that know what they are doing, instead the sponge off bands asking them to sell tickets and bring their friend to the gigs which good band should never do.

Shell : We know many bands in the scene but I think Generation Graveyard are one that stands out, lots of attitude and raw punk sound.

3. So tell me about this mini album and how is the process going for your full-length album?

Shell : We released a 6 tracks to introduce the band and start building up from there, we have many more songs already written and will soon start working on the full length album the mini album tho just came out in March so at the moment we are focusing on promoting that.

4. Is there any story or concept behind the Scream! Skercrows!!! title?

Nika : I came out with the idea after watching the horror movie "scarecrows" but there is no real concept although we wanted to give to this release a overall horror feel, which goes well with the fact that the band is brand new and still in the very underground scene, so we left all the stadium anthem for the full length album.

5. Select two songs from Scream! Skercrows!!! and what inspired the lyrics.

Nika : Horror movies but also personal experience, although the vibe is horror, the concepts can apply to different aspect of day to day life, we never want to tell kids what the song should mean for them, we write the tunes, they listen to them and relate lyrics to whatever they feel is closer to their experience what they mean personally its different even between the band members.

6. Who produced Scream! Skercrows!!! and what was it like working with them?

Shell : Nika produced the album, its hell working with him. :)

Nika : Sure is.

7. Who did the cover art for Scream! Skercrows!!! and how much input did you have on it?

Shell : The artwork has been realized buy the italian artist Emanuele Fiorentino, we had 100% input as it was Nika's idea and he worked together with him all along the creation of the artwork, Siren then did all the work with the design which we are really happy with.

8. You mentioned of a full-length in the works, how does this release differ and compare to the mini album?

Nika : As mentioned, we already have some tunes already for it, its early stages so probably too early too say but we some great tunes already written and we can t wait to write more what we can already say is that you ll get to see the full potential of the band on a full length.

9. What are your songs about? (What specific themes do they cover?)

Shell : As Nika mentioned we do not have specific themes we write about, it depends on the song, the moment we are in when writing, what we are going thorough and yet again, for the audience the meaning could be different depending on their perception of it...

10. Do you write your own songs? (Discuss the songwriting process in detail.)

Nika : No, the scarecrows write the songs and they come at night, when its full moon, and leave a old style tape under our beds but its because we don't have a tape player we can t play whats on the tape so we have to come up with our own, which i m sure would suck if compared to whats on the scarecrows cassettes.

11. Who are your musical influences?

Nika : Where to start fromÉMotley Crue, Hellacopters, Prodigy, Pretty Boy Floyd, AFI, Murderdolls.

Shell : Backyard Babies, Ministry, MurderdollsÉ.

Nika : Dean Martin we well.

12. You will be releasing a video for the second single, can you tell me about the single and the video concept you have in mind?

Shell : Its going to be Tokyo Gore Girl, the idea is around a alternative punk gothic emo version of the character from the horror movie "The Grudge".

13. How have the gigs you guys been doing this year been?

Nika : The band is very new, so we just started gigging and only had one gig so far, that went very well with more coming up this summer, but we are very selective about the gig and promoters we work with, anyone that ask us to sell ticket or to bring 20-30 friends get a "fuck you" as a response because those guys are parasites.

14. What are your upcoming touring plans and plans for this year?

Shell : We are planning to play US beginning of 2014, that s our main plan.

15. What advice would you give to fellow bands, who want to do what you're doing?

Nika : Put your heart into it, work hard, never sell out, its hard work but it will pay off eventually if you are truth to your principles, never forget why you started doing music in the first place and rock hard!