For some musicians mixing a handful of genres makes them more unique and eye catching if you will, for an act like Black Heroin Galley, they chose to use death rock, post-punk, and goth as their genre elements of music creating. Thus band mates E. December Joseph vocalist/guitarist/synth, Kevin Desolate on bass, with Mize Grimm on guitar, these three took the time to disclose some info on themselves as a band, the future activity in-store, and why the music they create does the things it does.
1. Please tell us about the history of your band and its members.
E. December Joseph: Well, I originally formed “Black Heroin Gallery” in 2007. After my deathrock band “Astrovamps”, broke up. I consider the line up I have now, as my original line-up. The band has taken 7 years to get off the ground, there were a lot of false starts and all kinds of delays, but I never gave up getting it ready for Live and recording. Now it’s finally to that point. The band is very intense live! Kevin Desolate is playing bass guitar, Mize Grimm is playing lead guitar, Tony is on drums and I do vocals. We have started playing shows now and that is exciting,
2. Why did you pick the name that you did for your band?
E. December Joseph: I took the band’s name from one of my fables I was writing. In the story, super natural creatures would meet at the ‘Black Heroin Gallery’, to smoke, drink, perform, show art and discuss all things of witchcraft. I thought, that was the perfect name for the kind of band I wanted to be in.
3. Where is the band based out of and what is your music scene like there? Are there any local bands you could recommend?
Mize Grimm: The music scene in LA is excellent. Helter Skelter, Das Bunker, Batcave, Malediction, Release the Bats, Bar Sinister, Diskro Nekro, Blue Mondays, Warklock, Ruin, and Funeral are some of top clubs/events that I keep my eye on. There are always goth/industrial nights going on in different areas and the clubs vary from deathrock/old school/goth to heavy electronic industrial. I like them all and try to get out to them when I can. I didn't realize until I moved to LA that the goth/industrial scene, you may have in other cities, is broken up here so there's more fragmentation and sub-sub-cultures but there are also more choices. Some of my favorite local bands are Deadfly Ensemble, Fangs on Fur, They Feed at Night, God Module, Catholic Spit, Limnus, The Witch Was Right and Untoward Children.
Kevin Desolate: From L.A. The scene in L.A. is divided by heavy barriers between the Mexigoths, cybor industrial goth, and by the more grounded dedicated Death Rock scene which makes it very small with no uniformity, but in reality it is quite big. Something needs to unite the whole scene together and I think a band like ours is what has been missing since death rock bands like Christian Death from the 80's. Many bands are now abandoning guitar based rock in favor of electronic or industrial sounds, divorced from traditional, organic creativity. The lack of glitter and glam bands from the 80's like New York Dolls and T Rex are examples of how bland and stale the scene is today. We want to marry the two with a more hauntingly darker scene with a hard edge.
E. December Joseph: We’re in Hollywood, baby! There are two great local bands I like to mention, sadly they are no longer with us. They’re “The Ultras” and “Stars From Mars.” Everyone should check these gems out.
4. How would you describe your style? Which bands influenced your music?
E. December Joseph: I describe our music as Deathrock, but mixed with post-punk and goth rock. My influences, are pretty much most of the old school bands; Virgin Prunes, Velvet Underground, Bauhaus, Rozz’s Christian Death, Alien Sex Fiend, Joy Division, Jane’s addiction. Skinny Puppy, New York Dolls, Flesh for LuLu, Gene Loves Jezebel, Specimen and Ausgang.
Mize Grimm: I would describe the band's style as a cross between deathrock, metal and punk. If Deadfly Ensemble, Sopor Aeternus and Christian Death had a baby and it grew up in a carnival sideshow, that's sort of what we would are like. My personal style is extremely diverse. I listen to everything that's not country and avoid most pop music. Some of my bigger influences are Dead Kennedys, Misfits, Love and Rockets, Bauhaus, Hendrix, The Cure, Alice in Chains, Sisters of Mercy, NIN, Mozart and Christian Death. Lately I've been listening to a lot of Bloody Dead and Sexy, Aesthetic Perfection, Austra, Cold Cave, Grausame Tochter, The Gazette, Horror Vacui and Hatesex.
Kevin Desolate: I guess our influence would be like a Cradle Of Filth watered down Goth rock brew meets Christian Death. No other bands bridge the gap like we do.
5. Where are you in the process of your debut EP and album? Can you tell me about the songs you've mentioned "Twitching Dead Things", "His Beautiful Darkness", and "My Rotting Flower"?
E. December Joseph: Well “My Rotting Flower” isn't a song, it’s the title of our up coming release, which is being mastered right now and we hope to have some advance copies in December. The album is done and ready to be mix, the songs off the up coming release will be on the album as well, but there will be one or two extended remixes on the release which won’t be on the album. I've always been inspired by the dark and twisted stories that are hiding in simple known or unknown Fables, Nursery Rhymes and Fairy Tales. There are some quite scary ones. So, most of my songs are like that, creepy, haunting Fairy Tales or Nursery Rhymes. “Twitching dead Things”, is about a young male witch and his decaying young bride. His spell casting went wrong and somehow cursed his bride’s soul to be conscience until the very last bone in her body turns to ash or dust, but this isn't all, it also summons every foul dead thing to come forth and try to eat them both along the way. “His Beautiful Darkness”, one of my favorite songs by the way, is about a demon who escapes from hell, to follow his dream of living on earth. He makes it to earth and is amazed with all its good and dark beauty, but hell isn’t having any of this, and is determined to bring back the rebellious beast. The demon refuses and kills himself in a small wooded field on earth, His blood and death make the trees of the field, darkly magical, now when demons want to come to earth they can hide from hell in that field.
6. Do you play live as well? What do you have planned in terms of shows and touring, if any?
E. December Joseph: Yes, we love the live band essence, live is very much part of what “Black Heroin Gallery” is. We have another show in Hollywood coming up in November and we’ll continue playing until our album comes out and then we’ll start playing the big festivals in Europe.
7. What should labels/zines/promoters know about your band? Why should they be interested in it?
Mize Grimm: We have a sound that isn't trying to be like everyone else. There are a lot of cover bands around here and bands trying to resurrect some idea of a sound that they want to be like, but Eyajo has his own vision of stories, rhythms and sounds when he writes the songs. BHG also has a sound that draws it's roots in old school bands and I think there's an authenticity in that.
8. What plans do you have for the near future as a band?
E. December Joseph: Playing Live, shooting a video and getting the album released.
9. Where can we listen to your band and where can we buy your stuff?
E. December Joseph: There will be official announcements soon on where everyone can go to download it, but right now we’re posting some music on YouTube. So YouTube is the best place to hear us at the moment.
10. What is it you’d like a listener to remember the most when hearing your music for the first time?
E. December Joseph: This is real, this is raw, this is simple, but very haunting and creepy music and we stand alone with our sound, ever hopeful that all the fallen, will find us.
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