LEPER MESSIAH writes and records music that everyone can enjoy. With the recent release of their debut album, the band wants to push this release the most, especially with a few shows set for the fall already, wanting themselves to grow and each out there for all to come and see. The band discloses all of this below.
1. Please tell us about the history of your band and its members.
LEPER MESSIAH started out as a David Bowie tribute band back in 2012, celebrating the then 40th anniversary of Bowie’s seminal Glam Rock project, Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars, with a grandiose Ziggy tour. Back then, we counted four band members: Per Henrikon drums, Øyvind on guitar, Peri on bass, and myself, Vidar on vocals. After two years of doing the Ziggy Stardust thing, we transitioned into an original rock band and started working on our own music. Peri is a kick-ass guitar player and we began searching for a new, dedicated bass player so that Peri could take on main guitarist responsibilities in the band. In 2015, we found our guy and added a fifth member to the band, Ignacy from Poland, rounding Leper Messiah off into a nice 5-piece rock act. Since then, we’ve been writing and touring our own original music, and after a Covid-19 delay, we’ve now just released our debut album, "FELL CREATURES", and are gearing up for an exciting tour to support our work.
2. What’s the origin of the band’s name?
The name is taken from Bowie’s song, Ziggy Stardust, from the line that goes: “Makin’ love to his ego, Ziggy was sucked up into his mind, like a Leper Messiah.” That said, most audience members seem to think we got the name from Metallica. *laughs*
3. Where is the band based out of and what is your music scene like there? Are there any local bands you could recommend?
LEPER MESSIAH is based in the city of Bergen, on the west coast of Norway. Bergen has a vibrant music scene with a lot of bands competing for attention. There are several music venues there, too, and a young population with a lot of college and university students, making it a quite good city for bands. The music scene is strongly tailored towards various genres of metal, though. There are many, many bands to showcase from Bergen, but to choose a few great and interesting ones:
--Vulture Industries is a weird and wonderful, theatrical, dark cabaret, progressive metal band with a unique voice and style, who never fails to deliver a must-see show that you’ll talk about for weeks and weeks thereafter.
--SandmarX is an up-and-coming hard rock act with a huge sound and great, raw-power, female vocals.
--Silver End is more of a melodic metal band, with a powerful stage presence and songs ranging from hard-hitting rockers to smooth power ballads.
4. How would you describe your style?
We find that there’s nothing more boring than a rock band whose songs all sound exactly the same, so in LEPER MESSIAH we dip our toes in a lot of genres; with Leper Messiah, there is something for everyone. For the most part, however, our songs fit somewhere on the glam rock to hard rock spectrum, with the subject matter exploring the dark and the dangerous.
5. What have you released so far and what can someone expect from your works?
Our debut album, "FELL CREATURES", is out now, a classical 10-tunes rock record with great songs about difficult things and bad people. To paraphrase Tom Waits, we like pretty songs about ugly things, and that’s what you’ll get from Fell Creatures.
6. Do you have any new music in the works?
Oh yes! Releasing the debut record makes us hungry for more, and we have several new tunes in the works. We expect to demo several of them at gigs over the next few months; exciting!
7. How about playing shows and touring, have anything planned out?
Yeah, it’s been a real drought with the plague and all, but things are starting to lighten up right about now. We’ve got a handful of gigs booked this fall, with more in the works. One of our favorite things to do is hosting the annual local RockFest here in Bergen, where we invite three underground bands to come share a stage with us for an all-night rock ‘n roll extravaganza! This year, we’re ferrying over a great psychedelic rock act from England – The Roz Bruce Infusion – and next year we’ll head over to the UK to do a tour with them there; that’s gonna be a lot of fun for sure! Also, we’ll take on Poland probably next year, and Florida sometime thereafter. Of course, we’ve got loads more plans, too, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves. *wink wink, nudge nudge*
8. What plans do you have for the future as a band?
Oh, we intend to keep growing as artists and reach out to ever new fans and markets, slowly spreading our art across Europe and beyond. After some touring, we’ll return to the studio and record that difficult follow-up album, before we hit the road again for new tours. But for now, we’re excited to be touring our debut record, to play it at great new locations and meet new fans and collaborators. Giging is, after all, the heart and soul of our business.
9. Where can we listen to your band and where can we buy your stuff?
Right now, our merchandise is only available at our gigs, but we’ll set up an online store when we get around to it. Anyone out there just dying to get their hands on a LEPER MESSIAH t-shirt should reach out to us on https://www.facebook.com/TheLeperMessiahBand; do that, and we’ll figure something out. To listen to our music, you should check out our album Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/7znRKVKPwbSzcACvatUJWV.
10. What is it you’d like a listener to remember the most when hearing your music for the first time?
We hope you’ll come away having experienced a strong, emotional story with some great rock ‘n roll sounds. We’d like to take you on a ride, and if you end up pondering the themes and tales our songs conveys, just as you start the record over again, well then that much better. Enjoy!
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