Darkwave act CEREMONY SHADOWS have a number of single's out, with their album expected later this month in time for spring time! With this, the band has talked about their music, history, future, and what else is set in stone for plans ahead!
1. Where did you get the idea for the band name, you planned it or came out just like that?
We liked the way the words sounded and the images they conjured up, and felt that that was a good match for our music. It kind of came out just like that, without much planning or overthinking it.
2. Why did you want to play this genre?
We all grew up listening to non-mainstream music of various sorts, and played music in various alternative genres in previous projects/bands. We feel that the Darkwave genre reflects our shared musical heritage, and also is a good match for how we present ourselves on stage. And we actually try to bring our own twist to the Darkwave genre! We call it "Ritual Darkwave" because we love Darkwave but our music also includes an element of ritual, mantra, and magick.
3. Did you know each other before the band was formed?
Yes, we knew each other from the local music scene here in Portland, Oregon, and were friends before we were bandmates.
4. Where is the band based out of and what is your music scene like there? Are there any local bands you could recommend?
We live in Portland, Oregon and have quite an active music scene here, especially for a city of our size! There are local bands in all sorts of genres, and particularly when it comes to Darkwave, there are plenty of bands that we enjoy and are friendly with (and have shared the stage with). Here's just a few of them that are worth checking out: Xibling, Dancing Plague, The Secret Light, Glori, Darkswoon, Die Robot and Fading Signals are all great bands and great people!
We are also lucky to have a wonderful venue here (The Coffin) that caters to our scene, and gives not just our local, but also touring bands a fantastic place to play when they come through town. It has really revitalized our dark music scene here!
Lastly, we have great DJs in our scene here who champion local bands like us. It's quite the trip to hear your own song being played at a club and seeing people dance to it!
5. Who or what inspires you to write songs?
Inspiration comes from some of the most unexpected places. We all love to read, and often something we read ends up being a theme in one of our songs, but we've also found inspiration in concepts and feelings, and sometimes it just happens without knowing why 🙂
6. What are your songs about? (What specific themes do they cover?)
Despite our genre being considered "dark", we strive to have a positive message of self-empowerment and self-improvement in our songs, and they often reflect difficulties we've had to overcome ourselves.
For example, in our track "Impetus", we hope to inspire ourselves and others to stop hiding. Stop waiting. Take one small step toward your goals, then another, and another. The time is NOW. Stop hiding your gifts. The world needs your passion!
7. Do you write your own songs? (Discuss the songwriting process in detail.)
Yes, we write all of our songs. Generally, we will start with Timo writing the music first, and then Anastasia and Jakub writing lyrics and vocal melodies to it. This is very much a collaborative process - when lyrics and vocals get added to the tracks, we often end up making significant changes to the song structure and overall vibe, so what we create in the end is the result of deep collaboration.
8. What have you released so far and what can someone expect from your works?
After Anastasia and Jakub formally joined the band in 2024, we started releasing singles (and a couple of remixes that other artists did of our songs), and already released two singles in 2025 ("Reclaim" and "Prey"). All of these tracks are from our upcoming full-length album "Ascension", which drops on March 20, 2025!
9. Do you have any new music in the works?
We recently finished recording our debut album, and are already hard at work conceptualizing and writing songs for our second album.
10. How about playing shows and touring, have anything planned out?
We played shows in Portland and Seattle last year (including at the Immortalis Darkwave Music Festival here in Portland), and have shared the stage with some other amazing artists and friends. We are looking forward to expanding our geographic footprint, and are planning out our 2025 and 2026 show/tour schedule - stay tuned!
11. What plans do you have for the future as a band?
We love what we do, and we have a lot more music within us. With our debut album coming out in a few weeks, our next focus will be to play more shows and introduce our stage show to a wider audience. We'll also be spending time in the studio to work on our sophomore album.
12. Where can we listen to your band and where can we buy your stuff?
Spotify metrics are really important to get booked for shows/festivals, so if you have access to Spotify, it really helps if you listen to our music, add it to your playlists, and follow us there! If not, you can find our music everywhere music is streamed/available online, including on SoundCloud and Bandcamp (where you can purchase our music). We just opened an online merch store as well, and you can find that at https://www.ceremonyshadows.com/store
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