Page 1 of 2

cold-cavemain

Earlier this year, a CD was released called Cremations.

A compendium of new material from Wesley Eisold, former vocalist in punk band Give Up The Ghost (originally American Nightmare) as well as the man behind the Heartworm publishing company who’ll soon be putting out literature by Throbbing Gristle’s Genesis P. Orridge, it played like a labyrinth of white noise and cryptic poetry: monologues about eroticism and Hell burnt into walls already eroded by static and electricity. He released it under the name Cold Cave.

Released on Dominick ‘Prurient’ Fernow’s Hospital label, Cremations took the screams-and-static aesthetic of Prurient’s work and combined it with a subtle nostalgia for synth-pop; the backing on tracks like ‘Heavenly Metals’ sounding like the ghosts of Depeche Mode and New Order circling purgatory. Prurient is now an official member of Cold Cave along with Xui Xui’s Caralee McElroy, and the band’s new album Love Comes Close owes a more explicit debt to disco and synth-pop than before. It’s a pop album – albeit one that sounds like it was recorded in a ghost house rather than a big studio – with songs like ‘Life Magazine’, where the cut up, echoed female vocals and ear-worm burrowing chorus and closing refrain recall this year’s Discovery album.

But despite this change in direction, Love Comes Close feels perfectly natural: it’s still very dark, and very Cold Cave, like power violence in disguised as power pop. The instruments on tracks like ‘I.C.D.K.’ sound like they’ve been forcibly pushed and programmed in these new directions, and the lyrics deal with many of the same subjects as Cremations. With the band preparing to tour the UK, and Matador Records scheduled to re-release the already sold-out Love Comes Close along with an EP titled Death Comes Close, we got in touch with Eisold to talk sex, scenes and synth-pop.

Love Comes Close has recently been signed to Matador – given that it’s a lot poppier than Cremations, not to mention your past work with Give Up The Ghost et al – did you anticipate that sort of interest at all? And given your strong association with underground labels, publishers, etc, was it something that you had to think twice about?

“No we didn’t anticipate interest from anyone or any label. Really this is why the records were made in limited quantities, there were no listeners. Admittedly it’s a cowardly way to live, you can’t fail if there’s no chance of success. Anyway, I’m happy to be on Matador Records. Had they not come into our lives I would’ve been happy to self-release or work with Hospital still too. I didn’t have to think twice as it’s a label I’ve loved for half my life.”

What was the timeframe, so to speak, of Love Comes Close and Cremations? Were you writing some of the Love Comes Close material whilst putting out the tracks that would eventually be compiled on Cremations, or did they come afterwards?

“It’s almost completely chronological.. There may have been some overlapping in the writing but none of the songs from Love Comes Close were completed by the time the Cremations collection was. They were definitely intended for different releases though… It was a concerted effort to have a distinction in sound and aesthetic. Also Cremations was the beginning, and after learning a bit I wanted to write a more pop-song oriented album with a beginning and an end. Cremations is far less song oriented and more about capturing the crudeness of sexuality. Love Comes Close is more about locating the beauty within yourself.”

You say in your interview with The Quietus that it’s currently you, Caralee and Dominick writing the Cold Cave material – how has the songwriting dynamic with the band changed over time? Judging from old live pictures it’s always been a collective unit in the live setting, were you initially writing the songs solo?

“I’m not sure I can say how its changed yet. Caralee played and wrote parts on the LP and the rest was made alone. I think the next LP will be more of an effort from everyone but we haven’t arrived there just yet. The live line-up has revolved a bit amongst friends but is solid now with the three of us.”

How and when did Cold Cave form exactly?

“I’m not sure exactly when, 2007 maybe? Really I just had time and the idea of starting a new band with other people from scratch seemed so dreadful. With practices and personalities and trying to communicate to someone else what it is you want to do, the inevitable compromise, et cetera. So I wanted to make music alone, regardless of quality or if it would be performed live; regardless if anyone would care. I feel fortunate to have had the encouragement of friends at Hospital and Dais records who offered to release records. And that was that. A friend asked me to play his birthday party with Burning Star Core and I said yes and proceeded to nervously make it work live.”

I read an interview a while back where you indicated you were “really bored” with hardcore and punk. Was it that apathy that led you to form Cold Cave? And did you see it as something distinct from hardcore at the time – obviously Love Comes Close is very removed, but a lot of the songs on Cremations share hardcore’s traits; they’re not a million miles from bands like Geisha for instance.

“I was bored with myself in that world really and we had nothing for each other. A lot of people in relationships come to this point where they are no longer talking, the magic is long dead, and they stick around out of fear for what could or could not come next. I can’t relate to this. I think there is always a next and you dictate this by the work and love and energy you put in to the world, and your craft. I want to mold the world, not be shaped by it anymore. I was too miserable for too long because I let the outside world dictate my life, but the world is powerless if you don’t give it any power. This isn’t an issue of musical genre or scenes or anything so narrow, its more and more is what we need. By the time Cold Cave started there would not have been a conscious effort to have it sound different as it had been a few years removed anyway. You know, you cannot have apathy if you simply have no feeling, and thats how I felt when Cold Cave began.”

Was there a desire – given the fact that you write print literature as well as songs – for your lyrics to be more of a focus than they could be in a hardcore band?

“No not really, because I don’t feel the lyrics are more of a focus now than they were for me then. I don’t feel hardcore is limiting in lyrics or anything like that and I always devoted a lot to them. I can say that it was important for the record to be released on Heartworm at first because I hadn’t been working on any other writing, just lyrics for these songs.”

What particular themes run through your music, lyrically? And are the subjects often the same as in your literature?

“Yes they are the same. I don’t see separation between life and music and the words we use to describe the way we feel. I don’t know that I could describe the themes now, but generally I write songs about how it feels to be deceived by purpose.”

Am I right in thinking there’s a fair bit of humour behind Love Comes Close? From the baritone to the quite over-the-top descriptions of pain and hurt, there’s the sense that it’s more playful than your past work…or at least, lighter – you said in that Quietus interview that you’re making something beautiful to balance the ugliness of the past work. And are you enjoying working with Cold Cave more than you have past bands?

“You could be right? I’m not sure what that means exactly. Every band has had its moments but I enjoy the present more than the past.”

Tom Lea

Page 1 of 2
Latest

Latest



		
	
Share Tweet