© Marisol Correa
Priest's ambitions seem unstoppable. With three albums in four years, the trio is as prolific as it is creative, and they juggle genres as long as they're bolstered by synthesizers. They have set their sights on EBM with their last two albums, planned as a trilogy that should continue with a final, more experimental album.The trio, who became totally independent following a successful Indiegogo campaign, are now masters of their own destiny, and look set to keep busy over the coming months. The singer and band leader, Mercury, nevertheless found time to answer a couple of questions.
Cult Of Metal : Congratulations on the new album guys ! Something that struck me was how similar “Dark Pulse” is compared to “Body Machine”… Hardly an issue of course, EBM is awesome ! But it seems “New Flesh”, “Cyberhead” and then “Body Machine” always tried something new… Would you say you found your style now? Mercury: Thank you so much! Yeah, "Dark Pulse" was supposed to be the second album in a trilogy - the "Body Machine" trilogy. So it went under the name "Body Machine 2" when we started to record it ,and it also contains songs we recorded but didn’t finish when we made "Body Machine". So those 2 albums have a connection for sure! We also keep the same costumes and masks from the two albums [editor's note: the members of Priest change their appearance with each new album]. The next one is going to be more elaborate and maybe have more live drums and definitely a more experimental feel to it. It will be very different and we’ll start to iron out the new visual concept of Priest this summer too!
The links between both eras really makes it feel as if you envisioned both releases at the same time period. “Just A Game” reminds me of “Let Your Body Go” for example. While “Demon’s Call” very groovy, warm and tender vibes recalls “Nightcrawler”, albeit less jumpy. “Your Devil” on the other hand, reminds me a little of “Keep On Burning”, and “Enter Your Body” reminds me of “Ghost Writer” ! Is “Dark Pulse” somehow a continuation or sequel to “Body Machine” ? It almost feels as the two albums are flipped over : With "Dark Pulse" having the bouncy tracks at the beginning and the colder ones at the end… A total reversal of “Body Machine’s” two moods ! (laugh) Yeah ! It seems like I already answered this one in the first question. We actually had the ambition to make a double album and even a triple album but that was a too big project at the time, so we decided to split up the releases. You can definitely say that Dark Pulse is the sequel.. maybe we should release the two together as a double LP redux edition sometime in the future? We’ll see!
“Golden Gate” isn’t as analogous to the pristine trilogy of “Ghost Writer”, “Hell Awaits” and “Phantom Pain”, but it does seem to be the most mechanical track of all, outside maybe of “Just A Game”… and even that one sounds almost like some distorted rave more so than the pure assault on the senses that “Golden Gate” is ! It’s a track that goes everywhere at once… I do wonder how you came up with that one? Thank you! "Golden Gate" was the first song on "Dark Pulse" that I recorded vocals on. It started with the baseline but had a ”four on the floor” [editor's note: This is a dance rhythm very common in disco music] beat at first. Then Simon Söderberg our producer came up with a breakbeat sounding drum track which I liked and added some extra programming to. We wanted it to sound a bit Acid House too so of course we added the famous TB-303. The lyrics contains a bit of graphic elements if you have a dirty mind, but can also be read generically. It stands out and we really love it!
Just like “Thieves” was my favorite track on “Cyberhead”, “Black Venom” is the masterpiece of your new opus in my humble opinion. I believe those titles showcase the very best of what you do, what made me fall in love with Priest ever since “New Flesh” : soft and fragile, but also punchy. Cold and gloomy, but also seductive. Abrasive yet hypnotic… How does a writing session come along for you guys? How to strike the balance between emotion and catchy tunes ? I’m glad to hear that! "Black Venom" have been around for a long time and it was nice to finally release it. The writing session on that one was basically me in the studio. I made a demo and played it to the producer and he said his job on that one would be to make it sound a bit better but to tick to the original idea. Most of the time I make demos and bring them to the studio - sometimes that’s enough and the song only needs polishing, like "Black Venom", but sometimes more input is required from producer and other members. In that case they are of course credited as co-writers.There’s a remix of it coming out later this summer by Rhys Fulber [editor's note: member of Front Line Assembly ] !
I guess it’s the right time to mention I come from Belgium, often considered the very cradle of EBM, thanks to Front 242 ! Your last two albums took more cues from EBM than ever before, but you also made a splendid cover of “Personal Jesus”, from a band that needs no introduction at all… I assume you have many inspirations altogether? Ah nice ! Yeah Front 242 are quite big for us. I saw them last year in Sweden and they killed it ! I also love A Split-Second and The Klinik very much. So yes, we named our last album Body Machine for a reason and we songs called ”Let Your Body Go”, ”Enter Your Body” and ”Perfect Body Machine” for example, so we like to flirt a little with the legends.. I know that Nitzer Ebb used to tour with the band that needs no introduction and they were both on Mute Records. For us it’s that whole era that inspires us and we will explore more genres from other points in time!
“Dungeon Dance” feels truly alien within your generous discography ! The lyrics are almost spoken, the beat seems minimalist and entrancing. And the chorus is properly impossible to get out of your head! What’s the story behind that curious track? We knew it was going to be a water breaker for many and I believe it is. We just had fun in the studio and yes, it really sticks in your head so we returned to it over and over again. I think it would fit in a strip club. We will also present a dance to it as well later this year!
We compared your last two albums enough! So now I want to say that “Chaos Reigns” seems to come right out of… Cyberhead. Sorry ! It’s just the very pristine, melancholic, delicate color of the song… Which echoed to the mix of epic, dramatic and sentimental song at the core of your second album. A surprising departure from the blazing five tracks that came before it anyway ! It is tradition to finish your albums on a more gentle note? No need to be sorry! I’m very proud of "Cyberhead" and I think many people will rediscover it in time. We had no promotion and had some other issues, both inside and outside the band during the release of "Cyberhead", so it completely flew under the radar. It have started to sell a lot lately, so finally we have to restock it ! "Chaos Reigns" have been around for about 10 years and was rejected of course as a demo for Ghost’s 3rd album "Meliora" and It’s been sitting in my drawer since. Finally I got a reason to dust it off again thanks to our Swedish friends in the band Abu Nein and it was supposed to be a collab, but I was so pleased with how it sounded so it ended up as a Priest track. I hope and think we still going to do another collaboration with Abu Nein at some point though! It’s a nice album closer for sure - better that the closer on Meliora IMHO..
It's kind of a stupid question, but I also realize that three out of four albums (Cyberhead being the odd one) are composed of ten tracks each. Is it the “soft spot” for you? Is it a happy coincidence or a number you conscientiously try to reach ? I think around 10 songs is about good for a Priest album. We have songs mostly between 3-4 minutes so our albums are about 30-40 minutes. An LP sounds best when one side is around 20 minutes too !
Your artworks are also always great… and quite different in styles ! I assume Cybernosferatu worked on the album cover, but also the singles “Just A Game” and “Burning Love”… Was he free to come up with whatever he wanted, or did you have a precise idea on what you wanted the art pieces to look like? Cybernosferatu AKA Johan Åberg is very talented so I give him free reigns. Sometimes I just tell him a basic idea first!
I cannot tell you how hyped I was to see your name among the artists credited for “A Tribute To Rammstein” … and you covered my favorite song of theirs too ! How did such a project come to life? Did the label reach out to you, or were you interested from the get-go? Were you allowed to pick a song, and if so, why did you choose Engel ? Thanks! Cleopatra Records approached us and I said that we could be on the Rammstein tribute album if we could do Engel. I don’t think so many other songs we had to choose from would fit us good. We could only choose from the Spotify top 10. We’re very happy with the result!
It's interesting to mention that “Dark Pulse” was crowdfunded on Indiegogo. You already did campaigns for the music videos of “Cyberhead”, but it’s the first time you do it for an entire album… Which might appear a little strange for the fans outside the rough music industry, especially considering you got three albums under your belt. It seems you value independence and had great ambitions too… But what changed compared to “Body Machine” ? "Body Machine" was released together with Cleopatra Records (in US, CAN, MEX, JAP and UK) and the rest of the world on Blue Nine Records our own label, so we got some financing from them and we combined it with a pre-order from our own webshop so we could pay for the whole thing. We we’re also about to get signed by a major label back in 2020, but it turned out we were ”blacklisted” because of the Ghost connection. People were afraid that they would loose their report with Ghost if we were signed.. And we couldn’t get airplay without A&R people calling the stations up and demanding them to not play Priest. Those were the times, so we decided to go independent. As time goes by you learn a lott and one of those things is : You don’t really need a label nowadays, you can do it on your own. It’s a bit to read up on but it’s worth it. The funds we can raise on IndieGoGo today is more than a mid size label can offer you in advance. An advance is of course money they need to get back before the band gets anything from the gross sales. On "Dark Pulse" we finance the whole recording, production costs and PR-process with preorders. It’s a lot of hard work involved, since we have to pack and ship everything - but you work twice as hard because you know that the fruits of your labor not gonna be wasted. Also, we own all our masters and can do whatever we like with them.
I assume your three music videos also took the bulk of that money ! As usual, your music videos are as strange as they are compelling… and always creative and versatile too. From the pixelated glory of “Burning Love”, the glitchy goodness of “Black Venom” and recently the cyber-erotica of “Demon’s Call”, reminding me of “Obey” (and for good reasons…thanks Claudio!) : Of course, it took about a 10.000 $ chunk only for the videos, but good ones! Every penny from the Indiegogo campaign have been spent on exactly what it was meant for. That we can say for sure. We choose to go a bit retro and we know a great guy called Torbjörn Fernström which helps us out Claudio is a master of what he does and we always have a blast working with him!
It really shows that you can still make music videos which aren’t just the band playing over a background ! Just like the artworks, I must ask : how big was your creative input for those videos? Did you have clear ideas? Or did you let the artists go wild? How do you conceive a video? It’s different on Burning Love I asked Torbjörn to do a PlayStation 1 style video. I did some motion capturing so my moves could be translated into the video. On Black Venom I directed the filming of the actual footage you see in the video, and then I asked Torbjörn to ”rape” it, which he did. It might be our best one. Claudio had a ready made idea, with the helmet and the couple, which we loved and he basically filmed it and edited it.. It’s probably our best looking video to date. I will probably direct more videos myself in the future !
I’m crazy for wacky and original merch ! I know it’s old news, but how was your “Salvation” perfume like? Did it sell well and how did it came to be? I also read an official post from the ban, posted on “The Pit” on Facebook that the pre-release party had a very limited “Priest beer”… Was it a one-shot? Or will I be able to let it join my vast beer cemetery? Ah, you know about that one? It was made by a perfume maker in Vienna in a very limited batch. It was a unisex perfume with notes of leather and patchouli. We would like to do something similar again ! We will continue the discussions with Centralbryggeriet, who made our beer, to see if they want to take it further.
Finally, you released a grand total of three albums in around four years… That’s quite prolific, and I believe it shows how creative and inspired you are ! Nonetheless, it begs the question… What’s in store for Priest in the coming weeks, months or years? Some touring? Some more songs on the backburner already? A little break or something else entirely?Yeah, we have a lot of ideas and it seems like we have too little time. This summer, when we’re not touring our asses off, we will start the recording of our fifth full length album which will be a very experimental yet epic piece of music. But first we need to finish up packing and shipping the IndieGoGo perks, which is a LOT of work.. We will also perform at Subkult Festival in Sweden and a mini tour in Finland in July. We have plans to also record an EP with our friends in LA. In the fall we’re looking at a EU/UK tour and next spring we go back to the states for a bigger tour there. No rest for the wicked!