Interview with The Vampires: Creeper on Embracing Their Inner Jim Steinman on New Album 'Sanguivore'
Monday, 16 October 2023
Written by Jack Terry
Will Gould is faceless on the other end of a Zoom line. Battling jet lag, he faces a daunting week of promo for Creeper's new album, ‘Sanguivore’. But, even without being able to see the frontman’s expressions and body language, it is clear just how proud he is of what his vampiric horde has created. "If this came out when I was growing up, I'd really love it," he says, his giddiness obvious.
It's been three years since Creeper put out ‘Sex, Death & The Infinite Void’ and the gothic pop-Americana of that record feels miles away from where the band is today. That’s because they are intended as two different chapters in what Will describes as "old fashioned rock mythology about a punk band." "Creeper is the author's name on a series of adventure books," he explains. “What’s happening around us has a huge influence, but we exist in a realm of half-reality, half-fantasy.”
Even coming from a band with a well-established flair for the theatrical, ‘Sanguivore’ is several steps up from anything they’ve done before. “We’d always planned on a Jim Steinman-esque opus, so the idea for ‘Sanguivore’ has been in the works for a long time,” Will says. “We found [producer] Tom Dalgety or, actually, Tom found us. We’d been friends on social media for ages and we liked all the same goth bands and ‘80s pomp as each other. His work on Ghost’s ‘Prequelle’ made it sound like a classic album and that’s what we wanted on this, so me and Ian [Miles, guitarist] went and met with him.”
It quickly became clear that this was a match made in heaven, and the recording process for ‘Sanguivore’ became Creeper’s most efficient one to date. “On our last album, we had about 50 songs that we had to pick from,” Gould says. “This time, there are only two songs that didn’t make the album. I think we came into it with a solid concept, and all had a more solid foundation in our personal lives, which made for an easier record to create.”
That approach became very clear across the three singles unveiled in the months leading up to the album’s release, and it didn’t take long for the support to come pouring in. Within 48 hours of releasing lead single Cry To Heaven, Creeper were performing at the Heavy Music Awards at Wembley Arena, and at Slam Dunk, where every word was sung back to them as if it had been a fan favourite for years.
“We have a very special community,” Will observes. “I think Creeper speaks to a lot of people who aren’t spoken to or spoken for. We’re a strange band with strange people inside it, and I see myself in the audiences that come to see us. It feels like a ritual, almost. It’s very emotional and very moving and that’s the power of rock ‘n’ roll. In an ever darkening world where it’s harder and harder to find a place to belong, it’s awesome to create something so inclusive.”
From the Motown-flavoured The Ballad Of Spook and Mercy, and the delicate, piano-led closing track More Than Death, to the pumping synthwave of Black Heaven and the nine-minute epic opener Further Than Forever, ‘Sanguivore’ is a restless beast that seeks to pull even more people under the band’s umbrella. “This is the most outrageous our band has ever sounded,” Will admits.
“On the last album, the guitar took up a smaller space, but it takes centre stage this time and it’s been awesome to dive into this side of Ian’s head that we’ve not really used before. There’s a lot of Metallica and Ozzy Osborne and Nick Cave, along with electronics like Depeche Mode. It’s good to know that there is still an audience for big rock records.”
To go with a big sound, you need a big story, and ‘Sanguivore’ dramatically recounts the tale of its central characters, Spook and Mercy, and their affiliation with a gang of vampires known as The Ghost Brigade. “It could be mistaken for their relationship being romantic, but it’s actually quite platonic: think along the lines of Léon: The Professional,” Will says. “Mercy is a lot older and more violent and teaches Spook to use his sexuality and body to lure his victims in. But along the way, Spook reminds Mercy what it is to be human and it all ends with the two of them letting the sunrise take them.”
As has become tradition with Creeper, Will is keen for ‘Sanguivore’ to live on beyond the confines of this album, too. “For ‘Eternity, In Your Arms’, we did a book about James Scythe, the missing paranormal investigator, and then for ‘Sex, Death & The Infinite Void’, we created this interactive text-based computer game,” he says. “This time, we want to do a graphic novel to help flesh the world out. The most important thing for us is for the album to take you into the world we create.”
However else ‘Sanguivore’ lives on, they’ll be bringing its world to the stage extensively. “We’ve got loads of stuff that’s not been announced yet," Will teases. “We had been offered two very cool things in America that we couldn’t take this year, so we are also hoping we can get out there, as well as get back to mainland Europe.”
Before any of that though, there is the small matter of their Sacred Blasphemy Tour of the UK in November to tend to. “We’ve worked really hard to bring a great goth package on the road,” Will says. “We’ve got Save Face and The Nightmares out with us as supports, and have done a lot of work on how the show looks — my partner is a makeup artist so it’s been a lot of fun to do that stuff. We’re also at a weird point where we have too many songs to pick from, but I remember on our first tour with Funeral For A Friend, we didn’t have enough and ended up playing a cover of AFI’s Sacrifice Theory.”
On this new dawn in the life and times of Creeper, it seems that there is nothing they can’t, or won’t, do. That includes standing still. Make sure you don’t get left behind.
Creeper's 'Sanguivore' is out now via Spinefarm Records.
Creeper Upcoming Tour Dates are as follows:
Sun November 05 2023 - BRISTOL O2 Academy Bristol
Mon November 06 2023 - GLASGOW Clyde Rooms, Edmiston House
Wed November 08 2023 - NOTTINGHAM Rock City
Thu November 09 2023 - MANCHESTER Manchester Academy
Fri November 10 2023 - LONDON O2 Shepherd's Bush Empire
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