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An interview with Seattle based Strap On Halo! It is certainly dark, but what shade? All these years SOH, are making music that consists of darkwave, gothic/death rock performed in the band’s alternatives, that make them a very interesting act, proof of it their US/EU tour in summer. Earlier they released ‘Altar Of Interim’, and so we asked them for an interview, that proved to be a quite interesting one, so please strap on your halos and read!   

Hello Halo’s! How was touring so far? What is the feedback for the new ‘Altar Of Interim’?

Touring is always an adventure! This time we spent approximately three and half weeks in the USA and two weeks in Europe. We hit a few new cities in the US and it was our first time touring Europe. We had four dates in Germany, one in Austria, once in Lille France, a day off roaming old town Prague and two days in the UK ending the tour with a sold out show in Leeds.

As for the response to the new EP, it’s been very positive. Overall we have already sold more copies than our last release and the orders still keep coming in. ‘Prayers For The Living’ is a solid piece of work and however that may be we feel it’s a stripped down version of what we had intended.

Through all the trials and tribulations, ‘Altar Of Interim’ is where we want to be and a prelude to where we are headed.

What a name for a band! It pictures out a gothic doll, only that your music is for experienced Batcavers, what is that Strap On Halo’s universe after all?!

It’s curious that you envision a gothic doll. I don’t see if but from the inside the imagery that our name invokes is missed by us. The logo I designed is a skull with a thorny halo and in recent years I have developed it to match specific releases. Such as our ‘Ode To Krampus’ single and most recently the more realistic interpretation of my original design. We don’t have the advantage of looking at ourselves from the outside in. I don’t think the name speaks to a specific genre but more of a sense of being, our daily existence, the facade that some carry with them…. The name can mean different things to different people just like the music. We started the band agreeing that although we all have similar musical influences it wasn’t the primary drive for the music. The songs are created without a genre specific intention. There are no excuses, they are what they are. Falling into the goth rock arena was after all what we hoped for.

A band from Seattle, practising on the Californian death-rock heritage for almost 15 years. How come?

Sean: SoH originally was started by me in Omaha Ne in 1994 lasting only a handful of shows. It was officially reformed in 2009 with me being the only original member. The Cali death rock sound may be one of our influences but was never a blueprint for what we were trying to achieve as a whole .. Our sound is based on what we would like to hear in modern music and we always strive to perfect that sound. We are our own worst critics lol.

We have only been a band for 7 years and October 24th marked the anniversary of our first live show in Omaha, NE, where we originally formed. Strap On Halo has had some comparisons to Death rock however it is not something we agree with. We are more comfortable with traditional goth rock.

A full length ‘Prayers For The Living’, and an EP ‘Altar Of Interim’ in 2016. Music never stops in the vein right?

It’s true we don’t stop. Like a job we have set number of days and hours that we rehearse and write. We rent a nice little studio where we can hang out, get away and have fun. The music just falls into place.

Considering that dark wave music evolved and edged in Britain and America, how would you describe the differences between them, in both sound and lyrics?

I guess that we are in agreement that the main difference between dark wave in Britain and America is that Britain stayed closer to the roots of goth whereas America went more ethereal. Both good in their own right. We tend to play in both arenas, although not all our music has been released so it may not appear that way. We have a few that have only been performed live and then sort of forgotten. Most of songs do start slow and dreamy and then beat comes.. haha. The beat transforms it and we almost always end up speeding things up.

Altar Of Interim’ is a tricky phrase. Is it really the name for an interim release, until the next, or does it occur to changes that are ahead? Or is it just-a-godamn-title?!

Haha, you nailed it. It is exactly what it means. We are on the cusp or doorstep of our next phase. This EP is our altar as a band and it is the interim to our full length that we are currently working on.

Running a band at a certain pace is a serious thing, studio-stage-studio-stage, where does all that dedication is emerging from?

It’s enjoying what you do and because of that it drives us to keep going. There is a big difference between being in the studio, writing and recording versus touring. Both are vital but to have any level of success you do have to balance them both. It’s fruitless to play out live if you don’t have music to pass on to the fans.

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What is inspiring your art?

Marc: I hate radio and I want to be apart of the dilution. The airwaves are saturated with the likes of pop and cookie cutter crap.

Layla: My inspirations come from my love affair with singing. Nothing compares!

Sean: The fans.

Will you share with our readers your present likes in music?

Who are we listening to… The Last Cry, we love those guys and it never gets old.

Layla: Autumn, Sad Lovers And Giants, Adam Ant, Sex Gang Children, The Cure, Tones On Tail.. those are just the few I can think of the top of my head. I’m a hard sell really. New stuff just doesn’t do it for me.

Marc: Xmal Deuthchland, Soft Cell, Stolen Babies, Stephen Marley, Sex Gang Children, Niyaz, Autumn, Deadfly Ensemble and The Knife.

Sean: Music from the 20’s to the 80’s.

Thank you for the interview guys, last words on you!

Thanks so much Mike, these are some of the most interesting questions to date. Right now we are in the studio working on our newest full length and in the planning stages of next years tour. You can follow up on Facebook, twitter and of course at www.straponhalo.com.

Photo credits: Mel Butler Photography (1st one), Entity Photographic (2nd one)

Mike Dimitriou