Project Description
Interview with
ANDREW ELDRITCH
from
THE SISTERS OF MERCY
Interview by Jarrod Henry
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Photo – Patrycja Długosz
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The Sisters of Mercy have long been regarded and one of the founding fathers of the Goth movement of the 1980’s, thanks in part to select imagery and lyrics intoned by the seductive baritone of lead singer Andrew Eldritch. Having achieved early cult status that translated to commercial success during the mid 80s through to the early 90s, it’s been a couple of decades since the band have released any new recordings, and yet the demand for their near legendary live shows has never been higher.
On the eve of their first headlining tour of Australia, Andrew Eldritch spoke with me about returning to Australia, the current state of the music industry, and some well chosen comments on the world’s current political situation.
“We’re certainly looking forward to coming back to Australia, we’d love to be invited more often” he enthused down the phone. “The last time we were there (for the now sadly defunct Soundwave festival) we thought we performed quite well so we were a bit surprised that it took so long to get invited back. It came as a great surprise to us that we couldn’t get arrested in Australia!”
Eldritch has managed to keep the Sisters busy on the festival circuit for some years now, something he clearly relishes over the longer headline shows.
“Well I’m a bit old so I like the festival stuff. Normally we can just play for 45 minutes and bang through the hits and it’s pretty easy. We’ve been doing hall shows recently which is what we’re going to be doing for you guys and it’s definitely more gruelling and it tests us more, makes us play more new songs and it keeps us on our toes.”
The band have been airing new material live for quite some time now as well, despite not having released any new recorded material since 1990s Vision Thing album.
“Just yesterday our new guitarist came around to my hotel room and we banged out another one” he says “there’s no money in releasing recorded material easy more, in fact it’s quite a loss, so we’re just content to write new songs and play them live”
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Photo – Patrycja Długosz
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Eldritch’s stance on world politics has been well documented too, with the singer announcing back in 2016 that if Trump was elected President that there would be a new Sisters album.
“I haven’t actually managed to release an album about Trump because basically he is beyond parody, beyond the despicable. You just can’t keep up with amount of crap that that shitstorm keeps giving!” he said.
The Sisters live shows have always been a dramatic affair too. With a line up consisting of Eldritch, two additional guitarists and the formidable Doktor Avalanche drum machine, the swirling, dark smoke laden shows have seen the band performing to sellout crowds the world over.
“A third of the set consists of all your favourites” he says “a third is unreleased material and the other third is never even thought of, because we are generating a lot of new material with a new guitarist and we’re actually writing stuff like like crazy”.
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THE SISTERS OF MERCY
2019 AUSTRALIA/NZ TOUR
It howls. It’s grindingly beautiful. It’s dangerously sentient. It’s The Sisters of Mercy returning to Australia this month for their first headline shows in over 7 years!
Propelled from the obsession with electronica but still a far distance from the machinations of the mainstream music of the time, the signature sound of The Sisters Of Mercy cultivated a powerful mystique, creating some of the most influential rock music of the 1980s.
Led by the haunting voice and visual focus of founding band member Andrew Eldritch, whose ingenious and self-proclaimed ‘supercharged industrial psychedelia’ spawned a subculture of underground rock music that gained cult status and has since been cited as a major influence by the likes of Metallica, Nine Inch Nails and My Chemical Romance.
Over the course of three decades The Sisters Of Mercy released three, utterly brilliant and hyper influential studio albums scaling the charts around the globe. They’ve amassed a legion of devoted fans who flock to see classics such as ‘Lucretia My Reflection‘, ‘Temple Of Love’ and ‘This Corrosion’, a testament to their incredible live shows.
In 2019 The Sisters’ fun juggernaut drives on with a little new chrome and a lot of vintage attitude.
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