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Sol Invictus have ploughed their own very individual furrow since the release of their debut LP 'In the Jaws of the Serpent' in 1987, releasing some of the most beautiful and melancholic music this side of Leonard Cohen, and culminating in the release of 'Cupid and Death' in collaboration with the classical ensemble L'Orchestre Noir, and the new LP 'The Blade'.
On many of your recent songs your lyrical vision has moved away from the misanthropic to a more personal level, i.e. with love and loss, life and death and so on; how conscious a move was this?
Well, I have never been fond of analysing what I do. Partly because of the demons it might reveal, or more likely the boring lack of them! With In The Rain in particular, my writing had in - I hope - a contrived way moved toward a more personal level rather than just another rant about this or that. After so many releases I have run out of things to rant about! Or at least the enthusiasm to.
Have personal changes/events affected the way you write?
It would be churlish of me to admit that age does affect you. Although misanthropy is still there, especially when shopping at Sainsbury's on a Saturday! On the whole melancholy seems to be more prevalent than misanthropy. If self-indulgent whining is an improvement on obnoxious ranting is another question! Haha!!
Lyrically do your influences come from singers like Cohen or Buckley or from poetry?
I don't know where my influences come from. Certainly I admire a lot of Cohen's early work. His words more than his music. I also like Nick Drake a lot. I have never heard Buckley. My favourite poets are Pound, Elliot and Larkin.
You seem to spend a lot of time in Europe - do you prefer it to London?
I certainly seem to be a lot happier and healthier. I have a house in South West France and returning to London from there does seem to have an entering the outer circle of Dante's Inferno feel to it. Where I live in France most of the people are very friendly and people can leave their front doors unlocked! How unlike the home life of our dear old queen!
Another lyrical preoccupation you have had is the Americanisation of Europe - do I take it then that you have not much time for modern society?
Well, the more I see the less I like. People just seem to be getting uglier, stupider and more brutal. There is an underlying unease with everything. Like something very bad is trundling over the horizon towards us. As I do not subscribe to any ideology it means that I have no quick-fit solution to any of it.
Do you feel that the approaching millennium could be blamed for much of society's problems?
No, people are to blame for society's problems. As old Sartre says "Hell is other people". We are happily building our own funeral pyres without help. But I think, to mis-quote Elliot we will go out with a whimper not a bang. The modern world is just slowly sinking, Venice-like.
How do you feel about 'pre-millennia' icons like Kurt Cobain or PJ Harvey, who often reflect and even celebrate in the darker, neurotic sides of humanity to larger audiences?
I don't really have a view on them. She could put a bit of weight on and jolly well cheer up a bit, but thats modern gals for you! I have always thought of Sol Invictus as a cabaret band from hell for the fin-de-cycle. Any group with Karl Blake in it has an immediate plug to a darker/neurotic side of humanity!
A lot of your most recent recordings with L'Orchestre Noir seem to echo of Eno and Nyman - are you a fan?
Well, I have been moving crab-like in what is called a neo-classical direction. I am a big fan of Eno. Some of Nyman's work I like although sometimes I think he's becoming a pastiche of himself. I just find much contemporary music bland and boring. With one eye on what is thought people will want to hear rather than as an expression of a particular individual.
Is there any recent bands or records you've enjoyed in the past while?
Shock Headed Peters Tendercide was very good. Well, most of it anyway. I am expanding my label and I've heard some good things from a band called Algiz. We are releasing CDs by them next year. An American band Amber Asylum have a very good track on the ON magazine/CD we have released and they are definitely worth a listen. I also think another band Arkkon are worth a listen.
Do you mind being called a Goth?
It seems that people are only happy - and especially in music - when they have a label to stick on you. What people tag me with is up to them. I have no control over it.
What do you plan to do next? Will you continue in the vein of 'Cupid and Death', or will there be further diversification?
I don't think like that. The music and lyrics evolve. With 'The Blade' it seems to be taking a warmer, and less perfect route. I have to thank David Mellor for an excellent job on 'In the Rain'. He is a perfectionist and I think the release has very cold and polished feel to it, which is just what I wanted. Its pointless going down that route straight away again so I have recorded using a warmer analogue feel, and the songs are rougher, perhaps a bit closer to the earlier releases. Still, I am in the middle of mixing it so it could end up a jazz, funk, rap type thang in the area...but probably not!
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