St. Lucifer

St. Lucifer: Well, David and John have run Valentine Records since 2001 and have co-produced a number of records by different acts over the years. St Lucifer initially came about because David wanted to perform some material he’d written in collaboration with original vocalist Alex Lee (of Oberloytnant/Ultravinyls) and John was the obvious choice for a ‘do you want to come and play bass for this gig we’re doing?’’ inquiry. Said gig took place in October 2015 and the young chap who put it on (the sartorially immaculate Charlie Bergmann) was so impressed that he offered his services as drummer as soon as we left the stage.  A year of crazy UK-wide gigs followed while we released a series of sold-out 7” singles on the aforementioned Valentine Records culminating in our debut self titled album in December 2016. 
St. Lucifer: As you can see above we all have a wide range of influences - we’re all hopeless music addicts and have been hoovering up records (both physical and digital) as long as any of us can remember. Having said this, the first LP was arguably more ‘straight ahead’ electro-punk/pop, whereas "Music Is Violence" takes in a far wider range of influences and directions. Either way, we’d like to think that our sound is unique, yet also capable of covering a range of ground (compare the slick synth-pop of ‘Crucible’ with the drone rock of ‘Gone’ or the blastbeat ‘shoutiness’ of ‘No New Gods’). Ultimately we want to be both entertained and entertaining. 
St. Lucifer: Ironically, the title track is the least indicative of the album in terms of lyrical content. "Music Is Violence" is an outward looking rant at the twin ills of Brexit and Trump’s toxic brand of post-truth politics while the remainder of the LP is very much a personal confessional record: covering everything from addiction to anorexia, drug abuse to clinical depression and the protracted/painful breakdown of several romantic relationships.
St. Lucifer: The initial concept/brief came from David which was something along the lines of ‘early Suede meets V for Vendetta meets Banksy’s kissing policemen’. We also did a mood board on Pinterest which the whole band contributed to and helped establish the striking BLACK/RED/WHITE colour scheme. We then handed the execution over to the label’s regular artist/designer Jack Leeson (Jack of Arts) who we think it’s fair to say ‘nailed it’ in terms of meeting the original brief.

St. Lucifer: To be honest, there’s not really a ‘default’ path to creating a St Lucifer track. As with the first LP, many of the ‘Alex-in-the-band’ tracks were road-tested live before recording (No New Gods, Forward etc) whereas the ‘post-Alex’ tracks were much more studio creations born of the necessity of the circumstances in which they were made. ‘Six Bathyspheres’ and ‘Relapse’ are both good examples of this - neither would have come about by ‘jamming in a room’ before a gig. By reinventing the line-up we’ve also been able to try new methods of putting songs together.  ‘Dark Matter’ is largely a Charlotte song, whereas the lead guitar line on the verses is actually David. The music for ‘All Lines’ was written by John years ago and reworked while ‘Relapse’ is John’s lyrics and David’s music.
St. Lucifer: We tend to add lyrics after the music but, again, there are exceptions that prove the rule. The collaborations with Emily were (naturally) the other way around - given that she’s a poet - so it made sense for the music to respond to her. David often takes the ‘Paul McCartney’ approach of pitching a melody with nonsense lyrics (la la la/Ham and Eggs’) before writing words that fit the melody. Charlotte tends to write lyrics before ‘vocalising them’ - who knows what Alice will come up with!
St. Lucifer: Very hard choice. To be honest, we all enjoy them all for different reasons.  Some are more fun to play live. 'Bathyspheres' has strangely become a bit of a live favourite despite it having been written and recorded entirely in the studio. Another point is that (despite its 14 track length) the album is very much designed to flow quickly and tightly as a suite of songs. We actually performed it (very nearly) in the same order as the record at the ‘official’ launch party in December and, despite being a rather punishing physical workout we all felt the sequencing of the songs felt ‘right’ in the context
St. Lucifer: Well, there’s a new EP coming out to coincide with the next run of tour dates (just announced/see our website/local press for details etc) which comprises a new version of ‘Music Is Violence’ (with the current line-up), a fantastic remix of ‘The Enemy’ by Still Forever and a couple of brand new tracks which might give a taste of where we’re going next. We’re then concentrating on touring the current record whilst taking a relaxed approach to exploring ideas for ‘album #3’ in our lovely new riverside studio (which we moved into over Christmas).
St. Lucifer: Thank you for the opportunity to chat, always a pleasure! Not much else to say other than look out for a couple of very special collaborations during 2019. We can’t say much more just yet (sworn to secrecy and all that) but let’s just say you haven’t heard the last of us this year.