What do you consider to be the darkest piece of music you’ve ever heard?
The song ‘Blasphemous Rumours’ by Depeche Mode comes to mind it follows the story of a teenage girl slashing her wrists and her mother crying reading her suicide note but she survives to find a renewed sense of love for life just to get hit by a car fatally and dying during the middle of summer when she was only 18. The pop chorus makes the song upbeat in a twisted way that points out irony in tragedy and I think given the story about her tragic fate after surviving suicide that’s why it’s one of the darkest songs I’ve ever heard.
How would you characterize your own music?
Caress is Dark-Wave with both ethereal and industrial elements, it’s my angel and my devil project. Hypnotic-inspired rhythms are important for all of my song structures and recording with my analogue synths to get that vintage sparkly sound is essential. My first band I ever started was a shoegaze project and I like to bring that dreaminess into my songs especially in the guitars and my vocals. I wanted the compositions to be energetic, dark and tender but wrapped in this like cloak of mystery and sensuality which really resonates with my personality and the whole essence of Caress.
What are your musical aspirations?
To be the world’s next goth music superstar, haha. To be real, I enjoy connecting through the music I make and the live performances I do so creating more music, playing more shows and hopefully more festivals and tour more states and countries!
What are your main musical inspirations?
It’s a blend between 80’s projects like Oppenheimer Analysis, DAF, Depeche Mode and The Eurythmics definitely early electronic body music and industrial. I'm inspired by a lot of Modern Goth artists too like TR/ST, Boy Harsher and Linea Aspera. There’s a shoegaze element in there I listen to a lot of Slowdive, I even covered one of their songs ‘Crazy For You’ and Cocteau Twins. Also Ministry because they have some hardcore industrial and synth pop going and that With Sympathy album is so good. The list goes on.
What are your main goals in life?
I always say my main goal in life is to just try and be a good person, have as much fun as possible and hopefully someday fix my posture.
What motivates you to create?
My love of music mainly, it’s the only thing that will always be mine to hold. Music and this subculture has been my escape and my outlet since I could remember. I feel like creating music is something I need to do and I’m compelled to do it.
Are you more of an early bird or a night owl?
People are surprised by this but I’m an early bird I even wake up early to read, go for a run up the LA river or see nature if I can before I start my day. A lot of the songs were actually written though in the late early hours of the morning around 2am-6am I just found most of my creative bursts happen around the witching hours and I love the silence and peace of night.
Besides music, what other art forms would you like to explore?
I run a DIY graphic design studio called Steel Bones Studio and I make mainly graphics for bands for fun. I’m also really interested in film and video technology, I studied film and work in it professionally. For a while I was experimenting with video synthesis and making live analogue glitches. I love shooting on tape too. I would like to explore the video world more creatively.
Which is the very first record that had a big impact on you?
Sonic Youth ‘EVOL’ - This album comes to mind. My first girlfriend when I was 14 walked up to me in school and gave me this cd she hated and said “you’re into weird stuff” when I got home I instantly became obsessed. I would hit replay on the song ‘Shadow of a Doubt’ over and over. I love Kim Gordon’s voice in that song it’s all just so raw and ethereal but jangly noise at the same time. ‘Starpower’ definitely inspired my lyrical writing style.
What is the best decade for music?
That’s a really hard question, there’s perfect music for every decade. For me, most of the music I listen to probably starts in the mid 70’s-mid 80’s it just seems like a super fun time for disco, punk, goth and metal. An era where you could see artists like Venom, Psychic TV, Blondie, ABBA, Cabaret Voltaire, The Cure, Black Flag just starting out thrills me.
What do your future plans include?
I’m planning to release a music video for my song ‘Temporary Lover’ this December and a tour next year and writing another full length album.
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Night Call is out now via Negative Gain Productions
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Caress
Photography by Ash LA
All questions answered by Tara Jane
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