13 December 2023
2023 photo by Krichan Wihlbor
Swedish post-punk-Goth turbo MORLOCKS were formed last century by mastermind J.Strauss, and had several line-ups over the years. The trio operate around the borderlines between the collective subconscious, paradoxical multiverses and the bad conscience of the world, as we know it.
They care about humanity, they haunt everybody who doesn’t care, and they
embed their anger, frustration and hope in titanic, intimidating and cast iron
industrial bombast with loud and clear messages. Think Rammstein and NIN
having a sonic fight with riot guns.
They travel either like sinister prowlers through the shadows, or like a raging
bulldozer, sneaking and bolting through and between the Cold War, radioactive wastelands, the catacombs of Rome and unspeakable dimensions beyond
the Unknown Kadath.
Morlocks released their new jawdropping album PRAISE THE ICONOCLAST
last October. A call to arms. A call for action before our messed-up world
destroys itself.
Commander-in-chief, and cultural warrior J. Strauss will tell us anyting you need
to know about his band and the new LP. But first, as usual, we start and interview
with a slice of music.
Get your ears ready the longplayers’ standout haymaker Dicks In Tanks.
Hello,
thank you for taking
the time for this chat
When/how did MORLOCKS start their journey?
“Unclear. A project with that name and me in it started out in the early 90’s,
but apart from that there are no similarities with the band of today.
We’ve put ourselves on ice several times and spend dormant years on hiatus, had several changes of lineup and didn’t even decide what sound to aim for until ten years ago. It’s a totally different ensemble these days, with a different mission – and I am happy that we found our voice, sound and goal now and not before.”
Which track would you play to people who never heard of you?
“That would be Mean World Syndrome. It sort of embodies the whole concept: catchy tunes, male/female vocals, heavy riffing, perky synth sounds, orchestral parts and lyrics that kicks you in the groin, yet something you want to sing along with.”
.
The brand new album is titled PRAISE THE ICONOCLAST.
What do you want to express with that title?
“Let’s just say it’s a call to arms and an instigation to start fuck things up. We need more cultural warriors who can challenge the conservatives, the fundamentalists, the greedy banksters, the sexist scum, the corrupt preachers, the reactionairies, the warmongers,
and every other numbskull who has no problems to destroy absolutely anything as long
as there is some personal gain in the process.
Desecrating symbols is a great way to start, because if you do it right you may rip the system to shreds without spilling any blood. Or, so we would like it to be. It isn’t though, alas. But you have to start somewhere.”
The album’s cover is impressively creepy. What do you
want to visualise with that image?
“The cover itself illustrates the concept of the album! Not too far into the future, or maybe today, a little nameless guy is living in constant frustration, fear and anger, while being meticulously monitored by the powers that be – i.e, the market forces, politicians and people with big guns (mostly one and the same people these days) who will literally walk over corpses to maximize profit and control.
Consume, conform, obey! It’s a big oil painting done by a very talented
friend of ours who only needed to listen to the songs. The guy knows more
about bleak, dystopian sci-fi and cyberpunk than we do, and that is certainly
not common.”
The opening track ‘Naš Tretji Uvod’ (Our Third Introduction) is like the calm before the storm and resonates at times a bit like the soundtrack of classic western ‘Once Upon A Time In The West’. What effect, sonically, did you want to obtain here?
“Precisely that! A cinematic mainframe has always been important to us. We tell stories, sometimes intertwined, sometimes stand alone, but yet somehow connected – so it only comes natural to think in movie terms. If we had the resources, we’d go for matching visuals as well (and we will, when the stars are right).
We wouldn’t mind making our very own “The Wall” one day, so to speak. Also, movie soundtracks have always been a huge musical inspiration. Those tunes can really set the atmosphere without any lyrics needed, so it’s a great tool to emphasize the settings and environment for the message.”
.
To my ears, the album’s sonority is intimidating, aggressive
and combative. Did you want to make a record to get to war with?
“Indeed. We consider ourselves cultural warriors, and our weapons of choice are kick ass riffs, heavy synthetic waveforms and bombastic epicness combined with lyrics that are part angry punk and part sophisticated academic fuckery and part outlandish literature.
We sort of come from those worlds, all of us, and we are equally comfortable in a condemned squat, drinking moonshine, as we are in the dusty corridors of a university
or in a conference room of some sassy media outlet.
But yeah, we are inherently anti-violent as such, and prefer to go to war with audio, imagery and poetry. Not only the pen is mightier than the sword, but also guitar strings. And swords are not good for anything these days anyway. So there is that.”
Who’s the enemy?
“The ignorant! Or to be precise, the ignorant who also are in power.
Those who are deliberately uniformed, or they know but simply don’t
care because they are more about power and money than the future
existence of the planet.”
How are politics in Sweden?
“One word: Polarized. Regardless of where you stand, the people in charge are more interested in name calling, excuses and blaming each other than doing what we pay
them for. There is also a lot of really unpleasant extremism growing in the shadows, both politically and religious.
Our representatives in the parliament are obviously not fit to deal with all this, so we are not too positive about the future. But then again, this is happening all over Europe too, so we’re not unique in that regard.”
The album features lots of female vocals. Who’s the spellbinding voice?
“Most of it is our very own Lamashtu, also on the electric bass, but the lead on The Golden Goddess is guest vocals from the Swedish ambient pop star Karin My, an old friend and very talented artist. Check her out!”
How did you compose the titanic orchestration of the LP?
“We are all classically trained musicians, and I (Strauss) played the trumpet for years in my youth, both big band jazz and symphony orchestras. That’s where I learned most my skills as a musician, rather than the more common path of most rock artists. I did not spend my teens in a rehearsal room, but an orchestral ditch, reading score sheets and such fancy stuff.
I was always a fan of really epic orchestrations, and when I heard Laibach the first time in the late 80’s, I was totally blown away. I knew that I wanted to do something like that… well, we found our own sound instead, but without them, we wouldn’t be here today. Either way, it took a while before the technology caught up, but the sample banks of today really do the trick. It still takes a huge effort to arrange it into a plausible orchestral sound, but I do believe I have the background and experience for it.
I worked with musicals for a couple of years, which was insanely educational, and I was also one of the producers behind Alphaville’s recent classical tour. The latter was the very first time a real, proper orchestra performed my work, and even if our samples banks are amazingly good, that certainly was something extra.”
Suppose the album was the soundtrack of a movie. Which one would it be?
“A yet unmade crossover between Blade Runner, Mad Max and Alien, written by Robert Anton Wilson and H.P Lovecraft, produced by David Cronenberg, designed by Fritz Lang
and directed by David Lynch. Starring Humprey Bogart and Michelle Yeoh.
MORLOCKS’ New Year’s wishes?
“Peace on Earth, the reintroduction of the space race, the news that the last idiot has been born and that the US authorities will hurry up with our Visa applications so we can do the US tour we’ve been invited to.”
Thank your for this interview.
May the road rise with Morlocks.
STREAM ALBUM
.
BUY ALBUM
.
MORLOCKS: Instagram – Facebook
TUTV: Facebook – Instagram – Twitter