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A Halloween Interview with Barb and Jake

Posted at 12:23 PM on October 27, 2011 by Peter Valelly

Peter Murphy
"Godfather of goth" Peter Murphy in 1981, photographed by Antoine Giacomoni.

With Halloween rapidly approaching, I sat down to chat with The Current's resident experts on all things goth and industrial — Transmission host Jake Rudh and mid-day host Barb Abney. They filled me in on what's what in the world of all things dark & gloomy. Be sure to read the interview below before putting together your Halloween playlist!



Alright, first things first, what do you think is the ultimate Halloween anthem to come out of the goth or industrial scene?


Barb: I know that everybody will say "Bela Lugosi's Dead" by Bauhaus because we're supposed to say "Bela Lugosi's Dead"... but for me it's off Disintegration, it's by the Cure and it's called "Lullaby." They talk about Spiderman and actual spiders, and it's scary, and... yeah, that's the one for me.


Jake: This one is kind of obvious as well, because it's right in the title, but Ministry's "Everyday is Halloween." It's from the perspective of a guy who feels that way, and it's speaking to all his believers and all the people who think "Hey, just because I dress dark, you know, let's celebrate being dark and goth all year 'round. Every day is Halloween. It's OK to feel this way." So I feel like that's probably the anthem.


Next up, who do you think is the quintessential goth/industrial band or artist?


Barb: The goth artist is Peter Murphy, the vocalist of Bauhaus. All you have to do is just watch the first ten minutes of the movie The Hunger If you're unfamiliar, that has to be what pushes you over the edge.


Jake: Yeah, I'd have to agree that Bauhaus are considered "the godfathers of goth" and they got that title for a reason. I mean, there's no doubt that Peter Murphy channels David Bowie big-time if you look at the way he moves onstage and the way he sings. He's completely channeling like Ziggy-era Bowie. As a matter of fact they covered "Ziggy Stardust" and they nailed it, to a tee. But as far as the godfathers of goth, it's gotta be Bauhaus.


Who do you think is an underrated goth band, and who is overrated?


Barb: I think that a band that not a lot of people know about are Switchblade Symphony, big fan of those girls. They're no longer together. I will throw Rasputina in there, as well. They're a cello band. Both of those bands are just tragically underrated. That's really great music in the '90s during the goth-gazey stuff, I guess.

The moment that people started calling Korn goth, I lost interest in what was going on and in going out to the clubs anymore, because when that was going to be mixed in, you know, when you're gonna be hearing Jonathan Davis in the mix with Robert Smith (The Cure) and Andrew Eldritch (Sisters of Mercy)... Jonathan Davis?? Nah. That's it, for me.


Jake: I would have to say I don't subscribe to so many of the '90s bands like Korn, as Barb touched on, and... yeah, okay, it's so easy to peg Marilyn Manson and put him in the goth realm, but when I think of goth, and maybe I'm just an old-school purist, but I'm thinking of the '80s bands, Sisters of Mercy, Bauhaus, The Cure.. even some of the early Echo & the Bunnymen is some great dark material.

One band that I think is severely underrated is a band called Xymox, used to be known as Clan of Xymox. Also the Cult. Before they became kind of rock, they were called the Southern Death Cult, and they had a very dark tinge as well. Both of those bands I think are underrated.


Finally, just a couple fun questions for both of you, tell me about your favorite Halloween memory from your lives?


Jake: One of my most embrassing and favorite halloween memories was going out trick-or-treating, and trying to pull off that last year of being able to get away with it. I so didn't. A bunch of buddies and I went out, and I think I dressed as a Civil War soldier, with a big gray trenchcoat and a cap I bought at the Renaissance festival. I threw the costume on and walked to the door and 50% of the people who came to the door were like "What are you doing?? You're way too old." So I got the hand-slap big time. So that was embarassing, and I look back at it and it was kinda fun.


Barb: Honestly, looking back on it, my favorite Halloween memory was making a finger-food buffet for my son the first year that he was old enough to really get into Halloween. I'd have him feel things with a blindfold on, and I'd tell him that the olives were eyeballs and that the spaghetti was worms.

I loved being able to do that and then take him trick-or-treating.. but.. OK, this is worth mentioning. He was four years old, and The Lion King was huge that year, so I went out and bought this $50 Lion King costume, and he went out trick-or-treating. The next day at daycare, he got to dress up in his costume, they thought it would be fun for everyone to wear costumes and have their picture taken. We get the pictures back and I start showing them to my friends and they're like "Oh, he's a big fan of The Lion King" and I'm like "Yeah.." and they're like "You know that's the girl's costume, right?" So that's my son who has to bear that one, and we have the pictures up in the house of Nala, the lion costume.


And, last, what's your favorite candy?


Barb: God, it changes... Right now I'd have to say Almond Joy.


Jake: I'm a big fan of sour candy so I love the Lemonheads, the old school Lemonheads where they just dissolve til you get that little hard white center and they just make your cheeks feel really odd and weird.




Thanks for reading! Share your thoughts and your own favorite goth/industrial tracks in the comments section below, and be sure to read about our Halloween programming.
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