PLEASE INTRODUCE YOURSELF FOR US WHO ARE NOT FAMILIAR WITH YOU AND YOUR MUSIC AND TELL US A BIT ABOUT YOURSELF.
Hi there, and thanks for having us, Photogroupie. This is a great place you’ve got here!
We are LEPER MESSIAH, a Norwegian rock act playing music in the glam-to-hard-rock range. Five blokes make up the band: myself, Vidar on vocals, Per-I & Per-H on guitar and drums respectively, Øyvind also on guitar, and Iggy on bass. Iggy we imported in from Poland on special delivery in 2015, and we keep him locked up in the garage so he won’t escape to wreak havoc around town. We’re based in Bergen, have been around for close to 10 years now, and just released our debut album. Excitement!
TELL US A LITTLE BIT ABOUT YOUR NEW ALBUM OR SINGLE?
Well, the album is called FELL CREATURES, a classic 10-track rock record about bad guys and good people making bad decisions. On it you’ll find songs about stalkers, alcoholics, groupies, and Jack the Ripper; oh, and some sex and booze and filth, of course.
WHAT INSPIRED THE ALBUM OR SINGLE?
The record is a collection of tunes we’ve made along the way, inspired by people and weirdness you encounter on the road. In that respect, FELL CREATURES is a very rock ‘n roll album, featuring people and situations you might run into at any gig or tour. There are Fell Creatures all around, yeah? I bet you’re pretty fell yourselves, right? (We sure are).
CAN YOU SUM UP THE ALBUM IN A FEW WORDS?
I guess it’s almost a concept album about rock ‘n roll excess and all the weird characters you meet on the road. A study in (in-)human nature, really!
WHAT RECORD CHANGED YOUR LIFE AND WHY?
For me, personally, it was STATIONTOSTATION by David Bowie. That was the record which convinced me that I could sing! I spent a summer immersing myself in Bowie brilliance, singing along to his records and having a blast, and the experience gave me so much that I wanted to give it all a good, proper try once the summer was up. And the rest, as they say, is history… in the making.
DO YOU HAVE A FAVOURITE MUSIC VIDEO FILMED BY YOUR BAND OR ANOTHER ARTIST?
Favorite music video? Well, that’s a difficult one, but… being a child of the 80s, I hold Genesis’ video of “Land of Confusion” very high on my list. Awesome story and muppets; great stuff!
WHAT WOULD WE FIND YOU DOING WHEN YOU'RE NOT MAKING MUSIC?
I write. In addition to having rock star pretentions, I’m trying to build a fiction author career, writing Bronze Age epic fantasy for the most part. I find writing to be very rewarding, no matter the medium or project you work on. Of course, my song lyrics tends to be small story vignettes for that very reason.
DO YOU GET NERVOUS PERFORMING LIVE, IF SO HOW DO YOU DEAL WITH THAT?
Yes, terribly nervous. You’ll often find me trying to conceal my trembling as we go on stage. But once the first few notes hit, it’s all smooth sailing. It’s weird, really; I’m actually quite introvert, but once our show starts it’s no longer the shy little me standing on stage. A very strange transformation that I believe isn’t all that rare in our business, really.
HOW DID YOU FORM THE BAND?
We started out doing a Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars tribute tour, back in 2012-2013, for the then 40th anniversary of Bowie’s stupendous glam project. That was a whole lot of excellent fun, and once we’d shelved Ziggy, the transition into an original rock music act came very naturally.
HOW DO YOU WRITE? - DO YOU HAVE A KEY SONGWRITER, OR DO YOU ALL WORK TOGETHER?
Mostly, our songs come about as the guitarist Peri delivers a tune and I do the lyrics. At other times, I have a complete vocal melody and lyrics ready, which the rest of the band builds on from there, and at yet other times, Peri creates the whole thing form scratch. But typically, it’s a collaborative process between Peri and I from the start.
WHAT INSPIRES YOU?
I’m a slave to my muses and inspiration comes to me out of the blue. Sometimes it’s a person we meet or a book that I’m reading, and other times I really couldn’t say what it’s about or how the idea came to be. But, I like stories about tragedy and hardship, so I tend to write about that.
WHAT IS NEXT?
Oh, we’ve got a ton of touring to do in support of the debut album. We’re planning to – the plague willing – come over to the UK next year. It’s still early days, but we have some plans, and a great collaborator in the excellent Midlands psychedelic rock queen, Roz Bruce (check out her solo project and also the excellent stuff she makes with The Roz Bruce Infusion trio), so that’s all very exciting. We’ll also head back to Iggy’s homeland and tour some Polish cities, and lastly we have some rather exciting plans for Florida; at some point, we’ll join the ranks of the Florida Men.
PLEASE TELL US ANY SOCIAL MEDIA LINKS SO WE CAN SHARE.
Don’t mind if we do!
You can find our debut album at: https://open.spotify.com/album/7znRKVKPwbSzcACvatUJWV
Our FB-page is here: https://www.facebook.com/TheLeperMessiahBand
Please do reach out with any questions or comments or requests. We love to meet people and to find new collaborators, too, so give it a shot and shoot us a PM.
Thank you, Photogroupie, for inviting us to come talk about the band and album. Much obliged, peopleoids!
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