Singing the Graveyard Love Song with Miguel

Greetings, who am I speaking to, please introduce yourself

- Hi there. Here's Nerve69,
song writer and founder of Miguel &tLD.
Thanks for interest in our band.

Miguel and the living dead was formed in 2001
as a one man project,
could you briefly tell the story of your band,
line-up and the biggest influences

- It all started as my one man project around summer 2001.
I was hanging around and thinking what to do during those lazy days.
And the only idea that came to my mind was
"hey, man, maybe you should at last record all these songs that you wrote
within all those years?!". And I started to do that.

About 2 years later my friends from new wave band Eva listened to these songs,
they had a blast and offered their help.
Signer Slavik was the first which joined the team.
We recorded demo that caused a big interest all over the world.
Then we decided to form a regular "live" band to make the concerts possible,
so then the rest of Eva joined Miguel and we started to play first shows.
A few months later we signed to Strobelight Records and released debut album.
And that's all. Now we are going to record new songs.

Our biggest influences were, are and always will be old punk and
new wave bands of 70's / 80's like Alien Sex Fiend,
The Damned, Bauhaus, 45 Grave, New Model Army,
Chelsea, Ausgang, Charge, U2, Lords Of The New Church,
Misfits, Sunglasses After Dark, The Clash, Ramones,
Fields Of The Nephilim, Christian Death, Samhain, The Cult,
The Birthday Party and many, many more.

We also love wild powerful garage rock'n'roll, 2 Tone ska,
psychobilly, gothabilly, surf, country, even some pop-rock tunes.
I think that our music is a mixture of many various influences and
that's what make it so unique.

Write down the ingredients that make Miguel and the living dead

- What kind of ingredients do you mean?

You are currently working on a new album,
how is that coming along? What can fans expect?

- Things are going well. We have done most of songs and
at the beginning of January
we'd like to start recordings. You can expect basically the same mood
and feelings that mark our previous songs.
Maybe new album will be more powerful.
There rather won't be slow songs like
"Salem's Lot" or “Sexy Velvet Shadow”.

After the album is done, I assume you are going on the road,
what makes a perfect live show?

- Many things like venue, equipment, tech crew etc.
but first of all is the audience.
If the people are fine and want to have fun along with us
then the show even with the crap sound provided will be perfect
and unforgettable to each side.

Touring in general, do you prefer bigger venues or small clubs?

- To be honest it doesn't matter to us.
We love to play in small underground clubs but
we also enjoy a lot playing on festivals like Wave Gotik Treffen or
Judgement Day for hundreds of people. It all depends on the audience.

what would be the ultimate tour to take part in, pick the bands.

- It could be a big tour of The Cramps and The Damned with support acts
like Shadow Reichenstein, Deadbolt, Psychocharger, Ghoultown and Frankenstein.
I'm afraid it would end after first two concerts because of drinking to much
and permanent hang over.

Let´s talk about the scene, in your opinion,
how is the scene in Poland and rest of Europe?

- Polish punk / new wave / goth scene was very strong during 80’s.
We had really amazing bands which weren’t being known worldwide,
although they deserved it a lot. Siekiera, One Million Bulgarians, Variete,
Made In Poland, Madame, 1984, Armia, Brygada Kryzys, Kosmetyki Mrs Pinki,
Joanna Makabresku – to mention the finest ones.

Some of them split up, some are still playing,
but today it’s hard to say about any “scene”.
Polish punk and goth scenes are now completely separated
and nothing worth of attention happens there.
Especially goth scene in Poland sucks!
It’s dominated by dummy metal heads or trance-industrial-EBM kids,
which consider themselves a “goths”. It’s ridiculous…

We have some kind of neo-post punk / cold wave music and great bands like DHM
or Wieze Fabryk, but it’s not any serious scene, just a particular bands.
And all in all the same lonely band is Miguel & The Living Dead.
We try to bring punk / rock’n’roll music back into a goth scene,
try to remind all these kids what are real origins and roots of goth music,
but general situation sucks a lot!

Regarding nowadays European scene situation looks much better.
There's a plenty of great deathrock / goth punk bands like Popoi Sdioh,
All Gone Dead, Eat Your Make Up, Gotterdammerung, The Last Days Of Jesus,
Tchiki Boum or - my absolute number one -
The Eighties Matchbox B-line Disaster
(I cannot understand why people still put them into "indie" genre???!!).
Generally I can say that there's a lot of great bands all over the world!
Probably every 2-3 weeks I discover some fantastic band.
I listen to all kinds of music,
but if we talk about nowadays
deathrock / post punk / gothabilly music I cannot forget to mention about great American scene
and crews like Phantom Limbs, Ghoultown, Shadow Reichenstein,
Weegs, Sixteens, Cult Of The Psychic Fetus, Turn Pale, Hayride To Hell,
The Tunnel Of Love, Baby Shower, The Rosedales, Sin City Ghouls, Bloodjunkies,
Igor Spectre and many more…

Into the dreams, where would you wanna be in next 5 years?

- I think between the legs of Eva Green would be fine place.

Time to close the book, thanks again for the interview
and feel free to say the last lines!

- Thanks a lot for interview.
Greetings to all our fans wherever they are.
Special hugs to the alien worms from Alpha Centauri,
we miss you.

http://www.myspace.com/miguelandthelivingdead

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