Dense fog covers the ground only breaking for the occasional headstone. The flutter of bats dampened by the sound of rustling cypress branches. I’m sure if you listened closely you would hear a wolf howling in the distance, or maybe that’s the lonely cry of a restless spirit longing to rest in peace. No, I’m not describing the backdrop of a nightmare or a set-piece of a Hammer Film. This is the best way to visualize the music of Kreeps.
Coming in somewhere between Gene Vincent and Boris Karloff, Dom Kreep has been turning in ghoulish anthems as the indie band Kreeps for quite some time. Thanks to Dom’s knack for ominous aesthetics backed with the hillbilly twinge of retro rock n’ roll, the music of the Kreeps can be found everywhere from videogames like Grand Theft Auto IV and Red Dead Redemption: Undead Nightmare, an animated series, and even a soundtrack to a Tales From The Crypt-esque graphic novel. Not to mention countless indie releases from various labels including a few full-length albums.
After nearly a decade since the release of his last record, Dom Kreep has crawled out of his shallow grave to unleash Moon Stand Still – Us Fools Prefer Darkness.
With all the horror-punk attitude and gothic vigor of previous releases, Moon also showcases a somewhat softer side of the Kreeps. While no straight-up love songs or power ballads, there’s a sense of sentimentalism rarely heard in this sub-genre much less in Dom’s repertoire. Much like the speculation of hair and nails continuing to grow after initial death, the music of Dom Kreep has evolved into something much more than traditional rock n’ roll.
Generally not one for interviews, I was fortunate enough to track down Dom Kreep to discuss instrumentation, our favorite horror movies, and why all the kids should pick up a copy of the new record.
Coop: For those people out there who’ve never listened to Kreeps. How would you describe your music?
Dom Kreep: It’s a kind of Frankenstein’s monster of long-dead styles – Graveyard-Rockabilly, Surf, Doo-Wop, 60’s Doom Ballads… all stitched together into a haunting, gothic soundtrack.
What made you decide to be a musician?
Well, I don’t know if I really decided – I’m kind of possessed by sound, often to an annoying degree. It’s one of the few things that unhooks my brain from the world at large. That can be a good space for me to be in, you know, where you forget time exists and that you need to eat and things like that. If there was a moment I can point to when I first felt that pull though, it was probably when I first went to high school and saw an older kid playing really intense vibrations on this trashy, gold flake drum kit. After that, I taught myself how to play in a tiny cupboard-sized room trying to mimic the records I was listening to at the time.
One of my favorite things about your music is how cinematic it is. Despite not having many music videos out there, how important is imagery to Kreeps?
It’s one of the primary things that drives my work. I’m a huge fan of cinema – particularly cult, horror, or b-movie low budget stuff, which tends to have more bizarre and striking imagery. I also went through a period early on in life where I would listen to movie soundtrack records with no idea what the movie was about and just imagine what might be going on in the scenes. That little gap between the sound and perhaps only the sleeve of the record as a visual cue invited a lot of dreams to happen. A movie starts playing in your head if you let it! A lot of Kreep’s tracks were born from seeing a single image.
With Moon, it sounds as if the influences step outside the box from previous releases. Did you set out to make this record different?
I think with previous Kreeps’ albums I always imagined them played aggressively loud. This time around I wanted to make a record to listen to lying on the floor with your headphones on like some heartbroken teenager. Before and during recording I was listening to a lot of 60’s girl group stuff like The Ronettes, mopey torch singers like Lee Hazlewood, Dusty Springfield, and Scott Walker. Then there’s exotica stuff like Les Baxter or Yma Sumac. All that stuff found the way in there in various ways.
I imagine that probably bled over into the recording process too?
As far as the actual recording goes, I remember sitting drinking in a casino one night and being struck by this undulating cloud of chiming sound from all the different machines singing at the same time. Like a ghostly never-ending major chord. If you listened for a while you would start to pick out different parts from specific machines. They’d fade into another and come back like it was a living breathing thing in itself. It really reminded me of the ‘Wall Of Sound’ production on those 60’s Phil Spector records. I wanted listeners to be able to pick out different flavors from the stew over time and so I ended up layering a lot of instruments over each other.
Another thing I decided was that instead of using guitar feedback for musical punctuation like on previous records I would kick my amp instead to create this sort of lightening effect they used to use on old surf records.
Outside the typical (and always satisfying) gothic vibes, Moon Stand Still seems to have a bit more sentimentality to it. Was that on purpose?
I don’t think it was on purpose but I don’t try to control it too much. I like to let the subconscious take the wheel to a degree. Moon Stand Still was primarily sparked by feelings of personal loss, otherness, and the sense that the curtain of hidden reality was being pulled back a little more over the past few years. I think a lot of the record was simply born of bearing witness to that and this feeling that we’re all swimming around in this weird kind of anxious soup.
You can’t have anything horror related without a Theremin! Is that a real one used on this record?
Yes, I’ve played theremin on all the Kreeps albums. I initially was always attracted to it because of its association with old horror and sci-fi soundtracks but outside of that, the theremin is weird, it’s hard to control, and it can be unpredictable – and that’s just one of the places where that good voodoo lives if you can find it. The theremin is sometimes a bit less obvious on this album as it’s often layered in there with the higher register singers from the Sisters Of Providence choir and also the incredible musical saw playing of Reverand Michael C Manning.
I was introduced to Kreeps by “Bad Voo-Doo” on Red Dead Redemption: Undead Nightmare. I remember hearing it then tracking down every single you did up to that point! Would you consider working with RockStar Games again?
I had a really good experience working with them! Particularly with Andrew Hanley who was my main contact with the music supervision team. I really enjoy creative problem solving so going back and forth with him on what worked and what didn’t then adapting was really fun. I’d definitely do another if they wanted to.
Your music was perfect for that game. It might be my favorite aspect for me. I love that B-Movie vibe that’s missing in a lot of today’s horror.
I guess I look for different things in horror movies these days. There aren’t many that can capture that same off-kilter magic that the B’s could between say the ’50s and ’80s. So I tend to steer towards well made psychological horror for more recent cinema. I really liked The Lighthouse, for instance. It reminded me of the dreamy 1932 movie Vampyr. I think it’s really hard to do horror well these days though, so it seems even more special when you come across something good.
If we started discussing our favorite horror films, we would be here all day. What are some of your favorites from the top of your head?
Ah, there are so, so many – easy go to’s are Dawn Of the Dead (1978), Carnival Of Souls (1962), Suspiria (1977), Eraserhead (1977), The Shining (1980). These are all classic favorites but I could go on for a while here. Especially on weirder cult movies like Burial Ground, Pieces, or Mystics In Bali.
With the added flair of sentiment, what’s your favorite track from Moon Stand Still?
I like them all for different reasons but I think probably “Exorcist Blues” is the one I like most from the record. I love the string section stuff from Jesse and Seth and the saw, again, from Reverend Manning, is really sublime on this track. Also, I really meant every word on that track. The singing with the choir was great too. All those elements really came together for that one.
Why should the kids out there go out and pick up this new record?
Someone said if you wanted to know what The Magnetic Fields would sound like if they worked in a Halloween store then this is the record for you. Who could resist that?
Moon Stand Still – Us Fools Prefer Darkness is now available on limited edition vinyl at Kreeps.org
photography by Scarlet Presley.