Interview - Ceiling Demons

Firstly the name Ceiling Demons where does this come from? It comes from a place of darkness yet there are juxtaposed ways to look at it. We feel it has a strong sense of identity but is ultimately something we like to leave to interpretation.

Who are the bands biggest influences Songwriters, MCs, beat makers, punks, poets, rebels, pioneers, friends, family and loved ones. It’s constantly growing and evolving - we try to take in as much as we can and have nothing but gratitude for the ones who influence us. Some key musical artists include Ceschi, Young Fathers, Nick Cave, Kate Tempest, Nujabes, Tricky, Joy Division, The Streets and Serengeti.

How would yas describe your music and live shows to anyone who may not have seen yas yet? Ceschi recently described us as ‘dark-post-folk-rap – as if Ian Curtis happened to be inspired by anticon.’ This more or less hits the nail on the head! A lot of emotion can be found in our music, which at times can be heavy but there is often light somewhere within it too. In a live setting - it is all about the moment, so we try to play every show like it could be our last. Often the performances are energetic and raw experiences; sometimes artful, sometimes chaotic but always emotional.

Yas have released quite a few EPs over the years and the album “Nil”. How would you say your music has evolved? Our early work was heavily inspired by underground and alternative hip hop. We have experimented with more trip-hop, spoken word and folk styles overtime and have further adopted a DIY mentality to our work. ‘Nil’ is an album we’re immensely proud of and feel that it best encapsulates our evolution as a group to date. With that being said we’ve been working on new material for some time and are excited to add a new chapter to the demons discography in the form of a follow up record once it is ready.

The album seems to have had a very positive response how do you feel the response has been? The response from Nil was great; it’s an album we were working on for a long time, we tried new things which Ceiling Demons hadn’t done before so we were relieved to get such a positive response from it. Our friend Faithful Johannes initially put out CDs and cassettes via his label, Win Big Records and that caught the attention of Butterfly Effect who would then put out the vinyl as their third ever release which subsequently helped us reach a new audience of listeners. A lot of work was also put into the PR side and we booked our first DIY UK tour to support the release. All in all it went down well and we’re grateful for all our listeners, new and old.

How have yas been keeping busy creatively over he current lockdown? At first we had been working on the campaign for our latest single ‘Illusions’ which kept us busy during the first couple of months. Beat Demon has been working on our new songs and numerous other beats as has our guitarist and fellow producer Chris ‘Shadow’ Shaw. Also Manchester post-rock band Pijn asked us to contribute to their ‘Loss: Remixed & Reimagined’ project which we’re excited to say has just seen the light of day and is being released on a limited lathe cut vinyl via Holy Roar.

Yas have played shows all over the North East the last few years. What have been some of your favorite gigs over the years? We have indeed and there are many favorites from over the years! We love being part of such a vibrant local music scene – key highlights include the always fantastic Stockton Calling, Songs from Northern Britain, Last Train Home Festival and NARC. Fest. Richmond Live is a festival we thoroughly enjoyed playing over the years too and it will be missed. Other highlights fall under our promotional branch – dual tree. Last year we were lucky enough to book one of our heroes – Ceschi Ramos to play his only UK show, that performance was mind-blowing! Finally our Alleviation events, where we offered free therapeutic workshops and counselling drop-in sessions followed by an evening of music were a great success and are something we’re really proud of.

And finally if yas could recommend five north east acts who would they be? This is a difficult question to answer as we have a lot of love for the north east music scene and could have chosen loads more! Here are five recommendations:

• HOLY BRAILLE: Sunderland based duo Holy Braille create captivating, synth driven dark electronica and we love it! Their new single BAD TASTE is an absolute banger! They also put on one hell of a live show.

• SHAKK: Teesside MC Shakk released his latest EP this year – Butterfly Trees is arguably some of his best work to date and we love it. The lyricism, beats and general song-writing is expertly executed! Would love to see someone put this out on cassette.

• NATHALIE STERN: Newcastle based Swedish songwriter Nathalie Stern released a stunning album towards the end of 2019 - Nerves and Skin is a meditative, drone induced experience basked with beautiful vocal melodies and incredible artwork to match.

• WAX HEART SODALITY: The mysterious Wax Heart Solidity are making waves right now with their twisted vision of gothic-art-rock. Having released a string of singles this year including the wicked ‘Hoodwinked’, produced by our friend Ste from Mouses - the masked personas and occultish antics are certainly appealing, plus they can’t half tear it up live - but who the hell are they!?

• ZARAHRUTH: Darlington based singer-songwriter Zarahruth has an incredible way with words and a remarkable voice. Favorites include the astonishing Oh Love and Great Escape which is found on the brilliant Noisy Daughters LP that Butterfly Effect released last year. We’ve recently been in the studio together too and the songs are sounding much better for it. Big love to Fran!

YOUTUBE // SPOTIFY // BANDCAMP // TWITTER // FACEBOOK// SOUNDCLOUD // INSTAGRAM //

Photos

Logo - We-advance

Live #1 Francis Fitzgerald

Live #2 Nick Weeson