Interview with THE OSIRIS CLUB

by Vpower

The Band: The Osiris Club

Country: UK

Answers by: Andrew Prestidge (drums, guitar, keys)

https://es-es.facebook.com/Osirisclub/

Inspired equally by comic books and horror fiction, the nine tracks that comprise their new album “The Wine-Dark Sea” are a darkly psychedelic journey into sound that won’t leave you indifferent. For the occasion we got Andrew Prestidge answering our questionnaire.

The Osiris Club (TOC) is a very cool band with its own personality starting by their curious name, what’s the meaning behind TOC or how did you choose the name?

The Osiris Club is a secret society that is featured in the Hellboy stories, by comic book writer Mike Mignola. It added to the theatricality  of the bands image and anonymity.

TOC is publishing his sophomore album “The Wine-Dark Sea”, another chapter of psychedelic rock, crazier than its predecessor?

In our opinion, we feel that the new album is more accessible, the emphasis was more on creating good songs, than good ideas. There are still crazy moments.

You are London based band, however this second album was recorded in Oslo, how was it?

Chris Fullard works with the band Ulver, which also includes producer Anders Moller. The album was recorded at Subsonic Society.  The studio had loads of vintage gear as well as an array of vintage synthesizers loaned to us by the guys in Ulver, that we put to good use, it was a great inspiring experience.

The cover artwork is fresh and exotic as your music and it has involved drummer Andrew Prestidge on its elaboration

From my collaborator Julia Harris's  description of the album cover, "The Wine Dark Sea's", main dolls house design was inspired by the strange stories of Robert Aikman, in particular, "The Inner Room", which is about a haunted doll's house. Working in collaboration with musician and artist Andrew Prestidge, we combined photography, graphics and illustration for a collage effect to work in conjunction with surreal themes of the book and essence of the music.

When you do the standard thing it seems everything is easier because you don’t need to imagine almost anything, just follow the pattern, but in your case it seems every record is a big effort of imagination and composition

We always think in terms of the bigger picture,  taking inspiration from film, art,  literature and comic books to create an interesting concept. There are also many music influences but we tried to create something original and unique.

What are the lyrics about?

Side 1 of the album, tracks 1 - 7 are all influenced by the short stories of horror writer Robert Aikman. Side 2 of the album, features vocals and  lyrics written by Simon Oakes, "Citadel of the Fly", is based on the sorcerer, necromancer and black magician, Gustav Strobl, a character from the Abe Sapien books, that are part of the Hellboy Universe. The second section,  , "A Winters night on Sentinel Hill", was based on the French magazine, "Heavy Metal's 1980's adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft's "The Dunwich Horror".

Although we could put you under the label of progressive rock I think your music has a so big range that even that label can get short

Yes it's a lot of influences, I would say progressive, psychedelia, post-punk, gothic rock, pop and metal.

What songs in “The Wine-Dark Sea” were more difficult to finish up?

Everything was fairly straightforward, I recorded all the demos at home and got Sean and Simon to add lyrics and vocals. Possibly the long piece "Winters night/Citadel was the hardest to put together, but easier to put together in rehearsals.

I think there have been some changes in the line-up, how stable is the band right now and how has it affected the sound in your new album?

The current line-up of, Sean Cooper, Raf Reutt, Chris Fullard, with the addition of Alasdair C. Mitchell (bass), Marc Tondour (keys) and Hanna Pettersson (tenor sax) is a much more solid line up. The recording of the "Wine Dark Sea", was much more of a band effort, whereas the Blazing World was just Chris and myself.

For the release of “The Wine-Dark Sea” on 23.02.2018 you repeat with the guys on Indie Recordings, right?

Yes, that's right, Indie Recordings will be releasing our new album.

You will play on the Roadburn Festival in Tilburg too, it seems the year will you many emotions

 We are not playing Roadburn this year, but we will be playing more shows this year.

 What are your plans for the future?

To play more shows and record new album.

Thank you very much for your attention Andrew and have a great 2018!

Thanks Alberto, regards Andrew.