This is a particularly significant feature today, because Teach Me To Live That I Dread The Grave As Little As My Bed, the debut album from Locusts and Honey has officially been released, and I am so here for it. Out through Hypaethral Records, these brooding ethereal soundscapes are just destined to suck every ounce of life out of whatever they surround. This is doom in it’s most sorrowful form, with just enough ambience to make it impossible to interrupt or escape, despite how suffocatingly dark it is. Half and hour of just droning depression… and I find myself totally engrossed in it. So let’s celebrate its arrival, shall we? To provide a little more context around Locusts and Honey and this release, Stephen and Tomas took some time to answer our questions in this latest Nine Circles Profile. Give it a read below, hit that Bandcamp play button, and let’s welcome this unrelenting dose of doom and gloom together.
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How and when did you first get into playing music, or metal more specifically, and how did your band get its start? Any pushback from family/those close to you?
Stephen: At 14 I went overnight from being a kid who was largely indifferent to music to being completely besotted with grunge, especially Nirvana. About a year later and it had shifted to Eyehategod and Iron Monkey, and I was playing a massively downtuned Strat copy in a rather bad sludge band at local venues. My family didn’t have a problem with it, though the style of music was not to their taste.
Tomas: I have been at it on and off since the age of 12. I started playing around the time Kurt Cobain died – cover bands mostly until I decided to start up a nascent black metal project heavily influenced by the Norwegian second wave – I put a demo out when I was 16 but it’s barely listenable… Around this time I started playing in a local powerviolence band which opened my mind to more DIY ethos – we played with lots of touring luminaries of the time and had lots of fun being so full of piss and vinegar. I also started a po-faced post-rock band around this time and gave that a go for a while. As so often happens, life intervened and I retreated from creating music for many years. About five years ago I started playing and writing again and I decided to work on some doomier material last year…. I demoed the new music myself and then asked Stephen, who I’ve known since those early days, to provide vocals and lyrics. Here we are!
How would you describe your band and what you play to someone who is completely in the dark?
Stephen: Heavy guitars and a glut of sorrow.
Tomas: Heavy, dark and melancholy. I feel that there is a filmic, visual element too that I’m hopeless at explaining.
Is there one (or more) thing about your latest / upcoming album or about your band that no one will find in any interview or review that you care to divulge?
Tomas: Well, I actually kept the name, Locusts and Honey, from an old acoustic project I was doing in the early 00s. It was like a very delicate Red House Painters or something. Felt the sadness inherent in that music transmitted somewhat… so I resurrected its name. Now that we are moving toward a full band lineup I have actually asked the two other friends involved back then to join us and they have agreed.
Any funny stories from playing shows / tours / festivals, etc?
Tomas: As playing live has yet to happen the answer is no, sadly! I can say that it is our intention to play and tour in the not too distant future.
What do you see as some of the great things happening in and around the metal scene (yours or just in general) and what are some of the worst things happening right now?
Tomas: Ugh, I’m the wrong person to ask really. I have very little to do with any of the metal scenes in London – they do seem healthy enough though. I’ve always preferred ploughing something of a lonely furrow with bands I’ve been in. I guess London has plenty going for it though – loads of bands, shows etc on most levels and a great heavy metal record shop, Crypt of the Wizard, bars like Helgi’s…
Most folks have passions for a cause or causes that are close to them. What, if any, are some of the most important issues (social/political/humorous/etc.) for you / your band and how do you insert those issues into your music?
Stephen: I think we both have a number of causes close to our hearts. One of the issues this band speaks to for me is mental health, which is something of a daily challenge for me. My experiences and ideas are to be found in my lyrics and their delivery. It’s important to me that people have a chance to respond to the words I write in their own way rather than have me explain the intentions behind them.
Tomas: The primary motivation in starting this band was to create a vessel giving voice to some of the personal sadnesses and frustrations I had felt of the period of the pandemic and beyond. Though I guess one can never truly cleave the personal from the political, I’d like to think we provide a form of cathartic release from those things that weigh heavy on us all. I can’t imagine our lyrics ever becoming more political in the conventional sense – but that is more a question for Stephen.
Do you guys have day jobs or hobbies you want to share?
Stephen: Of all my interests, probably the one that shuts down a conversation the fastest is my being a fan of professional sumo wrestling. I’ve got one friend I can talk to about it. On the plus side, I don’t usually get match spoilers in my social media feeds.
Tomas: My day job, though not uninteresting, does not provide much room for creativity. I enjoy writing, reading, analogue photography – I’m even trying to finish off a screenplay at the moment. I’m something of a dilettante as my father would say!
What advice do you have for music critics and outlets out there? How can we all better serve the genre in the eyes of a hard-working musician?
Stephen: I’m really not qualified to give advice to music critics. Everyone will have a different take on things, and hearing those takes is interesting. We’re all here to appreciate music and have fun, after all.
Tomas: I’m on the same page as Stephen here – though he has considerable experience in actually writing about music and I don’t. I think it’s good to see a bit of a resurgence of the types of zines I used to pore over as a teenager… And as I approach my middle years I must confess to taking pleasure in reading those perennial Bob Dylan essays you get in Mojo!
Any specific long term goal(s) in mind?
Stephen: I think it’s just about letting our music develop naturally, releasing records as milestones along the road.
Tomas: We have moved from a bedroom project to a full lineup. I would really like to make a great debut album and then tour – I’d say we were quite ambitious about all of this – but wary, as we have all been involved in many bands in the past and recognise their fragility is like parchment.
When you’re not obsessing over your own material, what are some of your favorite albums to listen to currently?
Stephen: It’s always changing. I’m always discovering stuff, though usually long after it was released. At time of writing I’ve been going back to the early Monarch records (the sadly now defunct doom band from Bayonne, France). Taser’s Filthcrawl. Also, Yusef Lateef’s Eastern Sounds.
Tomas: I certainly don’t listen to a lot of metal these days… When I do, I still have tendency towards black metal. Mainly old stalwarts but I do enjoy some of the more modern raw bm LARPing too! I’ve recently been obsessed with Warren Zevon and this Galician bagpipe music by Carme López.
What is the near future outlook for you or your band? Any specific events on the horizon that the masses should be aware of?
Stephen: Our debut LP, Teach Me to Live That I Dread the Grave as Little as My Bed, will be out on 24 May through Hypaethral Records. It’s currently up for streaming and pre-order through their Bandcamp and website. We’re also currently busy writing for the next record.
Tomas: We are in the process of writing new material for a debut album which will come sooner rather than later I hope. I can’t commit to this, but it would be great to play live before the year is out too.
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Many thanks to Tomas and Stephen for the time!
Teach Me To Live That I Dread The Grave As Little As My Bed is out now through Hypaethral Records. Keep in touch with Locusts and Honey over on Instagram.
Nine Circles 