Dead Ceremony , something took hold and back we kept returning to this new track, ‘Losing You’. This isn’t their debut, “About three years ago Chris and David [drums] wrote and performed a live score for the silent film ‘Nosferatu’ as a Halloween event. We were both in the same band together, Tom Williams & The Boat, but that was the first time we teamed up together as just us two,” vocalist / keyboards player Christopher Stewart, “At the end of 2012, David, Harry [synths / bass] and Neil [guitar] joined me and we began rehearsing some songs together. By the middle/end of 2013 we began playing a few shows to get used to playing together, and for me to get used to the idea of singing in front of people and being a ‘frontman’.”
During the course of last year, the four-piece from Tunbridge Wells in Kent, put out a debut track ‘Trophy’, followed by ‘Heartbeat’. Of the former, there now seems to be no online trace, and you’ll need to hunt for the second, suffice to say that it managed to attract the attention of BBC 6 Music through the combination of Stewart’s affecting lyrics with the band’s rather dark, deep electro production.
Whereas ‘Heartbreak‘ we will admit, was not one to really wow our senses, with ‘Losing You’ there is something that gets under your skin; hat be the multi-layering of electronic sounds coupled with the organic Nord keyboard notes going on, the stirring vocals of Stewart, the repeated ambiguous lyric line of, “Light head / Cold sweat / Find the vein / And deliver,” or a combination of the lot, we can’t really say, just that put together this makes for one stirringly emotive track.
The lyrics, Chris reveals, were inspired by The Antlers work ‘Hospice’. “That album was all I listened to in my first year at uni back in 2009-10. It’s about a man falling in love with a cancer patient, watching her die and then dealing with the loss. I read that it was a metaphor for a terrible break-up the songwriter had gone through. For me, the important bit of ‘Losing You’ is the chorus line: Everyone has lost someone, in some way, at some point. It’s a relatable tragedy, I suppose. It’s been interesting to hear what people think it is about, though. The main assumptions are that it’s about a girl – despite the song being entirely gender non-specific – or that it’s about taking drugs and getting high. But I don’t mind this, as I want my lyrics to retain a sense of ambiguity. Dead Ceremony play a one-off show at The Forum in Tunbridge Wells on December 11. “We have only played 6 or 7 live shows so far, but we will play further afield next year. We are finally happy and confident with our set. It’s taken us over a year to get to that point, but we feel ready now.”
Dead Ceremony are: Christopher Stewart (vocals / keyboards), David Trevillion (production / drums), Neil Allen (guitar) and Harry Pearce (synths / bass).
The Fat Angel Sings 