Alice Sheridan was born in the UK and the UK happens to be the culture were more or less gothic was born. At first, when the novel The Castle of Otranto from Horace Walpole popped up in 1764, The Castle of Otranto was about vampires, ghosts, ruins, and graveyards. In late 70 death rock established itself in the British scene and in the 80’s more sub-cultures appeared on the horizon. Gothic rock became one of the more popular ones and more or less Gothic rock developed the clothing styles that goths nowadays still are attracted at. Nowadays were drowning in subcultures, Mopey Goths, Fetish Goths, Perky Goths, Raver Goths, Geek Goths, Corporate Goths, Vampire Goths, Pagan Goths, Ren Faire Goths, Cyber Goths, and Lolita Goths to name a few.
But the music is still developing and Alice is making interesting music with New Haunts, combining post-punk, early industrial, goth and synthpop with ambient synths and mechanical beats.
Hi Alice, can you give us a short introduction on who Alice Sheridan is?
I guess I’ve known forever that I wanted to make music – so writing music, listening to and dancing to it is a huge and near-constant part of my life. I’m from Bristol in the UK, and I’m lucky that we’ve got a great music scene here – and it’s not too far from London, which is even better. I wouldn’t want to live somewhere without that.
What is it about dark music that intrigues you?
I think dark music is honest. It can be beautiful, brutal, passionate or cold, a form of escape or an acceptance of reality – or all those things at once and more. It doesn’t shy away from the darkness but instead turns it into something that you embrace rather than something you feel the need to reject.
When did you first realize that New Haunts was the art form you wanted to work in?
I realized a little while back that being a solo artist works best for me – I love the feeling of sitting down alone with a few free hours ahead of me and wondering what kind of music to make that day. It feels like total uncompromised freedom.
What inspires you?
I’m inspired by any abstract feelings, thoughts, memories, daydreams, and beliefs that creep into mind, and any form of art. Of course other music – as well as images, style, architecture, literature, film…
Can you describe your creative process, where does your narrative come from and are your songs inspired by your daily life?
I usually write lyrics whenever I feel like it – that’s one thing I can’t do well or authentically on demand, so I’ve learned the importance of writing at the moment. I nearly always feel like writing music, so I do that whenever I can and match it up with lyrics that feel right. Worlds Left Behind is quite heavily based on experiences – kind of making peace with certain thoughts and memories – so now I feel like I can focus on new topics. I want to explore rather than reflect.
Worlds Left Behind, your self-released debut album, is out for a couple of months now, looking back at it, what could have been done better during the recording according to you?
It was a total crash-course in writing, performing and recording for me. I’d never done anything remotely like it in my life, and I wrote and recorded the entire thing by myself. So whilst it was an amazing experience, in hindsight, I could have done a lot of it more efficiently and technically better! I was very lucky to have a fantastic engineer who did a wonderful job of pulling it all together. I have a hell of a lot more knowledge now around how to make and release an album than I did a year ago.
Do you have plans for a tour to support the album?
I’ve got a few gigs coming up but am currently spending any extra time writing new music. Next year I’d love there to be a tour!
What are your ambitions with New Haunts?
For now – write another album, play more gigs in more places, perhaps do some collaborations. After that, I’ll see what happens. I’m still getting used to all this – ask me again in a year and hopefully, I’ll have a more illustrative answer!
Buy Worlds Left Behind HERE
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LOUD UNITY 