Jammerzine has an exclusive interview with the musical duo known as Lunikk. Kristina Yordanova and Denislav Popov, a.k.a. Lunikk, had a humble beginning in the city of Sofia, Bulgaria, and are now set to take their music across the world stage. It’s a rare thing for an artist, or a band, to have a sound that transcends borders as well as cultures, but Lunikk achieve this as a part of their sound. And they do it effortlessly.
In this interview, we talk about the origins of Lunikk and how Kristina and Deni work together as well as the evolution of that sound, that sweet sound that mixes genres and influences just underneath the originality that is Lunikk, and much more.
About Lunikk
Lunikk is an Eastern European experimental pop duo created by Kristina Yordanova and Denislav Popov. They met a couple of years ago when Deni was in a rock band and Kristina was deeply deluded that music is something she doesn’t want to pursue. After many shared moments and conversations about music, they understood that their brains were chattering on the same frequency. As fate would have it, while Kristina kept a notebook with written poetry (called “Let’s live on Mars”) Deni’s band broke up, and slowly but surely the two discovered they wanted to hate and love the world together through the same melodies.
Consequently, they promised each other that there will be no compromises and that no ego can stay in the way. They built up a studio in a room at their apartment and 2 years and many cigarettes later 12 songs have been born within an imaginary world. A world that is based on the grey reality they are living in but delivered in a way anybody can relate to.
The beats and instrumentals are all done by Deni, but the vocal lines and the messages are framed by Kristina. They are very much influenced by artists such as Robert Johnson, Son House, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Muse, Coldplay, twenty one pilots, Highly Suspect, Lorde, Billie Eilish, The Weeknd, Imagine Dragons, and many, many more. Their name comes from the Bulgarian word for “Moon”.
Featured image by Licata.bg.
LINKS:
https://www.facebook.com/strangelunikk
https://www.instagram.com/strangelunikk
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvMsIaQS7JTaaRpnyb4zrGQ
https://spoti.fi/367GWvl
https://soundcloud.com/strangelunikk
https://twitter.com/strangelunikk
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Black Needle Noise Releases ‘Seed of Evil’ Video ft. PIG a.k.a. Raymond Watts of KMFDM fame (The Week in #Indie Segment)
John Fryer, the globally recognized producer and curator of the project known as Black Needle Noise, has dropped his new video titled ‘Seed of Evil’ featuring <PIG> a.k.a. Raymond Watts of KMFDM fame. A contoured divide between the industrial overtone and gothic underpinnings, ‘Seed of Evil’ crosses that great divide into a darkly original mindset with grinding rhythm and a purely black chord progression.
The video adds to the musical mindfuck just short of epileptic orgasm designed to muse as much as it is to shock. Decadance now has a soundtrack.
‘Seed of Evil’ is out now, available digitally across online stores, such as Apple Music, and streaming platforms such as Spotify. It is also available directly from the artist via Bandcamp.
Check out our other articles about Black Needle Noise HERE.
Watch the full episode of The Week in #Indie HERE.
Click HERE to watch Season 6 of Jammerzine’s ‘The Week in #Indie’.
Click HERE to watch Season 5 of Jammerzine’s ‘The Week in #Indie’.
Click HERE to watch Season 4 of Jammerzine’s ‘The Week in #Indie’.
Click HERE to watch Season 3 of Jammerzine’s ‘The Week in #Indie’.
Click HERE to watch Season 2 of Jammerzine’s ‘The Week in #Indie’.
Click HERE to watch Season 1 of Jammerzine’s ‘The Week in #Indie’.ABOUT JOHN FRYER & ‘SEED OF EVIL’
John Fryer, the legendary producer, and artist in his own right unveils the latest offering from his Black Needle Noise project – the new video for ‘Seed of Evil’ with PIG, an unholy collaboration from two of the most celebrated and talented forces in industrial music.
Vocalist Raymond Watts‘ plows forth with a sinister growl over Fryer’s menacing atmospherics. The track’s foreboding lyrics speak of allowing evil to overcome one’s self.
Formed in the late 1980s, PIG has blazed quite a trail – not surprising with Raymond Watts has been a visible part of the industrial music scene as a founding member and lead singer with KMFDM through their most prolific and successful period (1984-2003), as well as Nine Inch Nails, Schaft, Schwein and Einstürzende Neubauten, among others.
Conceived and edited by Fryer and Joseph Seuferling of Psionic Broadcast, this dark and twisted visual escapade (a Psionic Broadcast and Black Needle Noise Production featuring actress Anjela Piccard) was filmed by John Fryer and Piccard (L.A.) and by PIG (London).
“Joseph Seuferling first came to my attention when I saw he had a film called ‘I Am God’ and BNN had not long just release a song with the same name. So I contacted Joseph and asked if he would like to meet next time he was in LA. Anjela & I went to meet with Joseph Seuferling at the Roosevelt Hotel and whilst we were talking, I asked him he would like to make a video for “Seed Of Evil”. He liked the song so he agreed to make a video. So Raymond shot his footage in London and Joseph got to work,” says John Fryer.
The 1st part of the video Joseph made and turned it into a trailer for the song and The World Tour Of Hollywood that Black Needle Noise was about to embark on. Joseph ran out of time to finish the video so I took over the editing to finish it. Anjela and I shot our footage here in LA and then I got to editing, making sure to keep the same style Joseph had set. Once I had finished it, I sent it to Joseph and he added some final touches. The result of all our hard work is quite amazing, even if I do say so myself.”
As one of the most innovative sonic architects of our age, “John Fryer has practically soundtracked your entire life” (Impose Magazine). His musical imprint is massive, having shaped the sound of bands from Nine Inch Nails and Cocteau Twins to HIM and Depeche Mode. He is also one of just two masterminds behind This Mortal Coil (along with Ivo Watts-Russell – not only producing but also keyboards, strings, and synthesizer sequencing).
“When John Fryer called, it was like cream was fed to my poison crop. I was thrilled to lend Satan’s little helping hand to Black Needle Noise. The result from this marriage made in hell was appropriately called ‘Seed of Evil’ … it pours out of me into the night, where the devil tries it nice and tight,” says Raymond Watts.
John Fryer adds: “After many a moon passing, we finally got to work together again. I had to find the right song for Raymond but I think we have a great noise-pop hit on our hands. It’s been a real pleasure working with Raymond on this and I can’t wait to hear it in the clubs.”
John Fryer started his career in 1979 at London’s Blackwing Studios (London) and soon began working with seminal bands on the 4AD, Mute, Rough Trade and Beggars Banquet record labels, including Depeche Mode, The Wolfgang Press, and Cocteau Twins. His achievement in helping develop the latter’s pioneering ethereal and ambient sound ultimately led Watts-Russell to recruit Fryer as his partner for This Mortal Coil.
A sense of expectation about his music has never left him – expectations he often exceeds from release to release, having produced many groundbreaking artists along the way, including Love and Rockets, Swans, HIM, Cradle of Filth, Clan of Xymox, Nitzer Ebb, Dead Can Dance, Yaz (Yazoo), Xmal Deutschland, Fields of the Nephilim, De/Vision, Stabbing Westward and many others. Over the past two decades, John Fryer has also produced several film soundtracks, including Seven, Clerks, Johnny Mnemonic, Mortal Kombat, Faust and Resident Evil: Apocalypse.
Featured image by Anjela Piccard.
CREDITS
- Music and all noises by John Fryer
- Lyrics by Raymond Watts
- Vocals by PIG
- Video shot by Anjela Piccard and John Fryer (L.A.) and by PIG (London)
- Styled by PIG, Anjela Piccard, and John Fryer
- Actress Anjela Piccard
- Concept/Editing by Joseph Seuferling & John Fryer
- A (Psionic Broadcast) & Black Needle Noise Production
LINKS:
https://www.blackneedlenoise.com
https://blackneedlenoise.bandcamp.com
https://www.facebook.com/BlackNeedleNoise
https://www.facebook.com/John.Fryer.Official
https://www.instagram.com/black_needle_noise
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTC_bNQDfUviTBDiBHYAiSg/videos
https://open.spotify.com/artist/3KkYK2dnIfRb9EDrCRndB6 -
The Dirty Dozen (JammerStream One)
The Dirty Dozen was a top 12 weekly countdown featuring the most listened to tracks on JammerStream One. It ran from 2010 to 2012.
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An Exclusive Interview with Marty Willson-Piper (The Week in #Indie Segment)
Noctorum has released their fourth album ‘The Afterlife’ – the duo’s first long-play in seven years, which will be released exclusively on CD and gatefold vinyl to PledgeMusic contributors in November 2018. The general release of this album happened in February 2019 via Schoolkids Records.
Noctorum is guitarist/singer-songwriter Marty Willson-Piper and producer Dare Mason. The duo presents their new single ‘Piccadilly Circus in the Rain’, following up the first single ‘A Girl With No Love’.
Named for the village Noctorum, located near to their childhood homes on The Wirral (near Liverpool), Dare and Marty liked its association with night and its Latin derivation. This collaboration has an eclectic focus, making the quiet-loud and vice-versa, singing words that might be spoken and playing indoor instruments that should be heard outside. It has to be imagined to exist.
“Perhaps city-living is by definition a difficult slog – high rents, a constant pressure to earn, an uphill battle that traps you in a vicious circle that has you so focussed on the job of survival that your aspirations, your dreams, are swept aside, pushed out of reach as all your waking hours are spent treading water, your imagination drowning, your ideas lost in the rush hour,” says Marty Willson-Piper.
“Piccadilly Circus In The Rain addresses the struggle and questions the romantic notion of London as a cultural melting pot – music, galleries, nightlife, history, energy, red double-decker buses, unarmed friendly Bobbies, the cover of Abbey Road and the Queen. Singling out this city is purely coincidental but in truth, for most people with artistic tendencies “London brings you to your knees”.
Having formed in 2002, Noctorum released their debut album ‘Sparks Lane’ on Heyday Records in 2003. In 2006, they followed up with the album ‘Offer The Light’ on that same label, later re-releasing it as a digipak in 2010 via Second Motion Records. Heyday released their third album ‘Honey Mink Forever’ in 2011.
Marty Willson-Piper has been writing and performing internationally for over 35 years. He is best known as a long-time member of Australian psychedelic rock band The Church, who he was with from its inception through to 2013. He joined All About Eve in the ’90s, releasing two studio albums and several live albums with them. He is also lead singer and lyricist with Swedish band MOAT and a touring member of Swedish Prog legends Anekdoten. Since the mid-1980s, Willson-Piper has maintained a steady solo output, releasing six solo studio albums and three live solo albums to date. He has also co-written music with many artists, including Grace Slick, Aimee Mann, Susannah Hoffs, and Linda Perry.
As a house engineer at London’s world-famous Townhouse Studios, Dare Mason has worked with the likes of Prince, Paul McCartney, Boy George, Tina Turner, Ravi Shankar, and Soul II Soul, among others. After becoming a freelance producer/engineer in 1991, he produced albums for The Grid, The Church, Placebo and AC Acoustics, working in London, New York, Sydney, and Stockholm. He finally moved to Cornwall, where he set up the VIP Lounge studio in 2001. Nowadays, Dare is mainly known as a mixing engineer, having mixed recordings by Brix Smith (ex-The Fall), Cinerama and Tommy Tokyo. Dare is also a composer, songwriter, and accomplished guitarist, singer, and dabbler in keyboards, usually contributing musically to the artists he produces.
Check out the full interview HERE.
LINKS:
http://noctorum.band
https://martywillson-piper.com
https://www.pledgemusic.com/projects/noctorum
https://www.facebook.com/Noctorum
https://www.facebook.com/marty.willsonpiper
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwdErmBx2NQI7_lOdwqgepQ/videos
https://twitter.com/mwillsonpiper
https://soundcloud.com/noctorummusic
https://open.spotify.com/artist/14rNOocOS3RnmAKhT4GnU4
http://www.anekdoten.se