VISCERAL, INTRIGUING, ENIGMATIC AND POPPY
A CONVERSATION WITH BEN CHRISTO (THE SISTERS OF MERCY)
Ahead of their first US tour in 15 years, Ben Christo, guitarist and backing vocalist of The Sisters of Mercy, shared his thoughts on the band’s upcoming performances and a bit of history and insight into their continued esteemed place in the scene.
“This tour is going to be very different from the last time we were in The States,” says Christo of their upcoming 19 dates, the first of which is May 10. “It’s a new lineup, and visually and sonically I feel we are in a much better place and I’m really proud and excited about what we’ve been doing.” Current members include Andrew Eldritch, Christo, Dylan Smith, and ‘Ravey’ Dave Creffield, who is known as Nurse to Doktor Avalanche, the band’s drum machine. He went on to say that performance setlists will combine “a really good mix of classics, greatest hits, deep cuts, and new songs,” although there is still no promise of a new album. The ‘party line’, according to him, keeping with the band’s mysterious and smokey image is “there’s no plan to make a new album, there’s no plan not to make an album.”
Reportedly, however, sets will contain a lot of new music created in the past few years. These new tracks, the writing of which was done by all members, maintain The Sisters of Mercy’s signature sound but with an update. Of the new songs, he says “there is this coherent theme where he’s purposefully using grammar in an incorrect way, and using archaic language as well which again adds another level of intrigue.” All members contributed to writing the music for the new tracks. He continues “We went into it with a really progressive mindset which was anything that we complete together is something that will be credited to all three of us which takes the stress out of it, you just want the best work rather than ‘this is my song’, it’s really for the greater good.”
BEN CHRISTO (CREDIT: DIMITAR ALEXOV)
Being a member of one of the longer running bands in the scene is something of which Christo is very proud but he stays down to earth, remembering the time when he was a fan and appreciating the opportunities that performing with The Sisters of Mercy has afforded him. Says Christo, “There’s something in that first sort of era or first decade or so that captivated their imaginations to the point of where I’m now lucky enough to be meeting people who I look up to because they were fans (of The Sisters of Mercy) when they were growing up and I’ve made some great connections with people in bands that I actually love and adore and some I’ve even had the chance to work with because of the fact that I’m in a band that they used to listen to so it’s this odd sort of dynamic where they’re not fans of me but they’re fans of the band I’m in and I’m a fan of theirs so it’s kind of cool.”
The reason they’ve stood the test of time, he opines, is the coming together of a number of things, including the specific imagery in and enigmatic nature of the lyrics coupled with the Sisters’ signature sound allowing for the continued captivation of their audience’s imagination, The Sisters of Mercy is in his view “very, very strong pop band that’s got grittiness, integrity, and visceral content… the disenfranchised people of the world have something they can connect with in terms of its integrity and substance, gives them something they can hang their hats on and sing along to…the way its presented, there’s this very primal element to the rhythmic quality of the band, the sort of repeated motifs and yet it’s also visceral, it’s intriguing, it’s enigmatic, it’s poppy, you can sing along, and it also seems to appeal to many different subgenres of music…there’s something in what Eldritch created specifically in that sort of first era, the first decade or so, that captivated their imaginations.” He continues “(Lyrically) you’ve got a very clear reference point with rich, descriptive words with a wider meaning that’s open to interpretation,” which in Christo’s view is part of vocalist and songwriter Andrew Eldritch’s genius.
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Main Photo Credit: Lara Aimee | Background Photo Credit: Christian Wojtksiak
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