THE GOBLIN KING & GOTHIC HOMEMAKING
A CONVERSATION WITH AURELIO VOLTAIRE
Gothic musician, comedian, and YouTube personality Aurelio Voltaire has proudly released his most ambitious album to date this past December. The Black Labyrinth ~ A Requiem For The Goblin King is a theatrical musical tribute to the late great David Bowie in one of his most celebrated roles, the Goblin King, from the classic 80’s movie Labyrinth. This album is a fully realized stage-ready soundtrack to a story that any Bowie, Labyrinth, Voltaire, or fantasy fan would simply adore.
“David Bowie was probably my number one musical idol and when he died in 2016, I knew immediately that I wanted to do some kind of homage. I wanted to record an album, [a tribute] to David Bowie. I originally thought I was going to make a Requiem, you know, on the scale of Mozart’s Requiem Mask for the Dead,” Voltaire recalls. “I started writing the first song called ‘The King is Dead. The moment I thought of the King and Bowie in the same sentence, I thought the Goblin King. From that point forward, I decided that instead of doing sort of a direct requiem, I would make this musical homage to David Bowie through the prism of the film Labyrinth from 1986, where he played the Goblin King.”
The particularly on point premise behind The Black Labyrinth involves a young man who has admired the Goblin King from afar for years. He drums up the courage to embark on a lifelong journey to meet the Goblin King and play the song he wrote for him. Upon his arrival, he learns of the tragic news that the Goblin King has died. Considering how close to life the concept is, it stands to reason that Bowie would have truly been moved by this tribute. Who better to solidify that than different members of Bowie’s band throughout the many stages of his career who have contributed performances to this album?
“I’d like to say that I wish that I could tell you that I’m a genius and that I thought to myself, I’m gonna make a musical inspired by Labyrinth and I’m going to record it with 15 members of David Bowie’s band. But it did not work out that way. Honestly, it was an accident,” Voltaire laughingly remarks. “When I first started recording, I needed a drummer. I was thinking about who would be the best drummer for this project. I thought about Sterling Campbell, who worked with Bowie on multiple albums, but I met him once in 1990 when he was the drummer for Duran Duran. I went to a party at his house all these decades later and I thought there’s no way he’s gonna remember me. But I approached him and said ‘hi, you probably don’t remember me. I met you several decades ago but I’m making this album. That is an homage to David Bowie through the prism of Labyrinth, and I’m wondering if you’d be interested in recording on it.’ Sterling is now the drummer and musical director for the B-52’s. If it wasn’t for the pandemic, which is when this whole thing got started, he would have been on tour and there would have been absolutely no way he would’ve had time to record one much less 20 songs. But, like all musicians at that time, we had no concerts and we were all looking for things to do. So he was available and he graciously came to record. I asked him if he knew any good bass players and he said I should work with Gail Ann Dorsey, Bowie’s bass player. Well I don’t know her so he offered to introduce her to me. So the next thing I know, I’m working with Gail and it became this snowball effect where each musician recommended another musician.” In this manner, Voltaire was introduced to Earl Slick, the guitarist who worked with Bowie on Diamond Dogs; Steve Elson, the sax player who started with Bowie on “Let’s Dance”; and Mike Garson, Bowie’s pianist during the Ziggy Stardust tour in 1972, among many others who all contributed to this album.
PURCHASE/STREAM THE BLACK LABYRINTH ~ A REQUIEM FOR THE GOBLIN KING VIA BANDCAMP
The story of The Black Labyrinth isn’t complete just yet. As grand as the album is, bits and pieces are still missing to comprehend the story as a whole. An accompanying book is currently in the works and will be released soon. “There is a book that will come out probably in the fall. You obviously don’t get a lot of details listening to the record; you get a general sense of what is possibly happening in the story. When the book comes out, you’ll see the full written story of the Black Labyrinth and you’ll know what the songs mean as you’ll see what’s happening in them. There’s a tremendous amount of world building involved with so many main and secondary characters, each one of them has a back story.”
The Black Labyrinth is infectiously catchy and lively, the kind of story that needs to be realized on a stage with a full cast, costumes, set, and a live band. Will this spectacle ever make it to a stage near you? Well, that’s actually up to you.
“It was written very, very much to be a musical. It has a full story, just like any musical. And there are songs that, while they’re all sung by me as it’s my 13th album, they are written to be sung by different characters from the story,” says Voltaire. “After years of recording this record, the moment it was finished, I put it on. I sat back and I closed my eyes and I pretended I was watching this play on Broadway and I wept openly. And there were moments where I cried because it’s sad. There were moments where I cried because it’s beautiful, but I cried a lot. It’s a dream of mine to see this play manifest in such a way as to be on stage. I just, personally, do not have the connections or the resources to make that happen. I hope somebody out there decides that it would be a good idea. I’ll tell you this, I would settle for a high school musical. If a high school somewhere stages The Black Labyrinth, I will buy a ticket and I will fly to that school to see it.”
When not lamenting the great loss of the Goblin King, Voltaire continues to receive much deserved acclaim for his Gothic Homemaking series on his YouTube channel The Lair of Voltaire. The New York Times recently dubbed him “the Martha Stewart of Macabre Homemakers” and “a lifestyle guru for people who embrace the spookiness in all seasons”. As a resident of New York City, Voltaire certainly knows a thing or two on how to make rather small living spaces comfortable enough for a vampire to call home.
“I love Nightmare Before Christmas and I love universal horror movies and all that spooky, creepy stuff. But when it comes to decorating my home, I have this very strict rule where when people walk in, I don’t want them to think they’ve walked into a horror movie fan. I want them to think that a real vampire lives here.”
His Gothic Homemaking series includes everything from DIY projects, up-cycling furniture, and spooky Halloween hauls from big box craft shops fit for any Goth to outfit their own lairs all year round. “I try to decorate my home in such a way where you might think this is exactly what Dracula’s house might look like [without having it branded as Dracula]. I try not to decorate with licensed characters. I make a special effort to provide people with ideas around Halloween and Christmas with options that can be appealing throughout the year.”
To be able to build your own usable piece of furniture in the aesthetic and style specific to your tastes is the ultimate satisfying feeling, in particular for someone like Voltaire who didn’t excel in shop class in school and often finds himself with a few burns after putting the hot glue gun to use. With the numerous home pieces that Voltaire has created on his show, one stands out the most. “I am speaking to you on my laptop which is sitting on the haunted library end table I made. There was a moment when I was making this where it was such a disaster that I thought ‘ok, this was a terrible idea and it will never work’. It took a lot of time and a lot of trial and error to make it work, but I did. This is one of my favourite pieces that I made.”
Of course, any home project is intimidating for anyone inexperienced in building with their hands. Not every project will turn out smoothly, and the process can seem more frustrating than the final product is worth. “When things are going really poorly and it looks like you’re in a situation that is completely unsalvageable, go to sleep. Take a nap, take the day off. If you like drinking rum like I do, go out and have a few drinks, just forget about what you’re working on. Sometimes when you wake up the next day and you look at that project or situation again, you might find a new way of making it work.
Aurelio Voltaire is a man with one packed career currently complete with an American and European touring schedule, the Black Labyrinth, Gothic Homemaking, and numerous other projects on the go or being planned. He doesn’t plan on stopping anytime soon.
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Photo Credit: Gerrold Vincent
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