⁽ ²͟⁰͟²͟⁶͟ ⁾ ROLLING STONE MONTHLY COVER STAR, CILLIAN ROSEINGRAVE TALKS : MISANTHROPY, FRENCH EROTICA, AND ADDICTION.
Tables sprout candles in the darkened control room as thick and as numerous as mushrooms on a forest floor, with miniskirted department - store mannequins about in various states of bondage.
One mannequin has masking tape wound violently around its mouth and a plastic bag pinned over its head; another is gagged and has a pair of silver Lurex panties around its knees; a third has its wrists bound and is blindfolded. Four men huddle around a computer screen that displays jagged wave forms; several dozen recording levels jerk angrily into the red. Electronic drums as big as redwoods pound from the studio speakers, and the breathy, oddly calm tenor of the Dogma auteur Cillian Roseingrave sounds as if it were being broadcast by a shortwave radio from halfway across the entire world. Here in this small coastal pocket of Kinsale, sex, pain, and rock and roll are king.
SO, THIS NEW EP AND ALBUM FEELS LIKE A PRETTY BIG DEPARTURE FROM THE LAST ONE. CILLIAN: Yeah, it is. Much more guitar heavy, too. I find it pretty easy to track where I’m at mentally and where I stand with the world based on the type of music I’m making. Feels a bit like a big outpouring of all my emotions and feelings, and even I don’t really know what shape that’s gonna take until it comes out.
IS IT SAFE TO SAY YOU’RE FEELING PRETTY ANGRY, THEN? CILLIAN: I mean, yeah, but I think anyone who’s paying attention probably should be.
FAIR POINT. LOTS TO BE PISSED OFF ABOUT. CILLIAN: Yeah.
ASIDE FROM EMOTION, WHAT HAVE BEEN THE BIG DRIVING FORCES AND INSPIRATIONS BEHIND THE LATEST RECORD? CILLIAN: Oh, lots of things. Relationships, loss, grief, addiction … literature, too.
WHAT KIND OF LITERATURE? CILLIAN: Mostly revisiting a lot of my old favorites. Hellbound Heart. Story of O. The Torture Garden. I based the concept for the music video for Happiness in Slavery on that last one, and the title came from the forward on O.
THE MUSIC VIDEO THAT HAS PRETTY MUCH BEEN UNIVERSALLY BANNED? CILLIAN: ( Laughs. ) Yeah, that’s the one. Turns out networks don’t like masochistic disemboweling. Or using chopped up bits of human as garden fertilizer. Works like a fucking dream for flowers, though.
TELL ME A LITTLE BIT MORE ABOUT THE EVOLUTION OF YOUR SOUND, BECAUSE PRETTY HATE MACHINE FELT MUCH MORE SYNTH POP AS OPPOSED TO INDUSTRIAL. HOW DID YOU GO ABOUT EXPERIMENT WITH SOUNDS FOR THIS ONE. CILLIAN: Oh, I tried absolutely everything. Like I said, more guitars, but then those guitars were layered and stacked on top of each other like crazy, running them through the TurboSynth and processing them to shit. I think I was really focused on emphasizing mood, texture, restraint, and at some points, extreme lack of control. It was a lot.
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