Some bands create songs, others create experiences. The Brides of the Black Room has taken the latter notion to the extreme.
The mysterious Swedish project—actually a coalition of veterans from Sweden’s music scene, with connections to hundreds of acts from the cyberpunk project Priest to the doom metal band Besvärjelsen—has built an elaborate mythology about a coven of witches. Members use names like Coyote and Ghostheart. They call their albums seasons, their songs episodes, in a carefully plotted narrative that plays out like a TV series.
Season 2 of that narrative—their sophomore album Commander—arrives September 19, picking up where the story left off with an explosive event and several deaths in debut album Blood and Fire. We’ve already heard a handful of singles from Commander, including the cinematic album opener “One Flash of Light” and last month’s sultry “Tension Rises,” songs that showcase the band’s lush sound and rotating roster of singers.
On the eve of Commander’s release, I reached out to The Brides to talk about their artist collective and what to expect from the second season.
Can you start by telling us who are the main players on Commander, and what are their contributions?
Ghostheart: First of all, The Brides of the Black Room is a collective, and we couldn’t really exist the way we function without any of the other members. We thrive off each other, we inspire each other. The visuals inspire the music and vice versa, and there’s a constant ongoing flow of creativity within the group.
With that said, everyone brings different things to the table. Coyote is the mastermind of it all— without him, no Brides. Ghostheart brings the music and the lyrics. Lynx is in charge of production and mixing. Lea brings witchcraft, raw power, and magic. Video maker EroGuru and visual art genius Crvsty both elevate everything we do to new levels. Take out one, and we all fall short.
Commander is the second season in a running narrative that began with your debut. What can you tell us about the story in this season?
Ghostheart: We would say that this season explores duality on different levels—both in the outside world and within ourselves. It starts off with “One Flash of Light,” where we find Lea Alazam in this dystopic wasteland as a victim of other people’s doings.
Throughout season 2 we experience the different aspects of good and evil, the light and the dark, the different personalities that we all have within us. And when the season ends, with the final episode of “Innocent,” it stands clear that the same person who initially was the victim is also the perpetrator. In that sense the story is also about finding the guts to face your own darkness—and to break your bloodline.
What does the title Commander refer to? Who—or what—is being commanded, and what’s the role of a commander in this world?
Ghostheart: That’s for each listener to discover for themselves. As stated above, this season takes on different angles of personal responsibility and facing your own darkness and demons. For most of us, we’re probably both in command and being commanded. But when and how—and by whom? Are we victims or perpetrators? Is there a bigger force, or can you take charge yourself?
I’m curious about your process. When creating narrative-driven work like this, how does it unfold within a collective? Does the story guide the songwriting, or do the music and lyrics shape the narrative?
Ghostheart: It actually works both ways. The story can definitely guide the songwriting, especially lyric wise. But this season, the narrative was basically there right from the start. This album took off with Ghostheart writing the first six or seven songs in a frenzy over just a week or so, and already from the start it was clear that the overall story arc was already there.
Coyote: Yeah, I mean we left season 1 with “Watch Me Burn,” which at least I consider pretty obvious that something is going on with Lea. It’s open to interpretation, of course. But if you follow the chronology from the first episode in the prologue (“Ambulance”) and the first episode in season 1 (“Fire Disciple”), I think and hope you can see some kind of structure in the narrative that really develops in the episodes of “Blood,” “Mother Mother,” and “Intruder.”
Not many bands approach narrative storytelling like this, so it’s hard to make comparisons. Where do you draw your influences from—musically or from other mediums?
Coyote: The inspiration for this storyline started with finding something more interesting—to us at least—than just releasing an album with singles, then on to the next album and singles. We liked the idea of working it as a kind of TV series, which I had not really seen done before by a band or musical collective.
The Weeknd did a very inspirational work in his timeline for the After Hours album, which also deals with some similar emotions and subjects, but presented in a different way. Other inspirations from the very start include discordianism for sure. And The KLF.
We have all been in many projects, bands, and coalitions through the years, and this seemed like an exciting opportunity to create together. A different angle.
Ghostheart: Obviously, we’re inspired by movies and TV series in a way. And books. We think it’s interesting to work with several different plot lines and story arcs in the way you do in those mediums.
For example, each individual song can describe a scene or one person’s personal struggles—like a chapter in a book or a scene in a movie—but then there’s also the longer arc where a bigger story unfolds. Even though every song is its own entity, they’re also all connected and intertwined.
The Brides of the Black Room story has taken visual form through an illustrated book and your music videos. Will there be another book with Commander? Are there other formats or creative mediums you would like to explore?
Coyote: Yeah, the book was part of season 1, Blood and Fire, which I recently and embarrassingly enough found out was a key element in the Game of Thrones TV series. I had not seen it before, so that might have connected us of being a gothic band and inspired by that series more than we probably wished for.
There are for sure many interesting formats and creative mediums that we have used and will use in the future. Some of them you might have to look for. But just let me tell you there are numbers involved that seem to appear in many of the videos. Just look for the clues, and put it together yourself.
Finally, if you could recruit anyone—living or dead—to join the collective, who would it be?
Coyote: David Bowie.
