Dreams From The Depths – An Interview With Moss


Moss1A figurehead of British doom, Moss have just released their third full length; the long awaited Horrible Night. Olly Pearson (vocals) delves with Ghost Cult into the band’s ethos of steering clear of digital formatting within music, alongside adopting a more traditional approach to their sound.

Three albums is not much when you consider the length of time you guys have been around for – you tend to put out a lot of EPs – do you prefer this format? If so, why?

I prefer an album, gives you more time to do stuff and it’s where all the good meat is. We’ve been about for nearly 15 years, that’ll be an album every 5 years average, I think that’s pretty regular going. I don’t think bands need to knock out an album every year; if they can, that’s great, we just like to take our time with these things, we have all got pretty busy lives. Our last release was the live album in 2010, so there’s always things between to tide people over if they want something from us.

How do you compare Horrible Night to the rest of your discography? How has your sound progressed?

Horrible Night is a pure doom metal record. Our previous records were very slow and heavy, but this one is much more in line with the classic strain of doom metal; Black Sabbath, Saint Vitus, etc. I’m not using extreme vocals anymore, and everything is much more song based, but it doesn’t sacrifice our core sound. I think if you liked the old Moss then you should dig this one too.

Where do you draw inspiration from, both lyrically and musically?

Lyrically I get inspiration from pretty much everything around me – books and films I’m into, things that are happening in my life. I’d say its the same musically, we’re all really into horror and we take a lot from that. We surround ourselves with horror on a daily basis.

What was the writing and recording process like for Horrible Night?

Very long! Usually we’d have everything done in two weeks, but we took our time for this one, it took nearly three years to write and getting it onto tape was about 6 months. I really didn’t want to rush it; some members of the band expected everything to be done as quickly as before, but that just wasn’t going to work with this record. It took ages and it’s all the better for it.

You do a lot of one off gigs and live performances – any plans to tour with this album?

Yeah, we’ve got a European tour coming up in April, dates are on our Facebook page. We hadn’t been out there for a while and it made sense to get a few other shows in around our appearance at Roadburn. We’ll be doing more shows this year than we have in our entire career, this album has really put us in the mood to get out there and play it.

What is a personal favourite of yours from your discography and why?

Horrible Night. I’ve found myself listening to it more than anything else we’ve done, months after it’s been finished. While I do like them, I didn’t really listen to our last records when they were completed, it’s not the kind of stuff I want to relax to at home. ‘Horrible Night’ is just much more listenable, I’m finding it easier to separate myself from it and enjoy it almost as an outsider. The idea was to make a record that we’d want to buy ourselves.

You are considered one of the most prestigious bands in British doom, how does that make you feel? Do you think that’s an accurate statement?

I don’t know about that! Its not something I think about, but if people regard us like that then that’s cool. I guess we’ve been around for a while now, but I do think it has taken us years to make a good record that will hold up over time. I hope Horrible Night is that record.

In recent years doom has had a resurgence within the UK, with new acts popping up all over the place – what do you think of he modern doom metal scene and the bands within it?

I think when it comes to the modern British doom scene its still pretty thin on the ground. I mean there’s us, Electric Wizard, Cathedral and Witchsorrow and that’s it, really. Some new acts I’ve heard recently are only copying what’s been done before; aping Sleep or waving dixie flags or whatever. It’s been a while since something truly British and original came out.

Tapes, CDs or vinyls and why?

All three, just not files on a computer. Anything where you have to listen through a proper hi-fi set up is good in my book!

Who are your favourite bands and what are you listening to at the moment?

My favourite bands are The Small Faces, Black Sabbath, Humble Pie, The Beatles, Saint Vitus, Dream Death/Penance, The Pretty Things, Jacula, Venom, Hawkwind and Death SS. I’m kinda stuck on The Who ‘Live At the Isle of Wight’ lately. Also Gravediggaz ‘Niggamortis’, loved it when I was 15, so revisiting that!

Angela Davey

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