Author notes

Page 25

Scott D

on April 3, 2020

Junior and Frenchy were two of the most fun characters to discuss when it came to their visual designs. Golden F. and I have musical tastes that are often very different, but at times intersect, and these points decided a lot of our aesthetics here.

One of the earliest albums I can actually remember listening to was my dad's copy of Guns N' Roses' Appetite for Destruction, and it wasn't long before I was also tuning into music that ranged from the Who and Genesis, Thin Lizzy (including Gary Moore's solo releases) and Eric Clapton, Dire Straits and Status Quo, to heavier stuff like Motörhead, Iron Maiden, and Black Sabbath. All things being equal, I also got to listen to a lot of ska, new wave, and blues, which was more my mum's speed, including Madness, The Specials, Dexys Midnight Runners, Jools Holland, Amazulu, The Knack, and Nine Below Zero.

From there my preferences expanded to incorporate further examples of blues and jazz, the genres that were themselves massive influences on what I enjoyed already, and I sometimes branched into other families of metal in secondary school. I got very into the brazenly eccentric pantomime theatrics of glam. I tried black and death metal and their cousins a few times, which have a definite charm, but I say with all respect that they simply didn't hold my attention quite so solidly. Queen, the Rolling Stones, and David Bowie got me through a very difficult period during college, and remain firm favourites (to the extent I named my dog Ziggy Stardust). I don't really want this to turn into a list of names, as it would be hard to detail everything I listen to now and I might even miss a few, but needless to say, my record collection's grown considerably with both new and old entries, and while exceptions exist, it's mostly a safe bet they'll fall into that larger sphere of styles I've previously outlined.

In contrast, Golden F.'s preferences lean towards post-punk that began in the late 1970s, in particular gothic rock and dark wave. She lists some of her favourite bands as She Past Away, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Sisters of Mercy, Boy Harsher, and the Birthday Massacre. Probably my biggest exposure to anything similar would be Bauhaus (of course referenced in Frenchy's choice of apparel), the Cure, Joy Division, Rip Rig + Panic, Billy Idol, and the Smiths, or bands with strong horror movie motifs such as Zombina and the Skeletones, the Damned, and the Misfits. I mostly discovered their work through films like 1983's The Hunger (dir. Tony Scott) and 1994's The Crow (dir. Alex Proyas), or television programmes like Top of the Pops and Ben Elton's anarchic comedy The Young Ones. Other bands our darling inkblotter gleefully cites for both inspiration and entertainment are Meshuggah, Gojira, Rings of Saturn, Ghost, the B-52s, Oingo Boingo, Talking Heads, and Echo and the Bunnymen.

If Frenchy's style recalls the late 1970s and 1980s working class punk scene of London and New York, then Junior's look and hair are more or less directly based on the Teddy Boy fashions of 1950s Britain, generously layered with American rockabilly music and its goth-inspired offshoots, including The Cramps, Zombie Ghost Train, and Nekromantix.

Gosh. I guess this did turn into a bit of a list after all, but what can I say? "If music be the food of love, play on," the Bard once wrote.

What are some of your favourite musical artists? And if you use music to help you to write, draw, or otherwise create, who helps you the most?
—Scott D.

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