Death in Vegas is a band that conjures up leather sheets, aggressive sex, and torturing small animals. Their new album, Scorpio Rising, takes its name after a film by Kenneth Anger. There are rumors about this band building their studio, The Contino Rooms, in a place once inhabited by Aleister Crowley. Whether they channeled the spirit of Crowley on this record or not, is still a mystery. The dark truth of this album is that it is dedicated to an engulfing evil in the world.
Born out of the London club scene that included The Chemical Brothers, Richard Fearless formed a studio only project in 1996 named Death in Vegas. With Steve Hellier, Fearless spent two years pumping out a similar type of audio adrenaline, mixing hiphop, samples, and heavy music. The result was their first album, Dead Elvis (1997). The single "Dirt" became a MTV hit later that year. Many people thought that this was a band that would be the new Nine Inch Nails.
Hellier soon left and was replaced by Tim Holmes (who engineered Dead Elvis). For the next album. Fearless gained a new partner as well as a few celebrity guests like Iggy Pop and Bobby Gillespie. This made the second album, The Contino Sessions (1999), quite spectacular. The single "Aisha" dealt with a first person narrative by a serial killer. Death in Vegas became more of a live act during this time, by forming a real band of musicians. They became known more as a psychedelic/electro rock band.
Recently they have released their third album Scorpio Rising (2003). This album includes vocals by Dot Allison, Hope Sandoval, Paul Weller, Nicola Kuperas, and Liam Gallagher. This has caused a lot of excitement and energy. They are already ready to work on the next record. I spoke to Tim Holmes recently, during some time off. Richard Fearless refuses to speak about any of his own work. Death in Vegas should be playing in the US sometime in fall 2003.
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AL: Do you like Roky Erickson?
Tim: Yeah. I like all good music. I like everything from Andrew Lloyd Webber to The Beach Boys. I have a lot of records. I live in London which is handy for buying vinyl. There's more vinyl in New York, it must be said. I live in Brixton and Richard lives in Islington. There's two Rough Trade Records in London. One is more electronic. You have to look around. There are a bunch of shops that have vinyl. These are shops full of men looking at records.
AL: What about Fad Gadget? Is Frank Tovey an influence anymore?
Tim: Yeah. I was into Fad Gadget when they were going. I saw him play not long before he died. He played at a place in North London. A lot of that music came out of punk rock: Throbbing Gristle, Fad Gadget, and Cabaret Voltaire. I was into all of that stuff. That's my background really. That's where I come from.
AL: Have you played any shows with any punk of electro groups?
Tim: No. We should organize something like that. The closest we have come is Soft Cell. We did the Sonar Music Festival in Barcelona. It is an electronic music festival. We played in the same venue as them. I think we played right before Soft Cell.
AL: What are some new bands that you listen to?
Tim: Loads. I am listening to The Kills, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Suicide, The Cramps.
AL: Have you seen any films recently?
Tim: I have just seen a brilliant Japanese film called The Dolls. It's about two lovers. It's very sad and typically Japanese. It's about betrayal, love, honor and respect. It's beautifully filmed. It's just stunning. The director is Takeshi Kitano. He does a lot of gangster films. I have seen Secretary and Donnie Darko. I haven't seen Matrix yet.
AL: Have you read any good books?
Tim: I should read more. At the moment I reading The Shipping News. I haven't read it for a week, so I know that I am going to have to skim the start again.
AL: What is the set list like for the Death in Vegas show?
Tim: It's about half the new album. Maybe more. There's about four tracks from Contino Sessions. We do a few songs that were released as vinyl only. They were very electronic. Now they sound like Krautrock. It varies where we play and if it is our own gig. We can play long sets if it our own gig. People don't want you to get too experimental if it a festival. They just want to hear songs where they can jump around.
AL: Many people in America have seen the video for "Aisha." Have you done some videos for the new album?
Tim: We've done a video for "Scorpio Rising" and "Hands Around My Throat." We are working with filmmakers too. When we made the album Scorpio Rising we documented a lot of it. We filmed nearly everone who we worked with. We filmed all the sessions with Paul and Liam, and our trip to India. We are going to do a DVD. I don't know when it is coming out. On that DVD there will be some videos by some unknown filmmakers. They won't be videos geared toward MTV. They won't be very commercial. But they won't be like Richard Kern. I won't be able to show it to my mother.
AL Have you ran into Iggy Pop since you did "Aisha?"
Tim Yeah, we saw him in Scotland. We were doing T in The Park. We were playing at different times on different stages. We met up with him for a nice glass of red wine. He is really such a gentleman. When he was living in Berlin with David Bowie in the mid 1970s, and Bowie did Low and Heroes, and Iggy did Lust For Life and The Idiot, and the wall was still up. I was fourteen years old then and I was wondering what it was like being there in that place and making the kind of music they were making. I thought that was absolutely fascinating.
AL When are you coming to America to do a proper tour next?
Tim: We are coming in the autumn. We are coming to New York to do some more interviews and DJing. The record is coming out in America later in June 2003. The real tour will happen in September I think. That's when all the summer festivals will be over. We will be over. I want to do Burning Man if we ever get the chance.
An interview with Death in Vegas
by Alexander Laurence
