Southampton based horror punk band Creeper will release their new album, Eternity, In Your Arms on March 24th via Roadrunner Records.
While Creeper is still fairly new in the horror punk scene, they have had an intense twelve months, playing sold out shows in their home country of the United Kingdom (including selling out their debut gig at the at The Joiners in August 2015) as well as touring Europe, including supporting the Misfits and Frank Carter. They have also appeared at various UK summer festivals including Hevy Fest, Download, Vans Warped Tour UK and Reading and Leeds in 2016. In the middle of the year they signed with internationally renowned record label Roadrunner Records, who will be releasing their latest album this year.
The band was originally formed by vocalist Will Gould and guitarist Ian Miles in 2014, who were both previously in Southampton punk rock band Our Time Down Here. The two were in the band for around seven years before it disbanded, with Our Time Down Here citing the fact that they “never had any attention” even though they had been touring for the better part of a decade as the main reason for the split. Gould and Miles’ departure from the band lead to the formation of Creeper, where the two enlisted a few of their other Southampton punk scene friends into the band, including Gould’s roommate Dan Bratton on drums, Sean Scott on bass and the most recent addition of Hannah Greenwood on keyboard.
While the two founding musicians are admittedly very close, living together for various parts of their lives (including both of them living in Miles’ mums shed in the backyard of her Southampton council house at one point) and writing, playing and touring with bands together for the better part of a decade, they also differ in the interests and idols they admire which can be demonstrated in the fact that Creeper, both musically and aesthetically, is so appealing.
Gould grew up listening to the UK’s glam rock heroes David Bowie and Bryan Ferry/Roxy Music, and studied fine arts at university. Miles’s dad was a biker, and as such he grew up listening to Metallica, Judas Priest, Black Sabbath and a slew of heavier bands, and he studied film at university.
The two found a balance through the American horror punk band called Misfits – Metallica had covered two Misfits songs, Die, Die My Darling and Last Caress/Green Hell in their cover compilation album Garage Ink (1998). Singer/songwriter of Misfits, Glenn Danzig, has always been a self-confessed Bowie fan, with the Misfits cover album Skeletons (2015)’s cover paying a homage to Bowie’s own cover album, Pin Ups (1973)’s artwork. The Misfits’ legacy in the horror punk subgenre is evident as a key inspiration in Creeper’s discography, so much so that the band was chosen to support the Misfits on their UK Tour in August 2016.
Aesthetically, their band caters to fans of the eclectic influences the two friends share; from the theatrical shows Metallica displays at their live performanbces, to the flamboyancy and style that the glam rock stars like David Bowie and Brian Eno (Roxy Music) were famous for. Their music videos reflect the classic 80’s cult vision, drawing influences from films such as Heathers and Stand By Me. Overlaying everything Creeper does is an incredible theatrical element, with the members promising an "immersive and theatrical stage show" when punters attend one of their gigs.
The band took the concept of immersing the audience to an entirely new level with the conclusion of their performance at Leeds festival in August 2016. The band’s social media accounts started posting pictures of white noise, which were promptly deleted, claiming that they were being hacked. The band members’ social medias, including Facebook, Twitter and Instagram was all deleted (although was reinstated as the mystery continued to unfold). Fans were prompted to call 02380000376 where a message stating “On the 2nd of October 2016, we’ll die holding hands”. At the conclusion of the call, a text message was sent to the caller with a link to this webpage https://www.whereisjamesscythe.co.uk.
The website details the case of missing person James Scythe, a paranormal detective missing since December 2015. Creeper’s social media began posting missing persons posters of the six members of the band, with the caption “disappeared on August 27 after performing a concert in Leeds, UK. Reportedly last seen boarding a vehicle bound for Southampton, UK.” The mystery pieced together
Not only did fans, through the Creeper Cult Facebook group, attempt to piece together the mystery that was set out scavenger-hunt style for fans to solve, but it picked up the attention of news sources from not only the United Kingdom but the rest of the world, including DIY Mag, Upset Magazine, as well as its own Subreddit (whereiscreeper) on popular discussion forum Reddit. The mystery laced together Creeper’s new releases and hyped up fans for the release of their new album, which suggests we can expect to see something more from the Southampton band before their album is released in March.
Creeper has been compared to bands such as Alkaline Trio and AFI. They have also covered My Chemical Romance’s This Is How I Disappear on Rock Sound’s homage to the MCR album Black Parade; Rock Sound Presents: The Black Parade, with artists such as Twenty One Pilots, Asking Alexandria and Escape the Fate also featured. The band has also recently covered Twenty One Pilots’ We Don’t Believe What’s On TV on BBC Radio 1 Maida Vale session. The band says they are happy about being compared to these bands because “we love [them]”. Despite these comparisons, the band’s theatrical blend of horror punk distinctly sets them out from any other similar band, and they say they have more to come in the future and the lead up to their latest album.
“Slowly, something’s really happening at the moment” says Gould. “I can’t wait for people to hear this new thing we’ve got going on, and we’ve got even more going on that we can’t talk about. We just want to keep doing what we’re doing. That’s the plan and this year it goes up. It all gets cranked up in quite a significant way”.
Creeper’s new album Eternity, In Your Arms is set for release on March 24 via Roadrunner Records.
