Will Gould talks Salem, falling in love with vampires, and what’s next for Creeper Kerrang! – Kerrang!

Will Goulds been abusy boy. Not content with Creeper releasing one of last years best albums, Sex, Death &The Infinite Void, barely six months after the release of his other band Salems self-titled debut EP, theyve done another one: Salem II. Its out on May 7, and its lead single, DRACULADS, not only has the best title of 2021 so far, the video is an inspired goth-punk tour around 80sManchester.

We had to know more, so we dropped Will aline to get thestory

So, Draculads that title came before the music, didntit?No, actually! Well, yes. My housemate Alex and Iwere playing Jackbox, and he named me that in the game. It was my avatar. Iwas like, Thats pretty funny, Im gonna use that for something. Anyway, Iwrote the song and just thought, Ive got to call this DRACULADS. Its too much of agood fit for the song and the vibe of it. Obviously its silly, but its such agood title.

Do you often dothat?Well, with Salem, Ilike to keep hold of things for use at alater date, lyrics and things like that. And that was one of the ones Iknew was gonna be perfect. And thats the thing about my other band Creeper: everything can be so serious. But with Salem, things can be so much more playful, and you can do more ridiculous stuff. Have you seen those pictures we just put out? Iprobably wouldnt get away with any of that stuff in Creeper. Its kind of funny and kitschy. And this band kind of allows us to do whatever we want like that the video project is obviously not in the canon of storytelling, the way aCreeper video would be. So you can kind of make up aload of different worlds for each single release rather than one continuousthing.

Whats DRACULADS actuallyabout?A lot of these songs are about love. This one in particular, there were loads of pop bands that were putting records out at the time the music was written, and Ialways think that the funny thing about whats happened over the past couple of years was these bands always trying so hard to be sincere that it comes across really insincere to me. It feels alittle bit corny. And it feels like more of apantomime than some of the stuff that more theatrical bands do. So Ithought, Im not going to write asong about hating my hometown or whatever, its about falling in love with avampire. Were taking everything to the nth degree. Its really over the top. Everythings really high end, but its still this kind of gnarly punk rock love story. Weve taken those themes and the themes of love and obsession and turned them up to11.

Tell us about thevideoWell, we havent got abudget for anything. So its right back to how you started doing music where it was like, Okay, thats my money. And we, me and my friends, were gonna try and find away to spend that money to make something fun. We couldnt film indoors, but then Ithought, I live in Manchester, and theres so much musical history here thatsoutdoors.

Also, my girlfriend Charlottes dad was apunk back in the 80s. All his daughters are really into music because of that. Shes been in loads of videos, but this one was her sister Beth, she loves The Cure, shes atotal Cure-head, and she has all this amazing stuff. So Iwas like, Lets put together akind of This Is England-style period piece. Its an 80s-styled post-punk romance, basically. And we got some good locations Iused to live in Salford, which is right where the Lads Club was, where The Smiths were shot, and around there is [legendary club] The Hacienda, and where alot of [Manchester music movie] 24 Hour Party People was filmed. So we filmed abunch of stuff and had areally funday.

Theres alot of detail. Charlottes dad gave me this old Damned poster that hed ripped off awall in Manchester in 1985, and we scanned it and repaired it and reprinted it. Theres lots of really authentic stuff in there. Its so funny, Ihad loads of trouble getting cigarette packets that have dont have the packaging obscured. Ihad to go and look for them on eBay, so youre spending more than apack of cigarettes now to buy an empty pack ofcigarettes!

Whats going on with Creeper while all this ishappening?We have [a headline] tour in December. Its completely about to sell out, which is amazing. Were so excited. Well be playing the Kentish Town Forum [in London], and weve played there before, supporting, but never on our own. Its our biggest headline tour to date. Ive got this ridiculous production for it. Its the very opposite of the Salem thing Creeper is doing this really all-out, theatrical rocknroll experience. Weve got alot going on, theres always stuff going on behind the scenes. And Ilike to keep Creeper mysterious and quiet until weve got something to say. Its gonna be really fun. We havent played together in so long. Not playing is the weirdest thing, because Im in Manchester and all my friends who Iplay music with, theyre all in the south. So Ive not been able to get together with anybody. When Iwent to Creeper rehearsals, Ihad to print the lyrics, just in case Iforgot them!

Salem II is released on May 7via Roadrunner Records.

Catch Salem at the followingdates:

October 2021

10 Milton Keynes The Craufurd Arms12 Cardiff Clwb Ifor Bach (downstairs)13 Birmingham Asylum 214 Nottingham Rescue Rooms15 Oxford The Bullingdon16 Swindon The Vic17 Frome Cheese and Grain18 Bristol Exchange21 Leeds The Key Club22 Huddersfield The Parish24 Newcastle Think Tank? Underground25 Glasgow Stereo26 Sheffield Sidney and Matilda27 Manchester The Deaf Institute28 Guildford Boileroom29 Tunbridge Wells Forum30 London The Dome31 Southampton TheJoiners

And see Creeper live with Holding Absence, WARGASM and Static Dress afterthat:

December 2021

15 London O2 Forum Kentish Town16 Brighton Concorde II17 Birmingham O2 Institute219 Glasgow Garage20 Manchester Ritz21 Leeds BeckettSU

Posted on May 6th 2021, 2:00p.m.

Original post:
Will Gould talks Salem, falling in love with vampires, and what's next for Creeper Kerrang! - Kerrang!