Today sees the release of Swedish goth rock duo De Arma‘s new EP Nightcall – a dark and atmospheric journey through “a dystopian futuristic metropolis, where peril lurks around every corner”. The EP follows last year’s Strayed In Shadows LP and builds on its themes adding darkwave elements and a more electronic feel, including swapping live drums for old school Korg and Roland samples to create a sound that wears its 80s influences on its sleeve.
We’re delighted to bring you a first chance to hear the EP on Joyzine today and caught up with vocalist Andreas Pettersson to find out more about the record.
This is the first new music that we’ve heard from De Arma since last year’s “Strayed In Shadows” album. Can listeners expect a continuation of the sound that you developed on the LP or does this record take a different direction?
The atmosphere De Arma has become known for is definitely there – however, its presentation is quite different from our latest album, which was written 8 years ago. Hoping to infuse into our sound an intense presence of the glorious 80s, we allowed “Nightcall” to take a more electronic form. We excluded most of the metal elements and focused on a keyboard-driven sound facilitated by vintage synths and samples.
Can you tell us a little about the overarching themes of the EP?
Lyrically, it explores the divine but detrimental relationship the loner has with various mind-altering substances, as well as the poor choices which tend to follow in its wake. Like most of our songs, “Nightcall” is designed to express love, loss, shame, and similar feelings created by leading such a life.
The EP is the first release with your own Silent Future label – why did you take this decision and has it changed your approach to making records?
This was a natural progression – and something we’d planned for a couple of years – seeing as how my profession for the past decade has been managing a label. Together with a few other artists, we’re now slowly building up the Silent Future Recordings roster.
What can we expect next from De Arma?
We’re hard at work with our third album, which we aim to have ready to go by the end of this year. What to expect remains to be seen, but it might end up being somewhat more rock-oriented. More The Cure and less Depeche Mode, to put it in simple terms.
“Nightcall” is out today on Silent Future Recordings on limited digipak-CD and coloured vinyl with artwork by Boris Groh – order/download now on Bandcamp.
Find out more on De Arma’s official website
Article by Paul Maps
Photograph by Nicklas Lundqvist
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