Dawn Goes Black

The married couple Steve and Darian is behind the new project “Dawn Goes Black” founded in the early 2010. Die Satansfrucht was a promotion song for Darians same named debut novel. It was their first experiment in electronic music. The response of Die Satansfrucht on MySpace was much bigger than they ever expected, so Dawn Goes Black went to the studio and made a few more songs.

The project Dawn Goes Black is fresh. Could you give me some details about your history as I can see you have done a lot of things before Dawn Goes Black?
Sure! In former times we had a Heavy Metal band called Savage Earth. It wasn’t a big thing; we played just for fun and only had a few gigs. When our drummer left us for professional reasons we quit the band and started our next project known as The Seventh Stone. This band is a symbiosis of Rock and literature, but it’s more an entertaining show than just music and spoken words. The Seventh Stone represents the story of Pan, the horned god, whose life on the island Crete was full of excesses. We’re still active with The Seventh Stone, but we’re always open to new inspirations and change. So in the early year of 2010 we founded the project Dawn Goes Black and released the track Die Satansfrucht on MySpace. Die Satansfrucht was basically a promotion song for Darians same named debut novel. It was our first experiment in electronic music. The response of Die Satansfrucht on MySpace was much bigger than we had ever expected, so we made a few more songs. In the meantime, our passion for electronic music is fully roused.
Describe your sound, because it’s a combination of a lot of music elements, isn’t it?
Yes, that’s right. Our music is a mixture of EBM, Industrial and Goth. And as Steve is playing the guitar he wants to involve his instrument in some of our songs. You can hear the result of his heavy guitar chords and electronic music in our track Black Widow. When we sit down in front of the computer to create new songs it’s impossible to say what comes out. There are so many surprising options, so it’s a real exciting thing for us.
Darian is also a writer and her first novel is Die Satansfrucht. I’m curious to learn more about this novel!
Die Satansfrucht is a sad story about Sina, a young woman. Sina was highly pregnant, when she committed suicide. Her suicide raises many questions. Nevertheless her friend Christin finds Sinas diaries, which enable her to reconstruct Sinas destiny. Sinas life was full of excesses. There were too much sex and too many drugs. After Sina fell in love with the diabolical singer of a Rock band, she added a pinch of Satanism. But sooner or later all that heavy stuff was too much for the sensitive Sina. When she ascertains to be pregnant she gets stuck on the idea to deliver the new antichrist, the son of Satan himself. In order to prevent this, she kills herself. But the baby survives… Was Sina nothing more than an insane woman, or were there in fact occult powers manipulating her? The readers have to decide themselves. There are original handwritten extracts of Sinas diaries in the book, which make it very special.
Let’s get back to the band. Which are the main themes of your songs? Who writes your lyrics?
Of course, all the lyrics are written by Darian. Sometimes they’re fragments of poems she wrote in former times, sometimes they are based on new ideas. The lyrics of Die Satansfrucht are strictly linked to her novel. To make a long story short: the main themes are love and death.
In your opinion, what makes you different from other bands?
Well, maybe it’s the fact that we never had a connection to electronic music before. We started to create it rather by chance. Steve listens to bands like Metallica, Motörhead and Slayer. Darian likes some other stuff like Danzig, Fields Of The Nephilim and medieval music. So we are influenced by a lot of different bands and we put these influences of handmade music into our electronic creations. Maybe this unusual mix is the reason why nobody can say: “Dawn Goes Black sounds like any other band.”
What are the comments from the people who hear your music?
They’re completely positive. Most people ask us to continue on this way. Some people really say: “Thank you for giving us this great kind of music, we want more!” Wow. Sometimes it’s pretty overpowering for us. We never heard negative comments. Nevertheless, we don’t think that everybody loves our music. This can’t be the case at all.
About live shows: Is it possible someday in the future to perform your music on the stage?
Yes, it has to be possible! We love the stage, we love live shows and the contact to the audience. We would die if we were forced to stay at home with our music. Of course, it’s not very easy to bring Dawn Goes Black on the stage in an entertaining way, but some day we will. We’ve got many plans and ideas, but they won’t be opened to you yet.
Your plan is to release your debut in 2011. Are there any labels who’re interested in your music?
Up to now no label has contacted us, but we’re not in a rush to find one. First, we would like to finish a few more songs. Then we’ll take the initiative to get in touch with some labels.
Are there any plans for the roster to be bigger and to make Dawn Goes Black a band? Or are you continuing as a couple?
Presently, we would like to continue as a couple with Dawn Goes Black. But never say never again. Life has surprised us already so often. Maybe we are going to become a big band in the future.
A message to all the people that support you?
In short words? Thank you. You mean so much to us! Sounds simple, but we are very serious about it. And it comes from the bottom of our hearts.
thank you very much steve and darian for this interview.
Thank you again for your interest
Best wishes Steve and Darian.
Kostas Sotiriou