UNCLE ACID AND THE DEADBEATS Reignite Retro Metal On 'Shapes Of Midnight'

By David E. Gehlke

The alternative universe created by UNCLE ACID AND THE DEADBEATS guitarist / vocalist Kevin Starrs for the band's new (and seventh) studio album, "Shapes Of Midnight", doesn't feel all that far-fetched when considering the current state of the world's affairs. Reminiscent of Edgar Allen Poe's "The Masque Of The Red Death", a plague has descended upon mankind. The ruling class has sequestered themselves from the rest of the plebs. Yet, the plague still finds its way in. Death for the elites (like everyone else) is inescapable. In Starrs's world at the moment, there are no happy endings: the bad guys keep winning.

"Shapes Of Midnight" follows 2024's synth-dominated "Nell' Ora Blu", a telegraphed and quasi-controversial detour from the U.K. act's infallible brew of BLACK SABBATH piped through spooky occult and garage rock. However, much like 2015's "The Night Creeper" and 2018's "Wasteland", "Shapes Of Midnight" is a spectacle of riveting, clever vocal arrangements with the appropriate proto-metal shards of riffing and haunting synth dashes. Few have charted a more genuine, organic retro course than UNCLE ACID, who have now decided to venture off on their own label, Killer Candy Records, after several years and releases with Lee Dorrian's respected Rise Above Records. Right before the band was set to kick off its North American jaunt in support of "Shapes Of Midnight", BLABBERMOUTH.NET got the scoop from Starrs.

Blabbermouth: You were with Lee and Rise Above Records for a while. What made you go the independent route for "Shapes Of Midnight"?

Kevin: "It's kind of something I always wanted to do. Our first two records, 'VOL 1.' and 'Blood Lust', we self-released on Killer Candy, and we took it as far as we could. I didn't have the money to press vinyl; I didn't have any distribution. I was doing everything myself. I ran it as far as I could, and luckily, Lee came at the perfect time with Rise Above. He offered to press the album to vinyl, and then we signed a deal with them, and everything was great. I knew that, once the deal ended, it would be good to go back to being fully DIY again. I'm glad we've done it."

Blabbermouth: Were other, bigger labels looking at the band?

Kevin: "Not that I'm aware of, but I just hear so many horror stories where certain bands will present an album they worked really hard on and be told, 'No, we're not happy with this. Go back and do it again.' That's horrendous. I couldn't ever imagine doing that. I think I'm too set in my ways to be kind of 'bossed' around in that way. That was the good thing about Rise Above: they never interfered with the music. It was always 'Get on with it, and we'll release whatever you give us.' Lee had full confidence in what we were doing, and we knew he could take care of anything we gave him. Few labels are like that. If we signed to anybody, even a bigger label, it would probably, in some ways, have been a step backward. The amount of interference we would have received, doing certain press things, unboxing videos, it's not for me. [Laughs]"

Blabbermouth: It doesn't fit the band's aesthetic.

Kevin: "And most bands aren't comfortable doing those things, but they're told, 'You have to do it.' They should just let the bands get on with it."

Blabbermouth: Has the independent route been sort of a double-edged sword for you with all of the additional work?

Kevin: "Yeah. This record was kind of difficult because there were delays in the pressing of the album, so it got pushed back a couple of weeks, which is really bad timing for us because, obviously, we're getting ready for a tour. We're having to ship things before we wanted to. It's kind of been a bit stressful in that way. If it had been released a couple of weeks or a month or so earlier, things would have been fine. It's just the way it's gone with the pressing plants at the minute, and then EU [European Union] laws and regulations have started coming in that affect shipping into EU countries. That's only come in this summer, so we've got all these new challenges with the postal services in every country and tax and all this kind of thing. It's not the best time to be starting a label. [Laughs] But what are you going to do?"

Blabbermouth: You recorded "Shapes Of Midnight" at Abbey Road a few years ago. What was that like?

Kevin: "You walk in, and it's the history of the place: you've seen pictures of it, and it's got a certain smell to it. [Laughs] It's a bit strange. We were there to do a job, so once you get past all that, you realize you have three days, and we'll have to get on with it and make sure we do a good job; you realize you have to get to work. We had all the old late-'60s, early-'70s recording consoles; we used all of those and all the old microphones from the '50s and '60s. They sound amazing. They've got a great microphone collection there, and the room sounds great, so you're trying to pick up as much as you can. You're using room microphones to get a little bit of that ambiance. I'm really glad we recorded there. It was a good experience."

Blabbermouth: You were pretty clear on what you were trying to do with "Nell' Ora Blu", but how about for "Shapes Of Midnight"? Where were you looking to go?

Kevin: "I wanted to take some elements from 'Nell' Ora Blu'. We kept a lot of the analog synthesizers; the sax makes another appearance on this record. I felt like, in some ways, this album is an accumulation of all the records we've done. Every time we do an album, you pick things up and take them to the next one and the next. I knew that I wanted to do more of a hard rock record, in comparison to 'Nell' Ora Blu'. At the same time, after 'Wasteland', I knew I wanted to make 'Nell' Ora Blu'. You have to think about what it is you want to do and just do it."

Blabbermouth: I like the quote about writing on "instruments you can't play" for "Nell' Ora Blu". It's a nice change of pace in between "Wasteland" and "Shapes Of Midnight".

Kevin: "I think it's good to challenge yourself and to challenge your audience as well. I knew a lot of people weren't going to like it because it's, I would say, it's not the music they listen to, which is fine. It's stuff that I listen to. I like that kind of thing, so we went ahead and did it. A lot of people are scared to lose their fanbase because they work hard and they build up a fanbase, so they try and keep everything kind of safe with every album because they don't want to destroy that. I think that's such a sad way of going about being a band. [Laughs] Playing things safe doesn't seem very logical to me. To be able to do an album that could completely or potentially destroy you, that was quite interesting. A lot of people hated it. It was a disaster for them to have waited so long for an album; they really weren't happy about it. It's how it goes sometimes."

Blabbermouth: And you took it on the road!

Kevin: "We really enjoyed doing that. That was also a challenge. We were all using in-ear monitors and playing to a click track, so everything is on time, and the dialogue comes in at the right places. It was really enjoyable, and we pulled it off. Again, there were some people — I don't know what they were expecting. We told everyone we were going to do it live, but some people were shocked we were doing it. They walked out. [Laughs] It's not what they wanted, but that was quite funny."

Blabbermouth: You added George [Hudson, guitar] and Rachel [Burnett, keyboards] to the band a few years ago. There are a lot of synths on the new album, what kind of influence did Rachel have?

Kevin: "On 'I Won't Sleep', there's a sax part that kind of goes along with the verses, and I had that idea. Rachel came in and did it perfectly, and then she did the great sax solo at the end of that as well. Then there were a couple of others where I couldn't figure out how to end them. She sent me a load of other sax parts that didn't make it onto the album. I took one part, reversed it and then randomly put it at the end of the track, and it totally made the song. It fit perfectly. I ended up being inspired to do a different ending to what I had planned. That was something I didn't expect: it was an experiment to reverse a sax part and see what happens. It inspired another idea."

Blabbermouth: Your vocals have always been a central point of the band. There's more harmonies on this record, too. How are you rating yourself as a singer these days?

Kevin: "I think I'm getting better. When we started, I didn't want to do it at all. [Laughs] I was just the guitar player. I wanted to stand at the back and just be the guitar player, but we ended up waiting and waiting, trying to find people. Then a year goes by, and I said, 'Well, this is never going to happen unless I do it.' Then I became the singer. It takes a long time to learn how to use your voice properly. I feel like I'm taking care of my voice a lot better, especially on tour. I'm trying to warm up and stay away from certain kinds of food, and I'm just trying to protect my voice a little bit more."

Blabbermouth: The last song on the record, "Sleep No More", is a bit of a departure for you.

Kevin: "That was another one where I couldn't figure out how to end it. We were riffing on the last bit, and I thought, 'Just fade it out.' Then, I can't remember how it happened, but as I was sort of working on the song at home, I added another part and added another part, then came up with these melodies to go on top and then came up with this whole idea of adding this kind of spoken-word thing, right at the end, this kind of 'spooky' voice, this distorted voice that comes in. It's sort of like an evil spirit or something. I thought that ended the album really well. When I came up with that, I was thinking of ZZ TOP, like a real kind of slow groove to it. It's an interesting song for sure."

Blabbermouth: What made you tie Poe's "The Masque Of The Red Death" into "The Shapes Of Midnight" concept?

Kevin: "I came up with this story and then realized how close it was to 'The Masque Of The Red Death'. It wasn't directly influenced by it, but I realized I needed to show it respect. It was an unintentional influence."

Blabbermouth: In "Wasteland", you have humanity cut off from everything. On the new album, you have the elite now cut off from humanity, and they're screwed. Death will get them either way.

Kevin: "Exactly. It doesn't matter what class you are; death will get you in the end. I like the idea of separation between people, and there was all of this fighting in both of the sections of society that they've created. For me, it all takes place in an alternative reality to our own, some kind of weird, surreal kind of horrible world. [Laughs] And in some ways, all of our albums, I think of them being like that."

Blabbermouth: And as it goes, they reflect the world in which we live.

Kevin: "That's the thing: Usually, in our world, good eventually overcomes evil. That's the way I always like to end it, but the last couple of albums, evil's now winning and everybody feels hopeless. Maybe the next one may be a bit more positive. I don't know, but if good is going to overpower evil again, I'd be happy with that."

Blabbermouth: The band has become more selective in touring. That hasn't really hurt your popularity, though. Do you foresee you sticking with this approach?

Kevin: "I prefer doing a month or so in one territory, then going off to another place and doing it that way. We have got quite a lot of touring coming up. Obviously, North America, then we come back, we do a festival in Europe, then we have a few weeks off, then we do a U.K. tour, then straight away, we fly over to Australia and New Zealand. This year will be pretty hectic. Next year, we're going to be in Europe again. We'll have a tour there and then the festivals again next summer, but it's nice to have breaks in between things."

Blabbermouth: From the start, you've always done well over here in America. Has that come as a surprise?

Kevin: "It's been really unexpected. The reaction in the U.K., especially, wasn't like that. Europe was kind of behind us, but America, the U.S., just totally got on board with us, which is really nice. I think the first tour that we did pretty much all sold out, which was amazing. Every time we've gone back, we play slightly bigger venues each time. It's nice. It's a nice, steady, sort of increasing popularity, I suppose."

Blabbermouth: The U.K. press is notorious for being difficult toward its own bands, right?

Kevin: "It's very strange. We supported BLACK SABBATH [in 2013]. The tour started in Europe. The response we were getting from European fans was really positive. I was surprised at that because nobody knew who we were at that point. We were some young band playing with BLACK SABBATH. I remember the last show was in Europe, in Paris; the French fans were actually going berserk for our music. They were chanting 'UNCLE ACID!' as we were walking off stage. I couldn't believe it. I thought, 'That's going to set us up nicely for the U.K.' Then we get to the U.K., the first show; there must have been 20 messages on our Facebook page, like 'Fuck you guys!' 'Why are you supporting BLACK SABBATH?' 'Your hair is too long. I couldn't see your faces.' It was wall-to-wall negativity from these British fans. I thought, 'We're from here! What's the problem? We're supporting BLACK SABBATH. Give us a chance. Our music's not that different to what they're doing, and our hair is not much longer than what their hair was.' It was really bizarre. It was like that after every show. People were not having it. They wanted, I don't know, like MEGADETH, or a big band to support BLACK SABBATH. They couldn't handle the fact that there was a young band that they didn't know playing with them. I didn't get it. It was very odd."

Blabbermouth: On a related note, you covered Ozzy's "Believer". What made you pick it?

Kevin: "It was weird: I had that in my head a few days before he died. The melody was stuck in my head. I couldn't even remember the name of the song — it was so long since I listened to the Ozzy stuff. I was like, 'What the fuck is that song?' After he died, I was going through the first album ['Blizzard Of Ozz'], and it wasn't on there; then I found it on 'Diary [Of A Madman]'. Then I listened to it again and thought, 'It's such a good song. That would be a good one to cover.' It's not one of the obvious ones. People probably expected us to do a SABBATH song, but I think it's a great song."

Blabbermouth: It's certainly a creepy song that fits with your vibe.

Kevin: "Yeah, and I tried to get Rudy Sarzo to play bass on it, but he was too busy, apparently. That's a shame. Obviously, Justin [Smith, bass] does a great job, and it worked out for the best."

Photo credit: Karin Hunt