Of Blood and Mercury — Strangers (Interview)
Down in the old valley, where drunken ghosts dragged themselves through grasses, where the scent of newborn sorrow sunk. Like cold whispers in the wind, a river where blood still runs, cold and deep in roots it runs.
In a lifeless spawn, dragged for an eternal, fiery suffering.
Dusty words remember a lost cause. A feeling of a half filled glass; half poison, half wine, half bitter, half sweet, some steel, some rust, some victory.
Somber sign awakes, like a mist rising, dressing itself for the sun. Hoovering over fields, loneliness the enemy. All alone until it’s gone, it’s gone.
In a lifeless spawn, dragged for an eternal, fiery suffering.
Dusty words remember a lost cause. A feeling of a half filled glass; half poison, half wine, half bitter, half sweet, some steel, some rust, some victory.
Interview
Today we had the cool participation of Of Blood and Mercury.
Tell us a little about yourself
I am Michelle, singer of the darkpop band of Blood and Mercury. Our debut album “Strangers” has been released in the middle of the first COVID outbreak. A strange album for strange people, in strange times. I am a student/ musician brought up in a small town in Belgium in family broken by death and abuse. This has certainly shaped me as a person and influenced me as a musician. Since shortly I moved to Brussels with my partner who is also the other composer of our band. We both feel like ghosts in this world. Our album ‘Strangers’ translates that very well.
We would like to know your history as an artist.
I have been singing in metal bands since I was about 17. I mostly sang in doommetal bands, went on tour through Europe and in the States and played several festivals home and abroad. Even though I loved this scene and the intensity of it, I missed something more artistic in my music. I also have a wide musical taste and realised that in fact doommetal was one of the genres I listened the least, even though I loved what I did. I met Olivier (The other composer in Of Blood and Mercury) in 2015 when recording an album with my doom metalband. He was involved in the studio and he himself comes from the extreme metal scene too. We both united our love for non-metal music in this new band ‘Of Blood and Mercury’.
Tell us the story of this song.
The song “Strangers” is the single for our debut album. This song is about memories we never had. Memories written down in history books, memories we have as the human race; This is associated with battlefields and ghosts. Memories we never had can also be more personal. On a personal level the song talks about a longing for things you know will never come or have never happened. In the video we are conjuring these memories through the consciousness of what could be another living being, or AI … We leave this up to your imagination.
Tell us a funny story from your career
We were so excited to shoot the video for the song ‘Strangers’. We put a lot of pleasure in it, but also hard work. We made all the things you see in the video ourselves, we even made the clothing ourselves, the script, … We were super well prepared and we were totally up for it. Our video was really depending on the weather and the availability of the video-shooter and make-up artist. So Finally we found the perfect day and everyone was prepared! Only, we forgot to load half of the props in the car. So when we finally arrived in a quite far destination, we realised we didn’t have all we needed with us! Finally we had to improvise around that for the video but in the end we are super happy with the result. Olivier is also an artist (paintings and sculptures) and he made a sculpture out of the items we forgot!
Also tell a story of overcoming
When Olivier and me were starting to write music we were not lovers yet. In fact we found ourselves in a very painful situation of not being able to be together. This was very hurtful for everyone involved. The song “Estranged” was the first song we wrote together and it was written while all of this was going on. It took us a long time before we could listen to it without feeling a lot of pain. In the end, this is our favourite song! We are together now in a magnificent relationship where we not only share our lives but we also make music together.
Leave a message for your fans
Dear fans, we know you are a different kind of breed, a tortured soul perhaps, and in doubt of many things. Although always lonely, through our music we connect in this world and in other worlds. Thank you so much for that.
It was a great pleasure to have you here. We wish you great success!
And see you in the next interview! Bye!
