Interview with Sasha Raoul (vocals, guitar) and Rick Manson (guitar) from Deathtrippers
Goth music is traditionally associated with all that is dark, melancholy and macabre. So the concept of a psychedelic goth band sounds like an oxymoron. Yet Leeds based band DEATHTRIPPERS are often described as just that. Established in 2015 by the charismatic frontman Sasha Raoul, DEATHTRIPPERS are a kaleidoscope of psychedelic Rock / Goth / Shoegaze and Electro. The band is comprised of Sasha, Rick Manson on guitars and Beth O Mas on keyboards, their eclectic and somewhat transient style is a result of Sasha’s experimentation with multiple genres from Goth to Acid House and Garage.
He likes to assimilate all the various styles and genres that he has picked up over the years and use them to enrich the DEATHTRIPPERS as their music evolves. Whenever they play live, they are joined by the “Trippers” - who are a small, but dedicated bunch of followers who can be found enthusiastically dancing at the front. Described as one of the most interesting Leeds bands in recent years, by friends, the band were on my radar, when serendipity set our paths on a collision course and voilà… a winter evening found me on Zoom, chatting to Sasha (and later Rick) from his home studio about his musical journey and creative process - which he describes as “Inner space meets outer space.”
Reflections of Darkness [RoD]: Hi Sasha, thanks for agreeing to this interview. So unlike most of the “Goth” bands who maybe started out in other Goth / Rock bands, your musical journey is somewhat different.
Sasha: Yeah, well I’m not sure - I mean, I think some bands / musicians like to keep to a certain genre as they’re confident and maybe happy in that genre. I like to dip in and out of lots of different areas because I’m very open-minded about music, so I like to fill my life with lots of different things - you know… especially with frequencies and tones, ideas… that kind of thing (in music). Through the years I’ve been in different types of bands. I’ve been in garage bands, dance bands and obviously the music that I’m doing now with the DEATHTRIPPERS kind of covers all that area.
RoD: So… you’ve been described as “Psychedelic Goth”, but is that how you would describe DEATHTRIPPERS?
Sasha: I think about this often - what is my music? I think the most honest answer is that it’s just DEATHTRIPPERS. We move around a lot, thought different styles of music and we’re going to have a complete change again soon. We just keep trying different things. I don’t think we’ll ever stay in the same place - we don’t want to anyway!
RoD: So, people will get used to one style of music and then you’ll bring out a new album and they’ll be surprised then?
Sasha: I think that people who are into DEATHTRIPPERS understand that already - because from our first release to what we’re doing now is a huge difference. I think so anyway. The thing about our gigs as well that the songs can change from gig to gig. I always try and do things a little bit differently. The band get pissed off with me - but I get a little bit bored with the songs and arrangements as they are and I’ll try something different. I’ll just throw something at Rick two days before a gig and go “Learn this!” You’ll see the whites of his eyes as he goes, “What the fuck - I’ve got to learn something new in two days!” He should know by now! (laughs)
RoD: So with such a diverse musical background, how did you get involved in the Goth scene?
Sasha: Well I was brought up in Leeds 4 and there were some cool looking Goths around then, so the aesthetics - I was attracted to it. Clothing-wise - when I was 15, I was still doing a bit of the Goth thing, but when I got to about 17, I started experimenting with different styles - going to a lot of second-hand clothes shops and things like that - especially Oxfam in Headingley. I used to pick up really cool suits and stuff like that… I mean I used to like dressing up a bit “mod-ish” after being a Goth, just for the hell of it. I used to like dressing up in these old, Italian suits. People used to think we were trying to be a bit like THE BIRTHDAY PARTY kind of thing - you know wearing suits and having big, shaggy hair and all that. As for how I got into the music… Obviously when I was growing up, we had bands like SIOUXSIE AND THE BANSHEES - they’d be on Top of the Pops along with THE CURE. They were top 40 bands when I was early teens, I guess and that’s kind of the time when you start getting influenced by music. My mum lives in France and she used to send me mix-tapes. She used to send me stories on these tapes as well when I was 10 years old, she put some songs on from THE CURE’s ‘Pornography’ album - which was one of her favourite bands around that time. I thought it was the absolute weirdest music I had ever heard, but at the same time, I thought “wow, this is amazing!” I asked my dad to buy it for me. He got me this album and I just played it non-stop - 10 years old and I completely got it straight away (the concept). I mean, my upbringing in music was really unconventional cos I was brought up in an Indian household and a lot of these (Goth) bands take their ideas from eastern music. As a result, something like THE CURE kind of worked with me from an early age, more than listening to something like DURAN DURAN… On saying that the first real music I got into was electro, but that can also be very dark, goth was a little bit of an extension of that, cos a lot of the bands were experimenting with keyboards and drum machines. Obviously, THE SISTERS OF MERCY use a drum machine and ALIEN SEX FIEND were completely analogue. I was drawn to those bands quite early on and was massively into the goth scene during my early teens yeah! Then acid house came along and I moved along again.
RoD: So you left the goth scene then came back again?
Sasha: Yeah, kind of… but I never really left it - it was just like an extension… you just keep growing your musical knowledge and try and absorb everything. I didn’t know I was going to pick up a guitar when I was 16/17, but something just said, “Right, you’ve got ninety quid, now go and buy a guitar.” I went to a guitar shop and now that I know about guitars, I realise that it wasn’t the best quality, but learning on a difficult guitar actually made me play harder and when I picked up a decent one, I noticed the difference and it felt a lot easier. Sorry I’m going off on a tangent here, but the first singer I ever fell in love with, was PRINCE. I never felt I wanted to be PRINCE, cos that’s fucking impossible, but I thought he was just the most amazing and coolest person ever and knew if I could just do something like that I would be happy. I actually started playing guitar because of SONIC YOUTH - I love their guitaring. I got my first guitar and I didn’t even know how to play a chord or anything. I didn’t know how to tune it up, so that was perfect, cos SONIC YOUTH’s style is very discordant, so I was playing all this raucous, detuned stuff and I thought, “Wow, I could get a band together now.” When you’re that age, you kind of move on quickly, don’t you… so when I did finally get a band together, I had moved onto more psychedelic stuff like SPACEMAN 3. My first real band had this really droning kind of sound.
RoD: What was that band called?
Sasha: We had loads of names, we kept on swapping the name around, people were coming in and out. We ended up with quite a gothy name actually - we settled on JESSICA’S WAKE.
RoD: So one of the things that you mentioned was that when you first picked up a guitar you didn’t know chords - and now you are playing a twelve-string. Is that a lot more difficult than a standard six-string?
Sasha: People say it’s different from playing a six-string and in some ways it’s not as you can’t go off doing huge guitar solos, but I don’t do that shit anyway. My solo-ing is very different to like a standard blues solo, but I can still do it on a twelve-string! Basically, whatever I do on the six-string, plays on the twelve-string. I like the twelve-string as it produces a more ethereal sound - which I’m always trying to capture - I’m not sure if I always get it, but that’s what I’m aiming for. That being said, you can emulate any sound you want using a keyboard and you don’t need a really expensive one either. I went to see SONIC BOOM - who used to be in SPACEMEN 3 and whilst they were chatting to a group of people, I sneaked up on stage to check out their equipment and they had like this forty quid keyboard. I don’t go for photographs or any of that stuff, I’m more interested in how they produce the sound. I bet they were thinking, “Oi, what are you doing up there? Fuck off!” (laughs).
RoD: So what is your creative process?
Sasha: Well, DEATHTRIPPERS is my project and then I’ve got Rick and Beth coming in to play on it. We aren’t set up to be a jamming band as we don’t have a drummer or bass. It’s a different kind of set-up to other bands I’ve been in. Some tracks it’s just me on my own, but I’m hoping that they will have more input on future songs. I just sit down with an idea, I might strum a few chords, but I work during the week, so I’ll say to myself “Right on Saturday, I’m going to sit down and start writing these tracks and just see where it goes.” Sometimes it works instantly and other times you can lay something down and not come back to it for a few months, then something clicks again with it. I’ve got loads of ideas on the boil all the time. It’s usually the music that comes first, then the lyrics. I know some singers write the lyrics first, then the melody but that doesn’t work for me.
RoD: And what do you think has been your biggest success story?
Sasha: Music-wise, I don’t measure things with success, maybe on a personal level, I’ve had success with some of the songs I write. I mean the album that was released in 2022 ‘Passion and Fire’ was brought about during the pandemic period and being isolated. It was a search for love actually that album, it was a manifestation of love - not just for me, but for everybody. A lot of songs on there are love songs… so I succeeded on that level I think. I don’t want to succeed in a world-wide kind of level you know, I don’t want to be rich and famous through music. It’s not about that, it’s about the creativity.
RoD: Well it’s about your own sense of personal achievement isn’t it.
Sasha: Yeah, that’s right. I’m not really bothered about on anybody else’s level. I release things when I’m happy with them. When I’m happy I know they’re finished, so once I’ve done that, I know I’ve succeeded.
RoD: So what’s the biggest venue that DEATHTRIPPERS have played at?
Sasha: With DEATHTRIPPERS, we haven’t played really big venues. We’ve played Carpe [Noctum], we’ve played the Old Woollen. We’ve only played to a few hundred people. [At this point, Rick joined Sasha in his studio]
RoD: Hi Rick, it’s nice to meet you. So how did you get involved with DEATHTRIPPERS?
Rick: We met a long time ago, we lived round the corner from each other growing up and we’ve been in a few bands together over the years. Sasha started DEATHTRIPPERS on his own and he got a couple of other people in - drummer and bass player, then about three or four gigs in, he asked me if I wanted to try and play a bit of guitar on it.
Sasha: Yeah, that was about 2017 I think.
RoD: So how did Beth get involved?
Rick: Olli, the bass player - Beth is basically his best friend, so he kind of talked her into it.
Sasha: No, she really wanted to join apparently and she kept saying, “Oh, I really like your music, does your band need a keyboard player cos I play a bit of keyboards. “Olli just came up to us and told us that Beth wanted to play keyboards. I had met her before, so I said, “Yeah, why not, let’s give it a go.” I sent her some tracks and she learnt the isolated keyboard parts straight away, as opposed to the previous person we had.
RoD: Obviously, Sasha I spoke to you about your own creative process with DEATHTRIPPERS, but as a band, do you practice regularly together or just when you are touring? I know a lot of people think bands just all get together in a rehearsal studio, knock out a few songs and then go on tour.
Sasha: Well that can happen, I’ve been in bands that have jammed out songs and then gone and played gigs, I’ve even recorded them - probably on a tacky, old tape deck. Now what I like to do is I like to put a song together, almost finish, take it to rehearsal and say, “We’re playing this (laughs). You are playing it!” The others will be “Yeah, all right, let’s give it a go.” We’ll add a few parts, but a lot of the time it’s finished by that time.
RoD: Is he bossy? Is he a diva?
Rick: Oh god yeah, he’s an absolute despot! (laughs).
Sasha: (laughing) Absolutely. I’m an Aries, you know - fiery!
RoD: So you mentioned previous bands Rick. What previous bands have you been in?
Rick: I can’t remember, I was drunk for most of them, I think.
Sasha: Well we were in a few when we were younger, weren’t we? We were doing our kind of psyche SPACEMEN 3. I already mentioned that we were called JESICCA’S WAKE for a little while. We had a drummer who ate some [magic] mushrooms during the Chernobyl incident and he thought he had radiation poisoning from the clouds - that had rained on the mushrooms and irradiated them (laughs).
Rick: He’s not the craziest drummer we’ve ever had.
Sasha: No, I think it’s got something to do the with the frequency of sound that hits them on the head…. hahaha, that’s why we’ve got a drum machine these days! [RoD: To any perfectly sane drummers reading this, I do apologise].
RoD: Have you given the drum machine have a name?
Sasha: No we haven’t actually. I mean that’s a SISTERS OF MERCY thing anyway.
RoD: Rick, how does the DEATHTRIPPERS experience compare to other bands you’ve been in?
Rick: Well, it’s changed a lot, I mean it’s been a few years and we’ve had different line-ups - we’ve had two different drummers, different bass players. Every time you stick a different person in, it changes it. Even the DEATHTRIPPERS’ sound itself, has changed a few times… over lockdown it was different, when we had the room at Boom we played more “together” and it was different again. I was in a band once where we had three women and it was like a totally different dynamic to normal cos there were just no arguments at all.
RoD: If you could play with anyone in the world - alive or dead - who would that be? PRINCE perhaps?
Sasha: Hmmm well, I don’t think we would go down well with the PRINCE crowd. You don’t want to play with your idol and they fucking boo you off, do you! Talking about that - PRINCE played with THE ROLLING STONES and he got booed off stage! I mean he was loved at that time around Minneapolis and that area. He supported one of his favourite bands and he gets booed off stage. You just don’t want that do you? Like I said, I’m not bothered about playing huge stadiums - in fact, that’s somewhere I don’t want to play! I don’t want to play in front of loads of people who don’t get you! I like to play small, select crowds - kind of the gigs that we do now. You’re not too far away from the crowd and you can go and chat to people afterwards as well. I find those places a lot safer than bigger venues… so who would I like to play with? Well it would have to be someone I’m into at the moment. Er… I’d say SPIRITUALISED. I think we’d go down well with that crowd. There’s also this American band called VAZUM - from Detroit and I’d quite like to play a gig with them. They are kind of shoegaze goth, but also a bit Metal. I like to play with different types of bands, the next gig we’re playing is a shoegaze festival.
Rick: Oh god, where do you start? I don’t know - JOY DIVISION?
RoD: This is a question now for both of you. How much do you think technology has shaped the music scene over the years?
Sasha: Well it’s made it a lot easier hasn’t it. You can create music in your own home. We used to be in bands and we would rehearse in basements and record it on tape decks, but that wouldn’t have been good enough to get you a gig. If you gave a tape to some promoter and went “Here’s my band,” and it was some shitty tape recording, you wouldn’t get very far. I mean sometimes, you knew a band and they would let you support them, so that was a way in. Most of the time though, you would have to go along to a proper recording studio and spend money on making a demo and it was never cheap, as well. And now you have got the luxury of being able to do to it all in your own bedroom - like I said, a lot of the DEATHTRIPPERS things have been recorded here in this room. Then I’ve taken it to somewhere to mix properly because I haven’t got the facilities set up for mixing. Usually I will go to Richard Formby - on saying that - I recorded four tracks with Choque (SALVATION). He’s got his own little studio in his house and he’s got fantastic gear there. I chose Choque cos he knows where I’m coming from - even though he’s a million miles away from that musically now cos he likes to do this dub-electronic stuff. He did a fantastic job, he put ideas forward, but he didn’t take control. That’s the same with Richard as well, he listens and is a bit of a magician. He can come up with some amazing sounds and explain, “This is what you want the guitar to sound like,” and nine times out of ten, he will get that sound exactly like what’s going on in my brain. It’s amazing to have these people around us.
RoD: Yes and the internet has brought people closer. Everybody has got the people who they used to idolise on their friends list.
Rick: It’s so easy to get music as well. I was discussing this with some friends from Belfast the other day. When we were younger, you had to carry a bag full of records with you.
Sasha: Yeah that is a point Rick, you would go and pick up Sounds or Melody Maker. A lot of the small prints are the ones that I would home in on straight away, cos they were the bands that weren’t that big, then you would read about that and think, “Ooh they sound interesting,” then you would go to one of the little record shops like Jumbo and Crash and they would usually have something by them and then you would have to buy it and take it home and I remember the first STOOGES record that I bought, it was from a small record shop in what was the mini-market in the Merrion Centre. I used to go there from school - or not going to school, I guess on a lunchtime and ask for this STOOGES record and it took him three months! I was going in every day asking if he had it yet. That’s what you had to do though. You had to go hunting records down. Now you just go on YouTube and it’s there - bang! Some really obscure track!
RoD: Rick, where did your musical journey start?
Rick: Quite early, I was in a band when I was at school when I was 14 with two of my friends and a couple of older lads joined and I was playing gigs by the time I was 16. I always had an interest in music, but I could never decide between what instrument I wanted to play though. I wanted to play a bit of everything. I really wanted to play guitar, so I got a guitar, then got a bass and learnt a little bit of it. Then a friend who was also into music, wanted to start a band and he couldn’t play at all. We kind of flipped it - he played bass cos it was easier and I played guitar. We just taught ourselves - a bit punky. The drummer had never played drums before either. This kid at school, his brother was selling a drum kit for like thirty quid. It was just such a good time to start a band. There was such good music at the end of the 80s/early 90s, loads of different types of music.
RoD: What is in the future for DEATHTRIPPERS?
Sasha: We are writing new stuff all the time and we have a gig on 29th March at the Globe in Glossop, playing with THE GLASS HOUSE MUSEUM and then we are playing at a goth festival in Scarborough on 14th June so looking forward to that.
Rick: Um… I don’t know… just do more interesting gigs, more interesting music... just keep at it, really. I’m kind of along for the ride really, it’s been interesting so far.
RoD: Thank you both for joining me today and good luck for your upcoming gigs.
Both: Thank you for interviewing us.
Website: https://DEATHTRIPPERS.bandcamp.com
Pictures by Michelle Corns
