Photo by JB Coll
BLOOD MOON WEDDING is an international duet project, created by legendary English punk rocker Steve Lake (Zounds) and American singer Mia Dean. Together they present their gothic-noir, road trip, folktale in the form of Blood Moon Wedding: An American Nightmare, set for release on April 7th via Mobilization Recordings.
Encompassing elements of post-punk, stoner rock, and dark punk, and shrouded under a veil of forbidden love and forbidding doom, BLOOD MOON WEDDING casts its spell and captures an atmosphere that is intimate, otherworldly, and ultimately uplifting. Set in the sprawling deserts of the United States, Lake and Dean find themselves trapped in an alternate reality, where death and love are the only way through the gates of space and time. Exploring themes of mass murder, gun violence, and trauma bonding, BLOOD MOON WEDDING and their Blood Moon Wedding: An American Nightmare offering is a dramatic commentary on the violence in American society.
Blood Moon Wedding: An American Nightmare was written by Lake and Dean and brought to life with the support of Oakland composer Tom Dean (Antler Family, Code Of The West, Oakland Opera) on keys and bass, Jason Willer (Jello Biafra And The Guantanamo School Of Medicine, Charger, Acid King, UK Subs) on drums, and multi-instrumentalist David Coulter (The Pogues, Tom Waits, Test Department) on musical saw, violin, and Leslie piano.
In advance of the record’s official unveiling, BLOOD MOON WEDDING has released their first video single for the track “Spell.”
Elaborates Lake, “‘Spell’ is the beginning of our story, so I have always had it in mind that we would release it as the first single. It comes in rather triumphant, but also has so many interwoven, chaotic, sonic elements that set the stage for our rather wild adventure.”
Speaking of the video, Dean adds, “We shot most of the video at the ruins of Farleigh Hungerford Castle UK, and in the gorgeous, still standing, fourteenth century chapel on the site. The rest was filmed on the shore of the San Francisco Bay.”
View BLOOD MOON WEDDING’s “Spell” video at THIS LOCATION.
Blood Moon Wedding: An American Nightmare was produced by Dean and Lake in Oakland, California and Bath, UK. Additional recording assistance was provided by Skot Brown (Altar de Fey, Esses, Phantom Limbs) and Salvador Raya (Ails, Asunder, Laudanum). The record was mixed in Los Angeles, California by Alex DeGroot (Zola Jesus, Sondra Sun Odeon), mastered by Justin Weis at Trakworx in San Francisco, California and is adorned by the ethereal cover art of Shannon Taylor.
Blood Moon Wedding: An American Nightmare will be released on CD, LP, and digital formats. Find preorder options at THIS LOCATION.
Blood Moon Wedding: An American Nightmare Track Listing:
- Spell
- Some Things Are Worth Believing
- Wanted
- Looking For Us
- Murder Ballad
- Hey Mia Do You Remember?
- Wild
- Blood Moon Wedding Part 1
- Blood Moon Wedding Part 2
- Pn M2-9
Steve Lake is a member of the influential English alt-rock group Zounds. He has recorded for many great labels including Rough Trade, PIAS, Cooking Vinyl, and Crass Records. Lake still tours regularly, both as a solo artist, and with his group. Lake’s work is expansive and experimental. Beyond Zounds, he has produced and performed a number of spoken word and multimedia events throughout Europe, including the Edinburgh Festival and a highly successful residency at London’s prestigious Whitechapel Art Gallery.
Mia Dean is a writer and singer for the Oakland band Antler Family. She studied classical opera and performance in San Francisco with the great Metropolitan Opera mezzo-soprano, Blanche Thebom, and abroad. She sang opera on the stages of Italy and Austria before returning to California to focus on composition and production. She is co-founder of the iconic punk and metal venue the Oakland Metro Operahouse, where the duo met in 2017. “We were lost in the uncertainty of the pandemic, trying to find our way back to ourselves as performers, notes Dean. “Somehow the road led directly to each other.”
“There are miracles of heaven that show their face by sticking inside a song, as a gesture of absolute value, because music can still be a message from the gods. And they have chosen two souls who live physically distant but absolutely intimate artistically, prompting them to write an intense, truthful song, pregnant with conscious particles, to let us know that there is much to be done for those who want to inhabit life and its places.” – Music Shock World
“A mesmerizing introduction to an exciting sonic journey through a land peopled by the damaged, the fragile, and the mythic.” — Post-punk.com
BLOOD MOON WEDDING:
Mia Dean – vocals, guitars
Steve Lake – vocals, guitars
Tom Dean – keys, bass
Jason Willer – drums
David Coulter – musical saw, violin, Leslie piano
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