A new project from CREEPER frontman Will Gould and guitarist Matt Reynolds (Howard’s Alias, Skylar, Drawings), SALEM made a big impression with their debut self-titled EP. Its vinyl run sold-out almost immediately, as did the band’s first four socially distanced cabaret shows. And fans who couldn’t make the gigs were given a taster of what to expect with a high-octane In The K! Pit show for Kerrang!.
SALEM follow the EP by sharing a brand new video for the anthemic track ‘Throat’. The visual captures the smouldering gothic romance at the heart of the song, as Gould sings, “So wrap your hands around my throat / And hurt me like you love me girl.” While Gould is held captive by a mysterious women played by his real-life girlfriend, Reynolds features as an SBI agent (Salem Bureau of Investigations) who has been sent to investigate the singer’s disappearance.
Gould explains: “Being that ‘Throat’ is a song about obsession, we thought it would be a cool idea to base the video for the song loosely around Stephen King’s book ‘Misery’.
We once again brought in Olli Appleyard of Static Dress to make the film, but we changed a few details in the story to better fit SALEM. The key two being that it now takes place in a boudoir with padded walls, and that at the end of our story, everyone dies.”
Gould and Reynolds first connected through Southampton’s underground punk scene and have been friends for years. Reynolds has worked as CREEPER’s guitar tech and even co-wrote three songs on their Top 5 album ‘Sex, Death & The Infinite Void’. They wrote the EP in a day, and the labour of love was completed with a recording session with producer Neil Kennedy at The Ranch in Southampton.
The songs went into the virtual vault. And in an ordinary situation, perhaps that’s where they would’ve stayed. But always eager to keep busy, Will revisited SALEM during the initiallockdown and planned its release. The result is an EP full of “sweet satanic love songs” that captures the life-affirming joy of hearing a live band erupt into a blast of wild, barely controlled energy.
One of the first opportunities for fans to see SALEM in action will come when they play The Avalanche Stage at next summer’s Download on June 5th. Their live band is completed by Ranny Ransom (bass) and Aaron Graham (drums).