Claus Larsen’s Leæther Strip is a vanguard music project that has continued to shape the industrial/EBM genre since the genre’s infancy in the 80s. For decades Larsen has seen the genre develop and expand, with him continuing to be a pillar in its evolution with his prolific output of albums, singles, and digital releases. Despite obstacles such as the loss of his husband Kurt and dealing with a worldwide pandemic, Larsen remains a musical tour de force, a powerful train in the underground, and Leæther Strip’s newest album, Last Station, demonstrates this.
Larsen has just concluded a series of American concerts earlier this month before gearing up for a round of German appearances. He has graciously let me ask him a few questions about Last Station during this short period of respite. [Note: Larsen’s answers are in italics]
Personal copy of Last Station, autographed by Larsen.
You just completed a round of concerts in America for your current tour. Hope your visit over here was successful!
Larsen: Yes, and it was amazing, as always. The USA has been very good to me and I try to get over there as much as possible. It’s been seven years since the last big US tour, but because of my late husband’s health, and covid, I haven’t really been able to do more than one off’s of festivals. So, getting two weeks of shows on the west coast was amazing, I would have done more on that trip but I have booked shows in Europe to do too. I will be back to do Atlanta, Orlando, Detroit and Newark in May/June. Then I hope to get more bookings for the fall. So far this year has been amazing. New album and lots of gigs.
Last Station has eighteen tracks, sixteen original compositions and two remixed songs from prior albums (“Stigma” from 2021’s Back to Industry and “Japanese Bodies” from the Zoth Ommog single way back in 89). The tracks harness the vibes of old school 80s/90s EBM and are incredibly dance-floor friendly. The sound doesn’t veer into aggrotech – there’s no harsh, unintelligible, pitch shifted vocals – but there’s anger (“Hate DNA”), melancholy (“It Cuts Deep”), and maybe a little sarcasm (“Bite My Tongue”). The most standout track is “Flammen und Flüsse” which drops a serious mad hook between verse and chorus.
Despite the catchy, danceable music, there’s an air of melancholy and finality in the tracks of Last Station, such as in the lyrics of the titular song (“Last station, no exit..”), “It Cuts Deep” (“the pain is endless now, the walls are just to strong for me…”), “Double Edged Sword” (“is this my final call?”), and others. Was this a feeling that naturally emerged while creating Last Station, a coincidence, or something else?
Larsen: Most of the songs on this album was composed after Kurt died, so this was my way of dealing with my grief, and being on my own after twenty-seven years with Kurt by my side. The hardest period of my life, So I just opened the floodgates and poured my soul into the songs. I honestly thought that this was it for me.
The tone of the entire album is emotive and evokes lots of imagery. For example, the cover art of the album coupled with the titular song conjures images of riding along in the dark metro, waiting for a stop that never comes. The album is a vessel of different subjects under a cohesive mood.
Were there any pop culture sources that had an influence on Last Station?
Larsen:During the past few years I’ve been getting back to reading and I think that really inspired me, especially for the mood and sound of the songs, not so much the lyrics. [I’ve] been reading a lot of Clive Barker and Stephen King again. Lyrically it was my own personal pain and grief that poured out. I was very much alone during 2020-21 so there was time to listen to my inner voices, someone else’s needs were more important than my own for many years and there I was, suddenly having to care for myself. Not an easy thing to do.
Larsen mentioning getting back into reading Baker is quite apropos as the horror master penned “The Midnight Meat Train,” which is certainly compatible with the album’s titular song.
How was composing and recording Last Station different than other albums in your repertoire?
Larsen:As I always do, I just sit down and see what pops up in my head. I had a lot of time on my hands so I was in the studio all day and most nights. Also, to get my mind off things and get that pain and grief out that was destroying me. This is for me, by far, my most therapeutic album I’ve composed. It was either do this or end it all. I promised Kurt to go on and focus on my music and playing shows. So ending it was not an option. I keep my promises.
Is there a particular highlight of Last Station that you’re proud of?
Larsen:First of all I’m very proud that I was able to get the album done. I really had my doubts, cause it was very painful to open up for stuff Ive had to suppress for years and years. But, we all are so much stronger than we think. For me, this one is my most important album of my career, and I am very proud of the overall production of the album. I never get tired of learning and becoming a better producer and mixer.
The biggest thing you want to accomplish with Last Station?
Larsen: I hope it can help others as much as it has helped me making it. It saved my life doing this one. Being creative has saved my ass many many times.
Claus Larsen (Facebook Profile picture).
Touring, running a label, doing fulfillment, maintaining a prolific output of music, all while the effects of the pandemic are felt. How do you do it all?
Larsen:I am doing what I dreamt about doing when I was fourteen years old. It is all I ever wanted to do really, and I will do anything to keep it going.
Despite the title, there’s nothing “last” in the future for Larsen as the prolific musician has even more output on the horizon.
Upcoming news you’d like to share?
Larsen: We – John Mirland and I – got a new album in the works from the synth-pop project Am Tierpark, and also a new album form the punk/metal project Gusten. For release later this year. I am also putting my last touches on the next Leæther Strip album, release date not scheduled yet, but soon. As for gigs, I will play anywhere I am booked. I hope for more shows in the USA, Canada and SouthAmerica, and hopefully Japan and Australia too.
Sincere appreciation to Claus Larsen for his time doing this interview about Last Station. For more information on the album or Larsen’s projects, please see below:
On August 27th, Nia DaCosta’s sequel to the original 1992 Candyman, also titled Candyman, was released to commercial and critical fanfare. Opening with $22.4 million at the box office1, Candyman succeeded where many larger budgeted films could not during the COVID-19 Pandemic with its performance. Candyman also set a new milestone by becoming the first black female directed film to top the box office.2
As Candyman ‘21 continues be profitable at the box office, attention can be turned to the original Bernard Rode directed film. Fans of the original will perhaps want to revisit Candyman ‘92 or those only familiar with the new film may want to watch the original for the first time. For those lacking physical releases, Candyman ‘92 can be found on Peacock TV and other VOD services such as iTunes, Google Play, and RedBox.3
Hopefully with renewed interest, Candyman ‘92 will see a flux of such revisitation and even more positive reassessment. There’s a variety of ways to take in and appreciate the original film: essays, fan art, and even homage in other media. The original Candyman no doubt left its mark in cinema canon, but it also left an impression on other content creators (writers, directors, artists, etc.). One curious example of such inspiration is the world of sampling wherein a music group takes samples of dialogue (and other sounds and noises) from a source (such as a film, TV show, radio broadcast, video game, etc.) and incorporates them into their own compositions.
Candyman ‘92 has had the honour of being sampled numerous times by various underground musical acts that hail from a variety of genres: hiphop, death metal, industrial, and so on. These bands use Candyman samples in a variety of ways. Same incorporate Candyman’s (Tony Todd) opening narration of the film into the beginning of their songs, trying to replicate an ominous introduction to set a specific tone and mood. Some instances are used as outright homage in order to broadcast the music act’s appreciation to the film.
What follows is a list of music acts and their songs that sample dialogue from Candyman ‘92. In order to illustrate how each artist uses the sample, YouTube links are provided for each song along with (when available) a clip from the movie that contains the original dialogue. This way the song and the source text and be compared side by side.
Aborted
Belgian death metal act Aborted pulls double duty with the Clive Barker references in their song “Cenobites” which is the last track from their 2014 album The Necrotic Manifesto.
The title is, of course, a reference to the Cenobites that populate the Hellraiser films that are adaptations of Barker’s The Hellbound Heart. In addition to the Hellraiser connection, the song is also tethered to Barker’s Candyman via usage of sample dialogue. “Cenobites” begins immediately with a quote of Candyman saying “They will say that I have shed innocent blood. What’s blood for if not for shedding?”4
These lines are also the very first lines spoken in the film.5
By beginning “Cenobites” with this sample, Aborted accomplishes two things. First, it mimics the original film by settingthe tone that something unsettling is going to happen in the narrative . Second, it takes the acts described in the sample (shedding innocent blood) and relocates it from the Candyman character to the sadistic villain in the band’s official music video who kidnaps a young woman and proceeds to mutilate her.
Da Boy Tommy
Tommy Debie, better known as Da Boy Tommy, was a jumpstyle Belgian DJ who sadly passed away in 2013.
In 2000 he released a song called “Candyman” which appeared on its own CD-single as well as various compilation albums.6
The song begins with a sample of someone whispering “Candyman.” At the one minute mark of the song, a sample of Clara (Marianna Elliott) explaining who Candyman is to Billy (Ted Raimi) while repeating his name can be heard, interspersed with samples of Carol Anne Freeling (Heather O’Rourke) from Poltergeist saying “They’re here.” This combining of samples from two different sources and merging them together to create new textual play is a hallmark of the cut-up technique pioneered by William S. Burroughs and Brion Gysin.
Darling Kandie
Darling Kandie is a side project of sorts of Groovie Man of My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult, a foundational industrial-disco act that long ago established themselves as auteurs of incorporating samples from exploitation and pornographic films into their music.
“People Next Door” from Darling Kandie’s debut self titled album is a song that is made entirely of collaged samples (constructed in the same fashion as the aforementioned cut-up technique), including “We need a new unity” which is from George Lucas’ THX-1138 (the sample also makes an appearance in the Laibach song “Regime of Coincidence State of Gravity” from their seminal Kapital album) and “Open your mind to me” which is said by the stomach mutant Kuato in the 1990 film Total Recall.
At the 2:00 mark of the song a sample of Candyman saying “I came for you” can be heard.7
The line comes from the scene where Candyman confronts Helen (Virginia Madsen) in a parking garage and hypnotizes her.8
The line appears once, briefly, before being lost in the sea of other samples in the song.
Deutsch Nepal
Deutsch Nepal is a Swedish industrial project spearheaded by Peter Andersson.
Their eighth album, ¡Comprendido!… Time Stop! …And World Ending contains the track “Gouge Free Market” which has the dialogue “I am rumor. It is a blessed condition believe me, to be whispered about in street corners, to live in other people’s dreams, but not to have to be. Do you understand?” repeated multiple times.9
The lines are spoken by Candyman inside Helen’s mind.10
This is unique usage of the sample, as the song dislocates the dialogue from its slasher-horror roots and, if going by the name of the song’s title of “Gouge Free Market,” applies it to the horrors of capitalism. Much like Candyman, rampant commercialism and capitalism can be inferred as an unseen, yet omnipresent, boogeyman.
Freakin’ Inglish
Freakin’ Inglish was a short-lived UK hip hop group that had only one release, The Rhyme Wrecka E.P.
The cassette contains a song called “Victim” that opens with a sample of Candyman saying “Be my victim.”11
The sample is form the same scene Darling Kandie sampled (see above) and is used to compliment the rapped lyrics “Be my victim” and “Look out, I’m coming to get you.”
Internal Error
Gabber/hardcore techno act Internal Error, operating under the alias Nyeṫ, took their homage of the Candyman movie to the next level by composing a track called “Candy Man” that appeared on their EP Party Madness as well as the compilations TrAUMa 2 (Nightmare On AUM Street) and Napalm Rave.12
The song contains multiple samples of dialogue taken from the film, such as “If you look in the mirror, and say his name five times, he’ll appear behind you, breathing down your neck,” “Be my victim,” and “Where they proceeded to saw of his right hand with a rusty blade.” As with Da Boy Tommy, Internal Error looks to be using these samples to show adoration to the original film.
JNyce
Canadian hip hop artist J Nyce’s 2008 debut Vaults of Horror has a song called “Satanic Rites” that contains a Candyman sample.13
As with Aborted’s “Cenobites”, JNyce uses the “shed innocent blood” opening lines from Candyman as the opening to this song in order to establish a horror-film mood. The dialogue also gets dissociated from Candyman and instead applied to Satanism, which of course conjures up imagery of sacrifices.
Mortician
Deathgrind metal band Mortician wears their affection for the horror genre literally on their sleeves – album sleeves that is. Their last produced album, 2004’s Re-Animated Dead Flesh has a cover reminiscent of the Re-Animator film, and songs that reference numerous horror films, such as An American Werewolf in London, Silent Night, Deadly Night, and The Hills Have Eyes.
The final track on the album, “Be My Victim,” is, of course, an homage to Candyman.14
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sN4QXAw-B-4
The track begins with a sample of Candyman saying “They’ll say that I’ve shed innocent blood. What’s blood for, if not for shedding. With my hook for a hand, I’ll split you from your groin to your gullet.” which is, of course, the opening lines of the film, and seek to replicate that opening much the same way Aborted and JNyce did. The song ends with a sample of Helen calling out to Candyman who suddenly appears and kills her psychiarist. These samples, coupled with the song’s title “Be My Victim” can be taken as another horror homage to the cult classic film.
[:SITD:]
German-based industrial act [:SITD:] (which stands for Shadows in the Dark) has an EP titled Snuff that contains a track called “Mortal.”
The remix of “Mortal” by Solitary Experiments is unique in that it contains Candyman samples from the German dub of the film.15
The track opens with “Fürchtest du den Schmerz oder das, was danach kommt? Der Schmerz wird von erlesener Qualität sein. Was unseren Tod angeht, vor ihm brauchst du dich nicht zu fürchten.” which is a translation of Candyman saying “The pain, I can assure you, will be exquisite. As for our deaths, there is nothing to fear.”
Near the end of the song the sample continues with “Lass uns unserem Leben ein Ende setzen vor ihren Augen und ihnen damit etwas geben, was sie für alle Zeiten verfolgt. Werde unsterblich! Komm mit mir.” which is a continuation of the above with “We shall die together in front of their very eyes and give them something to be haunted by. Come with me and be immortal.”
The song ends with “Man wird sagen, ich habe unschuldiges Blut vergossen” which is an interpretation of “They will say that I have shed innocent blood.”
All of these instances of bands and music projects sampling Candyman ‘92 not only solidify the original film’s legacy, but illustrate innovative instances of artists performing textual play to create a new texts with new meanings, or even pastiches in a post-modern sense.
