They say the only givens in life are death and taxes, but for Skeleton Club those guarantees are more along the lines of Death, Love & Money — the title of their debut album, showcasing today on Tinnitist.
The self-described “death pop-rock” trio’s weirdly wonderful LP features 11 intriguing, infectious and inventive tracks — and that number wasn’t landed on with any sense of coincidence. “We only ever release music with an odd number of songs,” says vocalist and bassist Andrew Matthews. “Chris has OCD and doesn’t ‘do’ even numbers.”
He’s speaking of guitarist and synth-master Chris Anglin; the two lifelong friends are originally from Langley and Tsawwassen, B.C., respectively, and currently based in Montreal. From there, the pair added a third, Nova Scotian drummer Morgan Zwicker, to the mix, rounding out the sound. “It was a Kijiji ad, you know, where any self-respecting story starts,” Matthews laughs. “But we quickly found we had more in common than just being broke and incredibly good looking … With our music.”
That common ground in their core sound lands as sometimes heavy, but also sometimes soft, as the three weave together their one-of-a-kind blend. The outfit reached its first peak of potential following a winter hibernating away in an abandoned lodge well off the grid in ‘small town’ Nova Scotia. “We were lucky enough to record most of the album in a big, old lodge on a river,” says Matthews of the time spent experimenting with vintage gear and writing what would be their debut LP. “It was a perfect amount of isolation to focus, and be creative.”
The result was Death, Love & Money, which arrived Oct. 10 and has been on the receiving end of 50,000+ streams within its first two months of release. The release is a sum of the sonic parts Skeleton Club count in their vast array of inspiration (think: Leonard Cohen to Kanye West, Nirvana to St. Vincent, Jimi Hendrix to XXXTentacion).
“I wanted to make this record with a really wide range of sound,” says Mathews. “I wanted to be able to bounce around genres, but also have a consistent lyrical theme. A lot of our influences are artists who also produce their own music, or are very involved and hands-on in the making of their albums. This album is self-produced; the sonic part is really important to us, and we wanted the album to be glued together by its sound, and be unique.” By any measure, mission accomplished.
Listen to Death, Love & Money below and join Skeleton Club via their website, Facebook and Instagram.
