The Midnight Spookshow are hailing from Spain and they are soon releasing their debut e.p.  So, it was an ideal chance to talk with these fiends about different topics.

HEY, THANKS FOR DOING AN INTERVIEW FOR KRAYKULLA. FIRST OF ALL, LET US TALK ABOUT THE MIDNIGHT SPOOKSHOW. DESCRIBE THE BAND A BIT FOR THE READERS WHO STILL DIDN´T LISTEN TO YOUR MUSIC. COULD YOU PRESENT THE BAND, THE MEMBERS AND YOUR MUSIC? WAS CALABRESE INFLUENCE FOR THE NAME OF THE BAND?

The band was formed only by two members, Evilead and Mark Berserk. We are also partners in a death metal band called BIZARRE, and we both share a great passion for punk and everything related to horror: movies, comics, books … So we decided to form a band in which we could express all that influences. THE MIDNIGHT SPOOKSHOW is a mix of horrorpunk, psychobilly, street punk, deathrock … The name comes from our brainstorming, but afterwards we realized that CALABRESE has a song with that title. It is a complete coincidence.

YOUR DEBUT E.P. IS COMING SOON AND YOU RELEASED A SINGLE ON YOUTUBE RECENTLY. TELL US HOW WAS THE RECORDING AND WRITING PROCESS? HOW MANY SONGS ARE GONNA BE ON THE RECORD? LYRICS INFLUENCES? IS THERE SOME CONCEPT STORY BEHIND IT OR ONLY PURE HORROR FUN?

We are a band that believes in the “Do It Yourself” way of life, therefore the entire process of recording, designing and producing the EP has been done by ourselves. The EP consists of four tracks and in lyrics you can find a bit of everything, although I could tell you that they all deal with the scariest thing of all: real life. The sneak peek single is about Burke & Hare, and how two famous body snatchers end up becoming murderers just for money. We also make references to the theories of Luigi Galvani and his experiments with cadavers or simply about murderers who kill by instinct or for the simple pleasure of doing so. Reality always surpasses fiction and is much more terrifying. We also like folklore and ancient human-made legends and superstitions.

ARE THEIR GOING TO BE PHYSICAL RELEASES OR ONLY DIGITAL VERSION OF THE RECORD? ARE YOU RELEASING IT YOURSELVES OR WITH SOME RECORD LABEL?

We don’t like digital formats at all, we are old school and passionate record collectors. Therefore we never considered the digital release. We have a label that supports us and has shown us all its support from the first moment: DEADLY DISTRIBUTION. The EP will be released on CD, although we do not discard other formats such as Cassette or 7″ vinyl for the future.

THE TALK OF THE DAY IS YOUR NEW SINGLE. CAN YOU TELL US THE STORY WHAT THIS SONG IS ABOUT?

As mentioned above, it is based on the story of the West Port murders. Committed by Burke & Hare and how they created a method of murder that today is known as Burking, which consists of strongly squeezing the victims’ chest until they suffocate. By chance they were arrested on the night of October 31, 1828 and a few centuries later that same night our single was released.

HAVE YOU PLAYED LIVE GIGS PRIOR TO THIS COVID SHIT? HOW WAS THE RESPONSE TO YOUR SHOW? IS THERE HORRORPUNK SCENE IN SPAIN? I KNOW THAT PSYCHOBILLY IS STRONG WITH THAT PINEDA FESTIVAL THERE.

Well, the whole process of creating both the band and the recording of the EP has been performed during the pandemic. The idea came up years before but until now we could not make it come true due to the commitments we have with our different projects. We do not conceive the band with idea to perform live, but who knows, we never say never. Unfortunately, in our country this is a style that does not have much notoriety and currently in our genre there are not many active bands cause’ the few that remained are lethargic. We do have the Pineda festival, but the vast majority of the audience is foreigners.

COULD YOU DESCRIBE HOW YOU CAME TO TOUCH WITH IT AND WITH UNDERGROUND SCENE IN GENERAL? CAN YOU STILL REMEMBER HOW YOU CAME TO LOVE HORROR? WHAT WAS YOUR FIRST MOVIE OR EXPERIENCE THAT MADE YOU LOVE THIS GENRE SO MUCH AND BECOME PART OF YOU 24/7? CAN YOU NAME YOUR TOP FIVE HORROR FLICKS?

Horror is something that has always fascinated us in all its entertainment formats. Concerning cinema, our first contact with horror would possibly be Hitchcock, followed by the mythical Hammer or Tales from the Crypt films. To select a top 5 of movies would be something very difficult to do, as this could vary depending on the day. Although we are big fans of the works by Clive Barker, Romero, Argento, Carpenter, Hooper …

WHAT IS SO BEAUTIFUL IN HORRORPUNK SCENE? I THINK IT IS THE DIVERSITY AND ALL THE DIFFERENT INFLUENCES THAT ALL OF US BRING IN WITH OURSELVES, ALSO IT IS A MUCH SMALLER SCENE AND MAYBE MORE TIGHT AND FRIENDLY?

Both of us have always been linked to the scene, international and national. Currently we manage Horrorpunks Spain site and thus we have contact with many bands. We come from other underground scenes like extreme metal, but it is true that the camaraderie in horrorpunk is impressive.

A LOT OF PEOPLE THAT I KNOW SAY THAT REAL HORRORPUNK SCENE DONT EXIST, THAT EVERY BAND IS JUST A MISFITS RIPOFF! WHAT IS YOUR OPINION ON THAT? HOW COULD THEY BE PROVEN WRONG?

Well, possibly MISFITS, SAMHAIN or DANZIG, is the starting point for everyone, but today, we cannot conceive being simple imitators of anyone. There are hundreds of tribute bands to do so and many others that sound completely alike. In our case it is not our aim. We try to sound as personal as possible taking influences from everything we are passionate about within the genre and staying as far as possible from the typical clichés of the mentioned bands. Obviously we have influences, of course, but from very different bands from other styles.

LETS TALK HORROR. ANY PREFERENCES IN THE MANY SUBGENRES OF THE HORROR? MINE ARE SLASHER AND HAMMER HORROR BUT ALSO I AM A SUCKER FOR FOUND FOOTAGE!

We are big fans of Slasher, gore, scifi, B series, Giallo, classic monsters, German expressionism …

THANK YOU FOR NOW. PLEASE, FEEL FREE TO SAY ANYTHING YOU WANT IN THE END AND I DIDN´T ASK YOU. THIS IS YOUR FIRST INTERVIEW FOR SOME CROATIAN ZINE I THINK.

Thank you very much for this cool interview and your interest in the band. It has been a pleasure to answer. The only thing that we would add is to invite you to visit our page:  https://www.facebook.com/spookshowhorrorpunk where we will update all our news.