I’ve done PR/publicity for bands in the goth/industrial and related genres for a living for a few years now.  But there’s a bit of a funny story about how my interest in industrial music began……

I had grown up listening to predominantly metal (glam rock, hard rock, death/thrash metal) & new wave bands like A Flock Of Seagulls..other styles to a lesser extent.

Then in 1991, a high-school classmate says to me something to the effect of, “You should come and see this St. Louis band, Voice of God.” I knew nothing about them much less ‘industrial”/”industrial rock’ or whatever.  But it sounded interesting so I went…  Little did I know my musical direction was about to make a MASSIVE, pivotal new musical trajectory.

Having grown up on hearing traditional band “set ups”, I walked into Mississippi Nights-the venue in St. Louis and instantly was puzzled.  “Where the hell was the drum set?” I thought.  The stage was decked out like a pulpit complete with a cross in the background and flowers all over the place.  This was the first time I was witnessing a band that had some of their backing on a recording.  I think in this case it might have actually been a reel to reel tape, believe it or not.

The show starts and for the hour or so that Voice Of God was on the stage, it was completely full of theatrics with the guitarist dressing like a catholic schoolgirl and the guy doing vocals and samples dressed like a nun. Bible pages were ripped and tossed in the crowd as were flowers.  People were even offered a dollar off admission if they brought a bible from home.  I’d never seen a crowd react to an unsigned local band since then.  It was something for certain that I’ll never forgot.  That’s where it all began for me in industrial music.  I may not have always agreed on their religious opinions.  But there’s no doubt how the music and theatrics played such an important part of my life.