Their name comes from the Tennessee Williams poem “Lament for the Moths,” and the spirit behind Black Moth is equal parts sensitive and raging. What started off as a garage punk-protopunky band called the Bacchae became Black Moth in 2010 as they started to forge a heavier identity. The dark British rockers dropped their sophomore album, Condemned to Hope, in September 2014 and recently released a trippy, cheeky NSFW music video for their single “Looner.”

Names: Harriet Bevan, David Vachon, Jim Swainston, Dom McCready and Nico Carew
Hometowns: London/Leeds (Harriet), Wrexham (Dom), Lincoln (David), Bishop’s Stortford/Leeds (Jim)
Homebases: London (Harriet), Leeds (Dom), Saltaire (David & Jim)

How did Black Moth come to be?

Jim Swainston: Harriet and myself are old pals from school. We met Dave when he was working on the bar at The Cockpit and had our first practice above a veg shop in Hyde Park in Leeds. Prayers would play through our amps—they picked up signals coming from the mosque over the road! We went though various formations as the Bacchae until we found Dom and gave ourselves a fresh start as Black Moth. We knew Nico from seeing him play in various bands around Leeds and thought his guitar style would be a cool addition to our sound.

What is your favorite song off Condemned to Hope?

Harriet Bevan: I love “Looner” for its grunge party vibes and “Condemned to Hope” for its gloom, but I have a big soft spot for “Slumber With the Worm,” too. I always like the weirdo track on an album!

Dom McCready: “Condemned to Hope” is the heaviest track on the record, but it’s also really infectiously groovy. The lyrics as well seem to fit really well with what’s going on musically.

David Vachon: “White Lies.” Playing that song live has a great smack-you-in-the-face start to it that just gets me going onstage.

Jim: I find it difficult to hide my self-satisfied cheesy grin when I'm pleased with myself. The others in the band have caught me doing this many times during my solo in “Looner” and have taken the mic—rightly so! They know I'd be lying if I didn't say this was my favorite song.

Harriet, what inspired the artwork you created for the“Condemned to Hope” flexi-disc?

Harriet: My boyfriend and I went to Soho [in London] to buy a blow-up doll—but it’s not what you're thinking! We needed a novel and outrageous dispenser for our entry into a cocktail-making competition we were hosting that evening, and Brandy did the job perfectly. At some point in the night, I looked up at her suspended naked from our ceiling, and perhaps it was all the alcohol swishing around me, but she seemed to be a perfect, poetic motif for all my thoughts around “Looner.” I did a piece of writing to accompany the artwork and help explain without cheapening the artwork: "Dolly greets us with a vacant stare, her mind stuffed with foul, desperate gulps of somebody else's air. The ultimate sex object: perfection in plastic. A flawless vision of femininity. Manufactured, made up, blown up only to be used, crushed and ultimately deflated at hands of a stronger entity. But don't worry, she isn't real." 

You’ve been compared to Queens of the Stone Age and Black Sabbath, but you consider your sound to be ‘60s garage rock meets ‘90s grit punk. Who are your biggest influences as a band?

Harriet: Those bands are certainly influential to us, but there are many more. Personally, I would cite Iggy and the Stooges, Pentagram, the Melvins, Kyuss, L7, Nirvana, Pixies and Mudhoney.

Jim: Music from both the '60s and '90s has influenced us but so has great music from every other decade. I wouldn't like to tie us to any one period, as essentially we try to make a record that fits with the present day. We may sound a little bit classic or retro because we love analog sounds. I wouldn't like to be labeled as either one of those, though. I do love both the bands you mention. I think the bands I've listened to on repeat the most in my life are Iggy and the Stooges, Black Sabbath, Queens of the Stone Age, Alice in Chains, Nirvana, Soundgarden, the Smiths and Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds.

David: A lot of my personal influences come from listening to my dad’s old records as a kid or trying to beat the norm of those listening to Oasis on constant repeat in the ‘90s. People thought I was a weirdo for disliking Oasis and that whole Brit thing.

What influenced you most about the ‘90s riot grrls?

Harriet: One hundred percent the attitude and the boldness. They were fierce, and they did whatever the hell they wanted. Picking up where girl punk bands like the Slits and X-Ray Spex left off in the ‘70s, they carried the torch and burnt the tired old institutional norms to the ground. They didn't need help. They did it all themselves, using zines to spread their creative output and political message and putting on their own events. They weren't discreet about it either—they were loud, proud and dangerous. 

Do you consider yourself part of a new wave of riot grrls?

Harriet: We've always held the same values as the riot grrrl movement so in that sense, sure, why not? It's unreal to have L7 and Babes in Toyland reforming, and I certainly dig some of the seriously badass new lady musicians I've come across recently. I feel like it all started with Pussy Riot, and I've seen some brilliant, smart new riotous acts such as Skinny Girl Diet and Courtney Barnett. Having said this, if there is a cohesive scene forming, I'm not aware of it. Perhaps that is because Black Moth contains only one female. The original riot grrrl movement was enormously empowering for women, and we owe those guys a lot, but I think that if there is a new wave coming, it should be a sexually balanced one. I know many young men who are the biggest riot grrrls at heart, just like Kurt Cobain was. My feminism is very much a striving for equality and abolition of gender norms. L7 always said it was purely accidental that they were an all-girl band, and I love that.

Which artists are you listening to right now?

Harriet: To tell you the truth, I spend most of my time mincing around my apartment to ‘50s exotica and old Bollywood love songs.

Dom: I’m currently listening to a lot of black and death metal like Gojira, Winterfylleth, Ihsahn, Agalloch, Fen and Darkthrone. I also can’t stop listening to Behemoth. Their latest album, The Satanist, is incredible.

Jim: I can't get Courtney Barnett's latest record off the stereo at the moment. I saw her live show at The Brudenell [in Suffolk] recently, and it was incredible. I'm also really enjoying the new album from Turbowolf. They’re just so infectiously fun!

What is your dream collaboration?

Harriet: I wanna be in L7.

Dom: Mastodon or Turbonegro, just because that would be fun as hell as—those guys are crazy!

Jim: If I was playing Championship Band Manager, my current line-up would be Jim Sclavunos on drums, Warren Ellis on guitar, Courtney Barnett on vocals and guitar, Mark Lanegan on vocals and Lemmy on bass. That should make for something interesting! I’d be a player-manager, so I could pretend to be in that band too.

If you had one day to take a visitor around Leeds, where would you bring them?

Harriet: I'd take them on a little train ride to the nearby countryside. The Yorkshire Moors are where my northern heart is. Leeds has some awesome bars, though. I'd probably take them to The Brudenell Social Club, as it's just an incredibly special venue and has the cheapest drinks. It's fun to see the blood drain from the faces of Southerners when they see how good we have it!

Dom: Bad Apples metal bar, where I work. I’d get you drunk out of your skull and blast riffs at you! Then maybe a stroll down the canal and dinner at one of Leeds’ excellent eateries and out for more whiskey drinking until we pass out. Sounds like a good date to me!

David: I would get them a train ticket to Saltaire, where I live, and look around the David Hockney Museum. Leeds only happens on a night—the best places are out where I live!

Jim: We'd spend the day wandering around town, alternating stop-offs between Leeds’ great record shops and cafés. For an early evening drink, we’d hang out in Wharf Chambers before heading up to the Brudenell Social Club for a gig. 

What’s your favorite horror movie?

Harriet: Suspiria by Dario Argento springs to mind as it's just so stunningly beautiful to watch. I saw it with Goblin playing the soundtrack live, and it was undoubtedly one of the best live music experiences of my life.

David: I hate horror, as it stops me from sleeping, but I love sci-fi, so Event Horizon would be up there.

Jim: I think the psychological ones are usually the scariest. Roman Polanski's The Tenant creeped me the hell out.

Where’s the coolest place you’ve been able to bring your tour mascot Egbert?

Dom: Egbert belongs to our guitar tech Cedric, and he’s been all over the world. He recently visited the Statue of Liberty and has even been famous on Slovenian TV!

Harriet: Yes, Egbert is a rather new edition to our ranks. He only just started his career as a touring rock star.

David: He was recently stuck with us on the side of the Motorway for five hours, which is rather dangerous.

Jim: He looked like he wanted to be set free into the sea in Brighton.