Warren Suicide

We sit on the dimly lit stage of the
Hoxton Bar & Grill’s music venue,
a motley group of musicians,
journalists, and photographers. We
drink mint tea, and some of us drink
whiskey. It’s daylight outside, but
it’s dark in here. On the stage there
is a raggedy red leather couch. Red
like blood. Red for Warren Suicide.
There is one freestanding light with
bare light bulbs, and a few stage lights
pointing at nothing in particular.
There is a pile of gear in the middle of
the room which at fi rst glance would
suggest that Warren Suicide were a
band of many more people than just
three. And once there were more, once
there were four...but now there is
only three.
Warren Suicide is Nackt, Cherie, and
Bert-ill. It used to be Nackt, Cherie,
Bert-ill, and Fremdkeorper, but he’s
been missing since last August (we’ll
come to that in a minute). Oh, and
Warren, of course.
Well, Warren isn’t an actual person,
he is more of an imaginary incarnate
who shows up when life is right and
wrong, and everything in between.
He is a feeling, an ironic playmate;
the good, the bad, and the ugly. He
is the Id, the Ego, the Superego, and
the Unconscious. “Warren is a lot of
different things, and all in one at the
same time” explains Nackt. “Cherie met
him fi rst, so she really has some kind
of partnership, relationship with him.
Cherie is his mother. I met him later so
he’s more like a playing friend to me.
He is the inspiration and the guide. He
is the things that we don’t try to defi ne,
we don’t like to think for hours ‘where
does that come from?’ we just call that
Warren.” So Warren is Warren. You dig?
Back to the living breathing members;
this wildly charming and dangerously
poignant trio work together like
a well-oiled machine. They have a
contagiously playful nature that oozes
creativity. The juxtaposition of their
cheeky merriment and the intensity
of their music is in no way false, but
surprising and electrifying. Behind
their light-hearted mischievousness is
the wisdom that comes from working
hard to fulfi l your dreams and losing a
friend along the way. Cherie remarks,
“Fremdkeorper translates in English to
‘Foreign Object’, and he gave himself
that name. So it’s no wonder (he’s
gone missing). And he was missing
all of the time to be honest, he didn’t
show up to some shows, he didn’t
get some of his fl ights. We think he is
going to come back. But we still don’t
know where he is to be honest.” Nackt
explains, “He was meant to come to the
studio, and we were like ‘ok, see you
tomorrow at 3’ and he never showed
up. It was too much for him dealing
with a lot of things, and we were trying
to be the best friends that we could,
but it wasn’t in our hands.”
“I think he is coming back because
he is a romantic, and I think he will
recover” remarks Bert-ill. “He is very
close to Warren” Cherie chimes in. “In a
way, he became Warren for us, because
we were thinking of him when we
were making the rest of the album,
but we had to go on”. Nackt goes on to
say, “The only really exciting thing to
me about this is...what is he thinking
now? that is like the million dollar
question. Otherwise, it’s like any
other kind of goodbye, but he just
skipped that moment and the
words.”
So what do they sound
like? Well, Warren Suicide
reckon they’ve started a new
genre, “I don’t know how to
describe it (our music) because
if I did I would have to compare
it to something that is already out”
says Nackt. “I saw on the fl yer that they
called us Future Rock ‘n Roll...I like that”
Cherie says smiling, “but if I wanted to tell
someone, I would just show them the pictures”. “I
sometimes feel like I am playing the soundtrack
to Warren’s psychotic life” says Bert-ill. Their
debut album ‘The Hello’ is an amalgamation of
many existing genres including Electro, Punk,
Rock, Industrial and more...but Nackt is right,
it’s pointless to compare them to anything else
because Warren Suicide is like nothing you’ve
ever heard before. And after listening to the
album and meeting the band, I wouldn’t want to
compare it to anything else. It is what it is, and it’s
exceptional.
Later when they take to the stage, the room
goes completely dark, the only light is from the
projector playing Cherie’s animations
of Warren and her many other
creations. It’s a wonder Nackt
can reach the microphone
as he thrashes around
with his guitar, within
minutes he sheds his
sweaty t-shirt and a wild
sense of hedonism fi lls
the air. Bert-ill stomps
the living shit out of his
drum set, his dreadlocks
bouncing along to the
relentless beat. And Cherie’s
tender and ethereal vocals
come through to juxtapose the
musical mayhem happening on
stage. They want you to leave their
show feeling “Exhausted, Excited, and
Inspired!!”, and they want you - Spill Mag