PopHorror Let's Get Scared
In 2003 I had a total horror punk phase. All my friends did. However, I took a liking to Zombina and the Skeletones. I found their music in an old record store which is now completely gone. We got to sit down with Zombina and Doc Horror to discuss many things, including their resurrection.
Origins
PopHorror When was the band formed?
Zombina: We formed in 1998 after Doc Horror and I met at a high school Halloween party and fell into a teenage romance. We quickly recruited members from our pool of young musician friends into a band we called The Deformed, who would become Zombina and the Skeletones after one gig under the previous name.
PopHorror: What would you call your music style?
Zombina: Our music style has always been hard to define because we have so many influences between us, and Doc Horror’s songwriting has always been very… genre-spanning. Even though we were always very punk rock from the start, we had a lot of doo-wop influences, girl groups, and stuff like that, and I had a super-cute squeaky voice… so yeah, I don’t know what you’d call it. The word “horror” obviously has to be in there… We recently came across an old review that asked “What if Blondie were goths?” and I think that still stands.
Doc Horror: When I’m posting about us on the internet, the keywords are “horror punk”, “deathrock” and “psychobilly”, but that’s just for marketing purposes. We are Zombina and the Skeletones and we’ve always just sounded like Zombina and the Skeletones.
PopHorror: How did you get started on horror movies?
Zombina: After we met I instantly fled my home to Doc Horror’s home, where he lived with his two mums who were welcoming and allowed me to just sink into their sofa with him where we watched a ton of cable TV, especially… whatever that horror channel was called… so I joined him in his pastime of watching horror and sci-fi.
Doc Horror: I remember it being a lot more Blockbuster Video-based. Did they have a Horror Channel back then?
Then And Now
PopHorror: What was the best show you have played so far?
Zombina: Oh my god. The best show is tough to say after so many years. I wish we’d done what some of the bands we’re friends with did, and make notes about each show, counting how many shows we’d done and stuff like that. It feels innumerable… but the best show ever? I can’t say. You know what? What makes a good show for me is good sound, which is somewhat rare, good sound, an enthusiastic audience, and a great fun band that we’re playing with, that we’re supporting, or they’re supporting us.
Meeting people after the show is still one of my favorite things about gigging. I love talking to our fans and finding out what they’re about. The shows we’ve played have been so varied as well. We played at an old castle in Poland, we played at a junior school assembly, and we played under the Liver Building on the Liverpool skyline at a huge festival in front of an audience of every type of person. But my favorite thing is still meeting the fans. It’s so lovely. We’re so fucking lucky.
PopHoror: You recently made a triumphant comeback after a few years. What inspired the comeback?
Zombina: Well, technically we never went away. Zombina and the Skeletones never split up or even talked about splitting up. I went off and created children and they required a lot of attention for a lot of years. Then I became a single parent which made my time even more stretched… So it’s just been a long road from me having a baby to getting back a little bit of my own time and availability and opportunity to give the world a wave and say “We’re back”.
I have to give a huge amount of credit and gratitude to Doc Horror for taking complete hold of the wheel while I’ve been busy. We used to be a real double unit in terms of making things happen, and I had a lot of roles within the running of the band, but right now I’m not able to do much besides turn up! I feel really lucky to still be able to do this.
Doc Horror: Aw, thank you.
PopHorror: You have a new album and two new singles, and they have very much a theme. Did you want to come back with more drive?
Doc Horror: I wanted to come back and write the most pure and unadulterated version of a Zombina and the Skeletones album I could. Like, the album people probably assume we’d already made but we never actually did – if that makes sense? I feel like we’ve spent a lot of time over the years experimenting on the furthest fringes of our formula, stretching the idea as far as it would go, but we never really made a pure expression of the fundamental concept. Hopefully, this is that.
Zombina: I know that what I wanted to bring to it was the essence of the Zombina that you knew, but older and tougher, goddammit! It’s a strange experience maturing as a female musician, but I do think the extra years of life have added a massive amount of “don’t give a shit” in me as a person which I really hope translates beautifully into my performance in a way that the listeners can relate to and celebrate with me on.
Recording
PopHorror: Was it awkward recording in a studio after a few years had passed since you recorded?
Zombina: I can’t say there were no nerves about recording. We usually record vocals at home, me and Doc Horror. I’m used to our methods and we’re a really good team. However; this time we recorded with Stephen Cole at What Studio in Liverpool (Incidentally the studio is in the attic of the church where my grandparents got married in their gas masks during the air raids in the war, so that felt gorgeous and cosmic)
Recording it there wasn’t a difficult choice once we’d decided to invest in an “outside studio” to record the “comeback album”. We chose What Studio because we’re so familiar with Ste and his methods and his musicality, as we’ve been musical comrades on the Liverpool scene with Ste for our entire existence as a band, and Ste is one of our very best friends, so it didn’t feel awkward. It was very exciting and fun as there was a lot of trust already established between us, musically and personally.
PopHorror: You were featured on We Are Horror Record’s: Horror Punks Not Dead vol. Two, How did you get in touch with Dan Phillips?
Doc Horror: I don’t remember if I got in touch with him, or if he got in touch with me. At some point over the lockdown, I started listening to his radio show and it’d just been so long since I’ve seen anyone championing horror-punk like that, especially in the UK.
I just think he’s doing a nice thing for the scene that I have so many years of fond memories of being a part of, but hasn’t been in my life for a long time. We’re playing for him at the We Are Horror Records 1st annual Fest at the end of this week with our fellow UK horror rockers Toria And The Terror, Das Ghoul, and Siblings Of Samhain!
PopHorror: What do you see in the band’s future?
Zombina: Maybe that’s the difference when you’re coming back to a “life’s work” kind of a project after a big pause… we have limits on it now in terms of time. I’ve got a prior commitment to two tiny people so it very much creates a split between Zom-bina and Mom-bin. What I’d like is to play some festivals and tour. I’d love to tour Italy again, in particular. I’d love to get out and meet our American fans finally. And my not-too-secret lifelong dream is to be big in Japan… and hey, it’s important to dream. So, you never know.
Words Of Wisdom
PopHorror: What is one way of inspiring future generations who may be afraid to do what they love?
Zombina: I think our music and our ethos behind it has always been about the underdog. The freaks, geeks, and goths, inspire them to be bold and to be themselves. Be who they want and know that they’re a part of something bigger and something special.
We’ve just survived more than a decade of Tory destruction here in the UK. There are heinous hell-scape scenes of war on our Instagram feeds every day that we can’t do anything about. I think the only thing we can do for ourselves is try to find some joy in something, in our own little lives. So yeah, 100%. If we can help inspire the younger generations to be themselves that would be a message I could get behind.
Doc Horror: Just look at us. We’re just having fun doing what we love to do. We don’t care that we might not be doing it “properly”, or “succeeding” or anything like that. In the immortal words of Frank Furter “Don’t dream it, my mate, be it”
In The End
We want to thank Zombina and Doc Horror for sitting down with us. You can find their new album over at Band Camp!
