A Perfect Night of Misery… Mister Misery

10/31/22 Cassiopeia - Berlin, Germany

Written by Alison “MetalBabe” Cohen

Mister Misery are a goth glam band from Sweden who have released two albums to date and are currently working on new material, making a concept for every song, and new merch. They are wrapping up their European Tour with The 69 Eyes and have a few festivals in the works for the remainder of the year. Seeing them transform in front of my eyes to their characters onstage in Berlin Halloween night, and being able to interview them before the transformation, was unbelievable. It truly was a perfect night of misery.

Alison: Let’s start by talking about Halloween, your Halloween song tradition, and (my personal favorite) “My Ghost.”

Alex Nine: (Lead Guitar) We have been fans of Halloween our entire lives. It kind of suits us, if you know what I mean. (LAUGHS)

Alister: (Bass) For us it’s a big deal. Individually, outside of the band, it is my favorite part of the year. It’s the band’s favorite part of the year too.

Rizzy: (Drums) Kind of our prime time of the year. (LAUGHS) This is where we grew up. We came up from the graves.

Harley Vendetta: (Vocals/Guitar) During Halloween, I write a song that is either about Halloween or sounds like a Halloween song. “My Ghost” was the first one, I think. We have other songs written about Halloween characters too.

March/April 2023

HIGHWIRE DAZE

Alison: That’s very cool, I love Halloween. Who is the mastermind behind Mister Misery’s concept?

Alex: The music is Harley

Harley: Yeah, I do about 95% of the music. As far as the concept with the black hair, make-up, and clothing…. I wanted the band to look very artistic to the audience. We found the right clothing brand with Punkrave and the perfect shade of white for our faces.

Alex: The concept was something we shared since the beginning, when we first talked about how we were going to shape the band. We both are very expressive in our style and the way we like to dress. We like to use contact lenses, make-up… Themes from vampires, monsters, Halloween, everything…

Alison: It’s perfect. Tell me about the lyrics for “The Devil In Me.” They really are amazing.

Harley: “The Devil In Me” is inspired by the first Exorcist movie. I felt like it was a cool concept to write about a movie that people know and love. That I love too. It has a horror element. To explore the suffering of an innocent person. You have two sides. You have the demon and then you have the girl. There’s bad and there’s good, in the same entity. It’s an interesting approach to a song.

Alison: Definitely. They filmed The Exorcist in St. Louis, where I am from. What about “Ballad of the Headless Horseman?” too, from 2014 to 2018, and I had a shitty f*cking time there. Most of the songs on the first and the second records are about that whole scenario. I went to school at M.I. (Musicians Institute) in L.A.

Harley: In “Ballad of the Headless Horseman,” you see it from the horseman’s perspective. There’s another perspective to it. It’s not like just, the horseman is a bad murderer, or murderous guy. It’s like he’s cursed. He doesn’t want to be that way. He’s in pain, but he can’t do anything about it. Every night he has to go out and chop people’s heads off.

Alison: I love that. What is your overall inspiration for your music?

Alex: Both me and Harley have a lot of… Well bad experiences from before.

Harley: It’s not just about monsters and horsemen and devils and stuff. It’s about real-life stuff too. Those songs, the “horsemen songs,” are more for entertainment value. We have other songs that are written from the heart, about experiences that we’ve been through. I used to live in L.A.

Alison: I’m so sorry you had a bad time in L.A. I wish I could have helped. If you weren’t in Mister Misery right now, what would you be doing?

Alister: I would probably form a new band, do shows, write new music, because music is what I am going to do with my life.

Alex: I guess I would keep trying to find a band that I want to be in. I would just keep working on music.

Harley: I would be a police officer. I wanna help people. I like law and order very much. I think people should follow the rules. It’s okay to do bad things sometimes, you know…

Alison: Just don’t get caught.

Harley: Yeah, just don’t get caught.

Rizzy: If you were to take music away and I just completely reset my whole life, maybe I would be a veterinarian or something like that. I want to help animals.

Alison: I love that you wanna help animals Rizzy and that Harley wants to help people. What’s next after tonight?

Alister: Work on some new material and just try to ride the wave. After the tour now we’re so pumped up that we could keep touring. When we get back home we really need to keep up the momentum from the tour.

Alison: Perfect. Any final words for our readers?

ALL FOUR: We would love to come to Los Angeles and play for you guys!

Alison: Thank you, Los Angeles would love to have you

Alison “MetalBabe” Cohen’s Official Website: metalbabemayhem.com/