The Sisters of Mercy need no introductions. Just into their fifth decade as a band Andrew Eldritch is still at the helm and has been since the very start, but with sixteen years on guitar Ben Christo is now the bands second longest serving member if we exclude the much reincarnated Doktor Avalanche. Back in Australia later this year the great news for Sisters fans is that almost half the set is now comprised of new music! We caught up with Ben to find out all about the tour, the new material and the influence of Steve Clark on his playing.
Ben: Hey Mark how are you Sir?
Mark: I’m very well thank you, how are you mate?
Ben: I’m very good thank you.
Mark: It’s great to be able to get to chat and funny how things happen isn’t it we had a brief exchange of emails when you were out with Ricky Warwick and a few weeks later there’s other news and here we are!
Ben: Here we are.
Mark: The big news of course is that The Sisters of Mercy are coming back to Australia after gracing our shores just before the pandemic in 2019. It’s great to have you back so soon, and I see that you’ve been keeping rather busy during the last couple of years despite the lack of touring.
Ben: Yes absolutely just writing for various projects, but when we started touring again I felt incredibly grateful and very excited. We had to keep reminding ourselves on a daily basic “OK we really are sat on the tour bus bored – but we’re out and we’re doing it!”
Mark: (laughs) It was great to see you on the road with our great friend of The Rockpit Ricky Warwick too. That would have been some of your first dates back playing live?
Ben: Yeah, so Sisters randomly did three nights at the London Roundhouse in September 2021, which was an odd thing to do in the middle of a pandemic but it worked and we did it, but it was always really fraught with the nervous nature of “Is it going to happen? Are people going to turn up?” So there were those shows but actually going out and doing a proper tour again – yes the the first show was with Ricky in Cambridge on March 6th I think it was.
Mark: You have a lot of connections in the industry and have collaborated on so many projects so I know writing is a passion of yours and it seems like the long wait for new material by The Sisters has come to an end?
Ben: Well what’s been nice actually is that over the course of the lockdown we actually did a lot of song writing – myself, Andrew and Dylan, who is an Aussie, so when we came back to Tour we’ve been playing a lot of new material. There are about 12 or so songs in circulation in the new set that we’ve written together. And that’s so exciting to me to be able to contribute to a band as a writer that I’ve held in such high regard my whole life. And to be getting great reception to the new material from the fans, some even saying “It’s some of the best stuff we’ve heard for 30 years” or “It really sounds like The Sisters, but Sisters 4.0” it’s been great. And part of that has been working with Dylan who I actually knew before and I got hi into the band as a friend – he was also, like me someone who grew up listening to The Sisters so we both had that background of being fans and so knowing what we would want to hear if we were waiting for new material. So that’s been a really unique opportunity to be able to do something like that and I hope that you’ll dig the stuff too when you hear it.
Mark: I’m pretty sure I will and I’ve been waiting for a long time, I remember reading an interview where Andrew made the promise that there would be new music if Donald Trump was elected so he’s been good to his word! Whether there will be a new album though I guess is the big question, it will be wonderful to hear the music live but some older fans out there love collecting those bits of plastic and spinning them!
Ben: Yeah the last album was 1990 then there were a couple of songs re-recorded for the Greatest Hits in ’92 – ‘Alice’ and ‘Temple of Love’. Then ‘Under the Gun’ was a new song ’93 so that would have been the last recorded original work. That’s like 29 years. But yeah we’ve been writing a lot and had great responses and we find that if people come to a couple of shows they start learning the words and singing along and it’s great to look down and see them getting really into it. But one younger fan messaged me, he was in England but he hadn’t been able to come to any of the shows and he said “I love all these new songs you’re doing and I’ve made a YouTube playlist that I just listen to all the time in my car or as I walk around” so for him as a 21 year old it is a new album because he’s listening to it daily as he walks around. And because the quality of the sound and the vision on the phones of people who come to the shows is actually pretty good, even though it’s not the same as a proper recording the song still comes across.
Mark: That’s a good point especially for younger fans who tend to not want to hand over cash for pieces of plastic as us older fans tend to want to do! (laughs) You get here to play the first date on the 28th October in Brisbane and you hit Perth where we are on November 3rd. So that just gives me time to have learnt the words to a few new songs!
Ben: (laughs)
Mark: You’ve been with the band now for I think sixteen years now, which makes you the band’s second longest serving member. Let’s take it all the way back, what was the audition like? How did you first get involved?
Ben: The audition was very on-brand for this band in that it was completely bizarre and unlike anything else I’d ever done. I was phoned up by someone who wouldn’t tell me who they were and asked to come for an audition for a band that they wouldn’t tell me what it was!
Mark: (laughs)
Ben: So already it’s on brand. And I ay the time was very sceptical about it, as one would be. But a few people I talked to said that sometimes bigger bands wont reveal who it is because they donlt want people to know they’re looking. They don’t want it out there that they’re looking for a new member maybe because they haven’t fired the other guy yet, maybe because they were about to do a big tour and they don’t want people to think the tour’s not going to happen. So it turned out to be it was actually the latter, it was because they had all these dates booked and they didn’t want them to look like they were in jeopardy because they were missing a member at that time. So I went on to this audition having no idea what I was going for. The guy on the phone that I had been chatting to had been very vague – he said that “the band is a mixture of U2 and Motorhead, bring some Hendrix riffs” (laughs) That guy actually turned out to be Andrew, it was actually him that phoned me – he’d got my number off some musician’s notice board, some online thing, I still donlt really know. But one really unique thing about it was – he called me one day and we chatted for a bit and then he said “I’ll call you back tomorrow at 2 O’clock” and I missed the call by about 30 seconds. I instantly tried to ring back but it just went to a fax machine! There was just this fax machine sound, and every time I tried to phone it was the same. I was thinking “Fuck what am I going to do?: Then I thought “I know!” And I went up to the local internet café and then sent the only fax I ever sent in my entire life.
Mark: (laughs)
Ben: I said “I’m the guitarist Ben, I’m really interested in talking to you more, please get in contact if you still are.” Instantly my phone rang and it turned out later on that action had saved me from losing the job! (laughs) Because I’d shown the initiative of trying to work around a problem.
Mark: I can imagine Andrew in a dimly lit room hovering over his fax!
Ben: And then it was arranged that I would go and have the audition. But even the I still didn’t know what I was auditioning for. So I walked into this room with a bunch of blokes and they weren’t even playing any well known Sisters songs it was more “Here’s a chord sequence, can you play a solo over it?” yeah OK. “Here’s a riff, can you play this riff?” and I can’t read music but I pick things up very easily by ear. So they were playing these riffs that I realise retrospectively were the newer material that they’d not recorded, but it still had a kind of Sisters feel to it which later I was able to realise that it was that sort of note used in that sort of way. So I thought hang on could this actually be The Sisters of Mercy? Because I was a fan but I hadn’t really been following them much in the last few years so I didn’t really know who was in the band or what they looked like other than Andrew. So I thought “OK maybe it is? And if it is I’m going to play a famous riff by them on my guitar now and see if anybody reacts.”
Mark: (laughs)
Ben: So I played the riff and instantly one of the guys said “That’s one of our songs” And suddenly I was so nervous! I remember this so vividly, my hands we shaking and I was so nervous, but it was OK because I had had half an hour just to be very blasé while I was thinking in my head “Who are these guys, don’t care, whatever!” so I could just play and be myself. So I’m actually quite grateful that I didn’t know and it didn’t have that gravitas and sense of anxiety that I would have if I had known who it was. It was just “Let’s see what this is and what happens.” And that was it and then a couple of days later they phoned me up and at the time I was working in an off-license called Threshers.
Mark: I know them well, Threshers the Wine shop!
Ben: That’s the one! I was working there and I just got this phone call saying we want you to be in the band. And that was it I quit the job and then a couple of weeks later I was doing rehearsals and then I was bizarrely at L.A.X. getting on a tour bus to Vegas to do the first show.
Mark: Amazing.
Ben: It was a very, very life-changing month or so – December 2005 was the audition and then the first show was February 2006.
Mark: What a great story, I love that. I was just looking at the list of bands that you’ve played with and shared a stage with and the list is incredible – I guess our readers would most recognise names like Mike Tramp, Doogie White, Lauren Harris, John Poole, Dragonforce, Cradle of Filth and Claytown Troupe another great band from back in the day. And there are so many more! Do you ever say “No?”
Ben: (laughs) I just said ‘no’ actually Mark, so it’s very timely you say that! I did really agonise over it though. There was a band that asked me to play guitar for them and they have a couple of really good Festivals lined up in Summer and they’re lovely, lovely guys and their music is brilliant and they asked if I could step in. However the first show was pretty much two weeks today, I could have done it, I could have done it but it would have meant that I would have spent this month where I’m just trying to chill out a bit before the next Sisters stuff , once gain with the headphones on learning, learning, learning, learning. So for two shows without techs or a tour manager, even though they were good Festivals and I love the guys and love the music, it all would have been quite stressful I think. You go on, no soundcheck and play to the big Festival crowds. So it was really hard for me to say no – so I had to do a spreadsheet! A pros and cons spreadsheet! To help me decide to actually say no!
Mark: You sound like me that’s crazy! (laughs)
Ben: (laughs) I know, I love playing and I just see everything as an opportunity to experience stuff. And particularly because I like the music so much it was really hard for me to say no! But I did in the end mange to say no, once Mark! (laughs)
Mark: (laughs) I’m sure you’ll not make a habit of it!
Ben: (laughs)
Mark: The thing I love most about who you’ve played with is the diversity – so I get where you’re coming from when you talk about experiencing things. It’s all Rock and Roll but it runs from quite commercial Hard Rock to the Cradle of Filth end of things. I know you started playing really early on, but what was it that lit that fire as a young kid? Were you seven?
Ben: Yeah. I think when I was a kid I was always drawn towards the songs by artist that had more guitars in them. I donlt know why that was but I just did: if there was a Michael Jackson song it would be the one with a guitar solo in it, if it was a Queen song it would be the ones that were more guitar heavy and more Rock orientated. So very quickly I became drawn to that heavy guitar sound and an uncle of mine who was only eight years older than me was a great inspiration to me. So pretty much everything that I like today – music, books, films, video games was based on what he liked. So he hugely influenced me and he first got me into initially Def Leppard who was the first band that I loved in the late 80’s, to the point that I barely listened to anything else. He said “Ben you have got to listen to some other stuff” and he made me this mix tape (Ben holds up the mix tape) – this very mix tape which I still have ‘of other bands that are not Def Leppard that you need to listen to!’
Mark: (laughing)
Ben: And that really got me onto expanding my palette, and what I like now is pretty much every sub-genre of alternative music, whether that be Skate Punk or Operatic Goth or even more Indie. The key thing for me though is that the music has to sound authentic. It has to sound like it comes from a real place – that’s what makes me like it, often more so than the style. So if the music comes from a very real place and if its something that I’ve not heard before, if I feel that the lyrics are good which is really important then I’ll like it. I hear a lot of music that ticks a lot of boxes – it’s heavy, it’s melodic etc etc but maybe the lyrics are a bit shit, or maybe it just sounds really contrived and not something unique. If it’s not authentic I’m not drawn to it, I’m drawn to people expressing their innermost and their ‘truth’ in a musical manner that’s what makes music special.
Mark: I agree music should touch people, music should be honest, and should connect. That’s what makes a song stand out for me. As Steve Marriott once said there’s two types of music – good and bad.
Ben: What’s been really bizarre with the advance of technology, the ease of use of technology and people’s access to it is that you can now hear really, really well-produced bad music (laughs).
Mark: (laughs) And lots and lots of it Ben!
Ben: Whereas previously bands who weren’t very good wouldn’t have the access to that production because they would never get through the gate-keepers to get to that point where they were able to have that production. So you have these songs where the production is huge but the song is terrible (laughs).
Mark: I know your pain we get so many submissions each week and 90% of it is well enough produced but pretty uninspired. There are maybe not more people making a lot of bad music but a lot more seeking to be heard!
Ben: (laughs)
Mark: Now onto good music! If you could have been a ‘Fly on the Wall’ for the creation of any great album in the history of Rock and Roll, just to see how the magic happened in the studio what would you love to have witnessed being made?
Ben: That’s such a good question and I think you’ve just got to go with the first thing you think of and honestly the first thing I thought of was Def Leppard’s ‘High and Dry’ album which is the second album they did, I chose it because it’s probably my favourite, plus I think would be interesting to see a band of that age at that level moving in to working with a huge producer. I’d love to see what the dynamic was like, how the song-writing was done, what decisions were made, what things got left out, what things were not going to be included till the last minute. What were things that were done on the spur of the moment that I hold in such high regard, maybe they were just a throw-away thing? And also because again that is an album that has been with me from a very early age. Its the meeting between the band being very young and very naïve to them becoming megastars by the third album!
Mark: I agree a big step up from ‘On Through the Night’ but I can never choose between ‘High’ and ‘Pyromania’ before they became too polished.
Ben: Over the years they have done really great songs on all of the records, it’s just for the style of Def Leppard that I like the most I think that Steve needed to be in the band to produce that magic. There was a certain edge and a certain darkness that he had and I’ve always gravitated towards that style. I hold him as probably my favourite guitarist of all time because of the way he can be so emotive with just three or four notes. But you’re right I think the best of High and Dry and Pyromania would probably make the ultimate album. The ultimate ten songs from those two records. I’d be interested to see which ones we would agree on.
Mark: It’s a challenge we’ll do it! (We did)
Ben: And I have to do the same!
Mark: It’s been great catching up Ben, looking forward to seeing you play those new songs on tour, all I can think of now is wondering what Steve would do with ‘Temple of Love’ and that’s teh beauty of Rock and having a good imagination!
Ben: (laughs) Nice one, thanks Mark!
The Sisters of Mercy are in Australia in October.
They have a website at HERE and probably a fax machine too!
You can buy tickets HERE