New wave project Seances came about from singer and bassist Eric Arsnow’s life-long love of new wave bands from The Cure, to Joy Division, to The Chameleons, to Sad Lovers & Giants. Inspired by seeing The Chameleons’ first ever Milwaukee show in 2023, Arsnow found himself inspired to write as he quickly put together a demo with bass guitar and voice memos outlining an entire album.
Connecting with Jason Kart, the two of them started to flesh out what would become Seances, a new wave, post-punk project steeped in horror film references and allusions to the supernatural. The Seances’ debut album Power Is A Phantom is out on Friday, February 13, 2025 via Triple Eye Industries.
“Seances was wholly inspired by seeing The Chameleons perform at Turner Hall last October 4, 2023,” explains Arsnow. “As a fellow bass player, something clicked as I watched Mark Burgess front his band. I wrote an outline for the whole record on bass only a few hours after getting home from the show. Seances is a love letter to discovering new wave music that inspired my bass playing, heroes like Peter Hook, Mark Burgess and Simon Gallup. In turn it has allowed me to discover new approaches to writing music and sonically take risks. I’d be remiss to say that my friends and in this case, collaborators Jason Kartz and Ashley Altadonna, have been a huge inspiration and motivation to get this project off the ground.”
Arsnow seems to credit Ashley Altadonna as almost as essential to this project as Jason Kart, as her artwork for the demo release of the song “Fade” leant a hint of the whimsical macabre to the whole proceedings. “It was great working with Ashley Altadonna on the folk-horror inspired cover art,” says Arsnow. “She has a great eye for design. The scales with the skull and heart was an image that Ashley came up with completely on her own and it blew me away. It felt like one of those experiences where even though I had Ashley completely run with ideas, there was some universal coincidence that led to the illustration tying my personal feelings to writing ‘Fade’ so well.
“The image spoke to an overarching theme about reconciliation and healing, regaining a balance between your mind and your heart, reconciling the factual and the emotional aspects of an experience. Horror films have thematically influenced my art as a visual artist and musician for a long time. The X-files really sparked an interest in UFOs; they make an appearance in the lyric video and tend to show up in a lot of my work. All of my fascination with everything I’m discussing here stems from my curiosity with trying to explain the unknown, things that don’t always make sense. This lyric video is a tribute to my analog childhood, and experiencing all those types of films and TV shows for the first time.”
Today, the band are debuting the lyric video for “Fade.” A haunting yet almost kitschy, slightly sleazy track, it embodies the new wave power of Joy Division or Depeche Mode, reminding us of the vitality of a genre that is due for a resurgence. Check out the video below.
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Photo courtesy of Seances
