“There must be something dark happening somewhere”: Mouth Ulcers on their debut EP
The modern-day British goth act spill the lore on how their best-selling debut EP came to be, their favourite tracks and filming music videos on the hottest day on record.
Photo: Jake Schneider
If you’ve been following the alternative or rock scenes, you’ll no doubt be familiar with Mouth Ulcers. Since the release of their first single, Western Horror Story, in June of last year, the four-piece have gained followers up and down the country—typically clad in long coats, smoky eyes and pale faces. Likened to the defining gothic acts of the ‘80s, Mouth Ulcers are very much bringing the gothic back to the masses, with driving basslines, Sumner-esque synth arrangements and glimpses into the melancholic.
On July 10th, the group’s debut EP, Silent Pictures, dropped. I got the chance to sit down with vocalist Zak Watson, guitarist Josephine Rose and ‘bass queen’ Jamie-Lee Culver to ask them all about what led to this moment; how they met, what inspires them and why you should never just write ‘cure’ under their music videos.
Your debut EP, Silent Pictures, was recently the best-selling vinyl across all of Bandcamp. How does that feel?
Zak Watson: Yeah, definitely weird. [laughs]. I mean, the whole project came out of nowhere. We weren’t even really looking for a label to sign on to. The first two singles, A Perfect End and Western Horror Story were done completely alone. They weren’t part of a deal with anyone. And then we thought about making an EP. Our manager was like, “Do you want to send it out to some people?” And then we landed on LAB [Records], who were super favourable to us and let us do what we wanted. Full creative freedom.
Then we put it on Bandcamp, and then the sales were quick within the first week. I think that’s how we ended up there. I’m not sure if it’s still there, in the top ten or whatever. It wasn’t even under ‘Goth’, it was under, like, all the music, which was nice to see. Definitely weird. Definitely surreal. It all happened so quickly. We’re not really sure how to react—taking it all in, being like, “Did we really just do that?” But also just trying to be cautious, and not get too excited about things. You never know when everything could just drop.
It’s only a couple of weeks until the EP comes out. How are you feeling about it?
Zak: It’s definitely exciting to get it out there, because it’s our first release as a whole. We’ve only been a band for about a year now. There’s so much more to come, to develop, so I’m excited to get it out there.
Jamie-Lee Culver: Yeah, it’s definitely exciting. I think it’s also a bit scary.
Josephine Rose: I was gonna say, a bit nerve-wracking.
How long did the EP take to make?
Zak: The EP’s taken a long amount of time. As I said, the first two songs were singles—they weren’t even supposed to be part of an EP. That was like, last July when we first posted that song. So since then, it’s taken about 6 months, maybe, to get all the stuff done, film all the videos, and do all the content. So yeah, it’s definitely taken a while. I think, looking forward to when we do a first full album, it’ll probably be done in like a month. Whereas the EP was: record a track, get it done, share it, and then get the next song done. It wasn’t recording the whole thing in one weekend. It was pretty continuous. And by doing that, all the tracks have their own voice to them. So yeah, it’s nice to hear them all together, but I can definitely hear the sound start to develop and change in areas. So there’s a lot that’s happened during the EP. I think it sets us up well to do more stuff, and do better stuff.
Interesting you say that. Is there any throughline in the EP?
Zak: There definitely wasn’t an intention to create an EP at the start of it, so there isn’t that flow of songs. The way we recorded them was slightly different as well. We were still trying to experiment as a band, still trying to find the way we like recording. But with the sound itself, there’s a lot there. It goes into a lot of different genres within gothic rock. There’s a few grungier tracks which you’ll hear when it drops, and then there’s softer, dreamier stuff, like the most recent single Space. There’s a lot of experimentation. But it’s nice to do that on an EP I guess, see what works, what you like doing, what people like.
How did the band meet?
Zak: We all knew each other previously, for about two or three years. Maybe even more. We’re all just mates, to be honest. I know Josephine through film, doing short films together. I met Jamie-Lee and David through online stuff. David has his own project called Sunnbrella, and I ended up taking photos of him and his band. We got along well. It wasn’t a case of looking for band members at the start. We were all just friends. Then I found out that Josephine played guitar—I knew she sang, but I didn’t know she played guitar. David’s the most talented musician I know. Plays everything, not just drums. Jamie-Lee was the obvious choice for bass, because she’s a bass queen.
Jamie-Lee: [laughs]
Is there a particular track from Silent Pictures that you’re proudest of or most excited to play live?
Jamie-Lee: Closer to You was one of my favourites, but then I also liked Silent Pictures, the song itself. But Zak doesn’t like it as much.
Josephine: I was gonna say, I like Silent Pictures, the song. I’m excited for that.
Zak: My favourite is probably Satisfy, which is coming out with the whole EP. It’s not a single. It’s a slower one, and it builds and builds. Then it’s quite full on at the end. I think that one will guide you through a journey. I like them all, really. Silent Pictures, I’m sure I’ll like it more. [laughs] We’re shooting a video for it tomorrow, so I’ll have to like it. I do like the song, it’s a joke that I don’t like it, basically. But I do like it. I think it’s because I had a shit amp at one of the gigs, and it sounded really shit when I was trying to play the guitar through it. And it just threw me off, I was wondering what the hell is happening.
Recording a music video on the hottest day we’ve had? Wow!
Jamie-Lee: We’re lucky, because it’s in a basement.
Zak: I think we’re underground.
Josephine: It might be a bit cooler.
Jamie-Lee: Bit damp.
Josephine: It will add to the aesthetic, if we’re a bit soggy.
Jamie-Lee: I’m definitely bringing the fan.
It always interests me what artists think of making videos. Do you like doing them?
Zak: Yeah, we do. It’s an essential part for us. I think with some artists, it’s purely music-focused and they hate doing videos, but for us it’s 50/50—we make the music for the visuals. We try to create a world and an atmosphere around the music. I think it’s a key part. Goth in general, post-punk, all alternative sorts of music, they revolve heavily around the look and how you express yourself aesthetically. So we really enjoy doing the music videos, sharing cool looking things with people. I think that’s really nice. And it’s been going down well on YouTube. Sometimes the numbers on YouTube are better than the numbers on Spotify, which is crazy. So I definitely think there’s an appetite there for visuals and videos, and we love making them. But maybe not on the hottest day.
What influences your music, and especially making Silent Pictures?
Zak: We always get compared to the classic ‘80s bands, which we love and have grown up listening to. But it’s also where I’m from, and the landscapes that surround it. Being from a small town, you live beside lots of fields. I used to go out and take photos of them all the time, whenever it was misty. Surrounding yourself in that atmosphere, you base music off of that sometimes. Whenever I’m writing music, I’m writing it for those fields that I was in when I was younger, at night time, looking out, wondering what the hell’s happening out there, underground. Because it looks so peaceful when you look out, but there must be something dark happening somewhere. It’s writing for those cinematic places. More direct influences would be – especially listening to the EP – Bauhaus? They’re one of my favourites. But there’s also modern bands like Dive, who play a lot of single-notes. No chords or anything.
Jamie-Lee: Joy Division is the other one we both really like. Someone said to us at a gig they thought we played a Joy Division song, which is quite funny. These are all original songs! But other than the drums in Satisfy, it doesn’t massively sound like Joy Division, but you can tell there’s some influences there. My favourite bands are quite modern, like Just Mustard, The Twilight Sad, Slowdive. But they’re all in the same sort of world — The Cure in there somewhere as well.
Josephine: I personally really love The Cure, their whole discography. I’m really excited for the new stuff they’re about to come out with.
I’m glad you mentioned Joy Division, Bauhaus and The Cure. You guys get compared to them all the time. Does that ever get old?
Zak: I don’t mind it. Sometimes people comment ‘Cure’. Not even ‘The Cure’ on our stuff. That feels a bit ragebaity, that sort of stuff.
Jamie-Lee: That’s all people do in the comments. They just compare us to other people.
Zak: When they’re not trying to be nice, they’ll just put ‘Cure’. [laughs]
Josephine: I think it’s still a compliment though, regardless. It’s like, well thank you, you’re still comparing us to The Cure.
Jamie-Lee: It’ll just be like, “Sounds like this, with a hint of this”. Like three influences at once. It’s funny, sometimes they’re not even ones we’ll be massive fans of. That’s quite interesting. I think one of them was like, The Chameleons. We had listened to them, but we’re not huge fans. But it was interesting that people compared us to stuff we hadn’t even thought about.
Zak: Yeah, sometimes we discover new music because people say, “You sound like this” and we go, “Who the hell are they?” But we’ll listen to it and go “Oh yeah, it’s post punk, it’s goth-y.”
Jamie-Lee: When I do listen to it, I go, “Oh yeah, I really like this, actually.” So it does make a lot of sense.
Zak: It’s funny. I mean The Cure for me, I’d say I listen to more Cure albums because of this project, because people have compared us to them so much. Before, I didn’t listen to them a lot. I’d listen to more Joy Division, or Bauhaus. And then everyone was saying we sound like the Cure. I mean it was one song, it was Prevail, and it had a really Cure-y bassline. Everyone jumped on that. Silent Pictures for example doesn’t sound like a Cure song. But I don’t mind people comparing us to whoever. It’s inevitable in music. Especially since there’s so much music out there nowadays, it’s hard to have something completely unique.
You’ve been playing the EP at your shows. What’s that been like?
Zak: It’s been great. It’s been cool seeing what order to play them in as well. We experimented a couple of times, and then would realise we had it better the first time. There’s a couple new ones mixed in. Obviously the EP’s only seven tracks, I think we play nine live. We’ve only played six or seven gigs so far. The response has been great.
Jamie-Lee: Me and Josephine had never been on stage before, playing music. So we’re still adjusting to that. Just trying to figure out how it all works, my own performance. I really like playing the heavier ones live. I quite like looking out and seeing reactions from people.
Josephine: I think it’s super fun. At first it was really, really terrifying, especially for me and Jamie-Lee just because we’d never done it before, so it was all very new. For the first few gigs, I didn’t look up at all. I just sort of kept my head down. Now I’m learning to try and look out when I’m playing. Which has been really cool because you get to see what other people are feeling. It’s so much fun.
Zak: We get shouted at to smile, don’t we?
Jamie-Lee: That happened once. [laughs]
Zak: I think it would be a bit creepy and a bit weird if I just started smiling at people.
What’s your dream venue to play?
Zak: We're playing Kentish Town with The Mission [November 6th]. And that’s unreal.
Jamie-Lee: That’ll be our biggest one yet.
Zak: That would have been at the top of my list to play. Even just growing up and going to gigs there, to ever think you’d be on that stage. It’s going to feel weird.
Jamie-Lee: Me and Jo went to see COBRAH a couple of weeks ago at Kentish Town. We were just looking up like, “Oh god, we’re gonna be on this stage!”
Josephine: It was massive!
Jamie-Lee: I’m not sure what my dream venue would be. I feel like Brixton is quite iconic.
Josephine: The Windmill [laughs].
Jamie-Lee: I’m not sure about the Windmill. A bit of the O2. Zak loves the O2.
Zak: Don’t put that in there.
Jamie-Lee: I’m not sure. I feel like I’ve been to so many, I don’t know what ones I really loved. I think, Troxy, is that what it’s called? Saw Slowdive there, that was quite a good size. And then The Cure played there as well.
Zak: Anywhere. I’ll play anywhere. We had a really good show on a boat in Bristol, Thekla. We were playing a tiny stage, but it was a great gig. It sounded great on stage.
Jamie-Lee: That was tiny.
Zak: And then the next day, we played in Nottingham, a bigger, more ‘proper’ venue. And it was really fun, but for me I enjoyed that Bristol gig more. You were super close to everyone. It was a small room, packed out. Bigger isn’t always better for live shows. That distance between people separates you a bit more.
Jamie-Lee: Yeah, like the George Tavern was good the other week.
Josephine: That was a really cool venue.
Zak: George Tavern. Put that one on the list.
I agree! A lot of stadium shows lose that connection. It’s a different experience.
Zak: Yeah. I mean I say Kentish Town because we’re playing it, but it might not be the best gig in the world. I’ve never actually played it. But George Tavern, or Paper Dress Vintage where we’ve played before, we know it’s a great gig. We know we’ll have loads of fun. Plus they’re small venues, which need all the love they can get.
What is Silent Pictures the soundtrack to? What should people do while listening to it?
Jamie-Lee: It’s definitely got to be a moody night. Just like driving down the motorway.
Josephine: Country lanes.
Jamie-Lee: Or you’re just in the middle of nowhere, in a cabin. I always see seasons when I listen to things. I definitely don’t see summer with this one. Even though it’s coming out in the summer. Personally, I just see a dark scene.
Zak: Depends on the track. Some are summer, driving, Lost Highway vibes — car going through country roads, at night, swerving between lines. Some are more dreamy, where it could be a misty day, blue hour, staring out into a field, when it’s pitch black. You get the vibe.
Cliché question, but if you could give any advice to an emerging artist – maybe something you wish someone had told you – what would it be?
Jamie-Lee: It’s weird because I feel like we’re still just starting out.
Josephine: I was gonna say that! Feels like I don't know enough to give advice out.
Jamie-Lee: I think it’s more like a marketing perspective, for me. Just know you need to utilise Instagram, TikTok — I know people don’t want to do it but that’s how we’ve built that following. You need to market yourself.
Zak: Yeah. Find what your music means. For us, it was this cinematic atmosphere around the music, with the videos, what we wear, how we express ourselves. Try to find who you are as a musician. Even if you put your music out online, what’s making you different to everyone else? That can be hard to figure out, I guess. Never stop. Just create music because it’s fun to do. Stop comparing yourself to other people, because that only pushes you down a rabbit hole and makes you feel shit about yourself. Do it because you like doing it. People might see that and want to listen to it. Try and be the best. Be yourself.
