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Few bands are capable of conjuring up such vivid cinematic vision as Blackbriar. The band’s lavish history of evocative dark fairytale storytelling and compelling gothic soundscapes continues to expand as we move further into 2025 and their upcoming third full-length album, ‘A Thousand Little Deaths’. Co-founding members René Boxem (drums) and Zora Cock (vocals) were on the other end of a Zoom call to talk about the album and everything going on within the Blackbriar camp.
The debut EP from Blackbriar, ‘Fractured Fairytales’, came out in 2107, and here we are in 2025 on the eve of the release of the third full-length album, ‘A Thousand Little Deaths’. In what ways do you feel that the band has grown since then, and the release of the debut album in 2021, ‘The Cause of Shipwreck’?
René: When we started this band, we honestly didn’t think that we were ever going to be able to record EPs or whatever. So ‘Fractured Fairytales’ was an amazing moment for us because we had been working so hard for all those years before it. We didn’t necessarily take it too seriously, to be honest, and when that EP was released, we did not expect anything. It took a while for things to start rolling; it was months and months. Once we had done a music video for ‘Until Eternity’ [currently sitting at 20 million views on YouTube], then that’s when things started rolling for us. And ever since, we have kept the ball rolling, or at least tried to. After multiple EPs, finally, we were ready for a full album, and that’s where ‘The Cause of Shipwreck’ was born. Even the time between that album and now feels like an eternity ago.
Zora: Thinking back about how we recorded the first EP, for example, I recorded it in my bedroom all by myself, in my closet to get good sound quality! And now we are in a proper studio with our producer Joost [Joost van den Broek], which is amazing! So, it’s been good progress!
Blackbriar are a Gothic Rock band, which can often mean a British influence through Goth bands such as The Cure, The Sisters of Mercy, Bauhaus, etc. But you guys don’t have an obvious British traditional Goth influence, and that’s fascinating and quite unique…you don’t sound like any of those bands, you sound like Blackbriar…
René: It’s not necessarily that we don’t take any influence from those bands; it’s just a completely different world. We can honestly say that we are in our own bubble. When we write music, we get inspired, usually, by the same things that have inspired us throughout the years. It’s not that we go looking for these things; it’s just that’s our world, or at least that’s how we look at it. It’s a huge plus for us that we are still interested in the things that Zora writes about. It helps a lot to create our own sound: our own world.
You recently released a video from the band’s songwriting camp; locking the band away seemed to have worked well. Is this something that you will continue to do?
Zora: Yes, it was great fun. We will definitely try that again, but we also love the way that we write together, just the two of us, René and me, and we have a dynamic going on that works for us. The writers camp was more like we brought in rough drafts of songs and tried to make them better. There was only one particular song that René got really stuck on, it’s called ‘The Hermit and the Lover’, and that’s one that we have been working on with everyone. But the camp was a lot of fun, and I think that we would do it again.
René: It will depend on whether I get stuck on a song again! We had always discussed working together, but we could never find the right opportunity or the perfect method. The other guys wanted to get involved, and we took everything that we already had for the album, and with ‘The Hermit and the Lover’, everybody had the opportunity to write their parts for that specific song. It was interesting because everyone got Zora’s vocal lines and her backing vocals, but nothing else. So we got 5 different things, and we combined the best parts that fitted together very well, and that ended up being ‘The Hermit and the Lover’, and I’m very excited about that song because it was such a weird way of writing it in our writing process.
Almost every song was already done. We already had all the parts, all the orchestrations, and everything was completed in our own draft version. I took time with every band member to just think about their parts and see if we could think of new ideas to bring other details into the song, and that worked well. Not much changed in terms of structure, but ‘The Hermit and the Lover’, that’s the only song that we did from scratch that weekend. It was basically a crash course in writing a song!
Zora: I think with everyone, we also thought about playing the album live…that state of mind…which we have never done before!
With 3 EPs and now 3 full-length albums under your belt, do you still get nervous about releasing new music?
Zora: I get very nervous all the time! I get nervous before shows, I get nervous before releasing new music, I guess that it’s just my nature! [laughs] But for René, he’s just excited about it!
René: I’m usually not that nervous, to be honest, but now that you’ve brought up how close the album release is a few times in this conversation, I’m starting to get nervous! [laughs] But it’s more excitement!
But you are the drummer, René, you are supposed to be the cool, laidback one…
René: Maybe! But it’s in Zora’s nature to be a little bit nervous in general, while in my nature, it’s the complete opposite. I’ve never felt nervous before a show, or anything, but this album took so much more work, time, and effort than any other album, so maybe I am a little bit nervous because I want it to go well and for people to love the album.
What was it about ‘Floriography’ that made it the ideal choice for lead single from the album?
Zora: That’s a funny story because I always pick the singles based on whether I have an idea for the music video for it. So I came up with the perfect idea for the music video – late at night, while I was lying in bed – and I told everyone that it was going to be a single, and that’s basically what happened!
There have been many times in the past when I have asked other bands that same question, and the answer, more often or not, is “The label chose it”.
René: It’s funny because, for us, one of the struggles (and that’s maybe an exaggeration to use that word, as everyone at Nuclear Blast is a team player) with our team at the label is that it’s an ongoing process for us to tell them that we have a video idea for a particular song, and that we want it to be a single. The label, like you said, might have a completely different mindset in terms of what is a good song, and for us, we are very much a do-it-yourself band. We film this stuff ourselves, we produce the videos ourselves, and we need to convince the label that we need to do this, and usually, they are on board.
Zora: They trust us!
René: For us, it’s never about the best song commercially, or the poppiest one. All of our songs are pretty straightforward. We love every single one of them equally, literally every song gets the same attention from us, so we almost always feel that every song could be a single.
During our initial chats with Nuclear Blast, they said that they didn’t want to change anything. They were more than happy to assist us and work together, and that’s where we have built our foundations. Yes, they have their own stream of CDs and vinyl, and stuff, but we are still allowed to do some of that stuff ourselves. And, it is hard work! In the perfect scenario, somebody else would do it, but we love it. We make sure that every penny that is pushed towards us by our fans and those supporting us goes back into making better music and making better products. We do it with a lot of love. We will be doing it for at least a month, signing, and shipping everything…
How many units do you have to sign?
René: A lot! And it’s never been this much, to be honest. The signatures per band member will be in the thousands, put it that way! We make sure that it’s the person’s actual signature that is on there. We will wait until everyone is in the same room to sign them. We draw a line at signing for somebody else. It’s an honourable thing when people support us, spending more time on these things is the least we can do.
At what point did you realise that Blackbriar were on to something and had broken through? Was it when the YouTube hits started gaining traction? Social media followers increasing?
René: It was not necessarily that we felt that we were on to something in terms of “Ah, now we have got something, so let’s just milk it”, because the first EP was already written and released before anything happened. We were already happy and comfortable with what we did, and thought, “This is our world, and hopefully people will like it.” But nobody saw it. A month or two after the ‘Until Eternity’ release, we were like, “Oh my God, what is going on!” And that’s where the stamp of approval came along a little bit. We’ve never changed. This has the interest of everybody in the band. All the themes and the atmospheres are extensions of our personalities; instead of us playing a role, this is who we are.
Earlier, you touched on the importance of your music videos, Zora, so I have to ask: what was it like being buried in a glass coffin for ‘I Buried Us’?
Zora: It was a dream come true! [laughs] Actually, my Dad made that coffin for me, he spent all Summer making it, and then we had to wait for the snow to arrive…but it was very nice! My hands and feet were completely frozen!
Looking back over the last year or so, Blackbriar have been out in the States with Battle Beast, and then a European and UK tour with Kamelot; are you able to stand back and soak up those experiences?
Zora: Yes, with America especially – we had never been there – it had been such a long time coming that we finally met all these people that had been supporting us for many years. We could finally talk with them and see their faces. So, that will be something that I will always remember.
You fell ill on the UK dates with Kamelot, Zora?
Zora: Yes, it was the worst thing that could have happened! I had never gotten sick before a show before. We kept on going, which was maybe a little bit of a mistake because it took me an immensely long time to get better when I got back home. And then I had to go straight into the studio to record the album, so it was a bit stressful!
René: I told everyone in the crowd before we started that Zora was unwell, as I wanted them to be aware of the chance that we would have to stop the set early. One of the shows was only like 2 songs because Zora was like “I’m done”. We felt so bad. It was very emotional because we knew that our fans in the UK had also been waiting a long time – in some cases, 10 or 12 years. A lot of bands would have cancelled upfront, but we felt the pressure and said we were going to try it. We made a promise that we would be back, and we will be back later this year.
What can people expect on the forthcoming debut headline tour?
René: Well, hopefully a band that will not fall ill! [laughs] That is what we are aiming for, first and foremost!
Zora: I will try my best! [laughs] We are very excited about it, and we have some cool ideas to try out. We are working on them at the moment…a little bit of theatrical style that we hope to do.
René: We are trying to add some cool stuff, and the only downside is that some of the venues are a little bit smaller with regard to the stage, so it will be difficult to do something that will fit everywhere. We are going to try and do a full tour of release shows, so we are going to try and have a party every day! For the first time, we are aiming to play the entire album. People will, of course, want to hear the older stuff, so we might need to miss a few new ones, but we are trying to do as many new ones as possible.
Special guests for the tour are the amazing Forever Still, that’s a fantastic match-up.
Zora: We have looked up to them since we started Blackbriar, and have been watching their journey. It was very special for us to be able to bring them along as our special guests! We haven’t played together before, and when they said yes, we were very happy.
‘A Thousand Little Deaths’ is available August 22nd via Nuclear Blast Records. Pre-order HERE
Interview – Dave
Group shot/coffin shot – credit – Abbey Bandphoto
Live shot/images from ‘A Last Sigh of Bliss’ video – 𝘑𝘖𝘙𝘋 𝘑Ø𝘙𝘎𝘌𝘕 𝘖𝘛𝘛𝘖 𝘗𝘏𝘖𝘛𝘖𝘎𝘙𝘈𝘗𝘏𝘠
BLACKBRIAR is:
Zora Cock – VOCALS
René Boxem – DRUMS
Bart Winters – GUITARS
Robin Koezen – GUITARS
Siebe Sol Sijpkens – BASS
Ruben Wijga – KEYS
BLACKBRIAR
A THOUSAND LITTLE DEATHS HEADLINE TOUR 2025
Special guests Forever Still
Oct. 23 – Tilburg, NL
Oct. 24 – Utrecht, NL
Oct. 25 – Osnabruck, DE
Oct. 26 – Kortrijk, BE
Oct. 28 – London, UK
Oct. 29 – Paris, FR
Oct. 30 – Lyon, FR
Oct. 31 – Portugalete, ES
Nov. 1 – Barcelona, ES
Nov. 2 – Toulouse, FR
Nov. 4 – Aarau, CH
Nov. 5 – Milan, IT
Nov. 7 – Wien, AT
Nov. 8 – Leipzig, DE
Nov. 9 – Warsaw, PL
Nov. 11 – Berlin, DE
Nov. 12 – Copenhagen, DK
Nov. 13 – Hamburg, DE
Nov. 14 – Cologne, DE
Nov. 15 – Enschede, NL
Nov. 29 – Istanbul, TR **
** Blackbriar only
