"I can’t see us knocking Taylor Swift off the top of the charts": Balaam And The Angel are back but they're still not quite sure where they fit in

(Image credit: Darklands Recordings)

Founded in the Midlands in 1983 by three Morris brothers – frontman/bassist Mark, guitarist Jim and drummer Des – Balaam And The Angel toured with The Mission, Kiss and Iggy Pop, and had a major deal with Virgin Records, but ultimately proved too heavy-rock-based for goth fans.

Decades after calling it a day, they returned, but, as Mark says, they don’t expect to knock Taylor Swift off the top of the charts any time soon.

Last year marked four decades of Balaam. How does that feel?

Pretty strange, really. We had hung up the guitars after losing our record deal in 1990, and for around twenty years I forgot that I was even in a group.

What brought you back?

Interest from social media. Because of that we did odds and sods for a while, and then fancied something that was a little more permanent.

Siblings in bands often argue, so how does having a third one affect the balance?

We used to be well known for scrapping back in the day. There were so many were fights backstage that people thought we would split up, and we’d have to say: “No, that’s normal.”

Karen Morris has been the band’s keyboard player since 2019. Seems like you believe in keeping it in the family.

Karen is Des’s wife. She’s a very good backing vocalist as well, which realty helps the sound.

Balaam started out as punky goths, then heavied things up with the third album, Live Free Or Die, in 1988. That uncertainty over musical identity must have been a problem.

We did a very good job of confusing the public, didn’t we? But we were doing what pleased us. Maybe things would have been different had we stuck to our alternative roots more firmly than we did, but Live Free Or Die was a big album in the States so it wasn’t all bad.

YouTube

Watch On

How did it feel when the band were accused of bandwagon jumping?

We didn’t care.

Is it fair to say Balaam still don’t quite fit in?

I think that’s true. We’re not goth or rock, but we’ve a foot in both of those camps. We’ve always been a square peg in a round hole.

Your new four-song EP, Forces Of Evil, is a neat distillation of that style. It’s been five years since the last album, That’s Not The Real World, so are EPs the way forward now?

Basically, the idea was to revisit an idea from first time around, when we released a series of EPs [in the 80s].

In terms of motivation, how do the band now compare to the band of the 80s?

I can’t see us knocking Taylor Swift off the top of the charts, but I’m proud of the EP. It’s a live-sounding record, and I really like the things that we’ve written about. We’re not twenty-five years old any more, if you know what I mean.

What inspired the new song After Life?

It’s quite simple. It’s all about people with kids that leave home and that allows them to go out and get back into music again. A love letter to the music scene? Yeah, that’s it.

Balaam And The Angel’s eight-date UK tour begins this Friday in Leamington Spa. Check the band's website for dates and tickets.

Dave Ling was a co-founder of Classic Rock magazine. His words have appeared in a variety of music publications, including RAW, Kerrang!, Metal Hammer, Prog, Rock Candy, Fireworks and Sounds. Dave’s life was shaped in 1974 through the purchase of a copy of Sweet’s album ‘Sweet Fanny Adams’, along with early gig experiences from Status Quo, Rush, Iron Maiden, AC/DC, Yes and Queen. As a lifelong season ticket holder of Crystal Palace FC, he is completely incapable of uttering the word ‘Br***ton’.