She The Throne: An Interview With The Dark Electronic & Experimental Duo
Social media can be a pain, in the sense that people who you hoped to never hear from again are better able to track you down, thank goodness for the block feature eh? However, it can prove beneficial when it comes to being exposed to new music and artists and I’ve discovered a fair few of these on Instagram; Lightmaker, Wiccans and of course She The Throne being prime examples.
I remember becoming captivated by the Manchester duo around the time of 2022’s Whisper A Dead Voice, something about their disturbing sound and their identities being shrouded in secrecy appealed and left me bewitched and intrigued. Therefore, when I was presented with the opportunity to review 2023’s Nuntis, I of course grabbed it with both hands. Thanks, need to be extended to not only the band themselves but also The Shaman himself for allowing me the opportunity to ask a few hopefully perceptive questions.

Welcome to The Shaman, can you tell us a little about how She The Throne came to fruition. What bands/projects were you involved in previously?
Thanks for having us! She The Throne started in 2017 after our previous project together ran its course. We wrote, recorded and released the first album ourselves in six months. We just wanted to make something really noisy, and that first album was the result. We have been involved in various other musical endeavours separately over the years, metal bands and all sorts! We were heavily involved in an electronic music label/collective called This City Is Ours which ran from 2009 to 2019.
I have to ask, what’s the reason behind the decision to remain anonymous? I take it there isn’t going to be a Kiss/Slipknot style unmasking on the horizon…?
We just want the focus to be on the music and to keep it as faceless as possible. There is far too much importance placed on image and that’s definitely detrimental to the music in our opinion, however, it’s a fine line between that and it turning into some sort of lame gimmick like the bands you mentioned.
We spend a lot of time creating visuals for our live show and we generally play with minimal lighting so it’s just about the music and what’s being projected on screen. We actually released a VHS version of our last album Nuntis with a lot of the visuals that we use on our live shows. There will definitely NOT be any type of ‘unmasking’ hahaha!
music is a type of magic that can take you on a mystical journey and that’s what we intend with the music of She The Throne…
Can you tell the readers the origin of the band name, I vaguely recall an Ancient Egypt connection?
We have a love of all things in the ‘unknown’ world, modern day and ancient, and we’ve always found ourselves drawn to the curiosities of our past as a species. What seems to prevail is an intrigue into the consciousness of magic and how the unseen appears to always be headed by some sort of cosmic entity/force.
For us, music is a type of magic that can take you on a mystical journey and that’s what we intend with the music of She The Throne (a translation of the priestess/deity Aset or ISIS) whose headdress could have represented the dimensional seat of the soul whereby we dream and create within a space or realm that is achievable to us all if only we closed our eyes.
This has stayed with us when writing music and has left us with the lasting impression that creativity will come through us in its own form and sound when allowed. Also, each of us can divine such magic through music as it’s the easiest and most accessible place where we can all equally meet.

Your music is largely grounded in the dub, trip-hop and industrial genres, what are some of your primary influences? Also are there any non-electronic related artists that inform your work?
We’re definitely big fans of Portishead, especially Third and the first three Massive Attack albums. We’re very into movie scores and soundtracks from classic John Harrison/Carpenter synth scores to modern composers like Jóhann Jóhannsson (RIP) and Ben Frost. Hip-hop artists like Company Flow, Cannibal Ox, Gravediggaz to newer shit like Clipping & Armand Hammer.
As for non-electronic, we like a lot of heavy guitar based bands like Starkweather Coalesce, Bloodlet from the late 90s and more recent artists like Oranssi Pazuzu, Ulthar, Blood Incantation, Oathbreaker, Amen Ra. All of that definitely informs what we do.
We actually seem to do pretty well in front of the more metal crowds, which is always surprising as we don’t really know where we fit…
I’ve noticed a tendency for She The Throne to perform with a wide and diverse array of artists including more ‘rock’ orientated fare such as Dawnwalker and Meth. Is this by design to keep things interesting for yourselves or is it luck of the draw as to who you end up supporting?
Honestly, we’ll play for whoever will have us. We’re really lucky to have some amazing promoters in Manchester like The Beauty Witch and Grey Lantern. You mentioned the Meth show which we were actually a little worried about as to how we’d go down, but that was one of the best shows we have played in Manchester.
We actually seem to do pretty well in front of the more metal crowds, which is always surprising as we don’t really know where we fit. We’ve also been lucky enough to be asked to play with the likes of Wolf Eyes, The Body & Dis Fig on the noisier side of things. The heavy music heads in general seem to be into it.
As someone who is a huge fan of Manchester and its many venues (The Peer Hat particularly), I’m interested to know some of your top spots in the city to play? Is there a special reason as to why these are your favourites?
The Peer Hat is definitely one of our favourite venues and probably the space we have played the most. The rig in there is sick so we always enjoy it! The White Hotel is amazing and local to us. It’s great being in Salford and in the middle of a fucked up industrial estate. YES, especially the basement, with its ridiculous sound system for the size of the room. The Star And Garter holds a lot of memories and sounds amazing in there these days. We are definitely fans of the smaller spaces. Honourable mentions to Eagle Inn and Deaf Institute too!

Due to car related woes I’ve so far been unlucky when it comes to attending your performances. What kind of show can I expect once I eventually manage to get my act together?
Lots of sub bass, lots of noise and some visuals. Someone described our performance as ‘pineal gland busting’ so there’s that – hahaha.
Onto albums now, how did you first come onto Trepanation Recordings (RIP) radar? Were you aware and a fan of the label’s output?
We actually ended up sitting on Nuntis for quite some time as it was finished just before the dark times of 2020 and was supposed to come out on vinyl on another label that ended up folding. We reached out to Dan at Trepanation and he was really into it and wanted to put it out, which was great as he has the same love of physical formats that we do. It was actually him that wanted to do the MiniDisc, which we were really into. Definitely a fan of what Trepanation put out with the likes of Wallowing, The Owl, ROT and The Slumbering to name a few. It’s a real shame about the label, but to have that many quality releases in five years is quite a feat. Much love to Dan!
Although your prior works are well-worthy listens, Nuntis felt like your true debut and hence a personal favourite. It must have been most gratifying seeing it turn out as well as it did, especially after all of the Covid and label related delays.
That’s good to hear, thank you! We got to the stage where we didn’t know what to think anymore. When you release something, you finally have to just abandon it and it is what it is. I think because we did have to sit on it for such a long time, we were questioning everything, especially the mixes. We did everything ourselves, other than the mastering so it took a while, but we are definitely proud of it now.
each time we play them, they unravel themselves a little bit more, like a Labyrinth of sound…
One thing I was particularly curious about was Nuntis overriding theme(s), especially with tracks being titled NIRODHA, VRIL and UATH. What would you say this/these were?
The themes were generally rooted in the archetypal convergence of messenger forces/spirits/altered states and how they played out through the ‘meat bodies’ that exist on Earth. We were fascinated as to how the same archetypes could evoke and invoke such differing emotional states through the ever-changing times of a people ranging from UATH, which is a multifaceted description of horror/terror, to VRIL a straight up alien abduction song sang from the mouth of the abductor.
What was also interesting about all of the names is how interchangeable their meanings were and how that inspired the somewhat fever dream-esque construction of the actual songs, whilst writing them, sometimes we even lost ourselves in the void, which was kind of the point. It’s our hope that the songs can mean a multitude of things to the listener, and for us as each time we play them, they unravel themselves a little bit more, like a Labyrinth of sound so we hope that is a universal experience.

I’m looking forward to a follow-up album whenever it lands, and I’ll definitely be first in the queue when the time comes to reviewing it. Do you have any ideas in the pipeline? Are you able to disclose as to what we can expect sonically?
We have just started writing the next full length, but it’s early days. We don’t have any preconceived ideas or anything like that, so we will have to see, but we want to get it finished and out a lot quicker than last time. We just need to find someone to work with to release it, so we should be sending some demos out sooner rather than later. Aiming for it to be out this year for sure.
Nuntis stretched our sounds into an uncomfortable abyss of noise, so we are excited to follow wherever it decides to take us. Always heavier and harsher.
Nuntis stretched our sounds into an uncomfortable abyss of noise, so we are excited to follow wherever it decides to take us…
Finally, this is your opportunity to plug any upcoming gigs and projects and/or recommend artists you think readers should be checking out. Any other business as they’d call it in team meetings.
We’ll be opening for Sex Swing at Deaf Institute on 9th February, we also have a show put on by Endtyme Records supporting Satøri and Colossloth on the 1st March at the Eagle Inn, Salford, which is super exciting.
We will be playing a folklore festival in reverence to the forests and nature at Fell Foot Woods called Of Thee In The Tree in August, Barry has such a beautiful space tucked away close to Lake Windermere and puts on numerous fun themed micro camping festivals so would definitely recommend that.
In Stalybridge we have our friend George who is doing great things with his North by Northwest shows. He puts on a range of acts at the Buffet Bar in the railway station in Stalybridge, Sly & the family Drone, Greet are just a few to name.
Chaos theory in London is hosted by Kunal who really has his finger on the pulse of new experimental music and is putting on his 15 Years Of Chaos festival in March with a whole cluster of amazing artists so if you’re in London get down to that.
Bloodbeat put on some dope noise events in Manchester and beyond.
A brilliant space in Sheffield called Hatch with an awesome night called Strident Nights who has an excessive backlog of shows to boast about
Music wise, there are SO many people we have played with last year who have just blown our minds. The Seer is amazing, Prangers, Slags In Tapestry, Riotmilo, Aya, Anting, Meth, Bleakertides, The Bear Around Your Neck, Gandalf The Green, Mr Bones Wild Ride.
Bands from Manchester to check – Silverwingkiller are ace, A-Sun Amissa, Deathbloom, Thraa, Hexagon Blood, Goretec, Wetlocker and Futures We Lost who is one-half of Trianglecuts. From the hip hop side of things Broomman and Lords Of The North.
Band Links: Facebook | Bandcamp | Spotify | Instagram
Interviewed by: Reza Mills