Demonika and the Darklings | en

Post-Punk Folk-Noir


Demonika and the Darklings' music is a departure from most popular modern music, featuring violin in place of the traditional guitar. They create a unique sonic landscape of melancholy-tinged melodies and lyrical musings inspired by tales of the Redwood forests and personal growth.

Demonika’s voice is strong, soulful and invokes the energy of icons from the 60’s, such as Janis Joplin and Grace Slick.

The music, propelled forward by the rhythm section featuring DJ Darkly's driving beats and coupled with Dv8's melodic, solid bass lines, give the songs a danceable groove.

Devlyn on violin weaves through the songs with snakelike seductivity and gives the music an added warmth and emotion, providing a mirror to Demonika's vocals and lyrics.

She also adds a bit of mystery and darkness with wails and groans from a theremin.

Demonika and the Darklings cover two songs that are sure to attract interest from music fans unfamiliar with Demonika and the Darklings. Their cover of Justin Timberlake’s “Cry Me A River” proves that they can take on a song from a completely different genre and make it distinctly their own. With Ministry’s “Everyday is Halloween”
they breathe new life into an old goth classic.

John “Wee Wee” Napier (Ethyl Meatplow, Nitzer Ebb) co-produced their EP Venus Blush (2004), and full length CD Shelter (2008).

IN THE BEGINNING:
Demonika Darkly, Dv8 Darkly, and Devlyn Darkly are longtime friends who in 2002 decided to start making music together. Demonika took on vocals and lyrics. Dv8 began writing music on bass and with the program Reason. Devlyn, also working with Reason, added violin and theremin to the mix.
These three women have very individual musical influences that come together to make the Darkling sound. Demonika's lyrics are highly influenced by Nick Cave, Robert Smith, and the full moon, while her vocal influences are PJ Harvey, Lisa Gerrard, Janis Joplin, and Siouxsie Sioux. Dv8, originally played guitar but picked up the bass when she heard Jah Wobble's bass line on the Orb's Blue Room. Her influences include Simon Gallup, Bernard Edwards, and Dub music. Devlyn listens to almost anything you can dance to from industrial/goth to marching music. She is inspired by bands such as BlutEngel, Legendary Pink Dots, Sulfur, and The Creatures.
This combination of influences has resulted in electro-goth music that has been described as, "visceral with a beating heart, and a serious attention to mood and atmosphere...Tightly focused haunting female vocal melodies. Below-the-radar, hypnotic bass tones. Theremin dirges straight from a thirties German film noir. Distant mechanical-like percussion noises. Subtle, yet powerfully intoxicating violins. And the beautifully forlorn voice of Demonika Darkly, narrating a seductively strange and enchanting world of passionate fairytale-like romanticism filled with a feeling that manages to convey love, loss, pain, and hope in a single note" Jeremy Eckhart / Grave Concerns E-Zine

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