Today we have a unique opportunity to plunge into the world of musical rituals and philosophical quests with a group that elevates music to an art form. Yes, today we meet The Naked Grace Missionaries, rebellious musical preachers from London! Their long-awaited single “All For Love” has finally hit the airwaves, shaking up perceptions, piercing minds with its satirical depth, and mesmerizing listeners with its musical atmosphere. In this interview, we delve into their musical world to understand how they combine iconoclasm, satire, and irreverence into a cohesive whole. Join us as we explore the creative process, influences, and, of course, the new single “All For Love,” which has proven to be a true musical revelation, already captivating audiences everywhere. Welcome, The Naked Grace Missionaries!

V. Hi guys, thanks for taking the time to chat with us. The new single ‘All For Love’ is set to release on January 26, and listeners are eagerly anticipating this musical upheaval. What emotions and reactions do you expect from your audience once ‘All For Love’ finds its way into their headphones?

We guess it will depend on how closely the audience are listening to the song. We’ve always had a tendency to combine dark and troubling subject matter with upbeat and disarmingly catchy music. If you heard this in passing on the radio you might just think it’s a love song, perhaps puzzled by an odd reference to napalm. For those who listen to the lyrics and wish to contemplate them, we would anticipate they will be aware of the parallels between the horrors described in the song and the world we currently occupy. Many flavours of extremism exist that cloud human judgement and compel inhumane acts, we hope that those who are open to the message of the song can purge their own frustration at the state of our world and feel energised by its recognition.

V. When did you realize that ‘All For Love’ is a kind of acoustic manifesto? Was there a ‘eureka’ moment when you realized that this track is something special?

All For Love was the song that landed us our deal with 40 records. We streamed an appallingly amateur video of our set on social media, it was a poor connection and we just couldn’t get the sound up to scratch. Despite all of this the label managed to pick up on something they thought was compelling about the song and reached out to work with us. The fact that All For Love still resonated with people who were musically inclined, despite us effectively butchering it, affirmed that the composition definitely had an energy that drew people in.

V. In the description of the single, influences of dark folk, blues, and occult rock are mentioned. How did you blend these elements to create the unique sound of ‘All For Love’? Were there any musical experiments that you particularly enjoyed?

To us All For Love lands in the dark folk, occult rock part of the spectrum, it’s also quite pop in its own way. We aren’t consciously attempting to blend things together, since many of the songs come from dreams or fully formed from Smith’s subconscious. The sound of the song then suggests itself as we attempt to translate these “etheric downloads” into actual melodic experiences. The experiment, for us, is making an acoustic three piece sound dynamic and potent, as unlike some of our other projects there’s no complex electronic instrumentation to utilise, everything has to work stripped down with guitar and vocal. This could be instantly boring or derivative, so when making choices we always aim for the unexpected. Occult Rock is more than just a sonic sensibility, it’s about multiple layers of meaning within our music. For those who wish to read deeply into the work there will be surprises.

photo by @thenakedgracemissionaries

V. We’ve heard that the lyrics of ‘All For Love’ touch upon the dangers of extremism and

comforting lies. How did you decide to embody these themes in musical form, and are there any specific events or stories that inspired you?

Just waking up everyday and observing the world gave us plenty of inspiration. The intensity of the news cycle, the way huge events explode into our consciousness and then disappear only to be overshadowed by an even greater event. It’s a time of polarisation, we are called to pick a side and entrench ourselves in it. Remaining fluid in the face of new evidence or reasoning is almost seen as weakness. Critical thinking is overridden by emotive and simplistic messaging appealing to our worst fears. One American story that did stand out is that of “Doomsday Mom” Lori Vallow who is accused of multiple murders, including those of her own children in pursuit of the spiritual goals of a bizarre cult she became influential in. Her protestations of holy justification have continued despite the reality of her crimes being revealed to the world. Her explanation for the horror she is accused of creating is the epitome of “I did it all for love”.

V. In your opinion, does ‘All For Love’ align with the overall philosophy of The Naked Grace Missionaries? Is this a new stage in your creative journey, or is it just the next step towards the bright dawn of your musical career?

We have a palette of obsessions; cults; the paranormal; occultism; the most bizarre aspects of life and All For Love sits squarely within them. It is a fairly perfect distillation of what we are drawn to as a band. Although we hope that we have a sound that is uniquely us, we allow ourselves to play freely with lots of different moods. The deceptively upbeat sound of the song is fairly typical of our approach, as we enjoy the contrast between the happy sound and the noir

lyric. That said, we will always keep mutating and expanding upon our concepts. We let the music lead us, so as you explore the rest of our work you’ll see how each song exists in its own universe and that’s how we see our style, fluid and open to change, it’s our prerogative to never get comfortable in one place. So we aspire to make every song a new stage of development in some way or another.

V. I’ve read that you gravitate towards controversial topics in your music. I’m curious to know which social and political issues hold a special place in your heart, and how do they influence the themes in your music?

As a writer Smith is drawn to stories and concepts that speak of the more disturbing or arcane aspects of existence. It’s just what interests the band intellectually, it’s a reflection of the extremity of our online culture, of the doom scroll and the hype surrounding anything threatening or uncanny. The discovery of the mummified blue corpse of Amy Carlson, aka Mother God, leader of accused cult Love Has Won is an example of the kind of surreal news item that would find its way onto an NGM album. It’s the weirdness quotient that matters to us, even if it’s a love song, it can’t just be a sweet one, there must always be a hint of subversion. The band do have their own political beliefs but their affiliation is more to reason and problem solving than specific ideology. Ideology is often mental malware, it stops you from considering solutions that don’t align with your bias, even if they could be correct. Ultimately we have a strong sense of justice and this applies to many issues we see in our societies today. We believe there’s a new world emerging from the chaos of this time and we are witnessing a pivotal moment in culture, on the other side of that upheaval could be a better world for all, but are humanity willing to face their shadow and accept new ways of being?

photo by @thenakedgracemissionaries

V. Noteworthy artists like Joni Mitchell, Neil Young, and Pearl Jam are mentioned as important sources of inspiration. How has their work influenced your own?

That list could be so long, we always panic just to pick a few names as we are fans as much as we are musicians. Neil Young has a way of being plain spoken but retaining a philosophical depth and poignancy that can bring tears. This makes for the kind of timeless music that spoke to his peers and now future generations about the struggles of the human condition. He wasn’t afraid to switch up any aspect of his project to better articulate his message. That kind of obsession with your art, driven by personal passions, not trends, is something we want to embody as well. Joni has an integrity and wry humour we appreciate, as with Young she merged her messaging with music that was well conceived and touching. We all love Grunge, many of the bands that have been influential to us come from this era. Pearl Jam have a great knack for addressing specific themes, like school shootings, or the brutality of the human species in general and exploring the narratives in a raw and emotionally charged way. Vedder’s pains and joys are so evident in his soaring voice, that’s something we experience less and less in mainstream music. Simple and raw stories about who we are.

V. What non-musical sources inspire and influence your creative process when making music?

We are all keen on immersing ourselves in many kinds of artistic expression. Fine art; literature; cinema. In a way these influences are just as important, if not more important, than the work of other musicians. Each of our songs we imagine as a movie, we always see them as part of a broader creative exploration that hope to share with people if we ever get the opportunity. A recent exhibition of the work of painter Francis Bacon absolutely floored Smith and Steinsdotter. All three members adore cult cinema and feel connected to the stylised, sinister absurdism of David Lynch, the austere morality of the Cohen Brothers movies and the more obscure corners of art film. Some movies feel like portals into alternate universes, it’s not just entertaining, it’s transcendent, you walk away from them feeling changed. Our books about Charles Manson, the work of Burroughs, trash culture online, esoteric works, we rip from all of these too. Those stories tell us about what we are, that some monsters are real and that anybody could be one of

those monsters.

V. What were the most amusing moments during the process of writing ‘All For Love’ when you realized it was not just about creating music, but about creating a musical rebellion?

As a band when we chill together we laugh constantly thanks to our well matched dark humour. It’s different in the sessions. There’s always something kind of fraught about getting a song out of the head of Smith, who can’t write notation and has to hum musical parts, to craft a coherent and well crafted song. Burnham’s patience and skill is notable in this regard as without his talent there would probably be a lot less time to laugh! I wouldn’t say we think too consciously about rebelliousness, those kind of judgements are for other people to make. We just put our genuine feeling into the music and hope it will translate, if AFL feels rebellious then we are glad it does. We want to go against the things in the world that bother us, we are rebellious in response to the tensions of reality, but we don’t set out to create that energy, it’s provoked out of us.

V. Describing your sound as a ‘magical invocation and a howl in desperate nocturnal hours’ sounds truly captivating. What’s your best advice for those who want to conduct such a musical session in their own desperate nocturnal hours?

Make sure your neighbours aren’t at home. Essentially if you go outside during the full moon, all that desperate howling could attract the wrong kind of attention. As for the magical invocation, be careful what books you read, as the witchy maxim goes, don’t invoke anything you can’t put back!

*This interview was made possible by Evergreen Entertainment