Much of the music that is popular in mainstream media and plays on radio stations appears to adhere to a fixed formula dominated by monotonous themes and superficiality. So, listening to a group like Castle De Crux is quite revitalizing and enlightening. The band’s debut EP, Demons We Create, and new single “So Many Monsters” aren’t afraid to deviate from the norm and explore the shadows that society attempts to hide.
Elysia De Crux and Exor Magus De Crux are the masterminds behind Castle De Crux. The significance behind the band’s name alone proves how committed the pair are to creating a unique experience with their music. They use the castle as a symbol of the inner workings of the human psyche. This fortress has a dual nature, representing “happily ever afters” in fairytales and places of torture in gothic novels. In a similar vein, the mind has its light and dark sides. Through their music, the castle has become a metaphor for mental health and catalyst to explore various psychological states.
The group’s gothic aesthetic is also enchanting and highlights the beauty in darkness and vice versa. Elysia and Exor are united in their purpose to shed light on the personal demons we all deal with and to let others know they’re not alone in their struggles. Their EP, Demons We Create, communicates this message creatively.
Castle De Crux possesses a dark cabaret sound with a theatrical flair, and their music is quite atmospheric. Coupled with Elysia’s deeply haunting vocals, their collection of songs has a way of reaching into the depths of humanity’s woes. The opening track “Descending” welcomes the listener into the castle’s foreboding dungeon.
Throughout the EP, themes touch upon mental illness, dysmorphia, self-loathing and fear, to name a few. Elysia drew upon her own struggles to form the lyrics. On the band’s website, her bio shares how she’s dealt with issues such as eating disorders and depression and faced challenges with being neurodivergent. These details make it all the more apparent that Castle De Crux is genuine in their mission to be a voice for anyone who battles with their mental health.
Each song has a special message to convey, and I especially enjoyed the hypnotizing, mysterious beat of “Deteriorate.” The single, “So Many Monsters,” exposes the real-life monsters the world encounters on a daily basis, from climate change to merciless wars. It features pounding, fierce rhythms and Elysia’s vocals are accompanied by a sinister voice that sings along with her.
In its entirety, this collection of tracks expresses the complexities of the human condition in a heartfelt and illuminating manner. I was curious to hear from the artists themselves about their creative process. The members of Castle De Crux invite guests into their world in the following interview.
Q: I’d love to hear the band’s origin story. How did Castle De Crux come into being?
A: Castle De Crux was created just last year. We (Elysia and Exor) found that we have the vision to share personal and global problems and testimonies alike through a visually stimulating odyssey, using a multi-media experience blending music, illustrative visuals and creative video. We understand our audience wants to be entertained but also seek meaning beyond consumerism and social media, binge-watching trash TV, etc. Of course, there is still great quality stuff around and in production and that’s to be applauded, but sadly, social media is now distracting people so much from their real needs and deeper interests and shortening their attention span too much. Clearly, humans have more potential than that on a subconscious level; the effects of our modern-world distractions seem like a form of brainwashing.
We formed Castle De Crux to tap into that deeper need and present subjects that are important, relating to the current, topical difficult world and personal life and survival issues, necessary things, crucial even to express deeper feelings in an open and accessible format that only music and visual art can accomplish. We want to add our vision and creations to the depth, emotion, expression and colours that people already love and long for in this increasingly mundane yet stressful world of routine, machines and maddening bureaucracy. How sad it is when mind-numbing entertainment, human laziness and addiction to the often trivial side of social media take control of people and seem to dumb down their potential.
According to “Google Trends” search analysis, music, art, and even video gaming engagement have plummeted over the last two decades, while social media has skyrocketed, especially since the pandemic of 2020. We feel that there can be so much more quality in the creative public arena. We’ve joined forces as artists, feeling like a perfect match. We both greatly enjoy creating music, as well as art and animation, so it’s a true collaboration, blending our skills into one project, rather than dividing up elements for each of us to do separately. This way, nothing we want to say through our work risks dilution or misunderstanding in the process.
Q: What was the experience like creating your first EP?
A: Oh gosh, it was totally inspiring, we hope not just for us but for others when they hear it! It’s rewarding and fun to hear the results of your hard work with music coming together in studio playback. Our recording process is very creative and hands-on; it’s all quite satisfying in the end when it works out. We are continually surprising ourselves with what we can achieve.
On the darker side, creating concepts coming from the more serious and sinister aspects of life can be difficult to live out for extended periods, but we’re used to it now and also want to have fun, there is joy in life too after all haha 😉 So, it’s all part of what we do, and it feels good to make what we hope are important lyrical and inspiring statements through our music.
Exor’s experience with music production and other bands in the past is a valuable asset and has allowed us to move forward more smoothly. Starting a new project exploring many new songs and themes is satisfying and fun. We have a lot of songs and ideas that we’ve been wanting to do for a while. It’s perfect timing really, given how we have on standby a lot of unused material and subject matter that expresses concerns about important issues, much of which was written way ahead of its time, but now that stuff is becoming a pressing reality. The world over seems to be reaching a climatic crisis and could tip over to the point of no return if mankind can’t sort things out soon. That seems like an impossibility unless major change can happen. We want to support that change no matter how difficult, if not impossible, it seems. Something good can definitely come out of the effort.
Elysia is new to the music industry, and this is her first time releasing music, so she’s had a lot of ropes to learn! It’s been a momentous new start for her; she feels part of a meaningful and ongoing project to pour her creative drive into. It’s surreal and wonderful to hear radio presenters and DJs announce and play our music so enthusiastically, and people’s responses have been so affirming. We’re keen to see where we go with future releases!
Q: Gothic themes are present in your lyrics, sound and imagery. It’s quite beautiful. What do you appreciate about the gothic aesthetic? Are either of you inspired by the gothic writers and/or artists of yore?
A: In terms of modern Goth in fashion and music, writing, etc., we’ve always connected and understood the attitude of that subculture, appreciating the obscure and niche things that are often misunderstood. Being (sort of) misfits in our pasts, we’ve always celebrated our unconventional tastes. We both enjoy how historically, functional things were generally made to be ornate. But since the 1940’s, the world has slowly lost its variety and enthusiasm for aesthetics; architecture, technology, mainstream fashion… so much nowadays in design is often plain and rather square. That can be practically useful sometimes, but we both love that the gothic scene keeps appreciation for beautiful fashion and paraphernalia alive. Victoriana, esp. on the Gothic side, can certainly be very cool as we see illustrated in many films and TV shows.
Some of our favourite artists and writers are Jane Austen, Lord Byron, Oscar Wilde, Mary Shelley, Bram Stoker, Edgar Allen Poe, HP Lovecraft and Lewis Caroll. They all went against the grain and believed in their work, ignoring societies’ constraints and initial rejection. We find that kind of boldness and conviction very inspirational and motivating in pursuing our own goals.
As well as the writers and poets, there are many groundbreaking artists of the 1800’s… including William Blake, the pre-Raphaelite movement and Richard Dadd, to name a few who can be inspirational. Even Modern art started in Victorian times and although not classed as Gothic, so much more can be of important influence to us, such as The Scream by Edvard Munch which we still see as a modern Gothic influence. It can be seen as a symbol of the anxiety and stressful conditions of modern times and mental illness. A subject of great importance to us too. Gothic revival can certainly be considered cool these days and remains an influence on us and is popular with many others as it offers depth, feeling and character to work with and enjoy. Having said that, ‘quality’ modern styles can certainly appeal to us as well.
Q: You use your music to shed light on mental health, which brings so much value and sincerity to your songs. How do you hope your music can help those struggling with their mental health?
A: Thank you for appreciating that. We want to present meaningful music that’s inspired by our own lived experiences and different aspects of life in the world today. A huge part of that is how people suffer mentally. In so many ways, illnesses of the mind seem to be affecting more people these days. The stories we want to tell through our music are born of what we hope is some gained wisdom after surviving dark mental times of our own. Within the world of Castle De Crux, we have created ‘The Hidden Realm’. It’s a metaphoric place, representing the human psyche in both the negative and positive. A ‘Castle’ of darkness and light, it’s like a non-corporeal explorable structure whose form can change according to a person’s state of mind and feelings at any given time. It serves as a kind of backdrop made of imagination for those songs we’ve created that talk about mental deterioration and hope, recovery and survival.
The Castle being a place of light and darkness can appear of peaceful contentment or stress and deep anxiety; it represents both of those states of mind. At times, it can be a terrifying environment, deep within the bowels of the Castle where one’s struggle for mental recovery is a huge challenge there may seem as though there is no way out of never-ending dark corridors and worse, falling into dark and dank dungeons. However, in the Castle’s uppermost levels, it can also be very beautiful with areas of peaceful contentment and happy gardens and views of beauty and thriving life.
Having survived and found a way out ourselves from what that most unnerving metaphoric Castle represents, we as artists feel stronger today, thankfully, and yes, we feel and hope that we are equipped to share some wisdom gained. We testify that recovery from problems that damage mental well-being is possible, and ALWAYS worth the struggle in getting there! We hope our experiences told through music and visuals can inspire and encourage others to keep going and to believe there is a way out.
Q: Before we part, what’s on the horizon for Castle De Crux?
A: We are excited to unleash our next release, hopefully in the next few weeks. We are working on plenty of new tracks and continue to unlock more of the Castle’s many rooms.
We also have plans to develop our live presence and our videos with more sophisticated techniques and methods of our own and that would be without the use of AI. For us, essential human creativity and expression is everything. We want our future work to be as AI-free as it can be. We believe that our human feelings and human experience are what it’s all about and that will always take precedence over AI, which should be used only as a tool to speed up some aspects of our productivity, if it’s used at all.
Although our music can appear dark, we certainly do not want to appear miserable and depressing—that’s not how we are in essence at all! We are exploring the fun and humourous side of the dilemmas and problems the world and the individual face right now. Of course, the dark side can be tempered with fun, humour and some glamour too. We are looking to expand our existing website, grow our audience and open a merch store. As already mentioned, we love to write and create visual art besides music, so stay tuned to our website to see all our projects unfold!
We’re excited to expand on our themes of the state of society, the human condition, the social-political, the threat of extremists and authoritarianism, the environmental crisis, the dangers of unfettered AI, the threat of nuclear warfare, future pandemics and so much more. And how all that is affecting our lives, our mental and physical health, the planet and the future of humankind. But hey, don’t worry, we are not all gloom and doom merchants—we would rather be optimistic, although that seems to be an increasingly difficult stance to take. But we have to believe and keep hoping! We feel that people have to come out and acknowledge the severity of these issues, standing up for what’s right and needed.
We are lucky to live in a country (the UK) where we can freely express ourselves through art. Let’s hope that will continue and that we won’t find ourselves in an increasingly oppressive dystopian nightmare!
Where to Stalk
Castle De Crux official website
Vamp Jenn's Corner 
That was an interesting interview. They seem to be pretty smart.
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Thank you! I enjoyed reading their responses too. They definitely approach their art with purpose.
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