The Everblack Podcast caught up with Sam Haven to talk about the evolution of Australia’s heavy music scene, his journey from the Gold Coast hardcore underground to touring with bands like HEALTH, Suicidal Tendencies and Greg Puciato, and the surreal full-circle moments that came with it. Sam also dives into joining KING DUDE for the project’s first full band show in eight years, the origins and future of his darkwave/industrial project KAARST, life touring internationally, creativity in the modern music world, and why community, mentorship and authenticity still matter more than ever.
Watch/listen to the interview here:
KAARST is a dark electronic band blending industrial, post-punk, and brooding synths. Formed in 2022 by Sam Saljooghi and Scott Curtis, their sound channels acts like NIN and HEALTH. Their latest release, The Disintegrating Void, explores isolation through pulsing beats and textured noise. KAARST has supported Perturbator, HEALTH, and YLVA.
In a time when American folk music has lost touch with its bloody roots, King Dude seeks to illuminate the darkness with sex, death, love, insanity and Lucifer’s light. Since 2006, his devotional rock’n’roll has been both the medium and the message, with his throaty baritone and devilishly visceral songwriting the tools he wields to ignite the fiery spirit of revelation in all who encounter him.
Thanks to past releases on Dais, Avant!, Bathetic, Clan Destine and Ván records, a number of high-profile festival appearances and a relentless tour schedule, often alongside the likes of Ghost and Earth, the silver-tongued singer/songwriter has found an ever-expanding global audience with whom to share his prophetic vision of hope and salvation. A willing congregation whose raised voices and stomping feet reliably turn his shows into Luciferian tent revivals.
King Dude is a blue-eyed Mephistopheles with an acoustic guitar. He dresses like Johnny Cash and sings like he cut in line in front of Robert Johnson at the crossroads. His voice can shift from haunting and vulnerable to thunderous near-Biblical fury in the space of a breath, marrying the sacred to the profane with pomp, circumstance and a curled lip.
With inspiration torn from country, blues, Americana and British folk, plus a background in heavy metal, King Dude’s raw, hypnotic hymns channel the past while staring straight ahead into a revelatory future.
King Dude (USA)
with Midnight Macabre and Lewin Grimley & The Broken Strings
Thursday, 25 June – Lefty’s Music Hall (Brisbane, QLD)
Tix: https://tickets.oztix.com.au/outlet/event/744e3fe7-7469-40d1-bccb-902653a1cbd8
