Martin McCarrick is about as goth as goth gets, while also being as rock as rock gets and yet doesn’t wear swirly black eyeliner or crimp his hair or lie under his bed reading Kafka (not that the Backstagerider ever used to do that, oh no).

No, Martin McCarrick is what they call a “really fucking cool musician”.

(He’s also an artist and a music teacher. As an aside, can you imagine saying: “Yeah, my instructor was in Siouxsie & The Banshees“? Well, okay, the YOOF OF TODAY probably don’t give a toss, but it would blow my tiny Existential-angst mind if I were learning to play.)

But anyway. How’s this for a goth/rock CV?  London-based McCarrick was in Siouxsie & The Banshees for eight years (around Rapture, Peepshow and Superstition), Irish noisenik band Therapy? doing time on guitar and electric cello for seven, played cello on Robert Smith and Steve Severin’s The Glove album, and has played, toured with or collaborated with Kristin Hersh, This Mortal Coil, Dead Can Dance, Skunk Anansie, Sinead O’Connor, Gary Numan, Marianne Faithful and more.

Today, Martin comprises 50% of a wonderful thing: The McCarricks. Along with his exceedingly sexy and classically trained violinist wife, Kimberlee, the McCarricks’ musical soundscapes blend violin, cello, piano, keys and otherworldly sounds and perform in front of short films created by international filmmakers and friends.

Hanging out with the McCarricks (the BSR’s best friends in London) will often include some sort of debauchery, some cool blue-haired friends, and you may end up getting drunk next to Jon Klein from The Banshees or puke all night after a visit to the underground crypt bar Garlic & Shots (see left). In other words, they are not only musicians extraordinaire, they are a bloody good laugh too.

As for their latest project, it is also one for the BIG BLACK BOOK OF GOTH.

The McCarricks were recently commissioned to rescore  F.W. Murnau’s Der Letzte Mann. Murnau, if you’re not up on your German expressionist filmmakers, made the original 1922 silent vampire film Nosferatu. This is exceptionally exciting news: it means that Martin & Kim will hopefully tour and bring the film overseas to those of us not currently living in Londonium. Have a look/hear:

For more insanely beautiful and eerie music, go to MySpace or check out their latest videos on YouTube, including “Drifter”. Visit www.houseofmccarrick.com to buy a reissue of their first disc ‘3’ and for other news.

PS, Happy birthday, brother. 🙂