Photography @wbnephoto
“I want to make a scene for everyone where you can enjoy your night and dance”
I met up with Michael in The Exchange in North Shields, waiting outside with his Fiancé Scarlett. I was told to look out for her pink summer dress. It was good I’d been given this heads-up as not having met Michael I wasn’t sure what to expect and was slightly surprised to find he is much younger than I had expected given the range of his endeavors.
Shields born and bred, his father is of Shields fishing stock, he lives just off the town centre, five minutes’ walk from our meeting point. He comes across as quiet and reserved but sitting in the sunshine in his decorated leather jacket and long hair he soon has plenty to say. The first question was when it started, and it was that interesting period during Covid when the world ground to a halt, but Michael got to work.
“I’ve been doing it since early 2018 and I released my first single late 2019, I started getting everything together when I was stuck in the house. It was weird, you’re locked down and there’s nothing else to do. So, I started making loads and loads of demos. I just focused on that, nothing else really”. There starts the evolution of 14-year-old bedroom DJ and music producer Michael Longstaff who at 21 is the talent that has become NecroNoise and the host of Necro’s Nights, where he organizes and hosts events and performs his music alongside bands at venues around Newcastle, The Little Buildings for his first, The Cluny and Zerox for his others.
He explains how after hearing and falling in love with a Daft Punk album he started producing 80s infused electronica based Techo. His chosen style was Synthwave, a sub-genre of the seemingly impenetrable and forbidding Goth culture but scratch the surface and it becomes not only accessible but intriguingly familiar. It surfaced around 2010 with a profound love of early 80s Electronica, Reference points for the older readers will be the familiar sounds of Depeche Mode, The Cure, Joy Division and other darker post punk bands and even elements of shoegaze and on the metal spectrum the likes of Fields of the Nephilim and The Cult. His first Ep “Abandoned VHS” and previous two single releases are the more accessible introduction to Synthwave and his body of work.
The young Michael embraced Synthwave and was experimenting with many of its sub-genres, but it was on hearing an Ep ‘Teenage Color’ by French Electronica artist College that his imagination was well and truly fired and knew the direction he wanted his creativity to go. As a slightly safe genre, his creative energy soon outgrew the sound effects and loop on loop basis of Synthwave. His new musical direction was Darkwave, a cinematic, darkly textural mash-up of Techno, classic horror film soundtracks and elements of heavy metal with pulsating Bass lines but without the grind of Industrial and Cyber and highly danceable with changes of pace and theme. I find it a better listen in the time and space allowed in long format recordings where the complexity of the ideas have time to develop and manifest the intensely brooding emotions, but online statistics point to the shorter tracks being the most popular. My dance days are probably in the past but in the ten shorter edits I can appreciate that it would provide the tension and release required for a euphoric dance. Therein lies the dichotomy with Darkwave, it has the dark insistent compulsion of Techno with the jeopardy and humour of horror soundtracks.
A massive Horror movie fan. He has a Return of the Living Dead Tattoo and pays a heavy homage to the films of John Carpenter (Halloween) and the music of French electro-pop composer Kavinski. If you start with Techno, overlay classic Horror film soundtracks and if you throw in a metalhead guitar solo you have a taste of the cultural mashup that is NecroNoise. As well as his film and early influences he cites Justice, Goblin and Dance with the Dead as major formative listens during his development. He has a varied back catalogue, the five track debut EP Abandoned VHS from 2023 and a selection of singles and live recordings which bring things up to date and the latest release “Resting place”, a collaboration with Madrid duo Challenger where there is a release party on the 17th May at Zerox and they are all available on most platforms.
He uses a laptop and a set of digital decks and explained the difficulty of using the setup live due to the quantity of samples and sounds which make up the multi layered soundscapes. There is a live recording of his performance at the first of his Necro’sNights from October last year that has a more direct, insistent Techno pulse which doesn’t have so many of the interwoven textures of studio recordings but is perfect for what is primarily a dance music and a cultural meeting point for the Goth/Cyberpunk community. This seems to have been embraced by his following on multiple platforms as he attracts several thousand listeners per month on the ubiquitous Spotify, strangely he says he’s more popular in the USA. He explains “There is a massive Alt scene in Newcastle but it’s really difficult to tap into” Live he provides his own opportunities to perform. So far, he has organized and hosted three events. The first Necro’sNight in October 2024 at The Little Buildings in the Ouseburn was well attended. Michael says 35, Scarlett his photography/Videographer girlfriend corrects him to 40 horror fans and dancers attended. Anyone who has been to the venue will know that is close to feeling like a full house. The second was at the prestigious Cluny 2, with a growing audience and was supported by the fabulously raw Gaydar band and the incredible Darkwave punk of Sunderland’s Holy Braille. The third is this month, May 17th at Zerox on Newcastle’s quayside which is also the release party for his latest project, a collaboration with Forerunnerx and Venturer remix of Prey and once again has support from Holy Braille and from Glasgow the intense dystopian Electronica of Ubre Blanca and another full house with Michael playing his music till the early hours. He is developing a good loyal following of people who recognizing the ethics of the shows and the cultural gathering of contemporaries and as such they are prepared to travel, some locally from Newcastle and Durham, but also from London and slightly bizarrely Great Yarmouth which must be one of the most challenging journeys in the country which highlights the enthusiasm for his events. All the events are self-funded with proceeds from ticket sales going to pay for the venue with all other costs including reimbursing bands coming from his own pocket. The aim is to build the reputation and attendances to be self-sustaining and move to a monthly schedule. He says it would be excellent to use a North Shields venue but to make travel as affordable and practical as possible and the extended late nights till 3am, he will have to keep using Newcastle venues as his hardcore 15-20 regulars are mostly from outside of the city. He explains some of the difficulties of building a night in a culture of many sub-genres. “There’s a massive alternative scene in Newcastle but it’s really hard to tap into, it’s really because they already have their night and some people don’t like abandoning that to go somewhere else and support another night, I try to not line up with other people’s nights”.
His inclusive catalogue also incorporates music to appeal to a lot of tastes. “It gets a lot of the older people into the scene (that come along as well), because I don’t just want the younger people coming. I want it to be a big space for everyone. I don’t want to discriminate. I want everyone to come along and have fun, that’s all”.
“I want to make a scene for everyone where you can just enjoy your night and dance and not have to worry about anything else. With the Alt scene, you find a lot of alternative people get mistreated or bullied when they grow up. Not being the one that fits in with other people. That’s what giving them that space where they can come and express themselves.
“One of my main goals is to make everyone feel safe and welcome”.
