MY RUIN vocalist Tairrie B. Murphy and guitarist / husband Mick Murphy recently gave antiMusic.com a track-by-track overview of their new album, Ghosts And Good Stories. An excerpt is available below.

'Long Dark Night' -- You're an insomniac as confirmed by your many late-night postings on Facebook, as the husband of somebody who faces the same affliction, I know of your difficulties. What else goes into this song besides lack of sleep?

Tairrie: "'Long Dark Night' is the song I'm looking most forward to playing live. It was actually inspired by a classic book I was reading one evening that seemed to be speaking directly to me. I felt as though it was describing what I was going through in my head in many ways within its pages. The book is based upon the 16th Century poem by the Spanish poet and Roman Catholic mystic St John of the Cross. It's called Dark Night of the Soul which is a metaphor used to describe a phase in a persons spiritual life marked by a sense of loneliness and desolation. His poem narrates the journey of the soul from her bodily home to its union with God and although the poem was more about someone losing their faith and based in a religious context, I sort of shifted the ideas into something more relatable to me in my dark night moment having to do with the creative side of the soul searching for my muse within. The lyrics were inspired by an insomnia fueled struggle to find inspiration lost in sleepless evenings of losing faith, awake with the inability to create. This is our heavy metal torch song on the album which pays homage to those little slices of death and life after midnight."

Mick: "'Long Dark Night' is an up-tempo anthem with a hard driving verse and bashing chorus with broken up artificial harmonic based guitar riffs opposed by descending chromatic bass lines. Vocally it starts with a spoken prayer then roars on 10 for most of the track. This one pretty much doesn't let up and drastically offsets the slow opener."

'Excommunicated' -- Sounds like a song about a soured friendship?

Tairrie: "Over the years I have often written songs prophesizing things before they happened. 'Excommunicated' is the embodiment of that idea with words that have taken shape with a few new identities and come to represent more than just one 'ex' friendship. For me, it is the lyrical equivalent of an anguished punch in the face. The track goes from a balled fisted stomp to a slinky, scary declaration of separation within the religion of relationships."

Mick: "'Excommunicated' is one of my favorite songs on the new album. It's got a lot going on. Strange chords, big pinch harmonics, a strong back beat and 2 melodic lead breaks. The vocals in the verse and bridge are at full power and the chorus switches to sinister spoken word as the time signature changes and the tempo drops. This song's pulse is a big part of its impact."

'Money Shot' -- Without naming names, you sound pretty disgusted at some female-fronted bands that place sexuality on a higher plane than musicality.

Tairrie: "I am pretty disgusted with most female fronted bands these days. I find nothing interesting, original or genuine about the majority of women I see in so many of these magazines and videos nowadays. 'Money Shot' is not really about any one person, it's more about the mindset and mentality within the music industry at the moment when it comes to women in general and how many of them behave and allow themselves to be manipulated. It seems sex appeal has sadly become more important than substance and self respect. This track is my feminist lyrical stance that rails against this current trend of women in music who present themselves as talent less images of tits, tats and ass in hopes to get famous. A rock & roll middle finger protest is how I describe it best."

Mick: "'Money Shot' is a burst of energy with a very live and urgent 'by the seat of its pants' feel to it. The chorus is a 4 on the floor assault and the mid section and wah-wah solo ease back into a solid groove to balance out the song. The verse vocals have a rhythmic echo that provides some space and the very live and sarcastic delivery of the entire song compliments the fast rock & roll vibe."

Go to this location for the complete overview.

Murphy is also featured in a new interview with antiMusic.com discussing Ghosts And Good Stories. An excerpt is available below.

antiMusic: You were on a new label. The record came out overseas and a tour was lined up for this fall. Everything seemed great. Then you announced that your record was not coming out where and when it was supposed to and no answers were forthcoming from the powers that be. What happened?

Tairrie: "The label owner misled us on every level. He made many promises he had no intention of keeping and his actions forced us to cancel the tour. It was the first time in our band history that we cancelled a tour and it was very upsetting for us to have to do this but we had no choice. This was the final nail in the coffin for us in regards to Tiefdruck Musik."

antiMusic: Where do things stand currently with your contract with the label?

Tairrie: "There is no longer a relationship between My Ruin and Tiefdruck Musik at this time nor will there be in the future. Other than the fact they released Ghosts And Good Stories, we have washed our hands of the label and owner due to the fact he has been extremely unprofessional in regards to My Ruin and disrespectful to me as a woman. He has caused us great duress and has done very little to promote or support our new album. We have not spoken to him in months other than via our attorney. The best thing that has come from our signing with that label is our relationship with our new publicist Mona Miluski of Platinum PR who is no longer with the label herself. If it wasn't for Mona, our record would have died a fast death but she has worked hard to make sure it got the coverage it deserved in the press and helped us promote it.

antiMusic: Do you have any faith left in the music industry after everything you've been through or do you just feel that it has always been skewed a certain way and you just naturally run counter to it?

Tairrie: "My Ruin are misfits in the mainstream metal world, I guess we're also kind of like a dark horse in a way because even when people write us off, we always seem to come back and prove them wrong. We've been doing this for a long time and we really haven't got much faith left in the music industry these days. We've learned first hand that it's a very dirty business filled with many shady and deceitful people who simply cannot be trusted to keep their word or do their job. I suppose it's the faith we have in ourselves that keeps us going because some days it's really hard to continue to be a part of an industry you really don't respect. There are so many clowns running labels, managing bands and behind the scenes at magazines or doing publicity, tour managing whatever the case may be and most of the time it's just a big suck off fest. Everyone's kissing everyone else ass to get what they need for themselves or their band while talking shit behind each other's backs and that's where we just don't fit in. We refuse to play that game. We never have and we never will and that's probably a big part of the reason why we have remained so underground. We prefer to say things to people's faces and we've never been able to fake it."

Go to this location for the complete interview.

My Ruin recently announced a string of dates for the UK. Their schedule is as follows:

March

9 - Thekla - Bristol, UK
10 - Railway Inn - Winchester, UK
11 - The Underworld - London, UK
12 - Sub 89 - Cardiff, UK
13 - Slade Rooms - Wolverhampton, UK
14 - Club Revolution - Peterborough, UK
15 - Classic Grand - Glasgow, Scotland
16 - Cock Pit - Leeds, UK
17 - Rock City - Nottingham, UK
18 - Hammerfest - Prestatyn, North Wales