Erotic Secrets of Pompeii Bio

🐐 WEIRD ROCK FOR STRANGE TIMES 🐐

Winding transgressive post-punk and experimental art rock together like two ends of a fraying rope, Erotic Secrets of Pompeii bring together disparate elements into a heady brew that falls under the following descriptors: weird, angular, surrealist, catchy... but essentially "rock". The band's recent live gigs have garnered much praise for their energy and fervour.

ESOP's impressionistic lyrics are charged with grotesque imagery and vivid symbolism, drawing from artists across different mediums, such as Lynch, Dali, Bacon, Blake, Cronenberg, Jodorowsky, Mapplethorpe...

Following the release of debut album ‘Witness in the House of Pox’ (2019), the band saw a dramatic line-up change in 2020, and with that a vibrant new energy. A slew of vibrant, dark singles were released throughout the pandemic, accompanied by artwork and videos made in collaboration with local Bristol artists.

ESOP returned to the studio at the end of the year to record a fistful of new songs set for release throughout 2021. Erotic Secrets of Pompeii is comprised of Thomas Hawtin (vox), Tom Hackwell (guitar/synth), Sean Jones (guitar), Julian Port (bass), Alex Auld (drums).

Press

"Very few people can pull off IDLES’ signature vitriol, or HMLTD’s glam romp, and combine it with a chaos all their own, but Erotic Secrets of Pompeii do that very well indeed. Gloriously, in fact."
Soundsphere Magazine

"A fresh post punk band which doesn't hold back its proclivity to explore a few of the genre's equivalent styles, and implement more than a few diverse elements to its emphatic sound, resulting in something thoroughly artful and agitated."
Destroy/Exist

"Erotic Secrets of Pompeii have managed to create some of the most chaotic, disconcerting, fun and positively danceable music of the year."
Independent Music News

"Exquisitely visceral stuff, a bloody spotlit, guilt ridden series of askew dioramas of our sins that feel like a nucleic acidic stir of artists, auteurs (and dark visionaries) like Charles Bukowski, David Cronenberg, Robert Mapplethorpe, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Tropical Fuck Storm and The Dead Kennedys."
American Pancake

"Guitar sounds as wiry as bedsit coathangers, a bass line that grinds out its chug-heavy gutturals… it’s sporadic and crass and as ugly and lean as any mid to late 80’s Bad Seeds."
Rats on the Run

"You get a sense the band have taken advantage of fully exploring every creative corner they can find, they draw and stretch their musical sound to resemble a theatre of artful expression. With grungy post punk slapping the lyrics all over your face as the band tells you their new story. But at the same time you catch flashes of dance beats at the foundation of the record, which builds the momentum of absorbing layers."
Off the Hook

"'They Wouldn’t Let Me Write My Book' is immediately one of our fave tracks to come out of Bristol so far this year."
The Bristol Gig Guide

"Deliciously Disturbing..."
Fresh on the Net

"Like Gary Numan in a horror-filled nightmare jamming with Tom Waits and Franz Ferdinand."
Trust The Doc