London After Midnight

Vocalist, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist Sean Brennan originated London After Midnight as his singular creative outlet, fusing goth rock, glam rock, electronic, industrial, and additional textures into a sound he labels “dark-rock music.” Born and raised in New England, Brennan initially hoped to pursue filmmaking, yet after moving to California he grew disillusioned with the industry; during a 1998 interview he remarked, “I find the movie business to be a laughably shallow and pompous world that does not produce much good,” and shifted his focus entirely to music, where he could retain complete artistic authority. On numerous London After Midnight recordings Brennan performs every instrument himself. He started the project in 1990, issuing its first recording—a self-released cassette-only EP—the following year. After forming a live band, the act quickly built an ardent following in Los Angeles by selling out club dates and struggling to meet demand for the cassette. A full-length cassette album, Selected Scenes from the End of the World, arrived in 1992, after which interest expanded beyond the United States into Mexico and Europe. In 1995 a German label gave Selected Scenes its CD edition, and Psycho Magnet, the second album, followed in 1996. Metropolis Records secured U.S. distribution rights in 1998, reissuing both earlier albums while adding the rarities collection Oddities. By then London After Midnight had emerged as a major concert attraction across Europe, the United Kingdom, Latin America, Mexico, and the United States; as the music grew heavier, Brennan’s outspoken leftist and animal-rights views assumed greater prominence in his lyrics. Following festival appearances abroad and the placement of a new track on the Saw III soundtrack, he delivered the third album, Violent Acts of Beauty, in fall 2007.