Nightly meetings in a dimly-lit basement studio is where Texas-based darkwave band, In A Darkened Room and ultimately the debut album, Sorrows were born. Sorrows is the culmination of the release from the repetition and seclusion brought on by the pandemic. The title is a fitting “black umbrella” under which the eight aching tracks reside.
“We wanted to feel the beauty in this chance to create while untethered by the constraints of ‘normal’ times, but the sense of ever-present doom on our doorstep weaved a constant thread of sorrow into our music.” – CJ Duron.
Sorrows is a down-tempo, sensual, and melodic dream-dance, interlacing eight stories that feel like grey sky cemetery drives, dawn’s heavy fog light, and a sad, sweet smile you’ll never see again.
Sorrows is available on CD and on all major digital platforms NOW!
In the winter of 2019, lifelong musician, CJ Duron (The Sandworms) had something deep and dark to say. Emerging from the bleakest trenches of personal tragedy and loss, he turned to his steadfast savior – music. Haunted by a decidedly more morose sound than his previous musical endeavors, the impetus for his newest Dark-Wave project, In A Darkened Room, began swirling into the aether.
With the addition of longtime friends and co- conspirators, bassist Svia Svenlava (Shadow Fashion, The Sandworms,) and synth player, Kandi Keys (Love/Hate Affair,) the band was complete.
San Antonio natives, all, the three began meeting in Duron’s dimly-lit basement studio, transmuting grief into sound. Almost immediately the world around them changed into an even darker and more dangerous place as the covid-19 pandemic raged across Texas and the rest of the planet, devastating the music and performance industries. They found themselves cocooned together in that basement, exorcizing their demons through the music they created.
Pulling from diverse influences, including David Bowie, Killing Joke, and The Cure, they quickly found the sound. Keys’ melancholic synth, Svenlava’s driving basslines, and Duron’s weighty guitar riffs and sonorous, low vocals come together to vibrate your ribcage, and resonate in the dark places of your soul like the phantom tune upon waking from a dream…or a nightmare. They are out of the cocoon now, and beckoning you to listen.
In A Darkened Room has had the privilege of playing with goth rock legends Christian Death, 80s icons Gene Loves Jezebel and When In Rome, as well as post-punk, new wave contemporaries, Actors and Twin Tribes. In A Darkened Room continues to write new music, shoot film, and travel throughout Texas and the southwest with their eyes on both US and European tours on the near horizon. With the new album, Sorrows having just been released, the band is looking forward to what 2023 brings to them.