OPEN GRAVES

Recorded from Jake’s white linen adorned home in his absence, Heather and Vesta discuss amongst many things, the recent convergence of so many goth events on one weekend, showing that what can seem like a cohesive community easily factions off into sub-groups, pulled between Thrill Kill Kult, Suicide Commando, Christian Death, and also amongst our regular club nights. We discuss whether hope still...

The Black Sun is Bleeding Silver! As Davey himself put it, AFI's newest album, " Silver Bleeds The Black Sun ," is a litany of sonic flares honoring and signaling the Goth community. Or as Heather put it, "Shots Fired." If you listen to our podcast as a fellow lover of that "Dark, Gothy shit," (TM) ........We IMPLORE you to listen to this album. STAT. Join us as we take a hope(less/full) look into...

Happy-ish new year. This was recorded in November 2025, and due to late publishing has become a bit of a time capsule, as things have changed since this recording. We revisit the topic of “memento mori” and the end of life, finding light in the darkness, relationship struggles and attachment, and surviving Halloween. Heather’s father has since passed, and we dedicate this episode to the memory of...

We are joined by an iconic duo, Mimi Sosa-Delcampo and Michelle Morales to focus on a topic that we have deftly avoided leaning too hard into: the role of fashion in the goth identity. We come at it from an angle that feels meaningful, questioning whether or not the subject of fashion is shallow or not, and what it means that something that can be construed this way also feels important and empowe...

You’re in for a twofer! We are late to the publishing game of talking about Cruel World, so this is a download about Kite, Chelsea Wolf, Actors, Mareaux, Clan of Xymox, of course Nick Cave, the divisive topic of Garbage vs. Devo, the infamous wine-bra, and then some embarrassing feeling about Ministry. Apologies in advance that we do talk about the weather and food reviews, because unfortunately w...

Well, Open Graves is now a pop-psychology podcast. We revisit a topic from one of our earliest episodes: dating in the goth community, and how we handle it when it falls apart. This iteration is less about the goth community specifically, and more about the experience of being a person in community in general, attachment styles, family histories, feminist shame, and then the key words: abandonment...

To commemorate Obelisk’s two year anniversary in March, we have assembled the team to download about the journey from day one to year two, which began with a power outage! Now that the infamous back room is opened, our little event seems suddenly to have sprung from a makeshift bar party to an actual club night, dancing on its own two fishnetted legs. We express some sappy gratitude toward each ot...

We are joined by the enthusiastic, self-described late-blooming goth Arkonn, who is totally not going through a midlife crisis. We learn about his not-goth partner of 21 years (100 years in gay time), the dichotomy of his sensible daywalking life, complex family dynamics and trauma, and how growing up Catholic and gay is essentially a recipe for goth. Find out how he rediscovered his long lost got...

In the early weeks after the election and Halloween, Heather and Vesta try to process these two disparate events. On brand as ever, we open with the darkness of the dystopia in the first half, and then claw toward recovery by downloading about Halloween in the second. How does the political climate affect an often escapist subculture? How does 2024 feel different from 2016? Do you put a political...

Welcome to Open Graves After Midnight, in which we are still in Rocky’s house getting into the cliffhangers from part one (and some whiskey and wine). This includes a graphic encounter with Rozz Williams, empathy as a sleeper cell word, and The Other Gargoyle, aka the fraught origin of Rocky and Vesta’s now-cherished friendship. We also get further into Rocky’s meticulous passion as a DJ, his orig...

Welcome to Open Graves After Dark with Rocky Slaughter, an alleged recovering goth who keeps getting pulled back in. We jump right into the darkness with discussion of growing up a feral latchkey child and loving it, family tragedy turning metalhead anger into goth depression, and a deep desire to be different from a young age, but once finding community, no longer feeling the need to perform this...

We apologize for literally talking about the weather, but we are on the porch talking #summergoth and what this time of year means for us. Between kayaking, beach and lake bathing, and all of the goth pool parties, this time of year brings some behaviors that might seem incongruous with our usual identities. We talk about how we adapt (and don’t), how we are really not that different even though i...

In our most literal Open Graves yet, we are recording a mini-sode in the cemetery. Heather and Vesta catch up after what we will politely call a hiatus, due to chaotic personal lives. Chill with us until we get kicked out of the cemetery. Please bear with some wind interference sounds around 8mins. As Heather cannot stop saying, smoke ‘em if you got ‘em. Smoke ‘em if you goth ‘em?

After a brief recap of Obelisk’s one year anniversary party, we are joined by fellow valley-goth DJ, Randy LeoDragon. He discusses wrangling goths for the film industry through the Bat Pack and being an ethical goth consultant to oblivious casting directors, he shares what songs he won’t play, and some basic human condition questions (like how do you load a TP roll?). You can find Randy DJing Stud...

We are back to talk about the neurodivergence of it all: the prevalence of ADHD, Autism Spectrum, synesthesia, and “hautism” in the goth community. People who are drawn to subculture seem to be having the human experience a little differently, but what exactly is that difference? We talk about the relationship of CPTSD to neurodivergence, the difference between capital T and lowercase t T/trauma,...

Depression gets all the stereotyped attention when it comes to diagnosing the goth community, but it is not news that we have higher than average proportion of neuro-spicy members, specifically Autism Spectrum and ADHD (your hosts have a bit of both!) We discuss why people whose brains experience the world differently are drawn to subculture, and more specifically to this one. This can be a desire...

As we get deeper into the hospitality rider’s worth of wine, Matthew Setzer tells us more about getting into flesh hook suspension, playing a Skinny Puppy show right after getting his vasectomy, balls in general, and not over-identifying with the label of goth. We also discuss making music with biofeedback, creative frailty, a love of being on the road, productive hyperactivity vs. dissociative hy...

We are honored to be joined by Matthew Setzer, who you may recognize from such projects as Skinny Puppy, London After Midnight, and most recently Front Line Assembly, but also from around LA nightlife. He talks with us about growing up a small-town outcast, finding goth and industrial music through the guidance of his older brother, joining a band that they both loved since their youth, becoming a...

After a holiday hiatus, we’re back in the graves! This topic comes up in some capacity in almost every episode, so we decided to focus on it intentionally: mental health in the goth community. Depression, anxiety, substance use - our community is full of these, but are they actually more prevalent in our subculture or just more visible? The sad girls talk interventions, therapy, crying in public,...

Trauma takes a front seat in part two of our conversation with Bob Gardner, and from there it’s a whole journey (content warning: the darkness circles back at 1:01:40 - 1:03:20 with discussion of childhood sexual abuse). Darkness as our copilot, we also hear empowering stories about the 7 hour train ride to Slimelight in London which he then wouldn’t leave until 7am, sex and drugs and bodily funct...

Deep into the so-called spooky season, Heather and Vesta have a one-on-one that takes turns all over, from our Obelisk Halloween party (Night of the Mamushka!) to goth music being vetoed by a hipper than thou afterhours bartender, to a stalker coming out of the woodwork. We also discuss the dilemma of explaining goth to inquiring minds who don’t even know who David Bowie is, more notes on the ways...

New to Los Angeles but not at all new to goth, Bob Gardner joins us to talk about being adopted into our community and all of the strange detours that led him here. As you may be able to tell, Bob is from northeastern England, has a gregarious ADHD charm, and a lot to say. We talk gothcest, transhumanism and quantum voodoo bullshit, varying degrees of Otherness, and hot takes on neurodivergence an...

From tarot reading, to a 16 year career in dance, L Faunt is a wildly multifaceted goth, queer, Jew-witch comedian, and today they share their insights with us. They discuss being raised in a Romanian interfaith household and rejecting both religions in favor of “skeptical agnostic jewish inspired mysticism,” struggling with cultural appropriation, and the goth renaissance that is taking place in...

It starts with a chat about a goth pool party and ocean report, but ends with a full therapy session and a cliffhanger. This is a followup to our two-part recording with Marc Heuck, because he gave us a lot to dwell on. As goths, what is the consensus about the intersection between horror, sci-fi, and our music-based subculture? We agree that horror was once a very sexist genre, but how is that ch...

Having left off with Night of the Living Dead becoming public domain, we continue our discussion with Marc about how mainstream media set the stage for goth. We also question how the influence of worldwide collective trauma set us up to embrace feelings of otherness, how monster narratives provide solace, and debate the difference between pop culture and subculture. From Harold of Harold and Maude...