The Dark Clan invades Club Anything

Dan Clark, the driving force behind and founder of the 4-piece Milwaukee band The Dark Clan (known for their variety of musical genres including goth, rock, metal, electronic and dance), wants it known that he doesn’t take life too seriously.

“I love humor in music!  I’ve always admired guys like Frank Zappa, who are these unbelievable musicians, just top-notch, but also have this goofy sense of humor that they can infuse into their songs,” says Clark.

Inspiration for songs seems to come from everywhere.  “I’m a really prolific songwriter and as such, the strangest, smallest thing will spark the idea for a song,” says Clark.  “I tend to be driven by specific events that happen to people I know or by other peoples’ art, because those are things I find easy to relate to and put in song form,” he continues.  There’s Goths on a Boat, a song with (accurate) details about a special gothic cruise provided by All Genre Travel.  The heavily electronic Real Vampires Don’t Sparkle pokes fun at Stephanie Meyers’ Twilight series.

Live, The Dark Clan includes three core members (Dan, Lane Ellen and Mercy Skye) and a rotation between two drummers (Nic Fugate and Blue Diamond).  Having performed with the likes of impressive industrial names such as Voltaire, I:Scintilla, Bella Morte and Cruciform Injection, the Dark Clan has certainly made a name for itself in certain circles.

The group started as a solo side project for Clark in 1998 and released its first album in 2004, Oh, But the Stars Still Shine… .  There have since been two additional full-length albums, along with three other releases.

Singer and guitarist Clark has quite an impressive list of bands with whom he has been and is involved with, including (until the summer of 2007) Null Device and (currently) Stromkern and Siv, all of which he plays or played guitar for. He’s also produced a few recordings with the Gothsicles.

This will be The Dark Clan’s first show of 2010. They be playing with Washington D.C.’s Xuberx and local musician Bradley tonight at Club Anything, located at 807 South 5th St. Show starts at 9 p.m.