If it was possible to weigh the amount of emails that flood our inbox, you would be safe in assuming we get a ton of requests from artists and their agents – established acts and new ones; on genre and off genre; good and trying. And we make every effort to look at them all. That’s how I came across this duo called Charming Disaster, who come from Brooklyn and term themselves as goth folk. I listened to their music, saw a picture of Ellia Bisker and Jeff Morris and immediately thought these two are the offspring of Dresden Dolls, who were mainly active in the aughts and called their music punk cabaret because Amanda Palmer was terrified critics would characterize them as goth. But upon further listening, the differences became apparent.
Charming Disaster was formed by Bisker and Morris in 2012, inspired by the gothic humor of Edward Gorey and Tim Burton, the murder ballads of the American folk tradition, and the dramatic flair of the cabaret. Together the duo writes songs that tell stories about myth, magic, and mortality, using two voices to explore dark narratives and characters with a playfully macabre sensibility. Cue the witches’ brew-themed ‘Vitriol’ and the positively petrifying, Carnival of Souls-ish waltz ‘Haunted Lighthouse’ from their seventh album “The Double.” (It is a single album, however.)
They are both originally from Westchester, in the NYC suburbs, growing up in neighboring towns. “We didn’t know each other then, but we share some emotionally significant geography/landmarks,” Bisker said. Morris has been playing music in bands since the 1990s, the last being Kotorinio. Bisker’s first band Sweet Soubrette started (and ended) in 2004. Charming Disaster eclipsed those projects, but they still like to pull their former bandmates into the recording studio when they can. “Becoming professional musicians has been more of a slow fade than a bright line distinction, but we’ve gotten more serious about our music careers over the last 10 years (and less serious about our non-music careers).”
Before meeting Morris, Bisker was working full time in the legal department of a hedge fund while recording music, largely singing accompanied by the ukulele, on weekends. She saved up enough money to leave the hedge fund and self-release seven albums. “No label, nobody in charge of us but ourselves,” she stated.
Ellia plays the ukulele in this mini-gig. It is a custom build by Peter Hurney of Pohaku Ukuleles, a hybrid model with a soprano neck and a concert body (one size up) with a curved back. The instrument was made from flame maple with Ellia’s portrait on the fretboard in inlay, based on a concert poster by artist Carolyn Raship. It has a Mi-Si pickup (Ellia is sponsored by Mi-Si). Brooklyn Lutherie has done some repair work on it as well.
As for Jeff, his guitar is a 1949 Gibson ES-150. The ES stands for “Electric Spanish” and “150” indicates the original suggested retail price. “Jeff has had it since 2013 and it clearly had a rich life before then,” Ellia said. “He recently had it re-fretted and a new humbucker pickup installed at Brooklyn Lutherie.”
Charming Disaster recorded this mini-gig in their “tiny” rehearsal studio/office in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Why were these three songs chosen? In conjunction with “The Double,” they released the second edition of their “oracle deck” (similar to a Tarot deck). This contains 72 cards (including 12 new cards for the second edition), each representing one of the songs from Charming Disaster’s discography. The cards feature illustrations commissioned from more than thirty different artists. The deck can be used as a divination tool, or as a visual accompaniment to their music. The duo themselves uses these cards in their live performances to determine the set through the element of chance.
- Wrong Way Home – We tour a lot, and every few years we seem to write a song about what it’s like being on the road. This one was released on our 2023 album “Super Natural History.” The “lightning stone” mentioned in the lyrics is a kind of rock that forms when lightning strikes the desert sand and fuses it into long hollow tubes. The guy who sold us a piece of it at a roadside attraction on the Nevada/California border claimed it protects travelers, since “lightning never strikes twice in the same place.”
- Murderer – We wrote this one back in 2012, not long after we met. Just a couple of kids, on the run from a crime scene! We recorded it with Jeff’s other band at the time, Kotorino, but it was always really a Charming Disaster tune. Inspirations include the reggae classic ‘Murderer’ by Barrington Levy.
- Gang of Two – We just released this song on our latest album, “The Double.” Is this one also about what it’s like being on the road? The time signature changes make playing it a bit like running a race that is sometimes suddenly a three-legged race. The balloon solo does not appear on the studio recording.
Now, that’s a shame about the balloon solo not being on the record, but it should not stop you from checking out Charming Disaster’s music here and streaming everywhere. Find out if they are coming to a venue near you here. They have a lot of fall tour dates to be announced soon, which may include some shows in the UK. Stay tuned!
