Santa Hates You is a German based band formed in autumn 2007.
Members and founders of the band are the musical icon Peter “PS” Spilles and the enigmatic italian vocalist Jinxy. Legend has it that they first met at the Ohlsdorfer Cemetery in Hamburg, where it is said that they accidentally ‘scared the hell out of each other’. Apparently it was then that PS noticed Jinxy’s unusual voice, and, well, it seems safe to say that he was quite intrigued by what he heard. After discovering their common passion for dark music, macabre arts and rebellious humor, the two became friends and soon decided to start a band together. Spilles remembers: “It was a cold night and all we had was red wine and an insubordinate attitude. That’s basically how Santa Hates You was born. After that, everything went pretty fast. It was like we were inebriated, almost in trance. Working night by night, we soon had enough tracks for our first album. And the rest is history.” Working by night remained one of the band’s peculiar idiosyncrasies and soon became a strictly observed tradition.
Santa Hates You’s music is straight forward dark-electro, with industrial traits and extremely danceable beats on one side, and catchy sequences as well as gothic and electro-punk elements on the other. While the band describes their sound as “juicy electronic-gothic-industrial”, many others have tried, in the course of the last years, to characterize the Santa Hates You – style. ‘A musical maelstrom’; ‘The perfect soundtrack to the Mad Hatter’s tea party’; ‘Bizarre and grotesque like some kind of sexy freak show’;’Always hard hitting but infectious as hell’;’Distasteful, wayward, mischievous, depraved, and dangerous for our youth’ are only some of the most colorful labeling attempts out there.
Santa Hates You’s powerful vocals are another unmistakable trait of the duo. PS’s striking voice finds a worthy ally in Jinxy’s equally distinctive sultry-to-snarled vocal presence.
Santa Hates You is a subversive musical project, and this is reflected in the lyrics and in the image of the band. They are famous for their ‘trademark blend of dark, at times rather caustic humor’ merged with a considerable portion of anticonformism, rebellion and shrewdness.
The band has often expressed their love for the european literature and art of the late 19th and early 20th century, and openly recognizes artistic movements such as Symbolism, Surrealism and the Decadent Movement as a source of stylistic inspiration. The knowledge and passion for different psychological perspectives and approaches should also be mentioned as an unmissable inspirational element in the band’s creative process.
