Jamie Bower has told us about the playlist of songs he has been using to get into character for the fifth and final season of Netflix’s ‘Stranger Things’.
Bower is on the cover of the latest issue of Rock Sound celebrating the Stars Of 2025 as he delves into his songwriting journey across both his solo project and his band, BloodMagic.
Previously, Jamie had spoken with us about how he used black metal artists to help inspire his portrayal of the villainous Vecna. Now, as he completes filming on Season 5, he revealed the names of some more bands that he has added to his on-set playlist.
“Knocked Loose’s ‘You Won’t Go Before You’re Supposed To’ is all over it”, he said. “The Counterparts record in recent weeks and recent months. I’ve gone back to Architects again. A lot of Better Lovers. I love all the bands that they were in beforehand and love this new project. There’s a bit of Many Eyes within there as well. I went back to Sun-O. I’ve gone back to Norma Jean, just because I can put it on and I can really feel it. Then venturing into Chelsea Wolfe and that more folk and black metal stuff that reminds me of the space in which I can be in and the spirituality of it.”
On Knocked Loose in particular, he continued “It’s funny because I missed out on the Knocked Loose two-track EP that they had done before the album. I discovered that last summer whilst I was riding my motorcycle. ‘Laugh Tracks’ was one of the albums that I had on the first time I did Vecna. Then I fell into other spaces within that sort of sonic landscape. But I’d missed out on that EP and I remember finding that, listening to it on my motorcycle and getting fucking pulled over for a ticket. Not only am I putting in my personal best on a running machine, I’m also fucking putting in my personal best in terms of a speeding ticket as well. So when the album came out, I was super fucking stoked for it. We had some amazing PAs this year on the show and I would have Knocked Loose playing on my headphones, because the thing is with Vecna and the costume and make up, I can’t put earbuds in. The only thing that will work is my ginormous over-ear headphones. So I will walk onto the set wearing headphones, listening to this music, and I will hand over my headphones, obviously, because I can’t have them in the shot. So I’ll hand them over, but I don’t pause the music because my fucking fingers are fucked and I’ve got all this fucking makeup on. But I remember one of the PAs looking at my fucking headphones and being like ‘I couldn’t stop the music. It was so fucking loud, I had to walk off set’. But yeah, Knocked Loose I think, particularly this year for me, was something that we ventured into quite heavily.”
