(Interview by Seba Dolimont) Stéphane Froidcoeur aka Stef Coldheart has been active on the dark music scene for over 35 years. We often describe him as a walking sonic encyclopedia and he wrote countless music reviews and conducted interviews with hundreds of artists, scouting new talents and talking with more renowned artists, mostly publishing  for the unavoidable Side-Line magazine and his own Inferno Sound Diaries.

He was also singer in dark electronic bands Nebula-H, FuzeBoxMachine and Toxic Shock Syndrome… Just like for many other compilation projects that I lead, Stef gave me tips and made me discover so many great new uprising bands, a bunch of them being featured on our new “Resurgence” compilation box, out now via Spleen+/Alfa Matrix. I talked with him about the good old days… 

S+. Tell us more about your current music-related priorities in 2025?

S. My main and almost only activity is Side-Line.com and my own Facebook page (Inferno Sound Diaries). I have been writing reviews and making interviews for Side-Line since 1991! Time flies. 

S+. What do terms like “post punk”, “cold wave”, “new wave”… mean for you in your own musical career? 

S. As a teenager growing up in the 80s I soon came in touch with New-Wave. It was a whole new, refreshing yet dark form of music. The music completely fit into the 80s spirit of the cold war, political instability, unemployment, etc. It was only during the 90s that everything started to be subdivided and that new sub-genres emerged. Suddenly there was Gothic, people started to make more of a distinction between Cold-Wave, Dark-Wave, Wave-Pop etc etc. The 80s spirit was gone, and many knock-offs of the well-known groups emerged.

S+. According to you, which elements made these good old days so special?

S. Like I said, there was that typical spirit of the times; the 80s were really dark, uncertain years. There is also a lot of uncertainty now, but back then you really felt a kind of nastiness that was only reinforced by the unstable political climate, the threat of the Cold War. In Belgium there were also many terrorist attacks from both the extreme right and the extreme left. These were years of terror and that was perfectly transposed into the music that was released at that time.

S+. And what are for you the main similarities and differences between today’s alternative music scene anno 2025 and what it used to be back then in the late 70’s/early 80’s?

S. There is no innovation anymore; all groups sound pretty much the same and remain inspired by the legendary 80s bands. The common element remains the dark music, but the big difference is that there is no innovation. No group can blow me away like they did in the 80s. Although I must add that the groups from back then that are still active now no longer really manage to make great things neither. Their best songs and albums date from the 80s…

S+. If you could describe this musical movement with only a few words only, what would you say?

S. I spontaneously think of innovative music, dark mind and black colour, driven by the spirit of the times, committed, controversial… and 40 years later we can also say ‘timeless’!

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil.

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