Douglas P.

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Douglas Pearce (born 27 April 1956), known professionally as Douglas P., is a British musician, best known for his neofolk project Death in June. He was born in Sheerwater in Woking, Surrey and lives in Australia, which has been his home since the mid-1990s.

Pearce was born on 27 April 1956 and grew up in Sheerwater, a suburb of Woking in Surrey which he said was a "white, working-class ghetto"; his father worked as a courier for the military and had served in World War II. Both of his parents were English, though his mother claimed Scots-Irish ancestry. His father died of a heart attack at age 56, when Pearce was 14. He grew up in what he describes as "a very militaristic environment, surrounded by war"; he says that he "had a natural attraction to war". At the age of 18 Pearce left home, went hitchhiking around Europe and "came home a changed man".^[1]

As a child, Pearce was exorcised by his parents for alleged demonic possession, and after his father died, his mother and he would "muck around with a Ouija board". Pearce believes in the paranormal and occult, and claims to have had contact with various entities saying "I believe in gods, demons, angels whether they're from the inner psyche, another dimension or whatever. I've heard them and I've seen them. I've even felt them touch me".^[2] For a while, he was involved with the International Marxist Group.^[3]

In 1977 Pearce began his musical career in a British punk band called Crisis.^[4] After Crisis disbanded in 1980, Pearce formed Death in June with Crisis bandmate Tony Wakeford (currently of the English folk noir band, Sol Invictus) and Patrick O'Kill né Leagas (now a member of the English band Mother Destruction).

In 1985 Douglas P. became the sole constant member of Death in June, with rotating guest musicians serving as collaborators and live band members. Pearce continues to work under the Death in June moniker.

Pearce has released numerous recordings of musical work of his own and others under his New European Recordings label since 1981.

Pearce was highly influential in the creation of a musical movement often referred to as neofolk, often collaborating and playing live with various artists within the genre. He was a guitarist, drummer and occasional vocalist for experimental music group Current 93.^[5]

Douglas P. is openly gay,^[6] and says that "being gay is fundamental to Death in June"; he expresses discontent with that side of Death in June not being explored in interviews. His literary influences include Yukio Mishima and Jean Genet, whom he admires "not only because their work was brilliant but that they were also homosexual".^[7]