The Obelisk Questionnaire: Saint Omen
The Obelisk Questionnaire is a series of open questions intended to give the answerer an opportunity to explore these ideas and stories from their life as deeply as they choose. Answers can be short or long, and that reveals something in itself, but the most important factor is honesty.
Based on the Proust Questionnaire, the goal over time is to show a diverse range of perspectives as those who take part bring their own points of view to answering the same questions. To see all The Obelisk Questionnaire posts, click here.
Thank you for reading and thanks to all who participate.
The Obelisk Questionnaire: Saint Omen
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How do you define what you do and how did you come to do it?
Music was always there. Not loud. Just waiting. I started making it because it kept following me around, tugging at the edges of my mind until i paid attention. You don’t need money or fancy gear.
You just need a willingness to step into the dark and stay there.
Doom called from somewhere deep. I followed. Still haven’t found the exit.
Describe your first musical memory. It started with jazz. Soft, strange, coming through the house like it knew the way. Then the movies. Those late-night soundtracks that stay long after the screen goes black.
I found Back In Black by AC/DC and Permanent Vacation by Aerosmith at a church yard sale, buried under dust. I played them until they didn’t have anything left to give.
But the moment that stuck was seeing Soundgarden on TV when I should’ve been asleep. Something broke open. The guitar hasn’t left my hands since.
Describe your best musical memory to date.
Black Label Society, years ago. The chaos, the pit, father Zakk tearing open the sky like it was nothing. I still hear it sometimes.
And in high school, there was the Major Toms. A british-invasion cover band playing in Times Square of all places. Through them i ended up in the same rooms as Iggy Pop, Jerry Cantrell, Tom Morello, Wayne Kramer. Felt unreal. Like someone was nudging me forward, making sure i kept walking the right direction.
When was a time when a firmly held belief was tested?
There was a moment where i almost walked away. Maybe the world didn’t need another riff. Maybe i didn’t either.
But the music didn’t let go. It kept whispering at the door. I realized i wasn’t choosing any of this. The path had already chosen me. It still does.
Where do you feel artistic progression leads?
You move forward or you sink. There’s no middle ground.
I see too many people buried under the same recycled riffs, the same fake-occult poses, the same cheap playboy collages. Pentagrams with no blood behind them. Pretend danger. Pretend magic.
Mysteries Of Rebirth was my way out. It isn’t clean. It isn’t pretty. But it breathes. And sometimes it bites.
How do you define success?
It’s not fame. That old dream is dead and rotting. These days success is smaller. Quieter.
Labels circle like vultures, waiting to feed on work they never lifted a finger to build. I don’t measure anything by them.
Success is one stranger in a basement, alone with a cassette, letting the sermon take hold. If the sound reaches someone out there in the dark, that’s enough. That’s the whole thing.
What is something you have seen that you wish you hadn’t?
New York City shows you things too fast.
The city eats people.
I’ve watched friends disappear into cracks that don’t reopen.
Neon, poison, noise, rot. It’s all there if you look long enough.
Some things stay with you.
Some things follow you.
Describe something you haven’t created yet that you’d like to create.
I want horns in the sound one day.
Something strange and loose, like Miles Davis in his dangerous era, when the music felt like it was melting.
Film moves me more than anything. I want the music to hit like cinema: Vivid, off-balance, impossible to forget.
What do you believe is the most essential function of art?
Art should move you. If it doesn’t, it’s just decoration.
There’s too much hollow noise out there. Pop idols sold as deities. 90s giants turned into rich ghosts of themselves.
Rock isn’t dead. It’s buried. And when it climbs out, it’s going to take big bites out of everything on the surface.
Say something positive about yourself. The following is small but real.
The people who find the cult stay.
Their energy keeps the fire going.
I’m grateful for that.
Quietly.
Constantly.
Something non-musical that you’re looking forward to?
The end of the world.
Might help with the rent.
https://linktr.ee/saint_omen
https://saintomendoom.bandcamp.com
https://www.instagram.com/saintomencult
https://www.facebook.com/Saintomen/
https://www.youtube.com/@saintomenofficial
https://open.spotify.com/artist/5m0u2qA3ROBfQ0E4wHwdun
