Posted in Whathaveyou on January 10th, 2024 by JJ Koczan
This was a pretty special run for Mos Generator, from when they signed to Listenable Records after coming back in 2012 with Nomads (review here) on Ripple Music through when they issued Shadowlands (review here) in 2018. Led as ever by founding guitarist, vocalist, sometimes-keyboardist, producer, etc. Tony Reed (also Big Scenic Nowhere and a veritable slew of others), the band had revamped its lineup and those were years of heavy touring and momentum on their side from one to the next, through 2014’s Electric Mountain Majesty(review here) and 2016’s Abyssinia (review here), the latter of which introduced bassist Sean Booth and drummer Jono Garrett.
But Mos Generator, and by extension Reed (and actually I think it’s the other way around), are always busy. In 2022, they released Time//Wounds (review here) and quickly set about tweaking its mix and master, the darker and more progressive feel providing ample sandbox space for it, and if you don’t follow their Bandcamp or socials or however it is you follow, it’s worth doing so for the off-album tracks, live releases, demos and other odds and ends that always show up in Reed‘s ongoing prolific mania. If you’d keep up with that, you’ll find three embeds below from their site. I’m not sure if the new Listenable pressings are of the 2022 remasters from the band’s Bandcamp or what, but chances are you’re reading this on a phone, so I don’t think we’re exactly splitting hairs on audio intricacies sitting in the exact mathematically calculated space between two giant studio monitor speakers either. Enjoy some songs.
Alright, I’m falling asleep as I type (it’s early), so it must be time for the PR wire:
Hello and Happy New Year. This year starts out with an exciting announcement.
Our studio albums recorded for Listenable Records (France) between 2014 and 2018 are now back in print. All three have been newly remastered and sound stellar. Along with the new masters, there have been minor changes to the artwork and original audio. We are so stoked that these are available again. They are some of the most important albums in our evolution. We hope you enjoy them as well. They are all available on vinyl in the corresponding digital link here on bandcamp.
1. Electric Mountain Majesty (2014) – Transparent yellow vinyl – Remastered by Reed 2023. The audio on this is vastly improved by the new remaster.
2. Abyssinia (2016) – Milky clear vinyl – Remastered by Reed 2023 – Updated artwork with lyric insert (the original pressing had no lyric sheet) – Original intro to ‘Red Canyons’ restored on this master
3. Shadowlands (2018) – Transparent purple vinyl – Remastered by Reed 2023 – 2020 mix of ‘Drowning in Your Loving Cup’ included on this master
Posted in Whathaveyou on December 11th, 2023 by JJ Koczan
I didn’t have to get any further than ‘recorded when they did Enveletration‘ to know I was on board for the new Sandrider single, and if you want the actual truth, I wasn’t much past seeing the band’s name in the subject of the email and the word ‘new’ before I understood I’d be spending a few bucks.
Sandrider released a top-tenner for me earlier this year in the aforementioned Enveletration (review here), and actually, if you’re up for something a little more extreme, Sandrider guitarist/vocalist Jon Weisnewski‘s counterintuitively-named-and-that’s-the-point solo unit Nuclear Dudes released a leaves-marks burner called Boss Blades (review here) that sounds half like the panicked side of my brain when I have to be around humans and half like it was just taking a break from scraping the highway to doom itself into your cortex.
Wrapping 2023 with two more Sandrider tracks suits me just fine. You might recognize parts of “Aviary” from songs that did make it to the record, and that’s kind of fun, and the drums in the middle just rule. “Baleen” is the more intense of the two and like a lot of Weisnewski‘s stuff this year I find it deeply relatable. Whales are fucking weird. And baleen, if you’ve ever seen the stuff, is creepy. I end up reading a lot of fact books about sea creatures these days. It’s a blue whale’s planet. We’re just fucking it up for them.
Anyway, the corresponding subject matter makes me wonder how long he’s been a parent, though I don’t actually know if dude has kids or not. Would be weird if I did. But on Enveletration, I’m pretty sure “Alia” is a daughter ode and I don’t know that it is but I really want the line in LP-closer “Grouper” to be about restless, angry fathers staring at their phones. Relevant to my current fucking moment, I tell you.
So yeah, seeing as I woke up last night with the realization that the singular is shenanigans would be shenanigan, and here’s Sandrider with some prime free range shenanigans, I’m calling it fate. The vinyl is in January, on Alternative Tentacles, which the PR wire reminds was once upon a time Akimbo‘s label.
Info and audio from Bandcamp:
Just a handful of months after releasing their meteorically heavy LP Enveletration (Satanik Royalty Records), Seattle loud-rock trio SANDRIDER has teamed up with Alternative Tentacles to release a two-song 7” in January 2024. Engineered by Matt Bayles (SOUNDGARDEN, MASTODON, BOTCH) at Seattle’s Litho Studios during the Enveletration sessions, the two tracks “AVIARY” and “BALEEN” offer a concise snapshot of what Sandrider does best: pulling together lead-heavy riffs and cathartic wails into songs that are somehow fun and infectiously catchy while also being messy and relatable angry. Much like their Seattle grunge/punk-rock predecessors, their sound is paired seamlessly with modern hopelessness as much as it is crushing beers and reading Dune.
This cheeky duality of Sandrider is also captured perfectly in the subject matter of the EP’s two tracks: The explosive first track, “Aviary,” portrays the modern hellscape of social media as sinister, soulless mama bird, willfully vomiting disinformation into the eager mouths of enthusiastically consenting participants. “PLEASE MOTHER, FEED THEM YOUR BILE. DOUSE THE BABES WITH YOUR WHOLESOME RETCH,” vocalist/guitarist Jon Weisnewski wails over massive, frenetic riffs, rounded out by bassist Jesse Roberts’ warm low end and drummer Nat Damm’s ultra-hard, punch-like beats. The song concludes in a frenzy of danceable beats, with Weisnewski doing his best Painkiller-era Halford screams as he commands you to flood the whole damn thing – drown those who wish to destroy us. As pissed off as the song is, you’ll feel triumphant by the end anyway.
Side B’s “Baleen” on the other hand (while ironically the angrier-sounding song of the two), is about a lighter thought that keeps Weisnewski up at night: Do you ever think about how fucking weird whales are? They’re enormous floating creatures that can’t handle gravity, and they hang out in the deepest oceans. Yet they can’t breathe underwater, so they have to stay near the top and come up for air all the time. Seems inconvenient. And you’d think that the biggest mammal that ever lived would be a brutal carnivore, right? But no. They eat the tiniest creatures, through a bunch of hair in their mouths. What the fuck? Anyway, ponder on that while you bang your head along with Sandrider’s signature primal, hypnotizingly heavy riffs.
While the Aviary/Baleen 7” is Sandrider’s debut for Alternative Tentacles, Weisnewski and Damm have a long history with the label, having previously been signed to AT with their former band, AKIMBO. After forming Sandrider in 2007, the band released three full-length albums and a split with KINSKI via the now-defunct Seattle label Good To Die before signing to Satanik Royalty Records for the release of 2023’s Enveletration. The trio are thrilled that they get to release records with their local Seattle friends as well as the punk-rock legends in Alternative Tentacles.
Weisnewski comments: “I’m so excited to work with Alternative Tentacles again. I have so much appreciation for Jello and the label finding and investing in artists that continually push expectations. They’re often unsafe, in that they champion artists over mainstream commercial appeal, and at the same time that consistency has built a fucking amazing legacy. Sandrider is just so humbled and appreciative that they would extend the offer to us. We’re over the moon about it.”
AVIARY/BALEEN was recorded by Matt Bayles (Mastodon, ISIS, The Sword) at Studio Litho & ExEx Audio October 2021. Mixed by Matt Bayles at The Red Room March 2022. Additional recording by Jeff McNulty at The Kill Room November 2021. Mastered by Ed Brooks at Resonant Mastering April 2022. Paintings by Jesse Roberts. Layout by Nat Damm. Photos by Invisible Hour.
SANDRIDER: Nat Damm – drums Jesse Roberts – bass, vocals Jon Weisnewski – guitar, vocals
Posted in Whathaveyou on December 4th, 2023 by JJ Koczan
I don’t know about a ‘moment’ in heavy music, but it was certainly a moment in my life. It was Aug. 20, 2016, at the Saint Vitus Bar in Brooklyn and I planned it over the course of about two years. Heavy Temple and King Buffalo opened, which is funny now. Mars Red Sky headlined. They were over from France to play Psycho Las Vegas. Death Alley too. They’re not even a band anymore. Same goes for EYE, from Ohio, who progged out in the middle of the day in a contrast to Kings Destroy‘s confrontational riffing. Steve from KD got a couple trays of tacos. Funeral Horse weirded everyone out. Snail came east. It was one of the best times I’ve ever had at a show.
I’m coming up on 15 years of doing this site and was hoping to put together another show to celebrate. I won’t have that together in time, but at some point I’ll try to get something happening again, if only for fun. I’m not a promoter and I don’t like being on the hook to anyone for money — which a promoter inherently is — but there’s definitely something to be said for curating the experience you want to have. The Obelisk All-Dayer was a chance for me to do that, and having Snail there was ridiculously special for me. The last decade has seen a lot of pulling together of airy melody and weighted tone. Snail were there 14 years ago and about 16 years before that, too. They remain an undervalued band, but even 2021’s Fractal Altar (review here) was a thrill of lysergic energies and nasty-face riffs. They roll, and roll, and roll.
All of the above, I suppose, is my way of justifying or, more kindly, giving context to, posting the announcement that Snail are releasing their set from the Vitus Bar sometime in the coming months. I remember vividly headbanging during “Thou Art That.” Would love to have the chance to do so again some day. In the meantime, I’ll be glad to have the proof after the fact that the All-Dayer happened. More proof anyway than the posters I have leftover upstairs at home.
From the band on social media:
Been to Saint Vitus Bar lately?
Argonauta Records will release our first live album – Live at The Obelisk All-Dayer (Brooklyn NYC 8-20-2016)! The All-Dayer was a ‘moment’ in heavy music and we were honored to play. More details to come…
Snail is: Matt Lynch (Bass/Vocals) Marty Dodson (Drums) Mark Johnson (Lead Vocals/Guitar)
Posted in Bootleg Theater on November 24th, 2023 by JJ Koczan
As evidenced by the ‘review here’ parenthetical I’m about to put behind the album’s title, I did in fact review Kadabra‘s second album, Umbra (review here), which came out last month on Heavy Psych Sounds, and you know what? I stand by that review. Maybe I was feeling a little cheeky at the time, but if you’re going to do this thing — to hone a sound that’s sharp in its execution and clever in its turns, but carries both memorable melodicism and an overarching groove — this is the way to do it. “The Serpent,” the video for which premiered sometime in the past few weeks, brings this into clearest emphasis. Songwriting is first but the performances throughout are stellar, and in the Washington trio’s skillful hands, choruses gain persona and Umbra builds an atmosphere not only through the strut of instrumental opener “White Willows” or in the organ-laced midsection of the later “Mountain Tamer” or in acoustic finale “The Serpent II,” which reprises the central melody of “The Serpent” — that clip below — and gives the record a sense of completion beyond 2021’s Ultra (review here).
“I’m at the altar/Dagger in hand” is a key line in conveying the song’s ritual-sacrifice theme. Of course, the “serpent” itself — the image — is rooted in religious dogma and aligned with malevolence. The serpent is Satan. It creeps. It bites. It poisons. Etc. The snake that, by its very nature, betrays you. On the record, “The Serpent” arrives after the volleys of “High Priestess” and “Midnight Hour” have picked up and added to the momentum coming off “White Willows,” bringing the sense of threat that “The Serpent” makes plain lyrically and fostering a similarly rich blend of thickened, doomly tones, classic heavy rock manifest via organ, rampant melodic hooks and choice riffs. Kadabra — the three-piece of guitarist/vocalist Garrett Zanol, bassist Ian Nelson and drummer Chase Howard — established this in the first record as the core of their methodology and the backdrop against which their development as a group would take place. In short, Umbra is the manifestation of that growth, both in its air-tight A side — looking at you, “High Priestess” and in the movement through “The Devil” into the pre-closer pair of longer tracks “Battle of Avalon” (7:26) and “Mountain Tamer” (8:03).
Those two are an immersion unto themselves, and Kadabra deftly draw the listener there with “The Serpent” and “The Devil” beginning a shortest-to-longest procession that will continue until the acoustic redirect of “The Serpent II” rounds out, sort of booking an album that break down to more than just one side and the other. “Battle of Avalon” is full in its movement but has dreamier stretches in its second half atop the declarative toms of Howard and some militaristic snare soon to take hold. “Mountain Tamer” –presumably not named in honor of the Californian band but you never know — flows with an easy nod at its outset and gives an addled sway until a crescendo of layered melodic vocals on the line, “In your eyes…” and a wah-soaked solo provide the album’s peak stretch and a righteous if momentary jam as they bring it back around to that hook before the fadeout on the long-held organ note and residual rumble, some sparse aftermath noise setting up “The Serpent II” in its own place, a kind of perch, from which it looks down and folkishly recalls recent horrors.
As a matter of principle, I don’t know shit about shit. As a human being, I’m largely incapable of handling even the basic functions and interactions one needs to get through a day — yesterday I joked about getting “JOMO” tattooed across my next in olde English letters because that’s how committed to my own misery I apparently am. But I’ll tell you something else. This record has burrowed its way into my fucking head such that even after a month and a half I decided to write about Umbra again. Whatever one might think of its themes, this is one of 2023’s best heavy rock offerings. The songs are inarguable. I’m putting this year to tell you that if you haven’t heard it, you should, and to give a heads up for a third Kadabra record hopefully sometime in the next couple years, because if they take a step from here like they did from Ultra to Umbra, then everything they will have done leading to it will have been a show of potential not to be missed and instructive for bands in their wake. It ain’t a secret and it ain’t easy. Write songs.
Or, to put it another way: This is how you fucking do it.
Here’s a video from the internet. I hope you enjoy:
Kadabra, “The Serpent” official video
SAYS THE BAND: The song “The Serpent” details the internal battle of temptation the continually rears it’s head. “The Witch” refers to somewhat of a paralysis figure the constantly holds me back from progression. The Witch is described as being defeated by the serpent aka myself. – Garrett Zanol
Music Video produced by Mothpowder Light Show !!
KADABRA is: Garrett Zanol – Vocals/Guitar Ian Nelson – Bass Chase Howard – Drums
Posted in Whathaveyou on October 16th, 2023 by JJ Koczan
An all-dayer set for Saturday, Dec. 16, at El Corazon and Funhouse in Seattle, Washington, Rain City Doom Fest was announced late last week by the bands. There are eight of those, which is probably plenty, considering you’ve got Matt Pike bringing his Pike vs. the Automaton solo band through with direct support from Witch Ripper and Mos Generator. Un, Sorcia, Sun Crow, Grim Earth and Mother Root round out, and if you know all of those bands or you don’t — Sorcia in July put out a record called Lost Season (review here); Witch Ripper gleaned fervent hyperbole around their The Flight After the Fall (review here) this Spring; Sun Crow are working toward their next LP; the list goes on — but if I’ve earned any trust in the last 14 years, I hope maybe you’ll take my word for it when I say it’s a solid lineup between established and newer acts, and that I hope it continues to be a regular thing.
Because a homegrown heavy fest isn’t anything to sneeze at and it’s not easy to put together, learning many invariably crucial lessons the only way they can be learned: by doing the thing. I didn’t know it when I first posted the lineup, but Jessica Brasch of Sorcia books this one and it’s been going for three years. This is the first time it will be at two venues — I think — and it remains a killer bill.
Have at it:
El Corazon & The Funhouse present:
RAIN CITY DOOM FEST 2023
2 stages, 8 bands. Showcasing some of the heaviest music in the PNW and beyond.
Pike Vs The Automaton Witch Ripper Mos Generator Un Sorcia Sun Crow Grim Earth Mother Root
This album turns a decade old this Fall, but the truth is I’ve been wanting to revisit it for like two years, so whatever on album anniversaries. But Seattle heavy rockers Ancient Warlocks released their self-titled debut (review here) in Nov. 2013 — issuing first through Lay Bare Recordings and then in 2014 on STB Records, the latter of which made them labelmates to the likes of Spelljammer, Curse the Son, Druglord and Geezer, and Ancient Warlocks had some elements in common with those and others in the ouevre. Like Curse the Son, they had an obviously-sought fuzz delivering choice riffs. Like Geezer they had swing and jammy groove. Like Druglord they weren’t afraid of bring cast in their genre. But because they were young, they could be from Seattle and not have to play grunge, and Ancient Warlocks most represented a boom in Pacific Northwestern heavy rock that was taking place from about 2010-2014 — as much as it ever stopped — and brought a generational shift of bands picking up in the wake of acts like Red Fang or Earthless (not that the latter are PNW, just very influential), and they did it with style.
With the lineup of lead guitarist/vocalist Aaron Krause, guitarist Darren Chase, bassist Anthony “Oni” Timm and drummer Steve Jones, Ancient Warlocks had made their presence felt with their 2011 7″, Into the Night b/w Super Wizard (review here), which was pressed following their first demo in 2010, “Killer’s Moon.” They had a split with Mos Generator — as every up and coming heavy rock act from the state of Washington should at some point or other — and with their own Jones at the helm to engineer, mix and master at Big Sound in Seattle, they unfurled eight songs in a tight 33 minutes on their self-titled with no pretense, unforced good times, dynamic shifts in mood and approach, and fuzz. Oh, the fuzz.
It was a record you knew was going to be good going in that turned out, yes, to indeed be good. Ancient Warlocks weren’t a stylistic revelation, but they did manage to pull ideas from the bluesier end of the aesthetic spectrum and work that into some of the guitar and vocals, and “Lion Storm” swings with a looseness and underlying drive that reminds me now of North Carolina’s Caltrop. It was easy then to peg them as a straightforward band, and that’s what they were. Verses, choruses. Guitars, bass, drums, vocals. The latter, from Krause, were not entirely untreated, effects-wise, and on a song like the ultra-Queens of the Stone Age-circa-1998 “Sweet’s Too Slow,” that helps enhance some of the garage-y looseness that complements the fuzz established at the outset with “Into the Night” — that first single being placed to open side A while “Super Wizard” starts side B; “Killer’s Moon” resurfaces here as well, with its shuffling procession and thick boogie putting emphasis on live energy. As regards vocals, the thicker Fu Manchu-style riffing of “Cactus Wine” comes accompanied by a melody later that showed the potential for growth in arrangement and delivery, but Krause wasn’t coming out of the gate here trying to sound like James LaBrie, and it wouldn’t have worked if he was.
Being rockers suited Ancient Warlocks well. “Super Wizard” followed the drums into a rawer shove with a bit of feedback before the verse kicks in. At the end of side B, the finale “Sorcerer’s Magician” is the longest cut at 5:27, but “Super Wizard” is the shortest at 3:09 and it’s a burner, with rhythmic shove like Sasquatch, lyrics that know they’re dopey, and a casual feel to its sound overall, not looking to make trouble, but doing so, and with charm. The subsequent “White Dwarf” has an immediate push as well and brings that momentum to a riff structure that feels somehow like it’s working off Elder circa Dead Roots Stirring (remember, this was 2013), but does so without departing structurally from what Ancient Warlocks have been doing up to that point. It’s a stylistic niche that’s become something of a microgenre in the last few years. Proto-heavy prog? I don’t know.
As they make their way through, “Killer’s Moon” locks into the aforementioned boogie, and “Sorcerer’s Magician” ups the doom factor by announcing itself with a riff that’s slow-Slayer, but slower, before breaking to near-silence and putting the vocals over an open-spaced verse peppered with bluesy guitar licks, the use of silence and empty space calling back to ’90s Clutch, maybe, and that self-titled, but as with the rest of this self-titled, Ancient Warlocks made these parts and these themes their own, showed themselves to be a multifaceted band interested in growing, and laying out a range of contexts for their craft. That is, while consistent largely in tone and in possession of an abiding organic feel, Ancient Warlocks — the album — is not the work of a band doing the same thing over and over. They’re trying new ideas, laying out a swath of options for future exploration, establishing the ground that their next, oh, four or five records would no doubt continue to develop.
Sadly that turned out not to be the case, however. Ancient Warlocks released their second long-player, appropriately titled II (review here), in June 2016, and by that time, Krause and Timm were already out of the band despite appearing on the record. The band continued with Chris Mathews Jr. on vocals and lead guitar and Stu Laswell on bass. The Live LP followed quickly behind the sophomore album, and already in announcing the new lineup, Ancient Warlocks were talking about making a third studio offering. Didn’t happen. They seem last to have been doing shows in late 2017, which is how it goes sometimes, and Ancient Warlocks were a band whose potential never really got to see realization. They had two cool records, seemed like they were moving forward, then nothing. When you look out into the abyss of bands who did and could’ve written more cool riffs in their time and didn’t, does the abyss stare back?
Almost certainly. And Ancient Warlocks may a decade later be a footnote in that generational turnover moment in heavy rock, but that doesn’t diminish the quality of what they did here or on the second record, and like the best of heavy fried heavy (think of it like chicken fried chicken), the work holds up regardless of the passage of years. So yeah, the anniversary doesn’t matter after all.
As always, thank you for reading. I hope you enjoy.
—
‘Fun week’ is a week wherein there’s no camp and The Patient Mrs. and The Pecan and I do fun stuff and hang out before school starts and so on you get the idea. We went to the Natural History Museum. We went to see family in Connecticut. I bought Halloween jack-o-lantern Peeps. The fun never stops.
Having been in Portugal two or three weeks ago and experienced that, this week has been a bit of the opposite, and I find myself flailing for the balance between the two sides that commonly exists. Because The Obelisk gets the shaft, no doubt about it. What, I’m gonna give up time with my family that I’ll never get back to run a blog about music for no money and also that takes a whole lot of time? Of course not, but I do it.
We had a Dio dance party this week, though, and that was pretty rad. The house was lagging on Wednesday and it kind of picked up the room as The Last in Line is wont to do. Beyond that, we’ve been swimming at a pool at relatives’ house — my sister’s husband’s mother and father’s house; they made the mistake of an open invite — reading lots of books and trying to deal with nerves about starting kindergarten. Like she’s not going to go, immediately catch a cold, and have to stay home for three days.
Though I say that and I have to acknowledge that maybe there’s a bit of wishful thinking in there, and that along with the adjustments my wife is making to a new semester at a job she finds increasingly dissatisfying and demeaning, and that my kid is making to starting kindergarten and being out of the house more than she has in her life, I’ll be making an adjustment after five-plus years to being on my own for a longer portion of my day than I’m used to. Empty nester.
Next week, an Acid Magus premiere on Monday, an Aiwass premiere on Wednesday, a The Silver Linings premiere on Friday, and I have stuff I want to write about to fill those other open days. Might try to review Slomatics one day and Domkraft the other, which would be a fun pairing in my nerd brain for their new albums since the bands are coming off that split they did last year that was so wonderful. We’ll see if I get there.
I hope you have a great and safe weekend. Have fun, watch your head, get your back to school shopping done, shoe measuring and all that crap. The sun’s coming up so I’m calling it quits. My absolute best to you and yours.
Posted in Questionnaire on August 24th, 2023 by JJ Koczan
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: Joseph Schafer of Colony Drop
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How do you define what you do and how did you come to do it?
I don’t try to define what I do, personally.
As a kid, I wanted to be a “Writer” – whatever that means these days. I must thank my excellent High School teachers, Ms. Forte, Mr. Kinkaid and Mr. Broadway, for fostering that talent in me. I should also thank my writing professor in college, Diane Suess (Pulitzer Prize Winner), for training me.
I don’t think people need to be just “one thing” anymore. Idris Elba is an actor and a rapper, for example. Rhianna is a CEO of a clothing company as much as she is a pop star. Frances Ford Coppola probably makes more money as a wine mogul than as a film director. If all those folks can do many things, why not me, too? The only limitations are my willpower and my circumstances, though those are both significant limitations.
Besides writing, everything else that I now do began by accident. As an events promoter, I just wanted to put a half-decent show on and wound up running a small business. As a musician, I just wanted to yell in a room with my friends, and now I’m in a band, and in that band, I often manage our analytics and booking, so as a band member, my role is much larger than only “musician” and that’s true of every member of Colony Drop. Creativity and enterprise are simply about doing things.
Describe your first musical memory.
My earliest musical memory is being a five-year-old child and going with my parents to see Jurassic Park. I recall being strongly affected by John Williams’ theme in that film. Maybe that’s a bit basic. The first song I remember wanting to hear a second time was “Be Prepared” in the Lion King a year later. That soundtrack was the first cassette I begged my mother for. We wore it out. Pop music, rock music, and extreme metal all came later.
Describe your best musical memory to date.
It’s difficult to pick a ‘best,’ however, in 2005, I saw Nine Inch Nails play the Toledo Sports Arena on the With Teeth tour. That was my first genuinely massive show. I got into the mosh pit as a scrawny teen and was totally ripped away from my friends and thrown way far near the front of the crowd. I was totally alone and could not find them (no cell phones!). I recall I had a sunburn, so the bodies around me were kind of uncomfortable. I had no choice but to give myself up to the stimulation of the lights and sounds and Trent Reznor’s music. That was the first time I truly went into a transcendental or sublime surrender state while seeing live music. I still have a bootleg CD of that show – it was a great set. They played “Dead Souls”!
When was a time when a firmly held belief was tested?
When I was a kid, my parents went all out for Christmas. They were really into making Santa Claus real for me. Dad would get his boots muddy and track them through the house at 4 AM – the works. As a result, I believed in Santa for a while longer than my friends. When I confronted the fact that Santa wasn’t real, that led to an immediate test of my juvenile religious beliefs. Jesus and God went in the trash can probably minutes after that. My apostasy was fast and brutal. Black Sabbath came into my life soon thereafter!
Where do you feel artistic progression leads?
Bankruptcy. But if you’re doing it right, it also leads to community, friendship, and solidarity. Maybe even love – I met my wife through metal.
How do you define success?
Success is when something you’ve taken part in has a tangible effect on someone else’s life. Even if you only bring a spark to one person’s life, that justifies all the labor involved in creative expression. The only value in trying to do music, writing, or art on any kind of large scale is that it gives you the opportunity to have a tangible effect on people more often and more regularly – everything else is just a hoop to jump through.
What is something you have seen that you wish you hadn’t?
I spent too much time on the Something Awful forums in High School; let’s leave it at that. I’m thankful I never followed any of those random acquaintances to 4chan.
Describe something you haven’t created yet that you’d like to create.
I have an as-yet unproduced complete screenplay for a feature-length horror film, as well as a complete manuscript for an epic fantasy novel. I’d love to see those two pieces published.
What do you believe is the most essential function of art?
I subscribe to the theory of creative expression put forth by playwright Lajos Egri – I’m not sure if his theory has a formal name or school of thought, but his basic premise is that art exists to express a worldview and put it up for an audience’s evaluation.
So, for example, the worldview expressed by Metallica on Master of Puppets is “life cannot have value while you’re being controlled by an outside force.” Each song explores one outside force that sucks value out of your life: narcotic addiction, religion, wartime conflict, mental institutions, and so on. The album is such a success because it expresses that worldview so completely without talking down to the audience.
Egri argues for this theory in his excellent books On Dramatic Writing and On Creative Writing. They’re great resources even for songwriters, musicians, or painters. I can’t recommend them highly enough.
Something non-musical that you’re looking forward to?
I’m getting married next month. I’m looking forward to the wedding, but I’m also looking forward to the wedding being over so I can finally get some sleep. Haha!
