Don’t Look Back – Marta Demmel of Bleeding Through


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Photo by Meg Loyal Photography

Bleeding Through announced over a year ago that the band would be coming to an end after a 15 year run, which they concluded things with a West Coast run of weekend dates with a semi-reunited Scars of Tomorrow and Winds of Plague. “Fuck yeah! We used to play with them when they were called Bleak December,” shared keyboardist Marta Demmel, about the old days.

The band publicly announced that they were ending Bleeding Through with a tour of the East Coast and the Midwest, including an appearance at the New England Hardcore and Metal Festival.

We started talking about it over a year ago. Maybe a year and a half ago?,” “I think it was a lot of circumstances but just not wanting to be part time. Just having Bleeding Through being full time and full on and not just fade into the sunset…end with a bang.”

 

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As for why the band would be ending, she explained what led to their decision. “I think there were some circumstances – slowing down in general as a band, pursuing other things in life, families, careers, etc. Brendan [Schieppati] wanted to be fully dedicated to his gym, as well as not doing Bleeding Through part time. I think he saw it as all or nothing.”

The decision to end the band temporarily did phase the various members of the band, but the reality did quickly dawn on them as to why their decision was the best solution.

I’m sure it has, but you still have to do what you want to do. You still have to take the path you want to take. There would be no Bleeding Through without Brendan or any of us, for the most part. We’re so much a family and a unit at this point there would be no moving on with someone else I think.”

 

Photo by Meg Loyal Photography

Photo by Meg Loyal Photography

Demmel spoke about what she is to since the announcement. “I’m a full time step mom. I bartend – it’s fun and I enjoy it. Life is pretty easy going. I hope to enjoy making music. I’m not exactly sure what. I haven’t been in a hurry to jump into something else. I really would like to continue to make music.”

As for the rest of the band, no set plans were announced, but one member has already got things rolling in a new band. “Ryan [Wombacher], our bass player, is now with The Devil You Know. I’m sure some other dudes with play with some other groups. I’m sure we will keep making music, but not sure what avenue yet.”

One of their final shows took place at the Glass House in Pomona, CA, a venue where Bleeding Through regularly played and once filmed their infamous The Show Must Go On DVD.

Demmel: “We’re standing in an alley that Bleeding Through took pictures like ten years ago I think, for Outburn Magazine. It was on the cover. It was cool. It’s kind of wild being back here again and playing the Glass House. There’s a lot of memories of this place. I didn’t start thinking back on these things until we slowed down. So for the last few years, I’ve cherished some of the places we’ve gone and some of the things we’ve done more than I did, maybe along the way. I’m very grateful and realize we’ve done a lot. We’ve done a lot of cool things.”

 

Photo by Meg Loyal Photography

Photo by Meg Loyal Photography

Coming out of Orange County, CA’s infamous scene with such bands as 18 Visions, Throwdown, and Adamantium, Bleeding Through made its mark within a scene that attracted fans of all sorts and were passionate about the music. Demmel joined in 2003, but understood what was happening when she joined.

I joined the band after it has been started [in 2003]. I moved down to Orange County. They already had an Orange County following, but the national following was starting to develop. I was just happy and stoked. I was a teenager and was just excited to play music. I couldn’t believe it.”

Another aspect of Bleeding Through’s history is adding the symphonic keyboard element to their aggressive metallic hardcore sound, more commonly heard in extreme European metal than in hardcore or punk rock. But Bleeding Through fused that element into Orange County hardcore and punk rock, and gradually found themselves creating a new sound that became influential within the metallic hardcore genre at the time.

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Photo by Meg Loyal Photography

 

 

As for being a forerunner in the genre, Demmel is proud of the band’s accomplishments. “I sure hope so. I hope that’s recognized. We always wanted to make the music we did and not compromise the sound we had, give our influences. If we influenced other people to take their own path, that’s awesome.”

She is also one of the few women who were part of that scene, which opened up doors for others to take part. “I didn’t think about that very much when I was younger. I think I was so in it. I was hindsight 20/20 kind of a thing where I didn’t realize…I was just in it. Moving forward you don’t look back. You just keep going. But now having had lots of time off and growing up a bit, I realize there really are, and now there’s more females coming along in the metal and hardcore scene. It’s nice to see. I obviously want anybody’s who’s talented to succeed, but I’m all the curious now sometimes when I hear about females in bands and what they’re doing and how they might be influencing people as well. It’s very exciting. I’m very proud to have been a female in this scene. I hope I represented females well, and I hope to continue to.”

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Photo by Meg Loyal Photography

In terms of their popularity, she clarified how Bleeding Through’s rise to fame was viewed and whether they ever viewed it as the band had blown up at any time.

I think even if people recognize you or things like that, I don’t think we thought of it as blowing up. It’s not like we received a huge paycheck. We still had to fight. We still had to work. You still had to scrape money together. I think even though it was really cool, it wasn’t like it came with a check. So we never lost sight of having to work, even if people knew who you are. It’s not a given.”

Demmel concluded the interview by summing up Bleeding Through’s career. “I think we’re grateful we got to do this as long as we did. I don’t think we expected this. I know the dudes that started this didn’t expect this to go this long.”

They started this as a side project and just wanted to play for fun. So we feel very lucky or blessed…however you want to put it. We got to do this as long as we did and we acquired so many fans and friends along the way. It’s really cool. We went through a lot individually and as a band. We’re really happy that we’re getting to play these last shows with some friends, who we’ve known for a long time, and we get to do things our way.”

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Photo by Meg Loyal Photography

 

Bleeding Through on Facebook

WORDS: REI NISHIMOTO

CONCERT PHOTOS: MEG LOYAL PHOTOGRAPHY

 

 


The Cat Came Back – The Return of J Mann in Mushroomhead


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Longtime Mushroomhead fans were excited about the news of original co-vocalist Jason “J-Mann” Popson’s return into the band. Popson departed from the band in 2004 during the XIII record.

Drummer Steve “Skinny” Felton talked about Popson’s return to Mushroomhead.

Here’s the thing with J Mann. He left ten years ago. We did two albums without him. He left for almost a decade. That entire time he was gone, it wasn’t like we were enemies. Just because he wasn’t around didn’t mean we weren’t talking. He and I had done one of the side projects together, which was released by Megaforce called Scelestus. It was Tommy Church, J Mann and myself.”

Outside of this band, Felton and Popson have collaborated in other side projects over the years, regardless of musical direction. Felton spoke about one of their other forthcoming side projects they had been working on.


“We’re going to put it out in the fall – it’s called 10,000 Cadillacs – it’s a hip-hop project, or R & B almost. It’s myself, J Mann, and Mike Mahoney out of Cleveland. He goes by Jus Mike and he’s a rapper out of Cleveland. Then we incorporated Dr. F and Tommy Church on that album as well.”

I have to drop the name…We have Sid [Wilson] from Slipknot scratching. We have Krayzie Bone and Bizzy Bone of Bone Thugs ‘n’ Harmony and Mawk from (hed) pe playing bass. We’ve got a lot of guests on that thing.”

The timing for Popson’s return to Mushroomhead and the side projects seeing the light of day aligned perfectly. His involvement may not have been intentional, but it found its way back into Mushroomhead in an odd way.

 

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I was working on that project with J Mann and at the same time Megaforce said they wanted to extend the contract and do a new Mushroomhead record. So J was coming over to do some new mixes of 10,000 Cadilacs and was asking how the new Mushroomhead was coming along. Next thing, it’s six hours later and he’s on three songs. So it wasn’t ‘hey let’s get back together and make the record of our lifetime.’ He had been doing the old school shows and the Christmas shows. We’re pretty much family and friends, and we stayed together throughout the ten years. Just like I said, just because he wasn’t around doesn’t mean we weren’t speaking. We were tight. We went through a lot together. It wrote itself. It’s like riding a bike. It felt like the first album all over again.”

 

 

Mushroomhead on Facebook

 

REI NISHIMOTO


Labels Are For Cans – Brandon Butler and Marc Okubo from Veil of Maya


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I just saw Ice T get off his bus, and that was awesome! I hope we hang out and we get to. He’s on our label too!,” said guitarist Marc Okubo, sharing an interesting moment on the Rockstar Energy Drink Mayhem Festival this past summer his band Veil of Maya experienced.

They spent much of this past summer on this festival tour, playing on the Sumerian Records side stage, in front of rabid fans eager to hear new bands.

 

But it didn’t take much prepping for them to getting acclimated towards this tour.

We just got done doing a festival two weeks ago in Canada. That got us prepared for what was happening now. I could say everything went perfectly,” said Okubo.

Fans who are familiar with them know about their eclectic sound fusing progressive metal with technical riffing and creating their own unique sound. They helped shape a new sound dubbed ‘djent’, but they don’t let that limit their creativity.

Whatever they want to label it is fine. The reason we were part of it is because as soon as we got known for being on Sumerian, we tried to find other bands we found to be interesting and give them the same spotlight we got. We tried to help out our friends we met along the way. The fact that everyone is doing so good is awesome. We’re stoked all of our friends got to be here with us and do stuff like this,” Okubo said.

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There is much talk about the band name and its meaning behind it. Taken from the Hindu illusion, Maya, the meaning behind it still holds much meaning to the band.

When we go into the real meaning of the name, it’s always as strong as it always has. It’s an undeniable fact of life, but we all have to do it. It always worked. People’s judgment on how we got the name is what’s confusing,” said Okubo.

Veil of Maya is signed to Sumerian Records, and have released four full length recordings through the label. Being one of the original bands signed to the label, they have grown with them plus also seen how much the label has changed since the early days.

It’s been a pleasure watching them grow into what they are now. I’m definitely proud of all of that. They started from ground zero,” said Okubo.

We would stay at their house for weeks recording at their house, way back in the day. To see how much it has grown, I’m happy to be a part of it. I’m really happy for them,” said vocalist Brandon Butler.

Back then, what we were doing back then was obscure and not very popular, but it did create a movement in music. I’m so happy to be part of it,” added Okubo.

Nobody was interested in Born of Osiris or us. They came in and took it to a new level,” concluded Butler.

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As for their forthcoming record, Veil of Maya had been working on it and was reportedly finishing up their yet to be named fifth full length release. So what is the status?

We’re still working on it but it will be coming out this year. I would say it’s about 90% done. We will be completely done after this tour is over. We were recording with Diego [Farias] from Volumes, and he had to mix and master Chelsea Grin’s album [Ashes To Ashes] and his own band’s album [No Sleep]. We were thrown in at the end of that. There just wasn’t enough time for us to get everything the way it should be done. We want to put out something we would be proud of. We wanted to take time and put it out later. We apologize to our fans for waiting for new material. We’re just as frustrated as everyone else,” said Okubo.

He also gave a sneak peak into the forthcoming release.

It still sounds like us, but it’s a little more digestable to people who haven’t heard of us. I don’t think we will lose our main core fans because I don’t think we have changed. We’ve just grown to stand out.”

 

Veil of Maya on Facebook

REI NISHIMOTO


Writing With New Eyes- Levi Benton of Miss May I


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Ohio metalcore stalwarts Miss May I spent this past summer on the Rockstar Mayhem Tour, and vocalist Levi Benton shared his thoughts on completing Day One at Devore, CA’s San Manuel Amphitheatre.

 

Day one was awesome! We had the prep day yesterday, which was very helpful. We made it on stage. We played all of our songs. The crowd was great. Now we’re winding down doing our press. I’m gonna get some food soon. Overall day was great.”

 

Playing on the Rockstar Mayhem Fest placed Miss May I in front of a varied crowd largely made up of fans of harder and heavier styles of metal. Benton said this was the most metal crowd the band has played in front of.

 

In America, yeah. I really think so which is really cool for us. We’ve done the outdoor festival thing but it’s a lot different to do the outdoor festival thing with this kind of lineup. It’s really exciting and a lot fewer bands so you have a lot more of the crowd funneled in to watch you when you play. [It is] really high exposure for you. The set went over better than we could ever expect today. [It] makes me excited to do this again tomorrow.”

 

During the signing we saw a lot of mix in our fanbase. We really enjoy this tour already. It’s day one and we’re pumped about the rest of it. Beating under the sun or not, it will be a great time.”

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They got used to being the heavier band on most bills they previously played on. But having the tables turned became a bit of a challenge they were up for. Regardless, Benton was excited to play for new people who previously had not experienced Miss May I.

 

We feel the same way being the lighter band on a tour like this. We’re used to being the heavier band on a lot of the stuff we do. It was scary but the first day went over very well. I think the touring we’ve been doing the last year has been starting to win the fan base over. I’m looking forward to the rest of Mayhem – converting the metal kids while keeping the scene kids. They’re coming over and hearing about new metal bands and new scene bands. We’re just trying to bridge the gap. We want everybody that’s a fan of metal to enjoy our band. It doesn’t matter to us. We just want you to like our band.”

 

Miss May previously ventured on the Vans Warped Tour and US festivals was nothing new to the band. “These outdoor festivals in America are huge for you. They expose you to so many people every single day and as long as you’re performing well, you’re giving back to your fans, doing your signings, hitting up your merch table and meeting everybody – you’re only going to benefit from the tour.”

 

They are currently touring behind Rise of the Lion, Miss May I’s fourth record overall. Produced by Terry Date (Deftones, Pantera), the songs on this record took a different angle and included their fans for inspiration.

 

We wanted to do a little more of a fan base record where we used topics given to us by fans in letters and by meeting them and behind the scenes stuff by getting to know them,” said Benton. “We took those topics and that allowed us to write the songs from a different perspective instead of being our personal problems. We were writing through the eyes of someone else, which was different for us, but it made it a personal record for our fans.”

 

He shared the band’s writing process behind Rise of the Lion, and how their approach differed from past records.

 

The way we wrote the songs this time was a lot different this time as well. There wasn’t as much of the record written on the computer or demoed out like that. This record we wrote this record in a live group.”

 

We did a live recording of the album before we went in to track it. Every song was written in a tempo that we wanted to play it live, and any part that was overly aggressive and didn’t feel right. Sometimes when you write songs the other way and you go to play them, it doesn’t translate the same way. I think this time writing live as a group this time changed things for us. It definitely changed the tempo of things a bit. We like to do things different each record. We felt the last record was extremely aggressive, so we dialed it back a bit on this one in some ways. Other tracks are more aggressive than anything we’ve done. I think you can expect to hear another drastic change on the next record. For us, you only get so many shots to write a record. We want to do as many of the cool things that we can while we have all of these great fans.”

 

Miss May I has been signed to Rise Records, one of the fastest rising recording labels on the scene today. Benton shared his thoughts of being part of a company who has shaped their careers.

 

We saw friends from our area start on that label and do great things. When we started working with them, we told them we were in it for the long haul. They were in it for the long haul as well. Because of that we had a good relationship. We’re on our fourth record with them with another one coming. We get along with them great. I think that’s the big thing. They trust us. When we get bent out of shape about something, we trust them enough for them to come back to us with a reasoning why we’re [either] doing something or not. Since we trust each other, we could go back and forth and really make a difference when we need to make big decisions. We’re not working against each other, which is an unfortunate thing that happens to a lot of bands out there.”

 

 

Miss May I on Facebook

 

REI NISHIMOTO


Artists, Not Rockstars- Steve “Skinny” Felton of Mushroomhead


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Mushroomhead spent this past summer taking part on the 2014 Rockstar Enerydrink Mayhem Festival, promoting their latest record titled The Righteous & The Butterfly, in front of rabid yet eager music fans that were getting their first tastes of the band.

 

They just completed the first day of the infamous festival tour and band drummer Steve “Skinny” Felton shared his thoughts. “Today’s day one – a couple little snafus and technical difficulties, like this microphone didn’t work or that microphone cut out. That’s all part of it. The main thing is we’re here, we want to push our new album, push our horizons, and expand anyone who is interested in Mushroomhead’s mind. I want to show people there’s more to it than the mask. It’s not a gimmick. We’re artists. We’re not rockstars. If you like art you’ll probably dig it.”

 

Since their previous album, 2010’s Beautiful Stories For Ugly Children, the band had a shuffling of members, and still managed to continue to tour behind their record. But once they found new members to come in and infuse some new energy into the band, they gradually found their way into crafting songs that eventually landed onto the new album.

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We had some new members with Tommy Church (ex-Autumn Offering) on guitar, Ryan “Dr.F” Farrell on bass, and bringing back J Mann on vocals. So there were lots of fresh ideas,” said Felton.

 

It’s a fresh twist on a new idea, if you will. There’s a lot of excitement. Everyone was anxious and excited to work together. We have our own studio and have multiple rooms. You can literally work on one idea with a couple of guys and work on another idea with a couple of other guys, and coming in the next day and say ‘did you hear what he did to this tune?’ It was fresh again and it was exciting. Everyone wanted to work.”

 

Much like any relationship, the band members found itself within a dilemma where creativity and animosity amongst band members became an issue. But with new members coming into the fold, they found a way to work through it.

 

After six or seven albums and a lot of animosity between band members, anybody who has tried to keep a band together understands what I’m saying. It could be your best friends in life…but is the art coming across right? Are you expressing yourself in the right way? Does it sound contrived? Does it sound boring? We didn’t have that on this record. This album damn near wrote itself. It told us what to do. Like if it was a shitty idea and nobody cared, we knew to move on. So we focused on the good and the unknown. I like not knowing where the song is going. I like to go ‘wow I would have never thought of that Jeff [Nothing]. And Jeff is the one to put a twist on some of his vocals. He’s an odd ball and he’s brilliant at the same time. It’s so cool. The whole album was pretty much that way. I think it’s my favorite one to this day.”

 

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Mushroomhead has been a band for 21 years, a milestone for a band coming out of Cleveland, OH and a solid fan base that has kept them afloat over the years. Felton spoke about their secret to their success.

I think there’s an honesty to the music itself. Fans that we have, they’re smart enough to know ‘that’s contrived, that’s put together, that’s not written by them. You know the difference. That’s a filler song.’ Our new record has zero filler songs. The Righteous & The Butterfly

 

One area that the band has yet to venture into is creating into print media. While Mushroomhead’s imagery is tailor made for animation and comic books, Felton has not quite felt the urge to jump into that world.

 

We dabbled with the comic book a while ago. Again technology came in and print media is not what it used to be. The guy we talked to wanted to do it online comic. ‘That’s not the same! I want a comic book dammit!’ So we stopped right there. A lot of our videos are very theatrical and film-esque. We try to tell a story than guys playing drums and (does a death metal growl). I have mad respect for all the bad ass players out there. But Mushroomhead…we’re a little different. We write our own book.”

 

Felton concluded with recent comments stirring around the music press about Slipknot’s alleged interest in doing a tour with Mudvayne and Mushroomhead in the near future. While there are no proposed plans of such a tour happening anytime soon, he sounded very interested in such an idea if it were to come to life.

 

My thoughts are, absolutely, 100% if there’s any reality to it – of course we would be down. It would be a dream come true – love Slipknot. Whether it’s media fueled or fan based…whatever…doesn’t matter. There’s a lot of similarities to those guys that goes way beyond the masks and the costumes. The music is totally different. But what we’ve been through as people, I think we share more in common than anyone would ever know. With the loss of people…shit with donning the masks at 3 in the afternoon and putting them on at 100 degrees – they know what that is, we know what that is. So I have nothing but love and respect for them.”

 

Corey man, absolutely. If you ever want to do anything I would love to. And goddamn that Stone Sour record – the last one…I love it! I’m a huge fan. The last album turned me. Kudos Corey!”

 

Mushroomhead on Facebook

 

 

REI NISHIMOTO

 


Up For The Challenge: Zach Householder of Whitechapel


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Over the past eight years, the six members of Whitechapel have been on a tear, pushing the boundaries of extreme music and drawing new fans along the way. Their time spent touring has helped them build quite an extensive following and winning over legions of fans everywhere they play.

 

Their latest release, Our Endless War (Metal Blade), was eagerly awaited by their fans and the metal scene in general. The result was a first week charting in the Top 10 US Charts their first week of release, a rarity in recent times and especially in the metal world.

We’ve always been pigeonholed into deathcore. Whatever. If you like to pigeonhole bands that’s cool. Deathcore has such restrictive boundaries and we said fuck it. We just want to write whatever we want – just a good collaborative album without having to worry about what people expect us to write. Fuck that. We write what the fans who have grown with us and are singing with us. We’re not writing for any one person,” explained guitarist Zach Householder, talking about their the outcome of the album.

He explained the band’s approach upon Our Endless War, once they began the writing process. “The writing process is pretty streamlined. This is the fifth album and we had two work stations set up at Alex’s [Wade, guitarist] house. We had a lot of material to begin with because we always recorded demos and passed it around through email. When it came time to writing, we sifted through it and started writing skeletons. We had two work stations so it was twice the productivity. Not to mention it was a collaborative effort as far as everybody putting their heads together. All of us always write but sometimes if I write a whole song, it ends up being by me. This time, it seemed like everyone put in their effort in each song.”

Having three guitarists in Whitechapel has been somewhat of a unique aspect of the band. They found ways to utilize each member into their music and making it a vital part of their overall sound.

 

We’ve had it for so long now. It’s something we’ve used to our benefit and learned how to work out. It’s not three guitars and shred fest. It’s three guitarists on stage working together and laying stuff for live sound and making a huge wall of sound. With writing, it’s not a lot of bickering. It’s just three heads writing instead of one or two. It makes for a better collaborative input as far as writing goes. We make it work to our advantage.”

 

Reaching album number five is a milestone for many bands today, since many do not make it this far. But Householder does admit there are some challenges towards the creative process into writing Whitechapel songs. “I’m sure it’s the same for all of us. We always have the drive and always something new we want to try. The writing process is pretty streamlined for us now. We know how to read each other and work with each other. It’s stressful but not difficult.”

 

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Over the years, Whitechapel has found itself in front of vast audiences, ranging from Trivium to The Devil Wears Prada to GWAR, as well as stints on the Vans Warped Tour and the Rockstar Mayhem Fest. The band is up to the challenge of playing in front of any crowd and winning over new fans.

 

We’ve done GWAR and Asking Alexandria. That’s definitely our demographics. We did those tours for a reason because there’s always kids who will never wind up hearing us before or had heard of us, and end up liking us. I think that’s helped us a lot. You have to try it out. You have to stretch your legs and see what happens.”

While they are up for the challenge, they also realize reactions may be mixed towards what they do. “It’s mixed. Sometimes we’re too extreme for some people. I think for the GWAR fans they’re there to see some raunchy metal anyways. It was easier to appeal to them because they were there to have a good time. They liked what they heard.”

Householder spoke about the deathcore genre tag that Whitechapel often gets lumped into. While this semi-new moniker that has taken the metal world by storm, the band claims to not let it hinder its creativity or interfere with its growth process in any way:

 

I think it’s a lot more metal and some of our older releases are coming into it more. Once again, I said deathcore is just a certain genre we don’t want to stick by. It’s just boring. I’m sure we’ll always be labeled that. I guess that’s where we come from. I’ve never heard the term deathcore until I started playing for Whitechapel and it’s a sub-genre of a sub-genre I could give a fuck. The fact is we’re doing what we’re do. We weren’t sitting there writing to saying we need to do this to sound like this. It’s just what came out. It’s what gradually what’s grown as time went on.”

While the band tours a lot, they always find time to work on new material: “Winter time we’re home a lot,” he said. “Like I said, writing’s a year long process. When I’m at home, I’m in front of my computer every day. It’s not finding time. We always find the need to do it because we always want to be ahead of it. When it comes time to writing the album, we want to have a jump start on it. Half the time we’re on the road and half the time we’re at home, we’re constantly building up material.”

 

Whitechapel on Facebook

 

REI NISHIMOTO


Ernie C of Body Count Talks Lyrical Themes From Manslaughter


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Body Count has historically found a way to grab the attention of the listening public and shock the masses with its controversial themes to its songs while raising awareness to various social issues at the same time.

While their methods do not always sit well with everyone, Body Count always becomes the subject of conversation amongst the musical scene. As in past favorites such as ‘Momma’s Gonna Die Tonight’, ‘KKK Bitch’ and ‘Cop Killer’, the band has tackled controversial subjects such as racism and police brutality and brought it out into the national spotlight.

Their latest release Manslaughter (Sumerian Records) found new subjects to tackle including female empowerment, pop music and their takes on a couple of familiar songs.

Band guitarist Ernie C gave Ghost Cult Magazine a run down on a few high lights on Manslaughter:

‘Bitch In The Pit’

Ernie C: That’s a song about women empowerment – being empowered to control. Girls love that song. They want to be the bitch in the pit, and the girls are in the pit. That’s what that song is.

Jamey Jasta on ‘Pop Bubble’

Ernie C: He’s a fan and knows Ice. Ice was on his podcast, he called in and said he wanted to do a song. We were like ‘what song?’ The perfect song ‘Pop Bubble Full Of Bullshit…’ That’s a good song actually. I remember when working on it, Ice said ‘pop mutherfuckers don’t want no fight. Muthafucker’s pants too tight.’

‘Institutionalized’

Ernie C: It’s a rant. It’s bringing it contemporary. It’s the same rant that Mike [Muir] had 25 years ago about his parents, but we’re bringing it up to now. It’s a lot of fun.

We had to get clearance to do that song. So we started calling around. We thought Mike had it. Mike didn’t own it. This guy named Glen Friedman owns the rights to the song. That’s Ice’s photographer from back in the day. We didn’t know who owned the song. So he gave us the rights to do it but he said…he’s a vegan so “you’re coming down hard on the vegans!”

You know Ice loves video games. We did the ‘Gears of War’ song two years ago (for Gears of War 3). He loves videos games. It’s like his second job. It’s therapy.

’99 Problems’

Ernie C: Ice did that on a record (1993’s Home Invasion). There’s a story in Rolling Stone about it. Chris Rock was talking to Rick Rubin and he said you should use his hook that Ice has on one of Jay Z’s songs. That’s how that came about. But Jay Z stole the song. People hear the song now and ‘Ice is doing Jay Z’s cover’. No, Jay Z did Ice’s cover. They act like it didn’t happen. The catch about is we didn’t have to get clearance from no one. He had to get clearance to do that. He has to pay Ice on royalties on that song. They act like nothing’s going on. So we just took it back. They can’t claim we stole their song. No, it’s our song.

‘Talk Shit Get Shot’

Ernie C: You know Body Count is extreme. It’s taking everything to the extreme level. So that song – ‘Talk Shit, Get Shot’ – it goes out to internet bloggers. People that are on there – sometimes I listen to things – ‘the band sucks…’ and this and that – you really haven’t heard the band. We really don’t suck. People might not like it. I can play guitar. I have played guitar for 42 years. I don’t really suck. I might not be as good as so and so but I don’t suck. So this really tells the truth about some people.

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REI NISHIMOTO

 


Flyleaf Release Their New Video For Set Me On Fire


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Flyleaf recently completed their first video for ‘Set Me On Fire’ in Los Angeles, CA for their forthcoming record titled Between The Stars, due out September 16, 2014 via Loud & Proud. This is the first song featuring new vocalist Kristen May.

The video premiered today on Billboard’s website.

This is the lead single from their forthcoming album, and like the title, Flyleaf went for a song with impact and a theme that longtime fans could easily digest.

It’s an empowering song,” explained guitarist Sameer Bhattacharya, about the song. “It’s about discovering who you are, discovering your strengths, and your potential.” Following a common theme about positivity in their lyrics, ‘Set Me On Fire’ stuck to that and once again pieced together a song that would win over longtime fans.

It’s not that we want it for ourselves. I think a lot of people lost hope in themselves and their potential, for their lives. I think it’s important for people to realize that they could be bigger than they could ever dream. The potential is unlimited and that’s real. It’s not some dream you had as a kid or some fantasy. There’s a power out there that’s bigger than themselves and it’s open to you.”

Bhattacharya talked about the making of the video. “One thing we’re not going to do – there’s no CGI,” he said, explaining the making of the video. “It’s something new and very theatrical with backdrops and projections. It’s in real time.”

 

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Grieving Is Over – Ernie C of Body Count


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It has been quite some time since the world has last heard from Ice T and Body Count. Aside from Ice T’s thriving acting career on Law & Order: SVU as Odafin ‘Fin’ Tutuola for the past 14 years, the band has been relatively quiet until now.

 

Manslaughter is the band’s first new release since 2006’s Murder 4 Hire, and the band is coming back swinging. Band guitarist Ernie C [Ernie Cunnigan] explained the reasons behind their extended hiatus.

 

Last summer, we were at the point where we could really do a record. Last one we did [was] eight years ago. It wasn’t really a record. Ice was in New York. I was in LA. I’d send him tracks and if he wanted to make a change, he’d send it back. It would take two weeks to make a simple change that it would take a second if you’re sitting together.”

 

From last summer, we rented a house in Vegas. We put the band in there and stayed there for six weeks and wrote a record. When he heard something he didn’t like, he’d change it right then, go to sleep and wake up in the morning and say ‘let’s change that.’ So that’s why the record sounds the way it sounds.”

 

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Ice T and Ernie C are the sole original members in Body Count, and the two have experienced many ups and downs throughout the years. They lost three original members [original drummer Victor Ray “Beatmaster V” Wilson in 1996 from leukemia; bassist Lloyd “Mooseman” Roberts from a drive by shooting in 2001; and guitarist Dennis “D-Roc” Miles from lymphoma in 2004], as well as shuffling various lineups throughout the years.

 

First of all, we lost three members over the years. Now the band has to grieve. I’ve been doing different combinations of people but the band has to grieve. So we’re at a point where we’ve grieved.”

 

Remember we’re one removed from the original member. Vince is my second bass player. Will [Ill Will ie Dorsey] is my second drummer. Juan [Juan of the Dead – Garcia] is my second guitarist and he came from Evildead, which everyone knows him. Vince [Vincent Price – Dennis] is been with me for the past ten years. Will is new but he works out just fine in the band. The thing of it is it just works well. Everyone works well together. The band sounds best as it sounds in the last ten years.”

 

Once they resumed the band, they began working on new material over an extended period of time and slowly worked its way back into business.

The topics on here are really good. The first record is still relevant. ‘Cop Killer’ is still a relevant song. Nothing’s really changed. I’m going back to the first record with songs about racism like ‘Momma’s Gotta Die’ and ‘KKK Bitch’ which is still relevant today, with Donald Sterling proved that everything is still relevant. That record is still a current record. We had to write a record that’s contemporary. So we started writing songs and we wrote a lot of music without Ice’s lyrics. It takes more time to think about the lyrics than me writing the riffs.”

 

 

He talked about some of the songs on Manslaughter.

Like a song called ‘Back To Rehab’ – I went to a rehab. I quit drinking about five years ago. Not like back, back, back to rehab…but it’s relevant. We have a song as a tribute to our soldiers – ‘I Will Always Love You’. Ice is an airborne ranger. That’s relevant. We wrote songs like ‘Talk Shit, Get Shot’, which is a rule of life. Every song is a single by itself. That record, you know it or not, plays from beginning to end…it’s sequenced. We wrote a record that’s sequenced like our first record, where you put on and play. People are used to buying on iTunes one song at a time. They don’t know you can buy a record and play it from beginning to end and take it to a whole new experience.”

 

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Ice T and Body Count nearly coined the phrase ‘Fuck the Police’ from ‘Cop Killer’, where the line repeatedly comes up throughout the song. The song came out at a time when racial tension in Los Angeles arose during the infamous Rodney King police beatings and the LA Riots in 1992.

But 20 years plus has passed since those days, and the phrase often gets overused. How does the band feel about it looking at it now?

 

It’s a slogan and nobody acts on anything. Now it’s just cheering – I’m just mad…can’t do nothing about it. Over the past two weeks, we’ve done a lot of national television. We’re one of the first heavy metal band to play on The Tonight Show. People were still uptight about it. We haven’t changed. We’re still the same band. But now America changed around us to accept us into their living rooms. That’s Middle America”.

 

It’s ok to say “Fuck the Police”. That’s what that says. That makes it more so it’s a chanting slogan. That’s not really a cause. They put us on TV…”we didn’t say fuck the police”. But 20 years ago when we were saying it, it was like shut it down.

 

Another interesting point in the battle of metal versus rap, is whether metalheads were closet rap fans and if that stemmed into the problems. “I really don’t know. The metal fans listen to everything. I hang around musicians. I don’t talk to them about anything outside of…some metal fans just listen to metal. They discriminate before they know what it is.”

 

 

But despite all of the controversy, Body Count found itself on the annual Rockstar Mayhem Fest alongside bands such as Avenged Sevenfold, Korn, Trivium, Asking Alexandria, Cannibal Corpse, Suicide Silence and others.

 

The relation goes back years and Ice T had previous done select shows for tour co-organizer Kevin Lyman on the Vans Warped Tour.

 

We’ve only play select shows on Warped Tour. We’ve never done an entire Warped Tour. Kevin [Lyman] and John Reese are partners. I’ve known John Reese forever from Guns N Roses. So I’m out here like old times. We haven’t hung out with him in 24 years on tour. It’s like friends.”

He was [under] Ice T [on Warped Tour]. He was out there with Eminem. Eminem wasn’t out there as Eminem. He was 187. He was out there with those guys. Ice was out there doing his thing.”

 

So what should the crowd expect this summer from them? “Our set is an hour and a half. Our set here is 25 minutes. Our normal set Ice talks for 25 minutes. So I said ‘you can talk for 30 minutes.’ We’re gonna play some old songs. We’re playing three new songs. We’ll play ‘There Goes The Neighborhood’, ‘Cop Killer’ and mix it up. We can only play so much. There’s enough for people to know there’s a new record and see if they like it.”

 

As far as future touring, Cunnigan would not commit to exact schedules due to Ice T’s acting schedule. “After this, Ice is going back to Law & Order. This is his summer vacation like high school. Coco is coming out with the dogs. Everybody’s watching the shows. The dogs are on tour. It’s a party. It’s a lot of fun.”

 

 

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REI NISHIMOTO

 


New Perspectives- Flyleaf Discusses Their New Album


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Flyleaf returns with their fourth full length release Between the Stars on September 16, 2014 via Loud and Proud. Produced by Don Gilmore (Korn, Lacuna Coil) Between The Stars is the first album featuring former Vedera vocalist Kristen May, who joined the band shortly after the release of their prior release, 2012’s New Horizons and the departure of original vocalist Lacey Sturm (formerly Moseby).

 

She’s an incredible singer and she clicked very well. Her personality was very important to us because we’re a touring band, made a record and put a song on the radio,” said guitarist Jared Hartmann.

 

I think one think that’s always a reoccurring theme in Flyleaf is the freedom in the music, the freedom of expressing yourself, exploring certain feelings of certain parts of your life that would otherwise hold inside and not letting go,” added guitarist Sameer Bhattacharya. “Kristen is such a free spirit. She doesn’t hold back. She is who she is. That’s really important to who Flyleaf is. Before we were Flyleaf, we were called Passerby, because no matter what platform we were given, no matter how tall our soapbox might be that’s given to us – our story’s just as important as anyone else’s. Your story’s just as important as ours. We all have a story to tell. I think Kristen brings that spirit to Flyleaf.”

 

May came into the band through an extensive search and audition process. “We compiled a list of singers. We had people who were on The Voice. We were reaching out to a lot of different people. She came up and auditioned and clicked very well,” said Hartmann.

 

As we went through the list of singers, we were also inquiring about certain singers. The singer had the same booking agent as Kristen, and that’s who we contacted to contact to audition.”

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They said ‘Kristen May was available. Her band Vedera just broke up and I highly recommend her.’ I think she was on the list real early. I think we crossed her off because we thought her band was still together. We contacted each other and she came down to Texas and had a sushi dinner. And from that meeting, it was like ‘wow! What a cool person.’ The next afternoon, we went into the rehearsal space and hit that first note, and what comes out was incredible. Her abilities are unmatched,” added Bhattacharya.

 

Once they began writing for Between the Stars, they discovered the true magic behind their new vocalist and a new era of the band officially began.

 

I felt the writing came very easily,” said Bhattacharya. “There’s this fresh feeling writing this record with Kristen. We need it. You get stuck in a rut doing the same thing over and over again. So it’s time for a new perspective in the writing process.”

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Once the writing began, Flyleaf found new creative energy working with May. Their first single ‘Set Me On Fire’ gave the public a taste of what is to come.

 

I think it’s really doing something new. It’s the first record with Kristen so everything’s real new. It’s becoming a band again,” said Hartmann.

 

I’m really getting excited about the songs on this record. There’s this growth in the music. This record transcends so many genres. Every song stands on its own. They’re all really great songs.”

 

Every record we’ve done has stood on its own,” said Bhattacharya. “We’ve never gone into a writing process with an agenda or a certain goal in mind other than writing good songs. We approached this record the same way as before.”

 

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REI NISHIMOTO