The Theatre Zombies is a band from USA that I heard a while ago and became enchanted with their mix of melody and hard riffs, kinda Ramones-like with a metal vibe and they quickly became one of my fave bands. That said, it was a perfect time to talk with them for my webzine.

How would you describe The Theatre Zombies for the readers of this zine that havent heard of you?

The Theatre Zombies is a horror-punk band but not in the strict sense of the genre. Not all of our songs are horror based, and we vary tonally between more of a pop punk sound and heavy metal. We are most influenced by Blitzkid, the Ramones and Metallica.

Whats new in you camp? Any new stuff prepared for our ears?

We are currently working on an EP. We have about five songs in progress for said EP. We plan on releasing it some time in the summer or early fall of 2017. All of our previous albums are available on our Bandcamp page for donation.

Where do you get the lyrical inspiration from? What do you do first, lyrics or riffs?

My inspiration for lyrics can come from a lot of places. Horror movies, books, and shows have been a big influence, but for the most part I come up with the lyrics in an almost stream of consciousness like fashion. Typically I sit down with my guitar and if I find a particular riff or progression interesting I will start to try and come up with a vocal melody and then go from there. A lot of our songs have hidden meanings, or are about some real life event. Sometimes I can write a whole song in just a few hours, and sometimes it can take months or even years. Once I have the basics down, I usually then bring it to practice where we arrange the song and work out the kinks. Sometimes a song can change drastically from when I initially bring it to practice and to when we finally record it. It’s a team effort and The Theatre Zombies sound really comes from our combined forces.

Many people dont like horror punk cause they say its all Misfits ripoff. Why is horrorpunk so beautiful?

There are plenty of Misfits rip off bands out there. Trust me, I have seen and played with a lot of them. For us, and a lot of “horror punks” out there,  horror punk is more than just “ripping off the Misfits”. I feel like it’s more about taking the ugly side of things in both real life and media and turning it into something fun and exciting to listen to. I really don’t think it’s any different than any other type of song writing. Just like any musician I take something that inspires me and write about it. It’s no different than a rapper writing lyrics about cars, drugs, and money . If that’s what inspires them or influences them thats fine. I just so happen to be influenced by the macabre and super natural.

Do you think that looking dressed like punk is important? Do you use stage props f.e.makeup or fake blood when playing live?

I don’t think it’s important at all. A lot of our fans have never even seen us live. We are just three regular looking dudes. We do try to always wear all black, but that’s pretty much it. No fake blood, stage props or gimmicks needed. I think it’s important to be comfortable when you are on stage. If you enjoy wearing a costume and so on, go for it. More power to you. That’s just not for us.

Have you ever played in Europe? In your opinion whats the difference between American and Euro crowds?

We haven’t played outside the United States yet. It is a goal of ours though. We hear that European crowds are way more receptive of our kind of music and I really hope to play in Europe one day.

Lets talk horror. What is better, good book or movie? Whats your fave horror subgenre?