Tag Archives: Interviews

Reviews, Various

(interview) Dark Ride – new force on horrorpunk scene!

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Emilio Menze is no stranger to horrorpunk scene having played in Stellar Corpses, Mister Monster, Plan 9…) Now, Dark Ride is his new brainchild and they released the first single from the upcoming e.p. and it is a killer tour de force of melodic horrorpunk with fantastic video, courtesy of fantastic artist Adam Judd. It was about time for me to talk with Emilio for this webzine. This is Dark Ride premiere in Croatia, so read on!

HEY, THANKS FOR DOING AN INTERVIEW FOR KRAYKULLA. FIRST OF ALL, LET US TALK ABOUT DARK RIDE A LITTLE. DESCRIBE THE BAND A BIT FOR THE READERS WHO STILL DIDN´T LISTEN TO YOUR MUSIC. COULD YOU PRESENT THE BAND, THE MEMBERS AND YOUR MUSIC?

Emilio: Dark Ride is basically my passion project, my baby. It’s the first time I’ve actually been in charge of every aspect of a band so it’s very exciting and challenging. I’ve always played in horrorpunk bands inspired by what The Misfits created and achieved. I wanted to take my very best shot at making vivid and new anthems with the result of throwing all my influences and styles into a blender so to speak.

THE MEMBERS OF THE BAND PLAYED IN SOME GREAT BANDS IN HORRORPUNK SCENE PRIOR TO THIS BAND. COULD YOU SAY THAT DARK RIDE IS AN AMALGAMATION OF ALL YOUR PREVIOUS EXPERIENCES, LIKE YOU TOOK THE BEST OF EVERYTHING AND COMPILED IT TO ONE BAND?

Emilio: Absolutely! This is what I do period. I’m always going to be making music that I dig. In the studio I played everything except drums and my producer/friend Randy Moore played lead guitar.  As far as members for gigs and tour its going to be all of my most talented musician friends from my past, present, and future coming in and out to kick ass depending on who’s available.

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EMILIO PLAYED GUITAR IN HIS EARLIER BANDS. NOW HE IS ONLY SINGING. WAS THAT A BIG CHANGE TO STEP IN FRONT AND BE THE MAIN SINGER?

Emilio: I’ve always wanted to be a frontman. Through the years though whether it was bass or guitar I was always happy just being a part of them team, but being the frontman for Dark Ride guarantees no one can take it from me. It has been a big change but one that feels like a natural evolution. I still write all the songs on guitar but I have many guitarist friends who can play whatever I write easily better than I can!

THE TALK OF THE DAY IS YOUR NEW SINGLE. IT IS A GREAT AND THE VIDEO IS ALSO FANTASTIC. IT CAPTURES ALL THE DRAMA AND ENERGY OF HORRORPUNK. HOW COME YOU CO-OPERATED WITH ADAM JUDD? TELL US ABOUT THE STORY BEHIND THE VIDEO AND THE SONG.

Emilio:  Adam is insanely talented and his crew is just killer. I loved the videos he made for my dear friend Argyle Goolsby as well as Zombiecock. I had the idea in my head for the Ghostbusters inspired music video with Gozer etc for years and tried to get it made in Stellar Corpses but it never worked out, once I saw Adam’s work I finally felt like I found someone who could pull it off. I love the 1980’s and The Ghostbuster films and the ending sequence of the team battling Gozer on the rooftop was always visually stunning to me.

‘Anti-Hero’ is a song about walking my own path, playing by my own rules and although I’ve made a ton of mistakes and stumbled along the way I always do the right thing in the very end. That is how I’ve lived my life.

THE DEBUT E.P. IS ALMOST OUT. HOW MANY SONGS WILL IT CONTAIN? IS THERE SOME CONCEPT STORY BEHIND IT OR ONLY PURE HORROR FUN? HOW WAS THE WRITING AND THE RECORDING PROCESS FOR THE E.P.? WILL THERE BE ONLY DIGITAL VERSIONS OR PHYSICAL TOO?

Emilio: It’s a 5 song EP. I basically took everything I love in music, threw it in a blender, and this is what came out. I just wanted to make a record that as a fan of horrorpunk I would love. Some of the songs I wrote for Stellar Corpses but weren’t finished but always bouncing around in my head. It was an absolute blast and I had a killer team of my producer and my engineer helping me bring out my very best performance. There will absolutely be a vinyl release! I might do cd’s but just for promotional stuff and giving to friends etc.

CAN YOU STILL REMEMBER HOW YOU CAME TO LOVE HORROR? WHAT WAS YOUR FIRST MOVIE OR EXPERIENCE THAT MADE YOU LOVE THIS GENRE SO MUCH AND BECOME PART OF YOU 24/7? CAN YOU NAME YOUR TOP FIVE HORROR FLICKS OR BOOKS?

Emilio: Great question! Well I’ve ALWAYS loved Halloween. I grew up in the last half of the 80’s so it was common for kids to see horror and violent stuff back then unlike now. I remember loving Beetlejuice in particular as well as more mystical stuff like Big Trouble In Little China. I just always thought there was unlimited room for creativity and fun in all things horror. Top 5 horror movies off the top of my head are the original Nightmare On Elm Street, The Evil Dead, Reanimator, original Fright Night and The Shining. But there’s so many more. I really love the book ‘My Best Friend’s Exorcism’ which I wrote a song about on the EP.

WHAT IS SO BEAUTIFUL IN HORRORPUNK SCENE? I THINK IT IS THE DIVERSITY AND ALL THE DIFFERENT INFLUENCES THAT ALL OF US BRING IN WITH OURSELVES, ALSO IT IS A MUCH SMALLER SCENE AND MAYBE MORE TIGHT AND FRIENDLY?

Emilio: The people. The actual bands are so nice and supportive of each other right now and the fans are passionate to support and spread the word. Its home to me.

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I CAN´T HELP IT, I MUST REFER TO COVID SHIT AND POLITICAL SITUATION IN THE U.S. AND THE WORLD. HOW IS LIFE OVER THERE RIGHT NOW?

Emilio: Where I live in California our numbers have been really low because people have been respectful of the precautions etc but yeah, there’s a lot of fear and frustration. I do believe that Covid will end and we will learn a lot from it and maybe people will be a lot kinder towards eachother and also support live bands more.

LET´S GOSSIP A LITTLE. HOW DID YOU REACT WHEN YOU SAW AND HEARD MICHALE GRAVES´ RANTINGS ON SOCIAL NETWORK? YOU DON´T HAVE TO ANSWER THE QUESTION IF YOU DON´T WANT. ME PERSONALLY, I WAS VERY DISAPPOINTED WITH HIM AND HIS POLITICAL VIEWS AND THOUGHTS. I MET HIM WHEN HE SANG FOR MISFITS IN 1999 AND AGAIN WHEN HE WAS WITH GOOLSBY ON TOUR IN 2018 THEY PLAYED IN CROATIA AND HE SEEMED A BIT ODD BUT NICE FELLOW AND OF COURSE HE WAS MY MUSICAL INFLUENCE IN A BIG WAY.

Emilio: I dont share in or support Michale’s beliefs.

THANK YOU FOR NOW. PLEASE, FEEL FREE TO SAY ANYTHING YOU WANT IN THE END AND I DIDN´T ASK YOU. THIS IS YOUR FIRST INTERVIEW FOR SOME CROATIAN ZINE I THINK.

Emilio: This is my first Croatian interview and I’m honored! I would very much love to come play there on tour. I’ve got a lot of cool plans coming for Dark Ride so keep checking back and please give the EP a listen it comes out November Friday the 13th!

 

Interviews, Various

(interview) TSUNAMI BOMB: Everyone has the right to be heard and should be given the chance to explain why they feel the way they do!

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Tsunami Bomb are back with a new record soon out with Alternative Tentacles and it was about time that I talked for our zine with Oobliette, keyboard player and vocalist, also one of the co founders of the band.

YOU ARE BACK AND THERE IS A NEW LINE-UP IN THE BAND. WHAT ARE THE ORIGINAL MEMBERS DOING RIGHT NOW? HOW DID THE NEW MEMBERS FIT IN THE BAND?

OOBLIETTE: We are!  If you go back to the very beginning, I think most of the original, original members are not necessarily some of the members that many people know of.  I think the most questions we field are asking about Emily.  She has her own project right now that she is focusing on and wasn’t interested in a return to the punk scene.

The original idea for the reunion was to only play the two first shows as a sort of album release for our retrospective, ‘Trust No One’.  We had so much fun playing and enjoyed Kate Jacobi so much we decided to get the band back together.  Kate fits in perfectly,  after spending the last few years playing with her I can’t picture the band any other way.  I hear her voice any time that a Tsunami Bomb song gets stuck in my head.  Andy Phol is a long time friend and was actually at the very first Tsunami Bomb show.  His guitars add a whole new perspective to each song and I really enjoy writing with him and am always floored by the parts he comes up with.

THE NEW RECORD IS READY FOR RELEASING IN ABOUT MONTH TIME. HOW WAS THE RECORDING PROCESS? DID YOU GUYS PRODUCE IT YOURSELVES? 

OOBLIETTE: We are so excited to get this album out!  We recorded it several different places and in two batches.  I live in New York, some of it was recorded out here.  We did produce it ourselves.  When thinking about it, it just came natural.  Dominic and I have always had a really strong connection in writing music together.  We also both know the sound we were going for and had a vision for the album.  I feel like it was a smart move, with our comeback after being gone for so long to be able to have that creative control over the release.

WHAT WAS THE LYRICAL INSPIRATION FOR THE NEW RECORDS? DO YOU CONSIDER TSUNAMI BOMB TO BE A POLITICAL BAND?

OOBLIETTE: Let’s see, if I had to describe this album it would be…..  “Don’t tell us what to do, everyone do what you want and don’t let anyone make you feel bad for it, everything we love dies, put your money where you’re mouth is, don’t tell us what to do,  shit is fucked up, like, really fucked up right now, we are so happy to be back, if you don’t like that we are back, fuck you, don’t tell us what to do.”

So, I wouldn’t say we are political as far as taking sides but I would say that we are political in the way that we think everyone has the right to be heard and should be given the chance to explain why they feel the way they do.

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photo credit Amber Mannon

DO YOU HAVE ANY FAVORITE SONGS ON THE NEW RECORDS, I KNOW IT IS HARD QUESTION. COULD YOU GIVE US A BRIEF TOUR THROUGH THE NEW ALBUM, SONG BY SONG?

OOBLIETTE: I think my favorite is a song called Petaluma.  The second I heard the song I immediately thought of this kind of haunting chorus singing the word “follow” .  It’s different, and it’s dynamic.  I like that it’s sad but also angry.  When I left the band originally there was so much hurt that I feel like I had been carrying and this song makes me feel like I can finally start to let some of those emotions fade.

Really, the whole album is my favorite.  There was a lot of heart and soul put into these songs.  In the past, when I had written, it was always in satire.  This is the first time I’ve been this serious and this honest in music.  Writing with Kate and deciding the topics of each song was a great experience but it was also very painful.  I feel that this album tells a very distinct story when you listen from beginning to end, it tells our story, and I am so happy we were able to do it and to share it.

YOU ARE RELEASING THE NEW ALBUM WITH ALTERNATIVE TENTACLES. WAS THE LABEL NATURAL CHOICE FOR YOUR BAND? HOW DID IT COME TO COOPERATION WITH ALTERNATIVE TENTACLES?

OOBLIETTE: It all came to be because Jello asked Dominic if we were boring.  The rest is history.

IS THERE A TOUR IN PREPARATION FOR PROMOTING THE NEW RECORD? ARE YOU CONSIDERING COMING TO EUROPE? HAVE YOU PLAYED IN EUROPE BEFORE? WHAT ARE THE MAIN DIFFERENCES BETWEEN FANS AT CONCERTS AND SCENE IN AMERICA AND IN EUROPE?

OOBLIETTE: We don’t have any dates yet but it is on the horizon.  I haven’t played in Europe.  I left the band just before we started touring internationally.  But I am very excited to visit.

PHYSICAL ALBUM RELEASED VERSUS DIGITAL ONLY RELEASES. WHICH ONE DO YOU PREFER?

OOBLIETTE: Vinyl, all the way!

HYPOTETICAL SITUATION. LABEL YOU SIGNED ORDERS YOU TO COMPROMISE YOUR ART, YOUR MUSIC, YOUR MATERIAL ACCORDING TO THEIR WISHES. HOW WOULD YOU REACT?

OOBLIETTE: 10 middle fingers in the air!

CAN YOU LIVE OFF MUSIC? WHAT DO YOU DO FOR LIVING OUTSIDE THE BAND?

OOBLIETE: I might be able to, but it’s not something I want to do full time.  I am the GM of a restaurant group and work for an amazing boss.  I love what I do and wouldn’t change a thing.

TSUNAMI BOMB IS FANTASTIC MIXTURE OF PUNKROCK AND MORE DARKER SOUND. WHAT DO YOU LISTEN TO MUSICWISE? 

OOBLIETTE: Thank you.  I really love Oingo Boingo, I listen to a ton of the old Trojan Records artists like Desmond Dekker, I like a lot of metal, especially viking metal, Andrews Sisters, I’m all over the place.

FOR YOU, WHERE LIES THE BEAUTY OF UNDERGROUND SCENE? CAN YOU STILL REMEMBER WHAT DREW YOU TO THE SCENE, WHAT MADE YOU SAY, THIS IS IT, HERE I AM TO STAY, THIS IS WHO I AM?

OOBLIETTE: It’s that you can be whoever you want to.  I was drawn to the scene because there was a local theater, the Phoenix Theater in Petaluma, CA., that gave kids a place to hang out, go to shows, skateboard, paint, you name it.  Bands from all over toured there and that what really got me into the underground scene.  The music, I just got into on my own.  I used to pick just the most messed up CDs I could find in the dollar bin.  From there I got into metal, industrial, and punk music.  Once I found out there were local places to see music like that, I never looked back.

LAST QUESTION, THANK YOU FOR THE FIRST TIME. ANY SHOUT OUTS? WOULD YOU LIKE TO SAY SOMETHING THAT I DIDN´T ASK YOU?

OOBLIETTE: I just want to say thank you to anyone who takes a listen and gives us a chance.  We don’t do this for the money, we do this for the fans.  We have to juggle our jobs and families to be able to leave and make the few shows we get to play happen, but the fans make it all worth it in the end.  Tsunami Bomb has a long history and we are so excited to show you this new chapter in it’s tale. 

 

Interviews, Various

(interview) 69Enfermos-Brasil skatepunk at Punk Rock Holiday 1.9!

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We meet again after two years and the news is: the new record, new tour and the new line up, so tell us something about all of those news!

-Couple of years ago we were supposed to do the split record with four bands, one from Japan, two from Europe and us and we were looking for another band from United States and we heard Symphony of Distraction and we thought that it would be nice to release a split record with them because our songs are kind of similar, the influences are the same, so they agreed. After that we talked to the guy in Morning Wood Records and he released it in December last year. We talked also about doing a tour in United States or Brasil, but at this moment it would be easier for both bands to tour Brasil, because it was easier for me to book the tour so we went and did it together. That was basically the story about the split.

I think that the new material is more melodic and more progressive than the older stuff. The songs are again in English language, so you quit singing in Spanish altogether or only for the moment?

-We quit singing in Spanish because we wanted to get to the wider audience. When you sing in Spanish, or French not everybody knows that language and what you are singing about, it is hard for people to understand the lyrics and stuff. We want to bring our music and message closer to the people. When I was a kid in Columbia, we used to listen mainly bands in English language, we really wanted to get to the wider audience. We kept our older audience, but many people at the gigs came and asked us, so why don˙t you sing at least one song in English. When we started the whole proces like 5 or 6 years ago, not many American bands toured our circuit, now they do, but back then they still didn˙t  and we released two albums and one split in English and it worked great for us. About the new material being more catchy, I didn` t want to do the same songs all over again, I wanted to get it more poppy, more melodic..

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Yeah, I love the melancholy in your songs so much, when I listen to your songs, they always make me a little bit sad, for example Maribor or In the nineties…I love them, but they touch my heart and I am just sad somehow…

-We put our more melodic songs on this new split record. Sometimes you have a split record of maybe two excellent bands, but you don˙t listen to the whole cd. Our fans maybe will like Symphony of Distraction and their fans will like our songs and so far it is working.

You also have a new line-up, two new guys in the band. I knew you changed a drummer, so the bassist Vagner quit too?

-Yeah, the new bass player is the substitute for Vagner. He is not in the band anymore. He lives with his girlfriend now and they are taking things more seriously. 69Enfermos is an expensive hobby you know? It takes a lot of your time traveling and playing around.

How far away from home are you know? Six or seven thousand kilometers?

-It is like twelve thousand kilometers from here, dude. We made it worth this time, it is basically one more tour, so Vagner couldn˙t make it and the new bass player jumped in for him. When Vagner told us he couldn˙t go to Europe again, we took the new guy. Vagner is a nice guy and I love him very much.  The new guy is in the band because of his commitment, he is wearing our shirt with pride, you know? He knew the band and he liked our music prior to playing with us, we kinda came from the similar scene, so he fit perfectly in the band, he has a lot of energy and is super happy to be here in Europe.

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You are now in Punk Rock Holiday for the second time, yet there is one fun fact. You play the third show, because I remember in 2017.you played twice because I was there when that storm ruined and broke your first show hehe!

-We were surprised when we got our chance to play here again.

What does being here at Punk Rock Holiday mean for you personally?

-When we were here for the first time, it was wow, our main goal. This time the tour has been way better than we expected, we played Brackrock also and it was insane there, Paris Punkrock Summer was a blast too! The main goal of this tour was to play Brackrock and Punk Rock Holiday came like one big plus, because it is nice to promote your band on such high ranking festivals. We didn˙t expect to be invited to Punk Rock Holiday, so big thanks to the promoters for inviting us again. We were planning to come here and stay at Punk Rock Holiday for the whole week whether we play the festival or not. Maybe we could do a festival or two in Czech Republic or Germany, but the other two members were never here at this festival, my wife is here too, so it is nice to be here for the whole week.

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I noticed that Southamerican people are lot more warm, have big hearts, like to hug and smile. I met you, the other guys from the band, I met guys from Cronos Debe Morir, shout out to them, and you are all so heartwarming, passionate and I love it. Do you think that Europeans are more cold?

-I can˙t say that was my experience with Europeans, because both times, I noticed it is like we have the same problems, we are not so much different. At least for me, the way people here are no different from the people in our country, they have been really nice and fantastic to us! I feel at home in all the countries we have been, I like to tour Eastern Europe, not many bands go there and I love to go there. We appreciate it so much! Finding new friends, like you, when I knew I was going to see you again, I was so happy, and also every other friend we have met along the way.