Interview with Josh Scogin

I was so lucky to get to do this yesterday, I'm so proud of how it came out and I really hope I get to do these things again!

Enjoy, and share among others ya think might like it!

Interview with David Flood #2

So yeah, this was supposed to be up like a week or two ago but personal stuff came up and I just needed to get a break from pretty much everything and everyone - still battling this but as of just now; its 3am (UK time), and I have insomnia so I figured "let's get this fucking thing up!" (thats what she said...)

David is a cool-as guy who just seems so enthralled and inspired by this small group of musicians/personalities that are all about positivity and have all hit their dream and are now succeeding at what they want to do.
I know because I am very similar, I look up to the same group of people and try and do what they have to achieve what I want and get all out of life that I can.

This is the first time I've re-interviewed someone a second time and was something I had been wanting to do for sometime, same with David but damn my Uni work and again personal stuff kept on getting in the way and stopping me from getting something together.  A month ago Uni finished and I started getting this finalised and sent off.

So here you have it, the second interview with budding star-in-the-making David Flood: enjoy!

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Since the last time we talked, you’ve seemed to have gotten involved in a number of projects. How have these been going?
Hey Sean! Thanks for having me back for round 2!!  I am honored you chose me for a second interview! I have been involved in a bunch of projects lately, it seems like I never have a day off but its totally worth it! I love what I do and I look forward to everyone seeing what I have been working on in the coming months!

What’s ‘White Devil’, and what are your inspirations for this?
White Devil is the name of a clothing line I own with two very close friends. Keith Pyles and Veronica Mihalus! Basically what we aim to do is offer a new series of designs that will appeal to all walks of life but have a strong emphasis on music of course. We are very fortunate to have a spot on the Rockstar Energy Mayhem Festival this year and we are all sooooo stoked for this! The launch is only a couple weeks away aiming for mid June and I really think everyone will like what they see. This has been extremely hush hush with the exception of a select few and I’m shocked I’ve been able to keep my mouth shut hahahaha.

Wanna talk about your growing relationship with Brandon Richter? What do you think about his recent career change into bodybuilding?
Brandon and I are super close and have been ever since last summer. We can do long periods of time without talking and be able to pick up right where we left off. Its a strong bond for sure. And lets just say Brandons arms are now bigger than my entire body hahahaha. Last year people would often confuse us at some shows but now its like comparing The Hulk to a green bean. He has always done what makes him happy despite criticisms he gets but nothing is gonna stop that dude

In the last year have there been any bands (new or old) that have caught your eye?
Yes!!! Holy fuck my music tastes have grown significantly. I listen to everything from Jerry Lee Lewis to Johnny Cash to Frank Sinatra to Metallica to Eminem to Parkway Drive to The Used to Motionless In White to deadmau5 to Rammstein to Jay-Z to The Pretty Reckless and Avenged Sevenfold seriously the list can go on and on. I have been listening to a ton of In This Moment, The Used, Arch Enemy, Marilyn Manson lately. Mainly when I listen to bands I will listen to the same fucking song over and over and just learn everything I can from their drum patterns. I am a pure music whore.

Being a drummer, which bands would you love to tour with – like what would be your ideal tour line-up be?
Such a tough question. I definitely want to hit the road with Avenged Sevenfold, Rammstein, Combichrist, The Pretty Reckless so I can take Taylor Momsen on a date! If your reading Taylor lets get some food!! hahahahah. I really really really want to tour with Fozzy. They are such a nice group of people with insane talents. Motionless is a given and major kudos to them for headlong Warped this year!! Its hard to keep it as just a venue line up ya know? I would love to play huge festivals like Rock On The Range and Download but my dream line up would be Combichrist, Rammstein whatever band I drum for and Avenged Sevenfold. I would channel my inner fan girl for sure.

Lately you’ve gotten a huge array of new tattoos, why put yourself through so much pain haha? Got any new one’s planned on the horizon?
Well to be honest I don’t know haha I guess I look good with tattoos? Who knows. But I have always been one to march to the beat of a different drum and the best way I can think of would be getting tattoos. I love all kinds of art and I always have. But pain…yeah thats never fun but go see Jimmy Fellows and Keith Pyles at Odd Fellows Tattoos in Akron, Ohio. They have the secret stuff to make tattoos painless! And yes I do! My chest will be finished in the next couple weeks then working on my entire left arm but thats a surprise!

What are your plans for the future/rest of the year? Any new projects?
The rest of the year is going to consist of drumming my ass off, growing my clothing line, going on tour, music videos, press, videos in general and no not porn…unless the money is right hahahahahah I am basically booked solid through about November and I love keeping busy so definitely keep up with my lame Facebook posts and Instagram to see what I’m doing and whats coming up next! See you in Hell!

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Check out David's Facebook here to keep up on his latest escapades;
https://www.facebook.com/davidflood1993

Check out our Facebook site;
https://www.facebook.com/theghostchant

Interview with Jeremy Saffer

For the last while I haven't been able to post anything much, base it down to personal stuff, Uni work and some other things. I always tried to fit some things in, tried to get interviews with bands but due to uptight Record Labels it was impossible to get anything with the bands I wanted (Every Time I Die and Killer Be Killed namely). But once I got some time (Uni's finished till September) I decided to be persistent and go for different bands and stuff - the first is this with Jeremy Saffer, a man that has most probably photographed every important band in the world of rock. His work is unique and IMO so crisp and clean, he always seems to make the bands/subject that much more cooler, guys like Eighteen Visions, Mitch Lurker, Chris Motionless, The Misfits, Alice Cooper, Danny Trejo and Bring Me The Horizon, to mention only a few.

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To start off, what do you feel was it that led you to pursue a career in photography? Had it always been a passion of sorts for you?

I was in bands growing up, so I was always taking pictures of bands, usually with a disposable camera… eventually a local promoter (Scott Lee) saw I was at almost every show, and asked me to start taking photos at them. I got a better camera, and started shooting for the local shows here, which were, Hatebreed, Lamb Of God, Chimaira, All That Remains, Shadows Fall, Killswitch Engage, etc. Then I started shooting for a bigger company he is a part of, which included The Worcester Palladium and eventually The Webster Theater in Hartford. 

I went to Berklee School of music for music production and engineering but ended up hating it. So I would skip homework and shoot shows instead. Eventually after 3 semesters, I wanted to quit Berklee, so I talked to Scott who is a mentor and hero to me. He basically said “well, you don’t like Berklee, what do you like to do?” – I answered “take pictures”. So he gave me this look like I was the last one to understand that I should actually go down that path. So I essentially put down my guitar for a camera. 

I toured a bit, then went to Hallmark, and within 10 months I graduated and was out shooting. 

Do you have any set equipment that you MUST use when working, or are you pretty flexible in that respect? 

I have to have a camera! haha - the 1dx is the camera i use for everything - if im doing portraits i need to have the 24-70. if im shooting live i need the 16-35 - i rarely do photos with only natural light so id say the dynalites i use are fairly vital to the image. but ive learned how to make anything work - one light - no lights - etc. 

Having worked with a large number of bands and people, what do you feel are your best shoots? Which bands/people do you enjoy working with most and are there any locations you particularly like shooting in? 

i always say my next shoot will be my best one - which is why i treat each shoot as if it is.

- i enjoy working with the bands i work with the most - which is why i work with them so often :) 

- for locations i like shooting in areas i haven't shot in before - always cool to get something different than the same few spots over and over. 

If you could work with any, alive or dead, who would it be – kinda like your ideal shoot? 

michael, sabbath, dio, vincent price, bela, etc- in terms of alive - sabbath would be the one shoot id always want to get but never will get 

Related to this, and also because this is a music-based site, what sort of bands are you rocking out to lately? Do you find music itself helps you when shooting or inspires you? 

i listen to everything - lately ive been rotating between the new bring me the horizon (incredible) - old alice in chains - portishead - diabolical masquerade - and babymetal 

Along with being a photographer, late last year you started a new clothing brand, TenThirtyoneinc, what was the reasoning behind this, and again where do your inspirations for the designs come from (apart from the obvious Halloween)? 

well the way tenthirtyoneinc came about - I always had saffer shirts - and had my friends do designs - usually horror based (as thats essentially a big big part of my life aside from photos) - so i had a bit of extra money and a perfect person to do the designs, who was able to put my words into art - so i felt the time was right to finally do it. essentially its all for selfish reasons. its thinking - okay - i really want this shirt to exist so i can wear it. ill have it designed, print it, and then ill have a bunch of them! and maybe i can recoup the cost of having these shirts essentially custom made for me to wear by selling them as a clothing line. if that makes any sense? haha. so think of all those grammy suits and dresses. - like that - but t-shirts. its not a money thing. its a love for horror and love for art thing. ive essentially only been wearing 10x31 since the first run printed. 

To finish up, what do you have planned for the future? 

i have a few projects in the works - i am going to start a crowd funding campaign for my next book - more print series coming out - and summer tour seasons about to kick off so mayhem and warped are around the corner.

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Check out Jeremy's shoots on his site, with a link to his store too;

http://jeremysaffer.com/

Check out TenThirty1neInc on their site;

http://www.tenthirtyoneinc.com/

Check out our Facebook site;

https://www.facebook.com/theghostchant

Album Review: Killer Be Killed - "Killer Be Killed"

First written piece in a while, chalk that up to University work and some personal stuff – but I’m here now and ready to shoot out a review on the first of a host of amazing albums to come out this year!

This year is gonna be full of outrageous music, new material coming from Every Time I Die, Rise Against, Cancer Bats, Ash, some new Dillinger Escape Plan tracks and probably a host more; but the first one to hit is Killer Be Killed’s debut album which is out this week.

The supergroup known as Killer Be Killed consists of members from four of the most monstrous metal bands on the planet right now: Greg Puciato (Dillinger Escape Plan), Max Cavalera (Soulfly), Troy Sanders (Mastodon) and Dave Elitch (formerly of The Mars Volta).

Plus they might have the most metal band name ever, seriously it just screams, well screaming and personally it’s one of my favorite band names ever – it lets you know what to expect from the next 46 minutes of listening.

One of the most unique attributes of the band is that there are three vocalists, which could go one of two ways; it either turns into a mish-mash of shouts and screams or it plays out incredibly and gives each part of every song urgency and a sense of unexpectedness.  Killer Be Killed puts this worry to rest during opener “Wings Of Wax And Feather”, a fast paced loud spectacle with a very melody-driven chorus which showcases each of the vocalists on form and in their own zone.  The tracks continues this till a much heavier breakdown of sorts comes in near the end which sounds very much like a Dillinger track, only to jump back into melody to finish the frantic opener off.

This formula works on most of the tracks on the album, and does so without becoming even a little bit boring or stale, the changing up of vocals and each vocalist’s unique style definitely keeps things fresh and exciting, not to mention the heavy guitar riffs and ear-bursting drums.

Speaking personally, the stand-out track is either the opener or the third assault “Melting Of My Marrow”, which uses the above form but adds in a sort of soul-element and it doesn't sound as heavy as others, it does pull out the same trick as “Wings…” and thrusts out a punishing heavy breakdown in the later stages of the track to just push the track over the top.  It’s probably the most Dillinger-like track on the album in the idea that it gives us both Greg’s gritty vocals but also displays his smoother, softer one’s also.  It’s by no means the “pop” song on the album, but it just shows us that this band of metal rhinos can actually pull out a diverse track like this.

For a debut album this is incredible, for an established band this would be incredible, frankly in a nutshell it’s just a slab of heavy metal which meets the demands of the fans of these bands and is what you’d expect from a band made-up of four of the top names in metal today.

There's still time to jump on the Pre-Order bus - go to the below address and pick-up a copy, either on CD or on Vinyl

American Store

Europe Store

If Your Not Backing Norma Jean!

If you’re not backing Norma Jean, you’re doing something wrong!

This is a new piece that I’m gonna start pumping out as much as I can, really just gonna be an overview of awesome bands that you might not have heard of, and why they hell they rock so much!

This first one is gonna be on Norma Jean, frankly because I seriously can’t stop listening to their second album tonight, and I’ve got an hour or so to burn before workout so why not get writing again.

These dudes are a ferocious bunch in the same vein of Every Time I Die, Converge and The Chariot (the original singer of Norma was the lead/founder of The Chariot ) – the music are chaotic and filled with anger, rage and venom-filled screams. As pretty much always, these screamed lyrics are stunning, a beautiful read and tells stories of pain and anguish. I’m not gonna make myself out to be their biggest fan, frankly I’ve only really listened to their second album, ‘O' God, The Aftermath: The Marvellous End Of The Exhausted Contender’, so this is gonna be mostly based on that but it’s the best place to start listening to ‘em, before I felt what I had heard was a little too heavy and screamy, though after getting into this album I feel I can totally get into the rest of their stuff.

The heaviness is there in spades and cuts through the speakers every second of the record until it stops. They have the jazz-like experimental-ness and break-neck tempo changes of Dillinger Escape Plan but instead of complex guitar riffs it’s just pure heavy chugs that just seem to get heavier than what was played before. ‘O’ God…’ was the first with current singer Cory Brandan Putman, so the style of singing was new, fresh but also kept with what Josh Scogin had done on previous releases – the album jumps from screamed spits to soft heart-filled vocals which is what you’d expect from a metalcore album made in the early-mid 2000’s only even the soft vocals are still pretty heavy, something that no other band really did.

The album is full of great tracks, most notably “Pretendeavor: In Reference To A Sinking Ship” which is a track that includes everything I’ve went over – the vocals both jump between ear bleeding and soul soothing, the lyrics and beautiful and talk of a fear of the unknown and insecurity that comes with that and even the title is something that I love, so much thought had been put into it, gives me more connection to it somehow.

So after all this, all I’m really gonna say is that you should be listening to these guys if your into the heavy chaos of metalcore; start off on this album and go from there. Until the next time I get obsessed with a band – RAWK IT!

Best Of 2013…Kinda

This’ll be the first real piece of writing I’ve done in months for the blog, reasons being simple – University work, a new job and an overall writers block. No excuse sure, but meh, this is MY blog after all so blah!!
I haven’t been silent obviously; anyone that’s a follower of the Facebook page (and why the hell wouldn’t you be after all) will know that I’ve been active with sharing updates and the big Advent Calendar project that went on this month. Also something that’s pretty big and awesome news-wise is that it seems I’ve been lucky enough to secure some time to do a proper face-to-face interview with one of our favourite bands on the blog Every Time I Die (hopefully a video interview too!!).

But enough with the catch-up, lets ride the rocket and live in the now, the year’s ending and so that kinda calls for an end of the year, best record/song/whatever list right. Well frankly for me atleast current music from this year has sucked, apart from a few albums (and I mean a few) the year has sucked. So instead of restricting tracks from THIS year, I’m gonna list tracks that I’ve enjoyed this year from any year, just an overall sort of thing – this’ll be tracks that I’ve rediscovered, new tracks I’ve discovered and pretty much be dominated by Dillinger Escape Plan…


1.  Dillinger Escape Plan – “Prancer”

OK, was there any question what number one would be, I mean seriously this track has been my entire year – its ferocious and ear-achingly heavy. The screams of Puciato pierce the ears, the lyrics will scald your soul and the passion shown will bring tears to yours eyes. It’s the track that opened up the door for me to Dillinger, and from here, from the second I saw the video of their performance at the Golden Gods Awards show, I was so intrigued and interested that I had to get into them. I did and I’m super happy that I did, it ended up in me having two amazing nights seeing them back-to-back and them destroying it both shows.

2. Savage Garden – “To The Moon And Back”

Sure sure this is an old track, ancient even in some people’s mind, but honestly it was this year that it kinda started making sense to me. I don’t know, but I just sort of gave in and accepted more music this year – and this track was one of the first one’s that I really got into once that barrier of machismo was knocked down.
It’s just a beautiful track, the lyrics are so poignant and hard-hitting, and you know what’s being sung about every step of the way through the 5 minute classic. Not to mention just how damn catchy it is; there’s a reason why it killed in 1995, and then again in 1997, and why it still continues to kill to this day.

3. Eighteen Visions – “She’s A Movie Produced Masterpiece”

It just wouldn’t be a Ghostchant blog post without some 18V shoe-horned in now would it haha. But seriously, this is a song that I never really cared about before this year, heck I didn’t even really care about the entire ‘Until The Ink Runs Out’ album before this year – it all just seemed one-note and very much filler full. But for some reason, at some point this year this song just clicked; it all made sense, the entire concept of the song became clear. It’s a celebration of women, most importantly that one woman that just drives each guy crazy, that girl that a guy will dream about and will lust over. The lyrics are super awesome and standard Eighteen from the fashioncore era – talking about sex and girls and the perceived “cool” things in general. It’s another catchy tune that totally grabs the listener and keeps a hold of them till the track finishes: it could even also be attributed to starting the handlebar dance that James Hart (lead singer) would continue to use till the very last 18V show.

4. College – “A Real Hero”

This song totally crept up on me, from my flatmate randomly putting it on it easily and quickly became one of my favourite tracks ever. I don’t know why - the catchiness of it all? The meaningful lyrics? The fast tempo and overall tunefulness? Its use in Drive? Frankly its all of those reasons, its just a tremendous track that pretty much helped me appreciate this sort of music so much more, which in turn led to my growing liking for New Wave music, which nicely ties into…

5. Depeche Mode – “Stjärna”/”Behind The Wheel”/”Home”/” I Want You Now”/”Little 15”

…Depeche Mode, probably like my #2 favourite band I’ve discovered this year behind Dillinger. Seriously, I don’t know, I’ve always heard of them and have heard some of their stuff (my father’s real big into 80s music and Depeche in general), not to mention it’s the New Wave genre that inspired so many of my favourite bands from today. Specifically it’s the ‘Music For The Masses’ era of the band that really captures me, their darkest album both lyrically and in sound. Hell the music videos they had done were these ominous black and white stories that could destroy a sane persons mind.

 

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So yeah, there’s a short Top 5 of my favourite tracks that I’ve been digging this year, like I said this year music-wise for me has really been monopolised by discovering Dillinger Escape Plan, getting heavy into Depeche Mode and becoming more emotionally attached to Eighteen Visions’ music. So the question to you people, what the hell have you guys been listening to? Did the Advent Calendar project inject any new favourites to you? Are you guys sick of hearing me going on about Eighteen Visions?

Every Time I Die (Half Set) - June 4th, 2002