James Moore's Blog, page 81

So You Want To Take On A New Project…

Every project you take on in the music industry needs to balance a variety of factors. It’s the scale inside your head that determines if whatever project you happen to be tackling is worth it. I want to examine what some of these key factors should be and how they need to be weighted relative to each other if you want to have a successful breadth of projects. As we’ve discussed before – in the music industry you need to diversify your income streams, but if these diversified income streams are making your life impossible, then they shouldn’t necessarily be what you are trying to orient your entire life around. Every project you take on needs to go through this because the second you start to lose value of yourself and instead prioritize the music industry over everything is the second that the validity of your work goes down the drain and you become just another shill. If you want to keep being the best you that you can be then you need to keep these factors in mind.

The first factor is of course stress. This comes in many different ways, and in fact can be broken down into a variety of subfactors. For some people this might include work hours, but for me that’s more tied into income. For me stress comes from three things – deadlines, lack of flexibility, and bullies. Now, the first two things on that list are okay in moderation. Of course we need deadlines, otherwise nothing would get done – that’s fine. We also do need to be able to stand firm when we need to. It’s how you make sure that your morals stay upright and ideas get executed properly. This too should not really pose a problem as long as the people in question aren’t utterly pig headed. It’s bullies that you need to watch out for. A lot of people forget that this is only rock and roll and if they are getting too caught up in their own circle jerk then you have an obligation to call them out – otherwise you will get lost in their madness and feel awful about yourself.

The second key factor to keep in mind is income. This balances itself out in a variety of ways. First of all obviously is the raw number that you are making. I’m not going to try and tell you how much you should be trying to make – but you need to probably keep numbers in mind when taking on new clients. Of course, asides from the raw number you need to consider the pay per hour. You need to make sure that however much time you are contributing is worth it relative to the pay. Income can manifest itself in other ways too. If for example you get taken out to eat a couple times a week because of a gig, then maybe it makes sense to take a job that pays a little (but not a lot) less than you would like. Obviously getting paid in ‘experience’ is fucking stupid – but if you are getting a chance to work with legendary musicians or getting connections that could pay off long term that’s another reason to take a pay cut. But again – working for free is rarely a good call, and you need to make sure that all the numbers will end up working out. You don’t want to undervalue yourself.

The final, major factor is your enjoyment. There are a lot of jobs I do for minimal pay just because I enjoy them. I mean, yes I think a lot of them will probably turn into something greater, hell, a lot of them already have, but that you need to appreciate that not all of this music industry stuff is there to make you money. You need to do a lot of volunteer work if you want to get anywhere. That’s how it works in any industry, whether you like it or not, and quite honestly as far as I can tell that’s how its worked in a lot of industries for decades now, for better or for worse. If you enjoy a project and you think that it could help you make a ton of money in the next few years or get you to meet people who could help you to make a ton of money then it is definitely worth it. After all – we all got into this for the love of it – we shouldn’t be turned into money grubbing freaks just because now we are trying to go out and be ‘professionals’.

The other factors that play out tend to be smaller – but they are very important. Many of them can be job specific, like having a particularly cute co-worker, or a boss who has supported you in other projects for years. Some factors can be categorized as subsections of those two main factors, like the notion of long term time investment I touched on with regards to income. Others can be personal. For example if you have health issues you would obviously want to make sure that whatever jobs you take on will be sensitive to that. I’ve never actually listed out the factors that influence me, but I feel like I probably should, and you might find a benefit from doing it yourself. The thing is – the better you know the factors that impact whether or not you take a job then the more selective you will be able to be and the less time you will waste on dead end jobs that you know that you are going to hate every minute of.

Above all, music is supposed to be a fun thing and we are not supposed to stress out to much over it. If people keep influencing you to feel shitty about yourself and hate your work in the music industry then that means that you probably didn’t look at these factors properly and that you should maybe re-evaluate your position. It’s not always your fault – people screw up, it happens. Yet by looking hard and long at every one of these factors before accepting someone new’s money then you know that you will be able to figure out a better tomorrow and one that helps not just you but also all of your friends. After all, we’re just trying to build a better community.

Independent Music Promotions’ (www.independentmusicpromotions.com) revolutionary music PR campaigns are the most effective in the industry. Submit your music to us today.

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The Best Part Of The Music Industry

The best part of the music industry is not necessarily the music. I know that might sound weird, I mean, as Zappa said, “Music is the best.” Like, you can’t get any better than music. But sometimes in the music industry the way that the music manifests itself is not going to be what really excites you on a particular day. I mean, that will always be, and should always be a part of it but it might not be the most interesting part. It doesn’t make sense to support crappy music, but sometimes you aren’t being paid to be a judge of quality. What is cool about the music industry is that it is the ultimate teacher. It gives you a chance to explore yourself and find out more about the world as a whole, even if at first you don’t necessarily realize it. In other words – the music industry, as is, is something of a symbol for all of the rest of this screwed up world of ours.

Relatively early on in my music career I learned that working in the music industry isn’t really a question of listening to songs and deciding if they are good or not. I mean, that’s part of it. That’s how I started, as a music reviewer. It rapidly goes far beyond that if you want it to, from being a reviewer you become a music writer and you have to know about like, y’know, actual writing and grow your tastes beyond whatever genre you chose to write about in the first place. Then from, there you start to learn about other things and if you want to get really involved you suddenly find yourself learning intricacies of weird subjects you never thought you would have to study – like t shirt printing, or CD manufacturing. Of course, these things are obvious, it’s when you start studying old architectural blueprints that you realize that the music industry has the potential to teach you a whole lot, and whether you like it or not, if you want to grow, then you are going to have to embrace it.

The beautiful part of the music industry is that it is tied into so many others. You see – eventually you find that if you are managing bands or part of a record label or in any sort of way associated with product creation that it’s a whole involved process, and even though it might start off simple (After all – printing CD’s isn’t exactly hard) once you start to attack things with a bit more ambition whole worlds are unveiled. For example – if you start to pick apart the world of endorsements and you show a genuine interest in your endorsers (Which you should, because they are giving you free stuff, and odds are you probably want more free stuff) then you start to find out how things like guitar picks are made. Other times you start to find about how clothes beyond shirts are made – it’s all interesting ad it’s all worth knowing about because it can allow you to save money and live better in the long run. It’s just a question of learning.

I know that this attitude of perpetual curiosity can be hard to maintain in an industry that leaves so many people jaded. You just have to realize that the world is a beautiful place. I know better than most that once you get stuck in the world of pure music it’s really hard to talk to people who are outside that world – but you are always going to need to because you need to understand than they have cool stuff to contribute too. If the end goal of humanity is to produce art (Which I’m genuinely convinced that it is) then we have something of an obligation to work together in order to use the resources that we have cultivated as a species an help use them to create a better tomorrow. We are meant to be artists – so if that means that you need to study how speakers work for three days in order to properly implement them at your music festival then you had goddamn better well do it. The thing is – it eventually becomes worth it. Knowing how to learn stuff is an important skill to have. When the time comes that you need to do stuff outside of the music industry for whatever reason (You’re sick of it, you have a life, etc) then all the skills you put to good use in music will come out.

The thing to do is realize that it all is organic. Everything in this industry is an extension upon everything else. You need to rely on the common infrastructure for creating products simply because that’s the foundation for our entire society. You are never going to escape it, so you might as well embrace it as hard as you can an take full advantage of it. Obviously some people will want to give discounts to musicians, but others will never understand. Some people are going to understand the financial struggles and play nice, others are just awful bureaucrats who don’t understand that musicians are crazy and it’s really hard to get them to do anything right ever. The relationship between musicians and the real world is always going to be tenuous – so the more that you can figure out about how industries work and the more you read the more you are going to be able to help create a more beautiful tomorrow for everyone.

So yes – I never thought that my teenage obsession with Slayer would lead to me reading long articles about electroplating in order to better understand my friend Crusty Pete – but it has. I never expected that a passion for Motorhead would take me to standing on factory floors discussing with workers efficiency ratings for different screen printing machines, but it has. It’s awesome. If the music industry was just about music – don’t you think that you would start to get bored after a while? There’s a lot to love about music, but it’s when it gets challenging, when you have to ride the wave and truly delve in and find out more that things become ferocious and fun. It’s a trip -so hop on board for the crazy wild ride.

Independent Music Promotions’ (www.independentmusicpromotions.com) revolutionary music PR campaigns are the most effective in the industry. Submit your music to us today.

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An Open Letter To Unsigned Bands

Dear Unsigned Band,

I don’t think I can care anymore. Trust me. I tried. I wrote about all your shows. Covered your mediocre records. Showed up early to watch you perform a crappy set using your buddy Jake’s kit. I even told you your band was pretty good. It was fun for a while, I felt like one of these bands would eventually make it big and I could say “I knew them when,” I think it has to end though. I’ve given you a chance to change and while some of you certainly have it’s the overall mediocrity that has alienated legions of fans. The worst part of it all? It’s not me, it’s definitely you.

I know I sound pretentious and I know that all my favorite bands started as unsigned bands and like I said, a lot of you are fine. The issue is the group of truly awful ones who are ruining it for everybody. Its the ones who show up late and are impatient with touring bands who make me want to give up on you. It’s the ones who don’t bother to set up any merchandise and then whine about how its impossible for a band to make money these days. It’s the ones who seem to dedicate half of their set to cringey stage banter and who hammer their pseudo political message down your throat. Oh and please stop crying about pay to play. Either boycott those shows or just suck it up. It’s not complicated. In other words, it’s the ones who simply aren’t with it who make me want to leave you.

You might be asking “How do I get with it?” and to be totally honest I can’t tell you for certain. From what I’ve seen it just comes from hanging out with touring bands and being down to do whatever you can to help them. That is, and always has been the best way to learn how to support your scene. Eventually these attitudes are going to start merging into your band and will help you build up a better tomorrow. You wonder why you can’t get on the cool shows but then you don’ try to support the scene, you’re just not doing yourself any favors.

The problem, my dear Unsigned Band is that too often you think it’s all about you and it’s not. Too often you expect the world to bend in your favor just because you happen to be in the band, but guess what, it won’t be. Even though things are changing, the band is still frequently at the bottom of the food chain financially, and until you start making an effort to change that with whatever model your own group chooses to follow, then you have no right to complain about it. The music industry is about the fans, not the bands. So we don’t want to see you do a ten minute final song, or put up with your stupid antics, we just want to see you put on a tight show and then get out of our hair.

I’m not totally against you Unsigned Bands, in fact it’s easy to see why you’re important to me. Some of my favorite bands in the world are unsigned. You have a very important place in the scene, even if a lot of people don’t want to admit it. I’d argue though that you need to get to know your place a little bit better, because when you overstep your boundaries people get a little pissed off. Some of us put up with a dozen of you a week and do our best to support you, but after a point we are going to start to crack. If you’re going to expect the undivided attention of people at your shows then you had better be giving 100% and then some. Then maybe just maybe I can enjoy your company properly for the first time in months.

I believe in you Unsigned Bands. I have so much faith you couldn’t even begin to comprehend it. It’s just that you routinely disappoint me and make me wonder why I even bothered in the first place. Give me something to dream about, give me a path forward and a reason to want to fight. You are the foundation of the musical world and there is a lot of responsibility on you, so you might as well act like it. The harder you work the more people are going to want to pay attention to you and the more likely it is that one day we can end up back together. I believe in you Unsigned Bands, the real question is do you believe in yourselves?

Independent Music Promotions’ (www.independentmusicpromotions.com) revolutionary music PR campaigns are the most effective in the industry. Submit your music to us today.

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The Cult Of Personality And Heavy Metal

If metal is supposed to be about the individual then why do we spend so much time in our hero worship of the stars? Metalheads like to claim that they are immune from the common threads that make people so awful and yet they perhaps engage in more hero worship than any other subgroup of fans. Don’t think that I’m not saying that metal icons aren’t worthy of our love either, they certainly are. Yet just because I happen to worship at Trey Azagthoth’s altar of madness does not mean I shouldn’t question if it’s truly justified. It ties into several questions – namely – is metal supposed to be a part of society like this? Furthermore – what does this culture of hero worship and a tendency for metal to create cults of personality say about us?

I’ve always had a weird time dealing with the cult of personality in metal because I love to worship things just as other folks worship celebrities or um.. Brita water filters (That’s something normies like right?) And I have always felt that metal was a bit more justified because it was worshiping someone famous for their passion. I’ve certainly contributed to cults of personality with my writing. Maybe I just like to think that metalheads are a little bit more aware when they choose who they wish to honor, but we all know that probably isn’t the case and it’s just that good ol’ elitism sneaking its way back in. Ultimately, as much as we don’t want to admit it, metal is a part of society now more than ever, and hero worship is going to come with that.

As we all know though, hero worship has always been a little bit more intense in metal, in large pat because the metal fandom tends to be far more intense than others. There’s a lot of reasons for this, but I think a large part of it stems from the fact that metal is based on a culture of oppression. Historically it as ‘not been okay’ to like metal, and as with anything else that is ‘not okay’ to like this has cultivated what one might call extremists. Historically metal has made its name on superfans, the types of people who carve “Slayer” into their arms or who kill themselves because they think that Rob Halford told them to. If we didn’t have these superfans giving everything up for this kind of music then the odds are we wouldn’t have metal in the first place. Regardless of anything, we need the cult of personality in metal in order to fund careers.

That intensity is a double edged blade though. While on the one hand it can lead to people spending hundreds of dollars on a merch stand (Which is awesome) or letting a band sleep on their floor it can also have more negative impacts. I already mentioned the kids who killed themselves because of Judas Priest, but I think we all know that it has gone far beyond that. After all, wasn’t the slaying of Dimebag the result of a superfan? Isn’t our collective superfandom at least partially responsible for the early deaths of many of our icons? This doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be superfans, we just need to think about it. It’s one of those weird things that just forces me to question the bitter realities we all must embrace in the arts, and then we have to realize that by creating a culture where self destructive tendencies are lauded we have a lot to answer for.

The cult of personality has been one of the core elements of metal culture since the beginning. After all, do you think Black Sabbath wold have been nearly as popular if they weren’t wearing giant crosses and black hippy garb? Would KISS have made it big as “Wicked Lester” the bands name before they donned the now iconic face paint? There really is no escaping it. Hell, even Phil Anselmo, the godfather of extreme metal has used the larger than life persona around him to drive forth his own Housecore Records. In many ways the cult is a good thing, but it certainly is a weird thing to have to think about, especially given the bizarre forementioned consequences.

So what does this mean for you? Don’t feel obligated to stop carving Slayer into your arm, but also realize that when you start to foist unrealistic expectations on your heroes you can hurt them. Everyone likes it when people pays special attention to them but especially in the metal underground where there is literally negative money a lot of these people can only do so much. Before you say it’s a choice to be a metal con, you have to realize you are sadly mistaken. It’s not like Max Cavalera can end Soulfly and go get a normal person job. That’s simply not how any of this works.

I guess all I can say is keep on worshiping. While on the one hand it’s going to potentially have a negative effect on those you love it’s also pretty much he only way for them to keep going. I guess if you want to use a word popular among millennials you could call this issue problematic. I personally don’t really care, do whatever you want to do, just try and maintain a certain level of maturity about it. As someone who knows a lot of these superstars, it never pays to be the neckbeard pawing at them. Otherwise have a good time and spend some money on your heroes, they will appreciate it.

Independent Music Promotions’ (www.independentmusicpromotions.com) revolutionary music PR campaigns are the most effective in the industry. Submit your music to us today.

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Hellfest Day Three: A Return To Earth

So we come to the final day. A day that had one of the sickest lineups that I have ever seen on any festival ever, and I’m not just saying that because of Black Sabbath. I was running around all day – sweating, yelling and stressed beyond belief, but loving every bloody minute of it. As much as this industry can be a thing of tears and sacrifice sometimes there is a very poignant beauty to embracing the bleak realities and darting between stages because oh my god you guys – heavy metal is so much fun. Getting lost and drunk is simply a part of the Hellfest experience. Yet at the end of it all – we found peace in our drinks and the knowledge we had seen some of the best bands ever.

First up on the day for me was The Skull. I’ve known their guitarist Rob Wrong for years now, and watching him rock out with some of his musical heroes was a pleasure – it was the happiest I had ever seen him. Roadieing for a band like that is always an honor since there are just so many years of history in the music that it reminds you why you fell in love in the first place. Erik’s trademark vocals and Ron’s bass swagger invoke all of the power of Trouble, and as a matter of fact, The Skull are more Trouble than Trouble at present. The point being – the band put on one of the hardest rocking sets of the entire festival and digging into what they had done was far too much fun. The Skull understand the fundamental power of rock and roll – they want to spread the magic to the masses, and on that beautiful Sunday they did – they did it on a level that they are proud to have been doing since all the way back to their inception in the 70s.

From there I had a chance for a bit of a sit down and an excellent chat with Lothar from The Skull. He, like everyone in that band is incredibly intelligent and a product of one of metals most storied scenes. This particular Sunday seemed to have everybody who was anybody running around the backstage. Even Henry Rollins made a brief appearance. The only fixture missing was Phil Anselmo – a man whose fuck up earlier this year was so big that multiple people who had never even been to America asked me about it and my opinions on it. If you can screw up on a level that has people in Lithuania are talking about it – you need to start worrying. That being said – I’m certain that even he will be back to these hallowed grounds. You can only escape the vortex of Hellfest for so long after all.

Suddenly it was time for Blind Guardian. They are one of those bands whose records I never especially dug (Though there are selections I treasure) but I have always loved their live shows. Getting to stand on stage for that was a beautiful experience. The guys were on point with their performance too. Hansi has a brilliant understanding of how to work a crowd and watching him guide the punters through chorus after massive chorus was a true pleasure. It’s stunning to see how easily this man delivers and how clean the bands execution is. In many ways their music was designed for festivals with big simple lines capturing the imaginations of thousands. Best of all was the chorus for “Valhalla” the bands trademark song. Looking out on fifty thousand people screaming a chorus with absolutely no musical encouragement from the band is absolutely stunning and the kind of experience that you simply are not able to forget. So much of the scale of it is beyond human comprehension.

That’s the thing about Hellfest – it transcends your reckoning. As much as you can calculate the numbers and figure out how much each band costs and how far each person traveled and all that fun stuff, there is something far greater going on here. When you go to Hellfest you are privileged with the opportunity to see a fundamental part of the human experience that is far too often ignored. You are seeing the power of tens of thousands of individuals to come together and revel in the ethereal magic that heavy metal can bring. When you come to Hellfest you are becoming a part of an overarching thing – a transcendent spiritual experience that can not be put into words and which you will never understand yourself. What I’m trying to say is that after Blind Guardian I got to see Slayer from the front row.

I mean – who doesn’t want to see Slayer from the front row? Especially when they only play a pair of songs from their par for the course new record and then turn to focus almost exclusively on the classics. While it’s impossible to shoe-horn every Slayer classic into a mere hour long set, the band sure did their best. One thing that always strikes me when I see Slayer is how ridiculously vile the band is. I love it – it reminds me of why I got into metal in the first place. The sense of evil in the music is cleansing, its powerful, its in many ways far too much, over the top even, and that makes it glorious. In a world where most just want to engage in dull auto masturbatory thrash metal Slayer remind us how fucking evil their music was meant to be, and even as Tom Araya turns into thrash metal Santa Claus and the band continues to perform while missing half the lineup, Slayer maintains something from back in the day that means whenever they play they absolutely crush it and are going to make you honor their soul searing sacrifice to the heavy metal gods.

I missed Amon Amarth because I had to go interview Enslaved, but even as I heard them wrapping up their set as I wrapped up my interview I realized that they are the perfect example with regards to what I said earlier about not seeing a band who will be on tour near you. Don’t get me wrong – I love Amon Amarth and would love to see them on a festival stage. But when it’s the choice between seeing six bands in a row or missing a band you will see in the next few months and having a sit down instead the choice seems to start to become fairly obvious. Conserve your energy – those headlining sets are critical. (Editors note: The day this article went live, five days after Amon Amarth played Hellfest, the band announced a US tour with Megadeth featuring a date twenty minutes from the authors apartment)

Speaking of which, I did end up seeing Megadeth for a few minutes. Asides from my initial surprise that they had been billed above Slayer, Megadeth pretty much did what it says on the tin. Dave Mustaine remains a great guitar player, as is Kiko Louriero, who I am pleased to say was given more than a few solos by the ginger haired legend. All that to say, the vocals were horrid. As much as I would like to love Megadeth, I’ve never been able to dive in because of Mustaine’s singing and the live context didn’t help at all. While the guitar solos were certainly fun for the first minutes, things got dull pretty quickly and left me wondering how Megadeth is planning on evolving over the few years given their recent lacks. Still people seem to be into it- and though I didn’t force myself to watch the whole thing I definitely think I’m starting to better understand the appeal of the band.

The hour was nigh suddenly for three of my most hotly anticipated bands of the weekend. After two days of heavy interviews I only conducted four on Sunday and that gave me a lot more time to see the bands I had wanted to see and prepare myself mentally for the triple whammy that would be Ghost, Black Sabbath and King Diamond. I feel like that booking should be lauded in and of itself. That’s insane. It’s a lineup that most metalheads would only fantasize over – but if you were standing in the right spot of the right field last night in France you could get a decent view of all of them without even moving. That’s how good Hellfest is.

So first up was Ghost. They’ve been one of my favorite live bands for a minute now and for good reason I think. In a world where far too few bands give in to the sheer spectacle of heavy metal Ghost deliver with pride. The Faceless Ghouls, while at once one of the most subtle and minor touches are one of my favorite aspects of the band– especially when you consider that Dave Grohl has admitted to performing live with the band several times. When you consider that this band only really came up a few years ago and now have tens of thousands of people swarming to their shows and screaming their lyrics it’s hard to ignore what the band has done. They are the heavy metal icons of their generation and are going to be dominating similar sized stages for years to come – and sooner than we think they will even be the main headliners on all of the main festival stages of Europe – be they metal or not.

It was cool then after seeing the future to go see the past. Black Sabbath. The greatest band ever on what is allegedly their last tour ever. I stood with Rob and Ron from The Skull, and all three of us, grown men with years of experience in the scene under our belts let the tears flow freely. We all knew this would be the last time and Black Sabbath killed it. Not only did they break out ‘Dirty Woman’ they otherwise didn’t even stray from the first four albums. When the band played Beyond The Wall Of Sleep and let that turn into NIB I lost my shit. This was the moment I had been waiting for for my entire life. To be young, drunk and beautiful and watching my favorite band change my world, one chord at a time. Obviously with a band like Sabbath there are a ton of songs I would have liked to have seen in addition but as is I couldn’t have been happier with the performance. Not only was I in the front row, but the last time I had seen Sabbath Ozzy had barely been able to sing. This time – though he did miss a few notes, he seemed to be much more capable of invoking what the band was all about and that left me with a smile on my face even now as I write this. The metal gods survived and nothing will take them down.

I bumped into my buddy Ernest from Awakening Sun during my post-Sabbath comedown. The last time I had seen him he had been a sprightly 20 year old. Now he had grown a beard. Had kids. Come to embrace the world as it was. Bumping into people like him is my reason for doing Hellfest. Another example was my friend Marcel who I hadn’t seen in two years and who seemed to have taken all his dreams by storm. You’ve got to keep pushing because it works out, and now where is that more clear than Hellfest – where apparently dreams do come true and you see that one day hard work eventually pays off. This is where we meet up, take care of each other and share out war stories – the friendly oasis after a year of pain.

The last band I saw was King Diamond. I sat far in the back with Ernest – chatting quietly and watching the King rock thousands of metalheads still recuperating from Black Sabbath. The man is a great performer and watching him navigate the castle on stage was a lot of fun. Meanwhile the stunning vocal lines remain ever more powerful live and force you to ask ‘how the hell does this man do it time after time?’ King Diamond is one of the most important people in metal because of his incredible stage show. The fact that it remains incredible even after his myriad health issues makes him almost superhuman. His music is the sort of thing you can and should fall in love with. Ernest turned to me mid set and said, “Man, I never really got into the records, but live it suddenly all makes sense’ After all – King Diamond is god and his word is gold.

And so Hellfest came to an end. By way of closing thoughts I am merely grateful that on the last night we get home reasonably easily and cheaply. The weekend had been defined by wonderful conversations and great bands. Beautiful people and radical music. In some ways I was glad it’s over – I’m not sure how much of that I could maintain – especially since I’m doing yet another festival next weekend. Still – we manage to struggle on. I wrote the whole first draft of this document on a seven hour train ride to my grandmothers house and now I’m hungry and tired. It’s been quite the adventure Hellfest has, and perhaps now it’s time to hop into a comfortable bed and appreciate life for what it is – weird.

Independent Music Promotions’ (www.independentmusicpromotions.com) revolutionary music PR campaigns are the most effective in the industry. Submit your music to us today.

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Day 2 Of Hellfest: Watch The Flames Burn Higher and Higher

Day two of Hellfest saw me wake up with the first traces of festival plague. I had developed something of hack overnight – I would be wheezing far more than I would like this particular Saturday. Of course – by this point the festival was in full swing. Some of my friends had gotten laid, others were trying to see if they could maintain their drunk from the previous day. The whole notion of ‘hair of the dog that bit me’ seems to be extremely popular at Hellfest. However as one reveler put it, “This is the one weekend all year these people can let go – let them have it” So in a way, there is a beauty to the stupid costumes and rabid drunkenness.

I got to the festival grounds just in time to see the almighty Mantar. Asides from being ridiculously funny guys, they put on a stellar live show. There is something wonderfully honest and pure about what Mantar are doing. This is a band who understand the beautiful and passionate humor of what they are doing and hint at something far greater in their music. The bands vocalist and guitarist, Hanno claims to have listened to AC/DC every day since the age of 11 and when you see them live it makes sense. Sure they don’t share a lot in common with the Australian rockers musically, but that doesn’t take away from the fact that Mantar have BALLS and that makes their live performances some of the most fun you will ever have. Just ask the five thousand people who moshed their hearts out to this panicked duo.

The Saturday afternoon at Hellfest was in fact one of my favorite parts of Hellfest musically. As soon as Mantar wrapped up I ran over to watch the almighty Agoraphobic Nosebleed. Though they weren’t quite as good as when I had seen them at Housecore (Which admittedly could be forgiven due to their jetlag) they still utterly slayed. There is a depraved madness to what the band does that means that even though they haven’t put out a full length record in seven years they still could gather a good ten thousand people to freak out and go absolutely crazy over four grindcore freaks and a drum machine. They brutalize the listener, the normally mild mannered band members guiding the masses to slam into each other and create a mosh pit for the ages. Grindcore with two frontpeople may very well be the future of the whole genre.

Even though Mantar and Agoraphobic Nosebleed are very different bands – at least they fall into the same general category of heavy music. The thing is – over the years Hellfest has garnered a few outliers who gather to their sacred fields – this year one of those outliers was the almighty Foreigner. I was stoked. Not only did their bassist Jeff Pilson remember who I was, he let me stand on the edge of the stage, with a perfect view onto the band and the ability to look out at tens of thousands of people, all simultaneously finding out what love is. This is the magic of Hellfest, and that’s the thing about this band. They capture the imagination. They are lords of this world. I wasn’t sure how they would go down, but even their ballads came off as ridiculously heavy. Pulsing and gyrating across the stage, the dudes in Foreigner know how to put on a show and left us all with memories for the ages. The fact that they used to be a prog metal band came out too and it reminded me once again why so many are so desperately in love with this band.

And so I had passed through the gauntlet. Three bands in totally different genres, ending with the almighty Foreigner, a band who I think have a much larger audience in the heavy meal community than anyone would dare give them credit for. Just consider the fact that Josh Elmore of Cattle Decapitation was excited to meet Jeff and watched the band before he had to go do interviews. If a dude in a band like that is obsessed with Foreigner… what does that mean for the rest of us? Meanwhile almost every press person or media professional I spoke with was thrilled on the band. They stand out as one of my highlights of the weekend and remind me why I love this festival so much. Getting a two hour break though was key – as is with any music festival. You can’t only watch bands, you need to take breaks. Otherwise you will literally die. You need to judge bands based off of how much they tour your area and realize some can be skipped in favor of a sit down because odds are they will be in our town within a year anyway.

So when I made my way over to Asphyx I was rested and ready to take on even more heavy metal magic. This was a band whose most recent record Deathhammer had captured my imagination and is still in regular rotation for me, four years after its release. Live, they absolutely slayed it with monstrous death growls coming in over top of chainsaw guitar riffs that hearkened back to the origins of death metal. It makes sense after all – these guys have been around for thirty years. Asphyx play with an almost Motorhead-esque swagger. They decimate you with crushing blasts that seem perfectly calibrated to maximize their headbanging potential. Their songs are perfectly designed – short, brutal and balls out. They are without peer in the death metal world in this regard and watching them live they delivered on everything that the records promised. Finally I understood why there are so many backpatch toting Asphyx freaks in this world – the band rips.

It was time for another break for me. I know that sounds silly – but frankly speaking when you are super drunk and didn’t sleep the night before, sometimes you should just go do some interviews and enjoy life rather than continue to beat yourself over the head with you love of death metal. Don’t judge people for their lack of attendance, because if you think the music is the only thing to love about a festival… well you are very, very wrong. Shows at home are constructed with only a few bands for a reason – you can only do so much. Festivals for me seem to be more about curating what you see on a grander scale and getting the maximum enjoyment out of a few bands. That’s why it didn’t bother me that I couldn’t get a good spot for Twisted Sister – at least I could go to see my perennial favorites Napalm Death.

Ah Napalm Death. Even their band name lets you know what you  are going to get. You have to love these guys, even if it is for nothing else than their perfectly calibrated setlists. There are some songs that are fresh from their latest album, the excellent Apex Predator Easy Meat and then others that the band has been playing for literally thirty years. While they still don’t have Mitch Harris back in unfortunately, they still destroy live. Now that I’ve gotten to see both the American and European lineups of the sans-Harris Napalm Death I’m starting to feel that the European guitar player is a much stronger option. The vocal delivery and stage presence of the European guitarist is far superior. Otherwise – the band delivered as they always do, with Barney Greenway darting about the stage like a thing possessed and the songs cracking forward with the sense of brutal nihilism that has made this band so important and valuable over the years. The anarchists used Hellfest to fight fascism in front of legions and they succeeded with aplomb.

Then something happened which I had never expected – not only did I see Korn for the second time (Already shock since I don’t especially like the band) but I also saw them from the side of the stage after my friend flirted briefly with the drummer. This is the kind of weird magic Hellfest has – because as I found myself on a crowded side stage I decided to poke my head around the other end and found that there was almost no one there save for a few close friends. And so we headbanged and partied to one of the most controversial bands of the 90s. I learned a lot about Korn during that set and while I still don’t necessarily like their music I can certainly see the appeal and it makes m curious to go in and discover more. After all- if they can shape an aesthetic and get fifty thousand kids screaming their name at 2 in the morning they must be doing something right, right?

And another night of Hellfest faded to dust. Long hours spent in the VIP talking to dear friends seem to define my evenings at Hellfest and I love it. The opportunity to just sit down, chill out and revel in being together is a magical thing. It makes me wish I went to Europe more often and forces me to realize that I probably should be steeling myself for another European expedition in the near future. For the second night in the row we had major issues with taxis because apparently the French can’t understand basic economic principles. But that’s just me being a grouch. In many ways if I didn’t periodically end up in a cab at five in the morning singing Foreigner at very confused cab driver I don’t know what I would make of myself. Sometimes you just need to look around and realize that that’s how the cookie crumbles.

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Day One Of Hellfest: The Survival Fires

Ah day one of Hellfest. The air smells of infinite possibility. Maybe we’ll get to sleep with a rock star this year. Maybe we can avoid the mud that plagued the festival all weekend (We definitely couldn’t) maybe we will get so earth shatteringly drunk that we won’t remember inevitably throwing up all over EVERYTHING. Or maybe we’ll miss seeing a bunch of bands because we wanted to hang out with our friends. In all honesty – any of those options is pretty cool. Hellfest can be brutal, and there are worse ways to pass a weekend than drinking with people who have similar interests for three days. The artist VIP would be my home base and from there I would try and plot the greatest interview to shows attended balance I had ever come up with.

I started the weekend off immediately with Wo Fat. They are a band whose records have historically given me a bit of a hard time but whose live performances are critically lauded. I had never seen them live before (An increasing rarity for me) and was excited for their performance. Witnessing them melt the faces of the several thousand people who had gotten up early to see them was delicious. The band is so jam oriented that putting them on an album doesn’t really do justice to what they are capable of accomplishing. Live,it is a pleasure to watch them melt together to create something that is quite honestly transcendent and speaks to the enduring power of stoner rock. You get to chill out and delve deep into a world that is green tinted and in love with the pentatonic foundation of rock and roll.

As the band wrapped up I managed to catch them and lock down an interview. What was nice about this particular edition of Hellfest was that there weren’t quite many bands that I desperately wanted to see – and in many ways this was a good thing. Sure I had missed titans like Monolord earlier in the morning, but it also meant that I had a bit more time to chill out. Normally Hellfest can get a bit stressful with having to decide what bands I have to miss in order to do interviews, and while some of that happened this year, I was a lot more comfortable overall with my personal execution. Perhaps this is why I didn’t get as drunk as I usually do.

After interviewing Wo Fat and a pair of other groups, the time came for me to run off to see Havok, a band I’d never really been ‘in to’ but definitely was curious to witness in a live context. My curiosity more than paid off. There is a very distinct sort of magic that comes from watching a top notch thrash metal band melt the faces of ten thousand crazed people on a beautiful afternoon in a field in Franc. The only thing that could have made it better was if it was in an open air stage and not the tent. Even as is – Havok left me extremely impressed. The band play songs with massive meaty hooks and riffs upon riffs. In many ways it feels made for a festival stage. As they careened through their set it was impossible not to be charmed – this is a thrash metal band for the ages.

Up next for chaboi (Beyond more interviews) was Earth. In my opinion Earth have always been one of the most important and exciting bands in the world. They are the kind of band whose influence can not be overstated and who are such a force of nature live that to call them anything less would be an insult. Earth are the sort of band who, when playing to five thousand people, as they did at the Valley stage, are able to turn the entire crowd into a single unified being, enamored by the riff and enslaved to the almighty booming power that this sort of music can hold, especially over weak, broken spirits like us. With a slightly ridicuous faux-wolf tail dangling from the back of his pants, Dylan Carson sits proudly at the front of Earth, guitar perpendicular to the ground as he solos maniacally and shows us a path to freedom.

It was at this point that I found myself really starting to ride the wave. Hellfest is a delicate operation every year. You are operating on high amounts of alcohol, minimal amounts of sleep, and a maximum of things to do. It takes a few hours to really grab the bull by the horns and figure out what you are going to do with the creature. Yet with every Hellfest I have been to, while there certainly are ups and downs I’ve always been struck by an overall sense of magic realism. Weird little things happen at Hellfest, like when I got to introduce Jeff Pilson of Foreigner to Josh Elmore of Cattle Decapitation. It’s the little things that make it worth it and remind us why this festival is so goddamn great in the first place.

This was exactly why when it came time for me to watch the Melvins (Who I had had a great interview with earlier in the day) everything seemed to feel right. As always, the Melvins were absolutely stunning. Buzz Osborne’s philosophies shine through in the live show and they decimated the gathered masses at the Valley stage. Their live performance remains as decisively energetic and wonderfully weird as ever. The latest incarnation of the lineup – a three piece – utterly decimated in a live setting and reminded me why these guys have been hailed by so many for so long and why they have stuck around as long as they have. As a matter of fact, I was pleasantly surprised to find out that nowadays the Melvins are doing better than ever financially, and as anyone who has listened to their new record can tell you, musically as well.

Around this time my friends from Agoraphobic Nosebleed showed up and I got to play host. I’d like to take a moment to point out that the folks in Agoraphobic are some of the best people in the business. Asides from the fact that their band rules and half of them play in another kickass band, they are just very funny dudes. It’s weird when you meet people as low key as they who also play in bands as vicious as theirs, but in many ways it makes sense. Maybe I’m just writing this because I’m hung over and John Jarvis gave me a funny speech about our Words With Friends games, or maybe, just maybe, Agoraphobic Nosebleed are with their new material hinting at a bold future of grind.

So, with such a forward thinking band it made sense that we should go to see French prog icons Magma together. Playing in front of what may very well have been the biggest crowd of their 47 year career they unleashed some of the most stunning music I have ever seen, and I’ve watched them live before. After months of hard touring though Magma have reached a new peak. In the last twenty minutes of their set, the orchestra that is Magma crafted a massive crescendo, all directed by a seventy year old drummer who seemed just about ready to explode with his insane dedication and mind altering rhythms. This is a band who create sounds far heavier than any of their peers without using an ounce of distortion. They wrap you up in something monstrous and refuse to let you escape.

It was now that I hit one of the foundational problems of Hellfest – a problem I doubt they will ever be able to fix. I hoped to catch a little bit of Rammstein before running over to see Sunn 0))) for no other reason than that I know they have an amazing live show and I’ve never had a chance to see them. Yet, as I tried to snake through the crowd with a few friends, we rapidly hit a wall of bodies that simply could not be penetrated. In fact, we were a part of it. And we still couldn’t see. That’s what happens when you cram 40,000 people onto one space that small. It makes me wonder why people who aren’t VIP go to festivals at all. I’m not sure how you guys manage, but I admire your tenacity.

So since Rammstein was obviously not going to work out I decided to run over to see the almighty prophets of the riff in Sunn 0))) – another band I had never previously seen. I was a little surprised to see none of my industry buddies side stage at their show – but I didn’t especially care. I managed to find the perfect spot on stage – literally on the edge and mere feet away from the great men themselves. Their set was utterly mindblowing. Sure in many ways it’s just one extended chord – but the brain crushing power of their volume (As the stage shook I thought I would die under a pile of collapsed amplifiers) was transcendent. The deliberate nature of their movements, In conjunction with the robes and copious amounts of smoke made for a stage show that was as potent as it was minimalistic. It’s rare that I totally lose track of time during a set, but Sunn 0))) did exactly that and forced me to contemplate my place in the world.

Running around as the night came to an end (Finding a cab in Clisson after a day of festivalling is impossible for some STUPID reason) I found myself basking in the magic of Hellfest. Sure there was a lot of stress due to the cab situation – but at the same time I wouldn’t have it any other way. At one point, sitting with one of the most powerful women in metal we heard The Offspring play “Pretty Fly For A White Guy” and all I could think was, ‘Didn’t Weird Al write this?’ and the absurdity of the situation struck me. Here we are, thousands of gathered metalheads for what? An evening that culminates in going to bed at 5 AM with one of the most popular songs of the 90s stuck in my head.

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The Hellfest Chronicles, Part 1: The Adventure Begins

Another year. Another Hellfest. Another godforsaken ride in a train across France to go see my grandmother. It’s been two months on the road for this weary soul and it feels as if I’ve lived lifetimes. First there was a trip to LA for awards shows and networking, then there was the full US tour with Tengger Cavalry, and then there was Hellfest – the crown jewel of it all. The crown jewel of the European festival circuit even. The festival that shows the brave future of the music industry and reminds us of all the power of heavy metal and the crippling terror of the south of France – a place where it’s not so much an issue of having bad taxi drivers as much as having no taxi drivers at all. And still, we beat on.

So I sit here, talking to a wonderfully kind Irish man, dealing with a ridiculous pain in my neck, the pain that comes from primarily sleeping on floors for months on end, and trying not to cry. This isn’t freedom. This is suffering. Yet it’s all worth it. After a weekend of sex, drugs and rock and roll perhaps it is good, right and salutary that we hurt. Maybe God gave us hangovers so that we didn’t kill ourselves the day we discovered alcohol. I’m sick and tired, and sick and tired of being sick and tired (After all – I’ve been on tour since mid April) but it’s all good. It’s the nights we remember, not the back pain and crippling fatigue. Y’know, maybe I should stop bitching and actually write about this festival.

Getting to Hellfest remained easy as ever. I’ve got a system now – I ride down with the same buddies every year, buddies who I see only once a year. I always cherish our stop, midway through the voyage to pick up sandwiches for lunch. We walk into the supermarket, or convenience store or whatever and people stare at us like we are aliens. Sometimes I wear something especially weird just to goose them. And so, after a four hour drive from Paris we saw the legendary guitar sculpture that marks the portal to Hell. The gate had opened and it was up to us to enter into it.

One of the highlights of my year is when I get to traverse the Hellfest grounds on my own. On the Thursday before Hellfest it’s only people with all access or sponsors who get to go onto the fields and just look at everything. Looking at EVERYTHING is key by the way. I mean yes, there are highlights, the Lemmy statue for example, or the bars that shoot multi colored flames from the top, or even the Ferris Wheel. But it’s also the small things, the way that the lineups from previous years are set in stone, the secret seating areas, or the more hidden bars some of which feature some startling architecture. Hellfest is a heavy metal Disneyland from start to finish. And it was my job to dive right down into the heart of it.

Thursday evening I went to my usual party and saw a bunch of old friends. It made me realize how badly I’ve missed Europe all this time and how important it is that I make sure I go back more regularly. It’s rare to find a group as tightly knit and kind as the European metal elite, but there is a genuine love there. Everyone has their role, including geeks, jocks, cheerleaders and plain Jane’s. It all melts together into the same thing. These are the kind of networking events that I enjoy. Just you, some important friends, and far too much alcohol for any one group of people to reasonably consume. What more could a metal dude want?

So the night before Hellfest came to an end. I got to drunk and got a free lift to my hotel from a lovely group of Germans who I would proceed to not see for the rest of the festival. (Man, can those Germans drink!) I passed out next to a friend who I only barely knew who I was sharing a hotel room with. But that’s just how it goes sometimes. Maybe it will turn into an Ishmael and Queequeg situation or maybe you will just end up hating each other. It doesn’t matter because just as life goes on, Hellfest does not and we need to never forget that.

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Selfies And The Music Industry: Are They Our New Currency?

Selfies are the new currency of the information age. I know that’s a hard fact to deal with – I personally am awful at them and wish I didn’t have to learn. As the maxim ‘pics or it didn’t happen’ becomes ever more popular though, we are seeing that ideal turn into a common reality that we all have to embrace. In an industry where everything is based off of what you do and who you know it’s hard to ratify a lot of these things without photos. As I’ve increasingly learned in the past few years, much to my chagrin, it’s those who constantly post pictures of themselves and document their adventures who are going to start to take over the world.

In many ways this makes sense. While it’s rare that you will actually be called out for lying about knowing someone, being able to routinely show up in someones news feed with pictures of yourself with famous musicians is going to help you out. What I don’t think enough people have been able to compartmentalize about social media is that it ushered us into the age of hyper-personal branding and realizing the significance of that fact in the context of the modern music industry is going to make or break careers in the next few years. Having pictures with famous musicians isn’t just an ego boost – it’s a way for people to see that you’re out doing stuff, and if you’re not out doing stuff then people are going to wonder if you are worth working with in the first place.

Note that these selfies are about constructing a personal brand, not some sort of masturbatory celebration of self – although that can certainly be a part of it. What I’m trying to say is that posting ten thousand pictures of yourself in your bedroom probably isn’t going to help you a lot. However – posting ten thousand pictures of yourself with every musician you meet at a music festival you have VIP access to is going to seriously increase your chances of being able to use that later on for your own advantage. It shows that you are in with the artists and have a friendly relationship with people who could change your world. It helps to solidify the ‘six degrees of separation’ theory (Though in music it’s probably more like two) and reminds people of your existence.

Keep in mind that a good selfie should clearly be in a friendly context. If you’re just getting a photo with somebody at a paid for photo op then of course no one is going to respect you. I mean – that’s cool and all, but it’s certainly not helping your career. Don’t go around meeting rock stars at meet and greets and thinking that that will eventually launch you into the music industry. I’ve seen people who have tried to do that and it never works out unless you do it literally dozens of times and the artist literally can’t ignore you. The democracy of the selfie is also its undoing. People know how easy it can be to get one, that’s why you need to be very careful that the ones you post don’t make you come off as a cheap facsimile of the music mogul that you want to be.

Being in the music industry is a weird thing. It’s the strange struggle that we all find ourselves diving into that drives me absolutely crazy. When I was a younger man and first getting into this industry I never thought I’d be writing an article about personal branding. In fact this was the kind of thing that I hated when I was coming up as a punk kid. Now I’ve learned to embrace it as a necessary evil that can also be pretty fun to get involved in every now and then. If you want to expand you are periodically going to have to conform to the patterns of this world and sometimes that means dealing with the day to day crap of things like selfies. So why not just have fun with it and realize the simple beauty of taking a picture with your friend?

That’s what it boils down to by the way. No matter how stressed or upset you are by the thought of taking a selfie to promote your brand realize that you are just preserving a memory. I’ll often not see my friends in the industry for years at a time so taking a few moments to get a shot with them is a personal pleasure. It’s something I realize that I eventually would have started to do anyway. If all that matter is the beautiful life then why not embrace it and realize that none of us are getting out of this thing alive and take the frikkin selfie.

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Finding Salvation By Chilling Out

There are very few true ‘tricks’ to surviving in the music industry. I mean as soon as you can accept crippling poverty you are pretty much set. That being said, something that I’ve been realizing I’ve been getting a lot better at (and thus profiting from) has been mellowing out. This isn’t my pretentious way of saying ‘Oh I smoke way more weed now and want you to think I’m smart” because I don’t. Rather it means that when before I used to feel stressed out about everything all the time these days I feel a lot more capable of just chilling out, pouring down a cold one and realizing that ultimately it will somehow all be okay.

I’m not sure when or how this change came over me. Maybe I reached a level of being high strung where it was just like ‘No more’ and the string broke. Honestly, I’m not sure of another way for it to have happened. Regular readers know this last year has been tumultuous but somehow I’ve been able to survive with the only real mantra being ‘All that matters is the beautiful life’ That slogan alone would have pissed me off two years ago. After a point though it becomes fairly clear – be it with rock and roll redemption or the bitter nihilism of the music industry, now that I have been able to just calm down a little bit I’m a much more successful person and am much more able to organize and direct projects.

See – as helpful as 14-15 hour work days can be (And trust me I pull off a lot of them) sometimes it’s the time you take to chill out that is really going to let you survive. I’m not saying you should just have an attitude of total relaxation all the time, but having the ability to occasionally back off and be willing to say ‘screw it’ is extremely important. You have to realize that ultimately things will probably work out, especially I you have somehow been able to pull through and make them work out for you multiple times in the past. The driving passion behind this work though sometimes needs to be tempered if you want to walk out with your sanity intact.

Something that I have noticed is that the people who let themselves get the most stressed out are also among the least successful people. Rock and roll is a frequently dangerous and frustrating industry. Stuff falls through all the time and everyone is at risk of losing money almost constantly. Yet the people who don’t seem to understand this are the biggest pretenders. If you have time to go around talking about how stressed you are and how this whole thing is a bad dream that you can never escape from then clearly you have some sort of free time. It’s the people who just accept the music industry for what it is who seem to be able to find the zen in it. There is a lot to hate here, but the sooner you accept that it’s all gonna be okay then the sooner that this war seems like it has a logical conclusion.

Remember, it’s only rock and roll. There is no greater thing we are building for. We are just young and beautiful and want to share our passions with the world I don’ think that’s a goal that really is life or death, at least on an individual level. It’s easy to get caught up in delusions of grandeur and fall in love with the inherent bullshit of the music industry, but again, they are called delusions of grandeur for a reason. Every day in this industry is scary, I usually spend the first hour after I wake up putting out fires. But guess what. I’m okay with that because I have worked into my day time explicitly set up for me to be putting out fires. If you let that stress get to you you will go insane. So just chill out. Take a walk. Exercise. It’s easy to start to think that all that matters is your projects, but there is so much more to life than that and you need to know how to separate yourself from the torture of this work periodically if you want to keep on surviving.

This is part of why I love Kesha so much. She realizes that this whole thing is a load of hooey but she loves her life anyway. She reminds us that no matter what kind of stress or terror we have to deal with we’re still just humans finding a way through the trials. Remember that maxim, “All that matters is the beautiful life” Keep this in mind as you face nightmare after nightmare that comes from being in aindie band or trying to be a music industry executive. You are getting paid back in ways that are unimaginable to most people so in the end, no matter how bad it gets – it probably is going to end up being worth it.

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