TG: Shadow, first off I'd like to thank you for taking the
time to answer a few questions. If you could, could you give our
readers who may not know who you or your band are a bit of your history?
SW: It
is my pleasure, thanks for having me. I formed Shadow Windhawk and the
Morticians back in June 2013 as my solo project. At the time I was
preparing to play guitar in Argyle Goolsby’s debut solo show. The band
was originally conceptualized as a live five piece horrorpunk / doom /
shock rock outfit, with me serving frontman duties and a backing band
playing my songs. Getting a solid five-piece lineup together took some
time. The original lineup that recorded “Casket Spray” with me was Trip
MD on the drums and Rich Misery on bass / backing screams. I tracked the
guitars, wrote music and lyrics and sung lead / backing vocals on the
album. The album came out last February (digitally and on CD) and we
debuted the band live together as a three piece, opening for Michale
Graves. That was quite an honor. Shortly after that show, I brought on
my friend Stich (All Gone Dead, Corvid, Tragic Black) to play guitar in
the live band and we opened for Doyle in September as a four-piece. In
October, I also brought in Tony “Mr. Drinks” Schvaneveldt on live guitar
and he was slowly worked into the band during rehearsals, up until the
five-piece of SWATM finally debuted live on January 30th this year, when
we opened for Calabrese in SLC on their “Lust For Sacrilege” tour. As
of now, Rich Misery is not playing bass for SWATM any longer. So the
live lineup is back to Stich, Trip, Tony and I. At the moment, we’re
working on the follow up to Casket Spray, called “Cremation Garden”. The
album is a full length that I hope to have recorded and completed by
Fall this year. We are also working in a new bassist at the moment, but
for now we have no shows booked in the immediate future. We will
announce more on all that when the time comes and rest assured when we
return to the live stage it will be with a bite.
Your debut album, Casket Spray, has been met with
great feedback and multiple sold out pressings I believe. What was it
like recording the album and seeing it's success?
It has
been incredible and humbling, to say the least. I did not expect people
to respond so positively to Casket Spray. The album has been enjoying a
great deal of good press and exposure that only seems to continue as
time goes on. It’s completely bizarre for a young band to have the
audience we have at this point in the game, I’d say. People from all
over the world write me on a regular basis now. Four people in the UK
have SWATM tattoos now. It all just blows my mind, man. And yes, we sold
out three small CD pressings of the album in 2014, which was really
wonderful to see. However I have to say, success isn’t something I would
measure by CD sales. In reality, we only ever break even with merch and
CDs, we sell hardly anything compared to the bigger bands out there and
no profit is ever seen, because all the funds we make from sales of the
album go straight back into the band’s projects. If we do ever
‘profit’, it is in the fact that our next album will basically pay for
itself as far as studio time goes. But we do things very quick and dirty
in the studio, the way a band like ours should (in my opinion). Casket
Spray was tracked in one 12 hour day and by the end of day two, we had
the final mix and master in our hands.
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| Casket Spray Vinyl Cover by Tim Jacobus |
|
Speaking
of Casket Spray, you recently revealed an awesome new painted cover by
Tim Jacobus of Goosebumps fame for an upcoming vinyl release. How did
that come about?
On a shelf high above my desk is a
collection I keep of the original Goosebumps books that Tim illustrated.
For me, they represent the aspect of my youth that inspired me to fall
in love with, well to be blunt - scary shit. The old covers of those
books played with my imagination when I was growing up. They set the
tone for the stories that RL Stine was telling and put my mind in that
headspace with one glance. The wild colors and dramatic lighting always
struck my fancy, especially the cover for #1 “Welcome to Dead House”,
which would become the template for the Casket Spray album cover. Today
looking back, Dead House reminds me of Dario Argento’s Suspiria in a
way. I love how Tim paints haunted houses. And that is what this all
boils down to. I was sitting in my office listening to the album and
looking up at these Goosebumps books, I pulled “Welcome To Dead House”
off the shelf and got this wacky idea in my head of my band illustrated
as authentic 90s Goosebumps characters, not this new stuff but the real
deal - the Jacobus way. It seemed ridiculous and I definitely regarded
the concept as a pipe dream. But the thing about me is, I actively
pursue my pipe dreams. To me, nothing is outside the realm of
possibility and once that is established in the mind, I honestly believe
anything is possible. In May 2014, I contacted Tim through his studio.
He agreed that my band would be perfect for one of his illustrations. We
kept in contact and I launched an IndieGoGo campaign with SWATM to
raise the money to hire Tim to create the new album artwork and pay for a
pressing of the album on 12” vinyl. When the campaign closed on its
goal, Tim and I proceeded with what we had been discussing and after a
phone call cementing the old-school 90s feel and ‘true Halloween’ look I
wanted for the piece, Tim went to work for two months. In February this
year I got the cover back. Thanks to the fans, the band officially owns
the illustration and it will be printed for our vinyl pressing which is
currently in production! The whole process has truly been unbelievable.
I am so thrilled to say this is one case where a crazy dream of mine
actually came true.
I love the mood and tone
you capture by combining inspiration from horror films and even using
samples from films. What is the process that goes into writing your
songs? Do you pick movies that inspire you or do you write music and
then find a film to fit it?
Thank you man. Every song I
write begins with me and an acoustic guitar. I will sit and write lyrics
with different potential riffs for the verses and choruses and then
arrange the music so it has a clear and direct structure that can be
brought to my band for tweaking and polishing up. Once I have that
skeleton done and we are working with it as a band, I will tweak things
periodically over time, or add little ideas here and there and Trip
often will do the same with his drumming. I go home and play the songs
on the acoustic with fresh ears after trying something new with the band
and hearing Trip’s beats for them and at that point the songs find
their final shape, they become cemented over time as we rehearse them
over and over. The way we lock it all in as a band after I have written
it determines a lot of the final result. Trip’s drumming might change
the way I sing a song occasionally and in a lot of cases for the better.
He throws his ideas rhythmically into my stuff and it makes me look at
what I have started working on in a different light, which gives me
ideas of different ways to sing a song in some cases. He interprets my
songs and adds in the drums how he imagines they should sound and it
flows out, not just organically but also in the sense that Trip
understands my sensibilities and tendencies. He knows what I love
already, so I really never have to worry about the drums. He knows what I
want. I love working with Trip. We understand each other in a way that
few others understand us, we’re like brothers in many ways. Aside from
that process, some of my best work lyrically comes as a hook in my head,
when I’m watching a film. I’ll get these random moments of inspiration
watching my favorite horror movies, even if I have seen the film a
million times. For example, I was watching Nightbreed on tape one night
and got the lyrics and melody stuck in my head for the chorus of
‘Midian‘ - There’s a place where monsters go/when the world has
crumbled/when I have lost my soul. It came out of fucking nowhere but I
knew right then I had the chorus to a song about Boone and the
Nightbreed. That spark metamorphosed into the skeleton of ‘Midian’ which
ended up becoming the single longest song I have ever written and
probably the longest song ever written about Nightbreed, by a horror
punk band or otherwise. And I’m not saying that is exactly a good thing
or a bad thing, but it is a ‘thing’, I suppose. Haha. So after Casket
Spray came out, I’ve started referring to my old VCR as the ‘inspiration
box’.
Do you feel that horror punk is having a
bit of a renaissance? I've been a fan of the genre since the early to
mid 2000's and it seems to be getting back to it's former glory with a
more lively scene. What do you feel has contributed to that?
Horror
Punk is a small pond and it has its ups and downs. A lot of bands lack
staying power. Some people might say that’s because a lot of Horror Punk
outfits are immature, but I would say the same can be said for any
musical genre - bands come and go for many different reasons. And
there’s a lot of fucking bands out there. There’s a lot of great bands
nobody knows about because we’re all broke and don’t have big labels to
advertise for us or put us on tour. So I don’t know if there is a
‘renaissance’ going on, but certainly the genre is alive and well. As
for returning to former glory, I can’t say for sure if that is the case.
I see it all as an actively changing entity. Horror Punk is different
now than it was and yet it is still much the same. The faces change but
the pond always stays in tact somehow. If there is a big surge in its
popularity now, I am all about that. It makes me happy to see the
audience for bands like mine growing. I feel like Horror Punk definitely
has not reached its peak yet. Not even close.
A trademark of your image and live show is your use of
theatrical props, make-up, and custom masks. What goes into the
creation of these aspects of the band?
I am a film geek
and as such I love theatrics. I’m a huge Skinny Puppy fan and I love
GWAR, Rob Zombie and Alice Cooper. My belief is that putting on ‘a show’
which is visually identical to a rehearsal in terms of appearance,
presence and energy has become a bullshit standard. Sure, it is all
about the music but there is nothing wrong with putting the SHOW back
into the SHOW, you know what I mean? That is my mission. To keep working
and building up my production on stage so I can get crazier and get
more theatrical. Interacting with the crowd and ‘baptizing’ them in
stage blood is one of my favorite things that I do on stage but I want
to go so much further. It’s just going to take time and money, as with
all things. As far as what goes into my band’s live theatrics at the
moment, my brother Jimmy (Nex FX) is a fucking genius. He shares my
Halloween kid spirit and understands my sensibilities as an artist. The
pumpkin king scarecrow mask I wear on stage was custom made by hand,
crafted and designed by Jimmy. He gave it to me for my birthday in 2013.
I knew right away that mask was something special and so far I haven’t
been wrong. The mask is a symbol of my band and I owe a lot to Jimmy for
that. Jimmy also airbrush paints my band prior to each gig to give them
the ‘dead’ mortician look that has become our signature style. His work
can been seen in our music video and promo photos also. The chalice I
use on stage was custom carved for me out of a baseball bat blank. It
was made by hand on a lathe by my great friend, Mr. Steven L. Godfrey.
Aside from that I use “Bottle of Blood” by Fun World. Tons of it. It’s
probably gonna give me stomach cancer someday.
We here at It's
Only a Movie are big fans of Halloween 4 and 5 which were filmed in your
home town of SLC. You guys have utilized the infamous "Gothic Mansion"
version of the Myers' house from part 5 in both promo photos and a
killer music video for the song "Halloween '63". How did this come
about and what was it like to be able to use part of a classic franchise
for your music?
It’s an indescribable feeling. It truly was a
great honor to have been given permission to use the Myers Mansion for
the filming of “Halloween ’63”. I initially got the idea from always
trying to one up myself. The typical three dudes in a graveyard
horrorpunk video and promo photo shoots are fucking played the FUCK out.
And I’m not saying that as an attack on any band in particular but man.
It’s done, put a fork in it. So I started brainstorming new ideas,
settings that are uniquely horror but also special to Salt Lake, that
represent us as a distinctly SLC Horror Punk outfit. The Myers Mansion
to me is a monument to SLC’s horror history and it felt perfect to
immortalize it as a part of my band’s image. Once I got the idea in my
head I knew it was too good to not try it. But I also needed to be
granted permission. I’m not an asshole and I wasn’t about to use
somebody’s house for all this shit without them fully endorsing my
endeavor. So literally the way this went down was, I walked up to the
house on my way downtown from the University one day and knocked on the
front door of the mansion. A young woman answered the door and I
introduced myself as a local recording artist looking for a place to
shoot promotional photos. She was very gracious and said absolutely we
could shoot in front of the house. She was happy to hear how much I love
the place and wished me and the band good luck with our project. The
owner is a very nice woman and I owe a lot to her for granting me
permission to celebrate a piece of horror history that has been
forgotten for many years. The house really is like a miniature Hallmark
Haunted House, you know the ones that light up? I adore the place. When
the video shoot came up in November, I called the owner of the house
back and asked if we could shoot the “Halloween ’63” video exteriors
there. She was totally fine with it once again. Such an awesome person.
So not only were we able to use the mansion for exterior shots in
“Halloween ’63” and as the backdrop of our promo photos, but it also
served as the background of the cover Tim Jacobus illustrated for the
upcoming 12” vinyl release of Casket Spray. Yes, the house behind us in
the Goosebumps style Jacobus painting, is in fact the very same Michael
Myers Mansion from Halloween 5, rendered how Tim Jacobus sees it. I
specifically requested that the mansion be featured in our cover as
though it was the ‘Dead House’ from the first Goosebumps book. If that
is not the crazy dream of a 90s kid / horror nerd I don’t know what is.
I am damn proud that it all worked out how it did. It feels like a
dream to know that Mansion is now forever connected to my music. It
makes me feel even closer to the Halloween series somehow and as a die
hard fan it means a great deal to me. Really crazy.
And
finally, before I let you go, I'd like to hear about some of your film
making efforts both including the video and otherwise. You are a film
student if I'm not mistaken, do you think you will make more videos or
even branch out into a feature film?
Last year I made a
little short called “visitation” for my production class at the
University of Utah. I also produced my debut music video “Halloween ’63”
and scouted locations, painted the Myers mask, etc. I am first and
foremost a lover of all things to do with cinema. I am currently working
on completing my BA in Film and Media Arts at the U. I am also working
on the second draft of my first feature length screenplay, “Nine of
Bats”. I do hope to make another short film, a dollar baby project I
obtained non-exclusive rights to from Stephen King, which is called “One
For the Road”. Hopefully I find the time to make that happen this year!
I'd like to thank you again for taking the time to chat
with us. Is anything we didn't cover you would like to speak about or
anything you would like to promote?
Thank you, the pleasure was mine. Just
as a reminder to all the boils and ghouls out there, you can now
pre-order the 1st 12” vinyl pressing of the Casket Spray LP on colored
vinyl featuring artwork by Tim Jacobus! Secure a copy at our website:
http://shadowwindhawkandthemorticians.com. If you want SWATM merch and records, that is the place to go!
Check out Shadow Windhawk and the Morticians and give them a 'LIKE':
facebook.com/shadowwindhawkandthemorticians
