​CJ McMahon, vocalist of Thy Art is Murder is a man of many facets. A man with a taste for expensive shit, with his love of Gucci; To being a family man, a husband and father of two. He also balances his time as a business owner with a tattoo shop. With all of this, he continues to pour his energy into touring and performing around the world with Thy Art is Murder. The fire for creativity still burning with a band that has been going for over 16 years now. Fans can rejoice as the band is about to enter the writing phase for a new record. I got to speak to CJ about what is next for the band, how they got through covid and much more. 

GA:  The last single the band produced was 2020’s Killing Season, is the band currently working on music and if so, what can you tell me about it?

CJ: We are working on it. We are currently in the thought stage. Some of the boys are going to write and record some rough takes after this tour. We are going to take a lot longer to do this next record than usual. We want to make sure it is our best work yet. There is a little bit of a change coming, I feel stylistically wise. I don’t know how long it’s going to take; 4 months… 6 months maybe. We are going to start after this tour. 

GA: In the past, the band has delved into such topics as War and Politics and even environmental issues; can we expect an expansion on these themes in the future from the band?

CJ: Sure, we are open to those ideas, but to be honest I don’t really know. We have loose ideas, but we tend to write generally about things that are happening in the present. Just based off what happened to the world over the last two and a half years, there’s enough lyrical content there to do a few records. So, it will be a matter of us sitting down, and Andy, Will and I getting a pile of topics together and picking out the most crucial things that we feel are important to sing about, and start writing from there. Lyrics are kind of the last thing we work on. We like to get the music done first, then we get a vibe off each song and use that vibe to write lyrics. There are a few topics being thrown around, but we tend to keep shit secret as well because we don’t want to give too much away. We are about to write full time so it will move quickly, but from this conversation to full product we are still many months away.

GA: When writing new music what is your inspiration when coming up with new material?

CJ: I think it’s the world environment, be it political, social, environmental, the psychology of people’s thoughts and how things have happened over the last few years with everything. I tend to go into the recording process with a blank slate, and generally have no idea. Sometimes I will have a few ideas to begin with. It is kind of hard for me to write. We do our best work when it is crunch time, when I am together with Andy and Will. I think Andy has a few ideas, as far as topics. I have kids, a business, and a wife and family; so, I don’t spend much time thinking about writing until it’s time. The band will set a chunk of time aside from touring and home life, to get together and write a record. That’s when we do our best stuff, brainstorming ideas. You know as much as we do about what we are going to write about at this point. 

GA: The band is based out of Australia, and this is the first time coming back to the US to tour since Covid 19 locked down travel across the globe. During that time how did the band stay busy?

CJ: We didn’t. We all have our own lives outside of the band. We all worked on our careers outside of music and just lived that life. Australia got locked down twice, both times were longer than four months. We each live in different states and cities like 600 miles away from each other, so we couldn’t really see each other anyway. I run a tattoo studio and have two kids, and a wife and big family. Andy manages a bunch of bands on a record label, so he is busy trying to gear up all the bands to get back out touring. Kevin is a Draftsman, designing mansions and apartment buildings. Jesse is working out of a friends Pub and bar. Sean owns a recording studio. So, we all had so much other shit to do outside of it. There was no end in sight for us to forecast things. We didn’t know how long it would be, given three months, six months, or years; so, we just lived our lives outside of music like we usually do. 

GA: It must be hard to live life with that kind of uncertainty.

CJ: Yea, not just us but every entertainer and musician was in the same boat. We are one of the lucky bands where we all have careers outside of the band. We work our asses off, so we did have other things to fall back on, and to keep us busy. Once we could see that things were going back to what would be relatively normal, that’s when we were like, ok we can go do shit now. Let’s start booking tours and organizing, lets figure out what we are going to do to record. There was no point simmering on it for two and a half years, we would of went crazy. There were other jobs and careers that kept us busy during that time. 

GA: As musicians sometimes, to supplement income members have secondary jobs to make ends meet. As well as other things in life to be engaged with. What are some other things you engage in when not doing music?

CJ: I have two kids which takes up a lot of my time. We have a big family, a family of nine in our house. I also play soccer three nights a week. I am at the tattoo studio five to six days out of the week. So, I’m fucking busy man. When I’m on tour it’s relaxing. I got to work an hour a day. I miss my kids like crazy, but I don’t have to watch them like a hawk or get woken up to getting kicked in the face by babies. Touring is quite easy, for me it’s less stressful than being at home with businesses and looking after kids, making sure they are safe and happy. Touring is a breeze these days. 

GA: Sounds like it’s a vacation for you these days. 

CJ: It’s cool to jump between the two lives. I get bored quickly, and get frustrated a lot, so once I’m over touring, I get to go back to dad life. Then once I get had my fill there, I get to go back out touring. So, it is kind of cool to jump between the two lives. 

GA: When the band comes to the US is there any areas you enjoy visiting or hope to make a stop at?

CJ: We like New Orleans, there are some cool spots down there. We usually hit high end coffee shops, there’s one in Denver, Colorado, one in Portland, Oregon, and New York is always good for a few. We like America; Austin, Kansas, and Oklahoma bbq is great. We are at our friends’ house in Detroit currently. We met them on our first tour of America, and have stayed so close and such good friends with them. We got a day off from tour with After the Burial, so went to hang with our friends and just vibing outside with bbq and a few beers. It’s just chill. Its more so people we want to connect with, like our family here in Detroit. 

GA: As a vocalist, what is your opinion on other vocalists in the scene? With the varying approaches and techniques that continue to advance is there anything that you could possibly see, or adapt in the future for your own use?

CJ: To be honest, I haven’t listened to metal in years. Its with playing it all the time, and touring (I get burnt out). It’s a good thing, because I can come up with new voices, just like I did two weeks ago in the studio. It feels organic. I made that voice through experimenting with myself, rather than going, I heard this dude and I want to do what he is doing. I’ve done that in the past, being influenced by different vocalists, being like: I like what this guy is doing so I am going to do my own version of what he is doing. There’s a lot of bands out there, like Lorna Shore for instance doing insane shit vocally. I’m not saying I can’t do that, but it’s not something I feel I need in my repertoire. It wouldn’t feel like a me thing, that is Will’s (vocal technique/sound), and Will has that down, and anyone that tries to replicate that, people will say that you are trying to be Will. He is fucking insane, and his voice is crazy. Alex Terrible of Slaughter to Prevail is fucking ridiculous as well. Those two dudes are just killing the game, they are so good, and there are a lot of great vocalists out there. 

For me its like, with every record I do I try to bring 2 new voices to the album. Its not because I feel like I need to, it is more of a want thing. I don’t ever want to sound exactly like I did on the previous work. There will always be voices I bring to the recording stage. I did two new voices on a recording I just did a week ago in New York. I also did one live last night, and Andy after we walked off stage during a break in the set said, “Dude what the fuck did you just do there? That voice is fucking cool!” I wanted something crazy high that was like really depressing sounding, kind of like a depressed scream for help. I’ve been having a bit of trouble with my voice the last few days; I have a sinus infection from the bus. So, I have been trying to use different parts of my vocal cords that I don’t usually use for screams so I can stay away from that infected area, and I just produced this thing. When I was doing it, I was like this sounds sick. I walked off stage during the interlude for forty seconds and Andy walked up to me and said, “Dude whatever you just did there, it was so sick, can you fucking do it again?” I was like, “I think so” then ripped it in another part. Just this past week I came up with three voices, or tones, or projections, that I haven’t used before. I think when we do this next record, I will probably spend a couple hours with Will. 

I name all my voices, so I have little nicknames for shit. Will and I can talk to each other and go, “we use the Georgie boy here, we use eastern euro here, we will use super highs here, and so on.” Will can tell me what he thinks will work best. So instead of having to do the voice I can say the codeword for what I mean. We use the codewords for these things like building blocks, like figuring out the parts to build a house before its even built. Its an easy and quick way for us to navigate how certain songs and sections will sound like. 

GA: What is next for the band after this tour ends?

CJ: We are going to go home for a little bit of a break. I think we have an Australian tour coming up, but we plan on writing from the end of this tour all the way up to the end of the next tour. We will probably record from now until November. So, we have an Australian tour, then we are supporting Lamb of God in Europe in November, December. Our year is pretty much booked out and we are starting to plan out next year too. 

GA: What kicked off the Gucci fund and is the band keeping it Gucci?

CJ: Well, Andy and I are into high end stuff, and I never wear my high-end stuff on tour because its extremely expensive. I don’t buy any expensive shit anymore because I have two kids and a mortgage. I can’t just drop 4 or 5k on a new wardrobe. It started out because I have a Gucci side bag, and its broken and old. I want to get a new side bag, and I’m like I need to get new stage shoes, the stage shoes I’m wearing now are like 1,400 dollars. I saw some stuff posted on Instagram and decided I want to go full Gucci for my stage stuff. I figured I’d crowd surf for tips, I’ve been doing it for a little bit. I think some people don’t understand what’s happening, so uh yea I don’t think my whole stage gear will go Gucci. I’d love to but that’s a lot of money man. Maybe we will piece it out. Get some touring in there save some money, make sure the family is good then Gucci it up. Maybe around next album touring cycle we can have it going. It’s been fun to watch people enjoying the joke. Then there are some people out there that are seriously like let’s make this happen. 

GA: Anything else you’d like to say or add? 

CJ: Thanks to all the fans on this run, tour has been great. It’s been fantastic the support from the fans and the turn outs. Specially to have this going on in America, because there are so many big shows coming around. I was a little concerned about the amount of people that would be able to afford to see all these shows, but this has been easily the best co-headline tour we’ve done in America. It has been fantastic, and we have been enjoying our time here.

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George Archibald

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