Interviews

Interview with Christopher Ahkao of Disparager

Published

5 years ago

May 8, 2019

Good afternoon kiddies I have a little interview here for you to read that I did with Christopher Ahkao frontman for the Brooklyn band Disparager. Today we talked about some things that well why don’t you look and see what we chatted about…..

EE: Good Afternoon how are you? Thanks again for taking the time to call and chat with us.

CA: no problem thanks for having me.

EE: So growing up what were your musical influences? What was your favorite?

CA: Growing I guess uh, oh wow, and when you hear this question its like woah. but all of us like Deftones and we bonded over the, its just like heavy and a lot of clean singing you know really big thick walled sound a lot of screaming and then shortly after that a lot of popular bands I guess, whatever bands that would get me going to shows, mostly heavy progressive music, and after I started going to shows I got turned on to the hardcore scene I guess, and then from there it was just metal.

EE: Speaking of live shows what was your first concert? The one that made you want to be up there on stage?

CA: that was definitely a Deftones show, I believe it was Deftones, Incubus and Taproot back in 2000 when they were touring White Pony. The singer came out into the crowd and was standing on people’s shoulders. They threw him around

EE: What Do you listen to today?

CA: Umm one of my favorite artists today is Frank Turner, definitely really cool,

CA: Have you ever heard of Gaslight Anthem

EE: Yes I have.

CA: it’s like Europe’s response to gaslight anthem and its like Frank Turner and he is really good, that just him in a nutshell. He is just a genius singer and songwriter and I really like what he has been up too!

EE: So being from Brooklyn how did you four meet?

CA: That first EP was kind of the result of me going through a break up, I was like engaged and a completely different persona then that fell apart and I was like FUCK THIS and turned to music. Then I demoed those songs and put them up on a private link and pretty much met those guys on Craig’s List. I was hoping those demos would attract the right people that were serious about music and serious about metal. Then after meeting a bunch of different people these guys were the ones that were most interested, and they are honestly amazing, and I couldn’t be happier….

EE: What made you decide to become a band? And get into the music industry?

CA: I think we all just really wanted to play metal, and that EP from 2014 really might have been the best thing available at the time for everyone, for me it was a spiritual endeavor or a Therapeutic endeavor and for them they were bandless and it was inevitable that we met.

EE: In 2 days your first LP Existential Dread is released. how are you feeling at this moment?

CA: IM FEELING GREAT, I cant wait to get it out there on one hand its like a long little check list to get out and done without help from a label doing it completely ourselves. So to have it out and have that burden lifted. But also when it comes down to the music its nice to put something out that we are really proud of and see the people identify with it and see how far we can take this thing.

EE: What is your favorite song on the album?

CA: Ah! I would say my favorite song is Bring me to Bellevue I believe it is track 5. It wasn’t apart of the single that we selected because someone struck a nerve and said it builds to slow and you want the single to blast them rite in the face.

EE: How hard was this to do independently?

CA: It was actually really hard, like we recorded this record back in 2016 and then we booked a few tours and we were you know when you out on these tours your out there doing it meeting a bunch of different people and behind the scenes we were pitching to different labels. We were hoping that they would see our press kits and come back and say wow this band has done so much on there own and they would be a good prospect for us but no, you know the music industry, so I don’t know! It honestly just all boils down to time and money.

EE: Are you happy with the outcome?

CA: Yes! I believe we are all pretty happy.

EE: So is there anything you want to say to your fans? Any advice you want to give?

CA: I guess, this record at times is incredibly dark, its about like anguish depression and its also like a perseverance story, I mean for me it just feels good. When I am screaming my head off on stage. It releases endorphins and it feels good. But I would say when someone is like the end of their rope or if they are feeling like they have no sense of self anymore and life is so overwhelming. In whatever way I would encourage to find something positive if it means listening to your favorite album. Music can help it helps me.

EE:Thanks again for your time and I appreciate the call, whenever you are on the west coast I would love to sit down and chat and maybe get some snap shots of you guys playing live!

CA: My pleasure.. that would be cool.

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Anthony Bernardi

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Interviews

INTERVIEW WITH MERCURY OF PRIEST

Published

2 weeks ago

April 23, 2024

Ron

Empire Extreme got to sit down and talk to Mercury of Priest when the band came into PA at LoveDrafts.

The show was amazing all the bands that we seen put on a great show for the fans. Vampires Everywhere killed it once again. Last time we seen Priest we only got to see them open for Powerman5000 and got like 6 songs, this time Priest was headlining and we got to see much more which I was excited to see.

Priest played a good mix of old and new and even a few songs off the album “Dark Pulse” which is out in May. We got to see 13 songs played and even Mercury come out into the crowd a few times and when they played “Obey” even blessed some of the crowd. It was great hearing songs like “BlackListed”, “Signal in the Noise”, “History in Black” and “Vaudeville”. It was such a great night of music and a great conversation with Mercury. If you get a chance to see this band play in ur town, it’s a must

About Author

Ron

Ron has keen eye for new talent, a love for the underground, and a tremendous passion for music of any genera. You’ll probably bump into him at a horror convention or some seedy club checking out the next need-to-know band.

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Interviews

INTERVIEW WITH OF VIRTUE

Published

2 months ago

March 4, 2024

Ron

Where does the band name come from? Wanting to be the best version of yourself at all times. The name is a reminder to hold ourselves accountable.

How is the music scene in Michigan? The Michigan music scene has always been vibrant and in my opinion, important. Do we get the credit we deserve? Absolutely not. But for the state that brought you Motown, Eminem, Lizzo, The White Stripes, I Prevail and so many other incredible artists – it’s kind of hard to believe that Michigan remains a hidden gem.

How’s the reception from the fans of the latest album “Omen”? It’s been incredible. From seeing people singing along at shows to us seeing new supporters of all different ages, colors, and creeds joining the journey. Omen has been a pivotal album in our career and we’re proud of it!

If you could tour with 2 bands, which bands would you want to tour with? Spiritbox and Bad Omens. They’re both making waves, changing who the metal audience is, and surely they’d be fun to hang around with.

Where do you draw inspiration for the lyrics? Honestly, the lyrics are our stories. The stories of our struggles, our trials and our tribulations.

What’s been your favorite tour or show? We just got off of a tour with our labelmates, Any Given Day. They treated us to a handful of sold out shows over in Europe, which at this point we call our second home. Those were great shows, but any show we’ve done in Europe is typically one for the books!

If you could bring back a dead musician, who would it be? Prince for sure. An incredible musician I would love an opportunity to chat or make music with!

About Author

Ron

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Interviews

INTERVIEW WITH TWIN TEMPLE

Published

3 months ago

February 16, 2024

Ron

Being Married and being in a band together. Do you feel that makes it easier or harder?

We love to do the Devil’s work together so for us its a match made in hell.

What’s your favorite horror movie?

That’s hard to narrow down but the first few that come to mind are Rosemary’s Baby, The Devil Rides Out, Wickerman, The Devils Reign featuring Anton Lavey, Mario Bava’s Black Sunday, anything starring Vincent Price. We also got to see an advance screen of “Late Night with the Devil” featuring a very evil performance from our friend Dave Dastmalchian. We’re also looking forward to Bryan Fuller’s “Dust Bunny” and are positive it will be a new favorite. The list goes on…..we are huge horror fans.

Favorite Non Horror Movie?

Alfred Hitchcock’s Rebecca (which is horror/noir adjacent) and The Burbs (also horror adjacent…haha.)

All of Quentin Tarantino’s films- our latest favorite is Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, because 1960’s LA…

What misconception of Satanists would you like to educate people on?

We’re not here to proselytize, force our beliefs on people, or educate people on them Selves, Satanism or anything else. If people are interested in exploring Satanism, we encourage them to do their research and question everything.

If you could bring back any dead musician, who would you pick and why?

We would have loved to do a song with Ronnie Spector who recently passed. Also would have been amazing to collaborate with Jack Nitzsche who arranged so many amazing songs.

If you could tour with any 2 bands, who would you want to tour with?

The Ronnettes & The Shangri-Las.

What has been your Favorite Tour so far?

The God is Dead Tour that we’re currently on is definitely the most evil and blasphemous tour yet. We find it very pleasurable to be able to continue expanding the rituals and seeing our nightmares come true on stage.

You were on “Dragula” with the Boulet Brothers, how was that experience?

It was a fiendish delight to collaborate with some of our fav monsters.

What was it like Touring with Danzig?

Another nightmare come true! We’ve both been fans for a long time and we’re obviously inspired by the wicked world Glenn has conjured. So to get to spend time with him and watch him live every night and to now call him a friend is completely surreal. He’s a legend— but was also one of the coolest, kindest, most unholy people we’ve had the carnal pleasure of touring with.

How’s the reception of the last album “God is Dead”?

Personally, we love the record and are very proud of what we’ve accomplished. As far as other peoples’ reactions…. we don’t know and don’t care! We pleasured ourselves and that’s what matters most.

What got you interested in the style of music you play? And how would describe your music?

We’ve always loved classic American music from jazz to blues to country to rock and roll and so on. We also love the pageantry of heavy metal and theatre. So for us it was a very organic culmination of our obsessions. Rock and roll has always been the devils music.

Have you visited the Satanic Temple in Massachusetts?

No we have not but Lucien did attend one of our rituals so we had a chance to share where we get our babies blood and all things Satan.

Have you had any bad encounters at shows because of the misconception of satanism?

No! We purposefully foster a live show environment where all are welcome, all should come being the most important person in the world which is themselves, whatever that may be. Even Christians! We believe music is meant to bring joy, transcendence… We just want to share the things we love; pink, rhinestones, big hair, great rock ’n’ roll, Satanic ritual, you know… but we have had churches assemble outside our shows, screaming through distorted PA speakers that God is not dead & wishing us all a “terrible time”. Why would their God not want us to have fun? This kind of behavior is only makes us more proud to be who we are and do what we love.