Interviews

Interview with Raven Black (Lockdown Edition)

Published

4 years ago

May 26, 2020

Ron

During this time of the pandemic the music industry has come to a halt with shows and tours. Most bands sit idly while they wait for everything will be open but bands like Raven Black are doing as much as they can do keep themselves sane and working during this. Empire Extreme talked to Raven about the Covid 19 situation and plans for the future.

EE: Hows things going?

Raven: Busy. I just answered a questionnaire to bands during the covid 19, one of the questions they asked was Lizzy Hale from Halestorm said that most bands won’t make it out of this pandemic and if I agree with it. I said I agree with it that but it makes me sound like an asshole. Most bands are signed to a label and if the label carries them then they will be ok, but most of the bands will drop because the label isn’t giving them money. Then you have bands like my band that DIY and we don’t have a label so we just always had to make money and go to work and sell merch and other ways to make income.

EE: Yeah it’s gonna be the hard working bands that are going to survive because they are doing all they can to make money.

EE: So you were just getting ready to go on tour with In this Moment and Black Veil Brides and then the pandemic happened, how was it like dealing with that?

Raven: It was a huge disappointment. This was going to be the biggest tour and this was going to be our break out year with a new album and new comic book coming out, and we were doing a headliner tour in the summer. We had to push back our album release date until October. They are hoping the bands can tour in the fall. We still need to push this album and even if we don’t tour we are going to be releasing the album anyway. We have been pushing the Pre-Orders for the album. The new comic book is coming out in July. Have been giving a sneak peek Into the album with the comic book that ties into the album. We are releasing a new song on for the album. It’s a lyric video it’s called “Darkest Pit” and I wrote this song lyrics for one of our rejects and then we put it into the album. The fans will love it, it’s a heavy one. And we have another song “Hear Me Cry” that will come out in July and that will have an official video that we shot before the lockdown. Then maybe in August we might drop another song, and then hope to release the album to drop on October 2^nd. The Pre-Order will probably stop in September and all the Pre-Orders get a special Album cover with a green key all the rest will get a black and white one, and that green key will mean a special perk when we do our headliner tour.

EE: Since the lockdown a lot of bands have been doing online concerts, I know you guys all don’t live in the same area, but have you thought about doing something like that?

Raven: We have, we are taking about something like that maybe around summer time and do a livestream show. It’s all about health and safety. We want to give you a big show. It will be a special occasion concert with a venue and lights and full stage performances and multi camera angles. It will more than likely a ticket to buy to watch it. Then it comes to figure out if we want to do it alone or bring other bands out for it as well with us as the headliners. Just talking about it.

EE: That’s the way the music industry is at right now with the lockdown and virus everyone doing like Pay Per View shows.

Raven: Yep and we will have a full show to perform that we were already to reveal with the tour. We will all wear masks onstage to keep safe.

Raven Black has been on the forefront of bands that are making the best out of this situation, Raven Black has always been a band for the fans and the “Rejects” all love and adore how interactive Raven Black is. If you’re interested in the Pre-Order for the album or you want to get some kick ass merchandise from a kick ass band or you just want to help out a band that’s all about the dirt and grime of being a successful band then check out these links and help spread the word of Raven Black.

http://bit.ly/RavenBlackMerch

http://bit.ly/RBTheKey

http://bit.ly/joinravensrejects

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.

See author's posts

Related Topics:Empire Extreme featured Raven Black

Click to comment

You must be logged in to post a comment Login

You must be logged in to post a comment.

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

See author's posts

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

See author's posts

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.