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<\/a><\/p>\nITL: So you\u2019ve been forced to focus your attention outside of that area.<\/p>\n
TC: Yeah, we mainly play L.A., Oakland, San Francisco, Sacramento. Fresno is centrally located, so three hours and we\u2019re in each of those places, and we can come home the same night \u2013 which is exhausting, but we do what we have to do. If we want to do this, there\u2019s no other way.<\/p>\n
ITL: Even though there are a lot of bands and venues in Chicago, we deal with that, too. There\u2019s oversaturation here, so you\u2019re going to Milwaukee, Rockford, Champaign, playing this little belt of other, accessible markets to stay going.<\/p>\n
TC: A lot of this music feels like it\u2019s dying here in the States. We\u2019ve been working on some new merch for the fall with a message of bringing \u201cdoom\u201d back to America! It\u2019s weird, when we started, we didn\u2019t really start out intending to be a \u201cdoom metal\u201d band. I just wanted to be an old-school metal band, but we kinda just got thrown in there with it, and it actually feels right. I feel like there are very few doing the \u2018horror\u2019 aspect like we are, though.<\/p>\n
ITL: That\u2019s true, and that\u2019s a great niche, and the great thing about that is that horror fans are typically very loyal. The video for \u201cThe Mask of Satan\u201d incorporates a lot of that.<\/p>\n
TC: Oh, yeah. Hopefully in the future, we\u2019ll be able to get the rights to Black Sunday (NOTE: 1960\u2019s Black Sunday is considered one of horror director Mario Bava\u2019s masterpieces). I rarely write directly about movies, it\u2019s usually my own short-story type ideas that are sometimes inspired by that stuff. We just didn\u2019t have the means here in the States to do it. Rise Above gets away with a lot in Europe \u2013 it\u2019s in the States where things are a lot stricter with regard to the use of that stuff. Uncle Acid went through the same thing with the video for \u201cMelody Lane.\u201d From our perspective, we\u2019re trying to bring this stuff back in front of people, and no one\u2019s making millions of dollars.
\nWhen we get home, we\u2019re going to start trying to really bring more the video element in what Beastmaker is about. With Branca Studios, we have such a kindred friendship that I don\u2019t really have to tell them what I want. And you\u2019re right, I think, there are people who are into the horror genre who are approaching us now. The guy that did the video for \u201cThe Mask of Satan,\u201d for example, wanted us to come to England, and that was way more than our budget allowed for. The imagery is really important to me, and we want it to be completely original.<\/p>\n
ITL: The imagery ties into your sound so perfectly, and there are definitely a lot of horror fans out there ready to support the kind of band you are. It\u2019s an underserved market as far as that goes.<\/p>\n
TC: Off the top of my head, the only other band in California I can think of is Orchid, and I\u2019m friends with those guys. That\u2019s a big deal to me, to have a band that I really love in our backyard like that, they follow us, and we do the same. Other than that, California is more into the stoner-psyche thing, and we get thrown into that, and I start to feel like a bit of an outcast. Then we go to Europe and we play with Blood Ceremony, that kind of band, and I feel like, \u2018this is home.\u2019<\/p>\n
ITL: Have you guys seen a lot of support from European fans?<\/p>\n
TC: Oh, it\u2019s like a whole other ballgame. We\u2019ve been seeing it a lot on this tour. I was really skeptical at first, because of how Fresno is, and I don\u2019t know what other towns have. I\u2019ll tell you the best venue in the United States we\u2019ve seen so far is Saint Vitus in New York. The d\u00e9cor, the vibe, I came alive there. We\u2019ve been meeting a lot of people younger and older who have been into metal for a long time. It makes me want to tour the U.S. again. Though maybe not in the summer again. *laughs*<\/p>\n
ITL: Especially in the South, I would imagine.<\/p>\n
TC: The South was brutal. We started in the Northwest, beautiful weather, and then you get down south and you never stop sweating.<\/p>\n
ITL: New Orleans is worth it.<\/p>\n
TC: The people in New Orleans are fucking awesome. I will drive that far out of my way any day for the kind of love they give the bands. Music is our whole life, so whatever we have to deal with, I\u2019ll tolerate it.<\/p>\n
For more on Beastmaker, including the current tour and album, click here<\/a><\/p>\n